Duxredux

My response is mostly for your comment that Sel worldbuilding doesn't feel up to the same standard as the rest of the Cosmere. Don't forget that Elantris was Brandon's first published book ever. Don't be surprised if he got better in the nearly 2 decades that he has been writing since then. Brandon himself has improved, he built the entire Dragonsteel team, has multiple rewrite passes with alpha, beta, gamma, etc. Beyond that, the rules have changed for him as everyone in the industry treats him asThe Brandon Sanderson, not just some guy who sent in a massive stack of paper sitting mostly forgotten in an editor's slush pile. Where he used to have to adjust his style to try to get picked up by a publisher and get noticed as a new author breaking in (back when he was asked if he could write stories more like Game of Thrones), now he can run a Kickstarter and people will upfront pay him to do whatever he wants because people trust him. Wait and see what he can do when he eventually gets around to writing the Elantris sequel.

As alder24 said, but I'll add that because Fjordell was in the process of invading Teod, he would have been challenged and hunted by not just Dilaf and his monks, but also any Teod that came across them. Basically, as long as he wore the armor in the middle of that particular war zone, everyone but Sarene would have tried to kill him on sight.

My guess is that it's related to why Raoden was having his fits where he would get a wave of intense pain and start glowing as if he were an Aon himself. I'm not sure if we've ever had confirmation for why Raoden was a near valid conduit for Dor even as a fallen Elantrian, but he was. He was gradually Invested with power until it threatened to destroy him, and it is this buildup within his own body and soul, not within the Dor or Elantris, that he released. We know that his glowing fits stopped after that first valid Aon and as he continued to draw valid Aons. Full Cosmere spoilers

I have a few takes on this. Take one is that usefully modifying powers and sDNA modification is probably as hard if not harder to make useful as IRL gene splicing and introducing new DNA strands into existing chains. Radiation or accidental gene splicing is orders of magnitude more likely to kill you with cancer than make you Spider-Man. Take 2 is that keying the spikes and powers to do exactly what you want will be a significant hurdle - just like the Set getting inconsistent powers out of generally harvested Investiture. Take 3 involves full Cosmere spoilers: I won't say it's impossible to get something useful from this, but I think this would require splicing finesse beyond anything we've yet seen.

Maybe they cheat and count some sharps/flats as "real" tones and other accidentals as not real. The Alethi have similar odd tweaks in other areas, like how an "h" can be used to make a name or word symmetrical when it totally doesn't actually make the word symmetrical. You could designate two notes that are never played and go from there and I don't think anyone would mind. It's easier to remove notes than add notes in this case. Depends on how you want to go about making it sound like it has an Eastern or Middle Eastern quality. Google and Wikipedia say that many Middle Eastern songs use E as the midpoint note rather than C, and the pentatonic scale C D E G A is commonly used in Chinese folk music. Using those notes as the main melody then 5 others for harmonies could work to give it an Eastern feel. As for rhythm, the Coppermind page on Rhythm is a good place for the known Listener and Singer rhythms. It describes the rhythms of Honor, Cultivation, and Odium which you could incorporate here or there.

Late to the party as well, but of the scenes you list most of them do have a specific function within the context of the story. Vin the street urchin had one of the first introductions to her new life in Kelsier's crew as a bath and breakfast - highlighting to most readers the nature of her life in a constant ash-streaked stated and perhaps how life with Kelsier wipes away the ash. She certainly didn't trust it that much and resolved to rub ash into her face when the opportunity presented itself. For Siri, her first bath is perhaps one of the more jarring introductions to Hallendren culture, particularly with her native Idrian sense of propriety. She lost her austere outfit and was dressed in Hallendren custom. Jasnah and Shallan bathing together functionally is one of the few times that Jasnah might reasonably remove her Soulcaster in Shallan's presence. When it can be stolen, hence why Shallan had been keeping an eye out for such an opportunity. I would put this in a separate category for the necessary function for the plot. For Yumi and the Eastern homage that it pays, ceremonial cleansing is very significant in the cultures and religions. It's significant in many other religions and regions as well. For Yumi as a religious and ceremonial figure, her washing, prayers, and meals are all references to these types of ceremonies. For those familiar with these practices, omitting the ritual cleansing may have seemed exactly that, an omission. From a literary standpoint, all except Jasnah and Shallan highlight a cultural transition for the character and in each case drop the person pretty much literally bare of past comforts and familiarity into a foreign world in a vulnerable state. Forcing the character to take a bath isn't a bad way to indicate this state of insecurity. No idea if Brandon or the editor is pushing these scenes to keep attention with the suggestive trope, but they certainly don't only fill that function.

