Duxredux

Let's talk about Sazed's sight - because even under normal circumstances he would have been blind to the details of the Set ship made of steel. Metal glows brightly to Scadrial's Shards - so brightly that it obscures their vision. Ruin could not see words etched on metal or the location of the Trustwarren. Even without the interference from Autonomy, the level of detail needed for the kind of fine calculations you're thinking of may have been difficult or impossible for Sazed. To give you an idea of just how blind Sazed is at this point, he can't even tell how much Bendalloy Wayne has on him until he pulls it all out. Sazed was using his direct Connection to Wax and Wayne as new Hemalurgists to see with their senses. Let's add that to the twenty minute clock, that he needs Wax and Wayne to directly investigate the nature of the Set's supersized torpedo for resources to use or vulnerabilities to exploit. Also... Sazed is not in good shape, it's hard for him to make decisions period and the extent of interference he managed was communication and disrupting Telsin's Connection to Autonomy. His future sight is compromised enough that he's not certain on the outcome and probabilities. Next, the ship. This is the Pewternaught, the largest warship designed in the basin made of steel. For those interested, the Coppermind notes that in specifications it's analogous to the HMS Dreadnought, a 500 ft long battleship that when fully loaded may have the lowest point nearly 30 feet below water. Let's have that be a major consideration for sabotaging the ship, its steering, or propulsion systems - those are known weaknesses and would have been heavily reinforced long before the bomb was installed. I'll also note that the scope of the explosion was so much bigger than the Set had anticipated, that Sazed thought it might have wiped out not only Elendel but out a hundred miles out to Bilming as well. Maybe even igniting the atmosphere. If the ship hits anything it goes off. Whatever they've since calculated on Reddit or elsewhere as to the feasibility of igniting the atmosphere is separate, it's the intel they had at the time. Duralumin-Enhanced Cadmium to delay the full explosion is out - buying a few years only to let the world ignite is not a great solution (good luck launching a steel battleship into space as well). Now I'm not saying it's impossible to alter the rudder or turbines with Duralumin enhanced Allomancy, but asking Wayne to do that underwater and then getting back onto the ship as it chugs away at 24 miles per hour so he can do the water dump trick? Goooood luck. As for Wayne Duralumin Steelpushing to Elendel... do they even have enough Steel for that? It wouldn't surprise me if Wax burned most of his stash just getting to the ship in the first place. Yes, I know the ship is made out of steel. No, I don't think Allomancer's Steel which is iron with a pinch of carbon is viable for marine applications, so let's not look at scavenging Allomantic Steel from the ship, particularly as there was no mention of Coinshots resisting them. Also, this is Wayne, not Wax. Wayne who is incredibly unpracticed, has terrible aim and just barely got his Coinshot abilities. Compared to possibly the most accurate marksman in the Cosmere. Let's also add in Wax's lesson he reiterates that he needs height to lob the shot - which is why he went looking for the rocket on the top of the tower and was able to get the distance he needed - compared to launching from sea level to Elendel. For the people asking about Wayne surviving the water and Harmonium explosion with Feruchemical healing, Wax specifically says it's not something he could survive even with full metalminds. Take that for whatever it's worth. And... I'm just guessing that literal end of the world doomsday clock generally stresses people out, not having experienced it myself. I'd give Wax, Wayne, and Sazed a bone for thinking as clearly as they did. It wouldn't surprise me if Sazed had been counting on the Bands of Mourning to bail them out of a catastrophe and learned only minutes before from TenSoon that they were inoperable.

Not an novel hypothesis, that Joseph Smith was a genius storyteller. How much leg work are you willing to do to back it up? In the first chapter and page the author states that he is writing with a Jewish education in Egyptian. I would expect the syntax structure to reflect this. What do professional linguists have to say about the Book of Mormon when it claims to have been written in Egyptian? As a starting point, the general consensus is that the modern Bible was translated from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Similarly, we get a time stamp on how this links into Old Testament chronology when the author says that Zedekiah was king of Judah at the time, also on the first page once the narrative begins. That gives us a route to see if the literary style fits that time period. Considering the bold claims, why not ask a Semitic scholar? We could even take a look at how long it takes someone to write derivative work. Joseph Smith purportedly translated with divine assistance the 500+ pages of the Book of Mormon (not quite 270,000 words) in a 3-month time frame with publication starting 7 months after that. Why not see how that compares to Brandon picking up The Wheel of Time and writing The Gathering Storm which has a 290,000 word count? No two writing experiences will be the same, but Brandon was a Robert Jordan fan and was trying to create a work that fit in with an existing canon, so there are parallels. The Book of Mormon has been around for 195 years. Making up a thousand years of history and passing it off as non-fiction is monumentally harder than you are implying, not least when the first page after the introductory material states the supposed historical, linguistic, and cultural origin. Please don't insult nearly two centuries of people who have seriously read and examined it page by page seeking to prove or discredit its claims to not once have done their backchecking and homework.

