Raven Wilder

Another possibility that I brought up in a different thread: the lerasium beads that Rashek used to create the first Mistborn, along with the two he left by the Well, add up to ten or eleven beads ... but given the cosmic significance of the number 16 on Scadrial, there's a not unreasonable theory that there were originally sixteen beads of lerasium, meaning there are five or six beads unaccounted for. Someone discovering one of those could be a handy way to create a new Mistborn.

While it probably can't account for everything, we should bear in mind that Roshar only has about 70% of Earth's gravity, so lifting heavy objects isn't quite as difficult there.

Since reading Rhythm of War, I've been wanting to see if a bunch of singers chanting the Rhythm of Anxiety or the Rhythm of Joy at a Hemalurgic construct could take control of them the same way that Emotional Allomancy can.

The Recreance is more immediately relevant to present day events, because the characters are living in the society that grew out of the Recreance. Meanwhile, inbetween the First Desolation and now, not only have 7000 years gone by, but there have also been multiple apocalyptic wars that forced civilization to start over from sticks and stones.

Shallan still having Ideal credits from Testament, and being able to transfer those over to her nahel bond with Pattern, makes a lot of sense. When Kaladin broke one of his oaths and (mostly) killed Syl, he was able to swear the Third Ideal to revive her; he didn't have to start over at the First Ideal and work his way back up.

I mean, I get the impression that a full metalmind is something that Feruchemists rarely ever create.

I don't know if Roshar is necessarily metal poor, so much as the continent getting layered with crem over the course of millennia means all the veins of metal are deeply buried and not easily accessible.

Health and youthfulness do seem to be separate attributes in the Cosmere, rather than one being a component/product of the other. And, yeah, Vin was able to beat the Lord Ruler because what she did to beat him (drawing in the mists to power herself up and Pull off his atium bracers) was, as far as he knew, impossible, so he never thought to defend against it.

Human beings have enough Investiture that any metal inside their body cannot be Pushed or Pulled by Allomancers (unless they're the Lord Ruler). However, we saw that Vin could Push and Pull Sazed's metalminds; she just couldn't put as much oomph into it as she normally could. Given this, it seems like Soulcasting metalminds (at least ones whose stores aren't too big) would be easier than Soulcasting a person.

There's only one Nightblood on Roshar, and no one knows how to make another (except for Zahel, who ain't talking). So you can only have one soldier at a time wielding a spren/Fused-killing weapon, and if it gets lost or stolen during battle, there's no way to replace it. Raboniel might not consider that enough to change the tide of the war; she wants to create an immortal-killer weapon that can be standard issue.

Spikes that grant physical or mental abilities are more likely to twist you into something inhuman than ones that grant magical abilities; most people are going to be wary of that sort of drawback.

Here's a thought: no one at wild parties will do drugs, they'll just pay a Rioter a few bucks to make them all ecstatic.

Has there been confirmation from Brandon that Hemalurgy can steal traits from people other than humans?

True, but if it reaches that point, then Nightblood might not be outright destroyed, but would still be rendered powerless, since it would have consumed its own ability to consume Investiture. Of course, it's entirely possible that Nightblood only leaks excess Investiture, and there's a certain base amount that it can't fall below.

When unsheathed, Nightblood gives off a black smoke/mist that Brandon has said is Investiture leaking out, so clearly at least some of what it takes goes back out again. If Nightblood can get hungry enough that it starts consuming all nearby matter, but it's in the depths of space where there isn't any matter, then couldn't it end up consuming its own body?

Something I wonder is, what if you unsheathed Nightblood and then flung him into outer space, somewhere there's no Investiture for him to feed on. Could he eventually go hungry?

Yeah, I just assumed Mraize was operating on a general directive to not go around hunting random people (especially not well-known and well-connected people) unless it's necessary.

I mean that the strength of your magic gets weaker that farther you get from your homeland; that's why Elantrians never conquered the world, or why you don't see Forgers or Bloodsealers in Arelon.

But it does matter how physically close you are to the nation when you perform magic.

I wonder how magic works for Selish people who have parents of different nationalities and/or live along disputed borders.

Hmm ... would a Feruchemist storing their Connection in a Duraluminmind be immune to Ishar's Bondsmith powers?

Now here's a thought: would anything weird happen if you turned the former Vessel into a Lifeless? Would there be any residual connection to the Shard affecting things? 'Cause Vasher and Rayse's corpse are both right there, and Vasher knows from experience that an unsheathed Nightblood should not have left a corpse behind.

My issue with the treatment of Kaladin's mental issues is that there's a disconnect between what he should do if he was a real person suffering from PTSD, and what he should do as a main character in an epic fantasy story. In the real world, telling someone like Kaladin that they don't need to keep fighting, that they shouldn't keep fighting, if it means putting themselves through so much suffering, and that there's no shame in finding a calmer, less traumatic way to help others? That is absolutely good advice that they should heed. But in the context of The Stormlight Archive? Being a soldier and a leader of soldiers ... those are the only noteworthy skills Kaladin has. Without them, he has no role in the story, nothing he can contribute to the epic war the books are focused on. A Kaladin who gives up fighting and looks after his own mental health is a Kaladin who ceases to be main character material. Brandon wants to tell people suffering from PTSD that they can step away from their source of trauma and shouldn't think anything less of themselves, but Kaladin, as a combat-oriented character in an action/war story, really does become less if he steps away from the battles that traumatize him. Hence why Kaladin spends most of the book forced to fight, because otherwise, there'd be nothing for him to do. I've read the theory that Kaladin has seasonal affective disorder, he just happens to live on a planet where the seasons change randomly every few weeks, so he never knows when his mood is suddenly going to shift.

There are legends about "Iron Eyes" (a.k.a. Marsh), who seems to be sort of a Grim Reaper figure. The Southern Scadrians' depictions of Kelsier are likely to become confused with him.

I'd note, "slaveform" is not technically a form at all, but rather the absence of a form. So while mateform makes them hyper-fertile and sexual, and other forms make them asexual and/or un-fertile, parshmen don't have forms influencing their sexuality, so their ability to breed is just left at a sort of baseline.