At the very least, I think we can say that groups in the Cosmere are examining this line of thinking. VenDell did ask Allik for one of his masks as the Kandra were studying the extent that those masks are considered part of their Identity. Some Hunters even have their masks growing into their faces. I expect we'll have this answered at some point. That said, it's worth noting that Cognitive Shadows often view themselves as clothed even though the "clothing" is really part of their substance as seen with Kelsier. It's not just Kelsier, all the deceased we see pop into Scadrial's CR have the clothing they wore in life, so I expect this aspect to be relatively universally applicable, particularly as we see what is possible in YatNP. Despite clothing being part of this visual instinctive image, we haven't seen clothing healed by the various Invested Arts. As it is, I think the amount of brain twisting necessary to truly view yourself as another person and not just as a persona is waaaay harder than is posited. Both Wayne and Shallan have healing abilities, are incredible at disguising themselves as other people, and for large chunks of their lives have wanted to be someone other than themselves (at least to not be themselves) up to and including Shallan editing her own memory. As far as I can tell, they have never modified their body into another person's despite having the power, mimicry ability, and motive to do so. No idea how the gender change works in this context, maybe in the Cosmere gender is part of the Spiritual Ideal and the born characteristics don't always match (this is me saying that I don't think in-world Ral-Na was twisting their own mind to get the desired change - see also Yumi reshaping Painter's body). Perception might inhibit Spiritual-based healing without allowing full steps away from that ideal, like Kaladin's scars persisting. What about Returned and their offspring? I'm not sure, it might be that Brandon handed us the exception/outlier at the start, just like how Returned are the oddball of the Cognitive Shadows for how easily they can leave their native system. Last note - it is worth noting that once Bridge Four gained access to the Surges, their Bridge Four tattoos remained, even though Kaladin's were healed away bringing his brand back to the forefront. The tattoo also transferred to Rlain's forehead plate when he changed from Dullform to Warform. Again, was this tattoo added to the Ideal, or is it simply excluded from being purged when healed? Are they unable to get tattoos now, or would they have to avoid healing for a few months?

Eh... I think you're equating two radically different processes. I think you could infuse an object with Investiture in a specific manner to resist a Shardblade and have it be a lower cost than convincing a stick that it really is part of a god along with all of the accompanying properties. Halfshards exist, right? We're not looking at Investing something to become a Godmetal, we're simply Investing something to actively resist destruction. I think just dumping Investiture in something and just hoping is a poor way to go, but I wouldn't be surprised if coating something in Adhesion will still impede a Shardblade if only for the stickiness. Yes, Investiture resists Investiture, but Invested Arts can still indirectly affect or combat a target. Sometimes I think we forget that the very first Shardbearer we ever see in the Cosmere Is Gavilar getting trashed by Szeth, who was pulling stunts like Lashing furniture at him where it didn't matter if it was severed in half (so at least a single Basic Lashing is insufficient to block a Shardblade), he still got pummeled, or when he Lashed a platform out from under him and dropped him off a building. I don't know how Adhesion works exactly, but paint adheres to Plate, so that's something.

