cometaryorbit

The Returned lack of healing from a cut throat is kind of weird to me given that they're Invested enough to glow with an Investiture that's specifically "the power of life".

The main reasons I think otherwise are: - I don't think Allomancy's degree of power is ever based on what you naturally have, as Feruchemy is. I think that's part of the difference between the two systems, you draw external power from Preservation without any real correlation to your own attributes. (Your weight does matter for Iron/Steel but that's due to regular Newtonian physics, being heavier doesn't actually give you more Allomantic power.) - Sazed comments about Spook's balance/grace when he lands from jumping off a 2 story house as being beyond what's normally possible (as a clue that he's somehow become a Thug though that should be impossible).

I definitely don't think it would get around the cost/double-edged aspect, letting a wielder use Nightblood safely. But it *might* keep Nightblood from being used at all, preventing him from activating in the first place- if the aluminum prevented the bond with the wielder from forming, Nightblood might stay in the 'dormant' state?

Maybe something to do with short term vs long term memory? They work differently in humans, maybe kandra/mistwraiths have an analogue: as different as they are biologically, the First Generation kept their minds from being human, so it probably works similarly.

Yeah, I agree. I think Leshwi was friends with honorspren before there was any conflict at all.

Possible, but I would have thought the old Radiants would have a more accurate idea than current Rosharan culture ~2000 years post Recreance. The spren, before the mass death of the Recreance, should have remembered the past clearly so the Radiants shouldn't have lost knowledge.

I actually don't think they'd even have trouble Pushing away shardbow/grandbow arrows: they don't have that much mass. More than normal arrows but... still the momentum would be way less than a flying human, so well within normal Allomantic Push strength. I'm not sure. I agree on Pewter giving more strength and Stormlight healing better (obviously) but I think Pewter balance and agility is an external boost unrelated to an Allomancer's natural ability, rather than taking them to their natural 100% peak. That seems to be how Pewter works, a direct external boost rather than a factor of the Allomancer's natural or base ability. Pewter burners are also probably faster than Stormlight holders, though it doesn't matter much for a Mistborn with Iron/Steel mobility. -- Vin's horseshoe trick is definitely unique to her (the annotations emphasize that) and not something Mistborn in general can do. Throwing down coins to jump off is the normal Mistborn Iron/Steel mobility option. (Which I think is why Kelsier and Vin pewter drag in book 1: for very long distances like that you can't carry enough coins, without Vins trick to reuse your anchors.) -- It's probably* possible at some level, I was questioning whether it would be doable at 2nd ideal. *I will note however that Mistborn are usually burning copper and/or tin even when not fighting, so Investiture interference will be an issue. Scadrial magic is relatively low Investiture so it's probably still possible though. At high ideals the Radiant wins pretty automatically imo. Even if the Radiant is one of the Orders without flight or a good ranged-attack Surge, like an Edgedancer/Truthwatcher or Willshaper/Stoneward, coins just aren't going to do anything to living Shardplate, so the Mistborn will have to get into Shardblade range to attack effectively. And at that point one hit kills the Mistborn whereas they have to get through both Plate and Stormlight healing. EDIT: Even atium probably won't work here: a normal amount of atium (maybe 30 seconds or a minute) will run out, making the Mistborn Shardblade-vulnerable again, before daggers can get through living Plate and Stormlight healing. A Skybreaker or Dustbringer at high ideal could probably just explode them from a distance without there ever really being a fight. So imo the more interesting question is where the "cross-over point" is. At 1st ideal they might have trouble with some of the stronger combat Mistings (a Coinshot likely, possibly a Thug though healing might tip that balance) whereas a few Orders (Bondsmiths, possibly Elsecallers, maybe Skybreakers and Dustbringers depending on how Division works) at 4th or 5th ideal might be able to defeat the Lord Ruler or Marsh.

Hoid does mention the name Adonalsium to Dalinar in WoK, but Dalinar doesn't know what he's talking about.

Way back in WOK in one of Dalinar's visions there's a mention of the Midnight Essence as one of "the Ten Deaths". What could that mean? I used to think it implied ten kinds of monsters each linked to one of the Ten Essences, but we're well into the True Desolation now and haven't seen any sign of that. Also, Midnight Essence seems to come from Re-Shephir, the Midnight Mother, and there aren't ten Unmade to each supply one "Death".

