Duxredux

I'm 98% sure this is a joke, but... by this definition in Kaladin's life this would rank Tien and Bridge 4 up by Sadeas and Roshone in terms of evil which just seems wrong. I would say that joy and happiness are not the absence of pain, worry, or tears, nor are they mutually exclusive. Ask any mother about childbirth and parenting.

Agreed. Which we get in Shadesmar right before entering the Battle of Thaylen City. On that note, the other way they could have a more conventional relationship is if Kaladin moved to Shadesmar and stayed. This is pretty easy to do these days, but Kaladin probably will always feel responsible for his people, even if he doesn't take it to the unhealthy levels he did before his fourth Oath. For that matter, I'm not sure if the way Kaladin views his Oaths would let him be that far removed from the war effort (assuming there's still conflict in the back half, and that the war doesn't go to Shadesmar). That was just to cover the bases. I am hoping that they just stay as really good supportive friends. Kaladin doesn't really need more drama with those closest to him.

If the goal is to get a weapon saturated with general Investiture through Hemalurgy, why not charge them with livestock in Elendel slaughterhouses? Animals work for hemalurgy. Looking ahead to Era 3 and extrapolating from US population counts, in 2020 9.76 billion land animals were slaughtered in a year for the US population of 329.5 million. Using the same ratio and ignoring exported and imported meat, for a city of 5 million (Coppermind's population estimate of Elendel at the time of AoL), that's about 400,000 animals a day. That should be plenty to saturate all the hemalurgic weaponry you need. Plenty for iterative experimentation, compared to starting wars and executing prisoners. As a side note, an Era 3 butcher as a villain could be pretty creepy. Reminiscent of Sweeney Todd.

I think this is theoretically possible, but there might be a lot of little details that haven't been fully explored from the books that could majorly complicate this (as far as I know, if there are WoBs, please throw them in). First, as far as I know, we don't actually see what happens when Nightblood is left to his own devices unsheathed - Warbreaker has a little time skip between Vasher drawing Nightblood, killing a bunch of soldiers, throwing Nightblood so he doesn't get consumed, fighting Denth, and then a jump to when Vasher gets Vivenna and already has a sheathed Nightblood. We know that Nightblood was retrievable and didn't just eat his way into the planet or immediately consume Vasher on contact, but not much besides that. There also may be limitations or complications to the extent that such a mobile weapon can learn or grow in terms of movement. Nightblood vividly remembers the moment of his creation and when drawn his Command overrides his higher level thinking. An Awakened threaded cane when operating in the throes of its Command may end up only being able to draw on the movements visualized at its Awakening - momentarily forgetting everything else. Nightblood doesn't have the advantage that Lifeless do of having an existing brain to draw knowledge and skill from. There would be other complications that would need to be addressed. Not insurmountable ones, but having a weapon with moving parts that can cut on all three realms with minimal resistance (likely using those same moving parts to both move and cut) may have issues moving without just cutting through whatever surface it was using for locomotion. I'm sure a weapon like this could be devised, but I imagine the movement of such a weapon to give it self-locomotion would be intricate and precise - further complicating the visualization component of the Command. There's also the issue of the targeting mechanism for a Type 4 BioChromatic weapon. Nightblood forms a bond with the wielder and uses the wielder's perspective to determine who is evil. Building a weapon that has to decide who to kill and who to let live while separate from a wielder without the experience of life to help it to decide is verrrry tricky as we've seen. I'll also note that indirectly, Nightblood can already do a lot of these things if not carried by someone who can resist his influence. He can already kill his user and force the user to move and kill others. He can already travel a bit - including getting himself fished out of the dock area of Hallendren and moving towards the palace - up until evil people showed up that needed to be taken out. Granted, this is once Nightblood has consumed armies in the Manywar and hundreds if not thousands of Breaths, so the ability to manipulate others probably comes with that much Investiture. tl;dr, I think this is possible, but I also think there are complications that would have to be addressed to not have major issues and still achieve the core goal of the OP, namely a Type 4 weapon that can move on its own and kill others on its own.

A possible option I could see for a living Shardarrow is to fire it from a Shardbow and the Spren changes shape midflight just before hitting the target. Depending on the accuracy of the shot, the spren could decide between a long cutting edge or a blunt head designed for impact.

