Duxredux

Well... we have to figure why Savantism is off the table for Hemalurgy in the first place to answer this question, though I agree with @Nameless' take on the WoB. Here's my hypothesis: it's related to why Atium can steal any power but only a single one despite basically being the Godmetal of Hemalurgy. Hemalurgy is destructive by nature, and likely cannot retain an entire soul, and that the fragment of soul harvested by Hemalurgy is transformed by the process in preparation to bestow the attribute on the recipient. Savantism by it's very nature is a systemic transformation of the soul by external power and likely covers a broader range than can be harvested by any single spike. Let's use Spook as an example as a well known viewpoint Savant. The idea here is that with a single spike you can't steal everything that encompasses being a Savant with a spike. If you were to steal Spooks A-Tin with a steel spike, that can only steal the attributes related to his Physical Allomantic powers. You could probably harvest Spook's dulled senses with a tin spike, but the real question is if a Tineye were to be granted Spook's senses if they would also gain his senses' sensitivity to A-Tin or if that's assigned to a different metal. From this standpoint, and with what was known at the time, saying that Savantism is something that cannot be stolen seems perfectly valid - and as far as was understood nonlethal Hemalurgy or stealing multiple attributes from the same body wasn't something anyone knew how to do.. For kicks, let's add in an additional layer and look at the old Miles spike factory question. Let's say that you have way too much money, gold, and not enough scruples. You capture Miles, strap him down, and then force feed him bar after bar of gold and then use every viable metal to harvest every known attribute out of him. With your pile of spikes, can you recreate Miles complete with his Savantism? You have his Identity, his Connections, his memories, his powers, and maybe even his destiny. Add in that linchpin spikes can coordinate the effect between the spikes, assuming you can get around Harmony's unconscious alterations of Hemalurgy in spike count limits. A few possibilities: yes, it works assuming you have the knowledge and can get around Harmony's restrictions. Alternately, there's too much interference with the recipient's Spiritweb, or the nature of the Hemalurgic spikes doesn't allow for that level of finesse in coordinating the changes to the soul even with a linchpin. Given that Atium can only harvest a single power at a time, it seems plausible that the more delicate components of the Spiritweb that are altered and changed from Savantism that create some of the more significant changes aren't retained when a spike hammered through the soul is transformed and prepared to enhance another body. So... I think it's plausible that you could steal attributes altered by Savantism, but that you would need extremely unusual circumstances to get anywhere close to stealing everything that makes someone a Savant. I don't think the non-lethal general harvesting that the Set was experimenting with would cut it.

The governmental philosophy aspects check out I think, particularly after listening to some of the #saythewords videos. As they are written by a contemporary of the Knights Radiant, they may be a representative example of the general sentiment that may be felt by the unoathed observing the Knights Radiant. The Lightweavers and Elsecallers in particular are purported to have no distinct moral boundaries on their progression of Ideals, though by definition you can't have a Knight Radiant go rogue by themselves, their spren must also be in agreement. The political development of Roshar will be really unusual because you have the historical precedence of the destruction of Ashyn, the dying ravings of Honor, the Recreance, oaths made by Bondsmiths and Shards, and a world at war. Political alliances between Shadesmar and the physical realm don't have to result in the Nahel bond, but there have been not a few kings who have gained access to the Surges. Add in naturally acquired Blade, Plate, and squires and you have things like the development of Shallan's Unseen Court as the wife of a Highprince which makes sense but is a disturbing precedence. Add in Elhokar as king of Alethkar swearing fealty to the king of Urithiru and I suspect we have an arrangement of Knights Radiant in political power that the Heralds and ancient Radiants tried very hard to avoid as the Watchers on the Rim asking for all to come and train at Urithiru. Makes you wonder why the Stormfather sent Dalinar those visions as someone who went on to basically claim divine mandate of authority. On a related note, with the development of powers and political authority, even if they eventually restore the minds and core personality of the Heralds, there may be significant ramifications that they have lost Jezrien. First his will when he broke in Braize and left the burden to Taln, then his mind when he was lying in a drunken stupor while the Coalition of Monarchs was formed, then his soul. The Herald of Kings who trained political leadership and likely engineered the Epoch Kingdoms is lost to Roshar, and in the back five of SA the remaining Heralds may keenly feel his absence as the political climate develops. As for power creep, yes, I do think that ridiculously powerful individuals will sway the political climate. We had that one guy on Scadrial who ran for office on the platform that he was a Coppercloud and so couldn't be affected by emotional Allomancy. We have plenty of examples of calamities across the Cosmere. Give ordinary people the powers of divinity without the mind or scope of a deity and then add in politics? Yikes.

