Duxredux

Hum... I'm going off the top of my head, from what I remember in the books... Safe hand is pretty big, considering Kaladin's reaction to seeing one while helping in his father's surgery as a youth. Ialai Sadeas when trying to talk Dalinar into marrying Evi noted that the Riri go around half clothed, which may or may not be related to the bag they were having her wear on her safe hand while she was trying to eat at the negotiation banquet for the Plate. I think Shallan also makes note of necklines... The design of the Havah probably says a lot about what is considered modest. From the Coppermind: https://coppermind.net/wiki/File:Vorin_Havah.jpg Not that I've studied this at all, but to an extent what is considered culturally modest I suspect is what diverges from what is functional for the climate and region in addition to historical and often religious factors. The seafaring Thaylen merchants are more relaxed on Vorin codes likely for the need for every member on a sailing ship that is draining food and water to also crew the ship. The less modest gloves instead of extended sleeves is a practical solution, same with the men learning to read should the women fall ill or be incapacitated. Let's look at climate. For cold regions where covering up is practical, it may be a relatively small step to diverge from what is practical to attract attention and by extension be considered unmodest. Showing calves, knees, shoulders, midriffs, or more during a blizzard will be unusual and draw attention. In contrast, in a tropical climate like the Reshi isles, fully encompassing clothing may be impractical. To reference Warbreaker, The Alethi seem to be more exposed to the Highstorms and border the Frostlands. Seems like a recipe for a windy and cold climate which may explain the enveloping Havah.

Bit late to the party. We're talking mandatory relinquishing a chunk of soul to the government? Looking at some of today's cultures and governments, I'd put the low end around the same age if not a bit after the age a country might set a military draft (which for some coincides with voting). Risking life and limb for the country isn't all that different from giving up a piece of soul for the country. If someone is drafted into the military, fighting and traveling without a compromised immune system seems pretty important - and if your buddy gets killed in combat the one-to-one Breath to Lifeless Command could be really handy in the field. For that matter, I could see giving up Breath as a way to opt out of military service by supplying the resources to make a Lifeless fight in your place should the need arise. Considering what Lifeless can do for the economy and military, I'm not actually convinced that a country requiring giving up Breaths will be solely exploitative. On the note of exploitation, I personally would advocate banning the sale of the Breaths of children since that opens a huge can of worms. When a child's Breath can support a family for a year, nefarious adoption, kidnapping, and coercion become much more viable methods to get a lot of money. On the upper end, retirement is a product of developed country with the industrialization, medical, and agricultural advancements that permit a significant unemployed populace. Not sure where Nalthis will land on that since Lifeless will skew so much of that, but retirement for the general population is a luxury afforded by developed countries. If we're looking to optimize for quality of life with the Breath while retaining as many Breaths as possible, then we'd probably look at putting the age at the median of life expectancy or retirement, whichever comes earlier. Not average, median. Giving up the Breath at retirement only works if a significant portion of the population consistently survives to retire - otherwise the system you're describing is "mandatory give up your Breath if you happen to live long enough to not need it anymore" which is a different proposal. This is different from Mistborn spoilers:

If you're concerned about this, you might as well look at what Brandon has said on the subject. He doesn't portray mental illness lightly and thinks hard about how it will be received. He's consulted with people with DID with where he has taken Shallan. Perhaps the most important note is that Shallan is not meant to be a general portrayal - and the magical components to her trauma and coping strategies lend to this. For example, he's said that just because Veil was incorporated does not mean that Radiant will as well. WoBs condensed in spoiler:

Doubles as an airhole for the helmet I would assume. I'm guessing fully sealing off the helmet wouldn't have enough airflow through the neck and shoulder joints for the heavy exercise of fighting. Presumably the Radiants wouldn't want to use Stormlight instead of oxygen every time they donned their armor or make it impossible for a non-Radiant to wear the Plate. I could also see it allowing Radiants to draw Stormlight from external sources when perhaps the Plate itself would interfere from their ability to breathe in Stormlight at a distance. We see with Kaladin jumping towards the Parshendi how useful that can be. We also know that dead Shardblades, even if they had been generally been used in other forms in life, retain their archetypal shape of oversized Shardblade as they were patterned off of the Honorblades. As far as I can tell, there doesn't seem to be a Honorblade equivalent to Shardplate, with the closest possible option the Plate found by Cord reserved for a long time for guardians of the Dawnshard protected by the Siah Aimians. Even so, there probably is still an archetypal armor that all Shardplate is derived from, perhaps in the same way that humanity is derived from the Yolish design. I would guess this Plate design had the eyeslit. In fact, Shardplate seem to only have the slot design, holes were nixed from the art side for a specific as yet unstated reason.

