Dirigible

I asked a question at the spoiler Q&A

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Dirigible: In Secret History, we have the Connection orb that Kelsier uses that draws Connection lines from him to things around him. If Vin (Well of Ascension era Vin) used that orb and also like drew in the mists, could she steelpush on non-metal objects?

Brandon: No, there are ways you can do that to non-metal but that is not it. There are ways

Dirigible: Atium alloys?

Brandon: Atium—what alloys?

Dirigible: Atium/Iron or Atium/Steel?

Brandon: Ehh, hmm, now you’re getting into RAFO territory.

I think you could be right that Era 3 book 1 (the Mistborn serial killer hunt) won’t get into the mechanics I’ve described. I agree that there’s a lot of depth to the base nicroburst power. Sanderson does like to ramp up the magical shenanigans book by book though, so I think this will be hinted at in book 1 and be a core factor of our protagonist’s power set in book 2 or 3.

I’ve been thinking lately about nicrosil in Allomancy/Feruchemy and I was wondering why Brandon wanted to make the protagonist of Era 3 a Nicroburst. I think I figured out the answer: medallions make Allomantic nicrosil insanely overpowered.

There will always be the standard effects of Allomantic nicrosil: duralumin-flaring your allies’ misting powers (or opponents in some cases). Which is a decent ability. But if Era 2 medallions become available to our Nicroburst protagonist, they will be able to use compounding to create their own Keyed medallions permanently. Theoretically they would only need a shaving of any medallion.

Say we have a Connection medallion. The medallion would appear to have two components: a full Nicrosilmind which grants the user Feruchemical nicrosil and fConnection and an empty Duraluminmind that the user can then use (we’ve seen it used to a blank one’s Locational Connection thus far). Our Nicroburst could instead swallow the medallion and burn the nicrosil. This would grant tenfold the Feruchemical nicrosil and Feruchemical duralumin which the Nicroburst can then store inside their own Nicrosilminds which would be Keyed to their Identity.

(Sidenote on tapping medallions. It seems to me that tapping a Nicrosilmind can be done by anyone as long as it is either Unkeyed or Keyed to them. This may be turn out to be a false axiom).

Since our Nicroburst has natural Allomantic nicrosil, they can always compound their existing feruchemical abilities stored in their Nicrosilminds and thus have that power in perpetuity. A small shaving of any medallion would be enough because of the power of compounding.

I don’t see any reason why medallions couldn’t grant Allomancy, so theoretically a Nicroburst could have Fullborn abilities given the right resources. Or any other ability that can be stored in a Nicrosilmind. All of this makes a resourceful Nicroburst an immensely powerful individual in the cosmere. I hope to see these mechanics play out in Era 3; I guess we’ll see in 5 years!

Just wanted to throw out my last-minute RoW theory on the Honorspren. I believe that they will no longer bond with humans (other than the Bridge 4 squad) and that the envoy to Lasting Integrity will fail. As an alternative to bonding humans, the Honorspren will give some of the pro-Honor humans Endowmentblades. They see that there is some honor in men but don't trust the lives of their entire "species" that something like the Recreance won't ever happen again.

This rampant speculation is based on:

• Azure agreed to tell an Honorspren how to make an Endowmentblade in exchange for travel to the Horneater Peaks in Shadesmar.
• The RoW US cover art which appears to show Adolin with a blade that has a rainbow effect near it, just outside what appears to be Lasting Integrity

After reading Dawnshard and seeing some of the speculation, I've come to agree with the popular opinion that UNITE is one of the Dawnshard commands. I believe UNITE is the Dawnshard that is different from all the rest--because it's been shattered. If I personally had the #1 priority of breaking a god into many pieces, my #2 priority would be making sure it's couldn't be reforged sometime in the future. Depending on how this went down it could even explain Hoid's grudge against Bavadin and Rayse.

Here's my theory: After the 16 shardholders took their power, Bavadin and Rayse suggested using the power of their Shards to destroy the UNITE Dawnshard so as to prevent there ever being a unified Adonalsium ever again (or they just went ahead and did it without consulting the other shardholders).

If a close friend of Hoid's was the holder of this UNITE Dawnshard, killed by a Bavadin/Rayse team up it would explain:

• Hoid's implied goal of trying to bring back the dead (shown in The Traveler, though it's non-canon)

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“You will not find a way to restore what you have lost, old friend,” the aged man said softly. ”It is impossible.” 