That's a fair viewpoint. I'll also note that I never used the words love, kindness, or religion anywhere in my analysis of Liyun. This was my way of trying to explore perfectionism as it persists across generations. May I ask how much you know about Eastern culture, particularly, Japan, Korea, or China? You have to understand that when I read about Liyun I see my grandma, or Obaa-chan. She's not particularly religious, she used to criticize my mom if she got anything less than A's in school, and my mom couldn't think of a time growing up when grandma praised her. Growing up, I had to reconcile the stories my mom told with Baa-chan remembering every birthday, driving in from out of state for Christmas and giving us lots of hugs, Pocky, and rice crackers, particularly when my mom would continue to note that she was still being criticized. I had a friend from Hong Kong who talked about how incredibly competitive the schools in Hong Kong were. He had a classmate who was about 5 feet tall who was on the basketball team because he had a 5' vertical jump and could jump over the opposing guard and dunk, that's how hard some of them trained. To give you an idea of how densely populated Hong Kong is, it wasn't until he was around 18 or 20 that he knew silence. The local competition is incredible, so much that when I was working as a janitorial supervisor for a U.S. university, I once interviewed a candidate from China that had years of managerial work history and two published research papers. He was applying to be a janitor while he worked on his PhD. When we talk about perfectionism and incredibly high standards, I want us to keep looking past where we see the word "abuse" and have the discussion move towards what we do when we or those we raise are in circumstances that crush the undiligent. You don't have to be a religious fanatic or a Machiavellian to really not want your kid to have a dead end job for most of their life because they didn't take school seriously. Debt, compound interest, and the cost of living can be incredibly cruel task masters. I'm not touching work conditions in Asia because I don't think I can change that, but I can think about how I raise my own children.

P@s5w0rD. That Command phrase will make the Lifeless hold up four pictures and from there I will need to identify all pictures that show a boat in it. If I succeed, then and only then am I able to give it additional Commands. If I pronounce "P@s5w0rD" wrong 4 times in 10 minutes (easy mistake compared to my other Lifeless' security phrase "p45swORd"), it will slap me and and hold up an hourglass and I can't try again until the timer runs out. If I'm really desperate, I can say "reset security phrase" and it will give me a form where I have to write in my address, first pet, my favorite Tarachin player, and my birthday. If it recognizes the answers I wrote down, it will mail me a temporary root level security phrase that expires within 48 hours. You can try to hack it, but it has permission to whack people with a club if people are trying to brute force the password or torture it. @Treamayne, do you think security phrases fall under the native language restriction?

I think the simplest answer for why TenSoon can hold 4 spikes is the Blessing of Prescence reinforces him and reduces some of the negative effects of Hemalurgy. Or it could be that unlike Inquisitors and Koloss who lose humanity with each spike Kandra gain humanity. It would need a WoB though, since TenSoon is unique in this way as far as I know and we're extrapolating from very few data points. @Quantus, you're right, I'm unsatisfied with the "different race/species" explanation since it's going to seriously complicate Hemalurgy when it comes to ShoDel, Singers, and animals. Answering the question with "they're just a different species" totally can be the end answer, but then I was given that answer just this month for why Harmony could take control of Paalm despite the Trellium spike which allows more spikes before Harmony's interference in humans. Are Kandra weaker or stronger when it comes instability due to spike count? I'm much happier with "Autonomy's Godmetal grants resistance to external control" or "cognitive stability mitigates negative effects to the soul" than "we need to make a new rule chart every time we run into a new race or species because the Spiritwebs are just different". I'm totally fine with the bindpoints generally being different per species, but I want the underlying theory to be trackable. For example, Kandra are special because unlike any other species we've seen they are born with a block on their Cognitive and Physical aspects and were specifically designed to gain sapience through Hemalurgy is a more thorough explanation from something like: "Dents the circus master finally had it figured out. It took four spikes to control a bear, three spikes to control a lion, and two spikes each for his gaggle of penguins. His amazing animal menagerie was ready to empty the pocketbooks of the Elendel elite and the constabulary Seekers would just assume he was Rioting the crowd to raise excitement. Dents would finally be able to pay off the medical bills he got after he placed that third spike in the bear." If we got a paragraph like that in a book, I want some sort of theory of sapience, intelligence, or innate Investiture tying into what makes a species more or less susceptible to Hemalurgy's dangers created by punching Invested spikes into souls and creating potentially unstable transformations which seems like it should cause issues for just about anything in the Cosmere. Just saying that they are different doesn't really explain anything. I'm assuming that there's more universally applicable principles because Hemalurgy was always designed to be viable anywhere in the Cosmere, and I'm assuming that we won't have to learn new rules for every single different race of humans as I'm guessing Scadrian humans with their seed of Preservation have diverged from Nalthis, Taldain and Roshar. Yeah... my take is that Kandra are unique because they were designed to be made more complete with Hemalurgy, but that otherwise you can pretty much assume that on average across the Cosmere 4 Hemalurgic spikes in a human will make them susceptible to the Flaw be it from a specialized emotion fabrial, Shardic influence, or a Rioter. The idea that Koloss don't have a linchpin and as a result are rather unstable works for me as well, as their transformations aren't very sustainable in the long term.

