Duxredux

I have not finished a book, so I'm not qualified to give you advice. Here's the 2 episodes of Writing Excuses that have the "writer's block" tag. Writer’s Block | Writing Excuses Just be careful that if you start searching the internet for solutions for writer's block that you don't go down the internet rabbit hole for hours, burning away your writing time. Finding something to motivate you, maybe take a 15-30 minute breather, maybe take a lunch break, but be intentional in how you take your break. That's pretty much the advice that I have from writing college papers that I don't really want to write, even though I want the degree.

Here's a thought. Maybe Hoid like everyone else was looking for the TLR's fabled Atium stash? Either to be a Mistborn with access to huge amounts of Atium, or just to have Atium as another Godmetal to add to his collection. I have to assume that Hoid is wily enough to get his hands on at least one bead of Atium, considering he probably used to use the Pits of Hathsin to get to Scadrial in previous times, but maybe he would be tempted by so much Godmetal. I could see his presence in Fadrex as an attempt to lift the treasure before Vin and friends could get there (funnily enough, if Hoid had managed to actually steal the Trust and get off world with it, that probably would have worked for Preservation's plan). I think it's also possible that he didn't intend to get stranded on Scadrial, and had meant to get off before yet another Perpendicularity was destroyed by Kelsier's crew. Maybe he also didn't want to give Kelsier any more information, as Kelsier had more or less become a guard of the Well. By HoA, it could be like "welp, I'm stuck here and Ati's loose. Maybe I should mess him up before he blows up the planet with me on it, and moves on to cause problems on other planets that have stuff I want. Some perhaps boring or mundane reasons, but Hoid has made mistakes in the past.

I'm with Invocation on this one. I doubt that people's perceptions of a Cognitive Shadow increase the amount of Investiture in their being, but as seen in Secret History, Connections formed from belief and relationships can give opportunities unavailable to someone with just raw Investiture. It was Kelsier's ability to understand and nudge his friends that gave him the edge when he held Preservation, more than the raw Investiture at his disposal I would say. He may have a greater than average ability to manipulate Survivorists when compared with other Scadrians I would say. So yes, Kelsier would have more power, but not in the way described in the original post. With regards to Shards, I'd say it's the same thing. Ruin over time excised information about Preservation from the the religions of Scadrial, altering the religious texts to nudge different peoples into releasing him from the Well of Ascension. This gave Ruin influence over the events that lead to his release, but the fact that Preservation was largely forgotten by the world was never cited as a factor in the imbalance of raw Investiture available to Ruin and Preservation. It was instead first Preservation putting more of his essence into humanity, then both Ruin and Preservation were weakened by Preservation sacrificing his mind to trap Ruin. After Ruin's escape, there was again some imbalance of power as the Mists were left to Snap the Scadrians and the Atium had been hidden from Ruin. Belief or disbelief in these forces didn't seem to give them more or less power.

Well... writerly reason one is so that the reader thinks Vasher is the bad guy. Vasher has a pretty troubled history and while he's very loyal once you've gained his trust, he's also had to kill some of his oldest and closest friends, including his wife when they started things that would cause widespread slaughter. Vasher does not deal with betrayal well, and leaving someone like Vahr alive, someone who convinced hundreds of people to become Drabs and give him power, that's dangerous. That kind of persuasion was probably part of the Manywar, considering someone had to give the Awakeners that much power in the war, and like Treamayne said, Vahr had been warned by Vasher against starting a war. Yeah, Vasher had other choices with how he could have dealt with Vahr, but his decision is consistent with his history. He didn't take Nanrovah's supposed betrayal well, was considering just going and killing Lightsong the fool god who had control of 20,000 Lifeless, and was about ready to kill Vivenna until she proved that she hadn't intended to incite war. Basically, as Vasher is someone who accidentally helped kick off the Manywar, he has a really twitchy trigger finger regarding anyone else who looks like they are trying to start a war, including (maybe especially) friends. Vahr is the kind of person that Vasher probably would hunt down and assassinate anyway.

