Raven Wilder

I think Odium likes presenting himself as giving off or being surrounded by golden light; that's how he often constructs images of himself in Visions. When he seems to be leaking golden light, it's not because that's the natural color of his Investiture, but because he's not controlling the image as well as he wants to, so instead of a stately golden aura it becomes more of a golden blob of light.

This is the first I've ever heard of "I'm terrified" being considered one of her Truths.

We know Honor's death was a lingering thing, that he was a long time dying after Odium Splintered him. What if it was Shallan who delivered the coup de grâce on the last living bit of Honor? Yep: Shallan killed God.

Well now, that's just brilliant. Wit would approve.

I'm inclined to think that, whether leftover from the original set, or because Harmony or someone else makes more, we will see lerasium again. The title of the series is Mistborn, after all, so while the Mistings-only thing works for the Wax & Wayne books (which weren't originally supposed to be part of the chronology, afterall), sooner or later new Mistborn are gonna have to come from somewhere.

Even with tons of refinement and scientific advancement, I'm not sure how you get past the "removes part of your soul" aspect of Hemalurgy. Even if you find a way to make Hemalurgic spikes without killing people, the best case scenario would still be something like the system on Nalthis, where thousands live as Drabs so a privileged few can be ultra-powerful ... except since there's no requirement for a Hemalurgic "donor" to be willing, it would be so much easier to abuse. I'd say widespread knowledge of Hemalurgy is one of the most frightening things that could happen to the Cosmere, since it gives people with no regard for the rights of others an incredible advantage over everyone else. Imagine what Straff Venture or Torol Sadeas would do with that power. Or, heck, imagine if in our world, every human sacrifice performed by the Aztecs, or every "undesirable" killed by the Nazis, was used to create a Hemalurgic spike that went towards empowering their soldiers?

I'm pretty sure Mraize said they hadn't figured out how to transport stormlight off-world yet. When talking about how easily transportable it is, I think he was comparing it to stuff like Elantrian or Allomantic Investiture (which is extremely difficult to remove from the special individuals it empowers). The most likely explanation is that the techniques needed for transporting Investiture across worlds are different for each form of Investiture; what works for the Dor won't necessarily work for Breaths or stormlight or metalminds, so each one is a new puzzle that needs cracking.

The lerasium could still have been left at the Well of Ascension (finding the Well was the end of a long quest, after all, which would fit with Rashek needing to go and get it); it just wasn't left there for Rashek, specifically. Glad to know I'm not alone in wondering about that!

Most systems of law have selective enforcement of the law as an explicit part of how they work. We saw an example of this right in the books, where Lift was spared from Nale because the head of the Azish government decided to pardon her. And in most judicidial systems, the judge and/or jury are given a great deal of latitude in deciding how or even if someone will be punished. There's also the concept of jury nullification, which says a jury can declare a defendant not guilty, regardless of evidence; even if jurors know for a fact that the defendant is guilty, they can still vote to declare them not guilty, and that act is completely legal and legally binding. Now, you could argue that all that stuff is decided by the courts and the higher echelons, and the Skybreakers would (if they're sworn to those particular legal systems) have an obligation to arrest any lawbreakers and see that they reached the court system. But even law enforcement officers are given some authority in that matter. In the United States, how to handle traffic violations is left to a police officer's discretion: they can ignore the violation, they can pull the driver over and give them a warning, pull the driver over and give them a ticket, or pull the driver over and arrest them. The law doesn't require any particular course of action; it provides them with a range of options for how severely to punish this criminal act, if they even want to punish it at all. Lawmakers usually realize that enforcing the law mechanically, without allowing human judgement into the mix, is utterly unworkable in a real world context. So any well-written code of laws is going to allow people latitude for how and when they enforce the law; that's not a violation of the law, that's the law being deliberately flexible.

I'm leaning towards the idea that it's theoretically doable, but the odds of finding two spren of different Orders who'd agree to it is next to impossible.

So there's a Word of Brandon that the lerasium beads found at the Well of Ascension were originally created and left there by Leras (a.k.a. Preservation). We know that Rashek consumed one to make himself a Mistborn, that he gave several others to kings who swore to serve him (a Hero of Ages epigraph refers to "the original nine Allomancers", but it's unclear if that number includes Rashek himself), and that two others were left by the Well, one stolen by Hoid and one used to make Elend a Mistborn. That adds up to either eleven or twelve beads of lerasium. But we know that the number sixteen is super-important on Scadrial. Heck, that Hero of Ages epigraph I mentioned (for Chapter 22) comes immediately after Vin and Elend discover that the number of people who succumb to the mist sickness is always sixteen percent, and wonder what sort of cosmic significance the number sixteen might have. Now, I'm not saying Leras would have to create sixteen beads of Lerasium, especially if their vaguely defined prophecy powers said only eleven or twelve would be necessary. But just like how Honor created ten Honorblades to give their Heralds, because ten is an important number on Roshar, it feels right that the lerasium beads would come in a set of sixteen. So if there were sixteen pieces of lerasium originally, then there could still be four or five beads unaccounted for. That could end up being one hell of a plot point.

