Elegy

Feruchemy would be the most practical in our world. Considering you can also store strength and stuff, it wouldn't be that bad in a dangerous apocalyptic fantasy setting as well. So definitely that one.

It's probably got something to do with the metaphor of Shadesmar being like a shadow of the Physical Realm. If you hold a sphere into light, its shadow will not be a sphere but flat. Being in the Cognitive Realm means walking on that shadow instead of the sphere. Of course, this metaphor is flawed and leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Some things about Shadesmar will probably fall under the "things human brains can't comprehend" umbrella. I do wonder what happens if you reach the outer edge of Shadesmar though. Is there a wall? A void? Maybe it has kind of an invisible wall that you can't pass, but I don't think that'd make sense.

Sel is so weird. There's all this mind-boggling stuff hinted at in Khriss' essay like sentient landscapes? But the Cosmere wasn't as fleshed out when Elantris was written and Emperor's Soul mostly takes place in one room. The eventual Elantris sequels will have a lot of additional world-building to do. Edit: Aren't we all?

As Brandon put it, „the Cosmere has always been full of secrets“. But are there any specific secrets, any places, events, persons, etc. that your thoughts keep returning to? Things you seem to have a soft spot for or that fascinate you for some reason or another? I’ll give an example of 3 things in the Cosmere that I continue to obsessively ponder about: - The Threnody System: It’s one of, if not the most mysterious planetary system we know of, given the presence of the „Evil“, the Cognitive Shadows and one of the most Cosmere-centric events we know of, the battle between Odium and Ambition. I also just love Threnody‘s atmosphere and the concept of planets in a system (which is a place of tragic events) to be named after different types of dirges. - Bavadin: The idea of a Shard claiming planets and spinning a web of them fascinates me. She seems to be the most influential Shard in the Cosmere that we know of at this point (influencing several worlds, with Odium trapped and Harmony apparently not active outside of Scadrial), and we still don’t quite know what she is up to … or rather, what they are up to … the letter in Oathbringer sure helped fuel my obsession with all things regarding this character. - The False Desolation and all things Ba Ado Mishram: Theoretically, the Last Desolation was a much more important event in the history of Roshar. But there are so many mysteries surrounding the False Desolation, just how Ba Ado Mishram lead the singers into war, seemingly without the aid of Odium, the Radiants (the last of them for 2000 years, that is) trapping Unmade into gemstones for the first time … and also a lot of important things surrounding it, like the Recreance, the Radiants leaving Urithiru, the disappearing of the Sibling ... Considering the setup in Oathbringer’s epigraphs, I reckon the False Desolation will become an important topic in the next book. I sure hope so! As a side-note, I still have a fascination for the War of Ash. There’s nothing mysterious about it anymore – since the release of Secret History, there aren’t any more things left to reveal about it, really –, but I’ll always have a fondness for this and I will keep returning to it because 1) the Mistborn trilogy was my first contact with the Cosmere and pulled me right in, so there’s a lot of nostalgia attached to the events, the characters and the way things unfolded, and 2) it was the first major event in the Cosmere that we got to witness „on-screen“, the first contact with Shards and the first conflict between two of them. Hero of Ages was such an important book for the development of the Cosmere as a franchise. So what are your Cosmere obsessions?

Oh sure, you're right. I messed things up in my head. The Shard I see as Dominion's polar opposite has actually been Endowment for a while - wanting to possess on the one hand and wanting to give on the other. Autonomy and Dominion probably have a similar relationship as Honor and Odium - not polar opposites, but likely to rival each other because of how one Intent tends to be in the way of the relative other. One note about the governance of Autonomy, I think if it was the case she would be more present on Taldain - then again, we don't really know how much influence she might secretly have on the things happening on Taldain, so who knows.

In a way, every Shard has its own definition of morality even though it's different from what you and I may call moral (which will probably differs as well), since they are so engrossed by the Shard's Intent - Autonomy certainly wants to prevent colonialization and slavery to happen (she doesn't have as much of a problem with mass murder in principle though, obviously), but - as you said - not to help people. Just like Ruin wanted change, but obviously not to help people, but just because in his mind, the right thing to do is changing things, even if it means destroying them. So I basically agree with what you wrote, with slight modifications. The second part ... I don't know. I interpret "self-governing" as the power to govern oneself, as in being self-sufficient. I don't quite see the possibility to just replace the "self" through someone else without it not being self-governing anymore. So it wouldn't be Autonomy then. In my understanding, governing would be more like Dominion (which I'd guess might be the polar opposite of Autonomy). I might be wrong though, because 1) English is not my first language so the nuances of the definition might go over my head, and 2) there's admittedly some obvious contradiction happening anyway. Autonomy at the very least doesn't seem to have a problem to intervene to assist independence and/or prevent violations of it. Then again, maybe we don't know enough about the Intent to determine things like that. Two years ago, a lot of us would have had a different definition of Odium compared to now. There's so many subtleties at play. But, given the quote in the original comment, it's safe to say that Trell doesn't like the progress on Scadrial, which would, theoretically, sit with Autonomy just nicely.

Very reasonable analysis which I agree with. Sanderson confirmed most of the actual Trell stuff to happen in Mistborn Era 3: Assuming that Trell is an avatar of Autonomy (which is, at this state, more than likely), that would mean that Autonomy is likely to be Mistborn Era 3's main antagonist. This makes all the more sense once you realize that Mistborn Era 3 will be the doorstep between fantasy Cosmere and sci-fi Cosmere. Autonomy will NOT want Scadrians to develop FTL travel and leave the planet, because that would mean "globalization" (on a galactical level) and - inevitably - colonialisation. Both of which is exactly what Autonomy would not want to happen. And, that said, we know that it WILL happen one way or another, considering the Ones Above. I think Autonomy wanting to wipe out Scadrial is comparable to someone wanting to end all of Europe some time in the 16th century to prevent the mass murders, slavery and colonialization in Africa, East Asia and North & South America to happen.

I believe my mom bought Alcatraz because it seemed interesting/weird to her. I enjoyed its strange humor. Only then did I realise that there was an epic fantasy trilogy by the same author - it was a time when I felt like a new, big fantasy series would be just the thing I need, so I delved into it. A few chapters in, I was completely sold. The dark, often melancholical feeling of Mistborn was such a stark contrast to the humor of Alcatraz. I was amazed. That was in 2010. Been a fan ever since ... I might have to add that I started reading the German translations and soon changed to English for a lot of different reasons. When I first read Mistborn, Elatris etc., I was completely unaware of the connections, so I spent over a year wondering "Hmm, that Adonasium thing mentioned in Mistborn seemed kinda weird" before THAT name dop (you know which one I mean!) dropped the bomb into my brain. I remember pondering, "Wouldn't it be cool if, like, Warbreaker and Mistborn took place on different planets in the same, err, like, solar system?" I had no idea.