Let's take a step back and look at the effects we see in RoW. We see two different suppression fabrials in effect, the one the Pursuer surprised Kaladin with during the Hearthstone extraction, and the one powered by the Sibling. The small scale one was reverse engineered by Raboniel after studying the Sibling's defenses, so presumably it follows very similar principles if not the same mechanism. Effects on normal people: No effect noticed. I believe both human and Singer were unaffected in either mode of the Sibling's suppression. Effects on Surgebinders: When Lezian activates the suppression fabrial, Kaladin reports being unable to use his surges, though it's notable that he rarely uses Full Lashings compared to his usual gravitation Lashings in combat, so presumably he would still have been able to use them. The next usage we see is Raboniel corrupting the Sibling and activating their defenses - in the process likely partially Unmaking her. The result is that all Radiants other than Lift, Kaladin, and Venli in the tower fall unconscious. Lift is powered by Lifelight and can use the Surge of Progression, likely the surge closest to Cultivation while Kaladin who is near the Fourth Ideal can use the Surge of Adhesion, the surge closest to Honor. I think it's worth noting that Lift has much more solid ties to the Cognitive Realm than most Radiants, and we know the level of Oath is directly relevant to why Kaladin stayed awake. Venli as a Regal could fuel her powers with either Voidlight and Stormlight and notably Timbre remained awake while residing in Venli's gemheart while holding the voidspren captive, though she felt a wall when trying access her abilities with Stormlight. Radiants infused by Lift's Lifelight would regain consciousness temporarily. Also worth noting is that Moash using Jezrien's Honorblade could use Stormlight and the Surges normally. Radiants cannot summon a Shardweapon, even if the spren is awake - they cannot pull them into the Physical Realm, though Teft (salute) was able to deflect Moash's attack. Effects on fabrials: Next, any standard fabrial utilizing non-Enlightened spren were nonfunctional, though replacing the gems in a fabrial with gems housing Enlightened spren would function. Effects on Fused: Last, when Navani bonded the Sibling and reversed the effects made by Raboniel and reactivated the original defenses, the Fused all immediately fell unconscious. Anything I've missed? From this, I hypothesize that suppression fabrials simply put the spren of a given target Shard to sleep and perhaps tries to force them back into the Cognitive Realm as stated in the Coppermind, though I don't have the original reference. At the bare minimum, we know it doesn't simply prevent a given Investiture from being used as Moash could use the Honorblade and Surges just fine. As Radiants rise in higher Oaths, they are more closely bonded with their spren and the spren have a stronger tie to the Physical Realm, so perhaps that's why the level of Oath is so important. Not just Radiant spren, but even the lowly flame spren in a heating fabrial also were put to sleep and would not rouse to Stormlight. Similarly, it seemed to work on Fused who are Cognitive Shadows and analogues to spren. On Roshar, all invested arts, fabrials or Surgebinding, seem Spren based - except Honorblades. My guess for why the Radiant falls asleep is that they are similarly affected by the soporific effect through the bond or part of their consciousness is pushed into the CR along with their spren. So... assuming this is the mechanism, putting cognitive based entities to sleep, how would this interact with other arts? I'm not sure how much it actually would. The Dor would probably not even care or just power through it, Cognitive based powers like Seeking, Rioting, and Soothing might be disrupted as a side-effect but not a main effect, and probably nothing would happen to Luhel Bonds. Threnodite Shades probably could be affected or at least detected considering the fabrial looking device used by the Ire in M-SH. The fact that an Honorblade worked just fine, makes me think it won't affect systems with less of an emphasis on Cognitive lifeforms.

I've wondered if Rashek killed Alendi with a Chromium spike and stole his Destiny as the one to use the Well of Ascension. There's a few things led me to this, notably in Secret History Preservation tells Kelsier that he can't use the Well of Ascension, first because he merged his soul with the power, second because Kelsier is not Connected enough to Preservation. Apparently there's a minimum Connection threshold to Preservation required to even use the Well in the first place. So how was angry, violent, jealous Rashek sufficiently Connected, considering what he immediately did with the power? Sure, Saze thinks he was ultimately a good man that was twisted by Ruin, but... I'm still iffy. Brandon may also be referring to other things, but he did say that TLR used Hemalurgy to pull off his most dramatic effects, and Ascending might fit that bill. There's two big hurdles though. There's a few unknowns for metallurgic and Hemalurgic tech level for the time period. We know Alendi wore Hemalurgic piercings, and that Khlennium had managed steam powered tech, but not much else. Apparently Realmatic theory was known also. I think it's plausible that Chromium was known prior to TLR's suppression of technology. Considering the outcome, I also wouldn't put it pass Hoid to step in and offer Kwaan or Rashek some info and Chromium, but that feels a like a copout answer. The other hurdle is that Vin had to remove her earring to fully enter the Well as Ruin's power conflicted with the Well. It's a similar unknown if Rashek could have taken some of the power into himself to "prime the pump" so to say and jump start the process before removing the spike and fully Ascending. I think the story works if Rashek didn't need to use Hemalurgy to steal Alendi's destiny, that he really was aligned with Preservation despite the character flaws seen most around the Khlenni Hero. I think it would also track that Rashek really wasn't suited for Preservation's power and that he cheated to get the power and was subsequently influenced by the residual effects to become TLR seeking an eternal empire. There would also be a bit of Irony if Hemalurgy was used to reinforce Ruin's prison. Basically, I'd be on the lookout for something similar to this, where Destiny only needs to be stolen immediately before locking themselves into a position of power, particularly if the swap happens fast enough that it's difficult or impossible to counteract in a timely manner. Just as Ruin ignored Rashek and was thwarted at the last second by Kwaan's plan.

