cometaryorbit

I agree it's not a lie, but I'm not sure the third reason holds. The branching tree model of dimensions, and the way more-real is "contagious" to less-real, isn't compatible with these being pure point-of-divergence parallel universes. The dimensions aren't on an equal footing, so I don't think it can just be assumed there'd be more advanced ones. The fuzzier physics of less-real dimensions might not let you create advanced tech. More-real stuff from John/Jen/Ryan's homeworld works, but it's imposing its own reality against the local constraints. I don't know if you could make complex electronics out of local matter in a world like Sefawynn/Ealstan's homeworld - the electrons might not stay in the right places. That doesn't necessarily mean John/Jen/Ryan's homeworld is actually unique, at the absolute head of the branching tree. But if there are other worlds higher up, they're inaccessible (whether that's due to the nature of lower vs higher reality or a limitation of the portals themselves). You can't go "across" to equally real worlds, and you can't go "upstream" above to your starting point (except the way the 'gods' did it, but that wasn't portal tech).

1) yes 2) I agree 3) well, it kind of does make sense that they’d rely on Wax/Wayne/Marasi while they can. They're exceptionally powerful (Twinborn are insanely rare and a set of two combat-useful Twinborn who are experienced in working together could genuinely be unique in the world), very skilled (Marasi is very exceptional in her field completely separately from her power, and while Wax probably gets some help from steel-lines his gun skills are absurdly good & he's a much better detective than he admits; Wayne's impersonation/acting abilities are also exceptional), get help from kandra when needed, and most importantly have a super impressive record. Wax was a legend way before AoL. I doubt they're literally the only Metalborn involved in policing Metalborn, though. I think what Marasi means is that they're the people the city calls when destructive combat Metalborn show up. I'd think the Leecher* would more often be used to wipe the metals of Metalborn already arrested, including (maybe usually) subtler things like Soothing/Rioting which could be a big problem in a prison. *and to me the phrasing of "First Octant's" suggests there's probably more than one, though not one for every Octant since they have to call her in 4) see, I would be surprised, but I think some of those things are happening - just not on page. The Seekers and Tineyes, specifically, I'd imagine do happen. But there's not a lot of reason for our main characters to see that during their on-page adventures. The only time we hear about the laws against emotional Allomancy use for advertising, Wax specifically isn't focusing on that. The police probably do have Seekers that do that... I don't think that's the same kind of combat Metalborn crisis that Marasi is saying the protagonists are the people to call for. We don't see commercial uses of Tin, Pewter, or Iron (unless Ranette counts? She apparently does use iron lines in her work), but it does look like Mental Allomancy is out there - not just the illegal advertising thing, but Soothing parlors exist, and it's socially significant enough for a Coppercloud politician to get elected on that alone IIRC (or am I wrong on that reference?) So I don't really see any reason to doubt that Seekers (and Tineyes too) are out there. Those are rather subtle powers; they don't attract comment like Coinshot couriers. Our PoV characters, and the public, might never know that someone is burning Copper or Tin or Bronze or even Electrum (though you probably wouldn't do that except in a fight). About a third of the useful metals are totally invisible. It's also worth noting that Wax specifically says in SoS that unlike Allomancers, Feruchemists aren't usually for hire because of the Terris view of their powers. That kind of does suggest that there are more Allomancers for hire in the world than we actually see. 5) True! But those are going to be among the more common powers (Wax specifically tells Khriss that Coinshots are more common, in fact). So their existence doesn't require a majority, much less a vast majority. If there are ~10000 Mistings total... well, if they were equally distributed there'd be 625 of each type. But we know they're not equally distributed. I'd think it's likelier something like 1000 Coinshots, but very few Nicrobursts. So even if 60% are nobles, and another 10% are criminals or adventurers or otherwise not available for hire, there'd still be 300 or so using their powers to make money.