“You don’t know that. The old rules no longer hold.” The Traveler turned the pomegranate over in his fingers. ”Besides, I’ve heard of a place… It doesn’t matter. I don’t care. This isn’t about the dead… or it’s not JUST about the dead, at least.” He dropped the fruit to the ground, wiping his fingers on his riding coat.

• His grudge against Bavadin and Rayse (from the Letter)

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You have accused me of perpetuating my grudge against Rayse and Bavadin

• Why Odium thought he killed Unity (with the help of someone else?)

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"No!" Odium screamed.  He stepped forward. "No, we killed you. We killed you!"

• Why one Dawnshard is different from the rest

So this theory requires that Dalinar is holding (part of) the Unity Dawnshard. The visions of golden light could be splinters of Unity passing on to Dalinar from some outside power (i.e. Nohadon).

A problem I have with my own theory is the Poem of Ista:

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Taking the Dawnshard, known to bind any creature voidish or mortal, he crawled up the steps crafted for Heralds, ten strides tall apiece, toward the grand temple above.

If the Unity Dawnshard was splintered immediately after the Shattering, why are there references to Heralds and presumably that same Dawnshard? I'm not sure. Maybe this poem is prophetic, maybe the "Heralds" are not the 10 Heralds we know, but used here as a synonym for gods (maybe Shards?), maybe my theory is completely wrong!

Thanks for reading my theory. I've seen some of these ideas floating around but wanted to post my speculative timeline in case anyone finds it interesting!

Ok I just got back from my long drive. I didn't get audio of the questions, but I wrote down some notes right afterword.

Me: Is ReLuur's spike made of Atium?

Cut out some stuff, he started to answer thinking I said Lord Ruler, but I stopped him

Brandon: hesitated a for a second RAFO. You get a card though. It's not that big of a spoiler, but the answer would bring up questions that are.

Me: Are the Svrakiss cognitive shadows?

Brandon: RAFO. But you expected that.

Me: If you tapped blank Identity in an area, would you develop the area's accent?

Note: Sanderson interpreted this question as blanking identity. Also, I don't think tapping blank identity is a thing, so it was not a great question.

Brandon: It's part of what you need. You need to both blank your Identity and tap Connection to get the accent.

Me: If Shai had a gold shadow, and she used one of her Essence Stamps, would her gold shadow change to reflect her new self?

Brandon: Yes, because she is changing her soul so the gold shadow changes.

@Rasarr I liked your question so I asked it here:

Me: If you were on Roshar, and tapped Connection, would you be unable to use Scadrial magic?

Brandon: No, but that's a good question. You would not be able to use Selish magic though, because that is dependent on location.

Me: Did Demoux achieve immortality by manipulating his Connection age?

Brandon: Demoux uses the same method as most of the Seventeenth Shard. That method slows aging by a lot, but doesn't stop it completely.

I'm going to this signing tomorrow, so I need questions!

I was thinking of things related to these topics, but I'm not sure what wording (or in some cases, what questions themselves) would be best, so any advice would be nice. These questions are mostly BoM/SH related, with some Cosmere stuff as well.

Theories I've made are listed first, because I have a better idea of what constitutes a good question for that theory, so the questions are more fleshed out.

1. Svrakiss - I was thinking of asking something them--Either: 1) Are the Svrakiss of <shard> (Autonomy/Odium, probably, leaning toward the former) or 2) Are the Svrakiss able to worldhop?, but maybe something else would be interesting (do they actually possess people / how?, etc.) 

2. ReLuur's Spike - I still have questions about what's going on here, but I'm really not sure how to get a good answer out of Brandon--partly because I don't know what's going on here. Probably 1) What blessing did ReLuur have? or 2) Was the spike recovered in Bands of Mourning actually ReLuur's spike or 3) Which physical feruchemy power did ReLuur's pewter spike give him?

3. Connection - There's a huge amount of ground to cover with Connection, so I think I'd ask about how people manipulate their Connection to prevent aging: 1) Do the Seventeenth Shard members achieve immortality through Connection manipulation? or 2) Is Demoux immortal because he's changed his spiritual age through Connection?

4. VenDell's Coat - Argent is going to ask about this at the Chicago signing, so I shouldn't need to, but it's a very interesting theory to me.

5. The Ire's Drink - What is it? Liquid blank Connection? Investiture? I'm also curious if we've seen any Ire elsewhere, so I may ask that.

