DiePie

I would think a bigger problem would be that your standard ICBM is travelling 6-7 km every second, so how Jasnah would hone in on that would be a bigger issue.

I have a better Idea about defeating Elantris, 10 million highly trained and heavily armed Soldiers. Lets say that Elantris gets to a population of about 10,000 by the time the invasion begins, If the average Elantrian can kill, say, 100 soldiers before being hit by a bullet or falling to fatigue, we're still left with 9 million soldiers. Not only is that not all of the world's military might (the US could supply that on its own), what we did send in is mostly still intact, and pure infantry nevertheless. If we need to, we can bunker down and make their life worse than that of a WW1 soldier with rockets and artillery. Let's see how they deal with an endless horde of soldiers coming in from every direction with PTSD (Shell Shock) and sleep deprivation while having to constantly watch for artillery shells or missiles/bombs. While trying to neutralize AonDor is stupid, nuking Elantris would still kill 99% of all of the AonDor users, while completely decimating their command structure. Let's say that we have to face 3 Fullborn fighting in Scadrial (Kelsier, Marsh, and some random person holding the Bands of Mourning). How long can they fight before it starts to get to them? They would still have to store up feruchemical powers (or maybe not depending on how much more they know about the nature of Identity, but that only means that it takes longer to kill them), even with Fullborn, the Scadrian army would collapse nearly immediately (anything they would scratch up would disintegrate against relatively well trained and well-armed Terran soldiers), which would leave the Fullborn almost completely alone. So how long would it take before the effects of a long, drawn-out war get to them? Perhaps they could burn their own identity to keep themselves sane, but they would have to stop and store it sometimes. How long before one of them snaps or makes a mistake and gets killed from a well-placed nuke or napalm blast? Do we know how much gold Scadrial has? Because in a drawn out conflict with 3 fullburn burning gold nearly 24/7 (only stopping to refuel metals), the Scadrians may be at risk of running out, at which point it only takes 1 well placed (or lucky) aluminum bullet to kill them. What I'm trying to say is that, yes, in a short conflict with limited numbers magic powers in Cosmere give individuals enough power to decimate a small Terran force. However, in a drawn-out war of attrition (which I guess isn't the most fun scenario to imagine), Terran numbers (and ability to abuse those individuals via. psychological warfare) would eventually wear down any resistance.

That's all the Heightenings we know, because, surprisingly enough, stealing the souls of over 50,000 people is difficult

perhaps... But your still ignoring that we have a 10 or 100 to 1 advantage in numbers to the entire cosmere, so let's say that Scadrial does manage to get a fullburn (however unlikely), how well would they deal with an army that reaches to the horizon, or an artillery barrage that blocks out the sun? Or if we knew about how their magic systems work, then we could create special "mistborn fighting units" with aluminum weapons and Kevlar armor, impervious to their attacks, they could shoot without having to worry about their weapons being turned against them, and these things aren't too hard to make on earth, so we could afford to create enough to overwhelm even the most skilled one. And say we know how the Elantrian's magic works, then all we have to do is nuke Elantris, a quick ICBM would neutralize not only their capital city, but also ruin their ability to use AonDor.

that's a lot of great points, I completely forgot about supply lines and our better organizational skills. Radios and computers give us a leg up organization-wise and while we have to worry about transporting supplies (most likely from earth) they can just make it on the battlefield. However I would like to bring up 1 word: guns while microbes would be a threat, I don't like to rely on them because of how inconsistent they are. But a few hits from a gun in the same place could take down a person in shardplate, and while the surges would provide a major challenge, artillery, and rockets could hit targets at a distance, while the Rosharans may not have supply lines, they still have supply hubs and command tents and places where the command would be centralized. In other words: prefect targets for long-range attacks. That's still ignoring our greatest advantage: Tanks. They are basically walking (or should I say rolling) surgebinders, every one able to deliver enough power to reduce shardblades to rubble, and they would move faster too. But we are still forgetting that the population of earth is probably greater than that of the entire Cosmere, and along with that comes increased industrial capacity, while Roshar will have only a few thousand surgebinders total (assuming that their numbers grow tremendously before any blitz begins), we will be able to field tens of thousands of tanks easily. Though we still have a leg-up organizationally due to better tactics and radios. While they could hit our supply lines, we would probably have more than they would have able windrunners/skybreakers. Then there's Scadrial, which while we don't have such a leg up technologically (they have guns as well) they wouldn't do much against tanks. Then there's Scadrial's main problem: their main civilization (or probably both of them) haven't been at war for over 300 years. Scadrial would have guns, but have no Idea how to use them effectively.