Hum... @jamesbondsmith would you say that you are a discovery writer or an outliner? Are you just trying to get the heroes out of the town so they can have their adventure or are you trying to map out plot elements interwoven up to the ending? I might be giving bad advice because I think like an outliner. If none of the ideas suggested so far feel viable so far... here's a few ideas. Also, feel free to ditch, adapt, or tweak any of these suggestions. Have the townspeople be scared or disturbed instead of celebrating the mage duo. Maybe have some of them feel more threatened by the mage duo than the pirates. Think of it as realizing that you survived a dog attack because your neighbor turned into a fire-breathing dragon. This might work if the town had never seen the mage girl slaughtering pirates wholesale or if there was collateral damage done to the town by the magics used. "We appreciate what you did, but don't come back with those missile launchers until you really know what you're doing!" Saving the town was heroic, but you could probably spin magic as terrifying to people who haven't seen it used in war (Well of Ascension spoilers) Give something to the innate magic users that allows them to travel faster than anyone else, and maybe it's a long way to the capital? Maybe the route to the capital itself is really dangerous and they don't fully trust the merchant master and apprentice? You can expand or contract as much as you want how long the journey takes, so it can be a question of "lose our 2 mages and try to hold out for several weeks" compared to "keep the mages but it will take our runner the better part of half a year to get to the capital and then come back with reinforcements" or "hopefully our messenger doesn't get eaten by the thunder-wolves while going through the mountain pass". You also can make the daughter a poor choice to leave at the city instead of the father - a mage does not automatically make a good administrator. There could also be some sort of "noble boon of aid" that allows a lord to secure aid from the capitol. Maybe it requires sending the lord's signet ring or something and the lord doesn't trust anyone else with that much authority. Maybe the lord got injured in the raid and really shouldn't go on a long journey. There's some ideas. Hopefully this sparks something that helps.

I'll note that the ending did not go as Brandon had wanted it to in the campaign, because the players did not cooperate. By nature of that, I wouldn't base anything off of the random tables Brandon made for Dan's character. What we do have was the circumstances of Dan's character who had been collecting the heads of all of their enemies and due to a randomly fired spell, revived all of the skulls of all of the major enemies that had been killed during the campaign. That may coincide with the Fused or Heralds but... not sure what else. Maybe... a bunch of people, far more than we expected, will get Fused or Herald level Immortality? Normally I would guess Immortality is something that would get dolled out sparingly, but the Shards on Roshar have given it out before. What if say, all of Kharbranth suddenly became immortal? All of Urithiru? Dalinar attempts to make everyone an immortal demigod? Is there anything that actually prevents this? I got thinking on an odd tangent.

Interesting idea, let's look at the rest of the known Radiant Spren. Inkspren, at least in the case of Ivory, can't disappear from the Physical Realm, but they can change their own size at will. I think they appear as they do in Shadesmar. Related Radiant Surges are Transformation and Transportation. Did Jasnah get pulled into Shadesmar without her volition by Inkspren in her Prologue POV, or did I misread that? Lightspren, or Reachers, manifest a small orbs of light. Related Radiant Surges are Cohesion and Transportation. Have we seen Timbre using these abilities? Any relation to how she got in Venli's gemheart and bound the Voidspren fueling her Regal Form? Highspren, who knows. They float I think. So there's that. Related Radiant Surges are Division and Gravitation. In the Physical Realm, they take the form of black slits in the air, which can pull open to reveal stars shining within.[6] When they move, reality seems to bend around them.[7] Ashspren, In the Physical Realm, ashspren appear as cracks that appear to grow on surfaces or branch through the air.[4] When they move they seem to burn through the inside of objects in treelike patterns. Related Surges are Division and Abrasion. Mistspren: In the Physical Realm, mistspren resemble the shimmer light makes on a surface when it is reflected through a crystal.[4] When they stay still, light grows upwards from them in the shape of plants, which retreat when they start moving. Related Surges are Illumination and Progression. Most of these seem to fit in that they how they interact with the Physical Realm is directly related to the Surges they grant. With Cryptics moving along surfaces of an object, I suspect that may be related to Illumination rather than Cohesion, they travel along the surfaces of objects, like how I think non-enlightened Mistspren move. The odd one is Lightspren really, the rest seem to fit pretty well. Most do not ignore gravity or phase through solid objects, generally only the ones with related Surges can do so. Except Lightspren.