I don't think it's simple fission of harmonium. Sazed says "This is a new kind of explosive—the direct transformation of matter into energy." Yes, you lose some mass in fission reactions, but I think Sazed is describing direct conversion. Sazed also makes it sound like if those three barrels had gone off "properly" rather than the water explosion that Wayne set off, the explosion would have been much more energetic/destructive than a fission bomb the size of those barrels. An explosion large enough to destroy Elendel, Bilming, and "many other cities" would be ridiculously huge - much larger than the largest nuclear weapon ever tested in RL, and orders of magnitude beyond any purely fission weapon. (The scale on the map in AoL suggests that Elendel and Bilming are a bit under 100 miles apart... maybe 80 to 90 miles?) Of course, he also says he doesn't know, so...

Machine gun won't hurt a Seer unless it has aluminum bullets or the air is so full of bullets that there's no clear path. A big explosion would work better - if a second or two of warning isn't enough to get out of the lethal blast zone, they're dead. The only ways to hurt someone with Atium (before they run out) are future knowledge of your own (Atium, Electrum, maybe F-Chromium, or what Vin did), aluminum projectiles, or 'checkmating' them so that they physically can't escape even with flawlessly perfect reactions a second or two in advance. Theoretically you could checkmate Seers with Full Lashings and trap them, yeah. I think it'd be incredibly hard to do with equal numbers, though. Maybe possible with Gravitation flight and enough Stormlight to take a lot of hits while applying Lashings, though. Not sure that average Squires would have the skill/precision, though. Atium is more than just seeing future shadows - it expands the mind, and gives instincts to react properly even if you don't see the shadow. It's hard to beat.

Yes, I agree with all this - Stormlight Archive is more psychological focused than the other series, and that's why its main characters can be so nearly unkillable. I do think there's some grounds for concern once worlds start crossing over more heavily, though. Stormlight works in Stormlight and Mistborn works in Mistborn, but once powers become more mechanical and transferable...

(Numbers added by me) 1) ok, looks like I was wrong about that. I do see 1 Misting to every 10,000 skaa with noble blood, but no number about the nobility, only "modestly rare" (Ch 3 TFE) 2) I dont think the total number is really that high. The Allomantic lineages are very much stronger in the Great Houses (Kelsier says nearly all Mistborn are from the Great Houses in Ch. 7 TFE). So Luthadel would have a huge proportion of the total Allomancers. The rest of the Empire, where we don't spend as much time, would have far less except for specific Great House seats (like Urteau and Straff's illegitimate children). 3) it would be about 10,000. Which sounds like a lot, but it's split among 16 different powers, which aren't equally common (so it's not as simple as "~625 Mistings of each type"). Ferrings seem somewhat rarer, and Twinborn are exceptionally rare. 4) hmm, I was sure there were references, but maybe I am thinking of the contractors. Are you sure the "First Octant precinct's Leecher" mentioned in SoS isn't a constable though? That phrasing sounds like she's actually part of the organization. The police in New Seran also used an Allomancer to check for metal, according to Marasi in BoM ch 14 (presumably a Coinshot or Lurcher). 5) wait, is that stated? 6) I don't think that's how it went. The people kidnapped for the Community weren't all Allomancers. They all had Allomancy in their families, but weren't all Allomancers themselves. And Wax suggests that some who were Allomancers might have been secret Allomancers (like Marasi was). I think their number of spikes was actually pretty limited, especially pre-AoL. Even in TLM, Marasi says only the most important members of the Set have spikes - and things have been kicked into much higher gear at the end of BoM. In BoM we only see Edwarn and Telsin with it, who are super important. I'm sure they're not the only ones, but it could easily be like five or ten people with Hemalurgy at this point. I don't think we know when the Set started using Hemalurgy; we don't see human members with it in AoL or SoS (Paalm's chimeras in SoS might have attributes spiked out of an animal; they seem absurdly warped for one spike, more so than even koloss). So I don't think hundreds of Metalborn disappeared without notice before the Set was politically established close to the degree we see in TLM.

Yeah, Tarson was probably burning pewter 24/7 essentially. It's a lot faster burning than tin, so that can be tricky... which is probably a big part of why pewter savants or those approaching savantism usually die.

Not necessarily. There's also the state that Galladon appears in as Grump in WoK; non-glowing but not zombie. I think that just being disconnected from the Dor would do that. The Reod Elantrians are being continuously acted on by a broken city of Elantris. That state is actively being maintained, I think- they are actually harder to kill than normal Elantrians (who have some healing, but it's pretty poor compared to Radiants or Gold Health users). If the city itself is fine but you're just out of reach, I think that's different. It might be dangerous in another way, though. If an Elantrian were completely disConnected- not just too distant - they might count as "not an Elantrian" and age to death like TLR?