45 minutes ago, Jondesu said:

I think he's clarified that quote later as noting that he meant that having a living Shardblade would allow you to heal Spiritual wounds to yourself, while having a dead Shardblade (or presumably Honorblade, except perhaps one granting Regrowth) would not.  It doesn't have anything to do with the blade used to wound you, but the one you yourself have while trying to heal a wound you've received.

Do you have a link to this WoB? It doesn't make sense to me in the context of the change, as Szeth was the person who died during the conflict, and he had no bond to a living Shardblade at the time he was healed, and Nale used some sort of fabrial to heal him iirc. So I don't know how changing the original version to the new one would prevent the reveal of that plot point.

The full paragraph that I quoted earlier is below:

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The question this raises is about Szeth being stabbed by a Shardblade, then being resuscitated. I’m sad to lose this sequence, as it’s an important plot point for the series that dead Shardblades cannot heal the soul, while living ones can. I’m going to have to work this into a later book, though I think it’s something we can sacrifice here for the stronger scene of character for Kaladin and Szeth.

Edit:

Oh, I get it...because in the original version, Szeth was bonded to the Honorblade and that couldn't heal the spine wound...I'm an idiot, that makes sense.

13 hours ago, Argent said:

Ah, you are, unfortunately, incorrect here. Brandon, in a polarizing move, decided to change the ending of Words of Radiance a little bit and have Kaladin not kill Szeth with Jezrien's Honorblade, but to instead let him get killed by the storm itself. There is a blog entry on his site where you can read the new (and now officially canon) ending, as well as his reasons behind the change.

Yes I know; I was referring to the fact that Peter said the old way was still canonical--and Sanderson specifically mentioned in that blog post that the cut section had importance relating to the difference between living and dead shardblades:

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I’m sad to lose this sequence, as it’s an important plot point for the series that dead Shardblades cannot heal the soul, while living ones can.

So I thought that might explain some of the differences to the two situations.

I think it also has to do with the fact that Kaladin killed Szeth with a living sprenbade, while Nale killed the girl with his honorblade (which I thought would work like a dead shardblade)

I think Hoid uses Feruchemical Connection to know where to be. Like you said, Atium+Duralumin made Elend see into the Spiritual Realm, and the Spiritual Realm shows your Connections, so these things made me ask questions at the Denver signing:

Me: "Can you store different types of Connection at different times? Like can you store Connection to people versus location?"

Brandon: "That is possible."

 

Me: "Can you store any sort of Temporal Connection?"

Brandon: "Um, most"

So I think Hoid taps Future Connection, which gives him a sense of what is going to happen. I think Allomantic atium + Allomantic duralumin in such large quantities as to see the future as Hoid seems to have, would have to be huge. Feruchemical duralumin compounding I think could achieve a similar effect(though less pronounced, and without the 'expanding of the mind' thing Atium has), and with a smaller fuel requirement.

As to your question of what Hoid would be able to do with Allomantic atium in addition to his future sense...I think tapping your Connection to the future might extend Atium shadows, so he would see farther than most people when using Atium (on the other hand, it might do nothing because Atium shows you other's Connection, and presumably you can't change that with Feruchemical duralumin).

It depends on how you view strength...I think short-term future is far more valuable in combat situations (at least when looking at Atium; Electrum is a bit weirder). Because you see actual actions. While what I'm suggesting is more like a version of you just standing around, like your Gold shadow just stands around. Even when Elend did Atium + Duralumin and he saw the future farther, I don't think it was a huge amount into the future (should be all the atium he had compressed into a few seconds--I assumed it was like a 30 minute glimpse into the future, with his mind expanded so he could understand it; and anyway he saw actual events and outcomes).

An Electrum-Atium alloy might show your long-term Future Connections (i.e. like a Gold shadow but for the future--who you "could become") but it might also have a lot of overlapping versions like Electrum.

I asked a bunch of questions about Connection at the Denver signing and one of them was about storing different types; it's not the greatest wording but I was trying to see if storing different types of Connection worked like storing different senses in tin:

Me: "Can you store different types of Connection at different times? Like can you store Connection to people versus location?"

Brandon: "That is possible."

So I'm guessing that he was only tapping Locational Connection.

As for "forming trusting relationships," I'd guess it goes both ways because otherwise I don't think it would do anything. A connection by definition needs to have more than one thing to connect.

An Aluminum Blessing granting a stronger sense of Identity to the kandra (this would make them more individualistic, harder to use Forgery/Soulcasting on, etc.) aligns with the other "human attribute" blessings  and the Lord Ruler had access to Aluminum so it definitely makes sense that ReLuur could have a Blessing of Identity.