Yeah, based on the OP and top response, it should be theoretically possible with enough Allomancers but practically nigh-impossible. Aside from Duralumin and Copper, Marsh also has Inquisitor Steelsight, Tin, F-Steel, and is likely the best Seeker on Scadrial with his double A-Bronze. He's also really good at moving unnoticed despite literally looking like Death. Catching him in a trap with enough Allomancers to pull this off would be insanely difficult. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he had Aluminum lining for his hood, cloak, or nightcap just in case a group (particularly the Set) tried this kind of stunt. @Nogo, if you just cruised through the responses, read the hidden quote in the top comment by alder24. That's Brandon talking about the mechanics of emotional Allomancy controlling Hemalurgic creations in The Hero of Ages Annotations.

I'd give a lot of slack on how closely we look at Era 1 Mistborn mechanics on the Cosmere scale such as the reason why a retcon was needed at all to explain that the original Atium doesn't work like how Godmetals work since then. Brandon's good, but that was from 15 years ago, and he most likely didn't have all of the nitty-gritty planned in (otherwise we'd have to start asking if there are Mistings and Ferrings that can only use specific alloys of Atium and the other metals, or maybe even alloys of any of the Godmetals). Here's perhaps a few places to look at Investiture resistance to see if anything sticks out to anyone. Investiture Type could potentially mean a lot of things. 1. Static vs kinetic Investiture 2. The state the Investiture is in (gaseous, liquid, solid) 3. The associated Shard (or the difference between Breath and Stormlight) I'm going back and forth on how much of Investiture resistance is Intent and how much is raw power or density. I'm guessing both are major factors. Notable is Teft partially summoning Phendorana in a vaporous state to block Jezrien's Blade (ah, Teft). I haven't checked specifics, but I'd a guess that Kaladin has been injured by a Shardblade when holding more Stormlight than a Half-Shard. A simple in-world experiment that I wish we had the results for is if an infused diamond resists a Shardblade, which can be iterated with varying levels of Stormlight. Someone should get Sigzil on that. I'm also curious as to if we'll ever see Dalinar manifest the Stormfatherblade again and how it would compare to these other Blades (closest to a Shardblade we've seen so far). It should also be noted that Nightblood's sheath was still functional as a sheath after that one Fuzed used it to repeatedly block Szeth, when an Honorblade got chipped when hit with Nightblood. No way was that Awakened Aluminum either.

There's a whole debate on this topic, both in-world and here on 17th Shard. Here's my thoughts: Based on the Hero of Ages epigraphs, Sazed notes that the Shards seem to want a Vessel controlling the power. The fact that intelligent beings can Ascend at all (as opposed to what I would normally expect to happen if you absorb enough power that you vaporize), leads me to expect that this is a fundamental aspect of the powers of creation in the Cosmere. It seems likely that Adonalsium had the same mechanism for a Vessel directing the power and that this was not a new development from the Shattering (unless some huge Connection shenanigans also happened which is totally possible). It would be even stranger to me that a person can Ascend, release the power, and then go back to being a (relatively) normal person as a Sliver, if "safely" taking on the powers of creation wasn't built in. Shards if left without a Vessel in the right circumstances can develop some autonomy, which is a counterpoint to the original Vessel idea. @JohnnyKaizen, if you find this fascinating, go to wob.coppermind.net if you haven't already. It has all of the stuff that Brandon has said during book signings, releases, spoiler streams, etc., and you can look up stuff on Adonalsium, the Shattering, Shards, and more. It's cool stuff.

F-Gold with a TON of stored health can heal Hemalurgic wounds including restoring spiked out abilities, per WoBs (questioners were trying to figure out if Miles could be made into an Invested spike factory). It's not unversal, so read what Brandon specifically says though. Who knows if a clean slice of the soul is easier to repair than holes ripped out (at least with normal medical treatment, healing even a deep sharp cut takes less time than a gouged out chunk of flesh). I don't think it's been noted in this thread yet, but a Fullborn should have resources to block a Shardblade. A full metalmind is actually one of the better things you can use to fight a Shardblade, and Aluminum certainly works. As for what and where the Fullborn gets cut, Wax apparently has heard of Bloodmakers regrowing from a severed limb, though it looks like he doesn't really know. I still think a Fullborn with at least one good anchor could move around in zero G, though I have no estimate on distance they could reasonably travel. How does this sound: 1. Store weight 2. Push anchor opposite direction of travel 3. Once in motion, tap weight and Pull anchor back. 4. Repeat This might work even better: 1. Gently Push anchor in direction of travel 2. Burn Bendalloy creating a time bubble with the anchor outside. 3. Store weight 4. Pull yourself toward the anchor 5. Drop speed bubble before you hit the boundary and refract 6. Tap weight, catch anchor as it hits you Repeat. This should get higher acceleration. In space, if you were to throw a tethered ball and reel it back in you shouldn't have a net change in velocity. With variable weight though, they should be able to build up momentum based on the difference between the Stored and Tapped weight.