I'm pretty sure Taln is Taln. I remember those WoBs, and I think those were mostly around WoK and WoR in order to introduce some uncertainty as to whether or not he genuinely was a Herald or just a madman. Ash was absolutely certain that she was talking to Taln at the end of Oathbringer, going so far as to apologize and cry when he refused to hate her for leaving him in Braise for 4500 years (edit, the text doesn't say she cries, but that's the inflection in the audiobook). If he had been replaced while on Braise, I highly, highly doubt that something that Odium created to make a false Herald would look out at civilization and think about what a wonderful gift was given to humanity and how they finally had a chance to rebuild. Every aspect of that scene is something that Odium could never have fabricated. Ah've been NINJA'D! @Treamayne

I don't wanna live in Ancient Rome. If I know the modern era exists, then I'll take Elend, Jasnah, and Dalinar. Dalinar opens a perpendicularity to fuel Jasnah creating Duralumin and Cadium and then with Elend's help we skip ahead with a Duralumin powered Cadmium bubble until we get to the advent of instant noodles, indoor plumbing, and air conditioning. I'll have them start a university for philosophy or something and listen to them debate while 90% of their ideas go over my head. If I absolutely have to stay and rule Rome, then I'll bring Raoden, Elend, and Susebron to form a triumvirate to manage the place while I go fishing. Just by bringing Susebron I've probably convinced most of Rome that Jupiter has come to visit and take control of Rome. Those three would probably get along quite well, manage the logistics of an empire and it doesn't hurt if they also are ridiculously powerful and can probably claim that they are deities or demigods. Force me to be in charge and I'll be marginally better than Caligula's horse compared to my triumvirate. While Incitatus the horse probably wasn't actually made a consul of Rome, I don't want to be either. Actually... added this in, because when I thought of when Raoden, Elend, and Susebron were at the height of their powers, I felt guilty because that's right after they were able to get a good solid relationship with Sarene, Vin, and Siri respectively, I'm basically forcing them back into a frat house. So... Susebron, Siri, and Llarimar because they would probably actually be okay and happy with getting transported to Rome. I'm counting on Susebron's aura to basically make the entire empire worship him and his Awakening to quell anyone else. Llarimar's there to actually manage and organize things.

Researching something else, Navani thought that Essu, Raboniel's daughter was of the same brand as Raboniel herself, the Fannahn-im. With only a single brand confirmed killed by this Anti-Voidlight, Todium and El may have wanted to test if Anti-Voidlight destroyed any Fused or only the Fannahn-im.

So... why can Raysium conduct Anti-Voidlight without exploding? If it's a matter of alloying and a pure sample of Anti-Investiture can't destroy an alloy, then how are we framing Anti-Light killing Spren and Fused when it's unlikely that they are pure samples of their respective Investitures? If for whatever reason Honorspren and all Fused are basically pure samples of Stormlight or Voidlight, then does that imply that all other Radiant Spren are safe from until opposition with their varying composite Investiture that is manifested when they become a Shardblade? Is there a distinction between solid Godmetal versus gaseous Investiture, and does that mean Shardblades and Plate may not react to Anti-Stormlight? Couldn't find this posted already with a quick search.

I've got a few thoughts: First idea, Ishar thinks he can reforge the Oathpact even while Honor and Jezrien are dead. This is Ishar when he is slightly less nutty then usual, so take that for what it's worth. Up until Honor was killed, is there anything to say that Honor couldn't have just made a new Herald if one were to be permanently killed? A new Herald would have a fraction of the experience of the original ten, but then Kaladin and friends can still pretty well match the Fused. There's even logical candidates in whatever 4th or 5th Ideal Radiants that happened to be around while Honor was still alive, people who had done a stellar job of living long enough to swear the later ideals, live those Ideals during the pressure of a Desolation, and most importantly, not die. They wouldn't be handing an Honorblade or Oathpact to a greenhorn. The real question is how this goes down on Braise when there are no corporeal bodies for the Fused (for that matter, I'm not even entirely sure how the torture worked). Second note: I suspect that one of the reasons that Shards may be hesitant to produce their godmetal too often is that it literally portions off a piece of their power that they no longer can access directly and this weakens them relative to other Shards. Full Cosmere spoilers: In both cases, forestalling attempts to permanently kill the Heralds via abundant Raysium production until after killing Honor has logical benefits. Rayse had been raising an army to take to the Cosmere. Introducing the technology and methodology to kill both sides permanently is what Raboniel accomplished and specifically what Rayse hoped to avoid. By gemstone imprisonment or anti-Light, the mechanism still allows for the permanent death of Rayse's army.

This isn't a bug, so much as something that has potentially unintended consequences. For the Q&A section, historically the question creator can mark a response as the community answer... even if it was their own post. I know this because I did it before community answers were something we tracked. Click my profile, click Community Answers, and click the thread link and you'll see where I asked a question then much later came back after we got a WoB on my exact question and I posted Brandon's response. I marked it as the official response to get the attention of everyone who had previously posted on that thread, I just wasn't expecting it to later on go on my profile's public record.