We know that Hemalurgy can be activated at a distance, since thrown spikes and spike guns will work when launched with the proper Intent. We also have the case when Spook was given A-Pewter from a soldier who almost certainly did not know what he was doing when moved by Ruin who provided the Intent to both harvest and grant Hemalurgic power. To further set the stage for my hypothesis, Hemalurgy was largely unknown during Classical Scadrial and piercings were seen as a way to communicate with divinity (which as we know would have been Ruin back then). Even back then, Feruchemy would have been largely restricted to the insular Terris. The Southern Scadrians are descendents of these Classical Scadrians, put at the South pole as a control group should TLR's genetic modifications fail. There they remained until the Catecendre where they began to freeze to death until Kelsier showed up. Kelsier established the Firemothers and Firefathers and pulled the southerners back from the edge of extinction. He gave them the Excisors and the methodology to make Unsealed Metalminds. At some point after Kelsier left, the Malwish began experimenting and learned how to make multiple ability medallions. Intent and belief are powerful factors in the Cosmere. You have to know what a Unsealed Metalmind is to access it. You need to know what you are doing and have the proper Intent to utilize Hemalurgy. To cite examples from other series: Here's my hypothesis. What would happen if someone (Kelsier) were to found a religion that stated that only priests with delegated "divine" authority from a deity (the Sovereign) could use these metal spikes called Excisors to capture the pieces of divinity in the Metalborn? Let's say that initially Kelsier uses his own eyespike as an example and spikes a Rioter and grants them F-Brass to create the first Firemother or Firefather. Then he performs some sort of showy ritual delegating power and commands a priest to spike someone as well. If Kelsier as the observer Intends for that spike to become a Hemalurgic spike, and gave the orders to the individual who knows nothing of the mechanics, would it still be Hemalurgically charged, considering the known scenarios in the starting paragraph? Once the priest succeeds in their first Hemalurgic operation would the simple belief that they were given authority be sufficient Intent to allow them to do it again? Follow up question, would the reverse be true, that someone not with delegated authority who believed in that divine authorization be entirely unable to utilize Hemalurgy so long as they believed it? Add in tenets that regulate how and for what purpose that Excisors can be used, and do you potentially have a religion and a people who have been given the power of Hemalurgy but can only use it in a strictly beneficial manner as dictated by the Sovereign? We know Kelsier is a diva, and he already started one religion deifying him - but the whole purpose was to give the Skaa an alternative religion to the Steel Ministry and to rebel against TLR. When confronted by his first crew concerned with the religion he was establishing, that he was really trying to make himself wealthy, that's when he took them to see the executions and that they were flat out wrong about him. I find myself wondering if he established a second religion not to deify himself and gain power but for a carefully considered and calculated purpose. The question is how do you give a people Hemalurgy who need the power to survive and accept the need for human sacrifice without giving them the tools to destroy themselves or make another Steel Ministry? How to pull a people from the edge of extinction and to do whatever was necessary to survive? Considering Kel's conversations with Sazed about what let the old religions fight against TLR, I suspect religion was again Kelsier's solution.

