Aeshdan

I agree. If you'll remember, that was the original pupose of the Pits (Storing a big chunk of Ruinous energy.)

You're the only one to get this!

I think we have here a pretty stable system of the aristocracy (the noble houses with their social and Allomantic standing, as well as control of the infrastructure. Example: Ladrian), the bourgeoisie (families with lots of capital but few solid assets. Example: Harms), and the proletariat/pesantry (the innumerable workers who neither have nor really want power or wealth. Example: Bilg.)

This is exactly what I've been trying to say! Have an upvote and ten, no, ELEVEN AWESOME POINTS!

Well, we know Kwaan is a reasonably powerful Feruchemist, and Feruchemy has tendrils in all the major Realms. Even with just the ten basic metals, there'd be enough to give Kwaan a major clue about Realmatics. Furthermore, this being Realmatics would fit nicely with the First Rule of Mistborn: "There's always another secret."

In this book, Cadsuane mentions that she tested herself against the a'dam, trying to figure out a way to break its effects. I'm mildly surprised that she didn't think of this: The a'dam will let you touch the catch, as long as you have no intention of opening it. So, it should be possible to concentrate on rubbing the collar or something of that sort while keeping "open the catch" in the back of your mind. Then when you brush up against the catch, you pop it open before the a'dam "realizes" what you have in mind. It might take a few hours to get the balance right, but it should work.

Come to think of it, do you suppose Kabsal could have been a feint? In other words, his assassination attempts weren't ever intended to actually succeed, but the Ghostbloods thought that making Jasnah think they were trying to kill her would somehow advance their plots? Alternately, is it possible that Kabsal wasn't a Ghostblood and he was just given the tattoo by some other group in case he was caught? (i.e. to frame the Ghostbloods).

The way I think this works is: without atium Brandon/Adonalsium can look at Vin and say "She has these desires, these instincts, these abilities, and this information, therefore she will do this." Because Brandon is omniscient about the Cosmere (for the same reason Jesus is omniscient about this univerese), his predictions are perfectly accurate. When Zane burned atium, he was tapping into this knowledge via Ruin. But, by paying very close attention, Vin saw Zane react to a move that she hadn't yet made, essentially getting a look at her own future. This changed the information she had access to, thus changing the course of action she chose to take. BTW, I'd like to make it clear that I agree with Voidus and 213 that free will and predestination are not mutually exclusive.

Why not? It would certainly explain why Odium is so dangerous, especially since being crazy might let him bypass some of the restrictions of his Intent (on the common principle that you can't use mind-control on a crazy person).

Witness Honor's "shattering window" comment. Every time someone makes a free choice, the future splits into two courses. BTW, just because beings have free will does not prevent the future being pre-ordained. If you know exactly how someone thinks, you can predict exactly how they'd react to any given situation.

One problem: I heard myself misspelling words a couple of weeks back. So either this is a real human ability or (far more probable) we're in a fantasy book.

I partcularly liked Brandon coming up with a logical explanation for how we could have real-time comm across distances that took months to travel.

I think there are two reasons for that. First, this is a much older piece of Brandon's work, so it will be lower quality than his published work. Second, this was Brandon's "I'm-going-to-give-up-trying-to-impress-the-market-and-just-write-what-I-want" book, so it will be uniquely vulnerable to that effect.

I'm sorry, but this doesn't have to do with what I mean. The orders the Seanchan gave were regular orders. As you may recall, an order from someone you've sworn on the Oath Rod to obey has the same force as the Oaths themselves.

May I just mention that I love the scene when the PowerGirls have just commisioned Sandar and he says "I will be as careful as if these women were Aes Sedai, and every one of them Black Ajah"?

A human did create the gods. Brandon created Adonalsium, and the original humans. At some time and for some reason Adonalsium shattered into the Shards. 16 humans took up the Shards and became divine.

TLR knew all the metals, he just kept some secret. Others (like chromnium) he probably couldn't find.

I doubt this, mainly because this effect is never mentioned in the books, and I think Elend or Vin would have noticed when they started using duralumin-enhanced brass/zinc.

No, it didn't. Honor couldn't hear or respond to Dalinar's questions, It was just coincidence that he said "Yes, act with Honor" at that particular moment. This is important.

Your statement is not true. Endowment is at her full power and freedom (as far as we know), as are Harmony, Cultivation, and Odium.

Shards have a sort of awareness, but it isn't much like that of a person. Shards are the expressions of a single idea, and they have a limited ability to direct their own powers to express that idea. For example, Preservation could still act to preserve things even though Leras was dead. It's actually very similar to the way Nightblood thinks.

There's at least one example of an Oath breaking when conditions changed On a related note, what do you think happens when an Oath requires you to do something impossible. For example, if Thevara had commanded Lina to fly, what would have happened?

Apathy: Users of this magic can generate Blah energy, which causes things to become lethargic, weak, and slow. So, for example, you could expose a fire to Blah energy and it would become uninterested in burning and go out.

I don't think your Atium compulsion theory works for multiple shadows, because there is no "twitchy option-overload seizure" when two atium-burners confront each other. More likely, since there is no longer a single appropriate action, atium-reflexes don't take effect.

Random tidbit: When I first saw this, I thought his name was JerksonVallanno