Isilel

Well, judging by the the in-book WoR quotes, the Stoneward epigraph from the Urithiru archive and by the prominent Radiants so far, the attributes do roughly describe the prominent Order traits. And from what we have seen of the Heralds, it seems that they, again roughly, matched their defining personal qualities back in the day. I can't imagine that this could have been the case during the Desolations, which led to up to 90% of general population casualties. Jasnah's sources, of course, are post-Aharietam, and by then it would have been more feasible to have large part of the Radiants in the non-combatant support roles, even during the conflicts with the parsh. From Ash's PoV we know that Taln was the only Herald who hadn't been a general, a scholar or royalty. By the process of elimination, Chana must have been a general. Now, back to the the actual title of the thread - personally, I noticed how in the chapter reading Lirin was repeatedly compared with stone. Then I thought about the divine attributes of Talenel: dependable and resourceful, as well as how both he and the Stonewards were consistently associated with self-sacrifice and stubborness. And then it struck me that Lirin fits these traits to a T and that he would make a non-traditional, but very true to form Stoneward, with the cave-out that we don't know their Ideals yet. The semi-canon "I stand where others fall" has already been very much in evidence, though not in the context of physical battle, but the battle of principles. Speaking of potential Dustbringers other than those in Lirin's new chapter - I always liked the suggestion of Redin, the bastard of Veden Highprince and briefly king Valam, who had to kill his father on the latter's orders. Balat Davar might be a remote possibility too. Maybe the guard captain from "Edgedancer"?

This seems very plausible. Kelsier could have been sitting in a duralumin-enhanced cadmium bubble after his stint as the Sovereign if he wanted to skip actually living through the centuries of the necessary technological ramp-up. Just creating the technology himself or making a big contribution towards it likely went against both Kelsier's and Harmony's core beliefs. There is also this new WoB about Hoid: So, yes, it does seem like something that can be figured out and replicated by absurdly powerful and knowledgeable individuals - and as a sliver of the full Preservation Shard (as opposed to TLR who only ever held a part of it's power and for shorter amount of time) Kelsier certainly qualified.

Gavilar was open and honest enough to Taravangian for him to understand what was coming: WoR, I-14, Taravangian: And OB, of course, put Amaram in the same room where this explanation was presumably happening.