Aluminum was ultra rare in Era 1, it's Allomantically inert status wasn't known, and I don't know if it would hold an edge/point that well. Era 2 "aluminum" guns are an alloy that Era 1 tech couldn't make. Nitpick: Stonewards have Cohesion and Tension. Abrasion is used by Dustbringers and Edgedancers. You might be giving too much credit to low Ideal Radiants' effective use of those powers; entering Shadesmar is really dangerous unless you know what you're doing, and it takes Kaladin a long time to really use that maneuverability. But better trained Radiants probably learn faster, so maybe. That's why Leeching is a bad idea (even if it were available; Era 1 Mistborn won't have it). Rain of coins probably would be much more effective against a pre-Plate Radiant. If the Radiant has Plate they have an overwhelming advantage, coins probably won't scratch Plate. If they have a good ranged option or Gravitation their healing means they probably still win without Plate. But without either the Mistborn can wear them down with coins from a distance; about the only option they'd have then would be a nonmetallic ranged weapon like a sling, and that would probably be really hard to hit a Mistborn with.

Mercy might worry Sazed because it's willing to help anyone, however evil they are? Just as Preservation separated from other attributes or a fully cognizant Vessel can become harmful stasis, Mercy separated from all else might just assume that anyone who's done evil automatically sees what they did wrong and will do better in the future. "Sure, Rayse, I'll lend you this power, I'm sure you'll use it wisely!"

Tanavast is dead, but the Splinters of Honor are still there. Seeing a (possibly future) re-formed Honor wouldn't be less frightening because the Vessel is different- if anything, a new Vessel has more freedom to act.

Probably would be incredibly difficult, not just Investiture interference but also deepening the bond would affect the spren too.

I've thought in the past that it might be "not one to one" since they actually line up with the 9 orders of Fused... which would be equivalent to corresponding to a Surge as you suggest. Re-Shephir corresponding to Lightweavers seems confirmed by OB. But I'd suggest that it might actually be Transformation she's accessing, with creating Midnight Essence as linked to Soulcasting. Moelach's future sight was what I was seeing as Illumination related (thus perhaps corresponding to Truthwatchers). Sja-anat's Enlightenment could be Progression related. Ashertmarn's effect of lowered inhibitions might be some kind of cognitive or spiritual Cohesion, shaping and softening minds/souls as the Cohesion Fused soften stone? Nergaoul's Thrill could be a Cognitive or Spiritual Division. If Adhesion is ruled out, Ba-ado-Mishram's bond abilities might be a kind of Spiritual Gravitation vaguely similar to the Windrunners' resonance? That leaves Yelig-nar, Chemoarish, and Daigonarthis to link to Abrasion, Transportation, and Tension. Chemoarish is "the Dustmother" which could suggest either Abrasion or Division, the Dustbringer Surges. "Blightwind" could link Yelig-nar to Windrunners but there seems no correlation in effect; if anything the crystal transformation of his host seems more reminiscent of the Progression Fused.

Yes, I think the "madness" was the first symptom of Honor's approaching death.

Yeah. I think Cultivation leaning spren's mindsets and ideals are likely to be more open to this; Syl imo definitely wouldn't be. Mistspren might be especially likely to be willing because they want to explore new truths or something? I don't know.

I don't know... Taravangian becoming Odium was still future, even if the choice wasn't.

Rayse-Odium expected an intersystem war eventually, but holding Odium likely gave him a conflict/hate focused worldview. The situation in Sixth of the Dusk looks to me like a powerful company trying to get around rules that they have to at least outwardly follow- I am not sure that they represent any kind of government, or even if their home government approves of what they're doing. Also, it might not be as simple as planet vs planet - I'd expect various cross-world organizations like the Ghostbloods, Silverlight, etc. to exist or have descendants in the space era cosmere, and they might not be on the same side as the government(s) of their planet of origin. Some of those might be powers in their own right. Possible, but OTOH in RL history various European powers (Portugal, Spain, Britain, France) conquered/colonized huge chunks of the New World without ever conquering one another or uniting Europe. It's much easier to take over a culture that doesn't have equivalent weapons and infrastructure. (Although in RL disease made things way easier for European colonization. That might not happen in the cosmere due to Investiture reducing infectious disease problems. )

True, but a few seconds is a long time if you are at arms length of someone with a Shardblade. And Rosharan things are high Investiture compared to Scadrian, so it might be at the upper end of that time range. Still seconds, but long enough to use a Shardblade - especially a live Blade.

Yeah I think Nightblood is more like a Larkin or Leecher combined with a super-powered Shardblade - it has the other-Realm cut/destroy effect of a Shardblade and it eats/leeches Investiture. But I think that Investiture is eaten (partly consumed into Nightblood partly expelled as black smoke) not turned into energy by an Investiture/anti-Investiture reaction.

