alder24

Most of the people of Scadrial were already dead because of Ruin's influence. He created 300 000 Koloss, which required him to use 1.5 mil people alone - and they kept killing more people and more of each other thus more Koloss were created. Those are crazy numbers. Then you have civil wars spawning everywhere, because of spiked people, volcanoes erupting, ash falling and destroying crops, farm animals burying towns and villages beneath it. Not to mention Vin clearing the skies and turning the planet which created a massive tsunami, killing everyone near the shoreline. By the time Sazed Ascended I'm pretty sure most of Scadrial's northern population was already dead. It's even described in SH, ch 6-1: Ch 6-5: Before HoA Elend was trying to centralize his empire and forced everyone within its borders to move to the Central Dominance, as it was the only one which would have enough sunlight to yield crops next year. We can therefore assume that half of the Final Empire's population was already living near Luthadel and many of those died because of mount Tyrian eruption and the second House War in Luthadel. Additionally, while the HoA stated that Sazed first "restore the continents and oceans, the islands and coastlines, the mountains and rivers", by the look of the map in Era 2 it looks like he didn't do much, he didn't even shift planet's crust back to its original place (or if he did that, he restore the look of the Final Empire where it was). All he did happened in the miniscule moment, so no matter what he did, people didn't really feel it or had time to die.

Robots? Why not Awakened parasites? Just 1 Breath each.

It will be - time bubbles are involved with faster than light space travel - not cryogenics but actual FTL. We don't know much about it, but I suspect it involves creating some kind of Alcubierre Drive by using A-Cadmium and A-Bendalloy to pull and push on the spacetime itself. Cosmere is built in a way where Brandon needs people from different planets to interact fast, not to wait decades or centuries for a normal spacecraft to cross the vastness of space. Cryogenics won’t work in Cosmere where CR travel is much faster and better.

The answer, HoA Epigraphs ch 54: WoB:

The interlude is now available on Arcanum. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/522-dragonsteel-2023/#e16257

Because Shades are dangerous and would kill them?

Yes, that's why I don't like using the term "magic system" in Cosmere. There is no magic in Cosmere, it's all physics, fantasy physics but still physics. I prefer terms such as invested arts, manifestations of investiture or even arcana - terms used by Khriss to describe those phenomena. Surgebinding is for me a one big magic system (invested art), because every ability which is included in it is based on the same principles - more or less. Allomancy is one magic system and Awakening as well. Burning steel or a basic lashing would be comparable to a single Awakening Command - it's a specific use inside of a bigger system. I hope so, they are passive effects of being invested, while the specific effect might be tied only to Endowment (like those things related to Awakening), being highly invested just generally gives you those passive effects. Heavy SA spoiler WoB: It can be - manifestation of Endowment. Sure. Slight Cosmere spoilers: However, I'm simply opposing the idea that Breaths are a magic system - they are not, they are just energy for magic systems. Slight Cosmere spoilers WoBs: Yes, it is. Debatable, but I think no. It's just Awakening. Breaths are just a fuel, which you can replace with any other form of investiture - it would still be the same Awakening no matter what you use as a fuel and the effects should be still the same. Mistborn spoilers: Yes, that makes more sense. I can agree to that. I wouldn't say "you can command Breath to do basically anything," but certainly there are some other ways of manipulating Breaths, which are all based on Endowment. Whether you call it all a one big magic system or several, similar smaller ones is subjective (like Brandon used to say: "is Windrunning a magic system?")

You can do that: Yes, kind of. Metals in the periodic table count in Allomancy, but in its most powerful application, Allomancy can affect even fundamental forces. WoBs: Preservation didn't create Allomancy, Allomancy (and invested arts) just happened on its own based on the interactions between Shards of Ruin and Preservation and the world they've created. Invested arts aren't created by Shards, they just appear. Invested arts are manifestations of Shardic powers of creation.

In my opinion this map and quote doesn't suggest that. It means that as she gained elevation, there were fewer buildings between her and the sea (in whatever direction it was) thus she could see it in between buildings. Additionally determining the direction in which the main body of the sea is located based on the small map is hard. The city is said to be in the bay, so there are at least 3 sides where it can be located. Just because on the grand scale the city is located on the western shore of the sea, doesn't mean that the city's port has to be facing east - it can even face west if the bay is large enough. Just look at the San Francisco Bay. Personally I think that the map is oriented north up, as I see no reason why it would be otherwise, but everything is possible. However, because it was said in the quote that " the Bright Sea broke into a bay before the city" it implies there is no sizable land obstruction between the bay and the sea, the bay is open and the port is facing east towards the open bay and the sea. Thus the map is north up.