I am among those who were greatly perplexed and disappointed by the Amaram's role in OB. Yes, Sanderson tried to make it kinda sorta maybe plausible, but there are still many incongrous elements, some of them even introduced or reinforced in OB, oddly enough. Basically, it is only after I have read the author's comments on writing on his homepage where he revealed that Amaram was supposed to die in WoR to Iyatil, while Sadeas was supposed to survive until very late into the writing process of that book, that Amaram's arc in OB started to make sense to me. He was just forced into the Torol-shaped hole there and did stuff that was meant for Torol. This perfectly explains all the contradictions and ommissions that made his plot look so contrived to me. One of which was the complete absence of any evidence of the past great friendship between Amaram and Dalinar, so touted in WoR. In fact, in the current timeline there is no room for any such relationship to have ever evolved. OTOH, we got plenty of Dalinar - Torol friendship scenes, which retroactively illuminated their interactions in WoK and WoR in the new and interesting ways. Also, all the intriguing hints at Amaram's hidden depths, like his secret scholarship, his flute collection, his cordial relationship with his household etc. were comprehensively ignored. As well as the elephant in the room - his relationship with Gavilar and how he knew about the basics of Dalinar's revelations for years prior to their release to the public - possibly for as many as a decade, even, and how it informed his actions. Except that Amaram knew about the visions for at least 6 years - from Gavilar. Just as as Taravangian did. Oddly enough, OB only confirmed this point by showing the 3 men together on the night of the assassination - and we had been already informed that that's when Gavilar confided in Taravangian. Now, Gavilar may not have related his visions in as much detail as Dalinar, nor prioritized the same things as his brother. However, Mr T. certainly got the jist of it. I cannot be the only who expected the protagonists conflict with Amaram to be rooted in the comparison and clash of Gavilar's version and interpretation of the visions with Dalinar's, rather than just in personal animosities. Yes, the Amaram of WoK and WoR was very much in the same boat as Taravangian, working from the same information in Gavilar's visions but with the Vorinism-focussed approach. OB Amaram is very much Sadeas-redux - possibly because Sanderson decided that there _was_ too much similarity between Gavilar's 2 confidants and that it would have been repetitive. However, I feel that a religious strife angle between the Vorin true believer and Dalinar's factions, despite both also being against Odium, would have made it fresh enough. I have recently read a historical novel about the start of Dutch struggle for independence against Spain and how despite calvinists, lutherans and moderate catholics all being opposed to the Inquisition, their mutual distrust and disagreements constantly prevented the formation of a common front and made Spanish Netherlands, as they were then, an easy prey for the Duke of Alba. I now realise that I have been expecting something like that from the OB, with Dalinar in the role of William the Silent, trying to forge all those disparate elements into an alliance. Nope. The whole story of Tanalaan Jr. and his later claims that Dalinar "stole" Oathbringer from him demonstrates why Amaram didn't ask Kaladin for the shards, after Kal made it clear that he wasn't going to take them up himself. And I very much doubt that he would have done anything except recruiting Kaladin into the Sons of Honor, or trying to, if the latter claimed the shards for himself. Kaladin, after all, proved himself worthy in the proper Vorin way and had quite a reputation besides. But letting the shards go to some random dark-eyed soldier was too much for Amaram - and even then he had to be persuaded by others. Which already puts him ahead of many nobles in the books conscience-wise. Not to mention that Amaram at that time was in a very similar situation to Jasnah in WoK and early WoR - he knew that the Final Desolation was coming and that they needed to prepare, but also that nobody would listen to the few SoH who were in the picture after Gavilar's death. That was likely the light in which the theft of the shards was presented to him by Restares. For the greater good, etc. I find the claims that Jasnah would have been among those who knew Amaram best to be ironic, BTW, because there was so much that she didn't know about him. Like his hidden scholarship, which Shallan found to be pretty impressive, heh. It is also not clear to me why Amaram would have concluded that he could never become a real Radiant after WoR? Except that OB, oddly enough, undermined this notion by revealing that Tien's death was the result of an actual Skybreaker conspiracy, rather than just of the negligence on Amaram's part, as it seemed previously. I have wondered whether Sadeas got wind of Amaram's theft of shards and was referring to it. Or something else that had to do with SoH. We'll never know, I guess. Sure, OB tries to present it that way, but it is oddly jarring when one remembers that he wasn't particularly discouraged by either issue in his PoV in WoR and was actually rather optimistic and upbeat heading out to Urithiru. Certainly, he was more disconcerted by Taln's dark eyes than by his madness. And Amaram's knowledge of whatever Gavilar was up to + Taln should have been more than enough to secure him a hearing from Dalinar, despite everything. Which seemed to be his intention in our last glimpse of him in WoR. But in OB, it was as if he suddenly forgot all about his main trumps for gaining attention of the Kholin family. Heck, even if he did flip to Odium, he still should have used these assets! IMHO, the main issue with Amaram's character was that he was never intended to be more than a catalyst for Kaladin and a source of intriguing hints of mysteries surrounding Gavilar and the SoH, rather than a rounded, consistent character. Having fulfilled his function, if he had died at the end of WoR as originally intended, he would have retained his illusion of depth. As is, with Sanderson not yet willing to dive into the secrets of the SoH and needing Sadeas' arc to be completed despite Torol's death, Amaram mutated into an awkward replacement-Sadeas, with barely anything of his original distinguishing traits remaining. And his duel with Kaladin was pure fan-service with the shades of a JRPG mini-boss fight.