Okay... I think I get the general idea of the Soulstamp machine diagram. Essentially you wanted a machine that alternates between two Soulstamps to alter the dimension of a rod, shortening and lengthening it via Forgery, from there translate this motion into rotational energy. That sum it up? There's a few obvious issues with the current design, first one is that Soulstamps require a 90 degree twist to activate them, and second one is there is no mechanism for reapplying ink to the Soulstamps. Now with some pins, slots, and springs, you should be able to make something that automatically and mechanically adds the rotation, but it breaks down without fresh ink. Without a method to reapply ink, this won't work in isolation, and trying to Forge more ink has non-trivial complications as well. Well... you're not wrong, but this is asking for free energy, not perpetual motion. If by perpetual motion you mean constant power cycling through a system with no input, then no, that's not possible on a small scale, but the addition of power drawn from the Spiritual Realm or motion through the Cognitive and Spiritual realm complicates things. For example, if you place a photovoltaic cell next to the King's Drop, the gem will produce light and energy even if left in a vault for 200 years with no further intervention except maybe changing out the solar panel. That is effectively free power, but it does have the input of energy Brandon described as a lightbulb screwed directly into the Spiritual Realm. Unlike solar power, where a sun is technically not a renewable source and has a set lifespan, the Investiture belonging to a Shard operates on a cycle and naturally returns to the Spiritual Realm. So... I'm iffy on if this is perpetual motion at the scale of a Shard, but it is basically free energy. Granted, energy and Investiture is cheap on Roshar with it literally blowing through with every Highstorm. I wouldn't call this perpetual motion either, but every Shardbearer with a Shardblade and 4th Ideal Radiant has freely summonable and dismissible mass at apparently negligible cost. Stick Kaladin at the top of a turbine and he can repeatedly summon a heavy pile of metal to spin the turbine with just a thought while he plays cards with Bridge Four. Basically no input of energy until he gets hungry and whatever it costs for him to have his neurons firing. The energy generated almost certainly far outweighs the energy it costs him. Probably no one would do this since using power armor and nigh-invulnerable swords that cut through anything to do a job that water, air, or dirt can do feels like a huge opportunity cost waste. Depends on the scale. A fair number of generators boil down to heating a gas or a liquid and capturing the motion generated by the heated objects expanding, becoming less dense, and rising by converting it into rotational energy and from there into electricity. Nuclear power basically is a giant boiler hooked up to a turbine, the advantages are in the density of the energy released per gram of material compared to other sources like natural gas or coal as well as that we're getting better at refining the waste output. In this case though, friction is destructive by nature, so generating power through abrasion is very expensive and inefficient compared to other methods. Power plants that use ambient sources like hydroelectric dams, windmills, and solar power have significant draw backs in that they are at the mercy of larger cycles that we don't directly have control over, namely the water cycle, weather patterns, and exposure to the sun. They are intermittent sources of energy, require significant land space, and have non-trivial constraints on where they can be located when civilization needs a constant source of electricity everywhere, thus a significant focus is placed on the ones that we have control over the inputs with nuclear reactor fuel, coal, or gas and do not need special consideration for location. It's not uncommon for intermittent power sources to put any excess energy into pumping water for storage since to a hydroelectric dam a lake is basically a battery. Having said all that, I'd like to ask a few questions and potentially expand the scope of this topic. First question: how useful is electricity in the Cosmere? You can build modern society with it, but I'm having a hard time identifying what Invested technology even utilizes electricity. Modern technology is nothing to sneeze at, but we don't have FTL, teleportation, summonable power armor, fabrials, speed bubbles, necromancy, etc. etc.. Elendel has it, but I'm not sure on Southern Scadrial or Roshar. Second question: do we know of any way to convert electricity into Investiture? Electricity is useful because of technology that is run solely on electricity (computers) and because we can convert mechanical power to electricity, transport it long distances, and then convert it back to mechanical power. Spend your Breath on a cloth to turn a hand crank, and sure it can generate electricity, but thus far we can't convert that power back into Investiture and power technology that only uses Investiture. For that reason Feruchemy, Lift, and Bondsmiths are very interesting as they are some of the few abilities that can actively generate their own Investiture or convert other substances into Investiture. Crack this conversion step and this conversation becomes a lot more interesting because then we can convert a huge variety of energy sources to electricity and from there to Investiture. At that point, figuring out if putting a Lifeless elephant on a treadmill generates more energy than it consumes is very interesting.

I'd guess that we as an audience can assume that what he says on the whole is technically the truth with narrative liberties to enhance the storytelling. That said, anyone in-world better believe that Hoid can make technically true statements that make a corkscrew look like a ruler and needs to seriously question his motives any time he opens his mouth.

