cometaryorbit

Oh, yeah, the movements of the other planets were certainly a clue as to where Scadrial's orbit should be. The difference in the apparent position/movement of gas giants wouldn't be that gigantic, but would definitely be noticeable. It's more the "scholars had called them useless" part I am talking about. If the only change was the orbit itself (not obliquity or the direction of the axes) the regular stars (not planets) would be completely accurate within the limits of what could be detected at their level of technology. A 30 million mile change won't make a detectable (to FE era technology) difference in the positions of stars light-years away. (The difference between Earth's position in summer and winter is about 186 million miles, and stellar parallax was not measured -- despite centuries of looking for it -- until the 1830s.) I think an axial tilt somewhat less than Earth makes the most sense (at least in Era 1). Since the HOA annotation says that Rashek could have removed the axial tilt, it must not be zero or very close like the Moon or Mercury - but a tilt much less than Earth's would work. The seasons would be distinct enough to name, and to matter for some things (we see the term "summerfruit" in the first book, so I think they are distinct enough to matter agriculturally, even before WOA's unusually cold winter) - but much milder than one would expect from Earth analogies. Day length may be a messier issue than it looks, due to Era 1 Scadrial's messed up atmosphere. Their daylight may be very diffused by the atmosphere; in a high latitude, where the sun would be near the horizon a lot, "day length" as measured by useful daylight might be very different from "day length" as measured by the sun being above the horizon. (IE it might be effectively "daylight" even with the sun a few degrees below the horizon, especially as we know TLR adapted humans to live in the World of Ash - their vision might work better with ash-and-volcanic-aerosol-cloud diffused sunlight than ours).

It's not entirely clear to me what did happen with Taln. One of the Diagram epigraphs says "The Ancient of Stones must finally begin to crack", and this must be Taln, the Stoneward Herald. And he did return to Roshar, but "late" - whatever that means. I suppose it is possible that once the Everstorm bypassed the Oathpact, then Taln 'gave up' in some sense - but not exactly 'broke' since he knew at this point that his suffering was no longer protecting Roshar from anything?

I think it is about familiarity with a location, but not that location's actual position in space. So the platform is still familiar to Spensa, even though it has been moved, so she can still teleport to it.

Yeah, so if Glys was the first, historical Voidbinding must have been obtained through some so-far-unknown mechanism. We also don't know how much, if at all, Renarin's Voidbinding is altered by his being a Knight Radiant - if historical Voidbinders got the ability a different way, they presumably weren't KR, so is Renarin's power set the same as historical Voidbinding? (I am assuming historical Voidbinders were in fact humans, because future sight is associated with Voidbinding in human lore; it's discussed as something evil that people can do, a temptation - "the soul of it was to try to divine the future" - not a power used by Voidbringers. But I suppose that isn't actually confirmed.) We do know the Unmade were historically involved, at least "usually":

Presumably. But how did humans tap into the power of the Unmade to Voidbind, without Enlightened/corrupted true spren? The Unmade can connect to humans to some degree, e.g. the Death Rattles and the Thrill and the uninhibited behavior driven by Ashertmarn, but these sort of things seem different from full-on "Magic system" manifestations of Investiture.

Sazed does say the star charts preserved by the Keepers are considered inaccurate/useless. Merely moving the planet's orbit from Earth like to Venus like would not change the apparent position/movement of the stars (the other planets, somewhat, but Scadrial's system has no other inner planets from the AU chart & essay - so even that would not be hugely dramatic). OTOH, a change in either the obliquity (degree of tilt) or the direction the axis points would change the apparent motion of the stars - the North Star would change, and which stars were circumpolar would change. This would mean a significantly different sky at say, Britain like latitudes. -- Given that the original idea was to put the Well (but not Luthadel) at the geographic North pole, I think that does suggest Brandon imagined Luthadel to be at a quite high (though not polar) latitude.

In the prologue Vasher starts with 50 Breaths, before collecting Vahr's.