Sigh. This is what I get for not quoting my sources. The following WoBs are where I got my understanding of the mechanics of Compounding and why I see no differentiation for multiplication in power output based on a random Allomancer burning an Unkeyed Metalmind, a natural Compounder like Miles or a Hemalurgist that has figured out a workaround for Identity contamination, as I assume the "charged yourself" caveat is Identity related. The actual mechanism for Compounding doesn't care if the storage belongs to you, it works anyway - whether or not you can access that attribute has to do with Identity. This is why Vin could burn one of Sazed's metalminds and see a hazy power reserve but not access it which Sazed confirms is what it looks like when a Feruchemist tries to access another Feruchemist's Metalmind. As for specifically if a random Allomancer can Compound with the an Unkeyed Metalmind, this WoB. Again. Could have been superceded, of course, but a quick search of Arcanum didn't show me anything definitive. Also, the timeline for Kelsier and Spook to get the former a body _and_ figure out and set up medallion production in the South is tight enough without throwing additional stumbling blocks in their way. It makes sense if people who survived Catacendre, whose souls had been warped by Ruin more strongly, could get more out of hemalurgy, including (easier?) access to hemalurgic Compounding, than subsequent generations. YMMV. I feel like I'm missing the main idea you're trying to convey here. Could you give a more explicit description of the state of the Compounder you're visualizing and the difference between them and Era 2 Compounding? I also don't get why Kel's technological advancement timetable would have more stumbling blocks if they had to deal with Identity contamination for Compounding. They had to address Identity in order to make Feruchemical Heat stores that could be tapped by any Southerner, right? If the idea is that Kel simply had to hightail it down to the South to make sure they could Compound with the strained Era 1 soul, ignoring the Identity of the distributed stores for now, my issue with this is that I assume that whatever solution Kel cooked up to establish the Firemothers and Firefathers has to still work for the modern Southeners who would have the same issues with Hemalurgic Compounding as the North. If the Firemothers and Firefathers are Hemalurgists who somehow can Compound to create Heat stores to sustain the entire population, they would have to rotate them out as they get old and die. No way are they outliving Marsh and his bag of Atium. If the Era 1 weakened soul was a major factor, at some point future generations would fail to produce viable Firemothers and Firefathers. Passing over the part about the Compounding multiplier, I could believe it. Keep in mind that it was the Terris Enclave that were secretly exploring the nature of the Spiritual Feruchemical attributes. I could believe the Kandra found out that line of research but that perhaps the Set hadn't extracted that information from them yet. The Kandra are considered Marsh's brethren, so he may also be giving them more information than the Set has by the time of VenDell's discussion with Wax and friends. It could also be the Set never identified a Trueself Ferring to target or harvest. A Terris wearing an Aluminum ring or band would never be identified by a Set Lurcher or Coinshot looking for Metalborn with rings, bracers, metal vials or dust pouches to kidnap or harvest from since the Aluminum would never be detected. A Trueself Ferring wouldn't take a job utilizing their powers or have visible indicators like variable weight, speed, intermittent glasses (for F-Tin), or muscle mass either. Considering how hideously expensive Aluminum was, a Trueself Ferring might not ever touch pure Aluminum or blatantly carry a small fortune on their person. Add in Terris secrecy with their research and finding a Trueself Ferring is definitely non-trivial. It's also indicated repeatedly that the Set aren't as focused on Feruchemy as they are Allomancy and they aren't very familar with utilizing it properly. Kelesina was shot while wearing an unkeyed Goldmind full enough for Wayne to survive a small army shooting him for crying out loud. She just lay there while the Terriswoman took the bracer and then shot her again. The showdown between Wax and Edwarn in TLM pivots on Edwarn forgetting Wax is a Feruchemist. At the beginning of TLM, Marasi notes that the Cycle who became a Brute Ferring was very unpracticed with his powers despite the expanding suit. It looks like they use Feruchemy when it's convenient and available, but their R&D was researching Malwish airships & tech, non-lethal Hemalurgy, and Allomantic Eugenics - though it is true Telsin shows off the breakthrough in F-Tin allowing pain storage. What's obvious to us may not be obvious to them even if they had found a Trueself Ferring for experimentation. Mmmmmaybe. That might work for some attributes, I'll grant you that. I had to dig around to figure out why my reflexive assumption was that it would be potentially dangerous without a way to store the attribute and use it like a regular storage. I identified three factors, though I'm open to interpretation - WoBs below if you want to read them yourself and come to your own conclusion. First, it's actually really hard to go below a standard burn in Allomancy. Going up to a flare is easy, but not down below the standard burn. Second, the amount of metals that Allomancers use is tiny - shavings or powder even for the fast burning powers like Pewter so a little goes a long way - there's only so much you can limit the dosage. Last is the mutliplicative nature of Compounding (the number thrown out by Wax and Sazed is tenfold) - if you have a 10% store does that result in 100% rate of attribute "withdraw" when burning, cutting out the low end entirely? In combination, we get bursts of power multiplied over the original storage even from tiny samples from Allomancers that generally can't do low level burns. I might have overstated the risk, but I think it's there - particular if it's an Allomancer who hasn't had the opportunity to practice like a normal Ferring would. Last side note, that HoA Annotation you referenced was addressed below. Apparently he was trying to get at the concept of intent and hadn't really refined it yet - he doesn't address what this has to do with what it says about Compounding. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine if I'm wrong and need to update my understanding, I just don't have a clear enough understanding of what you're trying to convey.

Source? As it is, one way or another I assume the Southerners have cracked the issue with Identity contamination as I find it highly unlikely that they have so many heat medallions to supply whole air ships without Compounding being an option - same with Connection. Keep in mind that without the ability to store the attribute, it would be substantially harder for the Allomancer to regulate the burst of Feruchemical attribute. Using Gold in this trick obviously would be useful - but then Augurs aren't known for the utility anyway. Huge bursts of weight or heat could get you or people around you killed if used unwisely. Considering that at present Hemalurgy is required to make it work, I wouldn't put it as more powerful than A-Duralumin enhancement which currently also needs Hemalurgy. Also, this WoB:

Good questions. Let's start with Unkeying. While we never see this done on page, Wax and VenDell propose that if a Feruchemist were to have F-Aluminum in addition to their other powers, they could entirely store away their Identity. Once they had no Identity, they could then store another attribute that would also have no Identity. This results in an Unkeyed Metalmind. We've seen one Unkeyed Metalmind, a Goldmind taken from Lady Kelesina in BoM. Wax was unable to access the power while Wayne could. That's the distinction between Unsealed and Unkeyed Metalminds: anyone can use an Unsealed Metalmind, whereas only a Ferring with the matching power can access an Unkeyed Metalmind. Back to our hypothetical Hemalurgist, getting a unkeyed weight storage is not straightforward at all. By Era 2 there are no natural born Feruchemists with more than a single power. With known Elendel tech, it would require Hemalurgy to pair F-Aluminum with any other Feruchemical power. The Southerners likely have a solution, but anything past this point is theory crafting. As @Trusk'our notes (ninja'd again), any Allomancer can Compound using an appropriate Unkeyed Metalmind, as the Feruchemical storage "reprograms" the metal. When an Allomancer burns a metal, the metal itself does not contain the power, it acts more like a key that draws Investiture from Preservation in the form specified by the key. Burn Pewter and the Investiture drawn is configured to enhance the body. When burning a Metalmind, Preservation accepts the Feruchemical storage pattern as a valid key and returns raw power in the same form as the stored attribute. This is Compounding and is almost always paired with storing the new attribute and repeating the process. I don't know if it has ever come up if Allomancy is Identity keyed, meaning the power drawn from Preservation is keyed to the Allomancer, but if it was this is when it would start causing issues. I don't see why it would be keyed, but I also don't see why it wouldn't.

