Isilel

I do think that harmonium, or possibly harmonium alloy Feruchemy plays a role in the southern medallion production. I am not entirely sure what you mean by storing Allomantic charges? It recently occurred to me, though, that kandra are ideally suited to find out Allomantic properties of harmonium - they can take it into their bodies without any contact with fluids, if they so choose. I guess that Sazed keeps it secret from them that they can burn pure godmetals, for some reason*. Hopefully, now that they'd be producing atium for Marsh, a happy accident might reveal it to them. *If, as many think, Kelsier's soul is stapled to a mistrwraith, this may be why, because Sazed doesn't want him to know that burning godmetals would work for him.

I always thought that the apostate Heralds plan to abandon the Oathpact didn't make sense if Taln could choose to give in. The fact that he hadn't until Aharietam wasn't any kind of reasonable guarantee that he'd be able to hold out forever on his lonesome. I used to think that Ishar had changed the Oathpact, so that the loophole of being able to give in was closed to Taln. But after WaT, the effect of a Dawnshard makes more sense - and IMHO, Ishar was aware of it when he made his decision. Taln is also unique among his colleagues in that he was apparently born on Roshar and had never been touched by Odium before he became a Herald. That could only have helped. It suddenly occurres to me, that the Poem of Ista could have been a garbled account of Taln's attack on Cultivation: "Taking the Dawnshard, known to bind any creature voidish or mortal, he crawled up the steps crafted for Heralds, ten strides tall apiece, towards grand temple above" These huge steps obviously weren't sized for Heralds, but would have fit Cultivation in her dragon form. As a god she may well have had a temple back then. Or maybe a palace? And, well, so far as we know at this point, a Dawnshard wasn't openly used for anything else of note on Roshar and would have been a logical weapon to try to kill a god with.

But IIRC, Kelsier didn't use all his powers at once in his PoV fights in The Final Empire. He didn't use emotional Allomancy to distract his opponents, nor did he Smoke himself during the fights to avoid telegraphing his attacks, nor did he use Seeking to have a warning about the enemy's powers and intentions, etc. The same was the case for Vin and Elend. We later saw Spook combining Tin and Pewter in a highly effective way that the Mistborn never demonstrated. And yes, he was a Tin Savant, but if Pewter could balance _his_ over-sensitivity when burning Tin, then it should have been more than enough for them. So, some soft limit on how many powers a person could keep track of and use effectively at the same time might exist, IMHO. This would be my preference, frankly, because Mistborn would be far too OP otherwise, now that they have 8 more basic metals and IMHO somewhat boring as a result. I know that this is a minority opinion, but I would also like if the new lead character had just one Metallic Art to begin with, but one with lots of options for skilled and creative use, particularly with access to unkeyed metalminds to tap or burn, ferruchemical medallions that would well supplement their natural power, etc. Until now, too many of Scadrian lead characters were _born_ with super-rare one-in-a-million combinations of powers. And in large part that's what made them capable of fulfilling their heroic roles, made them protagonists. I'd like to see something different this time around.

Not just early ones. Didn't Dami, the 4th Ideal Stoneward in WaT have long cloth ribbons tied to his shardplate for extra offensive power?

So, what power would you expect or want this lead character to have now? Personally, I hope for something that allows for a lot of creativity and is also new, which would preclude my beloved F-Tin. Hence, F-Duralumin. F-Chromium is also very mysterious and likely powerful, of course, but I just don't see a lot of potential for creative usage. Allomancy, we have already seen what it can do, Nicroburst could have potentially had sufficiently varied applications, but is out of running. A-Electrum could have been very interesting with extensive mental training to make the most of it, but somehow I doubt that it's in the cards either. Cosmere spoiler: Well, this fight might still happen at some point, just without the serial killer angle and preceding detective investigation of the same. OTOH, addition of A-bendalloy to the other Mistborn combat abilities would make them pretty much unbeatable, except against a natural Steel Compounder, unless there is some mental limit on how many powers can be effectively used simultaneously. After all, an Era 3 Mistborn would have access to all the same medallions and unkeyed metalminds to burn, as a team fighting them. IIRC, Vin never burned more than 3-4 metals at the same time, but it was never clear if it was due to the difficulty of multitasking or something else.