So I was thinking about how powerful we on earth really are militarily compared to other worlds in the Cosmere. And to try and show just how strong we are, I went back in time to historical empires and thought of this thread idea: What is the least powerful country that could invade a planet in the Cosmere? Rules: 1. They have to be able to Invade any planet in the Cosmere 2. They have to occupy any planet in the duration of their invasion (so no modern-day micronations). 3. They have to exist, or have existed in the past, on earth. 4. Least powerful country is considered by theoretical military might (how powerful could they be, e.g. The U.S. would be counted as if it were fully mobilized, and not as how they are now) I'll start, I'd say the Mongols at the height of their empire. The strongest world in the Cosmere (militarily) is probably Roshar, and as the Shin showed us, they have absolutely no idea how to deal with Horses. Mongols are extremely adaptable and their superior military tactics and insanely strong horse-archers would destroy just about anyone in the Cosmere. Rosharan Shardplate would probably pose a challenge, but they can be worn down after the rest of their army is defeated or killed using less conventional means. Scadrial is the other planet that may pose a threat (because of their industrial capacity), but over 300 years of complete peace have made it so they have no idea how to wage war, combine that with internal conflicts and extreme inefficiency, even if they do mobilize (the people in the Elendel Basin at least don't have a standing army) they would not be able to defeat the Mongols.

how? Everybody who'd witness it would be dead

we can actually, out of the (I'm gonna say 6) civilizations that developed on earth (East Asia, India, The Middle East, The West, West Africa, The Andes and Mesoamerica), only 1 actually had the proper environmental pressures to begin a scientific revolution, and that was the West. Now, applying that to known worlds in the Cosmere, only 2 are based off of the West: the the setting of Elantris (which is split between a post-scarcity society ruled by an enlightened despot, and a religious Theocracy, neither of which seem likely to have the right pressures to technologically advance), and the Northerners on Scadrial, who are based on Industrial-age America (and we know they've hit the scientific advancement thing right on the nose). Roshar seems likely to experience an industrial revolution if it survives the desolation (It's mentioned that they already have factory's, and they are not a new concept either + the next book Rhythms of War seems to involve an arms race of magitec so they'll be pushed into the whole science thing as well) And while I'm still talking about Shardic planets specifically, it seems unlikely that any more will experience an industrial revolution without outside interference, just based on the odds I've already stated. as I said before, they don't just "further avance tech". Most of these civilizations probably won't ever consciously advance technologically; assuming they did, it is still unlikely that they will ever obtain Scadrian FTL tech, much less have the resources or knowledge of magic and magitec to use them. And magitec has very different applications than normal tech, it allows you to break or bend the laws of physics (e.g. nothing can travel faster than light), so you can't just replace it altogether. "Wipe the floor" would be an understatement, 200 years ago a unified Terran force could have taken over the entire Cosmere without too much issue (assuming they don't have to worry about supply and travel... Actually that would probably be their biggest problem). The only planet we've seen that has even a similar level of technology is Scadrial. But Scadrial hasn't had a war in over 300 years, and would fall easily. No other world has had the combination of over a 1000 years of near-constant warfare and an advanced industrial and scientific base to stop superior Terran troops and Tactics. But now... how would anybody in the Cosmere deal with Tanks and Planes and Guns and Artillery? even giving them time to prepare, the Terran Industrial base probably produces as much goods as the entire Cosmere combined. Maybe like Shardbearers or the lifeless stone structures could give them a fight, but.... how do you stop literally tens of millions of tanks, planes and artillery? Especially considering that's more people than live on most of these planets.

Or events similar to it; but Adonalsium probably created Humans outside of Yolen.

Since most of the conflicts that Brandon's books center around magics and magical threats, non-shardic or non-magical planets will probably turn out to be irrelevant in the wider Cosmere stage, since the easiest way to travel between planets (shadesmar) requires a perpendicularity (except for notable situations, e.g. Roshar). So while worlds like this (technologically advanced, non-shardic, non-magical worlds inhabited by sentient species) statistically should exist (look at the other planets in the Drominad system [not first of the sun since it has some level of shardic influence]) we probably won't see too much of them since they'll be isolated from most of the cosmere until widespread FTL or easily manufactured Oathgates (I think Brandon was toying with the Idea of using them for fast intergalactic travel). Yes, earth (our starting point for comparison) could wipe the floor with the rest of the Cosmere if given a Shin-war-esque scenario, but that's mainly because of the scientific revolution, we got lucky and large groups of people dedicated themselves to inventing and improving technologies (before that point most technologies were stumbled upon by accident). And looking back on it, it took a number of different (unlikely) factors all working together to make this possible. So it makes sense that most planets in the Cosmere are behind Earth technologically (of course excluding magitec). Of course the natural exception is Scadrial, but they've had a nice push from Sazed via the "Words of Founding", and also that their specialty in metals (I believe that the Shardworld's technology is supposed to specialized based on the magic system) lead to them focusing on industry (Sazed actual remarks that they are not developing technologically as well as they should), which has drastic, easily seen, effects on Scadrial as a whole. It makes sense for other places to "stagnate" technologically, since that is how us Terrans spent most of our existence after agriculture, most of the time not much changed, though every once and a while, here and there, someone stumbles upon a new way of doing something that turns out to be better. This would make technological advances slow, since they would be mostly by accident, rather than on purpose, and without a pressure to make people seek out better ways of doing things (rich people's passion projects don't count, we need internal/external forces pushing a society to advance technologically), civilizations don't advance so quickly. TLDR: Non-magical planets are not a focus of Brandons (so they won't show up much in his books). And science is something we got lucky with, so expecting it to happen the same way on other planets doesn't make much sense.

yeah but wouldn't they stop working outside of Arelon?