Are we talking Era 2 or 3? To me it looked like the immenent nuking of Elendel was a time that Kel fully committed his available resources and personnel to counteract the Set, given the risk that he was coming back to a smoldering crater. His authorization of the Unkeyed Dor and the overt attack by Twinsoul and Moonlight would fit that. I may have missed them, but I didn't see indications that any of the senators stepped forward and helped much at all when what I assume were the other Ghostblood operatives reporting to Steris during the disaster relief efforts. If Kelsier has extensive plants in the senate, they were pretty useless in a crisis or informing him of Set plans. If we assume that the Ghostbloods do control the government, it begs the question of if Kel wanted the Basin civil war (which seems very unlikely to me) or if he was simply out played by the Set. As for this list @Oltux72: Options 1 and 3 aren't sustainable for public officials in highly visible roles. Option 1 is horrendously expensive, difficult to recover resources should they defect, and if they actually are given what you suggest, someone will eventually notice either the visual clues to the bribe or that they aren't changing the way they ought to. The offer of option 3 pretty much disqualifies them from sitting on in important senate meetings if they are out world hopping right? As for option 2, as far as I know the Ghostbloods haven't devised Hemalurgic spikes that are charged by any method other than the standard, so offering politicians chunks of community member souls for their own gain would only work on the worst and most corrupt (or horribly ill informed). Beyond that, what you are describing just doesn't mesh with how he operated in TFE to me. Assuming Kel is trying to operate by the same rules that he did with his first crew, he tries to recruit good people that want to make good changes, and at least his Scadrian chapter with Moonlight and Twinsoul seem to fit that pattern. He's not working with a group with a predisposition to hate Scadrian nobility, and I don't think Twinsoul at least would agree to the blackmail, bribes, and extortion that you are suggesting. Trust is a huge component of Kelsier's crews and operation style. He places people he trusts in positions that he needs them in, and when people turn him down he doesn't kill them to keep his secrets (Clubs and Marasi). I'm also still not convinced that Kelsier is amassing power for power's sake, political, religious, or otherwise. If he was, why step down as the Soveriegn, why hide away the Bands of Mourning at that elaborate temple, and why remain anonymous when he is worshipped as a major religious figure in the North? Kel actually has a better track record than most when it comes to giving power away to people he believes can do a better job than him. Look at his first plan to over throw the Luthadel government and later giving up Preservation to Vin. It wouldn't surprise me if the religious aspect in the South was partially to get the Malwish to accept Hemalurgy as a method of survival as well as obfuscation.

So... by my understanding, heat is the amount of kinetic energy stored within a system in the form of the vibration of the molecules within the system. What is perceived as "warmer" or "colder" is simply the transfer of that energy between systems with higher and lower energy. This makes more sense when you look at the Kelvin scale and the theoretical absolute zero, which is in theory where there is no molecular movement whatsoever. Thermal expansion for example is due to an increase in this molecular vibration. The ways that heat moves through the system is conduction, convection, and radiation (though I'll add in that energy can also be released or absorbed through chemical and physical state changes). When we think of heat sensors or IR vision, what is happening is that as matter heats up (or vibrates faster) it begins to emit photons, generally in the infrared side of the spectrum. When something is incandescent, such as old lightbulbs, the sun, or fire, the radiation emitted extends into the visible spectrum. This raditation strikes other objects and transfers its "kinetic" energy into the vibration of the object. This radiation to me is more about the transfer of heat and a byproduct of how infrared radiation is generated by molecular movement, rather than the kinetic energy stored within the molecular structure. This is why many physics problems with inelastic collisions generally assume that losses are absorbed by heat. This also explains why someone on YouTube tried to cook a turkey by slapping it... because Youtube. The kinetic energy is absorbed as heat. Let's talk about striking a match. When someone drags a match across a strike strip, the rapid kinetic strikes at the microscopic level due to the unevenness of the surfaces converts your large scale kinetic movement into heat, or the kinetic energy of the molecules vibrating in the match. The molecules in the coating on the match head vibrate faster and faster, expanding further and further until the molecular bonds can break down, which is the point known as activation energy, and the chemical reaction of the match head begins and extends to the wood of the match. Hydrocarbons in the match are vibrating fast enough that when they collide with oxygen molecules, the original bonds break down and energy is released in the form of light and heat, the process known as combustion, and the atoms reconfigure into the lower energy molecular states of water and carbon dioxide. What I'm not sure about is if Feruchemy is storing the body's ability to generate heat, or if it's storing the kinetic energy of the body's molecules. I can get where @Quantus is coming from for the first, but unless I'm really missing something, that doesn't necessarily have to be how it works for weight storage since the body isn't really generating weight... right? Unless I'm mistaken, the distinction is relevant in two major ways. If it stores the body's ability to generate heat, this may severely reduce the ability of a Firesoul Ferring to withstand high temperatures if their body would burn even if the cells stopped producing any heat whatsoever, say if the Ferring stepped into lava or a fire. The other case is that it may severely limit the way that Feruchemical brass works for mechanical devices. A spaceship is not a warm blooded mammal, so would F-Brass only work when personally worn by the crew and the spaceship itself is limited to conventional methods for heating and cooling?