If Sanderson goes for even a marginal plausibility with this, rather than the comedic effect , then neither of them can be the kid's primary caretaker, since both have very demanding, time-consuming jobs. Gavinor should get a nurse - likely a widow of some junior officer fallen in battle, with a child or 2 of her own, for him to play with. OTOH, I also like Hesina (and Oroden) for the task, should she ever get to Urithiru. Nightblood is going to be important. I don't expect it to get a viewpoint, apart from an odd Interlude, perhaps, but it is already heavily featured in Szeth's PoV and also gets some stage time in Lift's. IMHO, Nightblood will be instrumental in permanently removing some of the Unmade from the game board, since trapping them is clearly just a stopgap, which will lead to constant attempts by Odium's side to release them again. Vasher, I am less sure off. He might be mainly there to introduce and explain Nightblood. I expect him to perform his miracle at some crucial point in Book 5, but beyond that he might not appear much. OTOH, there is a WoB that he didn't figure out how to Awaken with stormlight _yet_, so maybe he will in the future and will play a more substantial role in the narrative as an exotic artifabrian? Anyway, here are my other predictions: There is going to be an expedition to the Horneater Peaks, culminating in the fight for Cultivation's Perpendicularity, which is going to be cleared of the Fused and the Voidspren. Somebody - Dalinar? is going to become an ambassador to the spren and travel Shadesmar, trying to convince the reluctant ones to commit to Radiancy again and to talk some sense into the Highspren. Vivenna is going to finally re-enter the physical realm of Roshar. Rlain is going to find the Listeners who refused the stormform and, hopefully, also the Parshendi children who have been inexplicably missing from the narrative so far. He may also find the surviving stormforms and convince them to eject their voidspren, before it is too late and/or to refuse to house the Fused. He might also go on undercover missions among the new parsh. He'll at least begin becoming a Bondsmith, though, personally I prefer him for the Nightwatcher's one, as I think that the Sibling's one is supposed to stay in Urithiru. He'll become the bridge between the listeners/singers and the humans. Jasnah is going to move back to the camps and will have her hands full dealing with the waves of refugees from the southern Alethkar, ardentia, the nobles, etc. and trying to grow enough food to support them all, while fending off the Fused raids, as Urithiru can't manage this until it becomes fully functional. Teft and his squires are going to help her with protection of the people. Some of her Veristitalian pen-pals are going to join her - I am tipping on the Thaylen pastry-chef in particular, in order to help her with her research and become her squires. Generally, we'll see the Radiants working with and learning from each other, as well as a good number of new Radiants and squires. Szeth is going to teach everybody about the basics of all the surges and how to work with and against them. They'll also set up a big ice-rink at Urithiru and skating will become the new rage! Shallan will take over the intelligence-gathering for Kholins from Jasnah and balance precariously between it and her work for the Ghostbloods. She will have to find out the full truth about her family's past, confess what happened with their mother to her brothers and make her peace with their reactions - which will likely range from forgiveness to hatred and breaking of ties. This and only this will allow her to truly accept and incorporate her most recent Truth. Her work with Sja-Anat will lead to the important insights about the Unmade, though I am half-convinced that the whole defection story is a trap. It will also, hopefully, give us a glimpse of the Ghostbloods goals and maybe a hint of their origins. I hope that Ishnah will become her squire and a friend - we need some lighteyes - darkeyes friendships among the women too, but I am very much afraid that she is a Ghostblood plant. Kaladin, I see gallivanating around the continent on heroic quests, though I very much hope that he makes moving his family to Urithiru a priority. He'll be finally able to swear his Fourth Oath towards the end of the book. Another Herald will die. Not touching Adolin predictions with a 20-foot pole, as I don't want to provoke an eruption of "triangulations", but I do have some ideas about him too .

According to the honorspren Notum in Oathbringer, spren can be tortured in the Cognitive Realm, so maybe the the same methods can be applied to the Heralds when they are in cognitive state?

Indeed, but I assume that he also had his methods of indirectly dealing with the budding surge-binders without criminal past, or there would have been more of them around than just Jasnah. Like what happened to Tien, for instance, now that it has been confirmed that he had become a Lightweaver and that the Skybreakers were implicated in his demise. We also know that Jasnah has been the target of many assassination attempts, some of which may have been engineered by the Skybreakers. I'd also point out that Lady Davar's friend, the alleged Skybreaker acolyte, didn't attack Shallan himself, but merely restrained Lin. Which would be in accordance with Nale's twisted "letter of the law" approach. He had incited somebody under his influence to do the deed, but stood aside himself.