I think a Gold Blessing improving a kandra's health makes a ton of sense with the other Blessings we've seen, as well. Chromium and Cadmium are weird though. I'm not sure what temporal attribute could be stolen for Cadmium (age? But that's Feruchemically tied to Atium...); it might be energy (but as I understand it, Bendalloy's Feruchemical 'energy' is really food/calories, which doesn't really make sense as a Hemalurgic attribute).

For Chromium though, I have a few ideas:

1) Fortune. As far as I know, we know absolutely nothing about Fortune in the Cosmere or even Feruchemically. But it's definitely a possibility, especially if Fortune is really some integral part of someone's Spiritual aspect.

2) Investiture-resistance. It would just make you harder to invest--harder to Surgebind, use Aons on, etc. Like how the mid-Shaod Elantrians couldn't use Aons on themselves, but to a lesser degree. I don't like this that much because resistance to emotional allomancy is already in the Zinc Blessing, and this would make more sense with Aluminum anyway (but Identity is perfect for Aluminum, I think).

3) Improved life-sense or Investiture sense--the life-sense granted by Breath always seemed to me like one of the things that should be able to replicated by many other magic systems in the Cosmere. The problem with this is that it doesn't really fit the other Blessings, which just improve upon something everyone has; this is more of an ability.

From what little we know of ReLuur (explorer, spent 200 years looking for the Bands of Mourning) it seems not unreasonable that he could have had a Blessing granting him a stronger Identity.

I really like the idea that VanDell and MeLaan were lying about ReLuur's age; that allows for a lot more possibilities than I originally thought. I've wrote some ramblings about Blessings and Hemalurgy's workings to try to figure out what metal would make sense.

The four kandra Blessings we've seen so far are all "human attributes", and Sazed being unaware of how Bleeder managed to use Feruchemy/Allomancy from Spikes makes me think ReLuur didn't have one of those spikes (or Sazed should have known how that worked--unless, as you mentioned Kandra-in-disguise, that MeLaan and VenDell were lying about ReLuur's age)

Quote from SoS from Sazed (SoS page 133):

 

Bleeder can use Hemalurgy, but in a way she should not be able to. Kandra do not have Allomantic or Feruchemical powers. She has learned to take them and to use them to maintain her kandra form.

So, assuming there's no way to use a metal in Hemalurgy for two different purposes (i.e. granting either a magical ability or a "human attribute"), and kandra Blessings should be a "human attribute", that means it should be Iron/Tin/Zinc/Copper (known blessings) or Cadmium/Bendalloy/Electrum/Chromium/Nicrosil (of which none we know the attribute of. One must steal Temporal Allomancy, and the other four could be anything) or as you suggested, Atium. 

I actually just noticed that Aluminum/Duralumin/Gold are from the MAG, so it is possible that's incorrect. They all steal magical abilities, which certainly doesn't make sense with the known first half of the Hemalurgic table (where pure metals all stole "human attributes" and alloys stole magical abilities). I tried looking up some WoBs and found a bit that seemed to confirm the MAG but it's definitely inconsistent. And now I'm wondering what four "human attributes" remain...Anyway that's not really important for this.

If Marasi doesn't know the most common Allomantic metals (which I think is unlikely), then it's probably Iron/Tin/Zinc/Copper.

Otherwise, of the five standard metals remaining, if we take ReLuur's given age at face value, it's possible he has an Electrum spike (since that's a metal the Lord Ruler knew about and had access to, which he could have used on a kandra. On the other hand, electrum seems like the most likely to steal Temporal Allomancy). With the idea that ReLuur is fairly young, there could have been experiments to make new kandra with new Blessings, and it could again be anything. Though I don't see Harmony sanctioning experiments of this nature...it's possible he didn't know about them; after all, Paalm figured out Feruchemical Blessings without him knowing.

I definitely agree that someone lied. Whether it's MeLaan/VenDell about ReLuur's age, Sazed about kandra and Feruchemy/Allomancy, or the Lord Ruler about Blessings in general...there's something fishy going on here (or Marasi needs to seriously brush up on her metals).

Well crap.  I've been thinking about making a Svrakiss post ever since finishing Bands and you beat me.  But I don't know that I agree with your conclusion that Trell= Dominion influence.  It seems more likely that whatever force is screwing with Scadrial also screwed with Sel enough that they developed a mythos and named them Svrakiss.