Yeah, all the Unmade names are known (and there are confirmed to be only nine) so I think Cusicesh is a "normal" (Honor/Cultivation affiliated) but unusually Invested spren (though not to the level of Stormfather/Nightwatcher/Sibling). -- I am thoroughly confused about the entire concept of Voidbinding. After WOR I thought that's what the stormform lightning was, but it's not that. The Fused use Surgebinding, just a different form of it. Renarin gets his Void-Truthwatching from Glys ... but Sja-anat was not historically known to corrupt Nahel-bonding "true spren". So if that is where Voidbinding comes from, how is it known in the Rosharan culture, if it's only appearing now???

Vin's vision in the Well in WoA... Probably at least less than Earth's, it is specifically pointed out (in one of the annotations, I think) that the Final Empire's seasons are rather mild (and this seems clear anyway from the trouble people in WOA are having with what sounds like a pretty mild winter by usual temperate-zone standards... but it is pretty dangerous to them. So normal winters must be very mild, with little snow (not none -- the characters do know what it is) - maybe like winters in the Carolinas or Missouri or something? I agree Terris is cold primarily because of the altitude, not latitude or season.

Yeah, I think Category 2 should be Adonalsium - I don't know if "power of creation" is entirely a synonym for Adonalsium, at times it seems to be used more broadly to mean Investiture (eg an Allomancer is "tapping into the powers of creation just slightly"). More broadly - the idea of godhood and what it means is a core theme of the Cosmere. The Elantrians in Elantris, the Returned (and Lightsong's disbelief in his own religion) in Warbreaker, the Lord Ruler and Kelsier and Harmony in Mistborn, spren and Heralds and the implications of Honor's death in Stormlight... (Excerpt from a longer WOB)

Not totally sure Scadrian society as we see it in Era 2 would go in that direction, though. Elendel Basin civilization is very localized and "parochial", I don't think those are traits that really favor the development of an expansionist colonial empire. Scadrial is very poorly explored, after all... We know almost nothing about Southern Scadrian society, though, maybe they would go that way. And the Southern societies seem higher tech so might become the dominant faction.

TLR's healing shouldn't fix the goldminds themselves. I'm not sure he could survive inside a volcano for example - the goldminds would likely melt off his body (although lava temperatures vary, some are hot enough to melt gold). A very powerful explosion might be fatal for the same reason (vaporizing or blowing apart the goldminds). Hmm, interesting thought. Anti-Investiture might also work, I guess? If it wiped out his age reduction... But would you need anti-Ruin (since it's atium) or anti-Ruin/Preservation combo (since it's Feruchemy)? Yeah, a Nightblood wound should kill him (by draining his investiture so his healing/age reduction fail). F-Gold can heal normal Shardblade wounds, but Nightblood is special. If it can kill a Shard's Vessel, it can kill TLR. Hmmm... If TLR picked up Nightblood, would it make him kill himself? I'm pretty sure he's power hungry and violent enough for Nightblood to register him as evil. But would A-Copper block the mental influence? Likely... would depend if TLR realized what was happening, he's already mentally messed up so he might not...

I am pretty sure they are weaker, actually. - Stormlight efficiency is worse than a true Radiant. - Honorblades don't grant the Spiritual healing needed to recover from Shardblade wounds, true Radiants can do that (because the bond is deeper). - Radiants at high Ideals get "live" Shardplate, Honorblade users don't. In the end-WOR fight, Kaladin has way less experience with his Surges or Shardblade fighting than Szeth (who's been being Assassin in White for at least 5 years pre-WOK, and trained with Honorblades before that). Szeth is way more experienced than any KR we've met so far except maybe Jasnah; probably even more than her, since she's been spending so much time & effort on other things. Yes, he is one (though an unusual one), per WOB. But per WOB, it's already gotten as low as it will in Era 2 (won't weaken further). That's just a limit of available technology - aluminum was super expensive once on Earth too. It takes lots of electricity to make aluminum cheaply. By ~1950s -60s technology (which Scadrial is maybe 40-50 years away from... possibly less, depending on how advanced the Southerners are - Elendel Basin is ~1910 tech) it will be cheap enough for aluminum foil, aluminum cans, etc.

