alder24

I think Trellium spikes went to universities to be studied by scientists, while regular ones remained in police evidence lockers or were confiscated by Kandra (unlikely, they weren't Kandra Blessings, unless Harmony ordered them to take those spikes). We will see how Hemalurgy is used in Era 3. Dozens of people were kidnapped in AoL to create their little Metalborn breeding pot, I guess they gave birth to some of their own Donors for spikes. Moreover, the Elendel Basin and the Raughs are quite big, it's easy to miss a person missing here and there and realize those were all Bloodmakers. Who was also the Leecher except for Dumad and Telsin? The scientist Irich from BoM was likely a natural Leecher (they might have spiked him before he died).

Yoki-Hijo don't grant Spirits' wishes, they grant people's wishes. Yoki-Hijo can attract and communicate with Spirits, they are the bridge between people and Spirits. People need Spirits to survive, Spirits don't need people, they like what people create. Being Yoki-Hijo is clearly an invested art, not available to everybody, and the book itself said multiple times that Yoki-Hijo are chosen (however it was done by biased Yumi and the people of Torio). That's not stupid and circular. Ch 35:

Yes, of course it's possible, I am simply pointing out limitations of this method - sooner or later the investiture dumped into the soulstamp will run out, and you will be left powerless. There is used investiture for SR in Feruchemy, that's why I want to say - you still need to dump investiture into a Soulstamp because Feruchemy draws from SR to convert your attributes into investiture in metalminds when storing, and the opposite when tapping. Yes, the attributes and investiture in metalminds comes from your body, but the change of attributes into storable investiture is done via investiture drawn from SR, from Shards, and this is what you need to replace with Dor. You need less of it, but still you need to provide external investiture for your Soulstamped Feruchemy to work. Look at the WoB in the post you quoted. Iirc, you want to make medallions when you're Soulstamped? First Medallions don't grant Allomancy. Secondly they would need to be used with that investiture dumped into a Soulstamp. You still need that jar of Dor whenever you're using Allomancy/Feruchemy, even compounding or Medallions etc. So it's no different from being Mistborn as long as you can. Whatever you do as a Soulstamp Metalborn requires Dor to work. Which doesn't change anything. No. Your abilities of Mistborn are coded to be fueled by Dor, not by Preservation. Storing them in metalminds and then tapping them still forces you to fuel them by Dor. It doesn't change how those powers work, Allomancy would still need to be fueled by Dor. Even the storing/tapping itself must be fueled by Dor a tiny bit, if Feruchemy is granted by Soulstamping, as this changing attributes into investiture is done by drawing from SR, which you can't do when Feruchemy is Soulstamped onto you. Plus F-nicrosil most likely works just like any other metalmind, not like Medallions - you store for an 1h, you tap for 1h - it's not like Copperminds, it's not permanent. Most likely, there is no confirmation yet. Storing in F-nicrosil doesn't resolve anything. F-nicrosil in medallions is permanent, it is like Copperminds, but this is more restrictive than traditional F-nicrosil, therefore it makes sense that F-nicrosil works just like any other metalmind.

I think there was a confirmation like this (I said the biggest piece, not most of Honor - there is a difference between those two), either in WoBs, or in books, but I can't find it now. However evidence points towards this conclusion - Stormfather is Honor's Cognitive Shadow (which is a big thing), he's the most invested Splinter/Spren on Roshar, and connected to Honor's remnants , as he was intended to take Honor's place. Whatever you call it: the biggest piece, Connection to Honor's power or Honor's CS, the implications are more or less the same. Stormfather functions as Honor, he isn't as powerful as Honor used to be, but the Connection to Honor's power is there. OB ch 57:

It's not against the nature of a Shard but it was problematic, because he was pushing for a great change. It can be done, a Vessel has some influence over Shard's intent and can change it. Those problems are likely because of Rayse and how he was trying to change intent, someone else might be more successful, for Rayse it put him in a bigger conflict with the power of the Shard. This conflict was seen by Sja-Anat in her RoW interlude: Rayse isn't true to himself - part of him wants to be Passion, but the rest don't want to embrace it (he might be simply incapable because of how long he held the Shard) - thus there is a conflict. Part of the power is Passion as well, but part isn't whole Shard. At least that's my interpretation. Some WoBs on that:

No, it's most visible on Scadrial, but it exists Cosmere wide - just look how metals work in Fabrials or in contact with Aethers. It's the same push-pull relation that we see on Scadrial. I personally don't think that most Shards merged would become like Harmony, because his state is a result of polarization of Ruin and Preservation, which is unique to Scadrial. Other Shards however still show polarization like that, but on a smaller scale, like Honor/Odium, Devotion/Dominion - those might have troubles merging. Autonomy was threatened by Harmony, but more by Scadrial's technological progress, which rivaled Taldain's technological superiority. Autonomy was able to easily blind Harmony, despite him being "more powerful". Having two Shards does indeed increase raw power, but having raw power and being able to use it are two separate things - Sazed clearly isn't able to utilize his power, he can't act at all, he poses no threat in the near future. Harmony's real advantage is that something like this hasn't happened before, and others are simply unaware of Harmony's true state - the more they know, the less threatened they will be.

Right, F-gold from medallions maybe not, but that's why the very first spikes should grant you F-gold and A-gold, so you could compound health and heal - not every spike goes in the same place, if you want to keep exchanging 32 spikes in total, you'll end like a swiss cheese. And dead halfway through of course. You need to heal those holes fast. That requires lots of health, that you need to first store, before you even attempt to remove first spikes. You don't need a gold coating or anything like that. I see no reason for it - it's another spike, another damage to your soul, and you've already had F-gold and A-gold stored in your Nicrosilmind. You simply don't need that. Not to mention all of the torture that comes with spiking yourself 32 time. And 32 counts of 1st degree murder on top of that Harmony would sit on your back this whole time. Sure, theoretically possible, but that's not really a practical way of becoming a Fullborn. Split some Harmonium and you're halfway there.

I'm still laughing, I have no witty response.

Why not? It can, I don't think Brandon said that F-gold granted via Hemalurgy is too weak to heal them. But here you can tap 2x F-nicrosil granting you F-gold and be stronger than regular Feruchemist.

So meeting a Leecher, Nicroburster or accidentally tapping everything at once would leave you totally powerless? Not to mention that compounding takes time, a lot of time if we're talking about 32 powers, you're burning metals, just like in Allomancy. You really don't need that gold spike, just implant your metalminds in your leg, like Wax or something like that.

IF F-nicrosil works like medallion nicrosil, which is unlikely in my opinion. I think it works just like regular Feruchemy - 1h storing, 1h tapping. You can be a Fullborn only for how long you stored powers in F-nicrosil (less, Hemalurgic decay works). I really don't get this part. Why is the gold coating needed, why do you do what you do with it? If it's fully around nicrosil, you can't touch it, you can't tap it.

Injuries don't "snap back", they heal back. I'm proposing a gradual change/heal, not immediate snapping back, like we saw with Rashek. The WoB clearly states that your spirit will fight back physical changes, but lesser changes (like this one) won't be that big of a deal - this simply means that this change won't make you 20 years younger, but 4 at best, as your spirit gradually heals your body to the correct age. No, this change won't be recorded in the SR. It can kill you if it's done too quickly, as your spirit won't recognise those body parts and concludes your body has died or something like that. Possibly. Identity helps with healing and stuff like that, it's related to your Spiritual Ideal. It might help - or totally mess up your soul in an unpredictable way. I've just remembered that MeLaan can be totally wrong about 'Marasi not rejecting grafts etc" - Brandon hasn't decided yet if Kandra changed down to the DNA. If this change isn't down to DNA, then grafts like you are proposing aren't possible. You definitely can't change your age. It would be at best organ transplants from unrelated donors if not Kandra's DNA would be straight out rejected by your body anytime. WoBs ~2 years after BoM:

You propose to have a physical change - that's what F-Atium is doing, it physically changes you and your spirit fights back to snap your body as it should be. You need to provide investiture for your body to fight against snapping back, not the other way around. It will take time, but you will snap back faster than you want to. Your body will naturally heal to your correct age or something like that, it can even use ambient investiture to quicken that process (because simply being more invested makes you heal faster). I didn't want to prove otherwise, just that they are more difficult and complicated than you think. It's basically an organ transplant but with a perfect match.