Well, IMHO the Bands are special and they also had a lot of F-Zinc stored for massively increased and speeded-up multi-tasking. Not to mention that she couldn't have really tapped _everything_ because there were no monstrous speed/slow bubbles, nor did she burn all her metals in a single explosion of power, nor did she see any A-gold/electrum effects, etc., etc. I dunno - IMHO burning bronze or copper during battles would have been quite helpful, but IIRC Vin almost never did the former, so that she had to recognize the types of enemy mistings by other means, and only did the latter during infiltrations. Using emotional allomancy to distract human opponents during a fight and to undermine their morale would have been useful too, but neither she nor Kelsier ever did so. Yet both of them were exceptionally skillful Mistborn, both due to allomantic affinity and because their prior lives honed their reflexes, coordination and ability to make split-second decisions. Their Mistborn opponents were far less impressive and also didn't use many powers at once - it was usually just pewter + steel or iron + sometimes atium. Even the Inquisitors weren't much better in that respect. All of this leads me to assume that there are (cognitive?) limits. Which is good because limits make things fun. It would be boring if being a Mistborn was an automatic "I win" card. I also very much hope that experienced mistings can do more with their one metal than a Mistborn can with that same metal. After all, a Mistborn has so many others to fall back on. Era 2 Coinshots move around like Era 1 Mistborn used to, but they don't have Iron or Pewter to bail them out and protect them from injury if they make a mistake. The question is - would the Mistborn be able to juggle medallion powers along with all their native abilities? At the same time? I hope not. And also - which powers would be available via the medallions? And for how long? We have only seen those providing F-iron, F-copper, F-brass and F-duralumin tuned for translation so far in Era 2. Which is why I didn't take medallions in consideration during my anti-Mistborn team-building - there is so much that we don't know about them yet.

Hm, a lot of it would depend on such yet unknown limitations as what powers would be available through medallions and whether there is any limit on how many different powers, both native and device-based, one can use at once. IIRC, in the first Mistborn trilogy the protagonists burned only 3-4 metals at a time despite being exceptional Mistborn, so maybe there are unavoidable drawbacks to trying to use more simultaneously. Also, they never actually took advantage of electrum's predictive capabilities in battle, but only burned it to disrupt atium use by their opponents, which makes me think that it takes serious skill and concentration, not to mention quick reflexes, to do so. So, discounting all such considerations, my team would lean heavily towards Ferrings, as Feruchemy would be much more difficult/impossible to detect by the Mistborn burning bronze: For my one Twinborn, I would choose an A-bronze/F-tin combination with a sniper rifle, aluminium bullets and metalminds full to bursting and/or implanted within the body. There is a WoB that allomantic bronze sense can be stored in tin metalminds like any other sense - which means that this Twinborn mould be able to detect the Mistborn's allomancy without giving themselves away and punch through the latter's copperclouds ditto. And, of course, also massively dial up selected other senses as needed. Frankly, this agent alone should be enough to rid Scadrial of a murderous Mistborn, unless we are speaking about Kelsier. But as for others, I'd probably chose F-steel for obvious reasons, F-duralumin to canvass witnesses, F-zinc for planning and, depending on how Fortune works, one of F-chromium or a second F-steel. If I was allowed a second Twinborn, I'd go for the A-steel/F-steel one.

Indeed. In addition to this, Jezrien not only was their leader, but is worshipped as the only god (instead of Honor) in large parts of Roshar, while Kalak is similarly worshipped in others, for some reason. There is nothing comparable for the female Heralds. Oh, and in one of the epigraphs in WoR, I think, it was again Ishar who was looking for the ways to preserve knowledge between the Desolations, so that might go to his credit too. As to the Everstorm, something needs to be done about it either way to gain the 10-year-long respite, so I can only assume that dealing with it will be part of the climax of book 5.

My personal theory is that all the surviving Heralds are going to return to Damnation at the end of book 5 and that's what is going to buy Roshar the 10-year-long breathing room between the 2 SA series. Only, this time the Fused won't hunt them to capture and to torture, but to kill them for good in the same way that Jezrien was. And the hiatus will be over once the last of them is gone. OTOH, I also think it possible that they'd somehow figure out a loophole how to do so while leaving poor heroic Taln behind to recover and Ash to look after him. I'd very much like female Heralds in particular to be of use, as so far they have been very much eclipsed by their male collegues, who seem to have done all the most important things in history of humanity on Roshar.

I very much doubt that, because we know that the Windrunners often had conflicts with the other Orders, whose philiosophies contradicted theirs. That would preclude them from overall leadership. It was the Bondsmiths job to keep all the different Orders together and pointed more or less in the same direction, and judging from the epigraphs it was not easy. From what I understand, the Skybreakers usually remain squires until swearing the Third Ideal or shortly prior to it. And we don't really know yet how squires usually work - Windrunners are an exception there rather than the rule, because their resonance is "strength of the squires" - which means that they have many more of them than the other Orders, but also that the Windrunner squires are "stronger" in some way. Which is why it is entirely possible that all the other squires only have access to _one_ surge of their patron knight, rather than both of them. So, Skybreaker squires would only have Gravitation until they bond a spren of their own, Edgedancer ones only Abrasion, Lightweaver squires only Illumination and so on.

