alder24

They don't look like Midnight Essence. During the day they are transparent, and respond slowly, at night they are white, glowing a bit. Only when enraged do they become black and their eyes start to glow in green/red. And Shades were people once.People killed by Shades became Shades themselves (like Silence’s grandmother) They are Cognitive Shadow, they aren't Midnight Essence.

Other Shards can do that as well. All control and Allomancy Modern Kandra have the Contract with Harmony, which prevents him from taking control unless some Kandra break the Contract. If Harmony breaks the Contract, it will make a hole in his spirit and leave him susceptible to attacks. Therefore it can't be "yoinked" anytime. Because Lerasium steals all attributes, it's likely that Lerasium Blessing would contain all Blessings in a single pair of spikes. And there are likely more than 4 Blessings, as ReLuur has pewter Blessings, which aren't standard.

Bondsmith is better at practically everything. What a surprise he's better at staying young

Kelsier had far more connection to Ruin than to Preservation, and when alive he was "fine", healthy with a non damaged spirit web (because he stayed for so long in CR).

Right now, all we know is that nicrosil stores the ability to use investiture, not pure investiture like Stormlight itself. Innate investiture, not kinetic/static.

I think that's very likely, because this is even possible to do by a very skilled Smoker. F-Duralumin might just make it easier.

It seems like 7 spikes is minimum, Inquisitors had 9 spikes minimum and linchpin doesn't have to hold a power. But I wouldn't be surprised if it was like 6 spikes that necessitate the presence of the linchpin. Each Blessing is counted as 2 Hemalurgic spikes. Yes, they can. Yes. He had 4 spikes. I wanted to note here, he was the only Kandra that was controlled by Ruin, and forced to kill Sazed, others were just standing around shocked. But earlier KanPaar was said to be fully controlled by Ruin in Vin's chapter. WoB below clarifies this. He did had both of them, HoA ch 39: And WoB:

SP4 spoilers:

That's not the case. Hoid never was a Shard. He never Ascended like that. He was offered one Shard during the Shattering, but declined. And Adonalsium was shattered into 16 Shards, not 17. I'm quite sure there was a WoB asking if there was 17th, secret Shard and Brandon said no, but I can't find it.

I know, that's why I said it's possible.

Not at all, it hardens, only fresh crem will cause problems, but that's only a few millimeters at best, not enough for a tank to sink into (once I calculated it based on Shattered Plains homes, which are covered up to 2nd floor, and I got less than a hair width of crem every Highstorm, or something like that, but let’s say 1 mm here), not enough to stop a tank. It won't even feel it. Because of the thak's sheer mass, it would crack hardened crem on its tracks and shake it off. And wet crem would also be shaken off the tank while it's moving. Crem is not a problem unless you leave a tank for a month or two unattended.

Possible. Kaladin used his plate to protect others and to stop winds, but Jasnah didn't do anything unusual with her plate.

That means the only way for them to access CR is through Horneaters' perpendicularity. Is it big? Whole Roshar has an area of 40 mil km2, comparable to the whole Asia 44.5 mil km2 - India 3.3 mil km2. That's the whole continent. Except for Aimia, Shinovar was the smallest from all Silver Kingdon, and today it is still one of the smallest countries. Alethkar has 7 mil km2 and looks at around 4x bigger than Shinovar, which would mean that Shinovar is comparable to Mexico or Indonesia which today have population comparable to WW2 US (140 mil) and USSR (170 mil), so I don't know now why I wrote this whole thing. Never mind then. Well, I didn't know this. It is still possible to cover tanks (not planes, too heavy) with a protective aluminum layer, but I'm not arguing that this is what will happen. Yup, I forgot about that Good point. Since then, humans for sure have become more numerous but spren? I highly doubt so. Recreance was 2000 years ago, before that day, spren had at least 5000 years (from the day of the first desolation) or longer (from the arrival of Shards on Roshar) to go up in numbers until they reached 2000 Honorspren. 2000 Honorspren in more than 5000 years. If the Honorspren population growth after Recreance was like before it, then today there would be 800 Honorspren only. But it wasn't. Stormfather for centuries stopped creating new Honorspren, and when he did, he created only 10. There might be fewer than 800 Honorspren today, far less than you propose. Roshar tech is impressive, yes, but in this case, we're looking at the military, and their military, tactics, battle order and equipment (almost no protective armor, I won’t stop pointing this out!) is predominantly in the 15th century. It does start to change now, with the introduction of the Bridge Four. Radiants alone operate on a different, hard to categorize level. Rocky terrain might be more ideal for tanks than soil. Rocks means no mud, and this was a tank killed. Just ask Germans in 1941 - their Blitzkrieg was stopped by mud alone.

