Senor Feesh

I believe Compounder is referring to the metals Ferruchemical use, which stores Fortune (Luck) rather than the Allomantic use. Crazy amounts of Fortune could indeed create a force to be reckoned with...

I believe you're referring to Way of Kings - Your interpretation (of Preservation being involved in the decision) is better than anything I have, but could Preservation actually have done so? Most of his consciousness was depleted by giving so much of himself to Ruin's prison. Discuss!

Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. Next time you try pushing against a wall, do so without bracing yourself against anything (even better, jump and then push the wall). I guarantee if you're exerting any meaningful force, you'll end up farther from the wall than you started As for the OPs question regarding this; yes, it does seem to break with the rules Kelsier gave Vin. However, keep in mind that all allomancers (and likely allomantic knowledge) by this point would have been on a similat footing due to the generational gap from the original 9 allomancers who ate the beads of Lerasium with Rashek. Consider also that Duralumin (which essentially 'supercharges' your other metals) allows Vin to push an entire cavalry charge flying when rescuing Breeze in WoA. This could be used as a basis for an argument that a severe enough imbalance in allomantic strength would give the advantage. One other theory I can think of, which is a little simpler. An inquisitor would know roughly what to expect from a normal mistborn for this time period, so when getting into a pushing match with Elend would not be prepared for the mega-push of a Lerasium mistborn. Elend, knowning exactly how strong he is (and with pewter to enhance himself) braces himself before pushing on the coin. The inquisitor, not expecting such a strong push, simply isn't braced for it and goes flying. (Analogy - two brothers in a friendly shoving match, usually equally matched, when one decides to tip the scales with a sudden extra-hard shove - he's expecting it and digs his feet it, while his unfortunate brother goes arse over tit backwards). This second interpretation only hold weight if Elend and the inquisitor were on the ground during the pushing match (I can't remember if this is the case or not). Personally I lean more towards interpretation A simply because Duralumin sets the precedent, even if it does cause a break with real-world physics.

True, but only so long as Ati (Ruin) wasn't directly opposing her, because in turning the world she was hastening Ruin's cause. As soon as she tried to act in ways counter to Ruin's desires, he moved to block her. I can imagine a similar clash between Aona and Rayse. I'm not necessarily espousing this theory (especially if the time discrepancy is so large as you've said), just that it's a theory with some plausibility. This, I'd missed or forgotten. I like where your thoughts on this, and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter Sorry, weird reference. Anyway, I do like this idea. What evidence do we have for/against? If that's too much of a thread-jack, let's start over somewhere else.

This makes me I actually really like the majority of the covers in this art style (I actually prefer this version of Elantris, less... I dunno, generic fantasy?) but the Warbreaker one just looks like no effort went into it. And as much as I love the WoK versions with these covers, I wish I had the hardback just so I had a copy with the Surgebinding diagram inside As someone else suggested, I'm pretty sure it's a cultural thing - publishers on each side of the pond will choose the art style they think will sell more books, and they have a lot of experience at making these kinds of decisions. I like the fact that I could buy all my Cosmere in a unified art style (although most of them I have on Kindle, I only actually have print copies of WoK in 2-part paperback). I've actually considered re-buying all China Miéville's stuff in the new cover styles (old ones are quite battered anyway )

There is some speculation (unconfirmed AFAIK) that the earthquake which caused the chasm (which in turn knocked out all the Aons) may have been caused by Odium shattering Devotion and Dominion and killing Aona and Skai (the original Shardholders, whose names we did indeed learn in the Letter). As name_here mentioned, because AonDor was so closely tied to the landscape of Arelon (remember that the first lines of each Aon are the coast, mountains and the dot to represent the lake), the chasm was such a fundamental change to the land that it needed to be reflected in the Aons to make them function again (hence the addition of Raoden's Chasm Line).

Szeth is native to Scadrial now? When did this happen?

Yeah, he's actually stated that he mis-pronounces his own creations, because the correct pronunciation sounds odd in english. Elantris for example is pronounced 'Ee-layn-triss', and Sarene is I think 'Sah-ree-nee' (correct me if I'm wrong). I think I was using the same pronunciation as yourself Kythis, apart from Shaod, which I pronounced 'Shay-odd'.

Wouldn't it be just as easier (nay, easier, given that we don't know TLR had knowledge of nicrosil) to assume he just compounded brass, pewter, and everything else? Would this not achieve the same effect without directly altering investiture? Scratch that, sorry. For some reason (it's early, baby kept me up last night, that's my excuse!) I thought compounding would give a greater allomantic burst - it doesn't, it gives a super ferruchemical burst. So yeah, ignore what I said before.

Wow... I interpreted this very differently. When Brandon said those inside the train wouldn't notice the bubble, I read it as meaning because they were inside the train, which is not affected by the bubble, neither would they be. If the train doesn't think of itself as being in the bubble, would the interior of the train not ALSO then not be inside the bubble?

Agreed. Szeth is doing terrible things, but for what he believes are the right reasons. His master is whoever holds his Oathstone - suggesting that he is upholding an oath by remaining loyal to the stone's holder. Seems to me like this is an easy way to have someone's honour (in upholding their oath) used against them. Szeth is placed in the uncomfortable position of betraying his oath, or performing terrible misdeeds in upholding it. Not dissimilar to soldiers in war, given orders to carry out immoral acts. Which is more important to you; your oath of obedience, or your personal morality? Obviously Szeth chose the oath.

