Vortaan

From what I understood, just consuming Lerasium makes you a Mistborn, not burning it. We haven't seen anyone burn it yet.

Honestly you'd still be fighting the nature of kandra/mistwraiths. They are scavengers, not predators. Even as kandra, their culture is very much a non-confrontational one. It seems to take a LOT to be branded a kandra criminal, although possibly a lot less to be branded unorthodox. So the question becomes what do intelligent scavengers with increased aggression do? For added kicks, and to prevent insanity, have the kandra that ate the koloss have the Blessing of... Presence I think it was? The one that was emotional fortitude.

I don't have my book on me, but didn't Dalinar's jaunt into the past mention crem, either seeing it or the settlement being designed so that it wouldn't drown in it? Either way is pretty solid evidence of highstorms.

So, speculation time... I think that the substance that the Well contained and Lerasium are very different in what you can actually accomplish with them, although to Vin both felt very similar. We know that Leras sacrificed the greater part of his cognitive aspect in order to create Ruin's trap. That means that the liquid in the Well, the power holding Ruin at bay, is likely the cognitive aspect of Preservation manifested onto the physical realm. While very similar to Lerasium in that regard, it is a cognitive, not a spiritual force, and the actual effects of using it is probably that it gives a temporary connection to the spiritual aspect of Preservation, where the majority of it's power lies. Now look at Lerasium. I believe that it is the spiritual aspect of Preservation manifested in the physical realm. It's effects are certainly more prolific that using the Well, since the relative ease of Snapping is the direct result of just a few beads of Lerasium being consumed by a few men. It's effects also seem to cause a connection to Preservation's spiritual aspect, but in a very limited way, accessing the power in a way that is acceptable within the confines of the current magic system (Allomancy), although enhancing it beyond the normal rules (Mistborn). If we look at both these substances, it doesn't seem like you would be able to release atium, since it is solidified spiritual aspect, not solidified cognitive aspect. If you could, I suspect the effects would be extremely minor since each bead is such a small percentage of the overall power, whereas the Well contained a majority of one aspect of a Shard.

I wonder if the splintering of the Shards actually mixed them, to the point that all magic systems draw on both to a degree now. Idle speculation with no real evidence.

Personally I never really felt drawn to either Vin or Elend as characters, so their relationship was something I wasn't particularly interested in. I honestly was more interested in the relationship between Breeze and Allriane, Sazed and Tindwyl, and the Marsh/Mare/Kelsier triangle. Particularly that last one, as it set a lot of attitudes in the story, both between Marsh and Kelsier, but also Marsh towards Vin. I'm actually also really liking Steris/Wax and Dalinar/Navani, and maybe that's because both are relationships that either challenge or uphold societal norms.

Since we know there were no Mistborn pre-Ascension, then we can figure out that the existence of Mistborn at all is a direct result of more of Preservation's power being passed along to mankind via the Lerasium that created the original Mistborn. Why Feruchemy follows a similar law and is then changed I'm not sure about, but all the magics draw on Harmony at this point and he may have changed some rules in order to create a more harmonious society, considering how much damage a full Feruchemsit or Mistborn can do.

Enough noblemen survived that I would think that in 300 years, there would be SOME Mistborn. Maybe extremely uncommon, but anyone who could use two metals would have been incredibly note worthy. Also a future trilogy isn't great proof of Mistborn being around now, as something could happen in the intervening books to reinfuse people with Preservation's power. The obvious thing would be the last bit of Lerasium floating around.

I'm not convinced that any breeding plan would recreate Mistborn. I suspect that when Sazed fixed humanity from the damage that generations of ash had done to them, he also removed enough of Preservation's power to keep Mistborn from being born. I have no proof of this, except that 300 years with no Mistborn being born seems extremely statistically unlikely given how many we know exist in Vin's time. So if Wax's uncle isn't up to those kind of shenanigans, what is he up to? I have a suspicion that it involves Hemalurgy and something about how Spook was turned INTO a Mistborn, not born into it.

Assuming the Radiant quote is meant to describe the three Shards that reigned on Roshar, I really feel as though Odium is probably NOT one of the three original Shards of Roshar. Watchers at the rim pretty clearly falls into Honor's portfolio. Herdsmen to tend sounds a lot like Cultivation to me. Which would leave Odium as the flocks? Eh... doesn't seem to work. Also when it comes to Cosmeric Hitler... it has to be assumed that anything non-Sharic rolling around the universe at Shard-level power is probably the opposite of Creation. Note that this is NOT destruction, but probably something more similar to Chaos or Entropy. One interesting thing about all Shards prevented so far is that they are orderly. All Shardic magic works by laws that can be discovered and in general try to work with natural laws as much as possible. I would imagine an anti-Creation force would disrupt this whole cycle and perhaps create magic systems that clearly sidestep natural laws. I also don't see any combination of Shards being able to stand up to an anti-Creation force, as their raw ability is channeled in VERY specific ways. Maybe Harmony, as he has a balance, but other Shards... perhaps not so much.

So if the original purpose is that the Well is used every thousand years, no matter what... where are these other Lord Rulers? Some probably became gods in Scadrial religions, but where are the others? Is it possible that Feruchemy is a result of one of these tamperings with the Well?

It's also more economical, if you think about it. Pewter is cheaper than gold, so after an initial goldmind investment, you will have more resources to spend on your Allomancy metal.

He hides the coin to prevent it being pushed or pulled away, and to give him an edge. In a Mistborn battle, having a coin that can't be pushed or pulled on until you want it to happen is a huge advantage.

Probably just whispers actually, we don't get the full on manifestation until Vin frees him. Zane only heard voices, never saw anything.

Backup might have been to keep humanity in general alive. I wouldn't be surprised if the people on the other pole are more technologically advanced than Final Empire and it's decedents.

That said though, at least against normal armies, a Shardbearer is enough of a presence on the battlefield to probably turn the tide of battle one way or another. We don't know what the Desolations were like, battle wise, but if they were similar to the "ink creatures", I really think they'd benefit from smaller units that could reinforce the much larger, and much more poorly armed, human forces. In that case, being able to communicate with those small forces and in effect the larger human forces might be very beneficial.

Just a point, long distance military communication somewhat falls apart when most of your commanders are front line fighters, unless you can figure out some kind of Starship Trooper-esque system to stick in the helmet of Plate. Now that I think about it, actually, there probably IS a communication ability in Plate that isn't available yet, or else Knights Radiant, whom are basically one man armies, have severe danger of getting isolated without orders from home base.

There are no mistings anywhere near the Pits, so that is out.

Szeth is the exception, but he also doesn't follow some of the other connections. He should have an honorspren but doesn't, and his Blade seems to be unique in some way.

What if Gavilar was going to bring back the Knights Radiant? I'm not sure why the Parshendi would oppose that, but his final words are to "find the most important words a man can say". It seems to me that on Roshar, the most important words one can say are the KR oaths. Do we know if Jasnah had her abilities prior to Gavilar's death? Otherwise, all KR potentials we have seen gained their powers post-assasination, after a period of at least a millennium with no recorded instances of KR powers. Seems like an odd coincidence.

We assume Galivar was the victim. What if he was the aggressor? Creepy sphere with black voidy light lends credence to the theory that he may have been up to shenanigans.

How not? Storage caverns, kandra, weakness in the Inquisitors is all back up in case he was killed by Ruin.

I know this is old, but I'm going to bump it with consideration of the new information on the Parshendi. I think a couple of my points are made stronger by the new information, some of them maybe not so much.

Is it possible the tenth stone serves the purpose that bullion does, a reserve that marks the prices of the other gems? If so, it's likely rarer that emeralds, and wouldn't be mentioned since it wouldn't really enter circulation.

Wayne draws mistwraiths on Wax's drawing when he is planning out how to take out Miles. I would assume they are still around. More interestingly, I thought kandra couldn't have Allomancy. You can give it to them with the right spike? That is... moderately terrifying.