Halyo_Alex

21 hours ago, Mazman said:

I always thought they just sort of poofed onto the next planet, without really knowing why or how. There is evidence to support my conclusion, but it isn't very strong. I mean, they don't seem to ever leave anyone behind when they move on, and it is weird that when they leave, everything is as if they had just been there. However, what you are saying makes sense, and probably makes more sense considering what we currently know.

It could be that the Investiture of their original home planet gives them all elsecaller-like abilities when they collectively agree that it's time to move on to the next land... Allowing them to just dip into the cognitive realm and start walking as soon as they've prepared thoroughly.

My mentality right now is "We don't have enough knowledge on the rest of the world to deduce anything with reasonable certainty." We've seen one salty island the size of a town in the midst of the Verdant Sea, that really isn't enough information.

On 1/11/2022 at 11:46 PM, Cocoa said:

You know, the idea that there might be 12 different aethers gives me an idea. Because aside from Night and Illuminous, all of the aethers we know of map pretty well to one of the ten essences:

• Amberite: Lucentia (or maybe Talus, but it seems more like a crystal than stone)
• Verdant: Pulp
• Bestarin: Sinew
• Ferrous: Foil
• Aether of Wind (which I've only heard hearsay of on the forums here): Zephyr

So if we take in the ten essences and tack on dark and light, that gives us a total of twelve themes. And we've already seen there's some overlap in mechanics between different magic systems, like the metal cages used in making fabrials correlating to allomantic metals.

Not entirely sure I'm onto something, but I do like the idea.

Gonna hazard a guess that the Crimson sea is the Blood Aether, then?

Huh... What was the color of the Aether stain that Mraize posed as a challenge to clean up, again? Was it red??

53 minutes ago, AquaRegia said:

However, if she DOESN'T know... it could be a tasty SanderTwist™ for her Allomantic ability to suddenly be revealed to all of us - readers and characters alike - in TLM.

You know what, that genuinely didn't cross my mind. Probably because I assumed they (she and her family) would've checked when she was younger to see if she was able to burn copper. But maybe she didn't Snap until after that?

4 hours ago, Fritochip said:

Also, do we know if Steris could block steelsight with a copper cloud? She showed up to the party with a gun on her thigh and didn't seem worried about a lurcher or coinshot seeing it. Wax never noticed a large metal source on her leg. Would copper explain that?

Copper savant, perhaps?

Not sure on that, but the rest of it sounds at the very least possible... Dunno if/why brandon would keep it a secret from the viewers for THIS long, though.

I've been thinking about the cosmere powers i'd most want as a cosmere inhabitant, and I got curious about putting a small but important twist into the idea.

Limiting myself to a single pair of individual, innate powers, regardless of the "norm" for them (like surgepairs, shardblade, and shardplate coming as a bundle deal with a True spren bond for knights radiant, or the entire suite of Aons for an Elantrian).

The only exceptions are things that you need as a prerequisite to use the power, like the ability to inhale stormlight as a fuel for surgebinding, or to be able to draw Aons in the way that makes them actually have an effect.

With this restriction, I had a think about the two powers I'd most want...

I feel like I'd be most satisfied having the Surge of Transformation and A-Steel. I would have all the perks of inhaling Stormlight (or indeed, perhaps other Lights), plus the ability to soulcast substances into allomantically-suitable Steel. Add on top of that the mobility that A-Steel would give me, plus the fact that i could ALSO soulcast whatever the easy default "metal" is as Steelpushing objects, and I could see myself really enjoying "conjuring" sleek metal spikes to steelpush at my foes while deftly evading via well-placed metal anchors of my own creation, if needed. I wouldn't get a Blade or Plate, but with practice, I could learn to Soulcast a sword or armor when needed; or heck, practice Soulcasting until I can make a high-quality Aluminum-alloy sword and shield, or sword and chestplate to keep my off-hand free for mobility assistance.

What power pairs would you want? And why?

4 hours ago, CryoZenith said:

I would take A-brass F-zinc. It's probably one of the most potent combinations out of combat, and I'm a big fan of not going into combat :D.

It's also a potent combination for preventing combat!

Just now, Wandering Shade said:

Woah, that's a super smart combination. I'd never have thought of that.

It's effectively the twinborn version of A-Atium.