Seems completely plausible. Well thought out. I would surmise the following: if you stop breathing, the lack of oxygen has a detrimental effect of the body, with cells in the brain beginning to die (which is why suffocation can cause brain damage). In Miles' case, he has so much health stored, and due to compounding/savantism can heal so fast, he's undoing the damage so quickly it has no lasting effect. You could still argue that after too long without breath his muscles would no longer have the oxygen needed function, rendering him helpless, but the power of Feruchemy may be a counter to this (don't really have enough to speculate on).

I personally interpreted this as being the return of Dalinar and Adolin, who should have been dead, and who hold Navani's heart in their hands, metaphorically speaking. (Of course, that's Dalinar much much more than Adolin, so it's not exactly a perfect theory.) Different take: The Gemheart from the Greatshell. Not sure if this would refer to Dalinar and Elhokar, or Alinar and Adolin. Either way, this could refer to that. Or to something else entirely. These death-quotes are very like prophecy - vague enough that many meanings can be inferred.

I always thought it was more 'understand?', kind of like people saying 'capishe?'

It's also possible their father believed him dead, or lied to obscure the fact that he was so deeply involved with the ghostbloods that the family wouldn't be seeing him again. If the ghostbloods are as powerful as has been hinted, it's not unreasonable to think they may be able to demand such sacrifices of Shallan's father (do we have a name for him, btw?)

I also didn't notice these until my second read-through. That first quote 'a secret hidden ten heartbeats away', I think is easy to miss as at this point in the story we have limited experience of Shardbearers (I think we've only seen Szeth's PoV, and I don't recall now if that sequence mentions the ten heartbeats required to summon, at least not explicitly - I'd have to read the passage again).

I don't agree that this (highly) specific circumstance would be the only way. It's feasible that there would be other situations in which an atium burner would be unable to escape from harm. You require a situation in which the atium burner essentially cannot escape lethal harm. This could be achieved by multiple methods (I'm not particularly imaginative, but I can see a few Evil Genius Death Machines supplying the necessary conditions. I can only imagine how horrifying it would be for an atium user to see all their options ending somewhat abruptly (or for another atium user watching to see all the persons atium shadows die).

Maybe actually. Tin, pewter and nicrosil all have the spike piercing from the outside in, perhaps to signify a compounding (not twinborn Compounding) of attributes, whereas the chromium spike is from the centre out, perhaps to signify the power flowing from a body out. Granted that may be a stretch, especially as aluminum and chromium aren't hugely similar. Whilst writing this I had something else occur actually. Aluminum and duralumin both have spikes going from inside to out in several directions, which may signify that both metals will draw out your other metal reserves, but duralumin has twin spikes, which may be to signify the amplification of the power. Chromium and nicrosil - perhaps the twin arcs pierced by the spikes represent the physical contact between the burner and the affected person, with the spike out to in (nicrosil) representing an infusion of power, and the spike inside to out (chromium) representing a power drain. This may be just me clutching at straws (and a good example of how people can read meanings into things). Whilst I can at least use these interpretations to remember things, I'm still going to keep looking, as these don't have the cohesive logic I was hoping to find, so I'd still be glad for a better answer if anyone has one. Plus there's still plenty of other metals I've not managed to interpret

Ok, so here's an image I imagine we all know by now. I've been studying this for a little while, trying to see if there's an internal logic to the construction of the symbols themselves. Sadly, I'm not very good at things like this. Thankfully, my girlfriend is better. She noticed immediately that the Pushing metals all have the dot on the inside of the symbols, whilst the Pulling metals are all outside. Can anyone see any common traits shared by other groupings? Specifically I guess I'm trying to see if all Internal/External metals share a common trait, and each grouping of 4 (Physical, Mental etc.) Would be really cool to be able to look at a symbol (without having to memorise them all first) and be able to say 'That's the Internal Mental Pulling metal' (which is of course copper). So if any of you guys have a better eye got this than me, what can you see?

Major problem I have with the theory is actually a simple one - Gavilar was the King of Alethkar. He'd ALREADY united the Highprinces (albeit through conquest). Why then assassinate him, giving the Highprinces the opportunity to splinter again if you wanted them to be united? Would it not be more likely that if they wanted to cause anything, it would be strife?

Is it possible that the Dor, and the powers of Allomancy, Surgebinding, and Breath are all in fact simply aspects of the same 'power of creation' that Adonalsium held? Correct me if I'm wrong (and I'll try and remember where I saw it) but I think I remember reading that Ruin could also be used to power Allomancy (which is somewhat evident anyway due to Atium being able to be burned). I think that maybe all these magics use the same power, but access it in different ways (and therefore have different effects) based on the Intent of the Shard through which they gain access to the power. Thoughts?

I'll admit I've not read through all 4 pages of this thread, so apologies if this has already been said. It's been argued that because Shallan's Memories don't require a Stormlight infusion, it's not a surge. Does this power NEED to be a surge? Is it possible that the 10 types of Surgebinders get their Investiture from Honor, but the Memories, as a power of Cultivation, would require a different focus/power source? Feel free to shoot me down; I'm still pretty new here and there's bound to be people with a better understanding of these things than me.

The Lord Ruler was definitely an allomancer; it's his ability to compound by combining allomancy and feruchemy that gave him his deity-like abilities (which is why he tried to breed feruchemy out of the Terris people, so no-one else could have the same potent combination of abilities). I can't remember 100%, but I think one of the epigraphs in HoA states that he consumed one of the beads himself (I'd have to re-check it to be sure though).

Thanks for that. I assume this is from on of the Q&A sessions? So hard to try and go through them all...

Sorry for obscure title, didn't want to give things away for people yet to read these books. I'm curious about TenSoon - we know from Sanderson than TenSoon imitates someone in AoL (pretty sure it's now confirmed as Bretton), but how did he survive the Resolution? Did any other Kandra survive/get remade?