Scion of the Mists

If you can spike a spren, I don't see why you couldn't spike a Seon or Skaze. I'd guess you can spike just about any sentient being.

Actually, there's a much more recent WoB that says otherwise:

Every single Nalthian is Invested, so I would assume that they're more numerous than Allomancers. A good point that the numbers of Ashyn magic users is unbounded. (Although I would pedantically quibble over the phrase "concrete entity") I would think that Shades count as the vampiric method of propagation. Here's the WoB. Koloss also fall into this category.

It's not very common for genetics to play a role (that's only the case for Allomancy and Feruchemy, that we know of), so I don't think #1 is a big issue. Plus, I think the page is pretty clear about that difference. The normal method is #1, the others are either hacks (#3, #4) or Shardic intervention (#2, #5). I'm not sure what you mean by #6. There are always going to be tons of hacks that you can do; I don't think it's super useful to exhaustively list them all out for each magic system. Hemalurgy, for example, can be used to do basically anything. I do think that it's useful to have groupings of the "normal" ways of Initiating (e.g. genetics, bonds, Connection, no restrictions, etc.). I lean towards Vax being the Aether of Night world, mainly because that's the one Shardworld we know exists, but isn't named yet, and also because [spoiler reasons]. However, discussions of Aether of Night are restricted to the Aether of Night subforum, so I won't go into more detail here.

Inconsistent with the rest of Sandmastery, which is physical manipulation of sand (i.e. telekinesis with a dose of levitation). Actually turning the sand into a different substance is a whole other thing. Plus, Sandmastery had limits in that you had to fuel it with your body's water; use too much and you die. Adding the ability to make water from sand (for no cost) completely nullified the limit. And it didn't play into the story much either. Yes, it's very underpowered compared to the main planets, but that's okay - Taldain is interesting for other reasons. They're much more technologically advanced than the other worlds (insert boombox joke here), plus there's the whole Autonomy aspect.

Nice list! You may want to check out the Coppermind page on Initation: https://coppermind.net/wiki/Initiation

Yes, any part of the body counts. Brandon has said that even piercings would get burned away (with Chromium, but it's the same principle). Not sure if all non-Allomantic metals make you sick or just ones that are close enough to true Allomantic metals (a sort of Uncanny Valley-type situation). But Mistborn can burn anything considered metal in our world.

Yeah, slatrification has always been the weird part of Sand Mastery that "doesn't match the rest of the magic system." He originally added it to write himself out of a hole. He's confirmed that, despite appearing in White Sand Volume 1, it will be removed retroactively in the third volume. And yes, it's similar to Soulcasting, but that's not too surprising. There's lots of overlap between the Cosmere magic systems due to them sharing underlying mechanics (e.g. bronze and Aviar). P.s. Unmarked spoiler boxes don't do much good since nobody knows what's inside them.

That's a great idea. It looks like we already have enough to get started, but let's wait a day to see if anyone else wants to join (although it's perfectly fine to join mid-game). Sign up on the Google Doc. Tagging previous round players: @Ashertliden @Totally_Not_A_Worldhopper @Mr Mafia @xinoehp512 @Snipexe

Game 11 signups are now open! Add your name to the signup column on the Google Doc. We also need one more volunteer for Spymaster - any takers? @Ashertliden @Turtle373 Can one of you add the keycard to the Google Doc? Thanks!

I think it's very possible, maybe even likely, that they are tangentially related, in terms of correlated phenotypes. And it could very well be that humans (and non-Rosharan animals) = red, singer = orange, crustacean/Rosharan animals = violet. We don't have any indication that singer gemhearts do not hold Stormlight. The reason why humans weren't harvesting them is because they didn't know that they were there. They're hidden inside the sternum (like actually inside the bone).

As @Quantus pointed out, the guards are able to conform to any Shardblade, so they can't just be plain metal. Plus, Zahel says that "nobody's sure" what the metal is (WoR ch 18).

Where are you getting this idea that gemhearts are related to blood color? I don't remember any indication of this in the books or in any of the WoBs I've come across.

I think that you could make the argument that the gem fits the general, Cosmere-wide definition of fabrial, although I would go the other way (that's it's more of a hack of existing functionality than a separate device). However, I don't think there's any argument that it would meet the Rosharan or Artifabrian definition (there's no spren captured in the gem).

Good job everyone (especially @Ashertliden and @Turtle373)! Who's in for round 11? Any volunteers for Spymaster? @Rhapsody Returned are Cognitive Shadows, similar to the Fused. Ambition, of course, is not.

Yes, the greatshells have the most valuable gemhearts - they're the largest due to the greatshells being the largest. Large gems are more valuable because they can hold more Stormlight and are less likely to crack when used for Soulcasting. However, smaller gemstone have value too, in fact, some animals are raised by farmers specifically for their gemhearts.

While it's never stated that the Sons of Honor desire the return of the Knights Radiant, just the Heralds, I think it can be assumed. Even devout Vorins acknowledge that the Knights Radiant were once a force for good and aided the Heralds in the fight against the Voidbringers. Indeed, I'm not sure how 10 people can possibly defeat an entire Voidbringer army alone. And Amaram couldn't have been too opposed to them - he was named leader of the refounded Knights Radiant, after all.

The original nahel spren, the Deadeyes. The original spren can't be trapped in the gemstone - it's still present as the Shardblade. The definition of fabrial is pretty nebulous. Artifabrians would refer only to the gemstone as a fabrial, with the surrounding being called a machine (per Coppermind), while normal Rosharans would just call the whole thing a fabrial. However, Brandon has specifically stated that he intends, as the Cosmere cross-overs get more pronounced, for the word "fabrial" to be used for any "magic-type device." Wow, that's a big topic. Nightblood is...weird. You can check out his Coppermind page for more info (but beware Stormlight and Warbreaker spoilers) or check out the many, many entries in Arcanum. Fun fact, after Hoid, Nightblood is the most common character tagged in Arcanum. People have a lot of questions about how he works (and what he can destroy)...

What effect do you think blood color has on the gemhearts? I think that the value of the gemhearts is the same as the value of any gemstone - it comes from its size.

I think it's more likely to mean sprenblades, which would definitely count as "ancient magic" given that nobody has them prior to the events of the book (with a couple of spoilery exceptions).

Even if the Seer can get ~2 seconds of foresight, there's no way that they can avoid the Steelrunner's attacks. Even discounting the Steelrunner's somewhat heightened mental ability (to avoid arguing about its magnitude), the Seer is still limited to normal physical reactions. How many attacks per second could the Steelrunner unleash. Heck, they could just pick up a handful of gravel and throw it at the Seer (which would cover a large enough area that the Seer couldn't dodge).

The cataclysm cannot be directly related to Ambition's death. The Evil only appeared in the Homeland less than a Century before the events of the novella. Ambition and Odium's battle happened millennia ago. Now, the Evil itself (whatever it is) could have come from the battle (a ripped off chunk of Ambition's Investiture, as referenced in Arcanum), but it only just recently moved to the Homeland.

This isnt actually known for sure either, depending on how you define "surges". But Ashyn was destroyed by misuse of a system that operated on similar principles fo surgebinding. I'm not sure what else could have destroyed Ashyn if not the Surges. Ashyn magic, whatever it looked like pre-exodus, was based on the Surges.

I think that you could reasonable interpret that either way: as it formed outside or inside of Tyn. I never gave it much though and assumed it formed in Tyn. I was imagining that they were in pretty close proximity, given that the tent they were in was pretty small and Tyn was just seconds away from killing Shallan, and Shardblades are really long (like 6+ feet).

Thanks!