That is an interesting WoB. You can also burn it with duralumin. It's still a tiny bit even if you were to swallow a whole bag of it, like Elend proved. There is simply not enough investiture in Metallic Arts to make you a Sliver.

The book in the epilogue said they don't need Yoki-Hijo anymore, Spirits simply don't have any reason to choose new ones:

I think you kind of forgot that this doesn't heal, Kandra just makes patches in the wound with a person's tissue, but the body needs to heal on its own and the wound still remains. Doing stuff like replacing muscles is outright impossible. Every surgical procedure Kandra will perform will leave a wound to heal. Yes, they're better than human surgeons, but they don't heal your body for you. BoM ch 21: Age reduction is impossible, especially in Cosmere where your spirit and mind know how old you are. Age affects the function of every single cell in your body, you can't "graft" this, you would literally need to replace every single cell in your body (and still your spirit would bounce your body back to its proper age after some time).

I interpret this Death Rattle more literally, like literally the Tower, the title of the king of the Tower and his spear - Kaladin metaphorically left his spear at the end of RoW, he would have to pick it up to fight as the king of Urithiru to replace possibly dead Dalinar. But your interpretation with connections to Kholin's crest is also a likely one. I'm not so sold on by the idea that everyone becomes a Herald - Szeth would be the worst person to become a Herald, because his mind is already broken, Kaladin too in my opinion, he suffered too much already and is on the verge of breaking. And why would they become Heralds? The Oathpact can't help them seal Fused away on Braize, it's pointless to do what was done previously and failed. New Heralds and new Oathpact won't help this time. Jasnah being a queen of Alethkar doesn't exclude her from being the head of the Kholin family. But Kaladin becoming Kholin family head is possible - he is related to them through Aesudan:

I highly doubt this. Raw investiture left in Cognitive Realm is hard to miss, as it becomes basically a plasma-like storm, which would simply kill you. It's very, very dangerous. There is nothing like that on Roshar. Honor's Splintered power can't be in CR - we would know about this. It is like that on Sel, and since then Odium learnt to deal with this in a better way. Never heard of that claim. Purelake fishes just have a bond with spren, like Ryshadium have, that's not a location-based magic: What do you mean? How can Dalinar "tap" investiture. He isn't a Feruchemist, and Perpendicularity normally isn’t enough. No. Stormfather can't do that. SR isn't a place you can travel into. You can see into it, but it isn't a place. It is timeless and speceless. Honor's investiture is most likely still in SR in its majority, Splintered into pieces but stuck there. There is enough spren, Stormfather, Stormlight and stuff like that that draw from it, so it can prevent this Splintered power from going wild like it went on Sel. And it isn't in CR because that would just destroy CR outright. The biggest piece of this Splintered power is tied to the Stormfather. Don't expect this whole investiture of Honor to be in the form of spren and stuff like that, this investiture is almost infinite, you can't really divide it into finite pieces. It's in SR, broken and mindless, but still accessible for some to draw from (like the Stormfather, or Bondsmiths). The power has to still be in SR because the Stormlight comes from SR.

