HSuperLee

Came for the magic, stayed for the characters.

Unfortunately it's kind of unlikely we're discover a new element anytime soon. At least a stable one. We might make some big ones that only last a fraction of a second. Which might actually be appropriate.

Honestly if I had to guess, the idea of stopping compounding being dangerous probably results from what happened to TLR when he stopped compounding atium. So while it may be dangerous with that particular metal, I don't see why it would be an issue with others, but I see how rumors could be circulated.

This question is kind of like asking if you put enough proteins into a water bottle and let is sit in place long enough, would it develop life. Just creating conditions where life can form does not guarantee it will form, in fact statistically it's almost guaranteed it won't. Similarly, creating the conditions where investiture can become sentient does not guarantee it will.

Yeah, I'm nopeing this idea. In addition to the aforementioned issues of storing all the mass necessary for regeneration, you're also going to have issues with compatibility with 3d printed organs, and unless they're somehow made of the person's own cells, which presents issues in and of itself. Even then, the density of the nanobots you'd have to have would end up displacing the blood in the body and couldn't be sustainable. While I think extending the lifespan and counteracting cancer is potentially possible, I see regeneration as too complicated to ever be practical. As for memory, I actually disagree on the human brain having observed limits to storage. We've never actually seen a "full" brain, and I think trying to compare the brain's information storage to a computer is an oversimplification. We don't actually know how the brain works. That said, I do believe mental issues would form overtime as merely replacing damaged brain cells would not restore their previous connections and memories.

I'm trying to think of any example where we've seen invested healing used on an injury that would have destroyed gut flora, as that's probably the closest we can get without directly seeing a pregnant woman regenerate. However, if I had to theorize, the spiritweb as a temporal element, we know this in part because healing doesn't make people younger. It restores a person to their "natural state." With that in mind, I wouldn't be surprised if there's some part of the spirit web that says where the woman's pregnancy should be at the time, and would regenerate the child. The other possibility I see is that the spiritual connection between mother and unborn child is unparalleled in the cosmere and is sufficient to act as a conduit for investiture to flow, thus transferring the effects to the child. I actually think the second is more likely, as we know connection can allow the flow of investiture, as seen in allomancers' connection to Preservation.

1. As far as we have seen, Nightblood requires direct physical contact to feed on something's investiture. 2. Nightblood consumes across all three realms, but the spiritual realm doesn't really have space or substance the way we think of it, so it only seems to consume the souls of things it can physically touch for, as you said, spiritual mumbo-jumbo reasons. Also, all the investiture in the spiritual realm would be all the investiture in the universe, and I (despite many disagreeing with me) do believe that Nighblood has relatively low limits as to the amount of investiture it can consume. 3. Theoretically, and likely, as entering a perpendicularly does not instantly transport you to another realm. 4. Yes. That is what it's black smoke is. 5. Potentially. We do not fully know how Nightblood works. The only person who did is dead.

I'm standing by my theory that Shallan isn't transforming them, but merely showing them a picture of their spiritual self, which is to say their idealized form.

This post should probably be moved to the general Cosmere discussion if we're directly discussing two magic systems. The main problem is that forging working in the spiritual realm. Lightweaving (thus far (<- important disclaimer)) is purely physical, and progression is merely using investiture to open a conduit to the spiritual through the cognitive. I don't think there's any obvious way to reverse progression and implant something into the spiritual realm. Now, I do think it's possible that the idealistic drawing are accessing the spiritual realm, and drawing someone's spirit, as the spiritual realm has been described by both Brandon and the Platonic ideas he draws from as the realm where ideals exist. But I would not say that lets lightweaving change anything. It's merely observation.

Based on how KR are able to rather quickly and easily draw stormlight from gemstones, I'd guess that stormlight in gemstones doesn't have a lot of "momentum" (for lack of a better word) and could probably be affected by leaching.