Well, the Skybreakers under Nale are a lot different than what the Order is supposed to be. They are supposed to be about "rule of law", not "kill every criminal". I do think their policing role in early days - when the Ten Orders were fully functioning and working together - was as internal police for the Radiants themselves more than generic police, though. Probably also the ones who dealt with really powerful people (tyrants and such) too. But not ordinary street crime. Because of numbers if nothing else... even with Oathgates for travel, a couple hundred people (if there were even that many) can't police a supercontinent. The difference is that you had an organized, trained Skybreaker organization, backed by a Herald 5th Ideal Skybreaker, going after rare individual clueless Radiants. Skybreakers aren't inherently more powerful than other Radiants - one Order of Skybreakers couldn't effectively control several Orders with opposing philosophies. I think it worked in the early days because all Ten Orders were under one system in Urithiru, so rogue Radiants weren't backed by their own Orders. Are we assuming a number of Radiants large enough that basically every nation could have independent Orders? If the total number of available spren was comparable to what we see on Roshar, that probably wouldn't work. I'm also not sure that Radiants would automatically remain loyal to their home nations either, depending on what nation that was, their Order, and their personality and their individual spren. I think certain governments/types of government would be pretty incompatible with certain Orders.

I agree it's a kind of reverse bond. Not an exact opposite - I don't think Maya is going to get the ability to summon Adolin as a Shardblade, though that would be hilarious, and Adolin doesn't need help to fully enter the Physical Realm - but more broadly reverse in terms of spiritwebs. Normally, the human has a "broken soul" - or at least some kind of accessibility, the Lopen isn't broken in the usual sense - and the spren bond "fills the cracks". In a normal Radiant bond, the spren gains the ability to fully enter the Physical Realm. Maya is already a Shardblade, she can already Physically manifest. What she needs is a Spiritual and/or Cognitive "patch" - much like what the Everstorm provided for parshmen singers. I think the problem with deadeyes is that a critical bit of their spiritweb got yanked out during the Recreance; it stayed with the Radiant, and when the Radiant died it went back to the Spiritual like other Investiture. Kaladin could fix Syl much more easily because that bit was still attached to him, so all he had to do was swear/re-swear Oaths to reestablish the Connection. So deadeyes are left with a part of themselves permanently missing. Other forms of damage to spren - regular Cognitive Realm violence - can have similar symptoms, but heal with enough Stormlight, as we learn in RoW. It's like the deadeye has a hole in its spiritweb and can't give the Stormlight "instructions" on how to patch the hole? Perhaps their Identity changed when they became deadeyes, so any "healing" just ends up restoring them to deadeye state? I think Adolin is patching Maya's spiritweb hole with his own spiritweb. It's still a Nahel bond between human and spren, where the two spiritwebs begin to become one, but in the opposite direction. That's why Adolin can will strength to Maya - because their souls are deeply linked. It's kind of the reverse of a normal bond granting the human powers.

I doubt it is a pole to pole line. Do we know how long a highstorm takes to cross a particular point? I don't think it is as circular as a usual Earth hurricane, since Roshar continent covers about 60 degrees of latitude in our terms, which would be 1/6 of the planet's circumference or almost 6000 km / 3700 miles north-south ... and the highstorm must be wider, north-south, than that. That would suggest that a round highstorm would take over 10 hours to cross a point at 370 miles per hour. It also doesn't really seem to have an eye like a usual hurricane; the centerbeat seems to be a Realmatic phenomenon that only a few people experience, not a regular part of the Physical storm. (I'm sure the calm of the centerbeat is inspired by the eye of a hurricane in writing terms, but I don't think it's actually the same thing at all in-universe.) Hurricane winds are highest on both sides of the eye, whereas the stormwall - the first part of the highstorm to hit - is worst. So the highstorm may be more like a squall line than a hurricane. But the Great Red Spot isn't really circular, it's distinctly oval, and doesn't really have a clear eye. So if we imagine a Great Red Spot with its long axis pointing north-south, it could fit well.