What is a magic system? This is always the biggest question when you try to categorize something as "a magic system". It's fully subjective, basically you decide what it means for you. For me, a magic system in Cosmere is called Invested Art, a way for people to manipulate investiture. Awakening is invested art as you manipulate Breaths, which are just investiture - the energy. Breaths are a gaseous form of Endowment's investiture. And just like any other form of investiture, it has some effects on its own - in this case manifesting as Heightenings. But any investiture can be used for various things, it’s a magical energy that you can use to fuel invested arts. Breaths, unlike other types of investiture like Stormlight, stick to your soul, thus they are better for some things than others. But on Nalthis there are different ways to use Breaths other than Awakening - maybe that was the memory storing Vasher can do. While I haven't seen this WoB you've talking about, a Divine Breath does just that - it stamples a CS to his body. It provides Connection to the Physical Realm. You can Awaken without Breaths, so Awakening isn't just an aspect of Breaths. Yes, Breaths have many uses outside of Awakening, because they are investiture, not because they are a magic system on their own. Slight Cosmere spoilers WoBs:

I'm not claiming it is the size of the Caspian Sea, it's just an example of how it might look - mainly because it's fully landlocked, unlike both the Black and Mediterranean, which are connected to larger bodies of water, which means they are not truly landlocked. Expect the Bright Sea to be located deep inside the continent, away from any ocean, like the Caspian Sea is. No, they are said to dominate the world (known world!!!!), not to rule it. It's a big difference. It all depends on how big is the world they knew about - if the area around the Bright Sea is surrounded by deserts, tundras, oceans, mountains or thick rainforests, then it can be a small world they were dominating. ch 32: Not really, it can be like the Mediterranean and they have to travel far south to reach those biomes. It wasn't said that the lands of zebras and elephants are parts of the Hallandren. Because the Hallandren jungle valley was said in WoB to be unique and out of place, it can't be located near the equator because it wouldn't be out of place anymore. It's far more likely its location is like the Mediterranean. The valley exists not because the natural conditions are just right, but because this area is rich in investiture.

I completely forgot that he drains investiture out of people each time. That explains how he was able to gather so much investiture needed to open so many perpendicularities.

I don't think it is Honor's perpendicularity - at first the mother described it as that, which means she is aware of its random appearance, but later realized what's going on. Cusicesh might have a special ability to draw investiture directly from SR and open perpendicularities based on Connections - in places where most Iriali are present. But from which Shard he is drawing it's hard to say - it may be the one closest to the land they are, or it can be anyone.

I thought that too. That means visions are Spiritual in nature, Odium's visions are like visions Dalinar experienced and it seems those were confirmed to be coming from SR instead. RoW ch 107: I also thought for some reason that in OB when Azure made a deal with Honorspren, they've said to her that a black smoke passed through their fortress, but I've checked it and I was wrong. Weird.

Yes, but that's not what I've said.

I think we can safely assume that the Set was dismantled at the end of TLM and even Autonomy herself abandoned them after their double fiasco. Most of their members were either arrested or killed and the rest remained with no leadership and resources.

It's possible that they thought what he spoke could be him speaking to them, not a true Death Rattle, or this sample might not be collected like others - it might be that they've collected it on a battlefield (he was a soldier after all) or by someone else in non-hospital conditions, or it was memorized at first before writing it down later (like Taravangian when he became the king of Jah Keved, he heard the dying king speaking a Death Rattle and he couldn't write it down). We don't know. Seems like that. Yes, there will be a chapter with this moment.

Here, HoA ch 58: SH ch 6-5: Annotations explaining that: I've missed that in SH Kelsier said it as a command.

Yes, the Father Machine destroyed a planet too. Woah! No. A Vessel is not a human, they are no longer a human. A Vessel is the mind of a Shard - something much greater than a mere human. Nightblood's ability to consume investiture doesn't require a person to wield him, it's because he is a sword and was Awakened in a specific way. Nightblood acts on his own - when sheathed. He is sentient, he thinks, he has a will of his own - unlike the Father Machine. But yes, I get your point. The Father Machine consumes at a distance unlike Nightblood. Because Shards might not know it's possible or because they didn't want to do that. It's too much, nobody wants to destroy a whole planet like that. Ruin wants to do it himself, to enjoy this moment and have satisfaction, plus he needed people to find Atium - he couldn't do it himself. Moreover as per WoB it requires special circumstances, Virtuosity did that - it may mean she Splintered herself, leaving the world devoid of Shardic oversight (for the same reason Nightmares are so susceptible to perception, unlike Spren or even Seon) or she did something more during her Splintering or before. It's not just about Connection. The point being you can't do the same in other places, because the Father Machine worked due to special circumstances that existed on Komashi because of what Virtuosity did. There may be other places like Komashi, but the only one I can think of is Threnody (and there is a mysterious Evil who consumed the entire continent worth of people, which sounds similar to what the Father Machine did). Additionally the Father Machine didn't kill everybody on the planet, a group of nomadic people survived it and recreated civilization. Autonomy did that... Being highly Cosmere aware doesn't mean being all knowing. Shards aren't omniscient. They don't know everything. Harmony didn't know what Trellium was at first, Harmony didn't know how Paalm hid from him, Harmony didn't know what Trellium inserted into Harmonium would do. He didn't even know what yield the Set bomb would have if detonated - he suggested it might have ignited the atmosphere, which is a ridiculous claim (a reference to the Trinity test). Just because something is possible doesn't mean Shards know about it. Both Nightblood and the Father Machine were created because of mistakes their creators made. Again, that's not possible just like that. Secondly Odium didn't want to do that, he wanted all Honor/Cultivation followers to turn to him, to serve him and form his army - killing them is a waste of resources. Odium wants to be the only god of Cosmere, he wants to be worshiped, he wants to free people from other gods, not kill them all. Desolations weren't in his plan. Edit: What would Odium achieve by killing everyone on Roshar? Nothing. He would still be bound to the system by Honor, unable to kill Cultivation and wouldn't be able to change this anymore. He needs Honor's followers like Dalinar so they can release him from Roshar. No. That's not bringing the planet under your control. Shards don't want to kill everybody on a planet. Repopulating a planet would require a massive amount of resources, draining the economy of other planets, not to mention it would take centuries - Scadrial still hasn't reached its pre-Catacendre levels of population, it's not even close to it. Nuking a planet into oblivion isn't any solution unless you want to get rid of it entirely - Autonomy wanted to destroy Scadrial because it threatened Taldain's position as the most technologically advanced force in Cosmere. She tried and failed. Once more, Shard's aren't omniscient, just because something is possible doesn't mean Shards know about it. I'm not trying to argue that the Father Machine is not broken, but that there are some other limiting factors, which is why it happened only once. A Bondsmith unchained is still more broken than the Father Machine.

