Fatikis

It is interesting that you think Autonomy is backing the Set yet not attacking Scadrial. From the Set's Faceless Immortal the end of Bands of Mourning to Edwarn Ladrian.

Not very likely. The timelines don't really mesh up. I do wonder if Nightblood could pick up a shard.

I think we might be seeing a autonomous pantheon that is fighting itself. If Autonomy is both Nalt and Trell then Nalt can be the villain killing Sazed, and Trell can swoop in as a hero stopping them.

If aluminum was Adonalsium how is it on Scadrial? Scadrial didn't exist preshattering. I'd like to point out the god metals ARE investiture. It doesn't matter if Adonalsium is dead. The metal would still be raw investiture. You can't remove the investiture from a God metal. It is investiture.

According to that logic anyone would be gifted with anything they choose to do as you would always be influencing your past self in the future. We can clearly see everyone is not the best at what they are trying to be. Not everyone has natural affinities. Thus we can rule out this as a possibility. I'd also like to point out. Spren memory is super f'd up when they enter the physical realm to bond a Radiant. Which explains why they know and don't know things.

It is very unlikely he is using Feruchemy which is directly tied into the sDNA of Scadrial. It isn't a power you can just take. Hoid had his powers of luck long before he received the Lerasium. He is most likely using a form of fortune that predate the shattering, or possibly one that he set out to acquire before any of the books we've seen him in.

I think it is pretty obvious that the God metals aren't real metals. We literally know how aluminum is formed. We know how aluminum works. Scadrial was created by Ati and Leras. There is no way that aluminum could have gotten there if it was a god metal. We can say with 99.99% certainty that aluminum is not a god metal.

It is an interesting idea. I don't think I buy into it, but I am interested. I would say Steel would be Dominion trying to spread itself out. A possible Iron would be Honor. As Honor binds things together. Perhaps Ambition as Duralumin as it ambitiously burns your other reserves. Autonomy seems to have a connection to gold. Gold as a representation of the sun. Miles who is heavily influence by Autonomy was a gold compounder. Directly I don't see how the effects of gold are anything like Autonomy, but it is an interesting note. Kind of a neat idea. I don't think it will turn out to be true, but it is possible that the metals are related but not directly to the shards. Kind of a parody of the shardic intents. Edit: Gold lets you see another version of yourself, but it is yourself. Autonomy is creating avatars of itself. A weird connection.

I don't think it is as dangerous as it seems. It is actually very smart. A huge limitation of most shards is that the investiture is all tied in with the vessel. The human or other sentient vessel is finite when the power is vast. The vessels are essentially the weakest part of the shard. As we know Preservation doesn't just exist on Scadrial. Preservation is everywhere in the cosmere. Sazed's mind cannot process the entirety of this and so he is forced to focus on Scadrial. Spreading the investiture out to avatars allows Autonomy to become aware of Autonomous investiture not specifically located on her planets. The avatars are essentially cataloging and using investiture that while always belonged to Autonomy she was not aware of do to the limited nature of the vessels. Because of this Autonomy has more usable investiture than any of the other shards. Basically Autonomy has found a way around the limited mental capacity of vessels by delegating.

I'm pretty sure Autonomy has taken a new approach to investing in systems. Instead of investing directly in planets she is investing in the suns of the systems. On Taldain we know investiture is coming from the sun. In the Drominad System we have all of the planets named 'X of Sun." Which is an odd naming system, but alone not much evidence. On Scadrial the Thousand Eyes of Trell are all stars. Now in Mistborn Era2 we have another interesting bit. After stepping into the light Wax sees a red haze. The haze beating downward on Scadrial. Beating a very odd word choice. Not battering like an outside force trying to get in. Beating a word often used in reference to sunlight. A thin strip of light around the world preventing it. This almost as if being deflected by the planets Ionosphere obviously amplified by Sazed. When Sazed ascended he put a stop to the ashmounts, and as a side effect of the ascension Scadrials invested mists are beginning to recede. Scadrial mists and the Ashmounts would have drastically reduced the amount of radiation hitting Scadrial from the sun. Another interesting fact in Trellagism Nalt the jealous brother shines his single eye during the day. That is all I have for now, but I would be interesting in hearing thoughts.

Is touching it in the cognitive realm enough? My point is it may require a real physical body in order to tap a metalmind. The only way we've seen a metalmind tapped is physical contact with the metal. If cognitive shadows can tap metalminds they in theory could stop themselves from passing beyond by tapping stored power. Gaining immortality-ish. I'm not saying that it wouldn't work. I'm saying that we don't know if it would. The answer is *shrug* it might work.

But does having a soul mean they can tap a metalmind? A cognitive shadow for instance can't use allomancy because they don't have a body. The ability may require an organic body. There could be a WoB confirming if they can or can't, but I have not seen it.

I wonder if a nonorganics can tap a metalmind. Could a spren or a cognitive shadow use a blanked metalmind? If a spren can use one an AI should be able to.

The coppermind decay is due to flaws in the human brain and not a natural decay of power. What is important here is whether an AI can access metalminds or be "spiked".