@Trusk'our, my guess is that using Hemalurgy will only partially improve the viability of Forgery. Only a portion of the soul is transferred with Hemalurgy and the existing Identity of the Hemalurgist will conflict with the Forgery. It may get close like how Gaotona could be changed in completely implausible ways (like remembering a brother when he never had one) by stamps crafted for Ashravan based on the familiarity principle, but if it took at all I expect to have a greatly diminished duration. How dissimilar the Hemalurgist to the target would probably also increase interference, such as the Sel to Sel vs. Sel to Scadrian vs. Sel human to Parshendi. Even if the Essence Mark only took for 1 to 15 minutes for Shai's 26-hour Marks, if you had someone standing by with the stamp you might be able to pull off some impressive stunts. If you could remember what you were doing after getting stamped that is.

For this WoB at least there has been debate on the Bondsmith Coppermind article. A while back the article stated that Bondsmiths at times had supernatural strength referencing this WoB. It has since been removed. My take on Dalinar lifting and repairing those pieces of statue and architecture is that he was using Spiritual Adhesion, creating an attractive force pulling the stone fragments together and that did most of the work for him. Two thoughts on Rock using a Shardbow. First, Cord makes a remark about spren strengthening his arm when he drew the Bow of Hours, so Brandon has a possible / partial explanation. Second, I learned from an archery class that a large part of the difficulty in drawing a bow can be in how much the string cuts into your fingers (at least without a mechanical release or finger guard) and the potential damage to the ligaments in the hand from the stress. If Rock is healing fast enough that he doesn't feel pain, he should be able to draw a far higher poundage bow than he normally could. For reference, the Guiness world record longbow draw is 200 lb (90 kg). I haven't looked at the other cases too closely, but strength comparisons in combat can be dependent on how long the engagement is. Unless I'm mistaken, Stormlight allows someone to operate at peak capacity for as long as they are invested. It's possible that some of these feats are done by an infused Radiant fighting someone worn out from combat.

@Trusk'our Drat, my use of italics didn't indicate well enough that I was joking about Nightblood's sense of evil. You're right of course. Granted if I hadn't picked up that Nightblood doesn't know beans about his Command, I probably shouldn't be given any credibility on this topic.

You make a valid point that it can be hard to locate a black hole, but that just makes it that much harder for the Windrunner to find one to lob a Fullborn into. Assuming they had the necessary astrophysics degree to know exactly where one was, the precision needed to throw an object that far would require literal rocket science trajectory accuracy from a uncooperative Fullborn, using a single massively powerful impulse of force, no opportunity for midflight couse correction, at an object they can't see directly, and as far as I know, no Fortune to help them line up that shot. Instead, why not look at the options the Fullborn has if hurled into space or towards a sun? They have them, using A-Aluminum to cancel the Lashing, F-Gold, F-Cadmium, F-Bendalloy to heal, breath and eat, F-Iron to let them scoot themselves around in zero G by adjusting their weight as they alternately Push and Pull an anchor. To demonstrate scale, the distance from the Earth to the Sun is 8.2 light minutes, which probably is enough time for a Fullborn to come up with a plan. On a side note, do we know how well Lashings work in space far away from a planet? On Roshar, it looks like they change the direction component of the vector for the force of gravity from Roshar, multiple or partial Lashings affecting the mahnitude of the vector. Away from a planetary mass, Lashings may not give much acceleration.

