cometaryorbit

I think "enough to actually use it" means "you get enough structural strength to not crush yourself even when you become absurdly heavy" (eg Wax heavy as a building). Steel speed needs enough reaction time enhancement to be able to move effectively, because that power (speed) inherently requires motion. Iron weight is different imo. But iron feruchemy is indeed super weird so I'm not saying this is 100% certain. I still say they couldn't jump at high weight. But yes absolutely a Skimmer would be dangerous. What we see of Sazed using high weight against the kandra shows that. If the Brute got overconfident he could be in trouble. I'm not saying the Brute automatically wins, but I think they definitely have a major advantage... mostly that the less awkward movement (plus reach advantage of growing to koloss size, as you say) makes them likely to strike first and one supercharged punch is likely to kill anyone without increased toughness or healing powers.

Iirc there's a centuries old Chinese text usually translated as "The Investiture of the Gods". Investiture in its RL meaning basically means being given a position of power/honor/authority. I think the cosmere idea is basically fragments of divinity being given to mortals.

I still kind of think tapping aluminum ought to work since burning aluminum works (and apparently is not actually 100% useless once other cosmere effects come into play) but that's a valid theory.

The "dropping" was in HOA in the Kandra Homeland prison when he only had speed (stored in the steel lock) and weight (stored in the iron grate). He dropped his fists on kandra, not koloss, and then fell on one, breaking the stone bones of a True Body. He didn't fight with normal punches etc. In the WOA koloss fight he was using huge amounts of strength/Pewter. There he was indeed punching koloss, but that wasn't weight/Iron. Iron gives *structural* strength (not crushing yourself) but not *muscular* strength (motion). Like other Feruchemy, it gives you just enough that the ability itself doesn't kill you (similarly to how Steel speed doesn't make your legs snap from G-forces but doesn't protect from wind resistance, or how Brass heat doesn't kill you with heatstroke). I don't think Wax could squat at 2000lbs. He could maintain his position (due to structural strength) if he was *already* squatting- his legs wouldn't buckle- but he couldn't move much at 10x weight. (Though this protection from killing yourself probably only comes into play in extreme uses, like "heavy as a building" Wax. RL people have survived a couple of dozen g for about a second; crushing lungs would take a LOT.)

Yeah true the Pool in Elantris is definitely a Perpendicularity... I guess I was thinking of more of a material though - an atium/lerasium analog rather than a Pits/Well analog. Soulstone.... good point, I know thats been discussed in the past. I thought it was more "this is a really good material for carving" rather than magically better though? I don't really understand why the Rosharan manifestations are all metal but the Tears of Edgli aren't... unless maybe the Tears aren't the actual manifestation themselves but are flowers that can only grow in an environment that has edglium(?) in the soil and take up the metal into themselves, and the Tears based dyes are like edglium compounds? Like how some plants can "hyperaccumulate" metals from the soil?

Being Connected to something that no longer exists does seem plausible given the timelessness of the Spiritual and effects like Gold/Malatium Allomancy.

I don't think the Skimmer does move the exact same - Wax is lighter on his feet storing iron, therefore he'd be heavier tapping it. And when we see Sazed use Iron to fight, he specifically drops his fists and uses his body weight rather than using normal punches etc. Pewter Feruchemy adding muscle mass might eventually hit an upper limit due to awkwardness of size, but it's pretty high - Sazed is as large as the largest koloss, so like 12 feet tall, when super tapping Pewter in the final battle of the Siege of Luthadel.

I do think there's a good argument for Dawnshards (as they are Commands) being primarily Cognitive -- but I don't think they are fragments of Adonalsium's Cognitive Aspect in the way the Shards are fragments of Adonalsium's Investiture, since the Dawnshards existed when Adonalsium was whole. I think they were tools Adonalsium made. EDIT: however... many Shards we've seen have had a physical manifestation (atium, lerasium, harmonium, Honorblades/Shardblades, raysium, and maybe the Tears of Edgli). The only Shardworld we have a full novel from that doesn't have something like this is Sel, and it might exist there too and not be seen on-screen. (Or the Cognitive nature of the Dor interferes with the Investiture "condensing" into the Physical?) With the idea of Investiture "condensing" it seems likely that Adonalsium had a physical aspect or manifestation.