I'll throw this out there. I cook for friends and family with a variety of allergies including potatoes, rice, corn, black pepper, gluten (and celiac), milk, onion, garlic, olives, nuts, and tree nuts. Some gatherings are really hard to make meals for that everyone can eat without having to make more than 4 versions of a single dish, but considering some cases are anaphylactic, I often need to make everything from scratch. Surprisingly, ChatGPT does a pretty remarkable job a making meal recommendation with the allergens in mind - though as with everything that is produced by generative AI, double check it and ideally compare it with an existing and trusted recipe. It even went so far as to list off brands of dairy free alternatives along with ingredient information if it was available based on the region I gave it. Sometimes it will check recipes and give recommendations on how to accommodate allergies by breaking down steps. For example, making BBQ pulled pork sandwiches and serving it on the appropriate bun to accommodate the gluten allergies. An obvious step perhaps, but it was nice to see it didn't filter out the recipe. If there are other people out there who also have allergies that mean they can't eat most sauces or seasonings (our culprit is high fructose corn syrup), I find that it's well worth the time cooking up the sauce in bulk and going back to it over a year. I've done this for teriyaki sauce, Worchestershire sauce, and a couple others that often have gluten or corn. A lot of Chinese and Japanese dishes can be made to accommodate celiac restrictions if you get gluten-free soy sauce. If there's meals or foods that people have been missing due to an allergy, feel free to tag me and I'll see if I can come up with alternative methods. I'm a decent chef, not spectacular, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to help with anything too elaborate.

Learning to fly with Iron seems significantly harder than with Steel, mostly because emergency maneuvering is so much more complicated. If you accidentally fling yourself to a space with minimal anchors, a Coinshot can just drop a clip and use that to land safely, but a Lurcher doesn't have luxury. A Lurcher needs either something overhead or opposing lateral anchors to suspend themselves. In a similar manner utilizing an anchor as a Coinshot is much less risky, where if the anchor is not stable lift will be lost and then just go into standard emergency maneuvering. As a Lurcher though, misjudging the stability of an anchor will yank a projectile toward you, meaning you need to find an alternative anchor really quickly. Actually... as I think about it, I think I'm too used to Coinshots finding specific anchors with which to Push off of to make precise leaps. I think Lurchers would instead try to Pull on multiple targets to minimize their weight on each one and allow them to adjust on the fly if an individual anchor is not solid. Keeping constant access to solid anchors seems much more important for flying as a Lurcher. I do think that "slingshot" maneuvers would be the best bet to get a lot of momentum, but there isn't a reason you need to be pulling towards only a target. For the original scenario of driving along a freeway and utilizing light and power poles, if the power poles were parallel pairs I would likely position myself closer to the center of the freeway (probably between the two flows of traffic) and Pulling on light poles from both sides, like an elastic slingshot as opposed to a centrifugal slingshot. Really, what would make this easier is if the urban environment was designed for Lurchers and Coinshots. Come Era 3, this probably wouldn't be too hard. It may even be cheaper than Allomancers resorting to using environmental objects that aren't designed to withstand the kind of forces that kind of jarring will give.

Don't see why not. Spiritual Realm is location independent unlike the Cognitive and Physical Realms. We know that Soulcasting works in an Aluminum box thanks to the siege of Kholinar. Gemstones are still illuminated within the Aluminum lined room (Oathbringer chapter 81). Infused gems give off light because the gem acts like a light bulb screwed into the Spiritual Realm, not because Stormlight is leaking out. We see this with the King's Drop and the other perfect gemstones in Lasting Integrity. Clearly those gems still have access to the SR, so Dalinar or another Bondsmith should as well.

A big caveat here that may complicate the spike gun is if the Hemalurgic property of Aluminum only functions with pure Aluminum. I assume Hemalurgy follows the same alloy ratios that Allomancy uses, and that effectiveness diminishes with varying alloys. The Aluminum bullets the Set had created were not pure Aluminum but an alloy designed for better ballistic properties while retaining immunity to Pushes and Pulls. If you are required to use the proper alloy ratios for Hemalurgy, that means pure Aluminum, which would be a much lighter and easily deformed bullet with poorer range and penetration - as Wax notes when discussing the Vanisher's ammo with Ranette. Modern bullet proof vests should handle pure aluminum small arms fire just fine. If you're using heavy weapons, then it becomes a question of whether Aluminum with its drawbacks is a better option than conventional ammo or AP rounds - particularly if you're going with the spray and pray approach. Sure Invested defenses may not handle Aluminum as well, but conventional defenses should do just fine.

Considering how nitpicky I get sometimes, I shouldn't complain. Let's rephrase that to "Soulcasters can't create God metals without it being prohibitively expensive, requiring more juice than can be supplied by Dalinar's Perpendicularity." A lot of these will have asterisks, since Brandon could technically say yes, a Soulcaster can make God metals - if Ascended at the time - and still technically be truthful. Throw enough Investiture at anything, and of course the rules change, hence why he makes these kinds of statements: My point about power consumption remains, that Aluminum is not prohibitively expensive to make, and so is almost certainly not Investiture manifested in a physical form.