@Trusk'our covered the general answer well, I'll do a deeper dive on the mechanics as we understand them. To answer if this makes a Twinborn, basically yes. Compounding has a question mark though. Compounding when one of the powers is Hemalurgically granted runs into an issue known as Identity contamination. Because the power is routed through the piece of soul that has been grafted onto the Spiritweb, the ability presumably has Identity restrictions based on the grafted soul. While in the given scenario the Feruchemical power is natively keyed to the user, it doesn't match the Identity of the soul providing the Allomantic power - meaning it may not be possible to burn the metal to get Feruchemical attribute. Let's swap the powers and look at it again. What if a Lurcher gains a spike granting F-Iron? The spike lets them store and tap weight, but all of that is again routed through the fragment of soul. The storage will have the Identity of the original Feruchemist, which is why the Hemalurgist will be able to access the existing stores of the donor. This Identity will not match the Hemalurgist when they go to burn the metal Allomantically - the power isn't going through the grafted soul. As @Trusk'our notes, we don't know how Marsh works around this, but it is possible - though considering Marsh has 22 spikes, his method may be impossible for our one spike Hemalurgist.

I feel like an IRL example may be helpful here. Ever since scientists have started mapping the human genome and experimenting with DNA, science fiction has had all sorts of amazing hypothetical outcomes like Spider-Man, the X-Men, Solid Snake from MGS, human hybrids and more. Despite decades of experiments and tinkering, we still don't have Spider-Man or a cure for cancer. The amount of information stored in human DNA is enormous. Sure, hypothetically we could genetically enhance humans to have wings or become draconic, but we have a lot of hurdles that as far as I know we haven't yet overcome. Reading the nucleotide pairs is hard, we don't have the tech to do it directly. Modification is technically doable, but feels more like an elaborate workaround than direct modification in addition to being incredibly challenging considering we can't directly read what we're altering. We have succeeded in some ways by taking known working patterns and transplanting them. We've modified goats to produce spider silk protein, but it took a huge amount of time and research to isolate the DNA for the old and new protein, and correctly replace it (highlighting the parallel to Hemalurgy here). Bone and muscle structure is way beyond us at present I think. Without knowing exactly what you are doing when modifying DNA you're far, far more likely to break the system and cause cancer than improve it and grow functional wings. Spiritweb modification to make physiological enhancements is very similar to this. The amount of information in the soul, the difficulty in reading the Spiritweb, and the clunky tools available for modification, these all make the alterations suggested incredibly complex and difficult to get the desired outcome. Positive thinking and visualization aren't good enough - particularly for a transformation that has to biologically function without futher Invested support. In many cases the magic has a failure mode that prevents anything too horrendous or unnatural from happening. The Soul Stamp refuses to take (or the soul rejects it). The Awakener's improper Command does nothing. The stick refuses to be convinced to be Soulcast into a fire. There's a reason the Bondsmiths and other Radiants had checks built in - and why Ishar is such a terrifying loose cannon as an unchained Bondsmith. If you brute force the change with raw Investiture then you bypass these safeguards. That's when you get things like the one-spike Hemalurgic Chimeras. An improperly drawn Aon that cursed Dilaf's wife. Shai at the time of TES hadn't studied Flesh Forgery because messing up could cause deaths whereas messing up one of her carvings simply resulted in a stamp that wouldn't take. I'm taking a leaf from Spook's book on Hemalurgy to say that it's incredibly easy to screw things up when modifying the Spiritweb to alter the body and it's much better to stick with known methods of enhancement. As for thinking your way into wings or becoming a dog, I think believing you are still ill (or scarred) and perpetuating a known or existing state is a far cry from believing yourself to be in a state you have never experienced. Maybe, maybe a career canine vet could properly visualize a dog or dream that they were a dog with the necessary fidelity to life, but not the general populace. Transposition of cognitive concept to non-native physical form without safeguards sounds a lot like Ishar's experiments on pulling spren into the Physical Realm. I would expect similar survival rates. That said, what you suggest is possible. Healing someone to grow wings can be done, apparently pretty easily with Hemalurgy - though I'm adding if you know exactly what you are doing as a Hemalurgist. Note that a bit less than a thousand years of testing in the Steel Inquisitor laboratories never produced anything significant beyond the Hemalurgic constructs TLR designed while holding the power of the Well of Ascension. Considering TotES, transforming a human into a dog is definitely possible for AonDor.

Hypothesis time. Spook is the Bands of Mourning. More specifically, Spook followed his own philosophy that at the end of life for a Metalborn, they would offer themselves up as a Hemalurgic donor to enhance future generations. If it takes the death of a natural Mistborn to make the Bands that addresses the power creep issue of a manufactured TLR. It may also explain why Kelsier didn't just keep the Bands with him if it took the sacrifice of one of his oldest friends to make. It also recontextualizes the name "Bands of Mourning" when we know that it a spearhead made of bands of each of the metals. As for mechanics, we still don't know how Unsealed Metalminds are made, but then the Bands may have used an alternative method. That may explain how in Era 2 I think we only see Feruchemical abilities granted by the Medallions while the Bands grant Allomancy. Maybe Marsh and Kelsier (and maybe some of those dead Malwish at the Sovereign's temple) gave Spook access to Unkeyed Metalminds of the various attributes which he burned to give him massive stores of Feruchemical power just before he was ??? and ??? thus becoming the Bands. Yes, there is a lot of speculation and unknowns, but if a Mistborn can be made into the Bands of Mourning with the proper knowledge and equipment, that is exactly the kind of secret Kelsier would take to other people's graves. My other guess would be Marsh as the manufacturer. He had 22 spikes at last count, both Allomancy and Feruchemy, a much more in-depth knowledge of Hemalurgy than anyone living (excluding Sazed), and we know that he cracked the Identity contamination issue with Hemalurgy-based Compounding as that is how he has extended his life for 300 years. Depending on how long it took for Ruin to become subservient to Preservation and limit the maximum number of powers gained through Hemalurgy, it's quite possible that Marsh has the most powers possible for anyone without resorting to Lerasium, which certainly wasn't available between the Catacendre and TLM. Or making the Bands could have a collaboration, which seems pretty likely regardless.