Eh, if you're too unmotivated to move, you'll eventually pass out or fall asleep and automatically stop storing. Not healthy, but probably not fatal. The default state of a Feruchemist isn't to store. If anything I would expect you to lose the will to hold the active storage, not somehow get forced into maintaining something that requires constant Intent. If Determination is at all related to Intent, you may not be able to generate sufficient Intent to maintain Feruchemical storage in extreme cases.

Hm... it could be broken for power gamers, but you could have A-Gold give a potent effect because unlike every other power, this one is literally fueled by gold and gold has a really fast Allomantic burn rate. This one requires the DM to add economic pressure to the campaign to make it relevant that they have to do a cost/benefit analysis between getting nicer equipment and supplies that persist versus a temporary skill that they have to pay to use. It would probably take some trial and error to figure out the cost to use it for a single round. You could also build in character disorientation after they stop burning it. Deciding on if the powers and skills given are consistent or have a random quality could also make it interesting or more complicated (maybe they have to redo the skill after major plot points or leveling up or something, something where you indicate that narratively they have changed as a person or could have made a significantly different choice). If conceptually that makes sense and sounds cool I'll let someone else translate it to 3.5e parlance. F-Zinc... maybe it lets the player spot weak points? Lowers the target's effective AC or lets you ignore partial cover? Maybe increases the range of what is considered a critical hit (depends on if the setting has Spinner ferrings)? Boosts wisdom temporarily? Maybe a specific advantage against visible projectiles? My problem here is I'm not sure what skills I'm suggesting overlap with other existing skills, and that the effect is likely on a continuum.

I hope you don't mind if I step in and add another concept to this debate. As a side note, either of you study philosophy or leadership? I'm including this as a comment to both your and @bmcclure7's conversation. This isn't to convince either of you anything, simply I think the scope of your conversation is too narrow for the concepts you're trying to discuss. For current society, it feels like there is a concept of authority and freedom of authority / personal autonomy. There are plenty of broken homes and abusive parents that no, I don't feel like I can across the board say that children should always obey their parents. Simply having a kid doesn't intrinsically make a parent a good parent and by extension simply because a Shard made a planet doesn't necessarily mean that they will take good care of it. I'll get to it later, but I think the core ideas that are really being discussed are the distinctions between authority, stewardship, and responsibility, and I think the conversation has included concepts of all three even though only authority was used.. Authority is something that people give to others, it isn't intrinsic, though consequences related to typical authority figures often are. You don't need to do anything a teacher or employer tells you to do, just in the same way you don't actually need to graduate from school or get a paycheck. You don't need to listen to law enforcement officers, a judge, or a doctor in the same same way that you don't actually need to be able to have living quarters without bars and locks, have personal possessions, or to even breathe, for certain definitions of "need". People make these decisions all the time. I for one would plead strongly for people to give authority to people that will improve life for themselves and those around them and to choose positive consequences, but people ignore or disregard those that others consider in authority all the time. Again, authority is something that you choose to give where you are giving something or someone power over you to change your behavior. For most people, prison walls, a gun pointed at them, or threats to withhold finances will modify their behavior. In better cases, kindness, respect, listening, and compassion also can have someone choose to modify their behavior. Like or not, power often demands authority, though it doesn't need to be given. Creators generally do have power over their creations, though not necessarily forever or to the same degree. From a certain standpoint, even for someone religious, God only has as much authority as the person is willing to give them, with the accompanying consequences. So... no, Ado is hard to give authority to because we know practically nothing about Ado. We have no commandments, no communications, no descriptions of their character, no personal identifying characteristics other than a role and possibly creating the Cosmere and subsequently dying, and at this point any previous authority has little or no impact whatsoever on anyone (except the Yolish and the Iri, but their tenants haven't been thoroughly explained enough for me to really understand them). Ado is about as well known to us as Christianity was known to East Asia in the 6th or 7th century (as in, not very well at all). In the same way that an orphaned child who is adopted into a family and has absolutely no knowledge of their parentage, they can't give authority to their parents, and yet the genetics that they inherited will alter the course of their life. I think there's a distinction between authority over something and responsibility for something. There is an implied stewardship to something someone brings into the world. If you start a fire, you will be held accountable for what it consumes. Have a child and you are legally considered their guardian unless they mature past the point of requiring a guardian or the role of guardian is removed or otherwise transferred. Start raising alligators in your backyard and if they start causing problems for your neighbors and you better believe that you will hear about it. Like authority, no one needs to choose to be try to be responsible for anything they do or say, but I don't have to elaborate too much on what happens when people consistently choose to act irresponsibly with things that are naturally within their stewardship. Too often I think people demand respect and exert power to try to gain authority, when more focus should be on acting responsibly and becoming the kind of person that people would choose to give respect and authority to. Sigh. As it is, and as I said before, there's a lot of different views of god, worship, and there's a lot of underlying personal beliefs that shape how a person thinks about these topics, there isn't a universal standard that everyone agrees on. Be respectful of what other people choose to worship, no matter how, where, or what they may.