^ Yeah, that's how I read it.

I see Odium as being mostly about conflict, given RoW's stuff about 'the power wants disagreement/conflict even if the Vessel wants to be obeyed without question'. So I don't really see it as fitting with the Dawnshard 'known to bind'. Yes, there's that Elantris quote about hatred uniting, but even that is unity *against* an enemy, still conflict focused. Ambition under Change works really well though...

Hmm, I would have assumed something like precision in spiking - if the difference is "the pieces of the soul that are being ripped off" (and amount) that would to me suggest the spiking process is different/more precise, to get a more complete "human strength/senses/whatever" spiritweb-chunk. This wouldn't have occurred to me as I think Unsealed Metalminds were a post Catacendre invention.

While I completely agree with your general point that Blade/Plate are generally part of being a Radiant, not sure this is 100% true. Not all Orders seem to advance the same (Skybreakers don't get their 2nd Surge until 3rd ideal). And Dalinar is 3rd ideal with no Blade; not sure if that is the Stormfather's restriction or the general case for Bondsmiths. So I don't think we can necessarily say that "3rd ideal = Blade, 4th = Plate" is universally true. 1st and 2nd: Yeah, Radiants advance slower than Mistborn. Even excluding Vin's intuition for Allomancy, well, Kelsier's about at the peak of possible non-savant skill in Iron/Steel after being a Mistborn just 2 years. Radiants often never hit 4th ideal. I think Kelsier in "The Eleventh Metal" (3 months in) would generally beat a (proto-)Radiant 3 months into their Nahel bond. 3rd: I'm skeptical of Leeching (which requires touch* and isn't really that instant vs high Investiture) being all that viable against someone with a live Shardblade. And a Radiant will probably have some spheres on them. Much better would be to stay out of range. One of the Orders without Gravitation or a good ranged attack option could just be run out of Stormlight by coins eventually (iron and steel last fairly long) - depending on the conditions of the fight, does the Mistborn have space, anchors, and time to fight for a half hour or more? *now, with Era 2 primer cubes, that changes: but Mistborn didn't have that tech. That's why I left out Chromium as an option for the Mistborn, it wasn't really available to Mistborn except possibly Spook and reborn-Kelsier. (I was going to say those two are also probably the only Mistborn to ever coexist with guns, but actually, the original Mistborn also did - we know TLR suppressed knowledge of guns/gunpowder so at the beginning of his conquests they existed.) I can see that, certainly for the 3rd ideal non-flying ones. His powerful bullets + steelpush boost would require a lot of Stormlight to heal, and steeljumping plus lightened weight could keep him out of Shardblade range fairly easily.

Radiants are imo in general more powerful in each specific ability, and potentially vastly more powerful. Gravitation flight is better than Iron/Steel flight, for example; Jasnah's ranged Soulcasting is crazy; Stormlight healing is really awesome; Plate is incredible. So in general Radiants would beat Mistborn in at least a direct physical fight. (Mistborn abilities are generally broader, with all the cognitive/mental stuff - Soothing/Rioting emotions, emotional protection through copper, detection through bronze - and sensory boost from tin, whereas say Kaladin or Szeth have purely physical abilities.) However, there is one asterisk there: atium. I'd argue that most Mistborn pre fall of the Lord Ruler had at least some access to it since they were mostly tied into the Noble House system and its atium economy. In general I'd expect Stormlight healing to be able to outlast 30 seconds or so of atium guided stabs, but that may depend: Shallan survived a crossbow bolt to the head but I think she'd have been in trouble if she couldn't have gotten out of danger to remove it. Not sure if Plate would help or not - atium would probably make stabs go perfectly through the gaps, but living Plate might be able to close all gaps? So even there the Radiant is probably OK, but atium is definitely a consideration. But... I think Mistborn advance faster and easier. Not all Radiants ever get to the higher Ideals and Plate; the Skybreakers don't even get their second Surge until 3rd ideal. Mistborn get all their powers upon Snapping and (even excluding Vin's super intuitive knack for Allomancy) Allomancers seem to learn quickly. So I'd say a new Mistborn likely beats a new Radiant. EDIT: however, some Twinborn might be better, since they'd have access to Era 2 weapons: Shallan had enough trouble with that crossbow bolt that heavier Era 2 guns might work against pre-Plate Radiants (and not all Radiants ever get Plate, maybe not even the majority). Miles Hundredlives with a heavy gun might run a 3rd ideal Radiant out of Stormlight before the Radiant used up his healing.