Hm. That's possible, too. Still pretty different from the implied picture we get, but sounds more plausible. There's still a possible problem, though. Stormfather in Ch 38 OB says that the Fused didn't originally "command the Surges", they were just unbeatable because they kept reincarnating. The Fused don't seem that numerous, so I think to be a civilization threat without Surgebinding, they must have commanded a pretty large and organized Singer effort. Otherwise they would just have been a continuous small-scale border conflict, not a real threat - they'd just constantly reincarnate and constantly get killed. (Assuming the human population was large enough that expansion outside Shinovar made sense.) I think the borders would have to be the same as modern Shinovar - they're not just political borders, it's an area terraformed for humans as part of the initial bargain (or maybe literally teleported from Ashyn ... I used to think that, but the reference to burns and ash now makes me doubt that ... but either way it's been sharply distinct from the rest of Roshar since the time of the original arrival). I wonder what the area right on the other side of the mountains from Shinovar is like. If it's drastically milder, maybe people would find reasons to expand before Shinovar became densely populated. One obvious reason would be gemhearts, but if the land was as harsh for unprepared humans as I'm thinking, I don't think that would lead to full scale settlement - more like the first few decades of French efforts in Canada, which were more about fur trade than permanent settlement or conquest. Sure, that eventually led to colonization, but it took more than a generation. Also, a lot of European efforts to settle & maintain claims to the less obviously economically useful parts of the New World were driven by strategic competition with other European nations. Finally, Atlantic Canada was a lot less alien to France than Roshar would be to the Ashynite/proto-Shin humans.

The nature of the Oaths would make that hard. Some Orders would fairly easily accept that kind of control ... but not all. Lightweavers, Elsecallers, and Willshapers probably especially not. That would make Transformation hard to monopolize. The scarier thing is combining Transformation with modern chemistry/physics knowledge. Soulcasting fissionables could get very deadly very quickly.

Until we start with 3-Surge combinations! Thank you! Yeah ... I considered calling them Farseekers but that felt like it suggested they should have Transportation. A better name suggestion would be great.

The settlement of America didn't happen in one generation either, though. Not even close. And Roshar would be a lot harder. European crops like wheat grow well in much of America, and native crops like corn were fairly easy to drop in to existing agricultural systems. Rosharan plants are very weird, and their farming techniques quite different. Reproduction rates couldn't have been a factor if it was really a single generation.

Pathseekers The Order of Pathseekers is fundamentally about opening possibilities. They can be craftspeople; explorers and sailors; merchants and traders; artists or writers -- but regardless, Seekers see their work as a way of giving people more options, whether that's by making better tools, discovering new islands, bringing goods from distant lands, or introducing or reintroducing ideas to society. Pathseekers tend to be people uncomfortable with leadership, whether they are shy and retiring by nature (as some of the more crafts-oriented or artistic members of the Order are) or simply find it incompatible with their real goals. Most Pathseekers are people who live, or once lived, in watery areas or rainy climates (such as the seacoast, the Reshi Isles, or the Purelake) but this is not fundamental to the Order - simply a consequence of where their spren are found. Surges : Abrasion + Tension The Surge of Abrasion allows Pathseekers to "slick" themselves, others, or objects - reducing friction to zero. This Surge, used alone, is essentially identical to its use by other Orders. Pathseekers' use of the Surge of Tension is more unique, being focused around fluids (as is appropriate for their spren). They can radically increase surface tension, making anything float on water without being wetted. They can also control capillary action - with sufficient Stormlight, this can be taken to the point of making water flow up sheer cliffs. They can prevent boiling. At extreme levels of knowledge and skill, they can even impose liquid-like behavior on gases. It is technically possible for them to use Tension to harden flexible solid materials, but this use of the Surge is very difficult for them - requiring both great experience and unusual quantities of Stormlight. By combining their Surges, they can propel objects (including themselves, or an entire ship, with enough Light) through water with great speed - reducing friction ahead and increasing tension behind. True Spren: Deepspren. Sapient cousins of rainspren the way honorspren are to windspren, deepspren appear as humanoid figures made of water when seen in the Cognitive Realm. They appear in the Physical as a puddle or small stream of water, often clinging impossibly to tilted or vertical surfaces, and moving by flowing. Deepspren consider themselves the true soul of water, ever flowing and changing, reshaping itself to fill what it finds, yet always reborn from clouds and rain the same in essence. Symbolically they represent flexibility and the ability to adapt while maintaining one's intent despite discouragement. Platespren: Rainspren Ideals: The pattern of Pathseeker Ideals falls in between that of the Lightweavers and the other Orders. They are more standardized than Lightweaver Truths, but less so than other Orders. The first three Ideals follow a common pattern, though with significant flexibility, while the last two are entirely personal in nature. First Ideal (same) Second Ideal: I will seek and share. This Ideal focuses the Radiant not only on seeking improvement or finding something new, but doing it for the benefit of others. [It is worth noting that those who seek more abstract truth tend to become Truthwatchers instead, though there are exceptions.] Third Ideal: I will offer what I find, even when I doubt its worth. This Ideal pushes the Radiant to overcome the self-doubt that often hinders Pathseekers from doing the good they can do. Fourth and Fifth: entirely personal to the individual Radiant and spren pair. Often tied to dealing with some obstacles of personality or personal history that prevent the fullest attainment of the previous Ideals.