64. Get Susebron to teach them about kingship, and godhood. Teach them to use their abilities responsibly and hopefully they are dead to you as an enemy. 65. Morality off the table, kill them as a child before they develop their powers. 66. Convince Hoid that he really needs the Fullborn dead to further his goals. He has better odds of arranging their death than most. 67. Have the Fullborn start a war in Hallendren and Vasher will probably come up with something if you give him time. Maybe Awakened Plate with Nightblood while holding the Light of Peace. Side effect - if he ever finds out you got the Fullborn to attack, you're pretty much dead too. 68. In the same vein, have Kelsier sweet talk the Fullborn into joining his crew. The Cosmere trembles. Wait, this could cause problems, hmm... Kelsier might have figured out a way to to take down TLR if he knew the full extent of a Fullborn's powers. 69. Convince the Fullborn to augment their powers by seeking a boon from the Nightwatcher, and hope really hard that their curse makes them vulnerable. 70. Track down their supplier for Allomantic metals and arrange to give them adulterated metals and alloys that will make them seriously sick. Hope really hard that their Steelsight isn't good enough to spot the differences, and arrange an assassination attempt to coincide with when their old metal supply runs out. Probably use another strategy from this list, like a Steelrunner armed with an Aluminum spike and hope they lead with Allomancy and that the disorientation buys you enough time.

There have been some well-stated entries for this thread. He may not act on the scale that others do, but Bloody Tan and his museum is seriously disturbing to me. I can find at least some positive side effect for the actions on many on this list, but Bloody Tan simply grotesquely killed as an art form, where revulsion, horror, and pain were his paints. There's probably a whole philosophical debate in that, if the most good or most evil person is dependent solely on their intent or if the opportunities they had play into it. Rayse may be on this list, not as Odium, but as the man who wanted and chose to be Odium. 98% sure he won't get a redemption arc or a "he was actually a nice man like Ati and just got corrupted by the Shard" twist. Also, clearly the most evil people are whomever Nightblood takes out. Nightblood says they're evil, so it's canon. ---------- Edit: Addional thought, if you give the powers of creation to each candidate, what do you get? Do the circumstances they are under influence how evil they are? Straff Venture you get a tyrant, likely worse than TLR. Probably would try to be a tyrant in other circumstances Sadeas you probably get Elhokar as tyrant with Sadeas as the mustache twirling vizier running the show. Hoid, no idea yet, but we'll probably find out eventually his plan. Moash, I'm not sure what he would do at the different phases of his life (bridgeman, Shardbearer, Vyre). There's an element of vengeance with no room for change or mercy, where if Moash has been harmed, he may not talk it out, he'll just try to kill you. Somewhat like if Nale was motivated by vengeance and not legal justice and listened to Odium and the Fused and not Ishar (which is worse, no idea yet because Ishar is a great big question mark). Taravangian is perhaps the most interesting case of whether or not a person is evil is dependent on their circumstances. It seems likely that if his planet wasn't threatened by Odium he would not have done what he did. What he will do now that he is a Shard remains to be seen. Rayse in many ways is who he chose to be. Bloody Tan? He would transform the world into a horror movie/book, possibly in an And Then There Were None style but a horror genre, not mystery/thriller.

Cool idea in theory. I don't think there's a black hole remotely close to Scadrial or Roshar. Anything look like one in the Cosmere at all? https://coppermind.net/w/images/Cosmere_constellation_map.jpg For reference, the closest black hole to Earth is 1600 light years away.

I'm with Quantus on this one, infinite access to Investiture does not equate uncapping usage limitations. As for some dumb semantic nitpicking, my other question is how you're measuring infinite. If we're talking unlimited access to the Mists, burning ALL the Mists is a known method to Ascend on Scadrial (not sure how that works when a Shard is alive and well there though). That's a very different prospect from a Windrunner flying in a Highstorm or standing next to someone with a Perpendicularity open as a direct conduit to the Spiritual Realm where they have unlimited Stormlight, but so far no known mechanism for Ascension. If it gets to Shard vs. Radiant, that's a different weight class, even if the Radiant is nearly impossible to kill. My other nitpick for how "infinite" is measured is based on how it dispenses the 17 metals the Fullborn has access to. A Fullborn with infinite access to chunks of aluminum probably could conceive of a way to take down a 5th Order Windrunner, even if if involves using some of the Aluminum as a Hemalurgic spike. A question for @Frustration, do you mind at least doing a play-by-play of how a 5th Ideal Windrunner goes about throwing a planet or creating a blackhole without also dooming themselves? Or is this a pyrrhic victory where you die slightly slower than the target? Besides, unless I'm missing something and Stormlight grants immortality, the Fullborn with infinite Atium just outlives the Windrunner even in that "eternal conflict" scenario.

