robardin

But why would the number of people involved be a limiting factor? I called it a "stacking" factor because of the apparent need to pass it on, with "each person adding their power", and a factor that having "all powers in one person" would get around. There isn't a mechanical (physical) cap on "max of four powers in a medallion, full stop", because the Bands of Mourning were essentially exactly that: a "maximum medallion" that only a Fullborn could produce. So it would be reasonable to assume the Bands were NOT made the same way as the medallions are; that whatever the "Excisors" are and how they work, they somehow limit the collection of powers (so far) to three, but that whatever The Sovereign did to create the Bands was done differently. Which brings us back to the idea that the Excisors are hemalurgic in nature (doesn't it sound like it's "excising", or "pulling out", the power from one person to another?), which a Fullborn wouldn't need at all to have access to multiple powers, and that "we can't do more than three powers in medallion construction with them" sounds a lot like the "limited to three boons" thing.

An excellent line of reasoning in the OP! We don't have a lot of information on the technology to create the medallions, only what Allik casually lets drop in BoM: Wearing multiple medallions "interfere with each other", in a way we haven't seen first-hand (nobody's put on two medallions). Does that mean none of the powers work? That you get some weird blend of powers? Is there a hierarchy (A > F, Steel > Iron, etc.)? But using all powers in the Bands has no problem! Because it's basically one big medallion! Medallions with two powers/attributes in them are difficult for the Malwish to make. Medallions with three powers, possible but very rare (though Allik, a young and low-ranking officer, has seen them)... But, "every attempt has failed" in the creation of medallions with 4+ powers. Which means it's not a physical limitation but one from the magical mechanics i.e., it's not "well, there are only three pointy spikes on an Excisor, whaddyagonnado?" They have to "pass around" the medallions to add powers during their creation Someone with a Metalborn power "[adds theirs] to the medallion, then passing it to another to have it added to" Is this limit of three "pass-around" powers related, then, to the "three boons" limit on hemalurgy in Era 2? Where being "subject to Harmony's interference", as Edwarn put it in BoM, might equate to a hard ban? Creating medallions with multiple powers means this "stacking" effect has a limit/cost, despite the removal of Identity "if you had all the powers", you wouldn't need to pass the medallion on, and could make something like the Bands. Perhaps that just means "if you didn't need to use the Excisors" to make a medallion in the first place? To sum up: Medallions, the product of Excisor technology, have a limit in using one medallion at a time (but can access all powers in the medallion). Excisor technology has some kind of threshold limit at 3 powers in medallion creation. This limitation is related to "passing it to another person". A Fullborn is needed to create the Bands. Shouldn't a Twinborn like Wax or Wayne be really valuable, then? In fact, we've only seem Feruchemical powers stored in the medallions, though the Bands could also store Investiture granting Allomancy (which still requires ingesting metals to burn to make use of). However, Allik confirmed with "Yes, any" when Wax asked if "with one of these [Excisors], one can create a medallion for any Allomantic or Feruchemical ability?" And of course, the Bands contain metalminds granting all the Allomantic powers. Where are the medallions for Allomancy? Surely they exist? Otherwise, how are they going to charge those Steelpushing primer cubes to start the ettmetal driven engines on the airships?

Also, the God King was supposed to be dead already. The last he knew, Susebron was bound up and tongueless in the basement, unable to stop his associates from threatening and killing other Returned right in front of him, or to defend himself. So, a huge shock on so many levels. "You! You're... Supposed to be dead! And mute! and like, with the passive nature of a sheltered child! And... Oh... Colors."

Totally agree, I thought the exact same thing down to the investments involved (Sophie Tarcsel). I also wondered if Alliriandre was somehow involved (the girl whose father Wayne killed long ago in the Roughs, who he was seen visiting and pressing money onto in Shadows of Self).

I second (third) the suspicions that the "bean counters" from the "accounting department" that is sending out men in bowler hats to find Wayne are not dunning him for debt collection (given how rich he reflected on having become in BoM), more likely trying to give him his share of profits from investing in Sophie Tarcsel's experiments with electricity at the end of Shadows of Self and him wanting her basically to keep it. There seems to be a huge point in favor of the theories that the "second earring" that Harmony implied he'd need to make "with the proper metal, when it arrives" is trellium; though given its effect on Paalm/Bleeder/Lessie, it would be circumspect to use the first earring he's got, to confirm that of Harmony, before plugging in trellium into his other ear.