I think repairing the inanimate objects is more like a Reverse Lashing (an active combination of two Surges) not a resonance.

Numbers would be great. I just have a hard time seeing it as being in the tens of millions or more, if it was sufficiently last-minute that they arrived with burns and ash still in the air. Ashyn's tech level couldn't have been very high. (White Sand/Mistborn) There might have been large cities, but more like Ancient Rome than anything modern. Re cynical: it's not about intent, but capability. The human societies we see on Roshar have had a long time to learn how to live with the highstorm cycle - not just city placement and building design, but how to farm Rosharan plants, which are very different from ours and presumably Shinovar's. Roshar just isn't very habitable to humans who don't have that accumulated knowledge. And fighting a war against singers who are well adapted to that landscape and do have thousands of years of accumulated knowledge on living there... I don't think that would end well, even with a massive tech advantage. Settling an area the size of Roshar, with this harsh of conditions, would probably take more than a few decades even with no opposition. No further help or population could be coming from the homeland, unlike the British Empire in Australia or North America. And the Roshar supercontinent is larger than either - it's more Asia sized.

Yeah, this would take a lot to get the reaction started. And if it could be done, it'd be a really bad idea. Sazed calls it a matter-energy conversion. That would make it more powerful than nuclear; it's more like antimatter. Now, its not necessarily efficient on a small scale - surely Wax's half a gram wasn't anything like totally converted, or the destruction would have been pretty total (half a gram of matter into energy is 5 × 10^-4 kg * 9 x 10^16 J/kg = 4.5 x 10^13 J, or roughly 10 kilotons of TNT equivalent, comparable to the Hiroshima bomb.) But still... this is the kind of weapon that would be practically as dangerous to the user as the target. You wouldn't want to shoot matter-conversion bullets at anything close enough to see.

I was thinking (with the original sodium rather than harmonium bullet) that the outer casing would be regular metal, but made to break open. That would also protect the alkali metal from humidity in the air. -- Incendiary shotgun rounds (Dragon's Breath style) to burn down Progression Growth plants, or Awakeners' organic items (Awakened ropes, cloaks, etc.).

It's not guaranteed that Mercy fought on either side, exactly. We just know that the three "clashed". Maybe Mercy was trying to end the fight / separate them. Re Odium + Devotion: I don't think so. Those two might be super hard to combine, because they're nearly opposite but haven't polarized to become perfect opposites like Ruin and Preservation. And I don't think they're inherently exactly opposite - Odium isn't simply Hate and Devotion isn't simply Love. I'd argue that Devotion is actually closer to loving service or care than generically "love", and from RoW Odium seems to be as much about conflict and anger as hate. They wouldn't balance out perfectly, but also I can't see a concept that would combine them. That depends on how combining Shards actually works, though. Do you get only the overlap of the two Intents, or the sum of both?