Just now, Wandering Shade said:

Personally, I see no reason to need to compound Pewter. Being able to use it either A or F-pewter is all you need unless you really need some obscene levels of strength.

Exactly. Forms of employment that come to mind for me are more about the spectacle of someone with obscene levels of strength, rather than the practical benefits, but it's still broadly useful for so many jobs.

Just now, Wandering Shade said:

Also, Reverse Compounding? Could you link me to that theory?

It's actually pretty simple to sum up; the hypothesis is that much like how a twinborn of the same metal can allomantically burn a metalmind for immense gains on feruchemical attributes, a twinborn of the same metal could feruchemically store the allomantic output of a normal metal burn inside the matching metalmind. That metal is already keyed to such an effect as it stands, and with the appropriate feruchemy, the twinborn has the ability to invest that metal, so...

We wouldn't have seen Miles doing it, for the obvious reason of A-Gold not being worth the effort, but for metals that do have an advantageous allomantic power, this would allow you to store your allomantic reserves as feruchemical charge, meaning it would be hard to Leech or nicroburst, there would be no excess to have to burn off at night, and you could tap it at a level of potency beyond flaring, or at a low "burn" without needing to practice controlling your allomantic "throttle", if you will. A fair few benefits, with that last one being the main upside and why someone would likely bother doing it. Imagine being able to tap at the level of a duralumin burst, without needing more than one allomantic power, or anywhere in between.

For combat, I'd use the combo in my pfp (A-Electrum + F-Zinc) simply due to the fact that it would immediately give me an advantage over anyone else who doesn't have some sort of future-sight. My technique for making A-Electrum good is that I'd have a series of hand gestures that only matter to me in the present, watching my electrum shadows. Depending on how my actions turn out for myself, I make a gesture that's visible to my "past" self, so I can scan the electrum shadows' paths while tapping Zinc and then replicate the one that turned out the best. Sort of like a utility maximizing AI, but... me.

For real life/regular stuff, Pewter Compounding is unrivaled, especially if my theory on Reverse Compounding is correct, but even if that isn't doable, it's still the best option for a broadly useful combination. So many things require endurance or strength. I could be the best at any one of those things with pewter compounding and get rich for it.

Actually, if I’m not mistaken you’ve got it backwards; I remember Kelsier saying something to Vin about how she gets more out of Pewter because the flat amount of boost is concentrated inside her smaller, less muscular body. More energy-dense. 

7 minutes ago, Karger said:

I understand hemalurgy to be similar in nature to organ transplants.  Assuming a willing donor then your biggest problem is how the recipient's body will react to the implant. Blanking identity will help to some degree as it should minimize your odds of having rejection and help the charge assimilate a bit better.  I would also recommend flaring aluminum as a step similar to antibiotics.  Ideally you would also want an artificial soul(similar to awakening maybe) but what you are really asking is how to get rid of the surgical scars and that is kind of tricky.  Even the best practitioners nowadays aren't perfect.  Fundamentally bodies break down and even replacing parts comes with risks and consequences.  Your adding on new parts so I'm not sure any way to do so perfectly even exists. 

What if you allomantically burn an Identity-blanked spike?

46 minutes ago, Zoey said:

IIRC, it is explained it doesn't kill them because it has the organs move away from the spike. Shaping around it. 

…Can it be both?

1 hour ago, ShardlessVessel said:

The way I understand it, when you spike someone, either spiking something out or spiking something in, the spike itself undergoes Realmic transition (which isn't a ridiculous notion - this is essentially how sand mastery works) and literally touches the spiritweb.

When you extract a trait from someone, the spike adheres to the spiritweb and rips a piece off of it. When you then insert the spike in someone else, it literally sticks to their spiritweb and creates a weak point.

To make the point again because I sound vague even to myself: the spike transitions into the Spiritual Realm, as if it travelled through a tiny perpendicularity, and literally pierces the soul. That's why there are holes.

That would also help explain why being stabbed through the eyes and stuff doesn’t instantly kill an Inquisitor…

12 hours ago, Frustration said:

Singers didn't lose thier Identity

  Hide contents

Questioner

In terms of discussing Identity, I know that in Emperor's Soul, they talk about Identity, and the Parshendi talk about losing their Identity, and then I was just rereading Bands of Mourning, and one of the kandra talks about how the spikes are their Identity. Are all of those things connected somehow or are they different forms of Identity?