There's been a lot of us over the years who find Mercy worrying, but we don't have much concrete information. Here's the link to the thread I made 2 years ago, mostly because it had a compilation of other threads and @Treamayne made an awesome exhaustive list of references to "mercy" in the available books. It was Harmony who found Mercy worrying. A summary of my thoughts: In general... when people in the books claim mercy as their motive more often it's a brutal kind. There still is giving leniency and forgiveness, but it seems outweighed by the likes of Sadeas, Moash, and Ruin claiming killing their target a mercy. We know Hemalurgy is a universally accessible art of Ruin, so I wondered if another Shard, Mercy, had similar far-reaching influence. If you find anything more in that list, that Treamayne made, we'd be quite interested to hear about it.

Interesting. I wish that WoB wasn't paraphrased, because my two readings of that have different implications. Does that imply that if Kel had remained as Preservation that over time that metal would have changed, or is it saying that if Kel had made Godmetal and passed on the power, that the metal produced during his tenure would have changed over time even when he wasn't the Shard anymore? I think it's worth noting that by the time Kelsier Ascended, he had seen Elend burn Lerasium and had a pre-existing concept of how the metal worked and what it did. This was when he was just dipping his toes in the broader Cosmere. Perhaps if he were more Cosmere aware he could have aimed for intentional changes to the properties. Full Era 2 spoilers:

Actually, one of the worst and rudest things you could do to both the reader and Brandon is have them not just get the Prime versions interspersed through the series, but to start with them. Brandon didn't think they were in a state to be published and did not go through the copyediting and line editing that he would have done for a solid publishable book. Nothing like showing a new reader the subpar, mediocre, unedited, no longer canon Cosmere. Next worst "reading" order is to spoil all of the best scenes in the Cosmere with barely any of the context because the person recommending the books is impatient for the reader to get through the story. Bonus points if you can describe them poorly when they are just barely getting invested into the characters and plot.

What if Kelsier had Snapped in childbirth like Vin had? By burning metals early in life, Ruin would have become aware of him much sooner and possibly would have used Marsh as Hemalurgic material for a Bronze spike for Kel, and Kelsier would have started out as a Mistborn. Would Preservation's plan have been derailed by this? What if Harmony had let MeLaan do all of his PR with Wax instead of letting VenDell and TenSoon do it? Those two are really bad with talking to Wax. Without those two antagonizing Wax, would Wax have gotten further against the Set earlier?

Ever since the Hemalurgic table said that Chromium "might steal destiny" I've wondered about the extent that predestination is present in the Cosmere. We have the Terris Prophecies and the Hero of Ages, but the fact that this is potentially an attribute stealable by Hemalurgy indicates that destiny is an integrated part of the Spiritweb. Full Cosmere spoilers: Something that I find interesting is the parallel between Kelsier and Marsh with Vin and her Seeker sister. What if Kelsier had Snapped during childbirth like Vin had, 21 years before Vin's birth? Would Ruin have had Marsh killed to implant a Bronze spike in Kel? Kel would have done as Vin did, this is pretty clear. Kelsier however never Snapped in all of his dangerous exploits, not until he was in Hathsin when Preservation spoke to him and reinforced his soul (possibly boosting his Investiture to Mistborn level, or Snapping him). Some were speculating that Preservation and/or Ruin were tampering with Vin's Spiritweb, I think Kelsier may be worth examining as one who was not a valid option for their machinations, or that Preservation out maneuvered Ruin here. As for Vin drawing the Mists, Full Cosmere spoilers again:

Just saying, if we see this in canon, it's going to be Lift using poor Wyndle to pick her teeth.

