Vortaan

Actually this makes sense, because if Returned have had children before, they obviously don't have the Royal Locks. So why does Siri's family?

I think that fight goes to a Seer in a fight where there's other stuff going on, like on a street or something, but in a room with just the two of them, no weapons and bare hands, it should be 50/50 most of the time. The advantage of atium is that it shows you the future of everything around you, including inanimate objects. Electrum won't be able to do that.

Slightly different though. Endowment isn't Shattered, s/he is Splintering off bits of itself that make their way back in a few years, generally. Compare this to Devotion and Dominion, who have no choice about Seons, AonDor, etc. I kind of suspect that pre-Shattering those two, there were no Seons at all.

We've speculated about that before. Personally I feel like it would be like calling a wrong telephone number. There is probably someone on the other end, but you can't access the person you want because you aren't calling the correct number. Likewise I suspect that if you alloy a metalmind, the metal would keep it's Investiture but it would act like another Feruchemist's storage, able to be sensed but not accessed.

Wasn't that basically Sylar's story arc from Heroes?

It's worth noting that all the magic on Sel is region based. I'd be curious if you could even get Forging to work in Teod, let alone mimic a completely different magic system.

I think Miles' experience burning gold is very interesting in your theory. Both his selves hate each other, which seems like an interesting bit of Identity issues. However I think Identity in a Cosmere sense is more of a Spiritual aspect than you are accounting for. Senor Feesh I think has the right idea, where Identity is very closely tied to spiritual connections. I suspect that storing large amounts of Identity might be a way to hide yourself from people in Shadesmar. This whole discussion enters a lot of Realmatics though and might be better in the Cosmere section.

So Vin had to not have her earring in, after using the Well, with Leras dead? Works for me. The little bits she absorbed earlier were probably also meant to attune her to Preservation in general.

I think the mists needed her to be primed by using the Well. If you consider the Well an attuning force, then the timing is a bit better. The better question is why the mists didn't enter her when she used them against Marsh.

The way it's described, to me he travelled in a very mundane manner. It also seems like his family was there for some time before he was, and travelled in a way that was probably more magical.

There's a bit in the HoA chapter headings where Sazed speculates that she had been absorbing the mists a little bit every time she didn't have the earring in.

It would make sense that they actually steal Allomantic/Feruchemical strength, and being spiked gives a corresponding increase to the recipient's strength in whatever Allomancy/Feruchemy they possess.

I agree with the sentiment, except I don't believe there was ever a Physical or Cognitive aspect to Adonalsium. Sazed kind of hints at that when he mentions that he doesn't think Preservation or Ruin originally had personalities attached to them. Maybe a factor in the Shattering period was a Physical/Cognitive aspect being attached to the Spiritual aspect, but I'm somewhat on the fence about that.

True enough. However I think the author is trying to point out non-Shard influenced ways that massive Investiture can monkey with a system.

Not a good example, she's also drawing on the mists at the time.

Could actually be both. If storing weight changes your Spiritual connection to the planet, which is apparently how gravity works in the Cosmere, you could be fooling the planet into thinking you have higher mass without actually having it, which would fix the whole "more mass, same density" thing and follow some realmatics. On the topic at hand though, is it possible strength in steel/iron relates to a multiplier on base weight? For example, Vin is a stronger Mistborn than Kelsier. We know that their Pushes are not equal, but very close. We also know Vin probably weighs a bit more than half what Kelsier does. So, rough estimate 1: Vin weighs about 100, Kelsier 190. With equal Allomantic strengths, Kelsier's always got 90 more pounds of weight to toss at a coin. However, we know Vin is exceptionally strong as an Allomancer. Let's assume that Vin's strength cheats the system by adding weight to her pushes that her body doesn't have. If it's a 50% multiplier, Vin is applying 150 pounds to her pushes, instead of the 100 Kelsier probably expects. Elend, a Lerasium Mistborn, has an even greater multiplier, due to his Allomancy being even stronger. We get some proof of this when he barely flinches at matching Pushes with an Inquisitor, even though all Inquisitors are steel savants. Duralanium probably takes all the multiplier and applies it at once, allowing Vin's 50% to be maybe 400%. That gives her enough "weight" to toss horses and pull steel blocks out of walls.

Good point. Still good info about Harmony. Side point: is this why Devotion and Dominion were splintered? Does the process prevent someone from taking up both, or make it easier?

What Odium feared would happen? How much did Odium know about Scadrial that he was scared of one person holding two Shards?

I'm sorry for not being clear. Using the Vin/Kelsier pushing match, Vin's natural Allomantic strength made the match more even than their body weights should have allowed. I interpert that to mean that Allomantic strength allows one to exert more force in a Push. To use an example, two Coinshots weigh 150 lbs. They both push on a coin, and exert all that weight as force. If they are equal in strength, the coin should move the same for both. However, if one is Allomantically stronger, his coin should move faster/farther, because of the extra energy he is getting from his stronger Allomancy. To tie this to duralanium, what I believe it actually does is allow you to tap into all the strength you would have from all your Pushes from the steel you are currently burning. This would add extra force that is independent of weight, and allow a lot of Vin's shenanigans. I'm not sure how duralanium would work otherwise, because your base weight doesn't change, and Allomancy can't grant Feruchemical abilities.

Simple answer: the Seekers in the Soothing stations are stationed far enough away that they aren't in the coppercloud. The Ministry probably isn't worried about all that many Seekers in the slums, particularly when their own Seekers are likely more skilled and have Inquisitors to find skaa Seekers. It's also not a skill I see many Seekers practicing in the slums, since there is (arguably) very little Allomancy to detect.

If I remember correctly, actually, it's affecting how the gravity of the planet affects you, not density. Wax is still vulnerable to bullets. I believe the quote about gravity is a Sazed one from Well of Ascension, but I'm not one hundred percent sure on that. This does seem to work with a lot of Wax's shenanigans, though. He stores weight, and he's not as good an anchor as something solid, so he flies farther. Tapping just enough weight to be decently heavier than anything around him makes his circle trick work. It'll be interesting to see if the second Alloy book holds up to this or not.

It works more like all the basic Allomantic Push/Pull is used at once, making your personal weight much less important. You can see a similar effect when Wax stores weight and Pushes. He weighs less, so he should have less power. However, his basic Allomantic strength doesn't change, so he actually has the ability to Push himself a bit farther than he normally would.

Could also be the bits of Preservation that Vin absorbed when she didn't have her earring in gave her some ability to Push on spikes.

Honestly I'd find it more likely that Jasnah dies. We know she keeps journals, that seems like a really great way to do a flashback on a dead character. Shallan reads through her mentor's journals, trying to find the secrets she died for...

I'm really arguing for he didn't store or tap Identity. It could really have just been too dangerous for him. He did walk a kind of fine line between being a man who cared for his subjects and being the god that was angry at their defiance.