This is certainly one important factor but I think others are equally as important. First Dalinar the Blackthorn was a fearsome, bloodthirsty warrior, a monster who always wanted to fight, but at the same time he was a great tactician. This is a perfect person for Odium's future plans of conquering Cosmere. Dalinar was meant to lead the Odium's invasion of Cosmere, because he was so good at warfare. Secondly, Alethkar was historically known to harbor the best fighters on Roshar. In ancient Alethela people were training to fight to prepare for incoming Desolations, so the rest of Roshar could be at peace. Those people would be a very nice addition to Odium's army. And so it happens that Dalinar was the brother of the King, who after Gavilar's death, held the actual power over Alethkar. Even Diagram predicted that Dalinar might take the crown for himself. Blackthorn was respected. And if he were to join Odium, the rest of Alethkar would follow quickly after him, giving Odium the most powerful fighting force on Roshar, molded by the Thrill for generations. There would be no coalition against Odium. There is a reason why Alethkar was the first one to fall during the True Desolation - Odium wanted it. Dalinar was always honorable in the past, even as the Blackthorn. He always kept his promises when recruiting his elite guard, he spared the life of a child when he obtained Oathbringer and stuff like that. His Connection to Honor was there, but it didn't start to grow until Gavilar was killed, and Dalinar's fascination with The Way of Kings started. He was always meant to bond the Stormfather. And this is another reason why Odium wanted Dalinar - Dalinar would be the one to free Odium from Honor's binds, which chained Odium to Roshar. And that's probably one of the most important reasons for why Odium chose Dalinar. And the cherry on the cake was preventing Honor's potential Vessel from Ascending. Dalinar was just a perfect tool for Odium to take. You want to suggest that Rayse allowed Taravangian to Ascend. No. Odium wasn't going to implode, he wasn't cracking. Rayse was enslaved by the power, but at the same time he kept pushing it to become the Shard of Passion - which brought conflict between the power and the Vessel. A dangerous conflict making Odium weak. But not that weak to implode. RoW ch 114:

Connection is "useless"? It sounds like you're biased because F-duralumin is a rivaling cult to yours. You can Connect yourself to a Shard and Ascend - that's what Ire's Orb that Kelsier used had inside - lots of Connection to Preservations. Useless? Everything that involves Connection can be manipulated by you. Everything. And because all things do involve Connection, you can do a lot. Connection is probably the most important thing in Cosmere. You can speak the languages of the local population, that's very handy for regular tourists. Metallic Arts (and most invested arts) are granted via Connection to Preservation from your Preservation's fragment - what would happen if you just tap a ton of that specific Connection? Could you snap and become a Mistborn (a very weak one as that Connection would go back to normal, but the invested art might stay)? You can certainly grant yourself invested arts from other places by tapping right Connections, or sidestep some limitations of those invested arts (again, F-duralumin is far more useful in combination with other invested arts). Connection also is responsible for your age - you might be able to change your age better than with F-Atium by manipulating your Connection to time. And you can break into Hemalurgic constructs with enough Connection. Handy in combat. Because your whole spirit web is just a tangle of Connections and Investiture, you can change a lot if you know what you're doing.

I don't agree. Compounding can't make you a Sliver. You need far too much investiture for that, compounding can't provide that because it is limited by how much investiture you get from burning metals. Compared to the power of the Well, which stores so much power that allows you to move planets, shift the crust, open volcanos and change the genetics of people, compounding gives you nothing. Invested arts can't really provide you a significant fraction of Shardic power necessary to make you into a Sliver. Brandon said that burning enough Atium won't make you a Sliver, so the same stands for Compounding. Compounding is just Allomancy, it gives you the same amount of investiture as Allomancy does. Only if that's a Hemalurgic spike. I don't remember empty Trellium working like that. The same goes for Atium or any spike - it has to be Hemalurgic spike. Rashek might be simply insane after living for 1000 years, which allowed Ruin to enter his mind, or he had some greater connection to Ruin because of his actions. Or maybe he had a Hemalurgic spike like Brandon said at the beginning, but Brandon forgot about it. TLM ch 19: I don't remember such WoB and can't find it. Vin held the power of the Well and let it go, it expanded her mind, her soul and vaporized her body - she should be a Sliver. Practice comes from using the power, knowledge comes gradually over time.