I'm an armchair story helper, never done a NaNoWriMo successfully, so take a pinch of salt with my commentary. I've listened to a lot of Writing Excuses though. First question, is the lord's daughter the "heir" so to say of governance of this outlying town? The merchants probably don't need much reason to want to just continue their profession, but if the mage girl is looking to leave her her home, responsibility, and possibly inheritance, that will need more, and how she views leaving the town will affect things. If the story is to get them to go on this adventure to the capital and see all sorts of cool things on the way without worrying about getting back to the pirate-besieged town, then the premise for why they leave and if there is meant to be a looming threat over the town during the story will affect what you can do. Quantus gave good ideas for getting the town to support the duo leaving, but then you have to have a reason for why they keep going and whether or not the mage daughter feels like she really ought to be getting back home to help rebuild. If you want them to leave and come back with help, then maintaining some sort of pressure that is encouraging them to return to the town would probably be good - impending return of grumpy pirates maybe. If you want them to just go on their merry way, then there probably needs to be something that removes or otherwise eliminates the threat to the town so that there isn't as much of a pull to go back, because you don't want the reader to be wondering why they aren't going back to protect the town. Could be that another more pressing issue arises. Maybe the regional garrison arrives, promises that they'll improve patrols and the garrison commander declares mages of their caliber to be wasted in this backwater area, and sends them off to the Royal Mage Academy or something, particularly if mages are rare. I dunno, there's a few ideas.

I just finished Aether of Night, and I enjoyed that barely edited book more than I enjoyed Rhythm of War. This might be an unpopular Stormlight Archive opinion but... How do I put this... It's been a long time since Brandon has done anything standalone in the Cosmere (which is why I'm really excited for the Secret Projects), and... I realized that I miss seeing happy endings for my Cosmere friends. If feels like it's been a long, long time since I've read anything from Brandon where I wasn't worried about someone trying to nuke the planet in the next book. Book 4 of a 10 book series, for obvious reasons I wasn't expecting a happy ending, but I don't think I really needed 3-4 years to have Todium hanging over my head. Yes, I know that this cast deals with mental health, and yes I know they are in a war, but I just want at least some of my Cosmere friends to actually be happy with their life without a sense of dread gnawing at them at the end of a book every once in a while (and yes there have been books like this, and I like them more. I'm more likely to reread them at least). Brandon's good enough that I'll still read every single new book that he comes out with, I'll even go back and read his "unpublishable" Cosmere works to get even a bit of a better glimpse into the Cosmere, so I really wish he would stop giving massive world/universe imperiling reveals at the end of his books when it will be years before we see the next installment. Brandon is good enough of a writer that I will suffer it and come back for more of his work, but... I've considered just stopping right after the main Sanderlanche at the end and just opting out of all of the doomsday theorizing regarding the last few chapters until the next book comes out. At least I'd put down the book with a smile. If Brandon didn't leave a killer cliffhanger at the end of every book, I will still come back and read his next one. Coming from him, it feels a bit cheap in that he doesn't need to write those cliffhangers to get people to read the next one, and I wonder if he takes just a bit too much delight in the torment of the fans. I wish Brandon would write more like one of his (and my) favorite authors, Terry Pratchett, who had a massive collection of books set in the Discworld, but you could pretty much pick up any book and read it and bask in Pratchett's genius, because Pratchett was just that good of a writer that nearly everything he put out was fantastic. There were large scale changes in the Discworld, and there were certain story arcs that progressed chronologically over several books that focused on specific casts, but each book was self-contained. I think originally Brandon intended for the Cosmere to function so that anyone who happened to stumble onto one of his series could read it and not get too lost, but it seems that has been becoming less and less of the case as well, we as fans have been pestering him to know what is going on at the big Cosmere-level story. I know Brandon's trying to finish his own Wheel of Time but... I've tried to finish Wheel of Time 3 different times, with physical, digital, and audio copies, and I just can't bring myself to care about the nth new viewpoint character that has no relation to the main cast that I can remember (though there probably is one). There is genius and a draw to the massive scale of the Cosmere and how interconnected the planets, peoples, and magic systems are, but... somewhere in me wonders if Brandon and many of his fans would actually be happier if we got more self-contained novels that exhibited Brandon's genius with magic system building in a bunch of different worlds over him trying to do a massive epic fantasy to rival the Wheel of Time, the ordeal that is the Stormlight Archive, considering I know that they are an ordeal for Dragonsteel and for Brandon himself. It's hard to recommend a series to someone by saying "the writer's fantastic, the characters are compelling, it's just going to be another 20 years before you get closure, that's all." Thanks for reading my rant. I loved the Dog and the Dragon, and I'm glad Brandon wrote Rhythm of War.

