Vortaan

So placing a spike someone not in a bind point doesn't steal any of their Spiritweb? In that case, I'm going to say that it doesn't stop the leakage of power. I think that the reason the power stops leaking away is that when you use the spike on a new Spiritweb, that person's Spiritweb takes over powering the spike, since the spike effectively becomes part of them.

This may be part of being an Iron/Steel savant. Kelsier is probably the most skilled Pusher/Puller we see that doesn't use Hemalurgy, and it's safe to say he burned both enough to get to savant level. Maybe Coinshot Savants have instinctual ability to Push where they need to. Also, Wax seems to have a very good eye for trajectories, it's possible he overshoots and compensates for his Pushes when he fires.

Honestly I see Dalinar as becoming a figure like Nohadel (or whatever the name of the guy who wrote the in-universe Way of Kinds is). The impression I got from the vision with him is that Nohadel was NOT a Surgebinder, but was a leader of the people. I don't even think he was a Knight Radiant. As for Dalinar's abilities with Shardplate... maybe acting more in keeping with Honor's intent gives one better ability to use it?

Hello all! I've actually posted in a few threads before introducing myself... in my defense, I am a new father and post when I get an uninterrupted five minutes. I am glad to join the community, and am actually really astonished at how deeply some of you have thought about the systems of magic depicted in Mistborn, in particular. And here I thought I was alone in thinking that it was a much much deeper system than it appears on the surface. Again, glad to make your acquaintance.

I seem to recall Kelsier Pushing on end and Pulling on the other end of a bar of steel in order to make it spin. This leads me to believe that with greater concentration you can Push or Pull anywhere on a piece of metal, but you will instinctively Push or Pull on the COG.

Infant Returned seem to break more than one theory about who can Return. For example, how is any infant able to process visions of the future enough to make a decision whether to Return or not? My son's 8 months old and smart as a whip (proud father, forgive me for it), but I doubt he has the capacity to understand that kind of decision. And we're talking children younger than him... I think there has to be more to it than how you died and a decision. Endowment may force some people to Return because they need to. Come to think of it, it doesn't even really go against his/her Shard... endowing someone with something need not be voluntary.

I think someone mentioned this, but consider the Parshendi as well. Arguably this strategy would benefit them more than it would the Alethi. They do not specialize, each Parshendi army seems pretty much the same. With shelters to rest, a run across the Plains would put them at the heart of the Alethi camp, or at least cut off their access to deeper in the Plains. Less access equals less gemhearts equals less food. So why haven't the Parshendi, that we assume are using Soulcasters, doing this? For that matter, why aren't they pressing the war? Armies make it back from losing battles. If the Parshendi were serious about the war, why do they not attack retreating armies?

Looking back, Marsh killed a Smoker to make that spike. Were it something that could have served Ruin better, like a Rioter for example, we might have a good answer to your question. That said, let's say Frank makes a spike out of Pewterarm Jim. He then places in himself, not on a bind point, immediately. Frank waits a week, then uses the spike on Steelrunner Luke to make a superfast, superstrong mega killer. Does some of Frank's Spirit web end up in Luke, or is it all Jim? If Frank was also a Steelrunner, could Luke use his storages?

I'm not sure about that. People do not trust Soothers and Rioters. If the media was informed that emotional Allomancy was being used to influence people against the government, it could well lead to a McCarthy-like witch hunt of emotional Allomancers... which would actually make for a pretty awesome story, come to think of it.

Seems like you would be taking your chances. Without a good knowledge of Hemalurgy, you may well actually create something awful that you can't control. That said, you probably would have less leakage than outside a body... but why wouldn't Marsh just have stored the spike he used on Penrod in his own body for awhile?

The interesting part of that is that if the emotional Allomancers did rebel, they could do a lot of damage... as long as they never made their rebellion public. The minute they did, someone's going to outfit a bunch of Thugs and Coinshots with aluminum hats and say "Go to it, boys". However, if the emotional Allomancers kept quiet... the amount of civil unrest they could cause, weakening the central government, would be insane. Similar to the Collapse, I imagine.