Yeah, I missed the short story-esque interludes that took us to all sorts of bizarre corners of Roshar. I'm kinda worried that maybe Brandon has decided to shove all that stuff into the novellas, and so it'll be left out of the main books.

I wouldn't be surprised if everyone on Roshar is infused with at least a little stormlight. They might not hold it as well as gemstones do, but they do still live on a planet where huge amounts of Investiture rain from the sky every few days. It's not enough stormlight to be useful most of the time, but it's still there; like how on Scadrial, even people who aren't Allomancers or Feruchemists have a little extra Preservation in them. So when Lift uses her Surges, the bulk of the power may be coming from Lifelight, but that doesn't mean there's not a little stormlight in the mix, too.

It occurred to me recently that, on each Cosmere world we've explored in-depth, the local magic systems seem to ... not necessarily represent certain values, but to reward certain values. To be set up in such a way that living a certain kind of life and having a certain approach to the world yields the best results. On Sel, all the magic systems (that we know of) reward being a scholar. There's no such thing as instinctive magic on Sel (except maybe for that "know exactly how many steps you are from any given location" power); all Selish magic is the result of careful learning, study, and practice. Sure, being chosen as an Elantrian automatically gives you certain benefits, but even then, the only way to perform AonDor is by learning the many and complex Aons that can be drawn for various effects. Dakhor monks need to spend years at a monastery, going through repeated and elaborate rituals, making signs in order to transform their bodies. ChayShan is a martial art, so we can assume it's the product of training and practice. Forgery is all about learning and meticulous application of knowledge, and it's likely Bloodsealing works similarly. In all of them, magic can only be performed as the result of long and diligent study, and those who have practiced longer and learned more quickly will have far greater abilities. If there's one value Selish magic encourages, it's scholarly achievement. By contrast, Roshar's magic rewards people, not for academics, but for spirituality. While practicing your magical abilities is useful, fabrial construction is the only aspect that's a scholarly discipline; the magics directly wielded by people function as instinctive abilities, given as rewards for undertaking a spiritual journey. There's the obvious mechanic where the Knights Radiant progress in power by swearing new oaths, becoming more powerful as they more fully embody their Ideals. But all Rosharan magic, whether Surgebinding, Voidbinding, or the Old Magic, comes from making a covenant with a divine being, with power granted in exchange for accepting what those god(lings) ask of you. Being open to spiritual change and growth is the key to practicing magic on Roshar, the value its magic systems prize above all else. Meanwhile, on Nalthis the magic system values ... being rich. Everyone on the planet starts life with a Breath, a magical commodity that can be sold, bought, and traded, with magical abilities only open to those who can buy a great deal of Breath. Sure, you might say Awakening is an academic discipline like Selish magic, but there's two catches there. First is that greater skill at Awakening is one of the benefits of the Heightenings; someone who has purchased a whole mess of Breaths can skip over much of the arduous study a poorer Awakener would have to go through. Second is that, once an object has been Awakened, it can be purchased and used by anyone. You don't need to be a master Awakener to command a Lifeless army or wield Nightblood in battle: you just need to find a master Awakener who's willing to sell. For Nalthian magic, cash is king. Then we come to Scadrial. You might be inclined to say that Scadrian magic rewards genetics, since for the two most common magic systems, your power depends on blood lineage and good luck. But I'd say that what the Metallic Arts most reward is gaming the system. Between Allomancy and Feruchemy, there are a lot of different powers someone can have on Scadrial, but while you can get some benefit from using a given power in a straightforward manner, all the most awesome effects come from playing different powers off each other. Heck, six of the Allomantic metals only produce a noticeable effect if they're used with or against another form of Allomancy (pity the poor sods who get stuck as Duralumin Gnats). Obviously Allomantic Zinc & Brass can do a lot more together than either can apart. Allomantic Steel can be useful on its own, but paired with Allomantic or Feruchemical Iron, its possibilities expand exponentially. Having Feruchemical Aluminum along with any other Feruchemical power lets you break one of the key rules of that magic system. Then there's Compounding, the ultimate magic system hack, which was powerful enough to let one dude conquer the world. And, never forget, Hemalurgy is one of the three Metallic Arts, a magic system that's all about picking and choosing what powers you want to take for the best possible combinations. I first got to thinking about all this when I looked at what it takes on each planet for someone to become immortal. On Roshar, immortality is granted to the elite servants of the gods, who are transformed into beings more spirit than person so they can carry on the gods' mission throughout eternity. On Scadrial, immortality comes from from using an end-positive magic system to power an end-neutral magical ability, breaking the rules of how storing youth is supposed to work. And on Nalthis, becoming immortal is just a question of buying enough Breath (even the lucky few who Return need a new Breath each week). Elantrian immortality is the only one that doesn't fit the mold, but then, we don't yet know how Elantris and the Shaod were created.