I had a very similar theory when I first joined the Shard, so you're definitely starting to piece things together. Notably the part in ES where they believed Ralkalest to be pieces of a dying god was where I started thinking about it. Nowadays, I would be very surprised if Aluminum wasn't what it apparently says on the cover, namely that it is an element comprised of 13 protons, 13 electrons, and around the same number of neutrons that happens to have interesting properties in the Cosmere due to the interaction (or lack thereof) with Investiture. I'll see if I can dig up that old post, but until then, here's some of the points that lead me to think that Aluminum is not a Godmetal for Adonalsium or Ambition. Aluminum on Scadrial has been harvested in a couple of ways that would seem very unusual if it were formed via Perpendicularity. Era 1 it was harvested from the inside of the ashmounts. Era 2 they have figured out electrolysis to produce Aluminum. I'd need a really good explanation for why a Godmetal can be made with such mundane processess. One of the reasons why Ralkalest is a name for Aluminum and has been seen on a couple worlds is because the name Ralkalest is Yolish in origin. I may be extrapolating a bit far from this, but I assume that if Ralkalest was Adonalsium's godmetal that there would probably be some sort of linguistic connection between the two names, but I don't see any sort of relationship between the two terms. This also is why I don't think it's pieces of Ambition either. Third reason, though this is getting into TLM era, is that they are learning more advanced methods of elemental classification and technology. Wax has a spectrometer that lets him identify metals and godmetals alike by specroscopic analysis. His big clue that Trellium was a Godmetal was that it produced effects impossible for normal elements, sending the meter clear off the scale - as it did for Harmonium. I would assume that Scadrian scientists in the big scramble to classify everything would have tested all of the basic stuff, and Aluminum for its value would have definitely been tested. If Aluminum had Godmetal spectral properties, Wax almost certainly would have known. Come Era 3, if Aluminum did have this property, there's no way it wouldn't be known. We also know that Soulcasters can produce Aluminum, but can't Soulcast it into something else once it is made. We also know that Soulcasters can't create Godmetals, the Investiture messes that kind of thing up. WoBs in the spoiler to make them compact. What makes a Godmetal a Godmetal is that it is Investiture manifested in a physical form. It has greater "energy" than standard matter and is one of the reasons that it is valuable in the first place (energy is a term I'm using loosely since Investiture is technically not matter or energy since it's the third component that is natural within the Cosmere). I make the assumption that an anti-Adonalsium would need a similar ballpark of power and scale to be on equal footing, but it doesn't look to me like aluminum fits that bill. Yes, the property of Aluminum makes it a prime tool for hazekilling (killing Invested people), but it is made so mundanely that I don't see it having the necessary power/energy/Investiture to make it the substance of Shards or something on the scale of Adonalsium. Natural elements can seemlingly defy reason, like how pure potassium can ignite in humid air. We are not used to blocks of metal seemingly spontaneously igniting, but it can happen under the proper circumstances. As for Hoid being Adonalsium's Cognitive Shadow, Hoid was born on Yolen before the Shattering (as you noted). I don't see how this lets him be Adonalsium without some really weird hijinks. His immortality I believe comes from his former status as a holder of a Dawnshard. As for this WoB: This part of him no longer being entirely human extends to quite a few other entities in the Cosmere that perhaps fit a similar bill. Lift, Steel Inquisitors, and likely other former Dawnshards. Presumably Nomad in TSM also fits this bill. It wouldn't surprise me at all if a fair chunk of 17th Shard joined because we started putting this together and came to similar hypotheses. We certainly have a lot of the WoBs regarding Hoid because people were trying to figure this kind of thing out. Well done!

I'm not surprised that there is another character in media with the title Pursuer with similar attributes. The name is meant to evoke the fear of being chased or hunted, and it wouldn't be much of a pursuer if it was weak or too slow to catch the player. Pursuit to me has a more individualized connotation than simply being hunted. A hunter will get prey where it can, while someone in pursuit is chasing a specific target to the exclusion of another agenda. That wouldn't really be conveyed by a random mook that gets one-shot or a villain-of-the-week that shows up once. I would guess that both Brandon and the Dark Souls team came upon the name "Pursuer" either initially as a name that fit an existing enemy and then fleshed out the design to evoke a similar fear of being pursued.