 

Here's a little more food for thought: there's some sort of conflict between Threnodites and the Ire.  And Shades have red eyes when they're in ragemode.

From the Coppermind/Brandon's Elantris Glosary: The Derethi believe that the souls of men who hated Jaddeth during life become become Svrakiss. The Svrakiss are considered to be evil entities barred from entrance into heaven and having the power to take over the bodies of living men and control their actions.

I feel obligated to point out that Skaze ≠ Svrakiss. The Skaze are believed to be Splinters of Dominion. The Svrakiss are almost certainly related to Odium (consider the similarity to the Thunderclasts and voidbringers in the SLA; namely, the red eyes).

Both of these are pretty good points; I forgot the Svrakiss might not be from Sel (though I think taking over bodies is an act of Domination). I am going to the Denver Calamity signing on Friday so I'll see then if I can get any information on Svrakiss then (if we've seen them in a Cosmere book; where they are from; maybe directly ask about the Set but that might be a RAFO). From my searching, it doesn't look like he's been asked much about them so I don't know if I'll get RAFOed.

Feruchemical duralumin allows someone to store their spiritual 'Connection'. Recently, Bands of Mourning and Secret History have provided some insight into the workings of Connection. This is collection of theories relating to Connection--what forms it takes and how it can be applied to different worlds/magic systems in the Cosmere. Despite their being different theories, they are all related to each other so I did not want to split them up.

I've used spoiler tags to collapse the different theories so it is easier to read. There are also excerpts relating to Connection from Bands/Secret History, so don't read this at all if you haven't read those.

Types of Connection

Connection in Feruchemy: Duralumin

Connection in Allomancy: Gold, Electrum, Atium, Malatium

Connection in Forgery/Soulcasting

Connection on Sel

Connection for all Major Shardworlds and their Magic

What Blessing do ReLuur's spikes give? Marasi looks at the spike, and thinks it's Pewter (Page 353), which isn't one of the 4 metals that give the 'standard' Blessings we've seen before (Tin/Iron/Copper/Zinc). It's possible Marasi isn't correctly identifying the metal, but earlier in the book she specifically mentions (Page 337):

 

She knew enough Metallic theory to identify the metals

and she correctly identified that the third metal was duralumin so I'm disinclined to ignore her observation about the spike outright.

I also found this WoB, which suggests other blessings might be possible:

 

 

INSURRECTIONISTFUNGUS

Are there more kinds of kandra blessings than just the four we've seen?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Potentially, yes.

I think Excisors are Hemalurgic Spikes that grant Allomantic abilities.

Here's the one mention (at least, the only one I can recall) of Excisors:

BoM Page 327

 

"These," Waxillium said, plucking the heat-giving medallion off the dash. "You can create these, as you wish?"

 

"If we have the Metalborn to do so, and the Excisors, yes. The Excisors are the gifts the Sovereign made for us."

The Sovereign seems fine with Hemalurgy, judging by his eye.

I don't think the Southerners have enough Ferrings/Full Feruchemists to have them constantly store significant enough amounts of heat and investiture that a large expedition would require. With compounding it could be attained, but the rarity of Mistings in the South would make natural compounders unheard of. But Spikes would allow 

It also makes sense because they would have 'excised' an ability from whoever originally had it.

I think 'The Sovereign' is both Kelsier and Spook. The scars clearly point toward Kelsier, but I think there's more to the situation than just that.

When Allik is describing 'the Sovereign' for the first time, he says (page 325)

 

The Sovereign was our king from three centuries ago. He told us he was your king first. And your god.

Kelsier was never their king, but Spook was. It doesn't make sense that Kelsier would lie about that; there doesn't seem to be a benefit from saying that.

Also,

Secret History Spoilers:

This quote Vikachu posted in the time travel thread made me think of how Hoid moves forward...

>He's been alive since Dragonsteel. However, he may not have spent all of that time awake and alert.

What caught my eye was the use of the word awake. Maybe he uses Bronze Feruchemy to sleep through the years. It could be possible that storing wakefulness doesn't age you. Or, the Atium-Bronze alloy in Feruchemy could store wakefulness while pausing aging (It makes sense as well in that it is a combination of Atium (age) and Bronze (sleeping)).

I imagine the ardents will not be pleased when they realize that the Almighty is dead. Maybe the servants of the emperor in Hoid's story were the ardents (who have been supporting a very warlike world for a very long time, in the name of the Almighty) if this were to be a metaphor for what's to come.