cometaryorbit

Well, the Steel Ministry probably knew (the Inquisitors at least knew its Allomantic property), but yeah, the nobility seem to just value it because it's really rare.

I'd say harder than an unarmored human, but easier than an armored human. Remember, Elend (pre-Allomancy) kills one with a knife. They aren't that resilient. Sure, but the really big koloss are less numerous given their high attrition rate due to internal violence. I don't know - is koloss skin tough enough to trap a spearhead so you can't just pull it right back out? I don't think it's like leather armor or anything... I don't think koloss skin is functional as armor. Koloss are somewhat harder to kill than humans due to dense musculature meaning you have to get through more to get to the vitals, and in berserker rage they can likely keep fighting after getting wounds that would incapacitate a human with pain. Well, sure, but it did fight back, so it had time to react - it wasn't a matter of stabbing a totally unaware opponent. And while Elend had had fighting training, he wasn't an experienced warrior. -- It also just occurred to me that the Alethi are used to fighting non-human opponents - the Parshendi - and Warform Parshendi are much stronger than humans - they use 'head-size stones' in slings to crack Shardplate. They might not be as strong as Koloss, but they're better armored.

I wouldn't necessarily rule out BioChroma. As Awakening is commonly understood at the time of Warbreaker, no way -- but Nightblood's abilities seem to have little or nothing to do with 'conventional' Awakening, so a Type IV BioChromatic Entity starship might totally work.

Newly created Koloss will be the smallest size (~5 feet) though, and probably not much use. They don't seem that much harder to kill than a normal human (Elend, pre-Allomancy, kills a small koloss with a dagger). And they won't have much real reach advantage -- even if they're strong enough to use really huge swords, their height will limit the length they can practically use. So spears will out-range them, and pikes/polearms even more so. And koloss replenishment only matters after the first battle, and koloss's big advantage, besides the reach (and toughness?) of the giant ones, is 'shock and awe' against those who haven't faced them before. Once they know what to do, IMO trained human soldiers spears/pikes/polearms should be able to do much better than 1:1 against koloss. If spearmen/pikemen form a closed square formation with points outward in all directions (probably is a technical term for this...) there's not much non-gigantic koloss can do except bury them in bodies. And a lot of pikes were long enough to match the reach of even the big koloss.

I think it would "only" drain the Dor, not the entire Cosmere. Although Nightblood with most of the power of two Shards might be insanely scary, depending on whether he really stores some of the Investiture he consumes or if all of it becomes black smoke. (I think he probably does, since a thousand Breaths wouldn't be enough to make him so crazily Invested.)

I'm not so sure. All they'd have to do is disperse, hide, then go somewhere else. You just couldn't have people watching even a significant fraction of the area, not without satellite surveillance or something. And even without war strategies, they ought to have been capable of picking off isolated scouts. Alethkar is by far the most warlike nation on Roshar, and they can mobilize something like 150,000 troops for the Shattered Plains, which are relatively close by. The nations near Aimia are much less militant, but even 150k wouldn't be anywhere near enough to closely control a large area. A 10% difference isn't terribly significant on this scale. A degree of latitude is ~69 miles on Earth; on Roshar, 90% of the size, it'd be ~62 miles. Even if I'm way wrong, and Roshar only gets considered a 'supercontinent' because it's the only significant landmass on the planet and not because it's particularly huge, it must be at least continent-sized due to the very different climates (Frostlands in the south to tropical islands in the north). Even if it's a smallish continent, Aimia should still be somewhat larger than Great Britain. And it's really hard to closely control large areas with ancient/medieval technology. Empires and large monarchies back then generally had to rely far more on local administration.

That's my understanding of it too. Kind of like Iron/Steel Allomancy on Scadrial and Sand Mastery on Taldain; they are broadly similar powers ('telekinesis limited to a specific material') but the details are different. Or how the Aviar powers on First of the Sun are generally similar to Copper and Electrum Allomancy. EDIT: IMO Surgebinding could be argued to be strictly of Honor, or of both Honor and Cultivation. I think the original Surgebinding, with the Honorblades, was Honor-only: the Blades were pieces of Honor's power and the Investiture used came directly from Honor. But the Nahel-bonding spren are of both, and Stormlight IIRC has a significant Cultivation component.

Cold rhinovirus related fatalities are incredibly rare, and only happen if something is making the person very unusually vulnerable - eg immunocompromised. People on Roshar actually are in better general health than on Earth. The Spanish Flu's increased death rate among young adults is a very specific, unusual thing - not even shared by other influenza strains (seasonal flu deaths are mostly among the elderly), and isn't related to reduced immunity to other viruses. That was caused by a "cytokine storm" - basically the person's immune system attacking them. So those with the strongest immune system were hit worst.