Since no one has picked Telsin, maybe switch her out for Ranette? I could Ranette getting a few favorites. I like each for different reasons, but what really works for me is the relationship dynamic between all of the main five. One of my favorite scenes is when Wax, Wayne, Marasi, Steris, and MeLaan all check into the hotel in BoM. Wax isn't nearly as funny when Wayne isn't around, Wayne gets more cringeworthy when Wax isn't there to rein him in, and I could go on how most change subtly when another member of the group is or isn't in the room. Most of them could make a fascinating main character if pulled out and made a main character in their own story (except maaaybe Steris, she's great, but Wax is one of the best things that's happened to her), but together, they're genius.

Found the WoB. Just quoting what Brandon said he was doing, and in this case he's referring not to gender specifically, but to the death rattles. Don't ask me how that particular one worked out (okay, maybe it meant "men" as in "humans" rather than "Parshendi", I dunno).

Brandon's mentioned this trick that was core to the prophecy of the Hero of Ages, that he won't do this sort of twist with translation error unless you also see the characters in-world also specifically addressing the translation error themselves. With the various languages that the books get translated into, the risk of IRL translation error increases. I think it's wise that if it's relevant, the characters will think it's relevant as well. It is possible that this isn't a big enough piece, but I think Brandon would have left a clue if we were supposed to distrust the information.

When you say end-positive and end-neutral, you're referring to the classifications given in the Ars Arcanum for Mistborn, yes? If not then the rest of my response is way off. So... I'm going with potential writerly reasons on this one since in-world Khriss wrote all of the Ars Arcanum sections but hasn't used this terminology very often since. I think the terminology of end-positive, end-neutral, and end-negative was given to hint that there were multiple "gods" or Shards who were influencing the world, and maybe to give greater clarity as to what happens when you hack the end-neutral system to work like the end-positive system, which is Compounding. There were very good "sciencey" reasons to explain this, because it directly affected the story, but I don't think the question of if the ability is end-_______ will have such plot-heavy ramifications in SA as it did in Scadrial. I'm going to guess that all Stormlight fueled abilities are end-positive, because the power is not coming from the Radiants themselves. Without Stormlight they cannot use their Surges, and the distinction that I am making is that they are at more or less the same level of Invested after using Stormlight. Voidbinding is trickier for me and I end up breaking down Fused abilities into three components. Ability 1: Resurrection in a Singer's body I would guess is end-negative, as the original soul is lost and some Investiture has left the system. Ability 2: Passive Fused abilities may be end-neutral, such as indefinite flight for the Heavenly Ones. Not sure though, since technically the passive effects of a Kandra's Blessing would be considered end-negative. Ability 3: Active Fused abilities would be end-positive as the power comes from Odium. It gets trickier when you start looking at Shardblades and Regal forms, as the abilities seem to come from something like symbiosis rather than from power entering or leaving the system. At any rate, there's my thoughts.