Yeah, Szeth was super dangerous when there were no other Investiture users around (except the extremely limited & non-combat-relevant Soulcaster fabrial users). In a hypothetical late cosmere, inter-world environment where Scadrian medallion tech has made Invested powers really common, Honorblades are not that impressive really. (If the way to convert between different magic systems was discovered, it might be possible to use medallion tech to grant non-Scadrian powers.) That was in an era when Shardblades were the most powerful known weapons, though, and had no defense but Shardplate or another Shardblade (even half-shards are new tech as of WoK). They were super valuable in that context. But the Honorblades are likely to be kind of obsolete by the time cross world contact becomes mainstream, IMO. Era 2 medallion tech is already competitive and will presumably be improved further. Wide use of aluminum will make Shardblades less significant (the Fused already figured this out as of RoW); firearms also will.

Hmm, ok. I guess I hadn't lined that up with "dawnsinging" as an actual specific power name. But it would fit. The stone shaping kind of sounds like Cohesion, so maybe dawnsinging was an ancient pre-Odium singer means of accessing the Surges? What Venli is doing/becoming might tie into that WoR epigraph about 'it may be possible to blend their Surges to ours in the end'? Hmm do you think those mathematical pattern Dawncities were shaped this way?

True. Anyway, back to the original topic, I think that the only way Awakening could threaten a Fullborn would be through a Nightblood equivalent. Conventional Awakened objects, or an army of Lifeless, would be no threat. But something that can eat Investiture could be a threat to even the most powerful Investiture user.

True Radiants yes, Honorblade users I'm not so sure. Radiant healing is significantly better, e.g. Szeth with Honorblade can't heal from Shardblade wounds, a true Radiant can. Also, Stormlight is an abundant source of Investiture, so they can use their healing more freely than non-Compounding Gold Ferrings can. If the Ferring was actually tapping a bunch of Gold right when they were shot, a bullet wouldn't kill them; the problem is they can be killed before they know to tap - only Compounders like Miles and TLR can actually tap that freely. Well, I think the Bands let you choose how rapidly to use the power, like regular Feruchemical tapping.

I was talking about late era cosmere once medallion technology is fully understood. The Bands at peak power are stronger than anything we saw TLR do, I think - he wasn't emitting mist. But that use of the Bands burned through reserves really fast. I think a more reasonable use would be much more limited, but still a lot stronger than a non-Herald with an Honorblade (say, Szeth with Jezrien's Blade). The Heralds when Honor was alive had unlimited Stormlight, so they're not a fair comparison. A single-power Misting or Ferring is going to be at a disadvantage vs. an Honorblade user, sure. But if you can pick two or three powers for your medallion... I think a powerful combat Twinborn combination like Wax would have a good chance against Szeth with the Windrunner Honorblade (Reverse Lashing is probably less quick/effective as a defense against coins than a Coinshot's Push, and Szeth has no ranged powers). Add in f-Gold as the medallion's third power in case a Honorblade hit does get through... Or a combination with f-Steel...

I will agree that he wouldn't have died if he had been completely stable. (Although, I think one could argue that since Ruin was influencing TLR mentally, and Vin killing TLR was part of Ruin's plan, even TLR's mental instability was essentially part of him being defeated by Shardic intervention...) I agree a fully sane Fullborn would be more dangerous. TLR also probably had the limit, combat-wise, of lacking access to bendalloy, chromium, and nicrosil - he knew they existed, but I don't think it could be made in the FE. On the other hand, he had Atium, which e.g. an Era 2 user of the Bands of Mourning wouldn't have - which gave him immortality and atium's combat advantage.

Well, planets, stars etc. move relative to one another all the time, so interplanetary/interstellar teleportation inherently would have to be able to allow for the destination moving relative to the origin point. The way it's described, I think it's just a matter of knowing where you want to go - space/distance and even time are irrelevant in the heart of the nowhere (the lightburst).