TotES spoilers: SA spoilers

So... this touches on some tricky IRL topics that need sensitive handling. The question of heritable disease can be troubling for some. I've known people who were distraught that their child inherited the same heart disease that was in the process of killing them and did eventually kill them. Mental illness can have a genetic component that affects a child's likelihood of developing a similar illness to a parent in IRL. Depression for example tends to run in families. However there is an accompanying complication where mental disorders might develop simply because the children suffered in an abusive environment. With the Davar children, there seems to be a possibility of mundane heritable genetic illness, sDNA heritage which feels poorly understood at this point, an Unmade wrecking their home, and abuse in the Davar home in general. Because of this, I wouldn't use the Davar family as evidence that Spiritweb damage is heritable simply because the abuse could lead to the disorders and trauma by itself, nor would I know the degree that it affected the likelihood of developing their disorders. There's too many complicating factors, but Shallan certainly doesn't need an inherited damaged Spiritweb to be thoroughly traumatized by killing both her parents as a small girl on top of the abuse she experienced and witnessed. Greater Cosmere spoilers

Assuming I'm reading the maps of Elendel Basin and not messing up geology, then I doubt that we would have any contamination from the bomb in Elendel drinking water. The canals should collect from the the mountain ranges surrounding the basin and flow into Hammondar bay and from there into the Sea of Yomend. There should be a positive flow pushing water from the basin into the bay, so I don't think we should get contamination from the bay back into the city unless we have a hurricane or storm surge that sucks water inland and then only briefly (and it would be so mucky, people wouldn't want to drink it unless desperate anyway). Sailors may find residue, but I doubt anyone will be drinking seawater and certainly not without filtration or purification. The fish though... that's a different matter. This may be the seed for increased sapience in the marine life. (mostly joking)

You're not the first to think of this, but yes, it is clever. Got an answer here that mostly shoots this down though, but doesn't explicitly do so. As for this, it creates a really interesting scenario that could be discussed. Spoiler for Brandon talking about plans for future Mistborn Books: Side note, I'll add in one more strategy for the Mistborn with Allomantic grenades: it would be super expensive on resources, but they should be able to use the grenades to make alternating Bendalloy bubbles to continuously stay in sped up time and tunnel across a space. Burn Bendalloy, charge cube simultaneously, walk to boundary, release grenade, stop burning Bendalloy, walk to the edge of the grenade's bubble, burn Bendalloy, walk back and retrieve the grenade after it has spent its charge, repeat. With practice, a Mistborn could barely charge the cube enough to let the Mistborn lob the cube to the edge of their bubble, run across it, put up their bubble, immediately recall the grenade by Pulling on a metal tag as it drops its bubble, catch, charge with Bendalloy, throw, repeat. Actually, any reason Wayne couldn't have pulled this off? He wouldn't have been able to do is as fast a Mistborn that could Pull the grenade back, but unless I'm missing something, he should have been able to use speed bubbles and a grenade to tunnel across a room. I know people have theorized about this with multiple Sliders, anyone see why a lone Slider or Mistborn with a grenade couldn't do the same?

Anyone adding in Allomantic grenades into the Mistborn's arsenal? That's when it starts really getting complicated and terrifying. When the Mistborn lobs a cube and you have no idea if you're going to get a Steelpush behind your position, Leeched, Cadmium Bubble, Nicroburst, blanket Soothing, or Ironpull... that's really hard to adapt to short of trying to shoot the grenade out of the air. This flexibility is something that even a group of Mistings would have a hard time replicating during the fast-paced fights that generally happen around Mistborn. Mistborn with a grenade can use strategies that people just flat out don't do, because running into a group and Pulling on everything strongly is usually suicide, but an Allomantic grenade can do that for you. You'd need Wax levels of precision, but you could use a tossed Ironpull grenade to bend your shots around corners or simply draw fire. Lobbing multiple grenades can cause mass havoc as well by throwing up A-Cadmium deadzones, Soothing, or Steelpushes. When fighting a group without a Coinshot or Lurcher (because either they don't have one or you killed them), you can attach a metal tag to the grenade to Pull it back to you after it has spent its charge - as long as you didn't charge it with Steel or Iron. Based on this WoB, some powers that normally can only be used personally can be granted in an AoE. Confirmed ones are Duralumin boosting a target and Aluminum creating a nullified zone. So... Can you grant someone a sudden burst of A-Tin, or Gold Shadows? In the right circumstances that could be as disorienting as a Soothing but one that most people can't prepare for unless they have had this specific stunt used on them. Lob an A-Tin grenade and fire off some of Ranette's Tineye Hazekiller rounds or a flash bang and you've got some nasty ways to disable a group. This could be useful even against a group in bulletproof Hazekiller armor with a Slider that can break out of Cadmium bubbles (sure that's a specific example, but we're looking at who would be fighting a Mistborn). With Duralumin now readily available in addition to the grenades, Mistborn can now setup different powers to shield themselves between Duralumin bursts. Sure, Bendalloy is a fantastic opportunity maker, but holding a A-Steel cube making a Steelbubble right after you blasted their group with a Duralumin Steelpush to extend your push (possibly even using it to stop a fall) and you've got some good flexibility - even if you are running low on certain metals. Add in all of the strategies others have listed, particularly the power of unexpected Nicrobursting a group of Mistings, and a lot of the close range drawbacks for many Mistborn powers can be removed. Sure, the enemy can pick them up and use them against you, but unless they have a full Mistborn as well, they won't have anywhere close to the same number of strategies. Start with a Leeching and you might not even have to worry about them using your grenade against you as you wade in with lead, Pewter, and Steel.