Actually, when people drive cars between 100 km/h and depending on where you live 80 mph, they do so in an environment specifically engineered to put decision making within the scope of human reaction time. Don't compare close combat to that. Highways specifically have gradual turn radii, wider lanes, calculated speed limits, a suggested following distance from other vehicles, brake lights, larger signs, calculated distance from the edge of the road to anything that could enter the road, and possibly more, all of these engineered to increase the opportunity to react in time to not get killed moving at that speed. If there's anywhere that this is safe and an option, try finding a place to stand that is next to a freeway, and look perpendicularly to the passing traffic. In terms of close combat maneuvering, that is what it is more likely to look like. As for Tamriel Wolfsbaine's 4x reaction difference, if reaction time is increased at anything close to 1 to 1 at this level of Feruchemical utilization, I think the idea is that the person going at normal speed will have that much harder of a time reacting to someone going 2x speed. Once they do decide to react, to the 2x speed person those movements become much easier to read and the Steelrunner can then act knowing what the normal speed person intends. It may not be a straight 4x difference, since a lot goes into reflexes, but being able to respond quickly to what your opponent intends is a potent advantage. Even if you were to only use F-Steel the same way that Ham does in that sparring match that he uses as a demonstration for Vin, F-Steel can be quite potent if you only ever use it to give you just enough of an edge to never get hit. I'll also note that Feruchemy breaks so many rules of Physics that many of these arguments that whip out calculators are still making assumptions as to how Feruchemy actually interacts with Newtonion motion and thermodynamics. This doesn't actually confirm what laws Feruchemy breaks, but it does break a lot. Without knowing how exactly this interacts, on paper being able to go twice as fast should in theory allow you to punch someone with 4x as much energy (½mv²), which is a huge advantage in close combat since the force gained is parabolic not linear, and in general will get more from attribute compression than anything that only gives a linear advantage. The fact that Bleeder can zip something as heavy as a pistol around a room that fast should in theory allow for her to throw objects at railgun level speeds, but we never see this (and that was intentionally nixed from a speed bubble's bag of tricks). Apparently F-Steel may also allow you to burn metals at a faster rate, which also is pretty busted. Oh, and @cometaryorbit, we discussed Kandra reaction time and intelligence July last year.

I'm taking heavily from Vasher's lecture to Vivenna on BioChromatic entities and Awakening. BioChromatic Parallelism states that the closer something resembles life, the easier it is to Awaken (and the few Breaths it takes). The example given is that a cloth in the shape of a square and a cloth cut into a person will take very different amounts of Breaths to Awaken. The Law of Comparability notes that once an object has been Awakened, it performs more or less the same task even if there is a disparity in the number of Breaths used. Third observation is that once Awakened, some objects will still move in a mimicry of life - for example an Awakened banner that gains musculature similar to an arm when lifting an Awakener. Scenario 1: either by laying it out or doing something similar to knitting or crochet, you have a rope that has been shaped into a person. Presumably it will take less Breaths to Awaken. Once Awakened (but before it has moved to act) you unravel it into a straight line. Does this cause any issues? One option I see is the visualization component of Awakening will mean that it will still attempt to move in a semblance of the original form it was Awakened in, and may lose effectiveness. Alternately, perhaps it will not work at all in the same way that Vasher's Awakened sets of clothing were less functional once cut. However, it seems like some Awakened objects can move far differently than the life it approximates - namely Vasher and Vivenna's cloaks that grab people and arrows in a squid-like fashion. Scenario 2: You have a large square banner. You Awaken it and Command it to lay down, or some similar Command, with the goal of it taking on the shape of something living at least as it moves. You reclaim the Breaths, and then Awaken it again, now that it has fallen more or less in the form of a person. Does it take less Breaths to Awaken this time? Is this a somewhat slower method of Awakening that nonetheless allows for optimization of Breath utilization? Scenario 3 (and the reason this is in the General Cosmere thread): A Soulcaster transforms a person (dead or alive, not sure if it matters yet) into something shapable - moss maybe. We know that items that were previously alive Soulcast into something not alive are easier to Awaken. Now, we take our pile of moss, weave it into a rope, and then Awaken it. The question is (or perhaps a similar experiment with slightly altered parameters), is it possible to have something formerly alive, Awakened as a Type III BioChromatic entity (regular Awakening with cloth or ribbons, etc.), and then have it move close enough to a similitude of life that it previously was in and have it "lock in" the Breaths and make them inaccessible to the Awakener, more like a Type II BioChromatic entity known as a Lifeless? Presumably it would still be operating under the Command it was given, something presumably not the Command to Awaken a Lifeless. There's a WoB that notes that there part of what makes a Breath inaccessible once in a Lifeless is that the Identity that it is keyed to changes - is this because of how close to life Lifeless are, or is this because of the Command, "Awaken to my Breath, serve my needs, live at my Command and word"? Scenario 4: similar to the end of Scenario 3, can you use a basic Awakening on a dead body and turn it into a Lifeless that basically only does that one task? Dead body in front of you, Command: "Grab Things", and then dump it in your spook alley. Would it have the same transformation where it loses its color? Could it be broken and made into a conventional Lifeless that can then take orders? Alternately, is this an expensive but quick way to make sure your dead bodies can't be used against you as Lifeless (assuming you don't have time to cremate them)? Scenario 5: you get a skeleton. You Awaken it as a Lifeless, though it is not in a position to move yet. Then a Kandra eats it and incorporates its bones into a new body. What shenanigans happen? Can you still Command the bones to act contrary to the Kandra's will? Can you get setup a Command to the Lifeless that lets it moved with a Breath-powered skeletal system? Alternately, if a Kandra ate a Lifeless for disguise purposes, could the bones still be Commanded?

