cometaryorbit

I think there may be (probably is) a difference between the Southern Scadrian medallion technology, vs. the 'normal' use of nicrosil Feruchemy. Someone doesn't have to be a nicrosil Ferring to "tap" a medallion, and they don't actively "store" the power back into the medallion to stop using it - just breaking contact does that (whereas with a coppermind, the memory would stay in your mind unless you actively re-store it). It's kind of like the medallion becomes part of the person while in contact? I don't think normal medallions do run out of nicrosil/Investiture. But I don't think the Bands are a medallion in the same sense as the Southern Scadrian ones, or maybe they include a medallion to give the initial nicrosil power and then a 'normal' nicrosilmind (plus all the other metalminds)?

I was thinking the non-intervention was probably because worldhoppers messed something up large-scale in the past. Possibly 'awakening' the Evil on Threnody, or giving it more power/more access to the Cognitive/something? It seems that it only became a continent scale problem after Nazh left, whereas the Ambition/Odium/Mercy fight must have been thousands and thousands of years ago, before Odium got stuck on Braize. Either that or it's more of a 'religious' concept - "these worlds bear the touch and design of Adonalsium". Perhaps they believe Adonalsium had some grander plan beyond the Shattering (a reunification, e.g. the Iriali idea of the One? distributing Investiture to all mortals? who knows).

I wonder if the 12 moons are actually the "original" Aethers. There's a WoB that some Aethers consider themselves Shard level, though Brandon wouldn't say that's objectively true. If they have this scale of effect/influence, creating whole oceans of spores, I can see why that might be claimed.

I agree; an aluminum-lined hat messes with emotional Allomancy, even though the emotional Allomancy isn't targeting the hat. So aluminum would probably block a Push "through" it. I think there's a potential argument to be made that incredibly high Allomantic strength could Push or Pull on non-metals: Yes, that's talking about steelsight, not actual Steelpushing, but it's probably the same basic mechanism. But that would be a truly absurd level of strength - TLR's Push in his final fight with Vin and Marsh only moved stained glass somewhat, and I think that has significant trace metal in it.

I don't think it would actually change the "mass of atium metalmind = years of youth" math, but it would reduce the amount of atium Marsh needs to use, since he can stay at a higher current age; and he wouldn't have had to start using atium to live for the first X decades of Era 2. (Marsh I think was mid-40s at the end of HoA, so he should be 380-something in AoL. I don't know how much his life would be extended by being an Inquisitor*, but if he could be - say - 100 without suffering physical effects of aging, vs maybe 50-60 for a regular human, he wouldn't have had to start Compounding seriously until maybe the year 55 post-Catacendre, and he could use 40-50 years less youth than a regular human Compounder would.) *Although IIRC the WoB is that most have longer lifespans, some 'burn out faster'. But Marsh is kind of a super-charged Inquisitor, so his life might be more extended than usual.

I believe this was through House Venture. Felt (a lesser nobleman working for House Venture) ends up as a worldhopper, so I think some of the Venture "employees"/retainers/etc were cosmere-aware to some degree (at least to the point of 'we trade with weird people who show up in the Pits' ... not necessarily having any broader understanding). Elend doesn't seem to have known, but then, he's really not the kind of person one would send to help run a place as awful as the Pits. Right. The Pits existing as a deadly prison seems to be pretty public knowledge, enough that Kelsier escaping from them was meaningful to the skaa. The Pits being the atium source was secret, but not super ultra secret - a significant number of obligators, and House Venture, knew. Only the kandra Trust thing was really super ultra secret.

Huh. Well that is pretty definitive, even a normal Rosharan Soulcaster could do it. So yeah Feruchemists/Fullborn could potentially be vulnerable to someone capable of ranged Soulcasting like Jasnah.

Well, Returned are Cognitive Shadows "stapled" to a reanimated body via Divine Breath (a Splinter of Endowment). I honestly don't know if they get all the benefits of the Fifth Heightening with Divine Breath suppressed - it's not clear to me exactly how much of "perfect health" a Returned body would keep without the Fifth Heightening - but their not aging I think is just because they're a Cognitive Shadow.