This seems like some blend between Feruchemy, Hemalurgy, and Awakening, in that it is permanent self-cannibalism that imbues a formerly inanimate object with power and a semblance of decision-making capabilities. First question, for the campaign that you are running, are the other players familiar with Mistborn and will they try to break the system based on knowledge from the books? In essence, do you feel you need to build the system to not break the world, or are you fine with TLR and Compounding level powerhouses running amok? Second question, how does Autospiry impact the worldbuilding at this point? Is the campaign taking place in the 1860s when the magic was first discovered, or is this 160 years in the future in a contemporary setting? Third question, have you already figured out how Autospiry interacts with the other magic systems? For example, can a Feruchemist use a Autospiry metal as a metalmind? Does the Autospiry transformation need to be done through personal intent, or can you force someone to undergo the transformation (it doesn't seem like something many would do voluntarily)? If any Allomancers are still around, what happens if an Allomancer is currently burning metal and has a direct conduit to Investiture when they try to do the Autospiry transformation? What happens if someone tries to use an Autospiry metal for Hemalurgy, does the personality withing the metal start to overwrite the recipient of the spike? How easy are Autospiry metals to break? What happens if you cut one in half? If these are too many questions, feel free to skip them, but these were the first thoughts I had on how I might try to hack the system, and system hacks are kind of a thing in the Cosmere these days. As for metals, here's a few ideas: Copper - Hides from Tin Autospiry users or similar detection methods, similar to becoming a Drab. Can be attached to a Metalborn, regular person, or magitech/fabrial type devices. Bronze - Geiger counter for Investiture? Pewter - The metal itself becomes supernaturally durable, maybe in the same range as a Shardblade (kind of like the body's reinforcement that comes from burning Pewter). Effect is dependent on the Investiture of the original person and the size of the metal . Alt: The metal can grow and shrink at will keeping the same general shape, the dimensions of the metal growing and shrinking at the same rate (think Feruchemical Pewter but applied to the metal). Density remains constant, and there is some reinforcement, but it can make a dangerous tool. Atium (Hemalurgy metal) Accelerates aging of nearby objects. Really dangerous and highly corrosive. With the right intent, becomes something that just will absorb souls, by basically locking on the Intent of Hemalurgy to tear out souls. Basically Nightblood in a can, use only if you want to watch the world burn Autospiry Godmetal ??? Kind of tricky with this one, since I'm not sure what the Intent of the Autospiry Shard is or what the overall concept is. Grants a static boost of all of donor's natural attributes to the wearer? I'm thinking something similar to Kandra blessings but all the blessings. Can temporarily copy other Autospiry metals.

Another topic posted back in January had a similar idea but expanded it out a bit more. They linked the Cognitive Shadows with Connection, Perception, the spirit web, Spiritual Realm, and memory storage. One of Brandon's friends on Writing Excuses is Howard Taylor who wrote the Schlock Mercenary web comic, and he had a civilization that dealt with immortality with issues of memory expansion. I'll see if I can find the particular strip that addressed it. It's not much to go off of, but I'd be surprised if Brandon and Howard haven't talked about issues of immortality and if Brandon at some level has thought about issues of memory in conjunction with immortality. I'll note that some of the more sane immortals seem to be utilizing some method to expand their memory capacity, either through Breath or other Investiture. @Kingsdaughter613's post has a theory as to the interaction between perception and failing memory. This excerpt from Kalak's journal seems to connect memory as part of the insanity, though he's indecisive and worries that reinforcing his memory would make him worse: What this adds is the changes that happen when whole cultures have certain perceptions of a Cognitive Shadow, and why this may make a difference. There may need to be a certain scale this level of perception needs to affect things, since I think Raboniel specifically tried to stay with her daughter to reinforce their own sanity, but despite Raboniel's memory and familial connection, Essu still lost her mind.

Hmmm... the strategies depend a lot on who is hiding and who is seeking. Hiding things from a Shard or from someone with access to the Cognitive Realm who can see souls is a different game than just hiding in the physical realm. Location and knowledge of the area is also a big deal. The Deepest Ones would be able to beat out most in both hiding and seeking. Being able to phase through most barriers is pretty useful, and most people and magic users don't have too good of a way to find someone who can dive into the ground. Now... if I was trying to be clever, and were trying to hide a gemstone for example... I might get a Bondsmith and a Windrunner together to work together to Lash the gemstone to keep the same speed as the Highstorm, and then embed this flying gem deep enough into the back of the storm that it won't get swatted by a boulder and the Lashings are continuously reinforced by the Highstorm. Probably could hide from everyone but the Stormfather (and Dalinar depending on if the Stormfather decides to say anything).

Here's an option, I doubt Hoid gathering Investiture from all the Shards will make him Adonalsium, but... Hoid was around when Adonalsium was still whole. Maybe he saw some of the abilities of Adonalsium and hopes to be able to recreate some of those powers at the small scale. What exactly Adonalsium could do while whole is probably a massive, massive RAFO. Could be as cliche as hoping to bring someone back from the Beyond, regardless of if we think it's actually possible.