This is interesting. Now that you mention it, there's a number of important ramifications surrounding these questions. It does make sense that when a Hemalurgic spike is placed in the recipient, it pretty much is always done with Intent and so might punch out a portion of the soul. Certainly Vin's mother had the proper Intent when Vin's earring was made into a spike and the placement was to grant her A-Bronze. This also would explain why spikes get Identity keyed. This might also explain how an Atium spike stealing powers from a Mistborn is coded to grant the correct power. That said... parts of this WoB may have been retconned out or the Set have figured out unkeyed spikes, otherwise this doesn't explain at all how Dumad's spikes granting A-Duralumin and A-Steel were harvested and reused by Wax and Wayne. Actually, now that I think about it, the four spike limit of Set members with Trellium doesn't quite explain why Lessie could be controlled with a normal spike and a Trellium spike. Maybe Kandra are just that much weaker...? It's weird.

Yup, you're not the only one to notice this and it is intentional.

I've done some 5e, not 3.5, and it was years ago. I'll talk about how we think about A-Iron instead. It depends on what era you are working with, but in the modern world steel-reinforced concrete is the backbone of civilization. Nearly every major building or construction project will use steel either as the primary material or as reinforcement due to it's cost, workability, and tensile strength. Now there is a question of how good of an anchor rebar embedded a couple of inches into concrete is, but if a Lurcher can pull themselves to that, then they pretty much will be able to run up nearly any building. Steel framing and trusses are becoming more prevalent as well depending on where you are and timber supply (I was involved in a construction project last year where steel framing was cheaper than wood). I'm not talking nails in boards, I'm talking major structural components to a building. A Lurcher can also be a far more effective pickpocket or thief than a Coinshot. Pull money, keys, phones, weapons, metal vials, and more to steal, disarm, or slingshot items however you wish. A Coinshot can disarm a gunman. A Lurcher could have armed themselves with said gun. Having to push something desirable away from you is rather unfortunate, and we see at least a few times when Wax has to work hard to retrieve a dropped gun or something similar. Not everyone is equipped as Hazekillers, so make the most of the scenarios where the enemy has metal weapons and equipment. A melee fighter should also be able to capitalize on Pulling a combatant towards them when they aren't expecting it. Also, consider experimenting with weapons designed for use as a Lurcher. Something like... a set of metal bolas that you throw, retrieve and use the rope to trip or entangle (step aside and slingshot it around you if necessary), intentionally overshooting to nail an enemy hiding behind cover on the recall, etc. In the same way a Coinshot has to get used to heights, a Lurcher has to get comfortable pulling items towards themselves. Like with anything, it takes practice and reconditioning your reflexes. I imagine lateral evasion becomes pretty important to a Lurcher. Depends on your play group. For some people they want to feel awesome and do awesome things. For some, they'll enjoy the puzzle-solving aspect and the challenge to make their character useful within a given scenario. I feel like a Lurcher fits more in the second since we haven't gotten a major combat view of a Lurcher as opposed to someone who wants to fight and fly like Wax, Vin, or Kelsier.

We know that tech that grants Feruchemical powers to objects has already been invented. Back in BoM, when the set took over the Southern Scadrian ship, they mentioned a weight changing device on the ship. Now changing a ship's weight seems pretty straightforward compared to external oxygenation, but I think they'll figure something out. Maybe they'll need to create a system that mimics a human respiratory system to oxygenate something, to just throw out an off-the-cuff possibility. Now whatever primary method they use for atmosphere or oxygen, ettmetal primer cubes, medallions given to individual crewmembers, or a Feruchemical machine that oxygenates and pressurizes the space ship, it will likely be a question of scale, logistics, and resource efficiency. For example, knowing the energy demands of FTL and how additional mass plays into that could be quite important. Normally adding a kilo of mass to a ship that has to accelerate and decelerate to reach a destination lightyears away would add a huge energy cost. The Southern Scadrian airship runs off of Ettmetal and Allomantic Grenades have ettmetal in them as well, though I don't know the rate that they are consumed (if they are). How does Ettmetal energy density compare to the maximum density of Investiture stored in a Metalmind when every gram of extra mass will increase the cost of motion? Alternately, while F-Iron medallions can be used while sleeping, is the same for F-Cadmium which requires much more finesse and regulation than just shedding all your weight? Have they figured out how to grant more abilities per medallion, or would they be better off with a ship-wide atmosphere as opposed to individual life-support? I'm not sure, but these factors make a difference when you're talking literal rocket science. It's not just the technology itself, it's the sustainability, robustness, cost, mass, and more that play a role. Probably not exactly what you're asking, but there will probably be technologies that technically could be used, might be reserved for an emergency, but not the main system on a space ship. Zephyr spores for example are meant to be emergency oxygen supplies, and could probably provide some emergency thrust for maneuvering, you would never be able to pack enough aboard a ship to use as the primary systems for thrust or oxygen.