I assumed the OP was suggesting that an Elantrian might tattoo themselves with an intricate Aon (or set of them) that would ordinarily take time to construct. Or carrying items around with them pre-drawn, like gloves or amulets or something. It'd be a lot like how "alchemists" in Fullmetal Alchemist, who typically require starting with drawing a "transmutation circle" to perform effects, are often seen to have complex, pre-drawn circles on their person in just that way for their "speciality attack" that they've tailored and trained with. As for the downside of having them tattooed on your person: marring skin is actually not that hard to do, plus it advertises what you can do and have ready. How about the idea of mass-producing durable Elantrian weapons consisting of selectable pre-drawn Aons of several types in a rotator-dial-with-window? Like, five Elantrians sidling down a corridor, with orders to "set phasers to stun" (click-click-click), LOL, ready to zap with a knock on the Dor.

Nah, the airships can’t be flying via Steelpushes, as they are able to cross oceans… Unless Harmony inlaid the seabed of Scadrial with large metal surface seams, LOL. They’re kept aloft via large metal fans, “impellers”, that are powered by Allomancy; lightening the passengers simply means less power is needed to fly: My guess is the ettmetal-fueled “engine” is generating a constant Steelpush (since the primer cube charged off of Wax) that will last for “a day or two” for a small craft like Wilg, making the fan blade spin at the proper rate for the elevation desired. And that a Lurcher charging the cube would make the fans spin the other way? Or maybe they can flip the mechanism 180 degrees if a Lurcher is used? So many questions!

All Steelpushes and Ironpulls are based from the Allomancer’s center of gravity (COG): a Coinshot sees a blue metal line from the target metal to their COG, and creates a straight-line Push. To fly, the anchor must be heavier or less moveable than the Allomancer is (otherwise, it’s the object that gets moved instead). Ironpulling on steel boots one is wearing would only result in doing a very odd kind of squat or crunch exercise The default line to the metal object is probably to the object’s COG, but a skilled Allomancer (as Kelsier or Vin were seen to do) can “latch on” to the edges or other points of the object instead. But I don’t think there’s any way for the line to go to the Allomancer except to the COG, like you can’t Push off something from your shoulder or Pull something directly to your hand, you have to Pull to your COG and then CATCH it with your hand. No, a metal suit would only make the Allomancer heavier and need more power to Push or Pull. For a Lurcher to fly around, it’d have to be somewhere like in a modern city (that Elendel is rapidly becoming in Era 2) with a lot of tall buildings with metal anchors, and lamp posts and sign posts firmly affixed everywhere overhead. They’d Pull up/in front of them to get flying, and Pull on something below/behind them to slow down (and on something above them while landing). Basically, it’d be equivalent to “slinging around like Spider-Man”, which in fact, is exactly how this WoB puts it: And, I would assume (like Spidey) a Lurcher could “slingshot” themselves high into the air using a higher-than-themself anchor, maybe even two of them (one on either side) for better angle control, and flare an Ironpull that they then release as they go past. The problem would be, unlike a Coinshot, you couldn’t throw down/out a piece of metal and Push against it to slow down on the descent, you’d have to have something higher than you somewhere to Pull on to slow down.

Right, their technology is superior to a "naked Coinshot", though they do honor such people. But if their "Steelpushing Tech" is already more powerful than Wax can do alone, then where is the "value added", from the Malwish POV, of having "access to the Metalborn" of the Basinfolk? Are they able to create more medallions, more primer cubes, than before, with more Metalborn people? Or to create new ones they couldn't before? And if that "access" involves physically borrowing those Metalborn... What are they doing to leverage their powers? I'm imagining some kind of trade deal where Wax, Marasi, Wayne, or other Metalborn, are contracted out by the government to spend a few days in a room at the Malwish embassy getting rubbed all over with cubes, or "Excised" for Feruchemical powers, LOL. Actually the "access" has been only of Allomancers, so yeah, cube rub-down? And the Malwish would have liked far more such access.