Your question is a good one, but if you have a chance to ask more, here are a couple of questions I have: N°2 connects with your own question in interesting ways, IMHO.

1. Is Hoid a Ferring? - I am sure that he is, given his goal of connecting to the magical systems of all Shards, but it would be nice to get a confirmation, which would also furnish more basis for speculation about the means by which SouthScad Ferrings came into being, as well as how Kelsier managed to create The Bands of Mourning. It might be necessary to make clear that the question has nothing to do with Hoid's means of accessing Fortune - as Sanderson has already said that he is using a different mechanism for that. 2. Do singers have significantly longer life-spans than humans? - That would explain a lot of things that otherwise seem like world-building omissions, like lack of listener children in Eshonai's chapters in WoR, Sah's mate becoming very valuable due to her fertility after having just one kid, etc. It would also provide one more point of conflict between the species back when the endless wars started, as humans would have seemed particularly fickle and untrustworthy to the ancient singers, as new generations of humans questioned or rejected agreements made by their elders.

I would have loved it if one's characteristics as a person affected which metal abilities one manifested, but this WoB: seems to suggest that this is not the case, alas. A quick search didn't turn up anything about Ferrings, though, so there is still a slim hope there.

I don't think that Paalm with the Steel feruchemy spike would have the same Identity as Paalm with A-Steel spike, since the spikes are derived from different people. It is a different situation from Miles where there would have been an intrinsic connection between him and the natural, in-born ability being spiked out of him. This is supported by the WoB that bearer of the spike can use the metalminds previously made by the spikee. I.e. that the Identity that the storages are keyed to is contained in the spike itself. For that matter, I think that it is fairly likely that if some time passed between F-Gold being spiked out of Miles - supposing a virtuoso surgical spiking that didn't kill him, and his attempt to burn his storages, there would be a threshold beyond which the F-gold stores would become inaccessible to him What would be the point of it, though? It really doesn't matter for her purposes whether Wax and the constabulary understand the exact mechanism of how she is doing her stuff or not.

I strongly suspect that this is not what happened - that there were always supposed to be _10_ Heralds, but one of the generals got cold feet at the last moment and Taln stepped up to replace him. Or maybe somebody (Hoid?) convinced the general in question to recuse himself, ditto.

IMHO, Hoid doesn't really care, as all he needs is a connection to a given shard via their magic system. But it does explain why he chose to make himself an allomancer, but not a Mistborn - he is saving the bulk of the bead for attaching himself to inimical or very locality-oriented shards (like the Dor). It also tells me that it must be possible to obtain Feruchemy via a particular kind of atium-lerasium alloy, since this is the only way to form a lasting connection to Ruin without hemalurgy - and there is a WoB that Hoid would never contemplate getting a spike. So, IMHO, he must be a Ferring too. This WoB tells us that Hoid is now forging Connections to Shards legitimately when he can, but, say, Autonomy isn't going to give him such a chance: Which means that he now has Connection to at least 5 of the original Shards.

Hm... But memories do degrade with each retrieval - wouldn't this also apply to investiture stored in Nicrosil, so that the medallions do eventually "run out", just in a different way? And become gradually weaker all the while? Also, it seems that anybody can access the abilities stored in Nicrosil, because it would be the only way for a Nicrosil Ferring to get their own ability back if they stored and consequently lost it? Or not, since in this case anybody should be able to retrieve Nicrosil Feruchemy itself from the medallions and become a Ferring in truth... That would also mean that you can't enhance your allomancy and bi-pass continuous flaring/savantism by using Nicrosil Feruchemy, sigh. We are back to in-born limitations on allomantic strength - whether of a natural Misting or of a medallion-maker. Also, as far as I can see, the only way that a group of Mistings and Ferrings could make medallions without hemalurgy would be if they used lerasium metalminds, where anybody can store in and tap from. Which, by itself is a bit odd - if Feruchemy is equally of Ruin and Preservation, why would Preservation's godmetal be a universal metalmind, rather than an alloy of both? Anyway, I have long thought that "excissors" are lerasium metalminds and if their ability storage works like that of F-Nicrosil, then that explains the name and also explains why these tools left to SoScads by the Sovereign couldn't be replicated. If so, I predict that there are just 3 of them at most - I suspect that of the 5 remaining lerasium beads, 2 were used by Kelsier to make himself a Fullborn and to create enough respective So-Scad Mistings and Ferrings to establish heat medallion production. Or maybe there are just 2... we are led to believe that "The Lost Metal" in the title of the upcoming volume is atium, but of course Sanderson likes his twists and the term could equally apply to lerasium. The book very well might deal with Our Heroes obtaining what they need to jump-start Metallic Arts technology in the North.