Fullborn are ridiculously powerful but I think a couple of Orders actually have a chance at 5th ideal with lots of Stormlight. Its not clear if Atium can usefully warn against things like ranged Soulcasting or Ishar's "now your Stormlight drains into the ground" trick. Though mutual death may be a likely outcome here. I don't think you can insta-kill a Radiant at high Ideal with anything short of Nightblood or similar effects due to Stormlight healing, the Stormlight has to be used up first... so super tapping Steel+Pewter shouldn't be an instant win here. But "Fullborn smashes Elsecaller's Plate and body with a super tap of Steel+Pewter, Elsecaller Soulcasts Fullborn into a statue, Elsecaller dies when their remaining Stormlight after the Soulcasting is insufficient to heal the massive damage" is possible. Though a 5th ideal Elsecaller could just Soulcast the Fullborn from the Cognitive Realm, right? I wonder about Division at 5th ideal levels too... bathe the Fullborn in say 3000 C flame and metalminds will vaporize. Can you store the heat of your metalminds with Brass? You can't store their weight with Iron... I don't think we've actually seen anything confirming that Gold Compounding can let people survive things on that level. We see Miles survive dynamite, we hear of TLR surviving decapitation and burning... but these are all things that let the metalminds stay on the body. Surgebinding is IMO the most powerful magic system: it's literally world threatening when "unbound".

Isn't Adonai Hebrew? I figure Adonalsium is Adonai + Elysium (a Greek word for basically Paradise) in terms of real world linguistic roots.

I hope that Brandon has real creative control/ veto power about character or world breaking stuff. And for the latter I don't mean primarily cosmere mechanics stuff, but (for example in Mistborn) missing the point of how the Final Empire works kind of stuff. Also avoiding decisions made in the adaptation of book 1 which will break the story of books 2 and 3, like the John Carter movie [not that that will ever have a sequel anyway...]

Hmmmm... Pewter is tempting for the broad physical benefits -- I don't get in fights, but it also improves grace/balance and speed, improves recovery from injuries (does it help with recovering from disease?), and improves resistance to things like cold weather -- but most RL pewter probably isn't actually the right allomantic alloy (91% tin 9% lead I think) And as @Duxreduxsays, do I get Scadrians' increased resistance to metal poisoning? That lead content is alarming. Zinc or Brass Allomancy are probably the most powerful in a situation like our world, and Zinc gets away from the "finding the right alloy" potential issue, but I find them ethically iffy, and anyway I'm not nearly socially perceptive enough to use them well. Iron, Zinc, and Brass Feruchemy are tempting because storing is useful as well as tapping (Zinc is less obvious, but I'd store it to make e.g. boring meetings seem to go faster, make audiobooks seem less slow, etc.). Gold Feruchemy is awesome, but a pain to store. If I had that I'd store slowly and build up a good reserve in - say - rings and a necklace, which I'd never take off and never use so I could keep it for an emergency life-saver in case I was in a car accident or had a heart attack or something. Overall, Zinc Feruchemy is what I'd probably use the most, so I guess I'll pick that.

Yeah, Leras dies shortly after his conversation with Elend (as the mist-spirit) while Ati dies only when Vin sacrifices herself to kill him.

I think Pewter is more likely to win because increased strength is easier to use in a fight - you can use regular punches, etc., rather than the "dropping a fist" Sazed uses in HoA when all he has is Iron and Steel.

I think by the time we get to full on cross-world stories, things like Scadrial's medallions will make the "natural" power sets less relevant. So Scadrial can be on par with Roshar without Twinborn individually being on par with Radiants. Especially as Surge Fabrials require a sapient spren, which are limited in number. It seems like every Southern Scadrian has a medallion for warmth? Or at least those with outdoor jobs?

