HSuperLee

This should probably be moved to the Cosmere thread if you're going to talk about general spoilers.

Yes. Each builds off of the previous. It really is easier to consider them as being a novel in three parts rather than three separate novellas.

I actually agree with pretty much everything you said here, but I think it suggests that there's more going on with the Set than Sazed allowing them to exist because it in some way leads to more Harmony. We can't forget that somehow Trell is involved, and a lot of Sazed's attention is directed to whatever that red mist thing is. But Sazed also said (or at least implied) that, in general, he does prevent the worst outcomes from ever happening, so that most people were never aware they were possibilities to begin with. Because we only see things from the human character's perspectives, we don't actually know what exactly Sazed has done in his time as god of Scadrial. For all we know, he has prevented some really really bad stuff from happening and his inability to deal with the Set is due to the intervention of other Shardic activity.

I do think Harmony has more freedom of action than he lets on. It seems to me that at least part of his hands off approach to Scadrial is by choice rather than by inability. He defines the combined Intent of his Shards as, "The point is Harmony, creating a way for as many as possible to make their own choices." There are a lot of possible directions this idea could be taken, and Sazed seems to have chosen the one that will allow the Scadrians to "grow up" the most. When he first ascended, Harmony meant creating a world where people could make decisions, opposed to being, you know, dead due to volcanic destruction. Unfortunately, he believes he overdid it by creating a paradise, and now, when people have all the resources necessary to make whatever decisions they want, they instead choose to be relatively stagnant. There are many paths that create ways for people to make their own choices, but Sazed now seems to want them to have an incentive to make the right decisions. He and Wax discussed a hypothetical situation where Harmony makes all resources unlimited, replenishing anything that is taken and erasing the consequences caused by the overtaxing and pollution that results. I genuinely believe Harmony could do that. It wouldn't violate his Intent because he'd be giving everyone more resources to make more decisions. But instead he has chosen inaction, which seems to be something he can do as a result of holding two opposing Intents. This is where I agree with KaladinWorldsinger, in that Sazed's sanity is a massive over other Shards in that he can choose not to act. I'm not so sure other Shards are capable of that. I won't go into Cosmere spoilers since this is in the mistborn fourm, but basically, the fact that Sazed isn't constantly driven to act out his Intent like Ruin was is probably more of a blessing than we'd usually consider it, simply because we're used to being able to do nothing. Sure, there are many things Sazed can't do, but he does still have the option of saying, "My Intent isn't helpful here, so I'm going to pull back slightly and let others do what must be done." That is not to be overlooked.

Interestingly, this does have some more potential once we get to space age for Kandra to start expanding once they get yo 0-g's. In 0-gs, they wouldn't need to worry about weight at all, and if they can find a way to survive in a vacuum, possibly by having a double cadmium medallion, then they can really spread out their volume, giving them a large amount of control over heat retention and radiation. I don't know quite what the implications of this would end up being, especially since they'd run into lots of other problems, such as an increased need for food, but otherwise, Kandra in space can get big.

I've been having those exact thoughts for years. In general, Sanderson seems t want kandra shapeshifting to occur on the genetic level, and I really hate that because the implications for that level of control is that kandra really should be able to make their own bones. Among many other potentially really powerful possibilities.

The dude used an aluminum knife. He'd stab himself in the arm when he needed a place to put it during a fight. He knew about the weakness. I'm convinced you would have to embed a lot of aluminum shrapnel in his brain for an extended length of time to actually kill him. Even if you put an aluminum bullet in his head, he'd just be unconscious but probably still tapping health until someone cuts his head open and takes the bullet out, at which point he'd revive. Even if he can't heal to push the aluminum out, he can still he all the damage around it, and the brain is very good at finding workarounds. Thus, my conclusion that you'd have to separate so much brain tissue with aluminum that he is either unable to keep tapping (and we have no idea what part of the brain sends that signal) or that he merely remains unconscious long enough to burn through his gold stores. It really is easier just to incapacitate or capture him (as actually happened) and then strip him of his goldmines. I think in general we underestimate just how immortal he was.