I also wonder what it is that "access to [the Basin's] Metalborn" has meant in trade to the Malwish. It obviously has had SOME value, or they wouldn't have continued to trade medallions and/or primer cubes for it, while withholding the means of production, unless that was a stall job to scope out the weaknesses of the Basin's defenses. The airship's captain in Ch. 9 making the pointed observation that Wax, a "natural born Coinshot", could not fly up to his ship unaided, should imply they also don't particularly need "access" to more Coinshots, right? What would that access facilitate, and how? And, however it is they are benefiting from the access, shouldn't that give the Basinfolk some insight into the mechanics involved in leverging up Metalborn powers with their tech? Is it possible there are some types of Allomantic or Feruchemical power that they don't have in the South, and thus cannot make cubes from/medallions for? Like, powers that use more rare metals?

Which makes we wonder about what Edwarn was told just before he was blown up: that the new plan was "to remove life on this sphere instead". Maybe he was told that specifically because he was about to be blown up. While being allowed "to serve in another Realm" (haha, is he now a Cognitive Shadow? Perhaps Invested and bound in a box like a seon to be used by the Set in doing interplanetary communications? He'd deserve it...!)

If you're implying the combustion was purely chemical in nature and not magical, i.e., water + ettmetal = boom, then why did Allik need tocharge a primer cube from Wax and then snap into place to keep Wilg flying? Into a space that clearly required it, not as some kind of backup power source: And in fact, from what Allik says, it does require A-steel specifically: So, charging the primer cube with an Allomantic Steelpush appears to be necessary to get these ships into the air, as the alternative is "an Allomancer Pushing full-time", unless that somehow includes charging it with another Allomantic Pushing power like from burning pewter, brass, or bronze. Most likely the simplest explanation is, the "impellers" are giant metal fans, and they're kept in constant motion via constant Steelpushing generated by an extremely large, ettmetal-fueled (consuming) engine that replicates it; and that the "primer cube" has only just enough charge to start it all up. Maybe the design is to have the cubes "charged and ready at the flick of the switch" from some Coinshot back home, but the Set having taken them all and futzed with them made Allik need to get more Steelpushing put into it (and fortunately, Wax is a Coinshot). Which may also imply, amusingly, that having a Lurcher like Ranette surreptitiously charge a primer cube and leaving it somewhere a Malwish ship would expect it, might result in one of their airships collapsing in on itself instead of lifting off when they snapped in into place. Or freezing everbody on board in a slo-time bubble if Marasi charged it. Ha ha!

Yeah, it somehow needs an Allomantic "kick-start" to some kind of cycle that can run down, and consumes ettmetal. Those are the facts we know or can infer from his statements/actions. That, plus the observation that the "primer cubes" / "Allomantic grenades" are based on Allomancy, while the medallions all seem to grant Feruchemy (along with a little metalmind of the right type), even though the Bands of Mourning had unsealed metalminds granting Allomantic powers (so it's technically possible). At least, all the medallions the Southerners have seen fit to share/demonstrate to the Northerners.

That'd be funny, if it were powered by water + ettmetal = boom-boom for the combustion cycle But then they wouldn't need an Allomantic primer cube?

Another question would be how the airships can fly with Steelpushes anyway. They're going over oceans to reach the Northern Hemisphere, right? So it's not that the primer cube is storing and amplifying Wax's Steelpushing ability when it charged off of him... Maybe any Allomancy would work, and the cube is feeding some kind of Investiture cycle? But not an infinite one. After all, we see from their use of the cubes as "Allomantic grenades" that the Allomancy effect it's able to store/project is relatively short in duration, like a few minutes, even for A-steel which is one of the slower burning metals. (It was even shorter when Wayne used one to "throw" an A-bendalloy speed bubble.) On the other hand, if they function by starting some kind of Identity-free Compounding cycle (that eventually burns up the metal), that implies it's a Feruchemical property that it's compounding, and nothing in Feruchemy allows for flight. One could compound F-iron for increasing weight, but not to anti-Compound it for weight reduction. Unless it's a property of F-ettmetal?