That is awesome. I actually wasn't aware of this. Thanks for pointing it out. I'm not surprised. You are going to end up in real world tricky ethical areas with that question. To avoid that I'm assuming the children were all conceived and born either on Nalthis or off. This takes the when the breath is received out of the question. Instead it only matters if the breath is received.

I have a few interesting questions that I could not find answers to regarding children and breath. If two people of Nalthis heritage have a child off world will that child have a breath? If two non-Nalthians conceive and bore a child on Nalthis will it have a breath? If you have a single parent of Nalthis do you have a breath if conceived and born on world? If you have a single parent of Nalthis do you have a breath if conceived and born off world? My thoughts on this topic. People of Nalthis as drabs have less soul than the Cosmere standard. If they have a child that was not born with breath from Endowment they should be born drab. Breath appears to be directly endowed by Endowment. It doesn't appear to be just a natural part of the fetuses development. The reason I think this is two drabs have a child with a breath on Nalthis. This hints at breath not being generated by the parents but directly endowed by Endowment. If a non-native is born with a breath on Nalthis they should have more than a normal individual and a Nalthian. If there are any WoBs or anyone else has any thoughts on this I'd be very interested. This seems like something that will occur as the Cosmere progresses.

I think it is pretty clear the situations are similar but not the same. A twinborn isn't going to accidentally destroy their own soul. Intent is pretty important in these circumstances. We also have no information on how powerful Nicrobursting can be. You can tap a mind multiple times for huge amounts of power. Someone about to be nicrobursted could also hold huge metal reserves all used up in an instant. We currently have no example of how powerful this could be. It is very possible a gut full of nicrobusted allomancy could compete with tapping metal minds. We've never seen anyone with absurd reserves of metal prior to duralumin usage or being leeched.

Your WoB is interesting, but it does not dismiss the possibility. First there is a major difference between using allomantic nicrosil to using feruchemical nicrosil. The Nicroburst being a major player in this. You aren't just tapping or even flaring the chromium. You are bursting it which should cause much more extreme results. Tapping a lot of stored Aluminum probably isn't going to work the same, but it would be similar. I'd say this WoB is evidence it might not work, but not a hard no. Next there is a huge difference between using yourself and someone else. I assume there would also be a need to be knowledge and intent in the actions if they are possible. You'd have to know the soul is made of investiture and you'd need to be actively trying to leech it.

I could definitely see that. It could function as a nonlethal hemalurgy replicating the sDNA instead of taking it.

I disagree slightly. I believe snapping is now required to let more of Preservation, but I think this is due to genetic drift. If you have the full correct Mistborn sDNA you shouldn't need to snap. This is essentially what the Lesarium is doing. It alters you into a true sDNA Mistborn. Elend is even stronger than Vin. This implies that even standard full Mistborn don't have the full sDNA possible for Allomancy because of this snapping is required to let Preservation fill those cracks essentially amplifying the watered down sDNA. Snapping in my opinion is letting Preservation fill the cracks in the allomantic sDNA.

I don't think the opposite powers bit holds up. I doubt lesarium is going to change your past or have no hemalurgic effect. I agree Lesarium hemalurgy should be powered by Preservation. I believe all Godmetals will be a wild card allowing any power transfer. For example Trellium seems to be able to hold multiple powers. This means Atium's true Hemalurgic purpose is unknown. In which case Lesarium should be a perfect spike not subject to hemalurgic decay. Maybe it even amplifies the power taken via Preservation.

If the soul is made of investiture could a nicrobursted leecher drain the investiture from someone's soul?

I don't think a bond like that would work. Sprens are essentially investiture where dragons are a race. A bond with them seems like a human bonding a Parshman. They could perhaps form some kind of a bond, but It wouldn't alter them into being nonhuman. I have some interesting quotes on the topic. Hoid describes himself to Kelsier as. "The flame's last breath, made of smoke at its passing." This sounds a lot like a cognitive shadow to me. The investiture left over after the fire or man is gone. Hoid to Dalinar (after namedropping Adonalsium) "I wonder if you could do that to a man. Pull him apart, emotion by emotion, bit by bit, bloody chunk by bloody chunk. Then combine them back together into something else, like an Dysian Aimian. If you do put a man together like that, Dalinar, be sure to name him Gibberish, after me. Or perhaps Gibletish." This is even stranger. This seems to describe what was done to Adonalsium and foreshadows Hoid's goal to resurrect Adonalsium. Name it after me is telling. Seeming that Hoid isn't just describing an action he is taking, but that he himself is Gibletish. A giblet essentially being the unwanted pieces of food that are thrown out. Adonalsium held all investiture in the Cosmere. What is left after his power is divided? Giblets or a cognitive shadow. From Secret History we know that someone who has Ascended doesn't have to pass on. They can choose to remain. What if Hoid merged with the leftovers? A normal man that merged with Adonalsium's cognitive shadow or "The flame's last breath, made of smoke at its passing." Not a flame's last breath. THE flame's last breath.

If a leecher touched a cognitive shadow/shade would they drain the investiture destroying it? What happens to leeched investiture?

Thinking about this if you were to store breath in a Nicrosil-mind, burn the nicrosil mind with allomancy, you might be able to fuel the breath with some of Preservation's investiture. This might give you something akin to a divine breath or maybe just a more powerful breath. Hard to say how this would work for sure.