Building on this, the best theories we've developed over years of discussion is that since the speed bubbles warp time, they're also warping space (thank you, Einstein, for that realization). As a result, nesting bubbles can be used to create a area of compressed space in front of a space ship. This compressed area means that there's less distance to the target location, and thus you can get there faster. The difficulty is going to be attaching the bubble to spaceship's reference frame rather than the planet's, but since you can put speed bubbles on trains, it seems that having sufficient mass allows it to happen, so it might not be as difficult as we think. Either way, we're pretty positive that's how it'll be done. (Also, yes, I know I'm oversimplifying things in regards to the spacial compression. That was the intent.)

Its possible that the shades would find it difficult to affect the Fused, even when they're low on voidlight, since being cognitive shadows, the Fused are inherently infused with investiture (made of investiture? They're investiture fossils. Whatever, my point stands) and thus they have a decent level of resistance to outside investiture. Now, I'm not saying they'd be immune to shades, just that the process would probably be more violent that what normally happens. It would, quite probably, be similar to what Raboniel was trying to do to the Sibling. Basically, the shades would probably unmake the Fused. Now what exactly that means, I'm not sure. But I doubt the results would be pleasant.

I will point out that Kandra are only capable of replacing soft tissues, so things like bones, teeth, fingernails, and hair can't be easily replaced. Apparently they can make cartilage for ears and noses, though, which will always bother me, since then they should be able to make cartilage true bodies, but my many issues with Kandra aside, they definitely have massive potential in the medical field. It really seems like the main issue that prevents them from revolutionizing the world is how few of them there are, and as a result, how many are needed for Harmony's purposes. Plus their traditions of staying hidden and separate from humanity. Hopefully they eventually find a way to start increasing their numbers, though I do see the ethical issues considering that requires two people die for each Kandra born, so that they can start being more direct.

For combat, I'd have to go with a-pewter, f-iron. I've thought for a while that the greatest limit when it comes to super-strength in general is that you need enough mass to really ground yourself to have the right leverage to take full advantage of it. That's one place that f-iron would be extremely helpful. But then on the other side of things, being able to drop your weight super low while retaining the additional strength of a-pewter means that your mobility would be through the roof. We're talking leaping tall buildings in a single bound and insane bursts of super speed. For every day, I have to choose between some form of tin, simply due to the fact that I am fascinated by the idea that there's so much of the world I can't know about because my sense just aren't good enough. In the end, I'd probably go a-steel, f-tin. Though now I'm wondering if you can store steelsight in a tin-mind. That way you could potentially have inquisitor level steelsight by tapping on top of normal burning. It would be quite interesting if that was the case.

I've kinda taken it the opposite way, and assumed it was a trait that might have come from Ashyn. If there's any planet on the Cosmere where I'd expect people's genetics to be all weird and result in unusual inheritance patterns, it would be the planet where diseases became invested. Now, do I actually have any good reason to believe that? Nope. I've got no real evidence for it. But I do agree that Rosharan hair patterns are definitely not normal for most humans in the Cosmere.

Couldn't it be argued that this is basically what gemhearts are already? They're basically biological cybernetics that allow for a mutualistic symbiotic relationship with spren. And yes, I know biological cybernetics can just be called "organs" I'm trying to make a point here. As far as I can tell, you're basically just asking if creatures can be given artificial gemhearts, and I really don't see why not.

So, the question I'm kind of afraid to ask. Could Hoid's motivation for learning about investiture waveforms be that he wants to find one that cancels out whatever effect prevents him from being able to harm things? I mean when he attacked Kel's cognitive shadow, he seemed to take some glee in that. Should we be very afraid that there's a possibility Hoid can and wants to find a way to override his enforced pacifism?