I think the Honor / Cultivation filter WOB posted above is talking about generic Cosmere mechanics manifesting in a specific way on Roshar because of its specific Shards. I don't think that "filter" is the same as a Focus. I agree. Each "major" Shardworld so far seems to have its own way of either getting innate Investiture, or "activating" innate Investiture you already have -- a way based on the Shard(s) there. Scadrial - Allomancy is activated by Snapping (Preservation based); Hemalurgy is activated by killing someone and spiking someone else (Ruin based) Nalthis - Awakening is gained by receiving Breaths (Endowment based) Roshar - Surgebinding is gained by a bond (Honor based) We don't know enough about how you become a candidate for the Shaod on Sel, or Sand Mastery on Taldain yet.

Well, Cognitive Shadows seem to work differently on Threnody. I'd think a Shard Vessel's Cognitive Shadow, if it happened to be on Threnody, would become a shade too - able to kill people*. And since the mind and soul of a Vessel seem to be expanded, it could easily be a super-powered shade. I doubt that's what the Evil actually is, though. I think the people on Threnody would recognize a super-powered Shade as a Shade -- the Shades seem to have been known to exist in the Forests of Hell before the Evil happened. You're probably still right about influencing the Physical directly - Shade withering is likely a consequence of a spiritual attack, in the same way that the physical changes of turning into a Koloss are a consequence of Hemalurgy's effects on the spiritweb.

I can't remember if Focus is actually a canonical term or not, so just in case, by Focus I mean "the thing that determines the effect of the Investiture". Scadrial (Allomancy, Feruchemy, Hemalurgy) - Metal Sel (AonDor, Forgery, Bloodsealing, presumably ChayShan and Dakhor) - Symbols Nalthis (Awakening) - Commands Roshar's Focus is a much debated question. IMO, none of the answers quite fit. Spren is probably the best option, since all Rosharan magic we've seen so far involves them, but spren are Investiture so I'm not sure if they can really qualify as a Focus. Bonds is another common suggestion, but each Nahel bond (or bond to an Honorblade) grants two distinct Surges, so the bond by itself doesn't fully determine the effect of the Investiture, at least in Surgebinding (it may well do so in fabrial science and 'natural' spren bonds). In fabrial science and Soulcasting, the ten Polestones act very much like a Focus. And there's a WOB that suggests they are: The comparison with metals as a 'key' would seem conclusive. But the other nine types of Surgebinding aren't dependent on gem type. This would seem to kill any 'gems as Focus' theory. Except... Stormlight is the gaseous form of Investiture on Roshar. The mist is the gaseous form of Preservation's Investiture on Scadrial. When Vin was burning the mists, and when Vin-as-Preservation was feeding pure Investiture to Elend, they performed Allomancy without any actual metals. I think all Surgebinding except Soulcasting (which is probably distinct since it's so complex, and thus needs the extra "guidance") is the equivalent of "mist burning" - using raw Investiture directly and thus bypassing the need for a Focus.

I doubt Rosharans are that different from us. Yes, their eye color genetics are weird, but I doubt that means anything deeper about their genetics - that's probably tied to Investiture and/or spiritual DNA, overwriting the normal eye color genetics (which isn't a simple dominant/recessive thing even on Earth, as shown by how many eye colors there actually are). If the increased Investiture is enough to protect Rosharans from most diseases, it's probably enough to extend life a bit / make aging a bit more graceful. And, yeah, late fifties or so isn't that old even on Earth. I doubt it. I don't think this is something like smallpox coming to the New World or measles in the Pacific Islands - I think it's still just a cold, not life-threatening. But Rosharans who haven't ever felt sick before are panicking - they don't know it's not serious, and it's a new and frightening thing.

Probably we'll know more of Khriss's history when White Sand is complete. At the very least, she must have figured out some kind of life-extension or immortality trick within her natural lifetime. (minor White Sand stuff) The Cosmere history goes back a long way. The Stormlight Archive prelude is 4500 years (presumably Rosharan years, so almost 5000 of our years) before the main books, which are around Mistborn Era 2, and a lot's happened on Roshar before that. (Stormlight backstory stuff) So I'd imagine there's at least a couple of thousand years between the Shattering and the SA Prologue, which would make the Shattering at the very least six or seven thousand years before Mistborn Era 1. If Elantris (the book) is less than 2000 years before, there's plenty of room to fit in the mysterious 'original' Elantrians. I doubt AonDor existed in any form before the Splintering of Devotion and Dominion.

I wonder if Szeth will stay the way he is? If he becomes able to use Stormlight, will his soul heal back to normal?

