StanLemon

It's an interesting idea. One potential issue I see right away with it though that you may want to put thought into though is that the Spiritweb isn't static, even when Investiture isn't affecting it directly. Self perception has an influence on it, it's the reason some injuries such as Kaladin's brands don't heal

I like to imagine Hemalurgic constructs like Koloss and Inquisitors are something like a controlled Savant

There are many many reasons why Roshar would be slow to develop. The planet itself is far more harsh to the needs of development than say Scadrial or Earth, some of which have been stated already. Additionally there is the sociological aspects, one of those has been Roshar's percieved dependence on magical solutions. However I feel the most need to address the spren problem brought up. An analogous example would be electricity, we knew about electricity as something other than lightning for a long time before we started truly harnessing it. There are certain things that needed to be learned first. It's the same with fabrials. Certain gem and spren combinations have different effects, and you also have to figure out the proper way to stimulate the spren to do as you want which Navani's pictured note implies is more complicated than it seems. It was only once all these things were understood could they truly expand on it

@LadyWithSword I generally like the Alloy of Law supplement. The risk though is guns are very powerful for a minmaxed character so if you get it you'll want to be careful of what people make

So it seems Brandon has changed his mind or at the least elaborated more on the possibility of a Feruchemy Savant

This seems to me a very simplistic and one dimensional view of Lirin. Lirin has several good points about his arguments. Yes he's a pacifist and his reasonings for being so are good. The world has plenty of soldiers and needs more educated surgeons. The whole campaign at the Shattered Plains shows how pointless a lot of bloodshed is. Also, their life was good until Rashone showed up. And his wife supported him. Yes he stole the spheres, he's human and has flaws, big shocker. He helped the town free of actual charge and when his friend died he took the money that was on him to help his son. Money that wasn't even that valuable, it only became a big deal to Rashone because the guy was pretty and wanted his money. Does he take his ideals a little too far, possibly but he's one of the most good characters in the book. He's a right deal better person than Jasnah, Dalinar, etc.

Oops, thanks @Honorless

@Ookla PersonifiedThat's why I said "currently known to be available"

And people like Khriss are great for getting that GPS, but based on the methods currently known to be available in the Cosmere, Hoid would be the superior choice

Academic understanding only goes so far. And yes she tests it, but if I suddenly got the power to lightweave I would ask Hoid over Khriss how to do it. I fully accept that she's a very knowledgeable person, even more so than Hoid but I would rather learn and to an extent trust someone with experience. Edit: let's say you had to choose one of two people to help you navigate a forest. One person has studied every animal and plant and the trails of the forest but has never stepped in it in their life. The other may not know every facet of the forest but has spent years travelling it and experiencing it. Who would be more useful do you think?

Considering the difference between the two was brought up in regards to who could better deal with the Spiritual Realm, I would choose Hoid

I'm not saying that they aren't included. But having a feel for something is different than having an academic understanding of something. And no she's not stuck, but as far as we know she's only still just an observer whereas Hoid has practical experience with multiple magic systems

I think she may have more technical knowledge for sure, but hands on experience is almost certainly Hoid. There is a lot of difference between the two. Take a car for instance, you can know everything about cars in theory but until you actually get to work on one you won't know the little quirks and tricks.

I don't really see it all that different than bonding a spren, though I wouldn't want Breaths that were coerced from anyone.

Fun fact, Odium fears Stick

You are correct, I do disagree. There are multiple meanings to someone being fueled by a Shard. Also, at the end of the day, the Herald's power level is purely conjecture. What we know for sure is Ishar was able to force the fledgling Surgebinders to organize. That they had more raw power than any Radiant, but how much more is unspecific. That Nale, despite having an Honorblade on hand and siding with Odium, didn't end the battle in Oathbringer as soon as it started turning around towards the Knight's favor but just let it go on its way. And lastly that Kalak feared Thunderclasts, which tells me that they were a threat to Heralds. I think the Oathpact has far more to do with why Odium worked to kill a Herald as quickly as possible than their potential power.

I've read said WoB, but it still seems very unlikely they were anywhere near that strong. If they were, it's unlikely anyone of them would die ever. If they were that strong, then it makes absolutely no sense for Odium to not bring his forces and absolutely just crush the fledgling Radiants now, especially with Nale joining him.

None of any of this means that they had power on TLRs level. That is merely an assumption being made. For all we know, being fueled directly by Honor meant they don't run out of Investiture. Allomancy is done by directly being powered by Preservation, but there is a limit to how much power that they can draw out at any given time no matter how much metal they have eaten. The amount of metal just indicates how long they can do it. It's entirely possible that the Heralds have the same limitation.

Steelpushing isn't a matter of magnetism. So no. Edit: To clarify, Iron and Steel Pull and Push on all metal (except aluminum) and don't do so via magnetism. A non metal like graphite wouldn't be affected unless you were powerful enough to affect the trace metals. Though you probably could still use the pencil as a weapon by Pushing on the ferrule. Standard Pushes do so at the center of mass and a skilled Coinshot can event choose what part of the metal they Push on as Wax and Kelsier show. Most Steelpushes launch small bits of metal at high velocity so unless you are trying for a longer distance, the pencil would likely hit the target before gravity pulled the rest of the pencil down

I'm sad, I was stuck in work and couldn't get one of the signed ones. Oh well, at least the other highest one was still available

@Illian Tear part of the setup is no overwhelmingly powerful characters

Here is a question to consider. Are we limiting Sel's range? If so what would that limit be? If we don't limit it, then arguably Sel is the most powerful force of the 4. AonDor is frankly the most powerful magic system Brandon has made. It's range limit being it's only real downside

@Halyo_Alex agreed, honestly I'm looking forward to Era 3 more than any other Cosmere work right now

Theoretically maybe, in practice probably not. As I've pointed out, there won't be many Windrunners or Skybreakers. Scadrial on the other hand would be insane not to arm every one of their soldiers with guns. Sure they have healing but as seen with Wayne, gunshot wounds typically use up a decent amount of Investiture to heal as even when he has a decent amount of Health stored up he has trouble with more than a couple of shots. Most of the Skybreakers won't have Plate and none of the Windrunners will leaving them more vulnerable. Also, Scadrial could have Pewterarms mixed in which are at least as strong as a Surgebinder but with the added bonus of enhanced dexterity, agility, endurance, and durability. All this is a moot though, as soon as Scadrial finds out how troublesome Roshar can be they could just drop a nuke and obliterate the Rosharans. It is very very unlikely that Roshar would see an attack of that magnitude coming. Sure they would see the airships, and they would likely have superior mobility to them and even down a few by cutting up the fans with Shardblades. But they wouldn't see such a destructive weapon coming, all Scadrial would have to do is distract Roshar's flyers long enough to drop the bomb.

Era 2 Scadrial guns are roughly equivalent to late 1800s to early 1900s firearms. By then guns had the strength to tear through steel and had while not semi automatic for the most part, did have a decent rate of fire. Secondly, by the terms you yourself set up there aren't enough living Shardblades to do what you propose. Most Shardbearers will be using dead Plate and Blade. Not counting the Skybreakers, there is less than a dozen living Shardblades. The Skybreakers would be Roshar's most powerful asset as far as actual combat goes but the amount of them that have Plate would be limited as it's implied in Oathbringer that only a few have said the fourth Ideal. And that's before you reduce their number to make it proportional to 500,000 Rosharan soldiers.