Let's extrapolate out a bit from this concept. Taln and Ash are pretty much the only two individuals that Hoid shows actual reverence towards, and he seems to respect them. They also haven't tried to kill Hoid. If Hoid knowingly kicked off the torture of the Heralds... then his current treatment of Taln feels nauseating to me if there is no visible sign of remorse. I won't deny the possibility that Hoid could do this, but... that's low, even for someone ready to leave a planet to burn. Either the Heralds have never found out over millennia of torture, the Fused never told them that their friend betrayed them (which would be a logical torture component), have forgiven Hoid for millennia of torture (yeah right), or have forgotten. There's other components that may not make sense, such as why Hoid would have wanted to get to Braize before Odium was trapped there. Before the Oathpact, I'm assuming there wasn't the storm in the Cognitive Realm that prevented the Fused from escaping Braize, though I guess it could have been there. No, I'd guess that Hoid wouldn't have been trying to get to Braize, but maybe he was there to convince Tanavast to trap Rayse, or maybe he was looking into what the Nightwatcher could offer him. There's an option that he was a Herald, but didn't betray them so they have no ire towards him. Another option is that Hoid actually does view Taln as a role model, and Hoid based the idea off of Taln rather than the other way around. The Topaz connection and Stoneward Oath is suspicious though, I'll give you that.

I have a few thoughts on the original post, regardless of how fast someone manipulating Adhesion and Gravitation can go. Most of this is pretty obvious or already seen, but I'll state it anyway. To start, there's several transportation methods this has to compete with. First is the Oathgates, once they all become operational. Teleportation of the capacity of the Oathgate platform could handle all of the traffic and supply shipments needed to keep Urithiru running before they figured out how to get any of the tower's mechanisms to function. 22 minutes to Shinovar is screaming fast, if instantaneous travel isn't an option (which admittedly it isn't until that Oathgate is unlocked). Second is Fourth Bridge which basically allows for airborne cargo transport. There's a reason we still use massive, slow, water-based cargo ships even though we have aircraft that can go Mach 3. The Fourth Bridge is definitely not the apex of fabrial airships if what we've heard of Mistborn Era 4 is anything to guess by, and I expect air shipping to become more efficient and viable. I will note that the current method of using conjoined fabrials will not benefit much from manipulating Adhesion as the speed of the Fourth Bridge is largely limited to the speed of the conjoined lattice that controls horizontal movement. Third is that it has to be better for the situation or fit a different role than a Windrunner or Skybreaker flying over the Highstorm. They would be limited to the speed of the Highstorm, which averages 370 mph, but would allow for the entire entourage to arrive fully infused with Stormlight. Stormlight usage rate from multiple Lashings doesn't matter if they are constantly being recharged. Fourth is that communication by spanread is instantaneous. Any fast travel must by necessity require the presence of the individuals or supplies transported. There are certainly applications that a Windrunner or Skybreaker flying with an Edgedancer to eliminate air resistance could be useful, such as when a strike force must be delivered quickly to a location a substantial distance from an Oathgate (actually, didn't one of Dalinar's visions have a Windrunner and an Edgedancer flying in tandem to fight the Midnight Essence?), if the destination is anti-stormward, if a Highstorm is not scheduled, or if Stormlight is available at the destination. I don't expect the addition of Adhesion to revolutionize transportation just yet though. There are other, though not insurmountable issues of flying when air and light have no purchase on you. Non-Radiants may not be able to breath either from the power of Adhesion or the speed of travel, and if you cannot see as even light slides off, there is the problem of seeing where you are going and if you have arrived. Removing the power that protects your eyes and lungs from air resistance at that speed could have... consequences. Best to be wearing living Shardplate that can become translucent, but not everyone has that option. There may also be issues if the group drifts apart while they can't see at those speeds, since for some reason the Windrunners don't tie themselves to passengers they have Lashed for flight. If Adhesion doesn't let you phase through solid objects, better fly higher than everything if you don't want to hit a Skyeel at Mach 10, because there's no way you're seeing it in time to dodge, even if you can see. Cool thought, and I expect Gravitation and Adhesion to work together to make big changes, but if someone decided to strap Lift to Szeth when he goes to cleanse Shinovar, I don't think it would revolutionize how Dalinar deploys the Knights Radiant, though if the savings on Stormlight and time are great enough, maybe it would. I could see a Fourth Bridge variant where only vertical movement is controlled with a conjoined lattice while horizontal motion is controlled by placing an Adhesion barrier on the prow and Lashing a sturdy part of the ship's frame in the direction of travel.