While this is true, I highly doubt that the truth would have been publicized or even discussed outside of the main circle around the emperor. Rather I would guess that it would have been utilized as further fuel and "evidence" that Elend was adopting the mantle of the Survivor after his near death in the bowels of Kredik Shaw. Telling the populace that he ate a piece of metal and became Mistborn would have all sorts of implications. I agree with the idea though, and the fact that Spook was made Mistborn during the Catacendre and became known as the Lord Mistborn in conjunction with Sazed giving them the Words of Founding probably means that term is going to stick. That said, Era 1 and Era 2 Scadrians didn't seem particularly precise about their terminology. Wax described Vindication as having an "Allomancer-only" safety which is a rather broad term for something that only 2 of 16 Allomantic powers can interact with. Lurcher/Coinshot safety would have been more descriptive. The Set with their experimentation with broad Hemalurgic usage had good reason to make a distinction between the donor and recipient of powers. Hemalurgist may also have been an incomplete term if it was simply referring to the people who implanted the spikes who may not have been spiked themselves. In the end though, I'm not sure if Metal Blessed would persist to later Eras, what with the Set being a secret organization. In the end... I think it will depend on a few factors depending on what knowledge and practices becomes commonplace and how much mysticism persists around the Scadrian Invested Arts. Era 1 Skaa thought Allomancy was a myth, Era 2 Scadrian Arcanists are just now doing tests for things like "what happens if you burn Cadmium and Bendalloy simultaneously" and there wasn't a use for a term for a tech-granted magic user though there is secrets around the Feruchemist enclave. The nomenclature of such things is dependent on what important distinctions are made by the different classifications and how people think about those differences. For example, it wouldn't surprise me if law enforcement had distinct terms for someone armed with an Unsealed Metalmind, a Hemalurgist, and a natural Metalborn because disarmament and holding procedures changes for each type of person. For an ordinary person with a medallion, you just confiscate the medallion and toss them into a regular cell. For Hemalurgists, the metal and location of the spike should allow a sufficiently educated officer to at least narrow down the probable powers and identify proper holding procedure if the spike can't be non-fatally removed. Hemalurgist funerary practices will have important implications as well. I mean, sure, you can plate the whole facility in Aluminum, but that adds cost and removes the option to have a Seeker monitoring the facility. That said, they might just use the terms I just gave - normal person with Unsealed metalmind, Hemalurgist, and Metalborn. So... I think there's a good chance that we'll get more terms than just Metalborn, but no idea which term will stick. As 17th Sharders, we're used to thinking of the 32 powers in their own right and have developed our own short hand with F-Zinc or A-Steel, but the common Scadrian might not bother memorizing the Metallic Arts tables (see Wayne boasting about knowing the proper names for all Twinborn combinations). The prevalence of Hemalurgy may also affect how openly people indicate that they are a natural Metalborn and thus valid Hemalurgic material. On the flip side, if Metalborn have their powers boosted by holding a Medallion granting their birth power in the same way that an A-Steel Hemalurgic spike boosts a Coinshot, then there will be very good reason to mark those naturally holding powers as special.