Brandon Sanderson

They are connected, although the Parshendi losing their identity is a little more metaphorical. But yeah, the idea of these things-- Identity is an innate attribute in the cosmere that is related to your soul, your spirit, and it is one of the things that Hemalurgy can fiddle with and Feruchemy can fiddle with. It's kind of important to how the [Metallic] Arts play out, but it's important to all the magics...

Identity is involved in why you can't use another person's metalminds, right, that kind of thing. And those are all related. The Parshendi is more metaphorical. 

Questioner

I wondered because it's always capitalized, in the book.

Brandon Sanderson

Yep, and it's done intentionally. Peter always asks, "Are you sure this one is capitalized?" "Yeah."

Orem signing (March 10, 2018)

 

he does word it as "A little more" metaphorical, though. So there's likely something that happened to the capital-I Identity of the Singers, even if they didn't become straight-up "unkeyed" like someone storing their Identity inside an Aluminum Metalmind.

1 minute ago, Cocoa said:

If I had to guess, probably not, beyond Aluminum almost certainly doing something to them...

i suppose it depends on how broadly the principle of metals affecting Investiture applies.

1 minute ago, Cocoa said:

Though now you've got me wondering, do the metal cages used in fabrials only apply to lesser spren captured in gemstones, or d the allomantic metals have direct effects on all sorts of 'Type 1 Invested Entities' in the Cosmere?

Quick, put an Aviar in a pewter birdcage!

On 1/11/2022 at 11:46 PM, Cocoa said:

-snip-

 we've already seen there's some overlap in mechanics between different magic systems, like the metal cages used in making fabrials correlating to allomantic metals.

Not entirely sure I'm onto something, but I do like the idea.

Now you've got me curious if you can modify Aethers by putting wire cages around them.

10 hours ago, Wandering Shade said:

Kelsier absolutely got a mistwraith to consume his bones, then spiked himself into said mistwraith to replace its mind with his. Then he recreated his body, scars and all, gained some feruchemical powers (but probably not all of them. At first) and went down to save the Southern Scadrians and become their god.

Sometimes the correct answer is the simplest one.

10 hours ago, Wandering Shade said:

Now, BrandoSando doesn't outright say that Kelsier stapled his soul to a mistwraith, but he basically says it. That's how his new body looks like his original. Because Kell knows what his body should look like and Mistwraiths instinctively know how to make bodies. Combine that information and boom. Kelsier can look like himself. With a metal spike in one eye, but hey. Nobody's perfect.

It is a bit of a coy answer, isn't it.

10 hours ago, Wandering Shade said:

I will admit, the theories yall brought up about mistwraiths having latent Feruchemical abilities are pretty sick and I like them a lot. I think that the reason Kelsier entering a Mistwraiths body might give him Feruchemy while kandra are missing it is because of the fact that he's Mistborn. He has a greater levels of innate investiture and that might "awaken" the latent Feruchemical talents within a mistwraith's body. Maybe. I will freely admit I'm kinda spitballing here.

(emphasis added)

Or it might be that the added investiture/bond with Kelsier's shadow "heals" the blockage that TLR put in the Mistwraiths to prevent them from using Feruchemy? Or, while it may not literally reverse that blockage, the bond provides a new pathway that allows the Feruchemical abilities to be accessed again?

As far as I know, Ruin "intentionally" built a flaw into his metallic art because HE wanted to be able to manipulate people who used it. So I believe it is somehow a fundamental part of "normal, functioning" Hemalurgy.

I think the method most likely to solve it is allomantically burning the spike, but that does probably involve at least SOME side effects.

4 minutes ago, HavingTheHasHoidAPurpose? said:

Well though, Brandon has also stated that a chromium burner would take longer to burn away a compounder's Feruchemical reserves.

This probably means that metalminds, and any stuff with higher investiture is harder to burn away

A little of column A, a little of column B...

6 hours ago, cometaryorbit said:

That last WoB is what made me wonder if it's some technological derived form of Hemalurgy that's not necessarily fatal.

Can you prime a primer cube with hemalurgy instead of allomancy/feruchemy?

Speaking of "no more godmetal mistings," A-Electrum, F-Zinc.