If we're talking material composition, you can make soul stamps out of anything as long as you can etch it well enough. Shai specifically mentions that crystal makes some of the best soul stamps though it is incredibly hard to work with. By that concept, you could potentially carve a Soulstamp from a gemstone and infuse it with Stormlight or other gaseous Investiture. Maybe it would even work with the Dor. At any rate, pump enough Investiture into anything and you can probably break whatever rules.

I think this is plausible, but a poor usage of Hemalurgy. The Connections formed between an Allomancer and Hemalurgic construct are not particularly strong, and another Allomancer may be able to relatively easily overwhelm your control, assuming those Connections are transferred in a reduced capacity in the same way that other abilities are. Once your control is broken, there wouldn't be anything that would let you reestablish the Connection, and then you've gone to all of that effort and have a spike in you with nothing else to show for it. It would make more sense to me that you would spike out whatever ability that allowed the Allomancer to control the Hemalurgic constructs in the first place and give it to yourself, and while it might be weaker and you might need another spike, you could at least gain control over the constructs and not merely rely on the existing Connections. Okay, maybe it would be worth it if that particular person was controlling huge numbers of constructs, but then there may be other complications. Power and will seem to have a component, so even if you were to say spike out Elend's Connection when he has control of tens of thousands of Koloss, you may not have the same level of power or mental fortitude to maintain control of them. It kind of depends on what else is at play with controlling those with Hemalurgic spikes, since once you have control of them, you no longer need to burn Zinc or Brass to maintain that control.

Awaken some Lifeless elephants to turn a turbine that powers my house. There is a serious labor resource that is being underutilized by Awakeners, considering they can make workers that do not need to eat or sleep and can work tirelessly. I'm thinking of the golems in Terry Pratchett's Discworld. Wait, stupid? Awaken hundreds of Lifeless hamsters to run on their little hamster wheels to make a legit hamster-powered deathray that I fire at Hallendren.

Welcome Macrush! I might be remembering wrong, but I think immediately after they shut the cavern, Yomen's people buried the door with rubble or other debris. If Vin had gone all-in immediately, maybe she could have gotten out, but a few frantic minutes of adrenaline-filled soldiers piling dirt and rocks against the door would likely make it too heavy to open even with Duralumin. Ruin also distracted her at this point with his guise as Reen, taking away this narrow window of opportunity. At any rate, that's my head canon, since it's a solution that allows the narrative to work and highlights Yomen outwitting them through conventional means, but doesn't make Vin an idiot for not using all of her resources to get out. Sending Telden Hasting down was a calculated risk since it required them reopen the doors and give another opportunity to escape, but Vin was again distracted, this time by Telden and his servants. As shown with the subsequent interaction, Yomen and Telden genuinely believed that Vin does not kill needlessly.

Well... spoiler for the referenced crew leader:

Here's the Coppermind overview of Smoking: I agree with @The Bookwyrm, it is about relative power and it's confirmed frequently in the citations. Notably, Lifesense is a misnomer, as it isn't actually sensing when things are alive. Lifesense doesn't detect Drabs, and a Feruchemist fully storing their Investiture into a Nicrosilmind would be undetectable to someone with Perfect Lifesense. Copperclouds may also be able to dampen the effect of the augmented colors around an Awakener. It is noted that Bronze Savants can pierce Copperclouds, but it depends on the strength of the Bronze and the Copper. I imagine that in the same way that many Seekers become Savants without even realizing it, many Smokers become Savants as well without ever realizing it. I'd guess that it is very likely that a Seeker can still Seek from within a Coppercloud, sensing the pulses emanating from outside of the Coppercloud's effects. The Steel Ministry used this to great effect with their Soothing stations, which were staffed with a Soother, a Smoker, and a Seeker. This implies to me that there is a known average or typical radius of a Coppercloud and Seeker's senses. Seeker Savants extend the radius of their ability to sense. It's technically possible to get to ludicrous levels of Seeking, like being able to pierce a Coppercloud from 50 miles away.