That can't be the case. Single spike doesn't even allow for a Shard to take full control. Kel's soul is spiked, but instead of stealing something from it, this spike staples his soul to that body, connecting them together. Intent matters. Misborn only WoBs: This might be true, but I doubt a single spike can hold the Sliver amount of investiture. And his spike is made out of steel (I can't find a source now) not nicrosil which steals investiture. If that was the case, nicrosil spike should be used. It's the other way around. Kelsier was spiked into the body. Likely. What I think happened is, with the right intent and mindset, somebody in Physical Realm (Spook) pushed a spike into a body, and this spike passed through Kelsier, who was standing right in front of that body in Cognitive Realm, and because of the intent, the spike hit his soul and attached it to the body behind him. Which was a mistwraith holding his bones.

Yes. Spren are made purely out of investiture, and they can be spiked. WoB, SA spoilers: He does have a spike, steel spike connecting him to his body. You've seen it in BoM. His soul was attached to the body via Hemalurgy. But here is a problem (in my opinion), this connection is artificial. For Allomancy and Feruchemy you need a natural connection to the body. You need your own body. You burn metal in your body to get Allomantic powers, you touch your metalminds and store your physical attributes in them via the body in Feruchemy. Kelsier doesn't have that. It isn't his body. His soul is very likely attached to a Mistwraith who consumed his bones and took his form, and that's not his body. WoB with SA spoilers:

Which modern (WW2) state? France? US? USSR? Switzerland? And because they're Shinovar, they have 7 Honorblades and access to the Shin's Oathgate? If it's the US or USSR - they would have very good chances of winning but with high casualties. If other countries than they would lose. If Switzerland, they would declare armed neutrality there would be no fighting. Ok, I'm assuming that, because there were 2000 Honorspren during Recreance, and Windrunners were most numerous, that's why Radiant Spren from other orders are numbered at around 1000. So there would be 10000 Radiant without squires, in total between 15-20k. Worse than steel. Aluminum is like 2x weaker than steel, but because it's like 3x less dense than steel, it's strength-to-weight ratio is better, but this matters in construction, not in armor. For armor steel is better. Plus aluminum is more likely to bend and break than steel (because it's weaker). Plus because it's about penetration, the differences in density between an armor and a bullet matters a lot - more dense armor, harder to penetrate. https://shieldcoart.com/blog/2017/12/1/aluminum-vs-stainless-steel-which-is-better-for-your-metal-sign https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_depth But in case of invasion of Roshar it doesn't matter - there would be no tanks shooting, shells firing or bombs falling on that piece of armor, protection against penetration isn't then that important, but protection against Shardblade and Surges is, and Earth would quickly figure out that aluminum is special and would start producing tanks with aluminum armor (not whole armor likely, just an armor layer). The same with vehicles and ammunition. But if it's Shinovar, then they already know aluminum is special. They should then produce all equipment from aluminum as a standard, to make them immune to Surges and Shardblade. If that's the case, they would win.

They wouldn't have innate Investiture made out of Preservation, instead they would have it made out of other Shards. So you still can take out attributes from other people. But I don't know if Brandon is talking here about the extra fragment of Preservation (which gives Allomancy/Feruchemy), or the building investiture of humans on Scadrials, which is made out of both Preservation and Ruin, I think it's this second piece, because Brandon used the world "basic piece", not the extra piece. What Hemalurgy does is it steals a piece of soul, and attaches it to someone else's soul. As long as you are spiking something with a soul and being alive, you can steal from them almost anything they have, attributes included. This is because the soul is investiture anywhere in the Cosmere, and Hemalurgy steals it. You can spike even animals. In the case of extra fragment of Preservation, innate Investiture, in other places it looks like this, multi-Cosmere spoilers:

Read this WoB a little further down Plus a single spike can likely hold more abilities than one, they just don't know about it and don't know how to do it. The problem I see is that Vessel's soul is vastly expanded by the power of the Shard and merged with it. It's not as simple as spiking Connection to that Shard from the Vessel, as all of him is Connected to the Shard. Vessel's soul is just far greater for any hemalurgic damage to matter to him.

Yeah, same here. Fortunately Lift's book is the 6th one, so it's coming soon-ish. I like this one WoB about Lift, which points into the direction of why Lift is like she is. It's from Feb 2016, before the release of Edgedancer and Oathbringer, and in my opinion it points why, without giving spoilers or a clear answer. If you want: Szeth and Sleepless are the best parts of this book for me. Glad to hear that Well, maybe you will. But Prelude in WoK alone contains some informations about them: Great, I can't wait already!