Still, if you are in a party and suddenly experience something after an event that you can't explain, I'd expect someone to say something to someone. I find it more likely that electum was never given to the original Mistborn, so they never had any knowledge of it. Maybe the Lord Ruler used Mistborn to give it to Inquisitors?

Is it possible that Odium changed the Shardblades? That maybe they didn't work on people before?

This doesn't seem to work. Atium is a known metal, the person burning it could assume that they are Mistborn. Electum is NOT a known metal, people burning it would have no knowledge of what was happening.

This has been bothering me the last time I read WoK. Shardblades and Shardplate are both classified as Shards, but it just seems like they are too different to be intended to be used as a single unit. So a theory: could Shardblades actually be of Odium, not Honor? It could explain Syl's hatred of them, and the fact that really, Shardblades seem to go against Honor's purpose. Yes the Heralds have Shardblades, but they seem different from other Shardblades. Anyway, what do you think?

If Lord Ruler controlled the Inquisitors allomantically, how did Marsh betray him? And being prepared to fight Allomancers is different from being prepared to fight Mistborn. Mistborn are EXTREMELY rare it seems. I doubt any of them would be wasted in an attempt to kill, effectively at the time, God. I'd buy the electum theory, with one problem: that means the Lord Ruler is aware of electum mistings when no one else is. How would he find them reliably enough to endow Inquisitors with it?

Doesn't invalidate the theory. Preservation hung on for a very long time at less than full consciousness. Maybe the messages are Honor's version of that.

Interesting. So here's a theory. The Oathpact has some kind of sustaining effect on Honor. When it's broken, his Shard splinters. The Desolations are for the sole purpose of making the Heralds break the Pact. While he waits for it to work, Odium rolls around the Cosmere, shattering other Shards.

Besides the fact that he's an evil force of evil, why does Odium care about Roshar enough to create Desolations? The feeling I get is that he's rolling around the Cosmere, shattering Shards and taking names... so why does Roshar matter to him at all?

Odd thought about why they might be taking women: Is there any reference to women Inquisitors? I can only remember male Inquisitors... I'd be curious if that would actually change anything. And would actually fit old Lord Ladrian's comment that Wax's sister is alive and well... technically Inquisitors are healthier than most people.

Events at a quantum level, from what I understand, can be changed by the simple fact of observation. Perhaps Spinners give themselves an ability to observe things on this level, thereby changing the event. Still internal... and very very far fetched. But I can't see how else it would work.

I kinda thought it was Syl. Not sure why, but when she later seems to remember more, and Kaladin's abilities being linked to Stormlight... as an honorspren, wouldn't she be obliged to honor any pact?

Anyone ever consider what she had was possibly purified by the Mists? In the years prior to Kelsier recruiting her, Vin did not wear her earring much. Is it possible she drew on the mists in minute quantities without ever realizing it? The "same as my Luck" thought isn't really all that helpful, since she's ignorant of both what the mists really are and what she's capable of until book 3.

To quote Professor Farnsworth "Quantum physics teaches us that anything can happen at any time, for no reason". Maybe all a Spinner does is affect that, causing the most likely event that is beneficial to him to occur instead of what would occur. Causality isn't really effected because you are adding a cause (drawing on chromium) which changes the parameters of the event.

Didn't Sazed say that being spiked put a person into a closer connection with Ruin? While Sazed does control the power of Ruin now, it is still an essentially evil force. Looking at the Letter, it seems the former controller of Ruin was a good guy prior to getting the power. Sazed doesn't seem to have gone to the dark side, probably due to Preservation's power. However, Hemalurgy is Ruin's art, and should in theory lead anyone spiked towards the goals that the power of Ruin is meant to achieve.