There was a recent Sanderson update about the Ghostbloods: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/544/#e16900 And what jumped out at me was this: Spoiler: So, it seems that powers of the lead character are unknown again at this point, since IIRC in the earlier WoBs she was supposed to have been the Nicroburst in question. I think that a Connector Ferring brother was mentioned at some point in the past - could it be that their powers have been switched? I imagine that under the tutelage of the Ghostbloods, there might be very creative and powerful ways of employing Connection... And that their leader in particular might be interested in using it to his advantage, somehow. Though the issue of whether a Nicroburst can function as a "jack of all trades" if provided with relevant unkeyed Nicrosil metalminds to burn will remain open for a while longer...

Do we even know how common it is for people to snap this early in Era 2? I was thinking more in terms of identifying teenagers and training them for jobs where being a Metalborn is a big advantage, then employing them. Apprenticeships and the like. Indeed, from what we have seen, Metallic Arts should have conferred pretty much unbeatable advantages in some areas. Like we never see unpowered people in Era 2 going against Metalborn with combat-relevant powers and winning. Likewise, Tin powers would have been extremely valuable in a number of areas where heightened perception couldn't yet be replaced by technology. Re: Pulsers and Sliders, they are very rare, so there shouldn't be that much competition between them. Concerning the Coinshot couriers, there is an implausible lack of Metalborn as officers in the Elendel police in the books. And yet, it has been repeatedly shown how helpless they are against Metalborn criminals. One can only assume that the police doesn't pay enough to attract Metalborn with relevant powers. So, couriers presumably earn more than they would have as constables. I have to say that I find it generally frustrating that we have no idea how normal people live in Era 2, since our cast consists of nobles and a maverick ex-urchin orphan. Do children usually go to school? In comparable time periods elementary education was compulsory in a lot of places iRL, but Wayne apparently never has gone, even when his parents had been alive. At what age do they start working? Etc. Though there was a bit of a gaffe there in The Final Empire too, when Vin pretended to be "too young for the mills" at 16 and Spook was "too young for the mines" at 14, when iRL in comparable circumstances they'd have to have been under 7 or so to be too young for either, or some other kind of labour. I don't think so. Couriers exist in numbers, they are repeatedly mentioned in the newspapers and are briefly glimpsed in SoS. As are emotional Allomancers. Soothing parlours were presented as something reasonably wide-spread. Metalborn working for a living were implied to be something very normal and integral to Era 2 Basin society... But almost never seen on-page, unfortunately. Which hurt the worldbuilding aspect somewhat, IMHO. I mean, settings with super-heroes and super-villains, while everyone else is normal are a dime a dozen. But how often do we see worlds where a noticeable chunk of the population has powers and the effect this should have on their society and life on every level? I'd like to point out that most of the people in the Refuge in TLM were common-born Allomancers from the Roughs and children of the same. So, there must have been be plenty of those. In addition there was Miles, his right-hand man Tarsin, the Coinshot bank robber, Ranette, the copper-clouds whom she paid to smoke her, etc. It is reasonable to assume that the Set's spikes also came from such people, or the wave of murders and disappearances would have been noticed much sooner. Yes, complete lack of Metalborn (noble or otherwise), or, indeed, any security at the wedding in AoL was mind-boggling and not in a good way. I also don't agree that the nobles managed to come out of Catacendre still largely on top mainly because of their Allomancy. They were the ones who were literate, numerate, had organizational and management experience. This likely played more of a role in their pre-eminence during the re-building, though of course Metallic Arts would have been helpful too.

