Vortaan

Cannot figure out spoiler tag today, so response will wait until my head stops pounding

I don't think Dominion is in the running here. The Wax and Wayne books take place pretty close to the SA books we've had so far. The Letter from WoK really makes me think that Sel's condition isn't too far off from what we saw it at before, or the author of the Letter doesn't know about a change in condition. Considering the Author's interests... I doubt he wouldn't know.

Given MeLaan's speculation that she impersonated Inquisitors in the past, I don't know that that's true. She should also be aware at least of the kinds of things she could be doing, if not from her own experience than from partnering with Wax for twenty years and hunting down outlaws in the Roughs.

I always assumed the man who stabbed Spook was mentally unbalanced and prone to being influenced by Ruin, like Vin's mom. Wax is prone to being influenced by Harmony, but considering how Harmony is acting lately, and the fact that at that particular point in time Wax seemed to be frustrated with his part in Harmony's plans...

I don't think so, considering how Wax beats her. Unless he was insanely lucky to hit one of 300 different bind points that can be as small as an earring piercing.

So theory: the spike is not one god metal. It's two, an alloy of Autonomy and Atium. Why these two metals? I think Bleeder had ONE spike for all her abilities, but could only access one ability at a time. Remember that all bind points do not work for all abilities. With one spike, all Bleeder could access at any given time would be one ability. Atium provides the ability to grab any ability from any one, and perhaps Autonomy provides the ability to hold more than one ability in a spike, at greatly reduced capacity. It never seemed to me like Bleeder used any of her abilities at a level we'd expect from a creature as old and crafty as she is... unless she WAS using them to the maximum of her capacity, and that capacity was much lower than expected.

I wonder if at this point Harmony is caught in a trap. He has to either do nothing, or fulfill the function of both his Shards. He Preserved Elendel by manipulating Wax, but Ruined Wax's love with Lessie. He Preserves the kandra by helping Wax take down Bleeder, but Ruins Wax's faith in god... It seems to me that maybe Harmony is trapped in a cycle where he can't Preserve without Ruining, and needs to figure out the way to create the most amount of good for the largest amount of people by causing the smallest amount of harm. Poor Wax just ends up being the chew toy.

Original topic: I don't recall seeing anyone who lost a limb to a Shardblade having it amputated. As far as I was aware, there was still bloodflow and nutrients going to the limb, just the actual control of it was gone. That said,would the limb count as alive if it was still... alive?

Haven't been here in awhile, but: By the Kaladin Definition of Madness, Obliteration Is actually insane. If you take a large group of Epics, Obliteration is the one acting oddly, thus making him the insane one. Put him with a large group of normal people, same deal. He does not fit into either group, or any aggregate group I can think of. The ONLY group he is sane by would possibly be the Reckoners, and... well, an Epic who kills Epics is pretty outside their experience (Yes, Prof, but no one knows about Prof so doesn't count).

Kaladin's mom seems like the bigger mystery. It seems like they met in Khabranth, and apparently Lirin was worth abandoning her entire family for. she's pretty well educated for a darkeyed woman, so... second dahn, maybe? Was she marrying beneath herself with the young surgeon's apprentince?

I will be the terror that flaps in the night.

There's some debate on that fact. Right now we haven't seen it, but some theorize it's possible and others (like me!) think that the power of a Shard is too great to be contained in a human body. But on topic, yes, we have WoB that Hoid is not a Shardholder, he is manipulating a lot of different systems to do what he does. Off the top of my head, he is at least a Yolish Lightweaver, a Feruchemist, an Allomancer, and an Awakener.

Weeeelll.... maybe. What if you can fuel mechanical Feruchemy with Stormlight instead of your own body?

Side note on nalan's fabrial: is it possible that it's a fabrial like Nightblood is a Shardblade, and he's actually using some other kind of investiture? Maybe southern continent Feruchemy?

You know, it's a good thing that there wasn't a period when Odium couldn't have been on Braize, a period where Hoid could have sauntered in and taken a look around... good thing Odium didn't go to some planet and visit some old friends, maybe wreck the place a little, he's such a party god...

Have an upvote for a really well made point, sir.

Also the prohibition is specifically against killing humans, not hurting them. Look at TenSoon

I'll wager the not hurting humans thing probably no longer applies, given some things that happen in AoL

I'd like Gaz better if we didn't have a PoV on him that seems pretty consistent with how he acts later. Keep in mind that kandra might be great actors, but there are going to be a -ton- of cultural differences that kandra are not going to pick up on while worldhopping. Scadrial was a bit easier to impersonate, since the Final Empire was pretty much the same everywhere and the post-Harmony world hasn't developed extremely diverse cultures yet.

Sazed disagrees. Regardless I stand by my all upside stance. There is no use at all to tapping death. And since it s actual death, not injury, I doubt you could use Feruchemical gold to survive it

I personally doubt it... there's no storing in Feruchemy that is all upside, and storing death would be all upside. I can't ever see anyone tapping it.

I got the impression that the same spike can't steal the same attribute more than once, but this could be just me. This is what I credit with bringing more humanity to the koloss, as the spike couldn't take more strength, so it took more of the basic part of Preservation that allows sentience. I guess the secondary question there is if you spike it into a normal person, will their body try to eat Breaths, or is that a side effect of Returning?

I doubt that there's enough room left in an Awakened sentient metal object to store the extra Investiture of Hemalurgy. On top of that, sentient Invested metals don't seem to follow all the physical laws we'd expect, I doubt that you'd even have a body to stab if you tried, although I might be wrong there. Third, the rule seems to be tearing off one part of the Spiritweb at a time, I doubt throwing other magic systems into the mix is going to break that. It seems to almost imply that where you stab someone when you kill them is as important as where you later place the spike to grant the abilities.

Considering Syl has no heart at all, any physical being's heart might seem powerful to her. As for Night's Cloak... well, there is the Nightwatcher.