Well... We have Tarson who was Koloss-blooded and a Pewterarm. Had ritualistic Survivorist scars to boot. Hemalurgy probably isn't too far off from religious cutting. If we're talking fully spiked Koloss, @DoctaDajman is right to wonder if Koloss would remember how to use Allomantic abilities. As for who would willingly accept Hemalurgy, nowadays IRL people get piercings all over the place for simple fashion or self-expression. Getting superpowers is probably just a bonus for some. The line would probably be drawn at the more invasive spikes, like eye spikes.

Depends on who is doing it unfortunately. Hallendren officials were torturing Vahr while he was stripped and suspended from the ceiling. Chemical levers probably would have been applied had they been available. We know that to an extent they can still work as Lemex held enough Breath to resist most diseases and Denth was still able to poison him. Nalthian rights might end up with specific exceptions for highly dangerous and Invested beings. Pyramid schemes are way more dangerous when Breath is involved. No idea how it will shake out, IRL doesn't have anything quite like Breath.

At any rate, when Ruin controls Inquisitors he can force them to talk, and use both Allomancy and Feruchemy. Similarly, Vin was able to force Human the Koloss to show her how Koloss are made - even without knowing the specifics. At a lower drug level, Wayne was able to still use his healing abilities even when doing his best to drink himself into a stupor prior to visiting Allriandre Durkel. All in all, if you convince the target that they want to do what you say, through Hemalurgic control, emotional Allomancy, drinking them into a stupor or another method, then yes, it seems that they would still be able to use Invested abilities. Forcing someone in this way may have consequences within the Cosmere not seen IRL, like cracking of the soul, but it would vary on method.

Long term? No idea. I can think of some potent combinations though. Take Pewterarm/Skimmer. Usually when a Ferring stores weight, they become weaker as they become lighter. Pewter would greatly offset this, though I don't know to the extent. No idea if we're talking "leap tall buildings in a single bound". A Pewterarm using Parkour with reduced weight and dropping punches or kicks with sudden bursts of weight could be more devastating than most builds. I'm not sure who I would put my money on between this and double Pewter when you can jump on someone with the weight of a building concentrated into a single foot. A-Pewter and F-Gold would also be an incredibly potent combination as they would be almost impossible to bring down. A slow Pewterburn should offset a lot of the weakness and unpleasantness of active storage so I would expect typically fuller Goldminds than other Bloodmakers. Since A-Pewter reinforces the body, they will take less damage that requires healing in the first place. Some of Vin's stunts of shattering weapons swung at her by flaring her Pewter at the right moment would be far less costly. The con is it would be very dangerous to get complacent about getting hit.

Looks like I have to make an apology, correction, and retraction. Full Feruchemist is used in Era 2 in BoM when they are discussing Identity experimentation with VenDell in BoM. Looks like it's canon folks, and I agree on using it to reduce ambiguity. I assume the terminology for Ferring, Fetuchemist, and Full Feruchemist is as @robardin describes, but ironically not how "Metalborn" is used. On the subject of ambiguity and changing tetminology, Metalborn is not only applied to Allomamcers and Feruchemists but also Kandra. In BoM, Wax invites VenDell on their expedition, stating they could use an extra Metalborn. So... I think Metalborn are someone with powers from any of the Metallic Arts including Hemalurgy. Which makes sense within the usage of Wax and Wayne beating up Set grunts and not bothering to differentiate if their powers were gained through birth or Hemalurgy. When the Coinshot/Leecher/Seeker/Duralumin Gnat is trying to kill Wax, it does and doesn't matter which of the powers were natural or granted. Also, considering those Duralumin abilities are anything but useless, we'll see if they keep the term "gnat" in later eras for one born with a seemingly useless power. That said, with the discussion of TLR and the Bands of Mourning, I do not find the term Fullborn. It used in two WoBs by fans who clarify the term so Brandon has heard it and once in the Coppermind in the "Final Empire" article, but I don't think I've seen Dragonsteel use the term. @Treamayne, could I ask you to do a quick ebook search for the term? If it is the term we can add it to the Coppermind or correct that article.

@Ale the Metallic Conjurer and @Treamayne, regarding when the Atium-electrum cycle ended, I think the point is moot because Sazed modified the Pits of Hathsin anyway and moved the natural points of Investiture accumulation a continent away. We know from TenSoon in SoS that Sazed deliberately modified the Pits of Hathsin to have bioluminescent fungus so that no one would ever have to crawl through them in darkness again. We also know from HoA epigraphs that Sazed was aware that Perpendicularities were movable as Rashek had relocated the Well of Ascension to Kredik Shaw. My extrapolated assumption is that Sazed would not have been unattentive about the location of his new Perpendicularity that produces Ettmetal. Presumably its location is not casual as it seems to be on the southern continent being harvest by the Malwish. Actually, considering the stuff explodes on contact with humid air, it wouldn't surprise me if Sazed intentionally put Ettmetal into a cycle that produced it in a way that could be safely harvested and utilized, as opposed to being a periodic exploding natural disaster. He almost certainly did not go with the crystal and geode setup from Hathsin.

