cometaryorbit

I know, but I'm not sure if the difference in healing is due to: a. Shallan at base 3rd ideal and Kaladin being nearly 4th ideal in some respects, eg resisting the suppressor fabrial; b. Brain wound vs spine wound c. The crossbow bolt staying *in the wound* vs the knife leaving d. Different Orders (seems unlikely to me, though) I was thinking c. and likely some of a. in which case a coin which stayed stuck in the wound would be a problem.

Yeah, definitely... but that's why I'd go Feruchemist + Gold Misting. Health is a huge pain to store, but the other feruchemical powers I'd use are either much easier to store or actually have side benefits (storing brass is good for hot days, iron makes you lighter, zinc to make boring meetings pass seemingly faster). Bendalloy is also useful to store, I'd think. Storing a lot of things might also be easier for people who have sedentary jobs. As for the other hard to store powers... I don't have a lot of call for physical speed/strength in day to day life, so I'd store a small amount for emergencies and then stop (and hopefully never have to tap it). And storing physical speed/strength while reading documents or listening to a presentation might not cost much.

Hmm, ok, so the retinue without powers are distinct from squires?

Healing. The Windrunner will be taking coin wounds, and I don't think your normal 3rd ideal can just ignore those ... nearly 4th ideal but not quite there like RoW Kaladin, maybe - but the level of healing we see from Shallan's crossbow bolt in OB, coins will be a major problem, they can't just heal over and over. A Windrunner can't affect the rock once its left their hand, so I kind of doubt theyd hit a moving Mistborn with one. Not because the Mistborn is necessarily dodging it, but because they'd be moving in a way that you couldn't hit them with a projectile short of sheer luck. Now, this is a can of worms... The lack of sonic boom mentions suggest they're subsonic, but I don't think they'd be nearly as effective as weapons as they're shown to be at those speeds. A coin hitting flat side on (which it will short of truly incredible Allomantic skill) can't really penetrate deep into flesh due to impact depth (too much flesh to push out of the way for its momentum). Bullets are longer than their width (even old musket balls are symmetrical, which is way better than a coin).

Yeah I think they are *not* maintaining their population. Pretty sure the listeners were losing out during their war with the Alethi. I don't think parshmen death rates were likely that high (they seem to have been generally not used for the more dangerous jobs - like running bridges - because they were considered more valuable than potentially rebellious/escape prone human slaves), and their year and some since being awakened has been spent mostly at war and with many of them in forms that don't reproduce, so I imagine the death rate is far higher *and* the birth rate lower. I think the Fused are hoping to win before it matters (plus they have humans on their side too). Its not a worldbuilding hole because in the more general situation- outside the current Desolation - @Treamayneis right. The much faster growth will more than make up for it. They grow up at close to double the human rate; that faster generation time makes a huge difference over long time spans. In the earlier era when there were centuries or decades between Desolations their population probably recovered much better than humans (and doubly so because very low tech singers are better off on most of Roshar than very low tech humans).

I thought Bondsmiths didn't get true (Surge using) squires, though their retinue were called squires?

At 3rd ideal I think it comes down to the reason they're fighting and the environment. If the environment is metal poor Windrunner has better mobility. Whoever has something to protect has a big disadvantage, too. If the Mistborn can keep their distance the Windrunner doesn't have a ranged ability to match coins and if the Windrunner is wearing any non-Shardblade metal that will make it easy for the Mistborn to keep distance. But the Windrunner's Stormlight healing can absorb a lot of coin hits, whereas one good Shardblade hit will kill the Mistborn. If both can move freely it will be a long fight, with the Mistborn shooting coins and constantly evading and the Windrunner chasing and healing. It will likely come down to whether the Mistborn runs out of iron/steel or the Radiant runs out of Stormlight first- though the Mistborn has no room for error, and the Radiant does. If the Mistborn is pinned down protecting someone/something they probably die pretty quickly. So I'd say slight edge to the Radiant because of healing, but could completely go either way, and likely a long and very frustrating fight - especially if the Radiant has any metal on them. I'm not sure how many coins a 3rd ideal Radiant should be able to absorb. The crossbow bolt in OB is a fairly big deal for Shallan, whereas Kaladin heals knife wounds to the spine pretty quick in RoW, and they're both 3rd ideal at the time.

