Gasper

I have the slightest intuition that Ingenuity is the originator of what ever magic system allows various investure powered machines to work, such as the allomanic replicator cube and fabrials. That or it is similar to a green lanterns ring..

Cesium: it makes you explode when you burn it. It turns the unlucky Misting or Mistborn in to a one shot wonder, literally.

9 minutes ago, Invocation said:

Honestly, we don't know how much health the Lord Ruler has, so hitting him with a sniper might not even do it if he has enough to heal instantly and then taps speed to get somewhere else under the assumption that more will be coming, possibly even tapping zinc to calculate where the shot came from and then making it there to kill the person who tried to shoot him.

I still say sneaking Nightblood near him would be the easiest thing to do.

Ok, you have a point. but what about using aluminum filled claymores combined with a cadmium power drainer?

1 hour ago, Invocation said:

That might work, but the biggest issue is getting him into a position to do something like that. A Fullborn whose powers come direct from the source is not going to be easy to trap or even to get close enough to shoot him without him tapping a massive amount of speed and moving out of the way of the gunshot. The single easiest way to kill the Lord Ruler would be to throw Nightblood at him.

Use a sniper. If you are using a Tineye and a very precise and accurate rifle, the Lord Ruler is Toast, he will literally not see it coming. Knock him down with one shot, and follow that up with someone near by with rounds tipped with the bullets I mentioned earlier.

1 hour ago, Invocation said:

Not quite true. The aluminum bullet would have to lodge into the head and obstruct something vital, or else he could still heal from it. Headshots won't do anything against a gold-compounder, see Alloy of Law for proof.

I was thinking something along the lines of a low powered fragmentary bullet that would break apart once it got inside the skull. The piece would bounce around inside the head, turning the LR brain into a pink smoothy, and since the aluminum would be spread out, it would not heal. Fire 5-6 of those into his head and there is no way he is coming back. Same method applies with a Knights Radiant or Compounder.

Shoot him in the head with an aluminum bullet. It will cause enough damage to kill him, and he will not be able to heal from it. Anything else, short of a nuke, is not going to kill him because of the massive amount of Feruchemical Storage he has built up over the years. 

14 hours ago, goody153 said:

Actually ruling well requires good levels of empathy, economic understanding among many things (i mean Rashek understood all these things despite being really cruel but still stabilized the final empire enough that uprisings barely existed and Elend infact was looking after ). So just management pretty sure alot of leaders even Dalinar would do alot better than Kelsier would ever. You know cause you have not be a sociopath(read Sanderson's personal descriptions of Kelsier as you will realize he is incapable of this stuff) in order to actually run something like you have to care.

Rashek's government and economy was not designed to be good to people. It was designed to prepare humanity for the return of Ruin and to prevent Ruin from destroying the planet. The whole reason the economy is based on Atium is because it would prevent Ruin from finding his body and gaining back all of his power. Rashek has a goal in mind and did not care how he got there, which ended up saving the world in the end. And this economy was enforced by the various Cantons, which is why it did not collapse with in 100 years.

Hero of Ages

Elend:

Kandra have atium, feed to mistfallen, give result to Sazed

I think it depends on the type of leader. As far as pure leadership ability, it has to go to either Dalinar or Kaladin. The only reason that Dalinar edges out Kaladin is that Dalinar has experience and is wiser. Kaladin has the potential to be a better leader than Dalinar because he is learning good leadership at a younger age than Dalinar. I am around the same age as Kaladin and I can tell you that there is no way I would let someone my age, no matter the culture, run a country or an army. Kaladin has about the limit of authority that I would give someone under the age of 30.

The character I would be most likely to vote for would be Elend. He is a scholar and a warrior, but does not let his ego get the final say in his decisions. He is not as decisive a leader as Dalinar, but I think that would have happened had he survived his encounter with Marsh and had Vin at his side after Harmony's ascension. He is loyal to his wife, he is willing to compromise with people who do not share his views, and he genuinely cares about his people. He is not just in it for the power, or the votes, or the prestige, he wants to make the world a better place for everyone. At certain times, he almost cares too much about the people. He is also self-sacrificing, during the final battle at the Pits of Hathsin, he is at the forefront of the battle, he fights even until the point where he can fight no more. Elend is the man that I would want to lead a country. 

I am 21 and actually read the Rythmatist and the Reckoners back in middle school and did not like them that much. About year and half ago, I read Elantris, SA, Warbreaker, Mistborn Era 2, and the Arcanum and became a fullborn Cosmere nut. I spent days reading the coppermind and here I am now, posting during Differential Equations class instead of paying attention to bacterial decay rates.

I have been thinking about Hemalurgy and hemalurgic decay. I think that it does not decay in a linear way but in a logarithmic way, similar to radioactive half-life. That is why Wax's earring does not give him any powers, but still has enough charge to let Harmony talk to him. It would, in a strictly literal sense, give him something, but not enough to have a measurable effect on his powers or his resonance. In theory, the spikes would hold a small charge almost indefinitely, but at the same time not causing the huge amount of damage that a fully charged spike would cause. 

I just finished fully reading HoA. The Kandra are one of the least Hemalurgically warped death critters the Lord Ruler made, I assume their investedness is similar to an awakener of the 2nd or 3rd heightening. 

19 hours ago, dantlee said:

One fun (but less useful) thing to see would be how chromium feruchemy works when someone else is using Fortune at the same time as you; do they cancel out? Like if you're playing a high-stakes poker game with someone else who's using a chromium medallion, would you both get insanely good hands? 