When you say it like that, it kinda sounds like he's trying to obtain the ability to manipulate investiture at a more fundamental level than even the Shards can, because he'd be able to actually change its intent to that of another Shard. Honestly, having that level of control would be insane. And if he knows enough about how each magic system is constructed, I wonder if he'd even be able to construct his own personal magic systems. You know, I've always known Hoid was extremely powerful and influential, but I think this is the first time I've realized just how terrifying his potential is.

Man, y'all have given me nostalgia for first books in Cosmere series and the excitement that comes in a brand new magic system. I love it.

Same, it seemed like he even called Wax Maxillium a few times, so it might be that he was just flipping the 'W's in his head a bunch (not that I blame him. Reading in front of a large crowd after talking for a long time seems quite stressful). Plus the kid is specifically introduced with "little" M/Waxillium, which makes more sense as a way to indicate that he's a junior.

Do we know whether or not an aluminum gnat can vaporize the viable metals that they can't burn? Because I feel like whether they could or not would have significant implications on this theory.

You miss my point. I'm not saying that a fullborn shouldn't logically be able to beat virtually any radiant that could come at them, I'm just trying to make the point that fights are too complex to reduce down to the conditions and capabilities of the two fighters alone. Where are they fighting? Why are they fighting? Are they fighting at sunrise or sunset? Who has their back to the sun and who is facing it? Have they both had had time to prepare or did they surprise eachother. As Hoid said to Jasnah in RoW, there is no such thing as a fair fight. Now, that said, I understand that some people find these kind of discussions fun, but I'm just trying to point out that any conclusions drawn from them are barely even theoretical. If everyone is okay with that, alright. But we've have a lot of discussions like this on the forum, and I'd be a lying if I said I don't occasionally participate in them as well. I'm just hoping everyone realizes by now that they are endless.

Who would win, an mistborn slightly empowered by drawing upon Preservation's mists or a fullborn with 1,000 years of experience and massive metalmind stores? Who would win, a Shard or a dying old man who just happens to be within reach of Nightblood? Who would win, an uninvested man with a deadeye, a horse, and a big sword or twenty armed and brutal men? Have I made my point?

It has been heavily implied in RoW that Honor + Cultivation is Science.

The Lord Ruler is a really weird case. I kind of think that he reached a point where he actually couldn't quickly deal with unexpected situations. His thinking had just become too habitual and stagnant. In a way, he was way too close to Preservation. He believed it was possible for things to not change and thus reached a point where he didn't change himself. I think we often underestimate just how broken of a man Rashek was. Sure, he could have all the powers of a physical god and have theoretically been invincible, but ultimately, I don't know that he even had any passion for living by the end of his life. He just continued to do it out of habit.

To be fair, it could be argued that a spren's default condition is a form of insanity. Yes, that's a very human-centric way of looking at it, and thus not very fair when talking about non-humans. But the spren are very unchanging plus being neurotic and obsessive towards their specific ideal. If anything, this seems to be why they value bonds so much, those bonds make them more "stable" and more "complete." All that aside though, I guess I thought that radiants burned stormlight way faster than y'all seem to think. Here I thought a pouch of broams only provided a few minutes of gravitation flight. It was my understanding that unless they're traveling with a bondsmith, the best way for a windrunner or skybreaker to achieve long distance flight was to Oathgate to Narak and then ride the Highstorm to wherever they're trying to go. Now, yes, other surges seem to use less stormlight, but it seems that the most dramatic effect, soulcasting, flight, growing plants, and likely dividing all consume stormlight at a massive rate. With that in mind, even talking about having the bondsmiths and Heralds able to refill stormlight doesn't equate to infinite stormlight. I better way to say it is just that they provide refillable stormlight. I guess a good analogy would be driving across the US. The fact that there are gas stations that you can stop at to refill your tank doesn't mean you can necessarily be reckless with your driving since there's no possibility of running out. When you get to some of the long stretched, there's very much that possibility if you don't plan things out and pay attention. Now, Dalinar's ability to open a perpendicularity cannot be understated as a strategic advantage, because it gives him the ability to infuse a massive number of radiants and gemstones at once, whereas it seems the bondsmiths' "standard" infusion ability is limited to one or two targets that they can touch, which puts a huge bottlecap on the rate they can renew stormlight. That to me always seemed like the biggest balancing factor between the radiants and the fused. The fused can apparently refill their own voidlight by appealing to Odium and it lasts so much longer than stormlight does. Now, all that said, it has been mentioned that the fused did lose every single desolation. Odium was really counting on the war of attrition, which probably was a really bad idea considering the deterioration of the fused. The radiants are, when all is said and done, much more powerful than the fused. From a writing perspective that does kind of annoy me, but that's how it seems to be. I do believe that had the cycle of desolations continued, humanity would have eventually won. Though it probably would have taken a really really long time, since it would require reducing the Singer population to an unsustainable level. But in the end they could probably do it, even without the Heralds help. But that's a massive discussion that ultimately devolves into the unknowable.