Tap Zinc for the mental boost of A-Atium, burn Electrum for the future-sight. Granted, it's future sight of yourself, but with the more customizable (in terms of potency) mental boost of Zinc feruchemy, I find it plausible that you could set up a system of hand gestures or other signs that only make sense to yourself, and then commit to, "if option A turns out well for me, I do gesture X, if option B turns out poorly I do gesture Y," and then your Electrum shadows will do a gesture based on how their choices turn out, which you can analyze while mentally boosted and then replicate that shadow's sequence of actions for the best outcome of the potential futures you saw.

2 hours ago, lukaash said:

I looked on both mod pages and neither mentioned compounding. How does that work?

pretty much exactly how you think it does. Burning and storing the same metal gives you 10x the storage speed, burning and tapping allows you to access one higher of a level of tapping that isn't accessible by a normal feruchemist.

1 minute ago, cometaryorbit said:

Given that Sja-anat is now working against Odium, a Bondsmith of hers seems possible. Maybe an altered version of a Bondsmith like how Renarin is an altered Truthwatcher?

I like to call Renarin's style of Truthwatcher "Fatewatchers" as a distinguishing term, so... "Bondshift" sounds like a clever way to sum up what I could see Sja-Anat granting to a Radiant bond-mate.

If there's any candidate for a Voidlight Bondsmith spren, it would be Ba-Ado-Mishram, right? I mean, the False Desolation was basically that, on the side of the Singers.

I also agree that there's potential for Sja-Anat to be the Warlight bondsmith's spren.

We also can't forget Ishar's Honorblade, though. That one's a real wildcard.

On 12/6/2021 at 10:18 PM, Letryx13 said:

My brother thinks the fifth Ideal lets them hold stormlight indefinitely, but after RoW, I don't think that's it.  It would likely be something that doesn't create a physical object, and it's likely the same for every order.  I think the only radiant if the fifth ideal currently is Nale, at least as far as we know.  We also know that it's possible to break a Nahael bond without killing the knight up until the fifth ideal, according to Notum.  

This is just a guess, but since all the other radiant ideals create something external, maybe the fifth is some kind of self-actualization and helps heal their souls, the trauma they've gone through. I know Kaladin says at the end of RoW that the oaths don't fix them, but twice now it's been mentioned that radiant's fill the cracks with something stronger (a line I love, by the way).

My current theory (which is very crackpot and I openly admit that) leans a little more into the "anime" inspirations/undertones of SA, but still builds logically on those features of the actual bond.

TL;DR The bond between Radiant and Spren becomes so deep and thorough that their Spiritwebs and Identities are no longer individually distinguishable, and they become one entity.

To what extent, I'm not entirely sure. But this would certainly explain why the bond suddenly becomes impossible to break safely, would likely result in a huge boost for the Radiant, and the Spren would gain a truly Physical aspect, the physical aspect of their radiant. The cracks in the Radiant's soul would be totally filled in.

Now, I should also address some of the obvious, potential, issues.

"What happens to the Sprenblade?"
Could be a few different things, but I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up manifesting as a true extension of their body as normal. I'm not saying, like, their arm turns into a sword, but just that they can still manifest it, now directly Connected to them, making its form-shifting capability even more responsive. I guess Nale is my best example of this, since we know he's at 5th ideal.

"What about Shardplate?"

Well, I don't think the Lesser spren would become fully ingrained in the Radiant's spiritweb. Part of their usefulness in manifesting as shardplate is their individuality.

"But Nale doesn't really look like a person-shaped rift in space..."

Maybe not physically. I wouldn't be shocked if part of the reason Lift calls him "Darkness" has to do with the appearance of his Spren at the 5th ideal... Again, I recognize my theory is VERY CRACKPOT. I accept that I may be wrong, but I still want to see if I'm right.

"But... But Sylladin!"

... She's a Spren. She's already emotionally supportive for Kal. And we already know there's weird stuff going on with Kal and Syl, Realmatically speaking, so I don't think we can assume they'll behave normally at 5th ideal. Son of Tanavast and all that. Or, maybe, the real twist is that Kal is the ONLY Radiant where this actually happens to the fullest extent! Hah! Guess we just gotta RAFO, huh.

Hm. That's all the concerns I can think of. Ask me more if you have any, I'll answer when i've got some more free time.