Well, it helped that Paalm didn't really want to hurt him... we don't know how the things would have gone if she had been serious. And also, Wayne was forewarned that he was dealing with a Steel Ferring. But bodyguards trying to protect somebody from a hired assassin wouldn't necessarily have such luxury. Which is why F-Steel needs to be limited, lest it become unstoppable as compounding becomes easier due to the medallions. IMHO, increased likelihood of severe injury, even death, when operating at higher speeds, as well as the rising difficulty of timely thinking and reactions should prevent human compounders from replicating Paalm's stunts. Insanely? I prefer to believe that Paalm used her victim's metalminds, filled over the years, rather than managed to store so much speed during the 2 weeks that she had the spike before the massacre, but criminals can prep for months between heists. If humans can replicate Paalm's performance, then the opportunity to have months of leisure between jobs would be all it would require for a Steel Ferring to become an unstoppable thief or assassin reliably pulling off big scores. Train a couple of hours a day, store speed at the highest rate possible for the rest of it while reading or planning or whatever, since your mind is not affected.

Well, a kandra did it. Whether a human would have been able to as well is still an open question. I hope that Sanderson does limit F-Steel somewhat, because otherwise it is really OP and can't be defended against. But F-Pewter only stores strength, not agility, grace and healing of A-Pewter. As far as we know only F-Nicrosil could do that. So, IMHO double Pewter is a bit of an underwhelming combination, even if, as you claim, tapping strength stored from an allomantic pewter burn wouldn't produce the awkward huge muscles. Double Tin, OTOH, is probably the most broadly useful compounding combination. Heightened senses and particularly the ability to dial down and up specific senses as needed is very helpful whatever you do. A-Tin mainly helps to fill the metalminds quickly and without the hassle of unaided Feruchemy. You have to deal with people a lot? Tin would allow you to accurately gauge their emotional states and eventually to become a living lie-detector. From a businessperson to a detective, a plethora of professions would profit very much from something like that. If you are a medical doctor, heightened senses would help you diagnose better - noticing and hearing things that normal person wouldn't or would need to use equipment for. If you are a surgeon, the ability to selectively enhance the senses of vision and touch would be godsend. Ditto being able to shut down your sense of smell. You are a mechanic? You'd be able to detect the slightest changes in the sounds and vibrations of machinery and catch on to developing defects before they become a problem, as well as perform what we call non-invasive material science checks, with practice. You are a chef or a perfumer? Well, the heightened senses of taste and smell would allow you to reverse-engineer any dish or scent that you come across, as well as help you with your own creations. You are a hunter or an explorer? The benefit of super-sharp senses is self-explanatory. You are a criminal or a covert operative? Your ability to see in very low light conditions (you can go full Spook, without the drawbacks of being a savant, using F-Tin), superb hearing, huge advantage in opening locks of all kinds, etc. would make you exceptionally successful if you are not a complete fool. Etc, etc. Also, just think how storing senses could be used to avoid distractions or unpleasant sensations! You need to study for an exam? Store hearing and it doesn't matter how loud your environment is. You have to eat something you don't like? Store taste. You have to deal with stinks? Store scent! Heh, now I kinda wish for a main or at least an important character with a PoV who is either a Tin compounder or even just a Tin Ferring in the future Cosmere books by Sanderson. It is my favorite kind of ability - you can achieve so many different kinds of things with it, but you have to be practiced and clever.