We have in fact been led to believe that they can sire children. I honestly don't know if the spikes in the head would be that hard to hide. I think the ones in his arms would actually present the largest difficulty. He's already got the tattoos and crushed skull to indicate eye damage, so wrapping his eyes in bandages wouldn't really be all that suspicious, and if he needs to act blind he can just stop burning iron and steel for a while. As has been mentioned, the points of the spikes can be hidden behind a hood or hair, or even just tying off the eye bandages in such a way that the points are hidden. As for the spikes in his arms, if they're the same size as the ones in his eyes, they must stick through his forearms for ever an inch. How do you even hide something like that beyond wizard style robes? I feel like if Inquisitors had children that the children could generally grow accustomed to their parent, but I think the early infancy would be difficult, as I think a baby would find it hard to grow attached to someone without eyes. A big thing though would definitely be wrapping the forearms in blankets before picking up the baby so as to keep them from touching the arm spikes. Curse you, Robardin, for making me think about Inquisitor parenthood.

I've considered that its possible the Lord Ruler knew about the Keepers attempts to sabotage the Terris breeding programs by inserting female feruchemists into the program to keep feruchemy alive, and he allowed it to continue for the express purpose of creating new inquisitor spikes. If so, that could potentially be where all the f-gold spikes came from.

There are many runner-ups, but for me it has to go to the saddest scene in the first Cosmere book I ever read, Vin's lament of Kelsier's death.

The Well of Ascension while Ruin was still there. Boring as heck, and the only way to pass the time risks gaining the attention of an infinite vortex of death and darkness.

Is there evidence of that?

And yet, he has a right to a trial by his peers. If a non-cosmere character cannot be considered a peer so as to stand witness, how can you argue that any of this trial qualifies as such to him?

Objection! Based on the ruling by Adonalsium that a non-cosmere character can not be a witness for this trial, Brandon Sanderson cannot be tried for crimes within the Cosmere, as he is not a Cosmere character. Therefore this must be declared a mistrial.

A hemalurgic construct that's soul is so damage any hemalurgic trait "leaks" over time, causing them to loose it, so in order to maintain themselves they need to constantly consume blood, which is temporarily placed within their own veins that delays the decay of the spikes and thus maintains their existence. Objects infused with the power of Harmony attempt to take control of them through their spikes, but their souls are so fragile that the process shatters their spirit webs and kills them.

I mean, that is the premise of the movie "God of Trial" which is rather good.

Is a child a creation of their parents or a consequence of their actions? I would argue the latter. Parents do not get to decide the appearance, beliefs, actions or thoughts of their child. Mr. Sanderson controls all those in regards to his characters. If anything, the comparison between parent and child is extremely lacking in this regard. Mr. Sanderson's characters would be better understood as extensions of his own existence than existing entities of their own.

I feel as though this suggestion is rather like putting time on trial for the deaths of every person who has died of old age.

This thread is proof that when you put a bunch of random, totally normal people on the internet, they unerringly adopt the chaotic neutral alignment. Every. Single. Time.

I'm going to pull from another series here. Dresden Files. Don't worry anyone, no specific spoilers. Jim Butcher has described his job in writing the Dresden Files as finding new ways to make Harry Dresden suffer. Yet, through it all, Dresden has grown as a character. He's found hope in dark moments, grown in power and wisdom, and progressed in his relationships. There is no reason Sanderson can't do the same with Kaladin. Kaladin's development would be learning to let go of people and not blame himself for their deaths. I agree with the OP that the first step of this might be to actually reach out and connect with other people. Many have predicted that his next oath will be something like, "I will forgive myself for those I cannot save" or the like. Perhaps though, it will be more other-centric, like ,"I will entrust those I cannot save to those who can save them." It would signify that he's finally realized he's not alone. For those that believe his next oath will he about leading, perhaps it would be something like, "I will guide others to save those whom I cannot."

@Pathfinder, you just touched on something else about soulcasting we don't really talk about. It is dangerous, and I've seen many threads that simply ignore that fact. You're astral projecting yourself into Shademar and hoping that you have enough stormlight to form a stable platform while also having enough to bribe the material into becoming something else. Meaning you either need an absolute abundance of stormlight, or you need to be able to estimate the necessary investiture for the task. And that's without considering the conservation of investiture. If you suddenly compact a massive quantity of air into something as dense as uranium, the investiture you're giving to the air has to go somewhere, and if it goes into the uranium, what's to stop it from forming a tiny perpendicularity due to the sheer density of investiture and scattering uranium into Shadesmar (the consequences of which could constitute a thread all its own,) or even worse, into the spiritual realm, which sounds bad. And I mean, giving the shards cancer types of bad.