I figure the punishment he'll get from the other Horneaters is banishment. Specifically, banishment from Roshar, sending him through the perpendicularity and into Shadesmar, and he'll join up with one of the groups doing stuff there.

I think people aren't discussing duralumin enough here. To deal enough damage to get past a Radiant's Shardplate and/or healing while staying out of Shardblade range, duralumin-enhanced steelpushes are really the obvious way to go. And if the Mistborn has access to all the metals, then after each flare of duralumin, they could throw up a bendalloy speed bubble, down another vial of metal while in sped up time, then drop the bubble and hit 'em with another duralumin attack so quickly, it will seem like almost no pause at all.

One of the rules of Awakening is that the more an object looks like a living being, the easier it is to Awaken. But suppose a kandra acquired some Breaths and became an Awakener. What would it mean for an object to "look like a kandra"?

It's mentioned that Shardplate always cracks before it breaks. Whether you're hitting it with a Shardblade or a hammer blow or something else powerful enough to damage it, the Plate will still always withstand that first blow without doing more than cracking; you need to hit that same section of Plate a second time if you want to break it apart.

Oh, I'm not suggesting you leave the memory of your first experience stored in the metalmind long term. Just long enough to create a new, fresh experience from a second reading/viewing, then you can take the old memory back and have both experiences in your head.

Remember how you felt after you finished reading your favorite book, or after seeing your favorite movie, or your favorite episode of your favorite TV show. Remember what an exhilarating, emotional experience it was. Remember how you reread or rewatched it so you can experience at least a little of that magic again. Now imagine you're a Feruchemist. You can store all your memories of having read that book or seen that movie in a coppermind. Until you tap that metalmind again, you'll have no memory of having read or seen it before; you'll know nothing about the story or the characters, have no idea what to expect. So when you flip open the pages or fire up the DVD, you get to experience your favorite story for the first time all over again. And you can repeat that experience as many times as you want, and it will never get old. A lot of us have thought about which abilities are most useful in a fight, and which would be most practical for day-to-day life. But now that this use for copperminds has occurred to me, I think being an Archivist Ferring might be the Metallic Art I'd want the most.

We've never seen a Leecher in action, but their ability is described as causing the person they touch to "lose their metal reserves", just like aluminum does to a Mistborn who burns it. When Vin was forced to burn aluminum, it eliminated all the metals in her system, not just the ones she was actively burning. I think we can assume chromium would do the same thing. Now, what effect a Leecher would have on metalminds kept outside the body, I do not know.

I'm gonna assume pro-sports would have Chromium Mistings on hand to erase athletes' metal reserves immediately prior to the game. But school exams are an interesting question. Would Scadrian schools allow Feruchemist students to bring zincminds or copperminds with them to tests?

I think there's some comment that, just like Nightblood can feed off any source of Investiture, a Returned's Divine Breath only needs to consume some chunk of Investiture every eight days; it doesn't necessarily need to be Breath. So while only Breath can be used to Awaken, Nighblood and the Returned can be fed off any source of magic. Though that still raises the question of how Vasher takes in stormlight to feed his Divine Breath without being a Surgebinder.

If the Stormlight Archive were ever adapted for the screen, I'd want it to be animated rather than live action. When you consider how much of a "live-action" version would need to be CGI anyway (not just the magic and spren, but pretty much any scene set outside would need a CGI landscape, plus most of the actors would either need colored contacts or have their eye colors digitally changed) it just doesn't seem practical.

Assuming he had his Divine Breath plus X amount of other Breaths when he traveled to Roshar, and he's been using stormlight to keep his Divine Breath filled this whole time, then all those regular Breaths he's holding would never get used up, and should still be ready to use any time. I'd definitely want to keep some Breaths in reserve if I were him. While stormlight is plentiful on Roshar, there is still the Weeping, when they go a month without highstorms and all but the largest/most perfect of gemstones go dun. If you die without a dose of Investiture every eight days, that could be a tricky period to live through; best to keep a few Breaths in reserve to act as a buffer.