For starters, hair absolutely counts as something that either was alive or used to be alive. The prologue of Warbreaker starts with Vasher using his hair to facilitate Awakening his cloak and a straw figure. Notably just sprinkling a chunk of his hair over the hood of his cloak without any effort to weave the hair into the material was enough to let him complete the Awakening. I assume any fabric made of wool also can be readily Awakened. If you save your hair and make it into clothing, it probably will be more efficient to Awaken than an equivalent item not made from the Awakener's own body. Since this is Q&A section, I'll also reference other systems. We learn from Allomancy that anything that pierces the body or is enclosed by it (holding a coin in the mouth) becomes substantially more resistant to manipulation by Invested Arts. I assume growing out of the head or body also counts. This is deeper than mere perception, as we see Wax attempting to Push on bullets embedded in Miles and they abruptly become viable anchors directly after he healed and his body pushed the bullets out. I doubt Wax's perception of the event had any significant impact on his Push. I assume a person would not be able to Awaken a part of their body that is still attached to them. As for the debate of Awakening hair as a contiguous mass versus the individual hairs, a piece of a person does not count as 100% in the shape of life. When Vivenna asks Vasher about Awakening skeletons, he says it's tricky and often not worth it as you need to position each bone in the proper location. A lot of work for something that will cost a fair amount of Breaths. Hair almost certainly will face the same restrictions. Sure, in the same way that Vivenna can Awaken a single thread to pick a lock, a single strand of hair can be Awakened and given a Command, it just might not be able to do much or move in concert with a pile of cut hair. Separated versus contiguous is also relevant for the visualization of the Command. Vasher's sets of Awakened outfits that fought as if they were him still continued to fight after being cut apart - just very poorly. Getting cut did not deactivate the Awakening and Vasher was able to recover the Breaths from the fallen clothing - but the point is that the initial Command is what is followed. I assume any secondary Commands for after becoming discontiguous would make the Awakening orders of magnitude harder to visualize.

Probably what you're looking for is this thread by DrPhysics where he goes over the oddities of speed bubble boundaries.

There's several complications with this that I will lay out. First issue that as of Era 2 there is an limit to the number of spikes that someone gain gain powers from. Under the current management with Harmony, Ruin is subservient to Preservation. This is talked about in TLM Arcanum - during the days before the Catacendre Ruin was exerting significant force on the souls of men, allowing far greater warping and powers than the human soul was ever meant to withstand. While we don't know the upper limit, as of Era 2 there is a limit to the number of power granting spikes - put in more and they simply don't gain more powers. Steel Inquisitors cannot currently be made with known methods. Complication two is that by my understanding there are two distinct parts to the Law of Hemalurgic Decay. The first is that when harvesting a power from a human donor, there is a loss of strength during the process. This is the case even when driving the spike directly through the donor into the recipient. The second is that if a spike is left outside of a human body, chunk of meat, or jar of blood (as was confirmed during the Final Empire), the power will decay up to a minimum threshold. I suspect that WoB about wrapping a spike in Aluminum is talking the secod category. Issue three is the strain of having that many spikes is hard. It's taxing to have the soul warped to that degree - Marsh reported that the spikes throbbed and the Inquisitors needed significantly more rest and sleep than normal humans. To get all 32 powers in a single individual, that's probably around 15-16 spikes if the recipient started as a Mistborn or Full Feruchemist, but more likely would take 30-32 spikes which is far above Marsh's 22. We can cut that down if we add in Malwish Medallions, but those generally grant only 2-3 powers at a time. If we're counting the Bands as a manufacturable option, then the exercise is moot. Sure, being ancient doesn't help, but Marsh was not doing too hot last time we saw him, especially when not puppeted by Ruin, and it's canon that Marsh's will power is extraordinary (at least it was during HoA). It's also worth noting that proportionally there are far fewer Feruchemists than there are Allomancers. The Feruchemists had just been culled by the Steel Inquisitors while the Mists had raised the Allomantic potential of many of the Skaa survivors. Expect to see a unbalanced army for a long time. If I remember right there were only like 2 or 3 known Steelrunners during Wax's time. I think there's a reason that Set didn't just harvest powers from the populace and turned to Eugenics and nonlethal spiking to develop powers. Just waiting for people to normally be born, identifying them, and successfully harvesting their power is costly and time consuming - probably doubly so for Gnat Mistings with the coveted A-Duralumin. It's nice to dream about this kind of army, but I don't think it's currently plausible for Scadrial. Amassing this power could take centuries without something to accelerate the process - and Scadrian's version of immortality has major drawbacks. Also, welcome to the Shard sespe14!

Chemistry, and material science ahead. Now I don't have anything to directly back this up, but Aluminum's property where it almost never reacts is not the same as unreactive. For example, the term "noble" in the periodic table of elements refers to elements that do not readily form chemical bonds with other elements. Silver, gold, and platinum are noble metals because they are highly resistant to corrosion. For a long time it was thought that all the noble gasses like helium, neon, argon, kryton, etc. were completely unreactive, but that isn't the case, it just takes very specialized circumstances that rarely if ever happen in nature (at least while under observation). Sure, I'll buy that a human with a Spiritweb that is specifically adapted to utilize aluminum will be able to do things with it that most of the Cosmere can't, either Allomantically or Feruchemically. If you think about it, Allomantic Duralumin is 96% aluminum, 4% copper. At that ratio it's quite possible that there are aluminum atoms that are not adjacent to a copper atom, yet shavings of this alloy enhance the Metallic Arts to an incredible degree. It's not like a Mistborn burning Pewter will periodically get pockets of Tin stores in the process. The entire system is based on pure metals having radically different properties when properly alloyed with sometimes a hint of another material. Aluminum atoms in of themselves are not completely inert when it comes to Investiture otherwise duralumin shouldn't work either. When the alloying process is done properly (assuming they do it like they would IRL), the property of the aluminum itself is altered by the introduction of the copper. Even if you get a tiny sample of duralumin that has no elemental copper in it from a chemical standpoint, the aluminum would still have the properties gained from the alloying process. Chemically it could be pure aluminum but still have the properties of the lattice structure introduced by the copper. We know that elemental aluminum can hold a charge of Investiture - that's how the Connection Medallions work in the first place. Now a big unknown is how much of this is relevant to what Brandon decided when he was designing all of this, so all of this may or may not be relevant - but I expect that he would lean into a science explanation when he can if the alternative is author handwavium.