No idea. I wish we knew what that method is. ToES: Yup, that would be hard to do by Forging just a body. I don't think you would Forge your soul to be born later, you would Forge the soul either stop aging entirely, or slow down the rate it perceives time/aging. Aging is based on Connection so there is something you can change for sure, it's hard per WoB, but possible:

In that case yes, they can for sure use it on others. But the same goes for surgeons and people like that. Kandra are still better at this. As I said, there are other ways to achieve it, more universal, used by the 17th Shard members and other worldhoppers as a primary means to drastically slow down aging. Use this instead. Ghostbloods for sure know about this, because many of their agents used to be members of the 17th Shard. For some short extension of life, without the possibility or knowledge to use the main way of slowing down aging, Forgery can work, yes of course. But WoB: Me too, you're a treasury full of fun and interesting ideas.

Nice theory BUT - you don't hold the Dawnshard, you ARE the Dawnshard. The Dawnshard merges with your soul and you become one with it. This means that Kaladin was never any Dawnshard just by holding a flute. I find it plausible that Hoid hid the Dawnshard in his flute, but Kaladin holding it and playing would never make him the Dawnshard, and he would have no effects of being one. Those are two very unrelated events. Like I said, it's nice a theory - Hoid could hide the Dawnshard in his flute. But as seen in Dawnshard novella, Dawnshards are very visible to a person fitting their Command. Which would make a very bad disguise if there would be a person for whom the flute would be glowing with light and speaking into his mind. But it's also likely that Hoid found the way to suppress Dawnshard's effects. We fully know the reasons why Kaladin was awake during Tower's occupation in RoW:

I interpreted it this way as well. Something like changing your placement of the heart, growing more ribs, thicker skull, gaining a mutated 3rd arm etc. Creating your body more fitting the task you want it to perform. Yes but why? Kandra already are masters of the body, they don't need forgery to create a unique body. In Era 2 Kandra are keeping full human form while using true body (in the case of MeLaan, she used advanced aluminum bones fit for fighting), so they changed significantly from Era 1 Kandra and no longer require to maintain the form of the bones they're wearing (yes they could modify it, and create a human form, but it was more like a general human form, lacking some detailed features of a human body - I can be wrong here). This means that they can consume bodies to learn how to create a better body, like consuming dogs for hearing and sense of smell, eagles for seeing, bats for echolocation, mantis shrimps to create an image based on 12-16 colors, not on 3 like humans do. Later they just grow and form the perfect body with the best organs they can have from all types of animals. They can change their body on will, and go from a human form to a cheetah-like form (if their bones are designed to fit both forms) and run and jump much better than human. Of course, all of this would require mastery of the body, which Kandra don't have right now (maybe except for TenSoon), but that's something they can work on in near future. Flesh Forgery would make it all easier, yes, but they don't really need it in a long run. The best use of it for Kandra would be to forge a body of a human into a body of a Singer, so they can take the form of that body, if they are lacking necessary components (like bones/carapace). That would be just normal Forgery, bound by similar restrictions as Atium compounding. You're pushing your body to an age which doesn't fit your spiritual age. In the case of Forgery, you change your spiritual age, but the longer you live, the more investiture you would likely have to provide to overwrite your true spiritual age, which would change your physical age to fit it. There are far easier ways to achieve that. Yes to all? But changing a person to be more/less muscular isn't really a Flesh Forgery in my opinion. You just make them avoid the gym or make them hit it more often in the past - normal Forgery. It's better to make them blind or being born without arms and legs, or without Allomancy/Feruchemy. But I wonder if Miles would be able to push enough investiture to collapse the Forgery - Forging him in the first place would be hard as he is more invested and is constantly tapping health.

Whoa, stop right there! F-Duralumin stores Connections! Determination is stored by Electrum. So which one is it? Love this conclusion