It is something Kaladin sees in Moash as well - that in some way, with only a little bit of difference in their lives, he might have come out the way Moash did. Which conversely, means that Moash could have come out the way Kaladin did. Which is the point of the "shadow" that Moash saw at Hearthstone, the Moash that was not full of despair, that stood a little taller, with a blue Bridge Four coat, a Windrunner defending instead of killing helpless villagers, blazing with Stormlight, Shardspear in hand... And even now, it hurts Moash to think that that's what he could have, should have been. But his reaction is to go even harder in the other direction, because it's too painful to consider his mistakes and in any way to try to atone or to make amends for them. That is despicable. And by now he's gone too far.

I wonder how they "dump" the accumulated "waste weight" from the airship's ironmind then...!

There was a pair of shoulder straps for Wax to hold himself in place, while Pushing off against a steel plate beneath the pod to release it, and primer cube he needed to charge off of Wax to get the engine started… Certainly seemed like more than a backup plan for launching it.

I’d made that observation/comment before, after Bands of Mourning, that the way Allik acted and talked about Metalborn seemed inconsistent with observed facts. For example, to release Wilg (their escape pod/glider) from the larger airship that the Set had captured, he hands everybody medallions for weight (F-iron), and then tells Wax to Steelpush on the primer cube so they can take off. How was that glider supposed to take off, then, without a Coinshot handy? Either there would have to be a medallion for A-steel, or a member of the crew would have had to be a Coinshot. And yet no medallion we ever see in BoM is other than F-brass (heat), F-duralumin (Connection/translation), F-iron (weight), a combo of weight and connection (two attributes in one medallion - rare), or the F-copper coin that Hoid threw at Wax. In fact, all the “primer cubes”, aka “Allomantic grenades”, function off of Allomancy, not Feruchemy, that we have seen. So how are they charging their Steelpush primers, if that’s how their airships fly?

I was really busy back in March-April and actually forgot to read the early chapters of SP3 and SP4 when they came out; finally went and did so. Aside from the obvious questions already under discussion, I wondered who Hoid's supposed to be telling the story to. I kind of don't like the idea that "it's us", i.e., "the dear reader in the human world", which is way too much of a "breaking the fourth wall, I know I'm a ficitional storyteller" thing... But assuming his audience is within the Cosmere, who would Hoid be talking to in such a familiar tone? Someone who is familiar both with several Rosharan bases for analogies (Veden or Alethi looks to people, comparisons to a chull, mention of Design as a Cryptic without explanation, etc.), yet also "rice, as you'd call it on Scadrial" (which is not known on Roshar)? Someone actually from Scadrial, then, but who's spent time on Roshar? And who has a "modern viewpoint" of venerating people in an "essential job" like "teachers, firefighters, and nurses", and comparisons to incandescent light bulbs... So... Someone of at least Mistborn Era 2 or later. That would also fit in with us seeing Design in that noodle shop in Kilahito, as MB Era 2 is known to take place in the gap between SA5 and SA6, so Hoid being a coat rack is a minor spoiler that Hoid will be "stasisified" somewhere in there, but after getting Design off of Roshar somehow. (Possibly at the same time as he appears as a projected illusion to interact with Nomad/Sigzil in SP4, i.e., he is physically static but still cognitively active?) Could it be... Marasi? It's hinted in the blurbs for the as-yet-unreleased capstone to MB Era 2, The Lost Metal, that Marasi will be recruited by some off-world agency. (Also: seeing Hoid used as a coat rack brought back old memories of a certain long-petrified wizard in the second "Merlin Cycle" of The Chronicles of Amber books by Roger Zelazny, I doubt that's a coincidence, LOL)

That, plus how would Khriss know this Allomancer Throwdown was going on in a secret forgotten cavern beneath Elendel, dating from the World of Ash? The most likely person to be present in that room at that time who hadn't started there when the throwdown began, is someone who would otherwise have had a reason to stop by to check in on things. That, or someone senior who the Cycle managed to call in before going after Marasi himself. Either way, logically, it's most likely someone from the Set. Which could well mean, narratively, that it's NOT someone from the Set and we're being set up in some way for a bombshell revelation down the line.