IIRC another WoB says that it protects from the effects of the ability itself e.g. G-forces. So a Feruchemist using Steel is strengthened against the acceleration, and doesn't get squashed by G-forces or break legs due to the internal forces at the joints - but external-world stuff is not affected, so friction with the floor and wind resistance still matter. Which fits how other Feruchemy works - when Wax becomes the weight of a building he doesn't crush himself, but he also doesn't become bulletproof. I think this is a case where fan discussion has assumed more power for F-steel (in isolation from other powers) than actually shown in the books. 100-120mph, combined with say x10-12 human reaction time/agility/etc, probably is enough to seem utterly overwhelming to human senses (I've seen big cats described as "blurringly" fast, and they are maybe 40-60mph).

The Bands are kind of a special case (and absurdly high power level), but in any case, Marasi is using Allomancy and Feruchemy together here, it's not something a pure Feruchemist can do. (Allomantic Iron/Steel flight is pretty fast already, and she's multiplying that with F-Steel, and probably using crazy levels of A-Pewter to survive.) Someone with the Bands could defeat TLR, just as another Fullborn could - and TLR wasn't exuding mist, so I think the Bands are actually stronger than TLR. True, but given that the limits are wind resistance etc. we can extrapolate from RL. It would be hard to function much above 100mph (that is a significant hurricane). Humans can't stand/walk against winds over about 120mph.

Actually powering Invested Arts ("active" magic) with a new type of Investiture is per WOB possible, but no one knows how to do it yet. Zahel/Vasher can survive off Stormlight, but he has not learned how to use it for Awakening. Nightblood, similarly, can eat Rosharan Investiture - but I don't think that's the same as actually powering Awakening with it (Nightblood is already Awakened). Venli can do Voidlight stuff, but I don't think she understands it, and I also don't think that trick "translates" to humans (it involves her gemheart, right?) I am sure it will be figured out in late era Cosmere - but once that is figured out, then there will probably be better options than Honorblades. The Honorblades will be kind of obsolete early model technology. If that kind of cross-system Investiture use is known, then you could probably put Surges into Scadrian medallions, or something... Even currently (Era 2 Scadrial/first arc Stormlight), the Bands of Mourning are I'd say far more useful than an Honorblade, though they contain less Investiture.

I kind of doubt it, but this gets into questions of reaction time to use Allomantic/Feruchemical powers. Given the ability to react to coins, and just how fast a coin would have to move to be lethal, I think the reaction time to use powers is really, really fast - so TLR would just speed up even more. Miles doesn't use anywhere near that much, it's described as expensive admittedly, but no way he's that rich. Allomancy generally uses very small amounts of metal, anyway. Anyway, he could just eat some charged flakes once in a while to re-fill his goldminds. He wouldn't be constantly eating gold, just tapping. Not quite the same thing. According to everything he knew about Allomancy, no one except possibly himself could remove metals piercing the body (especially Invested metalminds). He didn't know Vin could do that until they were already gone (at which point he seems shocked -- which may not be just psychological, there could be some savant style Investiture dependency going on like HoA Spook without tin -- not that he could fight a Shard boosted Push anyway). He does know Feruchemical Steel exists. The Terris aren't discouraged from touching metal anymore, that policy was abandoned, IIRC. I really do think reaction time to use powers is fast enough that Feruchemists are zero threat to him; if he can Push on a Hemalurgic spike in Vin's ear, he can pin down a Feruchemist by his metalminds. If you can react to a coin which is probably going 500-600 mph, a charging Feruchemist won't be a problem. There *are* limits even to f-Steel.

Plus the fact their deity went crazy and told them they were going to destroy the world with Surgebinding again... The long term goal, I think, was to remove human access to Surgebinding, not to create Shardblades as weapons. (Dead blades were not all that useful until the gem bonding trick was discovered.)