So Sanderson seems to have gone back and forth on this. Now, one interpretation is that, as Frustration said, their power is so large that it for all practical purposes is infinite, but I've thought for a while that it could just be that all investiture they use eventually returns to them, so they never actually use it up, just make it temporarily inaccessible to themselves. Now, this does run into the issue that we've been told there is an equivalent of entropy to investiture, which has always confused me since its really not energy and doesn't act like energy, but admittedly that's where my idea gets a bit stuck. Basically though, the common thought on this forum seems to be that they're not actually infinite, just practically so, I assume they actually are infinite, though impractically so.

Well, I guess I'm getting sucked into another Jasnah thread. Time to say some stuff I'll probably regret later. I am utterly fascinated that so many people seem to be talking about how logical Jasnah is and how so many of her decisions are based on utilitarianism. I've never really seen her as that logical. Instead, she comes across to me as an extremely emotional person who has learned to hide those emotions and then justifies her actions by calling them logical even when they're not. The only reason she can get away with it is that she's eloquent, verbose, and aggressive in her speech, meaning that when she says she's being logical, most people believe her. This is a personality I've met many times (and often embody myself). Maybe that's my own personal experience tainting my ability to see the way she's actually being written, but I've never actually believed her or Ivory when they talk about how driven by logic she is. And if someone is about to respond with, "But the fact her spren says that she's being very logical and spren-like means that must actually be the case!" I will point you to the honor spren in lasting integrity and how they chose to interpret the idea of being embodiments of honor, and then I will ask you if you really believe the spren to be such perfect judges of the virtues they claim to know so well. Am I saying Ivory is in the same boat as Jasnah, where he's hiding emotional decisions behind a logical vernacular? Yes. Yes I am. His very name would seem to give that away. All that to say, I would not be surprised if Jasnah could be swayed into becoming a traitor, especially by Odium. In my mind, she seems very compatible with that shard, and I wouldn't be surprised if she has a lot of agreement with TOdium's perspective on things. Now, where this gets weird is in her relations to her family. As has been highlighted already in this thread, Jasnah cares a lot about her family, and I honestly think she cares a lot more about how they see her than she lets on. I think it would hurt her immensely to be seen as a traitor by her family. But an interesting set of circumstances that I could see occurring would be Dalinar losing the contest with TOdium and becoming a fused, and then Jasnah dedicating herself to following and supporting Dalinar. Basically, I could see her making a deal where she would agree to work with TOdium under the condition that she gets to be with Dalinar to support him as he is forced to do things that he doesn't want to do, and act as an advisor and emotional support for him. I could also see her doing this to hide the fact that she actually agrees with TOdium's goals and wants to support him without being seen as a traitor by her family. I'm not saying that's what I think will happen, but I could see how it could happen. Honestly, it might make me actually enjoy Jasnah's character in the back half, as it would be a fascinating perspective. Anyway, those are my two cents, for all the two cents they're worth.