Yup, that all tracks with what we've seen so far and the WoBs we've been given. I want to dig a little deeper on the Lifeless scenario though, since that one is really weird and is an edge case on a lot of the Realmatic concepts and I want to challenge some of the assumptions that Brandon has lead us to believe. I'll bold the topics. The body is not fully dead and may not be in the proper condition to become a Lifeless I'll split my response in two parts. Regardless of whether or not the body is dead, it still can be a valid target for a bestowal of Breath. It doesn't need to be dead to be given a Breath, and the Lifeless Command phrase doesn't stipulate that the original is dead, though it does tell it live. It's also possible for a person to utilize their Breath internally (Vasher teaching Nanrovah's daughter how to modify her memory) and for a person to Invest a Breath inside of themselves (at least in the case of Vasher suppressing his Divine Breath). Do these factors play into this scenario where the body is a shared unit? The fact that the body is not fully deceased is likely accurate. The follow up question is does it really need to be? What if the necessary components were really just a body or something similar that is very closely adjacent to Life, and something that doesn't have an existing Spiritweb or something providing cognitive function that the Breath would become subservient to? The vast majority of cases the easiest resource for this is just a dead body, but just because it's the most commonly used doesn't mean that it's the only one that works. The part where the color of the body is consumed to power the transformation of a Lifeless isn't unique to Lifeless, Nightblood draws color from living flesh and Vasher was able to use his own blood pouring from a wound as fuel for Awakening. Why does the Identity of the Breath change when Investing a person or a Lifeless? I'll ask a follow up question: what does the Identity of a Breath used to Awaken a Lifeless change itself to? The answer for a living person is pretty straight forward, what changes with the deceased? Let's start with the familiarity principle we learn with Soulstamps. This scenario might share a lot of similarities with Shai's work to revive Ashravan. Now there's some debate as to whether or not Ashravan's Spiritweb left his body, but it likely fits the same uncertainties as this scenario, where you have a body kept functionally alive despite being in a practically vegetative state. We learn from Soulstamping that the body still remembers the original soul and that stamping both the body and those close to the original person can increase the chances to create a Soulstamp that works for the body - so presumably the surrogate Spiritweb also more closely resembles the original soul. With a Breath, it's Endowment's power, and in this case the body has enough residual ties to the original Spiritweb that when a Lifeless is created the Breath aligns itself to the previous Spiritweb, but with residuals left over from the first owner of the Breath as well as a backdoor hardwired into the soul (like what Frava suggested they do to Ashravan). Basically the Breath aligns itself with the Identity of the previous owner either from the body's familiarity with the original soul, or from the familiarity of the body itself. So how does that work when the body is shared by another person? The DNA is identical between the two twins, there's the familiarity principle more closely aligning them, and there may have been overlap or merging with their Spiritwebs. The Breath used to Awaken a Lifeless would likely try to align itself to the deceased twin... or would it be realigned to the Spiritweb of the living twin? I dunno. Yeah, this one is funky, but again, it hits enough of the edge scenarios of Connection, Identity, familiarity, and Spiritwebs that it could be really interesting to ask this as a WoB.

I think there's a decent handle on this so far, so let's ask even weirder scenarios of the question! The conjoined twins live on Nalthis, one gets head trauma and dies heroically in battle (yeah, I know, unlikely to happen due to logistical limitations, but just suppose) and while the other twin is weeping over the loss of their lifelong companion. Endowment decides to send back the deceased twin as a Returned. Keeping in mind that Returned have their memories wiped and are influenced by the social view of bodily perfection, the Divine Breath comes down and strikes the deceased twin and...? The least complicated outcome I can think of is if Endowment includes the proper Intent (if this works) and the Divine Breath does double duty and splits the body into two complete and separate beings. One is Returned, the other has been healed by the passing kinetic Investiture to the social norm and gains a complete non-bifurcated body with the accompanying knowledge of how to use it, like how Susebron didn't need to learn how to talk when healed by Lightsong. This doesn't have to be the only outcome though. Alternately with no intervention from Endowment, the living twin is pragmatic and desperate to get off the battlefield alive and tries to use their single Breath to create a Lifeless from their dead twin. After we discuss how that goes and what degree of control they share with a Lifeless sharing a body if it works at all, they later get their hands on a Feruchemical Gold Medallion with this WoB in mind: Add in Ulaam's experience of eating a two-headed reptile and discovering he couldn't split his mind or think faster. For this one, it's weird because the Spiritweb of the dead twin is absent and is then replaced with a surrogate Spiritweb from the living twin. The Surrogate Spiritweb and the original Spiritweb would be touching at the bifurcation and you should have an entire body with the same DNA matching with the sDNA of the soul(s) occupying the whole body. Would they gain conscious control over the Lifeless half without need for spoken Command? Would they be able to sense as a Lifeless senses? I'm not worried about the sustainability of a half Lifeless body just yet, I'm wondering about at least the first few hours for the twin.

