kenod

It did. Lightweaving seems to have been more powerful as well, iirc, something about the shattering broke it. Aside from that, there was microkinesis, which allowed for perceiving and manipulating Axi, which, according to a Roshar Arcanum (RoW, iirc), was powerful enough to have caused some kind of big disaster, which was the reason Honor and Cultivation placed stricter limits on Surges linked to Axi manipulation.

Aethers bring complications, but they're still an evidence that worlds can have natural investure without needing a Shard present. That said, the amount of investure on non-shard worlds will likely be lower, generally speaking, meaning shard worlds are better places to find stronger allies. Also, to be honest, Harmony kind of needs Shard-level allies at this point, given that his main conflict is with other shards.

Based on Shai's own words to Marasi when she's preparing to use it, I suspect that she either has to re-apply it herself, but does so willingly, or Shai has managed to improve on regular essence marks (perhaps using the liquid Dor as a power booster, since iirc regular Forgery doesn't use much investure) into something that is permanent and needs to be consciously dismissed.

Turns out it's really an era 3 prophecy, of how they'll invent the internet, and the Path and earrings morph into a chat service.

Another catch seems to be that you seem to be at least partially in service of the core Aether, which will limit what you can do, I suspect. Aside from that, as other noted, unless you're in the right location or have access to unkeyed investure (which seems to be rare and valuable), you need to risk dehydration, and need to remain in contact with your constructs.

Acid dissolves Kandra flesh. Most weapons don't do much to them, since they can just heal themselves, but since Acid actively destroys the flesh it can actually give them long-term injuries, or even kill them. Back in Era 1 Kandra used acid specifically for executions of other Kandra.

One thing that feels weird is needing to burn a metal to gain Feruchemist powers. Another important thing is that the South has had access to Ettmetal for quite a while now, and Kelsier, who is trying to make the metallic arts more freely available, has been hanging out there a lot as well. I suspect that if Harmonium can be used for granting Feruchemy, Kelsier and the south would have already found it, and likely used it.

I think someone quoted a WoB a page ago about Brandon saying that this is the book where he basically decided to go full into the open for the Cosmere stuff.

Ah, thanks, wasn't aware there was one.

Still unsure about this one, given how distinct the powers are, aside from pseudo-flight, so people would notice something was off very quickly, unless that bit simply wasn't included.

Do you mean Sixth of Dusk? Because if so, I should note it's set pretty far into the future, so the issues with going off-world would have likely already been resolved. Though also, I have to note that I do not remember Skybreakers in that book.

Issue is that Surgebinders have some pretty unique tells, and while they have pseudo-flight in common with coinshots, the way they'd actually destroy the boats would likely be rather different.

Eh, maybe, but at some point all the stories do need to come together anyway for the space age trilogy, and it is starting to get around a good time for that, since the current series are exploring realmatic mechanics more and more.

Based on what someone else has said, apparently at this point the assumption is that the Cosmere is big enough, and we're far enough from the starting novels, that Brandon has stopped hiding the connections and just made them an open thing, same as how RoW went a lot further into it.

Keep in mind we haven't had evidence of Gravitation being used at range yet, iirc, and normally surgebinders would have fairly visible other effects while using their Surges, so I'm not sure how exactly they'd have destroyed the ships while looking like Steelpushers to everyone else.

One big thing we should look for is how they destroyed them. I can't really remember myself, but aside from the flight, destroying boats with steelpushing would look very different from Gravitation or Division.

IIRC Vin technically wasn't a diluted Mistborn, but for her the strength was in innate talent with all the metals, instead of raw power.

Wax noted they still had enough Ettmetal and Trellium lying around in the Basin to be able to go around building nukes, if they wanted to.

Another option is that the Ghostbloods aren't actually aware Kelsier can't access the metallic arts anymore, and he's trying to keep them fooled.

Probably. It doesn't seem like Sazed, Kel, and Marsh fully trust each other, and they each sort of have their own plans going on, and seem to suspect they'll come into conflict at some point.

Roshar likely has better shock troops and high-level combatants, as well as better access to battlefield support magic, though if Scandrial goes ham on the hemalurgy they can probably get some pretty decent combatants too, though I'm not sure how viable it is, since you're also reducing your total number, unless you're just grabbing support powers not very useful on their own, like Duralumin. Scandrial has better tech though, right now, especially militarily speaking. And, if the South joins in, I suspect they also have a more potent airforce, or at least a more diverse one, which isn't just focused on dogfighting. And, to be honest, top-level combatants like Shardbearers, Radiants, Mistings and Ferrings are rare enough that regular military force is likely still more important, and here Scandrial's access to firearms will likely allow them to beat Roshar, though only if they can deploy them effectively. Population levels could be an issue though, Scandrial's populations (or at least inhabited territory) still feels somewhat small compared to Roshar, but I'm not sure to which degree urbanization makes a difference here. That said, one very big issue is that, as stated in the beginning of LM, the North's military forces, aside from smaller peacekeeping forces, are still very new, with no real previous engagements. This means that their military likely still has a lot of issues owing to lack of experience. It also wouldn't surprise me if their logistical base, while strong on Scandrial itself, isn't well-suited for offensive deployments, while Roshar's is quite experienced in that. Personally I'd say that if Scandrial pulls themselves together fast enough to gain the necessary military experience and make adjustments to their plans and doctrines, they can probably win, while if they take too long, even if they can hold defensively, Roshar will eventually develop their own versions of firearms and other heavier weapons, at which point their superior numbers, shock troopers, and experience, will allow them to conquer Scandrial.

Dang, first confirmation of the canon nature of Aethers, and the fact that it's one of the magics that predate the Shattering. Also, hints at to use Selish magic off-planet, by bringing Dor around, and invested ink. Also, background investure fields? How the heck do those work? So many juicy secrets... (Also, Brandon is really going ham on the inter-book connections at this point, isn't he?)

Figured as much. I guess that just a more universal first heightening or just bronze would be a minor merit?

Basically what the first heightening does, but also for other forms of innate investure abilities, and with an ability to distinguish which kinds of investure they have

Basically, see if anyone has any investure, and get a basic sense of what they can do and how strong they are. I suspect that it'll probably veer more into a regular merit though.