I doubt the Malatium gives you much except a distraction in combat (and when else are you burning Atium?), except for really unusual situations like Vin vs TLR. I doubt it, since the Malatium shadows can't really do anything (as I understand it), so all their possible futures will be "do nothing". We see Atium-Duralumin used in HOA, although the description isn't very detailed. There's also a WOB that Atium-Duralumin pulls you mostly into the Spiritual Realm. I think Lerasium-Duralumin wouldn't do anything more than plain Lerasium except maybe make you a Mistborn slightly quicker? Duralumin just burns the metal all at once, I don't think it actually provides new power. If you're an Inquisitor, you can sense blue lines to trace metals in people's bodies (and almost anything else) - that's how they see. Per an annotation for WOA, this trick could be learned by a non-Hemalurgic Coinshot/Lurcher/Mistborn. Actually Pushing/Pulling on them... would require absolutely absurd amounts of power. I doubt even TLR could manage that, though he could push on allomantic metals in Vin's stomach.

Uranium Allomancy: Rivaling the Gnats for the most useless Allomantic ability, Uranium Mistings (Unshades) cause their shadow to disappear while burning uranium. Feruchemy: Uranium stores the radioactivity of the body - including any radioactive contamination that has entered the body by ingestion, inhalation, etc. Uranium Ferrings are colloquially called Glows. Staballoy (95.5% uranium, 4% vanadium, 0.5% niobium) Allomancy: Staballoy causes the Allomancer's immediate vicinity to become dark. This absorbs all but about 0.01% of ambient light, so when used in broad daylight, people can still see - though the visual adjustment throws them off. Feruchemy: Staballoy stores the growth of hair - it does not grow while storing, and grows rapidly while tapping. This is generally considered an useless power.

Also, I don't see why a being capable of separating into bugs would try fighting a Shardbearer in the first place. They could just hide as bugs, then sneak into the army's camp as bugs, then recombine and kill the Shardbearer when he's asleep (and not wearing Plate). The difficulty isn't so much defeating them in battle as getting them into a fight in the first place.

Aluminum - very good point. But that's weird - why would the pure metals steal human attributes for the first two quadrants, then switch? Maybe the 4 known human attribute spikes are the only ones, and there's 4 spikes that steal something totally different?

I think the 'see a second or two into the future' effect is what an Allomancer burning atium "normally" gets, but isn't the fundamental limit of what that Allomantic power can do. Elend's duralumin-atium burn does suggest you can get significantly more out of it under the right circumstances. And I think there's a WOB about atium helping to place Hemalurgic spikes...

Sometimes, but not necessarily. Thugs can burn pewter while unconscious. Now, they're "used to" burning pewter... but Elend burned lerasium (and then pewter) while unconscious, and he wasn't even an Allomancer before that.

I've wondered about this since I read WOK where the Stormfather calls Kaladin "child of Tanavast, child of Honor, child of one long since departed". Now Kaladin can't literally be Tanavast's son, given that Tanavast's been dead for a really long time, but I wonder if he might be a distant descendant.

Oh, I agree with that, but I don't think we know how much of the stuff in the MAG that's not in the books came from Brandon vs. was just made up by Crafty for game purposes. After Bands of Mourning we know, at the very least, that their explanations of Feruchemical duralumin and Nicrosil are wrong. However, there might still be a separate spike for Feruchemical Hybrid powers. Feruchemy just doesn't fit the quadrant structure as cleanly as Allomancy does, both because of the two Physical quadrants and because of the weird thing with Warmth being Cognitive and Determination being Physical/Hybrid. (Yes, I know that started as a mistake, but it's confirmed to be canon now, and IIRC to have something to do with the weirdness of Feruchemical quadrants.) If there is such a spike, it probably shouldn't be gold, because in the quadrants we know the pure metal steals a human attribute and the alloy steals an Allo/Feru power.

I think because the biologically important metal in the body isn't in metallic form. Iron in the blood is part of the hemoglobin protein, calcium in bone is in mineral form as calcium phosphate, zinc is in proteins, cobalt is in vitamin B12 etc.

It's not clear to me what less than 4 human strength spikes would do. Would you be partway to a koloss, getting the increased strength, decreased intelligence, blue loose skin, and continuing growth/short lifespan but in a lesser degree? Or would 1 to 3 spikes just grant strength (probably including muscle mass) and the specific koloss alterations only happen at 4 spikes, at which point you become a "hemalurgic construct" rather than a human with spikes? The whole hemalurgic construct thing is still somewhat mysterious.

OK sorry, I misunderstood. I still do think that what Taravangian figured out on Diagram Day is probably beyond what anyone else on Roshar in the current era could know, even with a lifetime to work on it. I don't think it was more knowledge than a human brain could hold, or even necessarily that any particular conclusion he came to was flatly beyond human ability (though it's entirely possible), but I think his accuracy rate was beyond what human intelligence could do (yes, small discrepancies are appearing, but they are very small). EDIT: And I don't know that the analogy to divine/Shardic knowledge is that far off, either. Even Shards don't seem to know everything instantly -- (Major Mistborn First Trilogy spoilers) I doubt the Nightwatcher could give Mr. T full Shardic-level intelligence, but he could easily be a somewhat lesser case of the same basic phenomenon.