Hmm... I would kind of assume that falls in the fuzzy area of legal vs real authority ... I doubt the nobles have total arbitrary power over people on their remote estates, legally, but in practice if no one else knows what is going on they might as well. The Set could take over a whole village for months before anyone noticed, and Wax/Wayne/Marasi only found out because they were sent on a mission from Harmony by kandra... I don't think there's a lot of oversight of remote areas. Also if Elendel's police are limited to the city then it might be less "the noble houses have the legal right to do whatever they want on remote estates" and more "there is no one to enforce whatever rights theoretically exist". I think it's probably that... the whole Roughs lawkeepers like Miles and early Wax being basically freelance thing implies that there is a general idea of law & rights even in places too remote there is no organized enforcement authority. True. But it does seem he ruled as an effective monarch (though Elend is called "the Last Emperor" there is a statement that there wasn't supposed to be a single ruler after the Lord Mistborn stepped down) so I doubt there was serious armed conflict within the Basin in his time. I think 100 years of rule by one person at what's effectively the beginning of their history would give them a push toward unity that we've never seen in RL, not only because no RL ruler/leader has ruled for so long but also because they don't get such a "clean slate" start. I wonder if part of the reason intercity conflicts are emerging now isn't just the newer infrastructure like railways enhancing Elendel's power, but also the "wearing out" of that initial cultural push toward unity. (Both because of general time passing/cultural drift and because they are now in a tech era where change is speeding up so 'how things have always been' doesn't work so well.) Maybe also there was less reason for conflict early on since easy-to-access resources were abundant enough (relative to the then-tiny population) that it was easier for House A to find new resources than try to get ones already being exploited by House B ... but now all the low hanging fruit is being used? Hmm yeah seems possible. Are you thinking they do that in areas far from Elendel so no police etc. involvement? That could totally work. I think companies in the US company town era (late 19th/early 20th century) did stuff like this on a smaller scale.

Still there should have been a few 1st or 2nd ideal radiants around and the spren shouldn't have lost so much of the knowledge... Syl's temporary death in WoR (Kaladin was 2nd Ideal then) probably is what happened, only not reversed later-- the bond broke and the spren died, but no Blade appeared in the Physical Realm.

There might be quite a bit of Odium influence out there. The Thaylen Passions are ... suspect... given that Rayse-Odium called himself Passion. And the war focus of the Alethi combined with the Thrill... I think it's mostly indirect influence, through the Unmade and such, though. I agree that Vorinism sees Odium/the Voidbringers as the enemy, and worship Honor, but that's not incompatible with subtle influence - especially since a lot has presumably changed since the Recreance. With the Hierocracy's rule, then being overthrown and replaced by the ardent system, the religion could have been changed a lot. I wonder if the war focus of modern Vorinism* was influenced by the Sunmaker? (A priest ruled era - the Hierocracy - might well have been less war focused than a system set up by a conquering general.) Was he influenced by the Thrill? *or at least its Alethi version: would ardents in mercantile Thaylenah necessarily preach that war is the highest Calling? - I kind of think that "Radiants will cause a new Desolation" is probably Ishar's misinterpretation of dying-Honor's raving about Surgebinders destroying the world.

Good point... but I think Steris is using nation in the political sense, I will have to look up the quote. Sure, but I don't think that's incompatible with being a republic... it might be analogous to the senatorial class in the Roman Republic. Elendel's government strikes me as a lot like the Roman Republic before it started to go imperial ... where the patricians and especially the senatorial class held most power (both political and wealth), but there were the tribunes of the plebs/plebeian assembly to give the common people some representation and protection. With maybe a bit of British House of Lords/House of Commons in the mix, but the lack of a monarch makes it look to me more like the Roman system. Although the lack of slavery makes it more mid 19th century Britain ish so... Isn't that in a context of being against highwaymen/robbers though? I will have to look up the quote I am not questioning the presence of armed forces ... only whether there have been any wars (with organized military forces on both sides, vs operating against bandits or koloss) since the Catacendre. Oh probably... plus it's just so huge population wise... but that's not really what I'm getting at. I will search my SOS and BOM ebooks but the picture I get is... - Spook ruled the Basin for a century and stepped down; after that they intentionally rejected any really unified rule, at least by a single person. (This at least is clearly stated.) - Elendel retained a kind of "primacy" and 'soft' authority but did not directly govern the other cities, at least in local/internal matters. - it's not really clear how inter-city issues are decided, or at least how they were before railways etc. gave Elendel de facto control - it seems implied that the tensions that the Set is inflaming have to do with railways etc giving Elendel more control than it historically had It seems to me to be implied that the tensions are (relatively) new which doesn't leave a lot of room for wars IMO.