I never said that Metallic Arts should make them wealthy, but that they should allow them to climb from poverty into the (lower?) middle class. How young Metalborn could be scouted? Well, didn't you wonder how Wayne even learned about his powers? Given that both of them require expensive metals? I did and found this WoB; I would have preferred to see this mentioned in an actual book, though and to have seen Metalborn doing their jobs normally. It also occurred to me that they shouldn't even have proper refrigeration at this point, just iceboxes and such,with ice being imported from the mountains. So, yes, having Pulsers help keep most expensive and exquisite foodstuffs fresh should have been very much worth it. Re: Sliders, yes, have them on retainer following their patron around during a business day, in case they are needed to provide some extra time for critical decision-making. Would likely lead to them eventually picking up other useful complimentary skills along the way. Re: Coinshot couriers, well we know from SoS that there were no Coinshot constables in Elendel, only a couple of couriers contracted to the police, which could only mean that being a courier pays better than being a police officer. Even if run-of-the-mill Metalborn are less capable than the protagonists, Metalborn antagonists, even bit and minor ones, have been consistently shown to be far superior to non-powered security and police. So, why would rich and powerful leave themselves wide open to any powered criminal, who decides to target them? It just feels like an idiot plot, so that Our Heroes are always the _only_ Metalborn on the scene other than the opposition... even though in a setting like Era 2 this really shouldn't have been the case. Then Sanderson should have shown other Metalborn attempting it and failing. Of course the protagonists would have been the only ones able to win. That's why the books are about them. But it feels like nobody else was even trying, even when it was an existential matter for them. And no, I am not at all young, but a major insurance and security company in the Era 2 not having Tin Metalborn as claims investigators and Thugs/Coinshots as security personnel is just unbelievably stupid, IMHO. Literature has to make more sense than real life .

True, but it also depends on how obviously valuable and rare an ability is in given circumstances. Sure, most useful Metallic Arts would work best when combined with complimentary mundane skills. But a number of Metal arts in question would have provided enough of an enhancement in the eyes of a prospective employer that it should have been possible to obtain relevant training from them, at the cost of a long-term work obligation, etc. Working as guards/security to rich and powerful tended to be a much better prospect historically iRL than being a factory worker or an agricultural labourer and also usually safer, so why wouldn't you? And since certain types of Metalborn are demonstrably unbeatably superior to mundane guards in the Second Era books, why wouldn't you, as a rich and powerful person/organisation scout them, snap them up young, provide them with training and lock them into long-term employment for yourself? It felt incredibly contrived and implausible to me that in AoL Tekiels, whose business was insurance(!) and security(!!!) had no Metalborn working for them as guards and investigators. However, Bendalloy and Cadmium Allomancy, for example, should be good enough for a decent living by themselves. The first to provide extra decision time for people in high stakes, high pressure situations, the second to preserve expensive perishables that shouldn't be frozen, or so that they needn't be frozen, for example. Also, regarding Metalborn couriers, you are looking at it too much from a modern PoV. Before the modern means of communication and transport, trusted couriers working for powerful/rich people and organisations were payed quite well. Couriers, who can move across the city with supernatural speed, vault buildings, don't require horses, etc. would have been even more valuable. In SoS Wax even thought in his PoV, when he saw that one Coinshot that employing her must have been expensive for the carriage business.

I was always disappointed that we saw so little of normal Metalborn citizens using their powers constructively in Era 2 and benefitting from them in everyday life. Just a little bit in SoS + Ranette. And also that we didn't see how snapping and it's equivalent for Feruchemy works after the Catacendre from someone's PoV. I agree that getting certain powers should have been life-changing for most people, but particularly poor ones. The Quick-Eats ad makes no sense, BTW - Sliders are rare enough that it would have been quite a coincidence if one of them was a decent professional cook as well. And Steel Ferrings are very rare too and need to spend huge amounts of time storing, so also not practical for delivery service. Additionally, I'd imagine that expensive lawyers, banks, brokers at the stock exchange, etc. should have been prepared to pay Sliders very well indeed just to sit around and burn bendalloy during crucial times. Kept them on generous retainer just in case, actually. Given Wayne's peculiarities it was believable that he would have been struggling despite his powers, though. And his father may have had a not particularly beneficial Feruchemical power and had clearly chosen to leave the Terris society behind. Even something generally useful like F-Brass wouldn't necessarily lend itself to a lucrative employment, though it would make working some jobs easier and allow one to save on warm clothing.