I really wouldn't expect A-duralumin to have diminishing returns at all. It's just burning all the metal at once. Is there some reason why it should? -- If A-aluminum/duralumin does work with Feruchemy (which I'm not sure is actually confirmed, but it should since chromium/nicrosil does: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/479/#e15240 ) then maybe A-duralumin would actually be useful for Twinborn.

I think it would not be enough to make it equal to Atium, since as the mental ability increases so would the amount of information coming in that needs to be processed. I think increased mental speed from F-Zinc would be much more useful: A-Electrum/F-Zinc would be much more capable at effectively using future sight than a double strength A-Electrum (say natural Electrum Misting + A-Electrum granting Hemalurgic spike). Electrum future sight is not intuitive to use; even Vin - with exceptional Allomantic intuition - didn't realize it could be used for anything other than countering atium future sight. It is possible per WoB, but I think it would require dedicated focus and lots of training to do much without other relevant powers (like F-Zinc or maybe Blessing of Presence/Hemalurgic Copper - it's unclear how broad its benefits are, or exactly what it would do to a human).

The problem here isn't static vs kinetic investiture (tapping a metalmind is kinetic, though an inert metalmind isn't), it's internal vs external. Nicrosil/Chromium in Allomancy are the external versions of Duralumin/Aluminum, so I don't think they can affect the Allomancer ... same reason that A-Atium doesn't show the burner's own future shadow like A-Electrum, or that A-Malatium doesn't show Vin or Kelsier their own gold shadow; arguably those cases are weird because godmetals, but iirc it's specifically pointed out with Breeze that Soothing can't affect the user. I think the only external metals that affect the user are the time bubbles, and from Wayne's wording in TLM it sounds like what's actually being Pulled/Pushed is time itself, not people or objects. (Steel jumps are just conservation of momentum results from Pushing on metals; they're not literally Pushing themselves.) But yeah a primer cube should be able to get around this limit. The question is whether Duralumin/Nicrosil bursts actually accomplish anything for Feruchemy, since Feruchemy already allows tapping everything at once; would it get around the diminishing returns at high tapping rates, or is it just useless?

I don't think there is any WoB that 1% of Basin people are Allomancers or Metalborn. Kelsier says that 1% of nobles in his time are Allomancers, but that's Era 1 & not the whole population. BoM specifically says that the Spiritual Feruchemy powers are exceptionally rare (and implies that Physical / Mental are the more common powers); it's likely that the same is true of Allomancy. So there may only be a few Nicrobursts alive. I think there are a few Metalborn constables and security guards (like Innate's Seeker), but its being rare isn't surprising. Allomancers are still nobility-leaning, because of the genetics, and look how other nobles look at Wax... the powers aren't being used in an "economically efficient" way, no, but I don't think that's at all implausible in a society that - up until TLM - has basically faced no real threats for 300+ years. Inefficient customs among an upper class, even obviously and blatantly inefficient ones, aren't exactly rare in our history. The Basin nobility can afford to be inefficient. Also, Wax and Wayne are pretty much always going to be the most powerful people around. They're both powerful Twinborn combinations - Twinborn in general are very rare, and not all combinations are nearly as good as Iron/Steel or Bendalloy/Gold. As for the Metalborn criminals, I think basically all the ones we see in main timeline (as opposed to Wax's prologues) are Set-affiliated. Sure, the ones in Wax's past were "random", but it's totally plausible that having powers which set them "above everyone else" would push a certain kind of personality into ignoring the law and going out to the Roughs. And Wax was out there for something like 20 years, and was one of the most famous and successful lawkeepers - they don't generally have records like his. Also, Metalborn criminals are just way more blatant and famous than mundane criminals. We just don't hear about all the regular criminals Wax caught. I don't think the Set was kidnapping and murdering for ages before Wax found out. TLM makes it sound like the Community was founded around the time of AoL (seven years before TLM) so I think Wax was hunting them pretty much from day one. Yeah. Getting extreme bursts out of Feruchemy is super expensive, but x2 isn't bad. SoS does say that Steelrunners are comparatively rare, but given BoM that likely means compared to the other common (Physical/Mental) metals, not ultra rare like the Spirituals. I agree using Bendalloy for cooks is bizarrely inefficient ... but if the clientele is rich enough, that may not matter.