Autonomy. Her home world is Taldain, a planet from the White Sand graphic novel. Yes, not every book mentions a Shard presence, as characters simply aren't aware of them, they don't possess that Cosmere knowledge. But small hints are there. Lightsong in Warbreaker hears the call of Endowment to Return, while Raoden in Elantris hears deceased Devotion's talking to him in the Shardpool (unconfirmed). Devotion’s images also appear in the city (iirc). The actual confirmation of some Shard presence on planets comes either from WoBs (Words of Brandon), or Arcanum Unbounded. Warbreaker ch 57: Elantris ch 61, the voice of Devotion (unconfirmed): From Stormlight's letters we know that Devotion and Dominion settled on Sel (Elantris) and were Splintered there (killed), and Ambition was attacked in the Threnodite System (also said in Arcanum Unbounded), but killed in the unknown location. As for the rest, I think Endowment was confirmed to be settled on Nalthis (Warbreaker) by WoBs. and Autonomy on Taldain was confirmed in Arcanum Unbounded as well WoBs earlier (plus said in TLM iirc). The connections to Shards can be picked up if you look at how the magic works, proverbs and sayings people are using, religions and characteristics of deities and stuff like that. But in most cases Brandon used to talk about them, and revealed them in WoBs, long before they were revealed in books (like we knew where Endowment, Autonomy, Devotion and Dominion were, before they were mentioned by names in books). Nowadays Brandon doesn't talk much about less known Shards (like the one revealed in RoW), it's just what we know from books. The oldest WoB mentioning and confirming Endowment presence on Nalthis (2009): Not a dumb question at all. We don't know this, we don't know where the rest of Shards are located. To summarize, we know where those are: Preservation and Ruin (Harmony in Era 2) are on Scadrial - Mistborn series Honor, Cultivation and Odium are on Roshar - Stormlight Archive Devotion and Dominion are Splintered (dead) on Sel - Elantris Endowment is on Nalthis - Warbreaker Autonomy is on Taldain - White Sand Ambition fought near Threnody, but was Splintered and killed somewhere else - Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell Those are all Shards which location we know of. We know where 10 Shards are. The location of the rest are unknown, Those are: Invention, Mercy, Valor, Whimsy and two unnamed Shards. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter spoilers, don't look if you haven't read: That's all we know about Shard's locations up to date. Most were told to us in books, some in WoBs, so it's no wonder you didn't know about Endowment or Autonomy etc as they weren't mentioned at all in books about their worlds.

I'm always happy to talk about Nightblood

I agree that's one possibility, but I simply point out that we don't know for certain, and the other possibility, that they had relations without being bound, is almost as likely as Dawnsingers being bonded to True Spren. Also when Venli practiced the Surge of Cohesion in Urithiru, it is implied that ancient Dawnsingers didn't use Radiant Surges (obviously they didn't exist back then), and didn't bond with True Spren (True Spren bonding with people is a new thing). RoW ch 67:

Odium on Roshar isn't able to act like he wants, he is limited by restraints placed upon him by Honor, and couldn't fully Splinter Honor - he said he will do it once he is freed from his chains in OB - we know this because Honor's death was a pertracted event, not one violent clash like in cases of Ambition or Devotion and Dominion. It's likely that Honor was Splintered because he broke his oath, rather than in the direct clash with Odium. Another thing is that Honor prepared the Stormfather for his Splintering and Honor's Cognitive Shadow merged with the Stormfather, and with that the biggest piece of Splintered Honor is now held by the Stomrfather. The other Splintered pieces are still in SR mainly, and they don't go nuts like on Sel, because there are hundreds of thousands of Spren filled with Honor's investiture, Highstorms providing Stormlight and other things providing a release valve for all of this investiture in SR. And yes, people have a piece of Honor with them, they have innate investiture in their soul which is made out of Honor's investiture (RoW made it clear), a tiny bit. They aren't as invested as people on Nalthis or Scadrial but that's another thing going on with Honor's investiture (same thing is happening on Sel too, but this alone isn't enough). Honor's investiture can't be fully split between every human because it's practically infinite - if that were to happen humans would be ridiculously invested, and that's not the case. There is enough Honor's investiture cycling (changing forms, becoming energy and returning back to SR) between realms, forming new spren, fueling them, giving life to Roshar, investing everything in PR etc, to make this release valve work on Roshar and prevent raw power from going nuts, plus Odium didn't put Honor's investiture into CR, like he did on Sel. Also on Sel Seons didn't exist before the Splintering, they were sparks of investiture made during this event, unlike Spren on Roshar who predated Honor's death by long. We also don't know what he did with Ambition, whom he Splintered after killing Devotion and Dominion (he learned something from it and did something different with Ambition), so we can't use her as an example. Some WoBs on which I based this: