Vortaan

Or there's a Voidbringer in there. Makes sense that if spren are Honor-based, Voidbringers that are Odium based might be able to be utilized in a similar fashion.

So second thought: what Hemalurgy takes is the connection between Spiritual and Cognitive aspects of a soul. Grafting this particular part of a spirit web onto someone else's soul effectively tricks the universe into allowing them access to abilities that they could not access normally. Somewhat supported by being to use it on animals and the idea that you could survive being used as source material for Hemalurgy. The way the magic works so far in the Cosmere, I doubt that removing any aspect entirely (Physical, Spiritual, Cognitive) would allow someone to continue existing.

Without knowing more about the confirmed afterlife, it's hard to answer any questions. For example, what happened to Ati and Leras? Vin survived her brush with Ruin, at least in ghost form. Presumably so did both Leras and Ati. Or do Shards over-write someone's own soul over time? What about Marsh? If he's killed, is the afterlife now serving Marsh, party of 20 something? Personally I think that what is taken from people with Hemalurgy isn't their actual self, but their connection to the power of Creation that Shards are the conduit of. Taken like that, it's likely that the person themselves moves on to said afterlife, or maybe a more purgatory kind of existence?

The interesting thing about Dilaf's wife is that there is a possible second magic at work on her. Dilaf's Skaze has shown to be able to corrupt Aons. Could his nearness to her have been what caused the whole chain of events?

I meant something more along the lines of manacles, instead of the somewhat flexible metalminds Sazed describes. Something that you would likely have to literally pull your wrist off before it would come off. I agree that it would likely injure the user, and the ball-and-chain belt is likely a lot better.

You're thinking of the Dawnsingers, actually. I actually don't think they were spren, but I can see your point about just now knowing how to use their abilities. It's just odd to me that Kaladin instinctively learns to use Stormlight better after the second oath. Maybe Surgebinding is more instinctual than intellectual.

Regarding flying Lurchers, I'm surprised no one thought about the actual metalminds someone is wearing. Wax specifically doesn't push on his metalminds, but ones that were welded on should be able to be Pulled on, and if you started extremely heavy then switched to extremely light immediately, you could probably get a large jump. The problem I see is that you'd be flying backward, with your metalminds pressed into your chest, so navigation might be... tricky.

I think the expulsion of the Tranquline Halls was Honor being forced from his own world by Odium, for whatever reason. I'm thinking the shattering of Adonalsium happened far enough in the past that it may have passed out of legend completely. We don't see any hints of it on any other world, and presumably some of the worlds had refugees from Yolen as well.

I really think Sazed changed Allomancy, and that prior to him doing so nicrosil was not used in the Metallic Arts. My reasoning is this: neither Vin nor Elend use nicrosil when their Allomancy is being directly fueled by the power of Preservation, and in both cases it would have been a HUGE advantage. Even noticing a new metal reserve in both those situations would likely have been mentioned, particularly by Elend. There are allusions to Harmony fundamentally changing Allomancy in AoL, and this seems like the most likely change. I do think that bendalloy/cadium were usable in TLR's time, but he preferred to use his compounded Feruchemical abilities, which are much more offensively useful if you can tap large amounts with no fear of running out, compared to relatively rare metals.

Nohadon talks about finding a way to limit Surgebinders. Reading this thread makes me wonder if somehow he locked the full power of Surgebinding behind a tier of oaths. Looking at Syl and Kaladin, it's obvious that she wanted to help him get greater power to defend himself and his men. Kaladin's powers also start to accelerate once he learns and starts to accept even the first oath. I think in these discussions, the fact that Kaladin becomes noticebly better to control his abilities AFTER learning the first oath is overlooked too often.

Personally I think atium mistings were sick for longer simply because they are drawing on a god metal, and one that is specifically against the Intent of Preservation. You probably need to have serious trauma for the Preservation inside you to decide drawing on the power of Ruin is a good thing. I imagine every other Allomantic metal had people sick for relatively the same amount of time, dependent upon health of the person, as no one mentions varying lengths of recovery except for Demoux and the mistfallen.

If Elantrians very many miles away from Elantris can take out Dakhor monks en masse, I think that a Mistborn would be able to in a duel. It would be extremely difficult, probably akin to fighting koloss. Then again, towards the end, neither Elend nor Vin have any trouble beating a koloss one on one.

I always figure the end-positive/neutral/negative to be an indication of how much Investiture is lost during the process. Breath, for example, you can get back what you put in, as long as you are not creating Lifeless. Allomancy you get more than you put in, as burning a small amount of metal adds a relatively large amount of power. If you look at it that way, Hemalurgy always results in less Investiture, as you lose some charge in the process of creating a spike. By the same token I think we're going to find that fabrials are end-negative as you, at best, have to trap a spren in order for them to work. Time will tell, however.

Well, looking at the Cosmere as a whole, we have as magic systems: Allomancy: end positive, focus on metals, metals are consumed during use. Feruchemy: end neutral, focus on metals, metals are not consumed during use Hemalurgy: end negative, focus on metals, metals are not consumed, requires blood, a donor, and a host. Awakening: end neutral (my opinion), focus on color, Breath and proper Commands required. Also requires a host for Breaths. AonDor: end positive (power comes from Dor), symbol focused, large amount of variety, weakens based on distance. Surgebinding: unsure if positive or neutral. Likely requires bound human/spren pairings. Requires Stormlight. Functions are limited by Order of KR. Fabrials: end negative, likely. Requires trapped spren and Stormlight. Function seems locked at time of creation. I forget the name of the other system on Sel, the one the Dakhor monks use. It is end negative, apparently, but it's powers are vague at best, so I'm hesitant to get into too much detail. Same with Forgery. However, looking at these, some interesting things pop out to me. 1) Hemalurgy, Awakening, and Fabrials all require a donor to begin working. Surgebinding requires a symbiosis (except Szeth for whatever reason). 2) Hemalurgy and Awakening require hosts. In Hemalurgy this is the spiked person, in Awakening it's whatever you intend to Awaken. 3) Fabrials and AonDor seem the most versatile in their effects. Both are tied to a natural process in the world, geography and spren accordingly. That's all that pops out right now, but it's been a long day. Hemalurgy does seem to me to have a lot more in common with Awakening than any other system, though.

How does this work with Wax's original theory that the Vanishers were using speed bubbles? Perhaps, instead of the whole train, it works on a car-by-car basis? Is a train one whole cognitive aspect, or does each car contribute to the overall cognitive aspect? What about an arrow? It's made of several different parts that could concieve of themselves as different things. That bit about "how the object percieves itself" really throws time bubbles, and the nature of objects themselves in the Cosmere into question.

I think we're using the same instance to prove different theories. To me consuming Stormlight is a lot like burning metals, and the actual power behind it is likely Honor's. It seems you are saying that the Nahel bond is the gateway, and Stormlight is the power fueling the abilities. I can see your point, it'll be interesting to see if either/neither or possibly both of us are right!

Is there such a thing as Feruchemical savants? I suppose that it'd be hard to find out, since most attributes you can't draw on indefinitely. This is interesting, I wonder what other Feruchemical savants would look like.

I wonder how long it took the Sunmaker to finish his conquests. If he started when he was seventeen... five years? Ten? Maybe it's not so much the lens of a bloodthirsty seventeen year old but the lens of someone who really only knew how to conquer. As for Teft's family, I've always figured they were descendants of the soldiers that the KR in Dalinar's vision walked back to. I mean... a huge military force like the KR needs a support structure. What happened to them?

Stormlight is likely the gateway to power, not the source. Let's look at Kaladin and Shallan, for example. Both have to consume Stormlight in some way to power their abilities, and both abilities are radically different in actual function. Sound familiar at all? I'd say spren might be the metals-equivalent on Roshar, but they aren't consumed (that we can see), except in fabrial construction.

This is interesting to me, because of the shard of my soul reference. Is it possible that the nahel bond doesn't just gift the bound spren with a Cognitive aspect but a Spiritual one as well?

I think the sphere has something to do with Odium, however, and the Nightwatcher is probably not associated with him. This comes into could the Nightwatcher grant boons/curses that play with the other magic systems? I'm inclined to say no, that the sphere was found maybe in the dealings with the Parshendi, maybe before that. Also no one mentions Gavilar leaving Alethi for awhile. It may have not been important enough to bring up, but the king taking a journey out of the country when it's really pretty fragile internally seems unlikely.

It's an interesting idea, but Harmony being the one who would have the in kind of spoils it. Also keep in mind that Miles was a lawkeeper, and I'll wager quite a few of the bandits in the Roughs are Coinshots and Lurchers. In that case, wearing your metalminds, particularly the amount that Miles would need, is just silly. Actually, Wayne's armbands seem a bit silly in that respect too.

If you're talking someone with just Plate vs. someone with just a Blade, I imagine Blade wins, actually. The Plate wearer wouldn't have a weapon that can he can defend himself with, so he's almost immediately reduced to trying hand-to-hand. If the Blade wielder is any kind of agile, I can see it going to Blade. However, a bit off topic, so that's all I'll say about that

Could be that he ran into whomever Teft learned all his KR lore from. It actually seems like killing someone who just had the Blade and no Plate would be a lot easier too.

The question I have then is why the rocks don't glow. If stone absorbs stormlight, which I can kind of get behind, why doesn't it glow like Surgebinders and gems do? Unless you're saying the actual glow is the visual sign of a leak, which I guess the narrative supports. On the fence with this one, honestly. However, this theory does give us some idea why the Shin don't want to walk on stone. If it's holding massive amounts of stormlight, and they revere it, which I gather from Szeth's viewpoints that they do, it would make all stone holy, simply because of what is inside it.