The way that I understand Soul Stamps and Essence Marks is a substantially different take than what you're describing. I think Shai's Identity had barely anything at all to do with the Essence Mark she designed for Ashravan or the dozens if not hundreds she tested on Gaotona. Make Shai a Feruchemist and have her Blank her Identity, and she probably would just get worse at her job, not let her make a stamp detailing the soul of the Emperor of the Rose Empire that will work on anyone. I don't think Stamps are quite "keyed" in the same way that other Investitures are Identity locked. What you are asking is more like... asking a programmer to blank their Identity and then write code that works as-is on any software or progamming language. It's the code and carving that is matched to the target, not the programmer or Forger. I assume the question is: "can you make Essence Marks that work on a general population?" Let's look at what we know. In TES, Shai already knew that a male Grand familiar with Ashravan would temporarily be modified by stamps designed for Ashravan. Familiarity allowed the Stamps to briefly change Gaotona's soul. By TLM, Shai had progressed to "universal" stamps for use on specific applications. These were for things like restoring damaged objects or creating a temporary door. Non-living objects, which are much easier to modify than a living being. Essence Marks would be a logical next step, one we have not yet seen. To a certain extent, the stamps that Shai used on Gaotona were Essence Marks, just limited in scope. Making a universal Essence Mark would probably have to capture aspects of the mortal existence that either everyone has experienced or is closely connected to someone who has. Drawing it in with greater specificity, perhaps making "universal" Essence Marks for specific planets, peoples, professions, etc. might work but they will never be as effective or long lasting as one custom made. I do wonder if Resealers (Flesh Forgers) have some more generalized stamps, since I can't see it being useful if they have to carve out in precise detail every single injury. that seems like it would be practically useless as emergency treatment. Not first aid, but secondary care. I have had one other idea for "universal" stamps, but it's hypothetical and it involves actively doing something to the target that would create an immediate history that the Stamp can utilize. It's a thread from a couple years ago. It's less useful if you want a universal stamp that transforms anyone into a soldier or a carpenter.

Okay, let's break these down. There are presumably natural limits on the speed and power output of Awakened objects. For example, there isn't a particularly meaningful reason to have ropes acting as siege engines limit their output. The Law of BioChromatic Parallelism indicates that it isn't the number of Breaths that determine the strength of an Awakened object, as a handkerchief cut in the shape of square will require more Breaths to Awaken than one cut in the shape of a person, but will perform the same function once Awakened. I assume that this is a generalized statement, and does not include extreme cases like Nightblood. In other words, Breath count doesn't seem to significantly affect the function of the Awakened object. Tapping Speed during the act of Awakening will let you rapidly modify whatever loadout you are currently using for Awakening in addition making it difficult or impossible for opponents to hear what Commands you are using. Unless you are consciously or subconsciously limiting the output of the Awakened object and tapping Speed lets you remove that reduction, I don't see why tapping Speed would make the Breaths move the object any faster. Pretty sure you can't Command a stick to yeet someone at Mach 1 and have it work, even if you ask nicely or can run that fast yourself. What tapping Speed will let you do after you have Awakened your objects is capitalize on the strength enhancement Awakened clothing gives you at the top speed of the clothing. As noted, Awakened objects can move significantly faster than unenhanced humans. This will let you more seamlessly encorporate the enhancement into your own accelerated movement so long as you don't exceed the Awakened clothes. As for the Bendalloy question, if you're asking if mental or verbal Awakening will cross a speed bubble, I'm guessing either no or not significantly. Coinshot Steel lines and emotional Allomancy are disrupted by speed bubbles, and those operate by Spiritual Realm Connection and Cognitive broadcasting respectively, which seems at least in the same ballpark as ranged Awakening. Even if the mental Commands could do what Allomancy can't, the Breath would still have to pass through the boundary of the bubble and through normal time to the target. It wouldn't surprise me if the Awakener was too powerful and tried to force it, they would just pop the bubble and dump themselves into normal time.