You know, this test is why TLR suppressed fire arms. If you replace all of your magic systems with shotguns, you start to get limited on your options. Sure, you can kind of pull off a limited form of Coinshots, Soothers and Rioters, but once someone else takes them down, now they have a shotgun. See, with Allomancy and Hemalurgy you need to know what you're doing to "steal a magic shotgun", you can't just punch the guy and start burning Steel. Well, not unless he had the right medallion these days. This conversation probably benefits from the Reckoners power categorization methodology. I could see Awakened clothing potentially catching shotgun pellets, but I don't think we've seen anything close enough to compare. Vivenna's cloak caught an arrow while she wasn't looking and Awakened tassels can catch swords, but those are way slower than bullets. Most materials used for bulletproofing are synthetic, so odds are you wouldn't be able to Awaken them directly, but I could see basically an Awakened Mistcloak with metal or ceramic plates sewn onto the tassel ends being able to field bullets or pellets. More preparation than a random Awakener from Hallendren would have, but feasible.

I'm not particularly interested in the subject matter itself, I simply read the list and thought of those omissions in the process. I had been thinking about the Elantrian transformation from TotES and the drawbacks from using Tin is quite prominent in Spook's story. Forcing someone to act via Hemalurgic control was referenced in the original topic of forcing someone to give up their Breaths. Really, I started wondering what exactly Taln withstood, as the most tortured individual we know of. However, most of the items on your list or in the comments weren't known or available to the Fused. He probably suffered every Voidbinding Surge that can be weaponized though.

I'm by no means an expert on torture, but most of that list is superfluous since Navani's painrial by itself can make people pass out. Anything past the threshold for unconsciousness doesn't really add that much. The Blessing of Presence is notable on your list not because of the memory enhancement, but because it prevents the user from passing out - even if they want to in the case of TenSoon. I have two for your list. The second by itself is possibly the worst torment this side of Taln. Hemalurgically make them a Tineye Savant and force feed them Tin and then make them burn it via Soothing/Rioting. No idea how long that much pain would allow for control, but you just need them to start burning so that Nicrosil can force them to burn the rest. Tin usually forces someone into lucidity, even when injured. Second, we learn from TotES that you can make someone into an Elantrian deliberately. We learn from Dilaf's wife that you can make someone into a post-Reod Elantrian, even while the city is fully functional. Furthermore, post-Reod Elantrians were put into that state by simply omitting one of the basic lines. So... make them into a fallen Elantrian. They can't even die, and can stay like that for 10+ years with no intervention on your part. On that note Hoid either had an amazing backup plan if Riina "accidentally" made a typo, or dodged a bullet that might have even given him trouble.