You are confusing Brass with Zinc, but yes, indeed. Some other fun combos: Double Duralumin could also provide some interesting benefits - you'd be able to insinuate yourself in any group through massive Connection, have an in-built "universal translator", and there might be some other interesting applications, like a sort of "animal empathy", etc. From what we have seen with the medallions, F-Duralumin Connection likely works like F-Tin, in that you create different metalminds for different aspects of it. And, of course, with A-Duralumin filling said metalminds should be a snap. A really good combo for worldhoppers, IMHO, but also great for a plethora of different occupations on Scadrial itself. A-Electrum should be good for any kind of activities where split-second decisions are important - however, since it only lets you see your _own_ future seconds in advance it is not a trivial task to figure out in time what it will be caused by and how to best deal with it. F-Zinc for extra quick thinking would help there, as would F-Tin for additional clues. A-Tin, F-Zinc - the Sherlock Holmes combo, but very useful in lots of other fields as well. A-Pewter, F-Iron - the ultimate Ninja, parkour runner, etc. As a bonus can also use muscle-powered wings to fly! Finally, as far as I currently understand the mechanism of F-Nicrosil, pairing it with Allomantic abilities which are useful by themselves can, with proper preparation, allow for sustained use via compounding at and above the "flaring" level without the risk of savantism - very useful by itself, and might even let one reach the strength of Elend + Duralumin in that one metal for a short time. A-Pewter, A-Tin or A-Bronze would likely profit most from such pairing, but I am also very curious about how it would affect A-Electrum. Would it greatly extend the precognition window, for instance? As an aside, between F-Chromium, A-Electrum and A/F Tin games of chance really shouldn't be popular in northern Scadrial in Era 2.

But how and why would an Emotional allomancer worldhopper have found himself on the bridge duty? Particularly since there was no way to know in advance that they'll find themselves close to Dalinar in the end. Those who survived. Or do you suggest that he insinuated himself into Bridge 13 afterwards and somehow made everybody believe that he had been there the whole time? That would require some mad Connection-compunding, I imagine... I mean, all the things that you pointed out do hint at something like that, and it was a great find on your part, I am just unsure as to how this might have come about. Because the bridges were a meat-grinder where a normal human allomancer was very unlikely to survive unless he was a steel-pusher. And the whole "Kholin bodyguard" stuff would have been impossible to predict, methinks. Unless the dude is a kandra with a relevant hemalurgic spike, that is, and was just using the whole thing for research at no personal risk? That would also nicely explain why Rial isn't noticeably short for an Alethi, and doesn't have "Shin eyes". Spook could have kept himself alive in a bridge crew, of course, but would he have let his bridge-mates die like flies in order to keep his cover? Not IMHO. And wouldn't he require Hoid's level of access to Fortune to know that he needed to be in the crews so that he could become Dalinar's bodyguard via an unlikely sequence of events?

I used to think that Kelsier found his purpose in learning more about the Cosmere and became a worldhopper. This would have agreed with both Harmony's and Marsh's hints that they haven't talked to him for a long time - and it isn't like spiked Kelsier could have shut out Harmony. Now that we know from a WoB that this is not the case, I think that he is sitting in a Duralumin-enhanced Cadmium bubble for some reason. That would explain his being incommunicado to the resident deity and completely passive during the "Alloy" sequence so far. And the bubble is about to come down, because another WoB mentions a small role for him in "The Last Metal".

Not to suggest that it is, in any way, "best", but I wonder whether being an aluminium compounder couldn't be useful for a world-hopper. Between all the WoBs about how burning aluminium could protect one from a Threnodian Shade's effects, and the mechanisms of something like Soulcasting being rooted in changing an object's Identity, could it be that an aluminium compounder would have pretty good defenses against outside investiture acting on them? For that matter, shardblades' supernatural cutting would be inhibited by something highly invested, so maybe they wouldn't affect as anything more than sharp bladed weapons an aluminium compounder tapping massively compounded Identity ? I.e. magic resistance, basically? And, apparently, burning aluminium could also burn away allomantic(?) metal stuck in your body, so it might be situationally useful in case of wounds, etc. Conversely, I can't wait to learn how storing investiture in Nicrosil actually works. Like, if somebody Lashes a Soulbearer Ferring, can they store it instead and then use it later? Compound it, if they are a Twinborn, and thus gain continuing use of a Surge? Can Nicrobursts affect non- Allomantic investiture uses, for that matter? Depending on the answers, a Nicrosil Twinborn could be the best indeed... off-Scadrial. I chose not to consider here the possible avenues of exploitation that the medallions offer, since we don't really know what limitations apply, if any.