Shard: Mercy Method of Initiation: Splinters of Mercy (voluntarily created, not due to the Shard's death) are present & visible in the Physical Realm, similar to spren or seons. They are very rare (only about 50 exist). These sometimes spare the life of someone who is near death (the Splinters are free-willed and choose who to heal). During the healing, a bit of Investiture from the Splinter is temporarily transferred to the person healed, and grants a power. The Investiture eventually returns to the Splinter over time, and the power fades. After this, the Splinter can heal/empower someone else (it can grant power to only one person at a time). Each individual Splinter grants one specific power. Some of these powers are basic 'passive', continuously active abilities; others are consciously activated powers. Cost: The more often and more dramatically a power is used (for active abilities), or the more significant the ability is (for passive abilities), the more quickly it fades (as the Investiture returns to the Splinter). Expanding one's vision to see near-infrared might last several years; doubled strength might last less than a year; the ability to teleport short distances might only be able to be used a dozen or so times. Example Powers: Passive Expanded visual range to see near-infrared Enhanced hearing Doubled muscular strength (similar to iron Hemalurgy or a pewtermind in Feruchemy) Active Generate light (not illusions like Lightweaving, but a bright uniform glow - several thousand watts) Transform air into water (up to several hundred gallons of water) Sense Kinetic Investiture (similar to Bronze Allomancy) Sense strength of Innate Investiture Change color of any inanimate object (lasts about an hour) Make inanimate objects invisible (one object at a time, up to about the size of a cottage) Short-range teleportation (up to about 1,000 feet)

Vasher with suppressed Divine Breath doesn't get the benefits of the First through Fifth Heightening (life sense, aura recognition, perfect pitch, etc.) but he's still a Returned thus doesn't age. Also, he isn't going to be even a pseudo-Drab for long, as he still needs a Breath every week, even with his Divine Breath suppressed. I believe the Annotations say that, similarly, Denth's (necessarily brief) 'Drab' experiences weren't as severe as being a true Drab. (He would lack the benefits of Breath, but presumably being a Returned would mean he wouldn't get e.g. the lowered immune system problems a Nalthian-human Drab has.)

Hmm, good point. Though TLR would have had to compound much more youth at 1,000+ than Marsh yet needs to, there was probably enough in the Trust to last him until the Pits re-started.

Hmm, that does mske sense. I had kind of figured that Honor = Rules and Laws in general and Cultivation = Nature in general (and Odium = Emotion in general) was a flawed in-world interpretation by people like Raboniel who aren't aware of all sixteen Shards so try to make Honor, Cultivation, and Odium cover all of existence. But maybe that is a real thing.

I know Straff is talking about fleeing before TLR finds out/responds, but if the executions where Kelsier died (with TLR present) were in response to that, wouldn't TLR have to know? Yeah, he could have used the Well, and maybe the Trust would have had enough to last him a few centuries until the Pits "re-grew", but it still ought to have been a big clue this wasn't just another regular rebellion.

Granting that the Rhythm of War is called that because hearing it conveys an understanding of its meaning, it still might not be as simple as combining the Intents of Honor and Odium making War. There's a WOB that Ruin and Preservation "polarized" while Invested in Scadrial, to make them so opposite; the fact that Odium's and Honor's forces have been at war for so long might influence how their Rhythm is perceived on Roshar.

I think that's an intentional parallel to the Fused, who have also essentially forgotten their original purpose, becoming consumed with the war against humanity/vengeance basically for its own sake. That's how Odium works, apparently - inflaming anger that may originally be justified, but turning it into hatred (Odium) which becomes something self-justifying. Possibly this is related to the whole Passion thing... Odium wants to 'sell' himself as a deity of broader emotion.