I usually binge read Brandon books the first read through and then go back for details. Kind of a full Sanderlanche each book as I watch the characters and their choices, because I know if I think too hard about revising my mental Cosmere model I can get totally sidetracked and wreck the pacing of the book as I look stuff up. The reveal didn't feel too surprising, so subconsciously I think I knew, but I don't remember consciously connecting the dots. Despite not being surprised at the reveal of Huck = Charlie, I still got the emotional reveal of what Tress's journey had cost Huck. Of everyone who guessed early, did you also make the connection to the deeper level of why Huck/Charlie was acting the way he did?

I'll pitch in with a thought on the Heralds' insanity. I think we may be looking too much at the mechanics of Cognitive Shadows and not enough at what is unique to the Heralds, the Oathpact. As we learn from Jezrien's death and Kalak's explanation, it is specifically the Oathpact's Connection that sustains the Heralds as Cognitive Shadows. From the Stormfather we also learn that they could share pain through their bond on Braize. There may be a small disparity between Kalak and the Stormfather's description of the Oathpact, one calls it broken and severed, the other calls it (I think) weakened nearly to annihilation. So from this a few things that I could see a few possibilities, not sure if any could be confirmed: Idea 1: the effects of Taln's torture was to a lesser extent transferred to the other nine, and while Taln suffered most, the others' minds were still affected by the Connection that sustained them. Idea 2: perhaps there are more consequences to the Heralds for shirking the Oathpact than we've seen and that Honor's Light cannot sustain their minds. We see what near broken Oaths did to Kaladin and Syl, I'd be surprised if there wasn't a similar consequence to the Heralds. Idea 3: Taln may have unique strain on his mind and soul as the entire Oathpact that was designed to be upheld by ten became the burden of one. We know that the Heralds were captured and tortured on Braize and that all but Taln eventually let the Fused escape, so it's not a physical location to be defended, nor a targetting of the Heralds with access to Transportation, but some aspect of how any and all Heralds could enforce the binding that kept the Fused on Braize, but only Taln was there to hold it this last time. There's probably some components to the insanity related to their nature as Cognitive Shadows who got tortured, but I suspect the solution will be centered on the Oathpact and possible BAM. I think the why Brandon is trying to indicate what components of the Heralds' insanity is magical in nature is so that he can give a magical solution. I think he's been careful that people who read his books don't come away just wishing that they had a magical solution to their depression/PTSD/anxiety/etc., but if he needs these tortured functionally immortal beings to become lucid contributors to the story, he needs a magical circumstance that no one has experienced to get away with a magic fix. I'd be fine if Brandon gives a magic solution to Cognitive Shadow torture with sufficient jargon-jargon-realmatic-theory explanation for why it doesn't work for Physical Realm torture if it lets him tell the story he wants to tell. Also, considering how hyped up Brandon is making Taln, how he is a viewpoint in the second half, how he was the undisputed greatest fighter of all the Heralds, how he was the one that never broke, there would be soooooo much disappointment if we never get to see him in action in full fighting capacity. Sure we could see that in a flashback, but it wouldn't be nearly as cool to see Taln thrashing an army and I'd bet that Brandon would err on the side of what is most awesome.

A few thoughts. First, the Listeners definitely had a taboo on moving the dead. Do the Fused have the same qualm? I know Ulim doesn't, and Raboniel's actions with the dead body of Essu seemed to be more concerned with the parents of the former Singer than some sanctity for the body. Second, do we think that the gemheart of the Singer body that is inhabited by the Fused changes with the transformation or do all Singers have this ability to near perfectly retain Light? It doesn't necessarily have to but it could. Does the gemheart itself change with each new form to accommodate the spren, and perhaps it reverts to the cloudy variety upon death and release of the spren? Third, I'm guessing that Radiants become better containers for Stormlight as they swear higher and higher Ideals, despite the lack of gemheart. Do we think this level of... devotion(?) to an ideology or Passion is at all related to Fused being able to retain Voidlight so effectively? Fourth, Venli seemed to have Stormlight rise off of her skin just like a human as a first Oath proto-Radiant. She did not seem to be a perfect Stormlight container. Is this to do with the difference in Light, attunement (bot sure if there is a better word) to the Investiture, or by nature of being in a Regal form provided by Odium?