Allomancy: hmmm. I'm torn between zinc and tin on this one. Zinc is clearly the most powerful for someone who isn't dealing with other Allomancers regularly (when copper and chromium would be useful). But it's kind of ethically iffy, and also requires social perceptiveness to be used well - which I very definitely don't have. So probably tin. In addition to the obvious sight/hearing boost, I could finally smell when food was bad -- unlike feruchemy tin allomancy is not based on what you start with (my natural sense of smell is very poor). Flaring tin also seems to have a mind-clearing effect, which is a nice side effect. Feruchemy: zinc definitely. Store to get through boring meetings etc, tap for apparent genius / quick wittedness! Compounding: probably gold, it's just too powerful not to pick. Though its a shame to miss out on zinc or chromium compounding.

Personally, I think it's both things causing the problem. Ruin is stronger but Sazed is forcing Preservation to dominate. Even when seeking a sword, he says 'destroy in order to protect' - Preservation is the goal, Ruin only a tool.

Yeah I think the tablet is likely just mundane solar power. It would be a perfect choice for tech that's going to be used long term on a low tech world.

1) who knows. More Breaths would mean more self-awareness if used effectively (vs just a less efficient Command) but no idea what the threshold for sapience is. (Technically, I think even regular lifeless are sentient at some level- they're not just meaty automatons.) 2) I don't see why not. Once the Cognitive Shadow is gone the body is mostly just a body. The Lifeless might have very interesting Connections though. And if the Sliver was highly Invested you might get a much more intelligent Lifeless - Clod had more going on than the normal Lifeless bc he was a Returned who died with Breaths. 3) I think WoBs are not 100% consistent on whether Breaths are spikeable, but likely not, at least not unless they're kinetic (in transfer) at the moment of theft 4) no idea

From what we've seen so far, sure. I just wonder if the memory thing is unique to memories, or if there's other self-alteration possible. Breath gives a general boost to your immune system, vividness of sensory perception, mood, and various other things. Could someone who knew what they were doing redirect all that boost to one function (e.g. extra immune system boost, but drop to a Drab's mood effects and sensory vividness)?

The memory altering command Vasher teaches the priest's daughter works with one Breath, and doesn't use it up.

That analogy might indeed hold in Scadrial where emotional allomancy is a known thing, but I'd not really feel comfortable with that logic for Earth if I were the only person with the power. People know sales techniques and charisma exist, they don't know or believe that someone can just directly tweak their emotions. It would be far more powerful in a world where no one knows it's possible. Hmmm. Now that on the other hand... setting up something like a "relaxation parlor" for people with anxiety problems, phobias etc. ... that would be good. I wonder what the bad side effects of being a soothing savant are? Because this might be good to have running pretty much all the time...

Marasi "tapped everything" there. I think f-Iron weight would help with traction? She's probably also using f-Gold healing to keep supersonic winds from wrecking her. Nobody else goes anywhere near that fast- not Sazed in WoA or TLR in his final fight when he super speeds briefly; not even Bleeder. She's really fast, but I don't think anything she does requires speed above say 80-100mph. Iron/Steel movement, according to Vin in TFE, is twice as fast as a galloping horse. Since Scadrian Era 1 horses probably aren't extremely highly selectively bred racehorses, that's likely more like 60mph than 80. So even if Bleeder is "only" going freeway speeds of 65-75mph Wax would have trouble keeping up.

Oh ok then. Yeah if the question is "what's the most powerful Allomancer" vs "what's a good strategy for a Mistborn to pursue" sure.