Indeed, and being adapted to 30% less gravity, higher oxygen ratio in the air, almost complete lack of infectious disease due to stormlight and IIRC lesser concentration of heavy metals than on Scadrial should have made it far harder than any migration on Earth. I can only assume that Iriali have some supernatural ability helping them to thrive on new worlds, but it doesn't look rosy for the other non-invested Rosharans, who chose to join their caravans in WaT.

@Duxredux: Annotation to the chapter 3 of "Hero of Ages" doesn't make any distinction between how TLR learned to compound and how the Inquisitors could have, given time: Could have been superceded, of course, but a quick search of Arcanum didn't show me anything definitive. Also, the timeline for Kelsier and Spook to get the former a body _and_ figure out and set up medallion production in the South is tight enough without throwing additional stumbling blocks in their way. It makes sense if people who survived Catacendre, whose souls had been warped by Ruin more strongly, could get more out of hemalurgy, including (easier?) access to hemalurgic Compounding, than subsequent generations. YMMV. If burning unkeyed metalminds results in an 8x output of twinborn Compounding, then it would provide a completely trivial workaround for the identity contamination block on hemalurgic Compounding. It would just require 2 spikes instead of one - the first being for F-Aluminium, the other for the respective metal, to make a Misting/Ferring into an equal of a natural twinborn Compounder. It would be difficult for me to believe that the Set didn't think to try this. Concerning mistings burning unkeyed storages, wouldn't speed of output depend on how quickly a given metal burns? And whether feruchemical storages burn at the same speed as uncharged metal? There would be far less flexibility than with feruchemical tapping, but it could be regulated by dosage of the metal, flaring and length of the burn.

@JustQuestin2004: My point was that Bleeder likely didn't need to figure out the method of making a Blessing that bestowed Metallic Arts, she already knew how TLR did it. And producing them didn't require access to trellium, she just used it to prevent Harmony from seizing control over her.

Didn't Bleeder impersonate an Inquisitor when working for TLR? He must have known how to temporarily give her Allomancy for it to work, no?

Wasn't it strongly hinted that it was for the same reason as why his soul and those of pre-Catacendre folks in general could accept far more spikes than those of the Second Era? I.e. that Ruin was pushing on souls much more heavily back in Era 1 and hemalurgy was stronger? IIRC we don't actually know if Allomancers burning unkeyed storages would get the 8x(?) amplification of the attribute stored that natural Compounders get or just the same amount as stored, delivered at the rate of burning speed of a given metal. IMHO, the latter is more likely, since the former would be too overpowered.

You are mistaken. What it states is: "Almost" means that there is a little bit of Cultivation in honorspren, they are not wholly of Honor. And I would hate it if Jasnah is not a proper main character and I really don't see why Sigzil or Rysn should take that spot instead. I agree that Shallan will step back and Szeth won't become more prominent than he was in the first arc.

I strongly suspect that while Heralds leave behind bodies when they are killed, these bodies evaporate over a few hours or so. We heard nothing about Taln and Ash being buried after the battle, or ancient Heraldic graves being places of worship - as they should have been for Vorinism. Also, it was a plot point in WoK prime and while that book isn't canonical, it still suggests a likely hint for why there aren'r hundreds of Heraldic burials all over Roshar. IMHO, the only one who is in position to know about Kaladin's survival is Hoid. I see no narrative benefit in lots of people supposedly guessing what happened or forming a religion around Kaladin at this point. Certainly, the epigraphs suggest nothing of the sort. I think that Kaladin's return is positioned to be a complete surprise to everyone, except Hoid. I don't see Zahel figuring it out either, since the Returned work differently.