It may depend on the skill of the Forger. For example, as seen in that first quote from @Treamayne, Shai built the capacity to learn, grow, and change into Ashravan's seal, even with the daily stamping requirement. That implies that a Forgery can tolerate and retain changes even if the stamp is refreshed. It is worth noting that Ashravan's stamp was only a Cognitive/Spiritual change, not a Physical one. From this, I think if you put the necessary markings (and possibly describe the expected type of changes, I'm not sure) then the stamp may persist through change. In a similar vein, Ashravan is evidence that multiple stamps can work together for a greater whole, so if you craft the individual stamps for the table components to work together then they probably will after assembly. Run-of-the-mill Forgeries probably won't have either provision and are more likely to fail with change. That said, it may also depend on if the changes are additive or subtractive in nature. Say you have a Forgery bringing a poorly constructed table to a nicely sanded and properly formed state, but the head carpenter wants to add variations to the finished product. Adding a layer of paint, stain, or varnish seems a different matter than if you were to remove material through decorative carving or etchings. Anything that directly damages the material - even if it would be considered an improvement - is still removing substance from the soul of the object that is the foundation of the seal. Even if you build in the capacity to change, I'm not sure if the stamp would persist after too much physical damage. This also may go out the window if the Forgery is boosted with a powerful Investiture source and the exact phrasing of the stamp. It wouldn't surprise me if a stamp could reinforce a historical state and "heal" any changes by continuously going back to the stamped state.

Some insidious traps: Shard coffee table with sharpened edges Shard bedframe railing Shard Lego More practical traps would use it as a release wire or pin for a larger mechanism. Setup the mechanism, then summon the pin pack when your spren says the target is in position. Alternately, possibly a universal lockpick if you want to leave less of a trace than just cutting through the door.

Hm... Twinborn Compounding power I would least like to have... Logically, it would be one where none of the component powers are desirable either, which rules out most metals. For most people, I'd argue double Aluminum as the least useful. Component parts aren't particularly useful, and despite some theoretical shenanigans to use Blanking Identity... some part of me expects the process of storing Identity to be thoroughly unpleasant. Imagine siphoning off your sense of self. Being able to skip recycling and eat the tinfoil on my leftovers like a goat isn't particularly useful either. I'm going to have a particularly controversial personal choice though, which is double Gold. Yup, I wouldn't want Miles Hundredlives powers, despite its proven usefulness... because my family is poor enough to qualify for financial aid which isn't that low of a bar for my country. The knowledge that I have the power would be a tremendous temptation, because it is useful - but mostly as personal insurance in a format that no medical insurance company would be willing to pay. I don't see asking for a preemptive payout in solid gold to get more than being made a laughingstock. I also don't want to try to rob Fort Knox or a jeweler. It's personal insurance that I have to save manually that is most useful when carried on my person and most likely to be lost or stolen and can't be used as emergency aid for my family except as collateral. It would feel selfish to hoard gold in case I get injured when my asthmatic wife can't use any of it. But Dux, what about getting rich through blood banks or organ donation? Besides some of the physical unpleasantness of donating my body to the medical industry, it depends on the conversion rate between gold and blood / organ regrowth. Compounding requires burning solid gold which means using the compounded ability will likely cost hundreds or thousands of dollars per pop. We don't have the numbers to say if the gold to blood volume ratio will be worth it. Organ donation is also risky as I can't have access to my Goldmind while they operate since I'd probably unconsciously heal the surgical cuts or burn the anesthetic out of my system - which means trusting the surgeon to give back my gold bracer once they've removed the organ and have me unconscious and at their mercy. It also likely means that I would be a very expensive candidate for organ transplant - since it would likely cost thousands of dollars for me to regrow the organ adding additional financial burden on the recipient. Basically I'm uncertain about any profession that would use the powers since there's the overhead cost and inherent risk. It's like the magic armor from Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, but way more expensive to use. Yes, technically I could become a spike factory, but each spike would be hugely expensive to produce and again requires a huge amount of risk that I won't be betrayed once I'm strapped down. All it takes is for whomever has the spikes and mallet and has effectively killed me over and over to want a matching set of however many powers without having to pay for the last one. Basically double Gold feels super useful, but introduces way too much risk, uncertainty, and temptation compared to flat out useless combinations like Aluminum seems to be. Even more temptation than just being a Bloodmaker.