Yeah, we need to read more than just what's on the label of the Shard to really say what is and is not in alignment with the Intent. Allomancy for one is fantastic killing people despite being the power of Preservation (my argument is that it greatly enhances the capacity for self-preservation). Ironically, it is Ruin's Hemalurgy that can "preserve" a piece of soul long past the donor's death - for centuries even. I'm not entirely sure how Sand Mastery relates to Autonomy as a concept at all. The Honor and Cultivation seem to relate to the Orders of Knights Radiant in the sense that power is gated behind progressive oaths, but I'm iffy as to how Division or Abrasion relate to the Intent of either Shard. I'll move to the main point of discussion: Endowment's Intent as it relates to Awakening. The gifting aspect is obvious in that Awakening requires hundreds if not thousands of people gifting their Breaths to a single individual. Awakeners who receive these gifts gain the various Heightenings and can temporarily grant life and give it conditional will. "No strings attached" basically only applies to when you give a Breath, mundane or divine, to another person. Lifeless are slaved to those who hold their Command Phrase even if the Breaths cannot be recovered. Awakened Objects can have their power and sentience recalled at the whim of the Awakener. The thing is Nightblood still gifts power and was a gift in of himself from a certain viewpoint. Nightblood forms a bond with the person who wields him and grants them extraordinary power. As a sword with no method of locomotion, he enhances the wielder with terrifying strength and agility as they fight with Nightblood's own destructive force. If the wielder views themself as evil and is driven to take themselves out, well guess they should have read the terms and conditions before accepting the gift. Or as the case may be, having it shoved on them - Endowment can gift without consent. From a certain standpoint, the gift of Breaths from the thousand or so people that enhanced Shashara gave her a gift that let her will in the form of a directive live on for centuries as her Command to Destroy Evil continues to be followed. Perhaps Endowment's wheelhouse is gifts being given and less how that gift was used after the fact. Now I'm not going to discount Shardic shenanigans in the creation of Nightblood, but if the question is if a Shard other than Endowment had to have been directing their attention and influence to Nalthis to kick off the change in Nightblood to get his special circumstances, then I think it could go either way. Ruin's Investiture is indisputably part of Nightblood, but I could see Shashara vehemently wanting evil as she saw it destroyed (it wouldn't be too far a stretch during the Manywar for her to have a specific atrocity in mind that she wanted Nightblood's power to destory) and having the right mindset to draw Ruin's power even unknowingly when giving a sentient sword a Command (a sword that in turn gained the ability to direct its Intent). Alternately, it could be a Shard giving the proper Intent remotely - as we see when Ruin orchestrated Spook receiving A-Pewter. Again, it could go either way and asking Brandon will probably get a RAFO at this stage - or he might give us a couple more details, you never can tell. I don't think we have any conclusive answers at present.

I think one of the core components of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that all are invited to come and see for themselves if it improves their life, enlarges their soul, and enlightens their mind. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not claim a monopoly on truth and goodness - those attributes can be found throughout societies and cultures including those not founded in Christianity. Members simply believe that they are under a divine mandate to invite others to learn more of God and to communicate with Him. Try and see if the patterns of faith, lifestyle, and beliefs enrich your life. In the same way that studying the myriads of exercises and diets on the internet won't improve health and fitness, it takes more than simply intellectually or academically studying the tenets and beliefs to "test" their validity. Yes, faith is foundational to this religion, but experimentation and observation are welcome - encouraged even. It is not wishy-washy hopeful positive thinking unprovable by science, it is faith in a leader who sees and understands beyond your capacity and has shown through repeated successes that they can be trusted with high-stakes, even life-or-death decisions. It is not blind faith, is tried and tested faith - but to start it has to grow from somewhere. That start may require that initial leap of faith - not unlike scheduling an appointment with a new therapist after reading testimonials from their patients. Live as if it is true for a week or a month and then see if it has improved your life. Distrust and half-hearted attempts can undermine results when testing religious doctrine as thoroughly as they would for a world acclaimed personal trainer. You cannot receive the full benefit without full participation, which is why there is so much effort put into inviting everyone to come and see for themselves by studying it out themselves, attending the meetings, in part living it, and then directly asking God the Father to manifest the truth to you, believing that a divine answer will be given. We believe that such answers will be given because we believe that God has promised as such and always keeps promises. As for the concept that man can become like God, we believe that when the apostle Paul spoke to the Greeks in Athens, "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device" (Acts 17:29) that he spoke literally. He reiterated this concept when speaking to the Romans when he said "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together" (Romans 8:16-17). When we talk of Jesus Christ as savior and redeemer, it is not merely that He saved us from sins, sickness and death, but that there was grand purpose in what He saved us for. How else could we follow Jesus's direction in the Sermon on the Mount to "be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is Heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48)? In effect, the whole purpose of the "good news" of the gospel is that Jesus not only enabled mankind to be freed from the effects of sin, both our own and others, but also that we can become like Him. God the Father's relationship with humanity is not mere favoritism or vanity in placing beings created in the image of God as stewards over the beasts of the field and fish of the sea; we believe the familial term chosen as the term of address for deity was deliberate and descriptive. Moving to my personal feeling on the matter, I think the Beattitudes taught on the Sermon on the Mount are what you might call the "job qualifications" for becoming like God - I don't think anyone on 17th Shard would have a hard time imagining the conflicts that would occur if humanity elevated to divinity were not peacemakers, merciful, pure in heart, slow to anger, willing to go the extra mile for another, willing to not only love neighbors but enemies as well, and more. Obedience to the Beattitudes and other commandments is not "earning" heaven or godhood, it is learning heaven and becoming more like God in chatacter. Not surprisingly, anyone who has done a significant study of life of Jesus Christ and the kind of man he was knows just how far of a gap there is between his character and mankind, using the Beattitudes as the criteria - I do not think anyone can change or make restitution to cover every human flaw without relying wholly on the merits and mercy of Christ. In effect, the belief that man can become like God is hinged on believing that Christ can change man to have godly character contigent on man willingly submitting to the change. Continued obedience after baptism is like finally deciding to enroll with the personal trainer and continuing to do the daily actions and behaviors that are the means by which humanity changes.

I know people will ask these questions kinds of questions, so I'll ask them up front. How much Investiture for each given Invested art? If we're giving 2500 Breaths to the Awakener (which is enough to grant them immortality), are we giving an equivalent amount for each of the 3 abilities? Enough Allomantic shavings, metalmind reserves, etc. to equate 2500 BEUs of output? Arena? Actual Colosseum of Rome? Environment is pretty important for the Metallic Arts. Supplemental equipment, or is everyone pretty much just in jeans and a t-shirt unless their ability states otherwise? Just to poke at what I expect the meta to be, I'll go with: I probably won't participate in the forum game, my schedule is a mite unpredictable these days, but if anyone else wants to use this build, go for it.

If I remember right, Ialai's name is slightly taboo - it's one of the things that drew Torol Sadeas to her. Perfect symmetry is a mark of divinity in Vorinism, so to also claim perfect symmetry and by extension perfection has a degree of blasphemy to claim such holiness to their children. (WoR, chapter 29) No idea in Wistiow's case, This symmetry is not restricted to women, but can also be seen in the Vorin names for the Heralds. Kelek, Talenelat, Jezerezah, Vedeledev, Shalash to name a few. The "h" can be used as a placeholder when making a word symmetrical. I think it's suspected that some people notable to Vorinism have been given symmetrical names posthumously, like Nohadon, who is known as Bajerden or Behardan in other cultures though it is not know if this is his original name. Within the Vorin kingdoms, you'll see some patterns as names are derived from the Heralds, though it looks like they may not follow gender roles. Shallan for example is derived from Shalash. Talanor, Talanan probably come from Talenelat. Vedekar, one of Sebarial's Lighteyed officers, presumably has a name derived from Vedel, the Herald of healing and Edgedancers. It is worth noting that various people note that Kaladin's name is one of a Lighteyes, so there is a division in naming schemes between lighteyes and Darkeyes. At least of the Rosharan names starting with "kal", they all are lighteyed.