To be fair, I feel that SA so far should have been quite a bit darker, but Sanderson consistently side-stepped certain implications and emotional reactions to events in a somewhat contrived manner, IMHO. Like, we know that female slaves exist, but we never see them in Tvlakv's wagons or hear about sexual exploitation that many/most of them likely experience. The prostitutes that bridgemen frequented in WoK would have also been slaves in all probability, for example... Yes, there is a brief scene in Dalinar's flashback in OB involving Sadeas, but that's pretty much it. Threat to and subsequent fall of Alethkar after the appearance of the Everstorm should have been absolutely devastating to most of the Shattered Plains contingent, but Sanderson wrote it as if only Kaladin and the Kholins had reasons to care, when plausibly nearly everybody should have feared for their families back home and/or their property there. Because realistically most people should have had parents, siblings, adult children, extended families, friends or even wives with minor children back home. They should have been going crazy with worry and the more privileged among them should have been besieging Dalinar with demands to do something - but in the actual story everyone was strangely and unnaturally unmoved. There should have been a massive wave of refugees from southern Alethkar to the Shattered Plains, with all the attendant problems and darkness involved. Didn't happen. There should have been a religious and societal meltdown caused by all of the above, as well as Dalinar's own revelations and re-appearance of the Radiants. Ditto. In WaT itself, the allegedly devastating military losses should have been examplified by deaths of characters whom we know at least a little bit and have a reason to be sad about. Bridge 4 losing just 1(!) member out of 30 or so in the battle where the Coalition forces were allegedly bled white was ridiculous. Ditto all named characters surviving in Azir. That is not to say that SA is or should have been hopeless, so not "grim" but it was "lightened" artificially. IMHO, YMMV.

Historically, people tended to take big risks with themselves and their families for the sake of ambition. For good chunk of WoK there was an expectation that Dalinar might step down, which should have upped Adolin's desirability to young ladies and their power-hungry families even more. And even later, there should have been no lack of people willing to roll the dice. But there is generally a huge disconnect between what Alethi population and marital dynamics should have been and how they are presented in the books. Like, even with apparently low child mortality, average couple should have had at least 3 kids just to maintain the same population levels. And nobles should want sons to carry their family names and inherit their lands, as well as marry relatively early due to the risk of dying in wars. Yet apart from Davars and the Horneaters we barely see anyone having more than 2 children. Most have one, if any. Most Highprinces appear to be childless and those who are not, apart from Dalinar, have a child apiece. It is not just Adolin, who was still unmarried, but so were his friendly acquantainces of similar ages in WoK, some of whom were already lords in their own right. Which is doubly odd given the repeated insistence on how it was really a married couple or a brother and sister pair which together made an officer and general reliance on women for communication, accounts, etc.

@Red Blue The Night of Sorrows is mentioned in WoK in the epigraph to chapter 5, but there it is a death rattle. But also in connection to Dalinar's visions in chapters 18, 52, 61 and 75. "Unite them. The sun approaches the horizon. The Everstorm comes. The True Desolation. The Night of Sorrows".

Honor, whose future sight wasn't great by Shardic standards, foresaw the Night of Sorrows, which is the result of Retribution. He mentions it in one of Dalinar's visions. He just failed to notice any positive opportunities that it might offer and thus perceived it as something to avoid at all costs. Given Cultivation's superior future sight and her Intent's inclination towards planning, it would feel contrived indeed if she didn't. Also, Lift comes across as a contingency targeted at exactly such possibility. Additionally, Cultivation had an excellent reason to closely look at all the futures including Taravangian specifically, as well as Dalinar, so she was in the better position to glimpse unlikely outcomes involving him than anyone else.

What article are you referring to? Was there something in addition to the blog post? And yes, it is sad that representation is an issue that needs to be explained and justified.

To be honest, the singers in general are severely marginalized in SA. Like, I hoped since the end of WoR that Rlain would go undercover among the newly awakened singers, since he fluently speaks Alethi, and we would learn about them through him, while Eshonai/Venli would interact more with the Fused. We were treated to Kaladin's and Moash's PoV's among the new singers instead, and the focus lay more on the internal struggles of these characters than on the ex-parshmen themselves, who merely provided a background and tools to explore internal turmoil of said humans. Which is another reason why I am annoyed that Moash is still around - it is like in Hollywood movies like "The Last Samurai" et. al., where a certain type of protagonist was shoehorned in to make them more "relatable" to the public. And yes, due to certain RL historical parallels it is particularly jarring that the portrayal of the conflicting parties in SA is so one-sided. RoW, too, could have provided an excellent opportunity for Rlain to give us a window into new singers if he had gone underground and managed to fake being one of them... But we got Kaladin Die Harding it in a somewhat video game-y manner instead...