When the final rebellion happens, TLR is really dismissive of it, acting like it's no threat at all - even when Marsh and Vin attack him, he doesn't take them very seriously, ranting at Marsh rather than just killing him (which he could have done super-fast, given that he can Push and Pull metals in the body). But by that point, Kelsier had already destroyed the Pits, and apparently the Steel Ministry had learned that (at least, Kelsier thinks the executions when he died were in response). Since TLR needs atium to survive, why isn't he frightened when he finds out the Pits are destroyed? That's basically cut off his source of immortality (even though Kelsier didn't know that when he did it). At the very least, that should be a hint to him that this rebellion is something special. I guess he isn't totally panicked because he knows the Well is refilling in about two years, and he probably intended to use the Well to give himself more sustainable immortality, but it should still be a big clue this isn't just a bunch of criminals or another small-scale peasant rebellion.

Yeah. "Science" does sound more like an Intent than "Tower", but yeah, I think the Light names are just in-world associations - Stormlight comes from highstorms, Voidlight is associated with the enemy/Voidbringers, etc. And I don't see how Cultivation plus Honor makes "Science" anyway. Honor is about bonds and oaths, Cultivation is about controlled/directed growth. "Civilization" I can see (Cultivation of bonds/oaths/rules, growing a society), but Science specifically sounds more like Cultivation of Knowledge, not Cultivation of Honor.

Maybe savantism would give control over what kinds of possibilities you see? Or maybe that's possible with just learning to use gold - we haven't seen it used much (once by Vin in the first book and once by Miles in AoL, both briefly).

For "useful in my real world life" Zinc Feruchemy - store zinc during boring stuff to make it apparently go faster, tap for bursts of genius - plus enough Breath to have a super-long, super-healthy life. Although that feels kind of selfish, Surge of Transformation or Progression could do so much good. For intellectual/philosophical interest, Gold Allomancy plus Forgery - exploring alternate timelines of yourself and then actualizing them with Soul Forging.

Yeah. To reconcile that with the HOA annotation, which IMO clearly says that TLR's "essential Allomantic strength" was the same as the original Lerasium Mistborn, I think there must be a distinction between 'base' or 'essential' strength and additional boosts - e.g. from savantism (or "near savant" which TLR apparently was in many metals) or maybe Sliver status. (Also, that's a paraphrased WOB, so I am not sure we can take that as literally meaning "TLR Allomantic Strength = Elend with Duralumin"... just that TLR was notably stronger than Elend. I don't think Duralumin provides a consistent level of boosted strength anyway, it's based on how much metal the Allomancer burns away.)

I don't think the Light names are actual Intents. "Tower" is not an Intent, so the name Warlight may not mean that Honor + Odium make the Intent of "War" - Warlight might just be called that because Honor and Odium are at war.

I know he didn't actually use Lerasium, but the HoA epigraph says " Still, it is interesting to me that one of his "divine" powers—his essential Allomantic strength—was something every one of the original nine Allomancers possessed." So his base power was equal to that of a Lerasium Mistborn, though the source was different. Though he seems more powerful in practice, maybe more so than Savantism in Soothing etc. could explain.

Hmm, possibly. That might also explain TLR's Allomantic strength being seemingly so much greater than Elend's even though the HoA Epigraphs state his "essential Allomantic strength" was the same as the other original Allomancers - maybe his 'base strength' was Lerasium level but the 'Sliver effect' boosted it? (Although to be fair TLR was probably a Savant in Soothing and likely other metals he used a lot, and Elend wasn't.) But Kelsier is more Connected to Ruin than Preservation, and that doesn't make him a weirdly weak Mistborn. So it might be more than just Connection. OTOH, Vin didn't seem to get Allomantically stronger between WoA and HoA - but then she didn't actually use the power, if that matters.

OK, sorry, done.

Yeah, I think you are right. The only reason I was going that direction for a while is I saw more than four "Change" Shards. But if either Invention or Whimsy gets moved to the "Think" or "Envision" (mental-quadrant) Dawnshard, and Odium gets moved to the spiritual-quadrant Dawnshard ("Enact" or "Bind") then it works. I agree Odium doesn't fit this 'something new, something perfect' idea of Change. Invention kind of does, though... maybe Invention should be under Change and Whimsy under "Envision"/"Think"?