Let's see. We're talking about how we've been told in the Ars Arcanum for years that alloys with God Metals are viable and are likely to create effects different from what we've seen? I asked ChatGPT what standard experiments are run on any newly discovered material or metallic alloy, which I'll link to here. Considering in canon they haven't figured out how to use Harmonium directly for any of the traditional applications of the Metallic Arts, some of the key usages may not be directly related to a person burning or storing in a metal at all. Take Trellium's property of moving away from an Allomancer burning metals for example. A locking pin made of such a material could make a genuine "allomancer only" safety like the one used in Vindication, except it works for more than just Lurcher's and Coinshots. Depending on the sensitivity of Trellium, it could be hugely useful for later era security checkpoints. Larger Cosmere spoilers on the same vein of material science, Back to experimentation parameters. Allomancy and Feruchemy generally affect the user and their environment in the following categories: Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual, as seen on their respective tables (and yes, temporal is there too but I'm skipping this for a bit). For this, try to have an observer qualified in each category, be it a boosted Seeker, doctor, Inquisitor sight, someone observing from the Cognitive Realm, etc., though obviously the trickiest is the Spiritual Realm (at least so far, maybe one of the new metals will help with that). You'll probably come out behind in the exchange, but getting Hoid to observe and give commentary would probably be useful. Probably. If it's possible to make a Unsealed Coppermind logging the expermint, that could prove invaluable - particularly if the experiment goes awry. Complicating the matter is that while we know how to make a full Mistborn, we don't yet know how to make a Full Feruchemist, so some of the tests may be handicapped based on available and trusted candidates. Furthermore, we know some applications of Allomancy require a sapient target, sometimes one utilizing Investiture. There may not be a safe way to go about some of the experiments that require human targets other than to go veeeeery slowly and cautiously. Probably need to offer a huge payout in case of fatality to next of kin. Probably have a massive unsealed Goldmind just in case. In other words, doing this ethically is really problematic. Of course the cheater answer is to have Scadrial be in a crisis, and have the protagonist experimenter put in a Pathian earring and get Sazed to weigh in on the matter.

So... Terkin is not exactly a big ol' monster thing, it's a class of Taldain sandlings with a carapace that disrupts Sand Mastery. As it is, water is probably as important to the Cosmere as it is to IRL, considering it's foundational to sustaining life on the planet. The nature of water as a polar molecule (meaning that one end has a slightly negative charge while the other end has a slight positive charge) with the slightly greater attraction from hydrogen bonding has a tremendous impact on the planet. That increased cohesion that pulls water together due to it being attracted to itself means that it takes more energy to heat water than most other substances - which is one major reason why our planet stays within a relatively narrow band of temperature aside from the poles. This cohesion allows for capillary action, the polarity from the hydrogen bonding producing the odd quirk where unlike most materials, water expands as it changes states to a solid - growing less dense. This is weird in the material world, and contributes to our lakes and oceans not freezing from the bottom up, the ice sunk far below the sun's rays. This polarity is also what lets it dissolve so many substances it has the moniker "universal solvent". It's not for nothing that the human body is made up of what, 60-70% of the stuff? It might actually be weirder if water wasn't special. I can't remember seeing many WoBs on the subject (not saying that they aren't), but let's look at your list. 1. Harmonium has been described as a "super cesium" reacting similar to the alkali metals. These IRL metals, sodium, potassium, rubidium, cesium, and francium, sit where they are on the periodic table as group 1 elements because they have one electron over a complete shell - which makes it very easy for this electron to be donated. When cesium donates an electron to water, it reacts by releasing a considerable amount of energy as the elements drop to very stable ionic bonds. No idea if Harmonium is in a similar state and has atoms and electrons, or if the polarity of water is enough to begin the division process of the poorly melded powers of Ruin and Preservation. 2-4 This might all have to do with the Luhel bond, where physical matter is transferred in exchange for manipulation over the Aether. We've had several people speculate that the "bone Aether" on Lumar is actually Taldain sand. 5. As for terken dissolving in water, I suspect the actual answer may be pretty mundane. My current hypothesis is that terken sandlings adapted to utilize naturally occurring aluminum hydroxide (often found in bauxite deposits) to reinforce their gas-based circulatory system in a similar way to how we use aluminum to improve the lifespan of mylar helium balloons. Resistance to Sand Mastery is just an added bonus. Aluminum hydroxide is water soluble which might explain why terken carapace can be dissolved and the resulting coating still disrupts Sand Mastery - there's aluminum in there. In this case, I think it might just be that water is a universal solvent and doesn't play nice with the biology of the half-desert planet. On our side, aluminum generally doesn't play well with earth's biology, so most Cosmere planets that have IRL animals won't have this interaction. Maybe most water based animals actually.

Good call on putting this in the general discussion. As you said, it's about Hoid. Hoid in many respects is an anomaly and doesn't play nicely with the rules. It's well worth noting his response to Jasnah pointing a Shardblade at him. "I'd be surprised if that little knife of yours poses me any real threat, Kholin. You can keep waviing about you if you want, though. Perhaps it makes you feel more important." Apparently even a weapon capable of cutting on all three Realms is trivial to Hoid - despite Nomad's note when equipping Elegy with Aux in TSM that "Cuts from weapons like that are storming tough to heal." Another former Dawnshard that held the same power as Hoid still doesn't like getting hit with a Shardblade. So... was Hoid bluffing? Does he have abilities beyond what we saw? He's one of the most realmatically aware people we know, yet he doesn't seem particularly worried around aluminum, even being willing to drive one of the vehicles for Marasi's sting operation against the Set in TLM who have both Aluminum and have at least a working knowledge of Hemalurgy. In TotES, Ulaam notes that even in Wit's cursed state that the Sorceress would be unable to kill Hoid, and she certainly has access to Aluminum, Silver, and AonDor. All in all... I'm guessing that Aluminum spikes won't particularly inconvenience Hoid. Now I don't know if that is because he already has contingencies in place or if he's simply that resilient, but either way I suspect that the majority of the Cosmere would have a hard time testing any of your questions.

