StanLemon

Society will be very changed. Hospitals with F-Gold Medallions alone would completely change the health care industry. People could have entire jobs where they just store attributes in a Metalmind or two that will go to places that need them, such as the F-Gold example (instead of donating plasma, donate some Health). Frankly the more I think about it the more it seems every single level of society would change.

F-Copper would probably change the very nature of teaching/learning in society

@Llstml that WoB doesn't say anything about him pushing on the bullet. Just Vindication and might I remind you that Vindication is a handgun, whereas rifles are often stronger. Also, sure that was at the forefront but bullets are more forceful than axes and the like. A squad of riflemen could take down a Shardbearer from a distance.

He's talking about normal guns, not Steelpushed ones. Wax could probably break through Plate with one shot. Rereading Way of Kings makes it pretty clear that while stronger than standard armor, Plate is nowhere near as invulnerable that a lot of people think it is. In Dalinar's vision with the Midnight Essences he is able to fight off one of them without Plate yet in that same scene a single attack from the ME is able to crack the Plate. Also in the big fight at the end of the book, it's normal weapons that are breaking through Dalinar and Adolin's Plate in that battle. Sure it takes a little while for muscle powered weapons to do that but it's still enough. Guns on the otherhand put a lot more umpf into a much smaller area so their is more force. I doubt it would take more than a few shots from a decent caliber rifle to break Plate.

There are differences yes. But at a fundamental level they are pretty similar. At least that's how I see it.

And yet Lift, who is quite like him is an Edgedancer.

Wayne is great at listening when it's something he considers important, not unlike Lift. Also he remembers and cares for others. He actually shows quite the capacity to be an Edgedancer if we use Lift's oaths as our basis

I could see him being an Edgedancer, but for different reasons than you. Interestingly, and a bit redundantly I could also see him as a Truthwatcher

The people using Medalions might not even be consciously aware that they are tapping the Nicrosil. This quote implies that when they stop storring/tapping a Medallion the Investiture is returned to the Nicrosilmind.

I want

I guess Nicrosil's limit is on how broadly defined "Investiture" is. We know Breaths can be stored and the ability to use various Surges can be stored as well. Brandon has also implied that it can store Stormlight but that it is difficult. It seems that when talking about Nicrosilminds Investiture is related to the Investiture of the Spiritweb.

I could see Sel allying pretty easily with any of them pretty easily. Roshar on the other hand I think would have a hard time allying but still possible. I'm not sure how well Nalthis would do. Scadrial potentially could have it easy or hard depending who they have in charge of diplomatic relations. I still think Scadrial with their Harmonium nukes would be the big guns though in a conflict. None of the other worlds would see it coming as they don't have any point of reference for a weapon that powerful. One use of that could potentially wipe an entire army off the board.

If each side has only 500,000 each. At the magic proportions we see in the books then it'll probably be Scadrial. Roshar would probably have the least amount of magic users while Sel or Scadrial would probably have the most. Nalthis is hard to judge because while everyone has Breath it takes a lot to get it useful except their biggest advantage would be the Lifeless. Realistically though, I think that Nalthis has the lowest chance of victory, followed by Sel at the second lowest. Both of those worlds are the weakest in terms of technology. Despite Nalthis having the Lifeless, which while it would be their greatest advantage I just can't see anything else working in their favor. Sel has some pretty effective magic systems but they grow weaker the further from their source of power they are which would be a major limitation on pushing a war. Though they do share the Rosharan advantage of just being able to create supplies. The real tossup would be Roshar or Scadrial. I agree that Roshar would have the better military leaders for sure and Soulcasters would be a major advantage over Scadrial. Scadrial has guns and industrialization though. People underestimate just how much of a game changer that is unless they are history nerds. The ubiquity of guns in Scadrian forces would destroy any nonpowered military force thrown at them from the other 3 worlds (except likely the Lifeless which would be an advantage Nalthis has on Scadrial). Adding the relatively high amount of Metalborn compared to the low percentage of Surgebinders, Scadrial would have a magic advantage too. The biggest weakness for Scadrial would be it's inexperience with actual war. That's only counting Northern Scadrial, Southern Scadrial may have more experience which would mitigate or completely remove that weakness. Also Southern Scadrial effectively has nukes which would be an overwhelming advantage. With no numbers advantage to actually worry about, I would say overall Scadrial has the advantage. Though Roshar would have a decent shot at it.

The way I see it is that your unconscious mind can still tap something that you need like how an Allomancer can burn a Pewter when the body needs it. That the unconscious mind provides the Intent needed.

Because the topic of tapping a Metalmind unconsciously or asleep has come up a few times in various threads and I was rereading Bands of Morning, I would like to share this easily missed line. This is from Chapter 22, third paragraph, first sentence. This shows that it is indeed possible to tap a Metalmind unconsciously.

I've seen this theory a couple times but to me it seems no more plausible than a nicrosilmind filled with anything else. The charge would still be stored in the nicrosilmind.

@Honorless I agree that I don't see Honor as very competent. I think that he did care just that he lacked the skill necessary to accomplish what he wanted. Back to what Kriss said, you don't need to be qualified to hold a Shard.

Yes, but that likely wasn't the full story behind his power.

While I'm certain a lot of his power came from that, but I don't think it accounts for everything. When Wax was tapping the BoM he had TLR level power in Allomancy. There is definitely more to his power than just being a naturally powerful Allomancer

The Voidbinding table shows 10 surges They are the same surges as the Surgebinding table The difference in the Surges designs are that the Surgebinding table has mirror symmetry while the Voidbinding table has rotational symmetry

We don't know that. We don't know how good Odium's is. Also, Ruin wasn't half bad at future sight either. he was able to make at minimum a decade long plan to take down TLR. It's just that Preservation foresaw everything that Ruin would do and incorporated it into his plan.

Remember, every power that exists has a Physical, Mental, and Spiritual aspect. The traits themselves seem to be more focused on the Cognitive recognition of what a trait is while the Physical aspects of the power seem to be focused on all the little minutia that make up that Cognitive trait. One thought I have is that maybe it stores the kinetic energy involved with movement. Feruchemy seems to be able to distinguish the types of energy it is involved with and each "trait" in Feruchemy would have to actually involve multiple actual traits to be done. Like with Brass, it would have to distinguish the kinetic energy causing heat alone but would also have to manipulate the way chemical reactions in the human body work as well. With Steel, perhaps it is storing the energy of movement and when tapping part of it goes into increasing your mental speed enough to process the information too.

I would love a scene of Dalinar punching Odium in the face This would be very entertaining

Possibly, but I put it into the Cosmere Discussion because the most notable times have been in Cosmere stories

Brandon seems to like having his protagonists punch people in the face. It's pretty satisfying, I wonder if the trend will continue.