I'm going to quibble over some of these details. I'll just quote you and highlight my responses.

It's super fascinating and the first time my wife told me about the monomyth kind of blew my mind. How was it that the stories of so many disconnected cultures could have the same themes? Was it some core aspect of human belief, some innate part of the human experience that made these stories get passed down for generations? After thinking about it overnight, there's some pretty cool inworld decisions to model the hero's journey and I'll try to describe them. There's different models of the hero's journey now, some with 8 steps some with 17 or more. Here's one I pulled off the internet (and it even has its own attribution, how convenient). I'll give a few examples, first the Dog and the Dragon, Kelsier, and Kaladin. To a certain extent, I might argue that the Dog and the Dragon is a slight subversion of the hero's journey. You have the Dog seeing the dragon, (skip refusal of the call) chooses it as his mentor and begins his process of changing into a dragon. The dog is tested, not many allies, a few enemies as he tries and fails. Then the child falls into the well and the Dog approaches the inmost cave of the well, flying into the darkness and brings the child back from the pit. He is rewarded and then refuses to believe that he has changed and rejects the resurrection and elixir of growth as he thinks that he has failed to become a dragon. This of course is where Kaladin calls out Hoid and says that the dog is a hero and simply failed to recognize it. I hadn't tried mapping the hero's journey to the Dog and the Dragon before this, but it seems to fit pretty well. Now Kelsier I think was deliberately trying to recreate the hero's journey. He needed a story to inspire the skaa to rebellion, a religion to supplant the Steel Ministry and he synthesized his own from Sazed's compiled religions and his own rising title as The Survivor of Hathsin. It doesn't stop there though, by inviting their recruited armies into a literal pit similar to Hathsin, he tries to recreate the hero's journey for their army, inviting them into his fable, staging the fight between Bilg and Demoux. It works too well, Yeden believes too much and gets their army slaughtered. At the end, he takes down an Inquisitor as the Skaa celebrate, is it enough? Is the journey as the Survivor of Hathsin enough to inspire the skaa? Not quite and he resorts to OreSeur faking a deeper cycle, his story becoming the Survivor of Death. One he ironically fakes but later because of a few cons and borrowed power he Ascends to become a weakened Preservation, a counterfeit god. Contrast this with Kaladin and Bridge Four trying to recruit new Windrunners and eventually deciding to model their training after their own and bringing their squads into the chasms complete with stew as a sort of induction process. Much less engineered, actual bestowal of power granted to the new Windrunners, an mostly unintentional symbolic induction into the Bridge Four and Kaladin's hero's journey. Was Kaladin turning from the Honor Chasm his resurrection? Their descent into the Chasms? Surviving the Highstorm's "judgment"? All of the above? Protecting Elhokar? His depression in the context of the other depressed? Diving off Urithiru? I can't tell if the hero's journey is too simple and just part of the human experience or if it captures something fundamentally important about change and growth. As a side note, if Kelsier's world had belief system powers instead of genetics, it might have gone very differently for his rebellion. That said, there is a contrast between Kelsier needing a revolution and Kaladin simply wanting to keep his friends safe. It's fascinating stuff. I'm not a literary buff, I just listen to writing podcasts because my wife likes writing and this is a way I can engage with one of her interests. If anyone has formally studied literature and has anything to add or correct, I'd be interested.

Someone more versed than me should be able to find fables that fit the structure of Hoid's stories, I'm sure, but I have a different concept to share. Are you familiar with The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell? I haven't read it personally, but the core idea is that there are reoccurring stories that are echoed across civilizations, through history, and deep into mythologies that Campbell refers to as the "monomyth". The monomyth, known as the hero's journey is found in plenty of highly memorable stories and has been deliberately followed in modern stories, like Star Wars (Brandon criticizes George Lucas for following the hero's journey too closely by including the virgin birth in Episode 1). Story archetypes have been studied, discussed, and analyzed for decades if not centuries. It wouldn't surprise me at all if nearly every story structure within the Cosmere hasn't been told at some point. For example, Brandon has noted that Bridge Four in WoK is basically the underdog sports team story archetype. The archetypal story is alluded to within the Cosmere in SotD where Vathi notes how so many stories are similar to Yaalani the Brave, the woman breaking gender roles, and that she sees them as methods to reinforce gender roles by parents telling daughters, "You are not Yaalani". So... you're right, but it both is and isn't as significant as you might expect. Hoid's stories are likely echoes of IRL stories, in the same way that modern media can find roots in a dozen mythologies. This isn't to minimize Brandon and Hoid's abilities as a storytellers, instead Hoid may actively be choosing archetypal stories because they will likely resonate with the members of every planet he visits and echo their own stories. If Hoid has noticed the linguistic evolutionary convergence of the name "Doug" then he has almost certainly recognized story archetypes.