Actually... I suspect the Breaths will still transfer to the intended recipient. Commands that are interrupted or mumbled will still transfer Breaths but leave them inactive (Warbreaker chapter 49, no idea what page since this is ebook). We see this directly when Vivenna attempts to Awaken Tonk Fah's coat and Denth cuts her off. It definitely won't transfer to the person who interrupts the Awakener. As @Trusk'our notes, Intent is huge and the Command to transfer Breaths, at least the part "My Breath to yours" worked just fine for letting Vivenna store her Breaths in her shawl when hiding in the slums. When an Awakener selects a target to transfer Breaths, they get transferred to the intended target - as opposed to all other valid targets touching the Awakener such as their pants. You know, that would be a really rude prank. "Come close my child, it is at last time to bestow my Breaths and inheritance to my posterity." The aura of power warped the colors around the elderly Awakener, who was far older than he appeared. A withered hand rose from the arm of the chair and reached for the head of the smugly smirking son. "My Life to yours, my Breath become yours" the Awakener intoned. The young man tensed, waiting for the flood of bliss that would accompany the influx of power, granting influence and near immortality. The aura of color faded... and... nothing? "Ah, yes," the elderly Awakener mumbled, fondingly patting the decrepit armchair, "You have long supported me and my posterior these many years old friend. Far more than that my actual posterity." Smiling contentedly, the Awakener rapidly withered and leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes for the last time.

Soul is an in-world Cosmere term, albeit an indistinct one, so I don't think we should fault anyone for using it. I don't think the usage is consistent within what we have seen among the various worlds. When talking about Scadrian death and transition, it's worth looking at when Wax dies at the end of BoM. Harmony directly states that death separates a person into three components. " Kelsier describes it this way: This would fit in to the platonic Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual Realms that the Cosmere is founded on. This separation seems to happen almost immediately upon death, perhaps is a definition of death, but for a time it can be reversed with sufficiently and appropriately applied Investiture. Szeth for example is not a Cognitive Shadow. When I first heard that quote from Harmony, my assumption was that the body was of course the one that returned to the earth, the mind to the Cosmere, and the soul(spiritweb) to The Beyond to follow the pattern. After thinking about it though, I suspect that I was wrong. I suspect it's the Spiritweb that returns to the Cosmere and the mind that goes to the Beyond. Space and time are one in the Spiritual Realm, which is composed of Spiritwebs and the Connections between them. This is further backed up below. I do think there's evidence that at least some Cognitive Shadows are enhanced souls that may not simply be Investiture molded to think like the original - at least by in-world understanding. Take Kelek's writing on the final death of Jezrien. Back to the original post, yes, when Preservation shoved Kelsier into the Well of Ascension and presumably Commanded him "Be Preserved, Kelsier. Survivor.", that is when he was suffused with power and became able to persist apparently indefinitely without having to actively seek out Investiture to consume. The rest of the speculation on whether or not Kelsier's mind simply was enhanced or if a copy was made, that touches too closely on The Beyond which as other have noted will remain unknown. The Beyond will remain unknowable because making it defined would destroy his efforts to let various religions exist without intrinsically undermining the practitioners beliefs. Brandon has talked about the question of the continuity of self of Cognitive Shadows and alluded to similar philosophical debates from other fandoms. For example, if you step into a teleporter, what's to say that it's really the same person that comes out on the other side, particularly if they are broken down and transmitted as data? WoB below.

Yeah... if you need to soup up your Mistborn this much to stand a chance, you likely had sufficient time to design an expensive but far more replaceable missile to take down a F-15. Edit: I asked ChatGPT and designing a wingsuit to operate at Mach 2.5+ is orders of magnitude harder than designing an airplane to fly at Mach 3. The flight surfaces, shape, scale, heating, and more are all heavily against the wingsuit, with failure likely resulting in immediate death. Correcting for it would basically need a rather well known armor with strength enhancement from Roshar with several other Invested enhancements. In other debates we've looked at A-Bendalloy and F-Steel to reload after depleting metal reserves with Duralumin, but neither seem viable without extreme training or super specialized tech when traveling through the air at a minimum of Mach 1. A-Bendalloy only works to reload when you can remain mostly stationary relative to the bubble. Putting up a bubble a couple dozen feet across when you're moving well over 1,000 feet per second looks pretty useless to me. Yes, Slider Savants theoretically can anchor the bubble to themselves, but then the bubble has to resist Mach force winds trying to pass through the boundary as it hurtles through the sky - which might pop it anyway. Similarly, F-Steel doesn't look like it addresses the issue of getting the metal into the digestive system while under immense air ram pressure. Supersonic air resistance is a different beast compared to subsonic flight. The classic flattened teardrop if flown at super sonic speeds would tear apart due to the shockwaves and extreme drag, not just from heating from friction. Opening the wingsuit helmet and opening your mouth while traveling a supersonic speeds looks like it would be a lethal decision almost instanteously with the air ablating the eyes, nose, face, throat, and sending thousands of pounds of air pressure into your lungs and chest cavity, looks like a quick if messy way to die. Sure, Steelrunners can move fast, but somehow moving fast enough to not have the passing air damage the Mistborn would be an tremendous cost in Feruchemical Speed. Having to use Speed or Health to survive your basic maneuvering is an incredibly costly proposal, if it's even viable. I don't think most people would be strong enough to move their hand to their head while traveling at Mach 2+, and to really catch up to a fleeing F-15, you might need to have burned all your Pewter just to survive the launch. A modern fight I could see most of the Mistborn in the books considering without specialized equipment or prior preparation is taking on an assault helicopter. Lighter, slower, lower, and still dangerous, that might be a fight we see. Particularly if Brandon sticks to: (WoBs on future Mistborn books)