Ok. I remembered a comment in WoA that the obligators wouldn't allow Straff to pick Zane over Elend because Zane was illegitimate, but couldn't remember if that clearly stated that "picking a heir (out of the set of legitimate potential heirs)" was how it worked, or just meant that Straff wouldn't be allowed to bypass the normal succession rules.

I wonder if it's not an ironclad rule like primogeniture and more a "pick a heir" system, so Wax wouldn't be chosen over a Ladrian uncle since he was off in the Roughs. There's some continuity with the Final Empire noble houses; they might have avoided a primogeniture type ironclad rule so they could prefer Allomancers over non-Allomancers, or perhaps the obligators wanted inheritance to be non-automatic so they had another lever over the nobility.

I am pretty sure Steris says in BoM that Elendel's trade policies are aimed at "maintaining a single nation in the Basin" though. The cities have separate governments but things like the railways are done by Elendel - I think the situation is in between true independent nations and a single nation-state in the modern sense, more like a league or confederation with one strongly dominant member. But the organization doesn't seem very formalized. It's not a democracy but it is a republic, not a pure aristocracy; trade guilds have votes & representatives in the Senate, not just the nobles. Maybe there were house wars in the past? But that doesn't really fit the feel I get... I figured their troops were vs bandits and koloss. EDIT: the way it's discussed actually makes it sound to me that this is a relatively new issue, perhaps because the infrastructure is now developed enough for Elendel to exercise effective economic control. I'd expect the inter-city setup to be more formalized if serious conflicts had occurred in the past.

I think the Southern Scadrians don't just have a higher core temp they are probably closer to "cold blooded" than standard humans. I believe someone pointed out that warm clothing would work better for them than it seems to if they had regular metabolisms.

I agree Preservation's power could fuel F-Gold (I believe there's a WoB that either Preservation or Ruin could technically fuel any of the Metallic Arts). But until Vin vanishes/ascends I think she is still using Allomancy -- super fueled by the Mists but limited to the specific powers of Allomancy -- rather than the broader Shardic power of Preservation. As the full Shard she could probably have done more for Elend if she'd known what she was doing. But Elend's Duralumin Atium burn showed him how his death would lead to Ruin's defeat, so maybe he could have saved himself even with the powers he did have. -- With the crazy degree to which her Allomancy is being boosted she doesn't need f-Gold imo. When Vin does a Duralumin Steelpush/Ironpull it's mentioned that she uses Pewter to survive the force on her body- well, when she exploded Kredik Shaw with super charged Steel, she must have been using equally super charged Pewter. Normally a-Pewter healing works on "accelerated medical recovery" timelines not "heal during a fight" timelines- but once you go from something like x2 healing speed to something like x2000...

I am pretty sure the MAG said they had lower body temp and there is a WOB correcting that. I think it's higher because they can still lose heat to outside (heat will flow body -> environment) at a higher ambient temperature. I am not sure you can directly compare species with very different body types like humans and camels; there are a lot of factors in this sort of thing, warm-blooded bodies actively maintain temperature (blood circulation changes, sweating/panting, shivering etc.) and these things can vary between species. Also body size and shape (surface area to volume ratio) matter: larger or bulkier things lose heat slower, smaller or less bulky things faster. There's a known trend (Bergmann's rule) that widespread warm blooded animals tend to be larger in colder parts of their range (wolves are huge in Alaska and Siberia but tiny in India, whitetail deer are huge in Minnesota and Canada but tiny in the Florida Keys). In at least some cases colder body temp is better for colder environments: some small birds specifically lower their core temp to survive cold nights in 'torpor' (eg hummingbirds in the high Andes where nights are cold). At higher body temperature they would starve themselves to death overnight. I agree there, but it still seems significantly larger than what would happen in a thousand years in RL - we have groups of people who have lived in very different temperatures for longer than that and while there is some adaptation it's nothing this dramatic.