On the contrary, it demonstrates that eye color has nothing to do with worthiness, since so few lighteyes are chosen for Radiance. Not a single one for the Windrunners, for example, but plenty of former slaves. It reveals the eye color hierarchy for the sham it is - yes, lighteyes are descended from worthy people (or killers who managed to grab shardblades), but aren't worthy themselves. As such, why should the population put up with their privileges? It is also the system that led to them being oppressed in the first place and would continue to oppress their families and friends. And while iRL, historically most people who rose from nothing usually didn't care about the rest of their original social class and happily integrated themselves into power hierarchies, Oaths of several Orders, such as Windrunners and Edgedancers would prevent it from happening in SA. The system is also not layed out to absorb hundreds of new 4th dahn nobles, which Radiants would become at their 3rd Ideal. Didn't stop Roman or Athenian citizens, etc. Didn't stop them from inventing democracy and republic in the first place. Didn't stop various Italian medieval city state republics either, though they did turn aristocratic after a few centuries. You are the one constantly bringing up modern democracies - which also have significant differences from each other, BTW. WaT didn't suggest that Jasnah was planning to establish one and I am talking about historical democracies, elective governments and republics which existed in Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages. IMHO, Republic of Venice before the general citizen assembly lost it's political power might provide a decent inspiration, with the Sibling's Bondsmith in the role of the Doge. Absolutely. What makes you think that this won't happen?

Let me point out the elephant in the room - clashes between the Radiants and the old hierarchy would have been inevitable once the war calmed down. In fact, it is a wonder that nothing has happened yet. I have expected much more friction after OB, once the number of Radiants began to grow and the fact that most of them had been drawn from the lower levels of society became evident. Oaths of a number of Orders, particularly of the Windrunners and the Edgedancers would have pretty much required them to interfere at some point. Something needed to be done to preempt this easily foreseeble conflict from erupting. Consequences of political changes are difficult to predict, but the old societal order has become untenable between the re-appearance of the Radiants and of Odium. Radiants introduce a massive disruption to the eye-color based hierarchy, since everyone, even a slave, can become one and their eyes would lighten. They would also eventually get a shardblade and plate. So, why would darkeyes continue to be as willing to accept the privileges of the old nobility? For that matter, it puts the whole nahn - dahn system in question, since it provides tangible evidence that it in no way reflects worthiness or divine right to lead. At the same time, slaves would be ripe for recruitment as a Fifth column by Odium. Because they have plenty of reasons to hate and little to lose. Honestly, the idea that it is bad to enslave your own people is something that even ancient Romans understood, which is why they made it illegal to enslave a Roman citizens for any reason around 4th century BCE. Slavery was abolished in most European countries by the 14th century, though of course it re-appeared again later in the colonies. But it doesn't necessarily require modern sensibilities to do away with it. I am sure it wasn't all due to high-mindedness, there must have been practical considerations. As there are in SA, as I pointed out above. As there are practical reasons to give non-Radiants some kind of voice in the governance of Urithiru. First of all, most new Radiants don't have relevant skills, training and experience. And they'd have more than enough to do fulfilling their Radiant duties, doing things that only they can do. And second, they are more dependent on the support of the Urithiru population than they have been in the past, with the rest of Roshar bar Azir in Retribution's hands. Funnily enough, Joseph II successfully abolished serfdom in the parts of the Habsburg monarchy where it still existed and his religious tolerance edict had far-reaching positive results. While anti-nobility legislation was repealed, it still never fully regained it's former privileges, since societal tolerance for them had diminished. Etc. Also, due to his own botched education, he had a life-long aversion towards scholarship, so hardly a philosopher. History had been kinder to him than this bitter self-epitaph on his deathbed implies, too. But anyway, he had good ideas, which were both neccessary and timely, but went about executing them somewhat incompetently. Aggressive and expensive foreign policy at the same time didn't help. It is also worth pointing out that Joseph II by no means tried to establish constitutional monarchy. On the contrary, he pursued enlightened absolutism. And his own autoritarianism and extreme micro-management were in big part responsible for his failures and probably hastened his death due to constant exhaustion from massive overwork. So, in this his personality was more similar to Dalinar than to Jasnah.