Unless you kill yourself getting there... I agree a *successful* pewter savant is stronger in combat. But I don't think it's *good strategy* for a Mistborn to try for it, since they're more likely to die in the process than the extra boost is to save their life. (I think if you have duralumin and are careful with managing your metals - if you can say hold flakes in your mouth without burning them - there are few situations where you'd need pewter savant to survive.) @StanLemonis right, Chromium / Leeching should definitely be mentioned. It's a powerful option against other Investiture users, and more so once Primer Cubes are available since touch isn't required anymore. Another good trick is bullets or projectiles that are *part* aluminum or nonmetallic and *part* Pushable metal, so you can do Wax's bullet-push trick to add force/velocity but your enemies can't Push them away (like one kind of hazekiller round Ranette makes, or Vin's metal rings+obsidian arrowheads in Era 1).

I don't think savantism in most metals is worth it. It seems that in the newer canon the downsides are generally major. Apparently not bronze, though, and maybe copper - those savantisms might be worth it. Trying for pewter savant generally kills the Allomancer. Harmony even specifically says in the epigraphs that in his opinion the benefit isn’t worth the effort. (Tarson managed it, apparently, but as a koloss-blooded he's presumably tougher than baseline human. So likely less risk of death for him.)

I think Rashek was very young when he took the power ... maybe about 20? Kwaan describes Rashek as "the lad" and says he hates Khlennium, "with the passion of envious youth". Alendi's hair turned white at 25, which was taken as a sign he was the Hero. Kwaan does say that when he met Alendi he was a "young lad" not yet shaped by "a decade of leading armies" but I imagine he didn't start leading armies immediately. If he wasn't hailed as the Hero until maybe 25 then possibly 35 ish?

Yeah, he makes very smart and very stupid decisions. By the time of the book he's pretty unstable. Immortality is weighing on him, and Ruin's influence is also messing with him. He was like 20 at the beginning and full of anger and envy (he hated Khlennium "with the passion of envious youth"). He then got godlike power and an expanded mind, temporarily ... but still his own motives. He made some really bad decisions in those moments with the Well that he was stuck with for the next thousand years (messing up the planet's orbit when the mist killings would have gone away in any case; the noble/skaa split; the whole Feruchemy mess). I don't think the greater skaa population made a successful revolution inevitable, though. That really took Ruin influencing Kelsier and Preservation backing Vin. Without the clue given by the eleventh metal + Vin's ability to burn the mists the skaa rebellion would have failed: TLR would have killed them all and basically had Luthadel rebuilt. (The skaa/noble split was still a really stupid move, though.)

Yeah if the Set can hide huge things, hiding these things is probably not as hard as all that. Which makes sense. Even the Basin is thinly populated, the Roughs more so, and the North lacks aviation ... and this isn't a society where everyone has IDs, people who aren't nobles probably aren't tracked. This is probably pre driver's license.

Spook specifically says something like "this was a coal mine, not a gold mine, but the complaints were the same"

Yes there is. It's referenced at least twice in Era 1 (somebody has a coal stove, and Spook talks about coal miners complaining in Urteau in HoA). Presumably Leras and Ati just made coal deposits when they created the planet. No reason why they wouldn't, IMO. A lot of things about a habitable planet take geological time to develop the natural way - it's likely that they copied a natural planet (assuming there are any in the Cosmere). Feruchemy powered machines (though likely with mechanical Feruchemy based on Medallion tech) seem quite likely in the future. It might even be occurring, but not yet publicized. But I think large scale power distribution is very very new for them. They're pretty new to electricity, Wax doesn't know what a radio is in BoM. They also might genuinely miss things that seem "obvious" to us. Their scientific community is likely pretty limited due to their very small population. There's probably just a couple universities in the world - it will be far easier for habits of thought to get locked in and not challenged, especially in a culture as hidebound as Elendel seems to be (lack of exploration is notable).

I don't think so, but I think that's a specific BioChroma thing. There's a WoB that strongly implies a Dawnshard is more Invested than Susebron.

Well, I suppose that wasn't well worded. He probably could steal those spren bonds under some conditions. But we don't, iirc, know what he had to do to set up those experiments with the spren. There might have been significant prep work involved. What I'm doubting is that he could just walk up to, say, Venli or Jasnah, tap them on their shoulder and steal their spren bonds just like that.