There's a point of diminishing returns in modern Hemalurgy that was not present during Era 1. Ruin stretched the limits on the extent that humans could be warped by his power allowing dozens of spikes to be implanted. After the Catacendre, the human soul cannot be distorted to the same extent as the old Inquisitors, barring hypothetical interference from another Shard. The soul simply stops accepting powers from addition spikes (TLM arcanum) In other words, modern Hemalurgists have a limited number of "power slots" even without the Flaw becoming an issue. I don't know the exact number of slots, but choosing A-Copper solely for the dampening effect may not be worth it, particularly as it would require you to burn it 24/7 to be safe(r).

Yup, as @Treamayne talked about, their terminology is changing. We started with Feruchemist because that was synonymous with what you would like to call a Full Feruchemist. That was the case from Classical Scadrial up to the Catacendre because there was no division in the powers. "Full" Feruchemist would have been a meaningless and redundant term which would have made no sense to Scadrians or arcanists. By Era 2, the distinction is also moot. They don't have anything beyond Ferrings, so a "Feruchemist" is still someone who has Feruchemical abilities. They haven't had to make a distinction since there is no living and active Feruchemist with all 16 abilities (excluding Sazed) so the terminology hasn't had to change. As the population continues to grow and they have to make more frequent and important distinctions, I expect the terminology to also develop. I wrote a longer post on a related topic covering not just Feruchemy, but Hemalurgy and Medallion tech as well here: There's a lot that we don't have canonized terms for yet, and this is one of them. Should we as fans devise our own and Brandon canonizes a different term, we will have to unlearn it. Just like we would for the term "Fullborn" should Brandon create another person with access to the full suite of Allomantic and Feruchemical abilities. To be clear, I also generally say "Full Feruchemist" when I want to reduce ambiguity, but I'm not going to try to finalize or vote on it. That's Brandon's call, not 17th Shard.

I dunno, if it's easier for the nex-im to grow their hair into clothes than bring along a pair of pants, I have a hard time thinking it's as simple as swallowing something. That said, let's examine what happens when the nex-im teleport. They start by ejecting a red light from their body which flies to a new location. The previous body crumbles into dust. The light flies to a new location and they utilize Voidlight to create a new body for the light to inhabit. Presumably they have some degree of control over the form their body takes, considering the long hair for clothing and carapace used as weapons. This is different from the other applications of the Surge of Transportation that we've seen and I'll lay them out. Elsecalling by creating a mini-Perpendicularity allows someone to transition between the Cognitive and Physical Realms along with carried objects and other people. There seems to be no geographic displacement, only Realmic transition. The spren of Oathgates work by pairs, allowing Realmic transition in addition to swapping a defined volume between Oathgates. This is faster than light travel. The cost in Stormlight increases with the number of people and objects being transported. They use Spiritual Realm shenanigans to this, no idea if this is transporting them through the Spiritual Realm using the Connection between the Oathgates as an intermediary or what, though that is my guess. The nex-im by contrast seem to become spren-like, moving like Syl and being constrained by physical objects like being unable to slip through small gaps. This puts them as still within the Physical Realm, but perhaps not entirely so like the Radiant spren. Note, that the whole body does not get transformed into light, it leaves a husk which crumbles away. It looks like they eject their soul from their body, fly around mostly in the Physical Realm, before recreating their body from Voidlight. Many of the Brands of the Fused have a passive ability that takes no Voidlight to use and an active ability that drains their Voidlight. The example of the shanay-im or Heavenly Ones that can fly indefinitely but can burn Light to Lash objects or people. My guess is that the nex-im can travel in their spren-like form indefinitely but that it takes Voidlight to create a new body. All in all, I have two main guesses for the answer to this question. Option 1, is that the nex-im each time they teleport grow a new body from the Spiritual template. Anything that was affecting the original body gets left behind. We talk a lot about Identity and healing, but I'm still of the opinion that you have to have more than a few screws loose to look at the big ol' sword sticking out of your forearm and legimately think"Yup, this is normal. This is exactly what me and my arm are supposed to be like." while ignoring the pain. I'm still not sold on if you can reform it as part of you, considering General Cosmere Spoilers not including TLM and WAT: Guess two is that the Voidlight cost to bring anything else besides themselves might be prohibitively expensive. Okay, maybe a random steel dagger, but definitely not something highly Invested that can't be used as fuel, like a Shardblade or Stormlight infused spheres. If it did work like you say, there will be an increased cost to use transportation for each additional weapon or object they bring that has to be reformed from Voidlight.