Uh... anyone here look up the specs for an F-15? I'm reading that their normal cruising speed is around Mach 0.9 - 1.2, at high altitude this jumps to Mach 2.5, unloaded they weigh at minimum 28,000 lbs (12,700 kg), and their combat flight time is around 1.5 hours, more if they can refuel in flight. As a reminder, the Malwish airship that Wax Pulled out of the sky using the Bands of Mourning was like a large hover carrier that flew based on weight reduction. Combined with the weight reduction of the crew, I can't even guess how little it weighed or how slow moving it was. I asked ChatGPT to give some estimates and for someone standing on the ground with binoculars to see a low altitude strafe. Assuming you are looking the right direction when it becomes visible 3 miles (4.8 km) away, you have slightly less than 12 seconds before it is already 3 miles past you the other way. You have maybe a 1-2 second engagement window for modern handheld weaponry. Don't forget that above Mach 1 you can't hear it coming, it's going faster than the sound wave and it's loud enough when passing over to leave your Tineyes stunned. Oh, and the Vulcan cannons often mounted on these have a 6,000 rpm firing rate with a optimal firing range of ¾ a mile (1200 m), along with air to surface missiles. That's if it decides to get as close as possible rather than keeping distance. In a straight fight, I'd say the Mistborn would need some highly specialized equipment and supplies to even remotely have a chance to bring down a F-15. Atium would be a huge help, possible required, and even then you need to get into proper firing position within the fraction of time that you can even detect the speck in the distance. The speed and scale we're talking is just hard to grasp. I'm not saying impossible, a Bendalloy speed bubble to slow down time to prep for the fly to ensure getting the timing right to use a planar directional Duralumin-enhanced Ironpull to yank it towards the ground might do the trick, but depending on what ordinance the F-15 fired, it still might end in a draw. If the pilot had enough missiles, it might never get close enough for the Mistborn to engage. Duralumin seems necessary to get the altitude and speed to chase one, and while we've theorized ways to allow for multiple rapid uses of Duralumin, we haven't ever seen it in play. There's a reason aircraft like this are invented and deployed despite the costs to manufacture and operate one. Flying a single F-15 for a single 1-1.5 hour mission costs more than an average U.S. school teacher's annual salary. Barring Godmetals, deploying a modern Mistborn won't come anywhere close to the same costs.

Oookay, DNA and sDNA. I think I need to make a reference to the greater Cosmere for hybrids as a starting pointing. Now let's talk about potential ramifications if Kandra can replicate another person down to the DNA, along with my usual disclaimer that I'm not an expert. First let's talk scale of both size and time. DNA is tiny, so tiny that the best electron microscopes we have can't resolve the specific nucleotide pairs, and instead we have to use methods like cutting the DNA at known junctures and comparing lengths of resulting chains or tagging them with radioactive indicators. For a normal human, the process where a cell will read DNA and copy it would be during the S phase of the cell cycle and this process usually takes about 6 to 8 hours to unzip and copy the 3 billion nucleotide pairs even with thousands of DNA polymerases operating in tandem. Compare that to a Kandra's full systemic transformation time of a couple hours down to several minutes. To me, that difference in speed seems well beyond what a modified organism can do and pretty much requires magic to be involved, though I'm not sure if Mistwraiths are abnormally Invested beyond their inaccessible Feruchemist heritage and their Blessings - with abilities that don't look like would accelerate the process to that extent. I've already noted how long it takes to do this organically. So... how could it be copied so fast? The degree of fidelity required to have identical DNA in every individual cell is orders of magnitude beyond the relatively macro scale of muscle and hair placement and shape with the Kandra's natural color changing ability to tint everything the correct shades. Furthermore, if a Kandra can imitate down to the level of the DNA, then I don't think there should be any reason that they couldn't make their own bones and hair from a biology standpoint. That seems to imply that there's a Cognitive or Spiritual aspect that blocks their ability to keratinize cells for hair or grow bones that presumably is passed on through sDNA. There's also no way of knowing how this hybridization would play out. Would they have skeleton with Kandra flesh like suggested by @DoctaDajman? Would they have a partially developed skeleton or no skeleton at all? Would their mind be stunted as is the case for Mistwraiths, requiring Hemalurgic spikes to bring them to sapience? How much of the body's structure would be human with the usual requirements to sustain life and how much would be a Kandra? Could the hybrid actual survive to birth? It doesn't seem to be a given. What happens if the one pregnant is a Kandra and transforms into a different animal, like a wolf hound or horse with an entirely different hormonal loadout? Does this open the door for Kandra hybrids with the animal kingdom like Ditto and most Pokemon? Here's the thing, because of the bone and hair limitation and required Hemalurgic Spikes, it's impossible for a Kandra to completely avoid detection, even if it can copy DNA. The spikes alone will get them flagged by security checkpoints like at an airport or important conventions, and a targeted and detailed autopsy will show that the bone marrow died long before the rest of the body. It's the child rearing aspect that really adds the complications. Having the underlying cell structure that can move around imitate another species seems like it would have much simpler ramifications, though aspects of those limitations are reminiscent of (cosmere spoilers). Even without specialized equipment, I just realized a fairly obvious way to tell if you're living with a Kandra - they won't shed. They can't afford to. Your dog, cat, bird, sister, uncle, etc. won't be leaving bits of their hair or equivalent everywhere they go, so clean the vacuum head regularly and check for any hair that should be there but isn't. Also, their hair won't grow so watch for coworkers that never get a haircut or develop 5 o'clock shadow. Yes there are ways around this for a Kandra, collect similar hair to distribute, but it would take a lot of attention to detail to slowly push out stubble over the course of a day and retract it at home as "shaving".

Uh... I'm not sure if we know enough about Kandra/Mistwraith or Lifeless physiology to say how it will interact with Hemalurgy. Each component seems like it has a potential failure point when interacting with the other except a living Kandra and Hemalurgy. We have at least this WoB that says that trying to Awaken a Lifeless Koloss won't work well. Hemalurgy is tearing apart souls and stapling them back together, Awakening is installing a counterfeit soul that presumably does not have the modifications seen in Hemalurgy. Hemalurgy requires contact with moving blood to function - the quirk that gives it the "hema" root. Lifeless have their blood drained and replaced with ichor alcohol - but I'm not sure if they need this or if it just extends the operating life, nor do I know if the dead heart can still push fluid through the circulatory system. Hemalurgists persist slightly longer in the transitional period after death which makes me think that there is something directly that is lost with death that sustains the soul for a longer period. Let's also address if Lifeless can eat and still use a digestive system. They don't need to eat, but can they eat anyway? Let's not forget that Kandra generally need to eat a target in order to imitate it other than the extremely skilled and practiced. Directly related to this is the question of changes of mass of a Lifeless if a Kandra needs to imitate anyone significantly larger or smaller than their current form. How would that work? Could a Lifeless Kandra shapeshift and heal? Last question, though perhaps the most pressing. How exactly do you kill a Kandra while leaving a corpse? They're shapeshifting blobs with incredible regeneration capabilities and fluid Spiritwebs. I'm not even convinced that slashing one in half with a Shardblade would leave a corpse. Apparently it's debatable if an Elantrian can kill a Kandra considering Riina from TotES kept around acid just for Ulaam. I can think of precisely one Kandra corpse in a state suitable to be Awakened and that was Paalm committing suicide. Kind of an odd exception that one. All in all, it seems less likely to work. I do wonder if trying to "Awaken" a Mistwraith will have it try to shape itself to the surrogate soul. Perhaps a certain Scadrian that we think stapled his soul to Mistwraith that ate his bones didn't need to try very hard to get to shape itself to his original form.