Hard to say. Atomic bombs at the end of WW2, despite being very powerful, were still small, only ~20 kT (producing 200 m fireball radius, ~800 m heavy blast radius, ~1.3 km heavy radiation fallout radius - source nukemap) , and they could be only delivered to the object by a plane (only 1 type of plane was capable of doing that, B-29), which severely limits the amount of destruction they can make, not to mention accuracy. And there were only a few of them at the end of WW2 (only 3 were ready to be dropped at Japan, 2 of which were dropped with 12 more being prepared - numbers might be off, but the fact remains there were only few of them), no stockpile of bombs. Roshar on the other hand has Anti-Investiture. I bet if they would take a greathshell gemheart, and fill it up fully with anti-Investiture, they would make a more powerful explosion than Fat Man bomb, and it could be delivered by a single Windrunner anywhere on Roshar. Moreover, accuracy of most explosives at that time was not that great. Artillery works with large batteries shelling a large field, No WW2 tank was capable of accurate fire on the move, bombers, except for the dive bombers, were also inaccurate, only working well on the large carpet bombing campaigns. Then there are anti-tanks and anti-aircraft guns, also inaccurate. Naval guns were also inaccurate. The point is, all of that is not like modern precision guided missiles. Either you will miss a lot of time, or you need a large battery of guns to effectively shell a large piece of land/sea. And when you change atmospheric conditions, gravity, and planet’s size and curvature, then all calculations that artillerymen were using, are just useless for them now. But let’s assume they are as capable at firing guns on Roshar as on Earth, for simplicity. Many guns used in WW2 were not automatic rifles, they were semi-automatic or single shot rifles, with support of machine guns. WW2 weapons are far from modern fully automatic guns in the hands of every modern soldier. There was no GPS system, no navigation, no satellites etc. Earthlings on Roshar will have a hard time moving, as there is no good infrastructure (roads and bridges) not to mention Highstorms. The only thing that makes it so hard for me to decide is the sheer number of soldiers and equipment. The US had 8.2 million army personnel (or 12 million, I found both of these numbers) at its peak in march 1945, in total 16 million people served in the army - this includes active soldiers and non-combatant personnel (I think?). That’s a lot, far more than Roshar is capable of. The US produced around 50k M4 Sherman tanks alone (not to mention other types), with total losses of 7k of all tanks during the entire war. Moreover, the US had like 200k planes at its disposal during the end of the war (300k produced in total during the war, 200k were combat planes, 100k in total were lost), most of which were combat planes. At its peak, the US Navy was operating 7601 ships in August 1945, including 28 aircraft carriers. The US also produced around 200k artillery pieces in total during WW2. These numbers are just massive. And that's the US alone. If you include the USSR, Britain, France, Germany, Japan and all other countries fighting in the war, you would get ridiculous numbers in total. Incomparable to what Roshar can muster. Note here - aluminum was used on a massive scale in WW2. Most planes were made predominantly from aluminum. Surprisingly Earth would have better chances at fighting Roshar in the air then I thought at first. That brings me to the most important question. How is this conflict happening? Are you just teleporting the whole US country (or all Allies), with the whole production and manpower background to Roshar? Are you just slapping Roshar in the middle of the Pacific, or Earth's continents in all around Roshar continent? Or you just give Fused WW2 tech and hope for the best? Are we assuming a united Roshar but not a united Earth? Non are united? Both are? Are we assuming greater number of Radiants than what was shown in RoW? Are Poles involved, because if yes, then Roshar can start digging its own grave If it’s the first option, the US (or Allies) are teleported, or the Roshar continent is slapped in the middle of the Pacific or whatever, I will have to give it to the US/Allies, solely because of the sheer numbers. How many Radiants there are currently on Roshar at the end of RoW? 200-300? Low hundreds of Radiants alone with 2 on 4th Ideal (as Rosharan army stands no chance) vs 8 or 12 million US army with hundreds of thousands pieces of heavy equipment. Even if the US suffers heavy losses (and they will), Radiants just won't be able to defeat that force. Even including uniting Roshar, and counting Fused, there would be like 1000 Surgebinders. Not enough. And there is Soviet Union with 12 million active soldiers waiting to be involved on Roshar. Even taking into account maximum number of Radiants there can be, ~10000, maybe 15-20k with squires, I would still give it to Earth, but that would be a very hard fight. Second note - Earth will gain access to CR. They just need to capture Perpendicularity or one of the Oathgates, gain Honorblade or a willing Radiant (Dustbringers are fishy), and boom, they’re in Shadesmar, where they are vastly superior than any Radiant can be. Period. If Earth gets to CR, it becomes almost fully inaccessible to Radiants. No soulcasting from CR, using it to travel, spy etc. Radiants without a plate, blade and renewable Stormlight won’t be able to effectively fight in Shadesmar against modern guns, planes, tanks and ships, which all can be brought into CR with ease. Third note - Earth is good at copying technology. As soon as they get fabrials in their hand, and they will do it almost immediately, they will start producing their own fabrials on a massive scale. They can also bribe/interrogate a few Artifabrians to work for them, to show how this tech works. But if you just give WW2 tech to one side of the current conflict on Roshar, like Fused, or create a new group from people on Roshar or something like that, then I give it to Roshar. Because they will not have those high numbers, they won’t have tens of thousands of tanks and airplanes. Not to mention their production would be faaaar smaller (if even existing at all). Earth wins only because of massively overwhelming numbers, without those numbers, Surgebinding is on the top. Giving just technology (even with some few pieces of equipment) to one side without ridiculous numbers won't win the war.