I did more digging on the Coppermind and here are the results: The Bright Sea, called the Inner Sea by Idris, is a landlocked body of water - I think it's probably something like the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea or the Mediterranean Sea. The founders of Hallandren, Chedesh, sailed from the east, opposite from Hallandren. Hallandren is situated on its western shore and it controls more than a third of the sea's shoreline. The Idris mountains are north of Hallandren, but there is another mountain range eastwards (??? that's where the sea should be, Halladren is on the north-western corner of the sea? those second mountains should be on the west, thus they would help create the environment necessary for the jungle to grow). To the south of Hallandren is the province of Pahn Kahl. Hallandren is the only tropical region in this area. I think it's more likely that the Bright Sea is similar in size to the Black Sea, because I doubt Hallandren is the size of the Eastern Roman Empire and on top of that mostly covered by jungle. Hallandren seems to control both northern and western shores of the Bright Sea, with Idris mountains separating it fully from northern kingdoms, and T'Telir being located more in the north-western corner of the sea. Hallandren's jungle is unique, out of the place, and this is most likely the result of investiture seeping into the ground from Endowment's perpendicularity - thus it doesn't have to correspond to locations of jungles on Earth. Coppermind: WoB Mistborn spoilers:

But her "currently" is 1700 years ago, before the activation of the Father Machine. Her memories of Yoki-Hijo are of the distant past not present. She still doesn't know what's going on with her and Nikaro in this chapter. Her knowledge of 13 other Yoki-Hijo predates the Father Machine - that's my point. Read it again please, Yumi said there are 13 other Yoki-Hijo, not Design.

They either did not expect to get god metals from that and never searched the bombing sites, or the explosions were too big and destroyed any leftovers. But it's more likely that you need a specific intent to get Lerasium from that, the intent that Wax had and nobody else did (Kandra couldn't replicate that). I have a theory that you can get either Atium or Lerasium, not both of them at the same time, and it's your intent that defines what you get. Wax had that intent to get Lerasium, he didn't want to change anything, he was Preserving himself and just wanted to do some science instead. TLM ch 15:

Someone who likes joints and movement? I need a source for that because I don't remember that at all. I've found it on Coppermind. Yeah, no. The seal and ink resist being removed, but the object below might still be damaged by physical strikes - dents, holes etc - and that would collapse the Forgery. I don't think you can make a giant Soulstamp in the shape of the object that you want to Forge (is that what you want to make? I didn't catch that earlier), because you're using a specific writing language and just making "letters" bigger, won't make it fit in your shape. Those aren't glyphs from Roshar, you can't change their shape to look however you want. They have very specific shapes you need to follow, and adding a bunch of "white noise letters'' would still provide a meaning, which would disturb the working of the stamp, forcing the object to reject it entirely. So no, you can't do that. Each of them would require its own stamp. Good luck. A plate armor is still much better than scale armor. A plate armor is very hard to get through - scale is not on that level. Striking a single scale can dent it or break it off, leaving a small opening. In plate armor you don't have that. Plate is always a better option. A scale armor isn't made only from scales but from other pieces like leather strips - which are now your weak points. The larger the object the more investiture it requires to be Forged? Isn't that true? A single piece of a scale would be far less invested than a whole breastplate from the plate armor.

In the quote I've posted earlier, ch 32: And yeah, I meant 13 in the previous post. Sorry.