From what I have read, I don't think F-Chromium works that way. I think it is similar to Atium in its functioning, so it allows you to "see the future" in a weird sort of way. I don't think it would increase your chances of winning poker, but it might increase your chances of winning a game of Russian or Roughs Roulette. That or allow you to turn the world into your own Rube-Goldberg machine. 

What is Rock is one of the Radiants. He is hiding things and he does do many things that are in line with the Windrunner Oaths before he becomes a squire. What if he is not a squire, but in fact is a Windrunner who is actively suppressing his powers? The reason that he does not attract squires is a result of him suppressing his powers and because he sees Kaladin as the leader of his group. Granted, I can't explain the lack of his spren showing up, maybe it stays with his family or hides its self like Glys. Maybe his spren is a pacifist and does not like him using weapons. Also, his family seemed to have experience with surgebinders when they were attacked by the Fused. 

It also might be related to how Atium is based in the metallic arts and shardblades are not. Atium and allomancy are from Scadrial so that might explain part of it.

As far as soulcasting goes, we see that the patterns existing in the original material carry over into the new material. So, hypothetically, that neural structures in the brain still exist if the person is soulcast quickly enough. They may not have the memories, but they would have the neurons wired together to preform certain tasks with muscle memory. Also, the spiritual aspect would make it much easier to give them some of their old abilities back. 

I suspect that Maya will be revived, maybe not to the extent of granting Adolin surgebinding, but at least to the point of healing from being a dead eye. Adolin is a very honorable person, even with his murder of Saedas (which I think was justified). That probably will change Maya, at least a little. One of my pet theories on this is that Adolin will only have access to Maya as a shardblade and not gain any surgebinding powers. He would effectively be a half Radiant.

On 1/8/2019 at 0:02 PM, ILuvHats said:

Eh, I prefer the esoteric explanation (probably just because I’m studying materials science ).  Besides, the question itself comes from a concept that’s not commonly known, so an equally esoteric answer is kinda appropriate. 

I am a Materials Science Student as well and I have been wondering something similar about Pewter. Could you use the lead free Pewter that we use here on Earth and how does alloy purity effect feruchemical storage.

3 minutes ago, Invocation said:

I'll give you a short story about that right now: Vivienna got a lot of Breath and a sword. Vivienna spends a lot of time thinking about what command to use and asking Vasher (and maybe Yesteel as well) for tips. Vivienna Awakens the sword.

Good story.

there is more than that. I think the sword was designed to kill cognitive beings, that or it was designed to destroy the divine breath of a returned.

I want to see one of Darksider culture on Taldain, one about Nazh and how he escaped Therody, and one about how Viviana created her shardblade. I also want a buddy cop short story revolving around a Willshaper and Skybreaker hunting down a thief in between Desolations.

I think Dalinar just pulled off something similar to Rashek when he used the Well of Ascension, only Dalinar did it on a smaller scale. Enough to summon a perpendiculary, but not enough to reshape a planet. I think the Unity bit is the formation of a sliver of Honor, one that is distinct from the Stormfather. That is why it would have a separate intent from Honor while still being able to use Honor's investure.

On 1/6/2019 at 4:27 PM, Eris said:

I second this. We don't even know enough to dislike him as much as @Gasper does

Personally, I find Renarian irritating. I don't hate him, he is just annoying and that is why I want him gone. I actually hate the Heralds, they purposefully and with full knowledge sent their brother-in-arms back to face 4500 years of torture with out consulting him. Not to mention he was the only regular person in their little group before they became Heralds. They deserve what ever Jasnah and Odium have planed for them. A character I hate gives me someone to root against and someone to cheer for when the hated character is taken out. An annoying character does nothing but make me skip chapters and then have to go back and reread them later.

Update from the Dean of Students:

We are adding a couple classes in the Spren studies department:

Spren 109: Intro to Radiant Spren societies and culture. 

Spren 115: Historical Spren-Human interactions

Spren 313: Manifestations of Lower Spren in the Physical Realm 

6 hours ago, Invocation said:

Sadly for you, you're going to have to deal with Renarin related stuff for a while yet, since his book is book 7.

Just because they have a book set later does not mean that my personal least favorite of the Kholins won't get vaporized by a Division fused, crushed by a highstorm, or skewered by an evil Shallan.

I want to see Adolin forced to say his Edgedancer Oaths in an attempt to save Shallan, only to see her torn apart by either a possessed chasmfiend, a thunderclast, or bunch of Fused. Another suitable death for that annoyance of a character is to have her lanced like the boil she is by Kaladin or Jasnah when Shallan either turns evil or goes so crazy she become a danger to the rest of Team Radiant.

I want to see the Vorin Church torn apart from the inside. I think they are as bad, if not worse, than the Diagram and most likely working for Odium. I would like to see a Dawnshard activate at their headquarters and wipe it off the face of Roshar. What they did to Dalinar and Navani is unacceptable.

I want to see at least a few more of the heralds get the ax (writer sharpens the Aluminum and Silver plated battle ax he keeps for killing cognitive critters). Nale, the Elsecaller lady, and the bondsmith guy need to be eliminated before they cause any more trouble.

Renarian. He needs to go. I find his character very annoying and while his powers are slightly useful, there has got to be a greater reason for which corrupted spren and radiants where killed.

I now hand off the ax of unnecessarily harsh judgement to the next player.