So what is "Auxiliary" exactly? Not an honorspren, but still a "kind of" spren that can manifest as Shardtools, even (briefly) as a Shardblade. And can facilitate Connection-based translation services for Nomad, which is not something honorspren can do (that we know about). So far in SA, only the Stormfather has facilitated that with Dalinar's Connection-based powers as a Bondsmith - though it could be related to a variant of Adhesion, the Surge that Windrunners share with Bondsmiths. While Nomad is able to consume Investiture of all kinds, and use it to heal and to "Skip", he cannot seem to Surgebind as a Windrunner would. At least, not at will - his amazing leaps through the air do seem just a leeeetle bit like flying. Auxiliary describes themself as "dead", and Nomad describes his oaths as "ended" (not broken). And Auxiliary, despite the name, speaks to Nomad as a senior, at least sarcastically, as a "knight" does to a "squire". And despite being "dead", can manifest immediately and in different forms. I think there must be something of an honorspren baseline in there, though; it's telling that Nomad is able to "break through" his Torment briefly, for Auxiliary to manifest as a Shardblade (though thrown as a non-lethal distraction), when he maximally represents the Windrunner ideal of Protection, when he closed his eyes and remembered swearing presumably the Second Ideal ("I will protect those who cannot protect themselves"). Whereas before, when desperate for a Blade form to cut through his bindings (not to fight with), Auxiliary had commented, "I’m not the one holding you back on that count, Nomad." "Skipping" appears to be teleporting to another world in the Cosmere, though without direction (he isn't choosing where to go - and in this story, has landed somewhere he's never been before - is that always true?). Nomad has been to or is familiar with Scadrial, Taldain, and Threnody, and stayed there long enough to be able to read presumably Malwish writing on the Scadrian medallion/key. What Metalborn powers in a medallion would combine to form a key to a gateway, anyway? An "access disc"? For that matter, what Metalborn powers facilitate operating an "ancient barrier" in the form of a "large metal door"? (Assuming it's a magical barrier, and not just a honking ginormous steel door that is easiest to remove with Allomancy, as with TLR's caches?) He's also by now familiar with things like guns and hoverbikes and removable power cells of Investiture. Guns exist on Scadrial by SA5+ - as that is the same time as Mistborn Era 2 - but hoverbikes? Bwuh? And of course... Who and what are the Night Brigade? Hunting Nomad for something related to "the Dawnshard" that he is now a human shield for to Hoid/Wit, something Wit "did to him" (apparently in SA5)? And will I ever read that term "Night Brigade" without hearing that song by My Chemical Romance modified to fit it?

No guarantee that Hoid's found a way to get his spren off of Roshar (out of the Rosharan system). He could simply have found a way to put Design in a gemstone for cold storage while he's gone or something. (Or one he can carry around, but not release the spren from away from Roshar?) I dunno, he didn't seem surprised to see a seon away from Sel and even told Shallan what to do with it, so maybe there is some similar principle in play for a Cryptic bonded to him?

Miles Hundredlives said something very similar as he died, without exhibiting red eyes: "You are fools! One day, the men of gold and red, bearers of the final metal, will come to you. And you will be ruled by them! Worship... Worship Trell and wait..." I think the red eyes bit was some aspect of his having a Trellium spike at all - which may or may not "prep" him for avatar-ness, but is not actually what he was talking about: he described becoming one as being his reward for killing Marasi, not something he was already blessed with in order to kill her (after all, she was the one who stumbled into their lair). "Trell is choosing hosts,” he said. “Avatars, bestowed with his power. How would you like to be the accomplishment that proves I’m worthy of immortality, lawwoman? All you have to do is die." Besides, becoming a "host", an avatar of Trell, and "bestowed with his power" comes with "immortality", which he obviously didn't have, as he died rather easily afterwards.

The question is to what degree Harmony can "manipulate" Wax's character, his nature. He can present Wax with environmental pressures and controls, but not how he reacts to them, is how I see it. It feels to me very similar to what Gaotona reflects upon at the end of The Emperor's Soul, with respect to Shai's "modifications" to her soulstamp of Ashravam, which were 100% stable: Harmony, of course, has a much better idea of "the him that would have been" than Shai or Gaotona while doing his "nudging". The principle is the same, though. Unless Harmony actually "checkmates" Wax into a no-choice position, he's simply "arranging things" so that Wax can - and if he's the man Harmony thinks/hopes he is, will - go in a certain direction. You could say His "arranging" for Wax's chest with his Sterrion guns to end up in the Vanishers' stolen cargo container at the end of Alloy of Law as fulfilling Wax's plea for "a little help" was much more of a tangible act of "divine interference".