I was sort of looking for allomantic powers, but that mind-blade would still function practically the same way.

The Coppermind also says (look in the "Hemalurgy" page under "Other Uses"): Which I followed to the WoB linked here (question 11). Where did you find that? I read through the pages of Feruchamy and Hemalurgy on the Coppermind and read through a bunch of WoBs from a search on the Arcanum... It sounds like something I've heard before but I would like a confirmation before we throw out the idea of an honorblade that would give you allomantic powers and get stronger every time you killed someone.

Just re-read "The Emporers Soul" and the epilogue ends with <spoilers for "The Emperor's Soul"

I once heard from someone that the Vikings would douse their swords/weapons in blood (instead of water) because the spirit (or whatever) would be imbued in the weapon and make it stronger. This actually turned the Iron weapons into some sort of primitive steel. So I was thinking, why not turn a feruchemally charged iron sword into a hemalurgic spike by dousing it in a misting? On an unrelated note, I wonder if there is a way to make a sword that gives you access to the metallic arts (sorta like an honorblade?). And if a hemalurgic sword that could do this killed someone, would it become more powerful? Except for hemalurgic decay... so the sword would have to kill people to keep it's edge (I guess there probably is a way to create a sheath that would stop this by fooling the spike about weather or not it's in a living being, like how the sheath that Nightblood has stops it from draining and killing its holder). So scratch that and imagine a sword that would get more powerful the more people it killed.

any mistborn fighting a surgebinder. - I want to see how the power systems match up

Taln invited Odium to Roshar for a fair fight Odium needed Taln's permission before shattering Honor Taln invented popcorn so he could have something to eat while watching the desolation the only reason Roshar still exists is because Taln hasn't given the highstorms permission to destroy it the shattering happened because Taln had a hangover (long story) Taln made Kelsier lose his God complex Taln's smile broke half the fused Taln created cultivation's perpendicularity because he wanted to give tana'kai a place for the night Brandon wrote the Cosnmere only so he could tell us about the power of Taln Taln's whistling created the Dawncities

what about a shard, since nightblood burns investiture infinitely, then couldn't like consume an entire shard?

I would assume that people can use the mists because preservation let them. Whoever preservation chose to tap into their own power could.

Also, another thing I forgot, longbows are ridiculously hard to train someone with. The draw-weight of one sends an arrow fast enough to sometimes pierce platemail, and they are rather unwieldy and hard to aim for those not properly trained. If they had longbows, they would using them to fire point-blank (since there is no reason not to). very few historical examples of longbow exist, the main one being the English during the 100 years war. England won just about every battle they fought for decades because of how OP they were, a group of trained longbowmen could decimate a larger group of, well, just about anything before a shortbowman could even be in range of them. If the Parashendi had longbows they would have used them. Which brings us back to the other point: why the Parashendi don't have longbows. Like I said, training longbowmen is hard. So how did only the English do it? Because they didn't. Around that time it was a point of English pride that every man could use a longbow fantastically, they were basically trained in archery since they could hold a bow. The development of longbowmen came out of very specific conditions in England and Wales that would not be recreatable in Roshar. There is no way that the Parashendi would ever obtain longbowmen, since they didn't have the same environmental or social pressures that lead to their creation. So the Parashendi didn't have longbows. For those of you who read WoT, then the Two Rivers Longbows are a good representation of how effective they were in combat. For those of you who didn't, here is a good article I found on it. Couldn't you just shoot almost straight up? Like an 80 or 70 degree angle from the ground? I would think that if you can predict the location of the bridgemen (which is probably beyond the Parashendi and their limited knowledge of warfare and tactics) you could shoot at a specific angle and hit them where they will be. I may know tactics but I do not have much experience with shooting a bow.

there can be no war crimes if nobody has decided what a war crime is...

I honestly think that nobody cares about the system. Sadeas is constantly reminded about the speed of his bridges and without any competition he has no need to make improvements to the system, and considering how loose the camp is, nobody in his camp probably cares enough to change it.

Which would also be another reason why the Alethi would have so many more than the rest of the known world, they just haven't lost as many since they're not on the frontlines

Hoid 2020 A true man of the people, willing to do whatever it takes to do what needs to be done. Associated with the radiants and with an incredible history in politics, he would be the best president for our beautiful nation... Much better than Kaladin, a man who's in league with the voidbringers. He reportedly spent weeks with one of their many bands "learning their culture" *scoffs*, how do we know he isn't secretly being paid off by the enemy? I tell you, he is trying to divide us and sell us to the enemy! I tell you! Vote Hoid, and you won't be disappointed!

We don't know a lot, but we can extrapolate based on what Brandon reveals: e.g. First of the Sun is in the late industrial age (potentially farther along then Scadrial is in era 2), because we see steamships and a growing middle class, so assuming that First of the Sun first went through something resembling a gilded age (which I assume because Brandon seems to use economic development as a linear process that is analogous to what happened on earth), then moved on to a period where income is extremely equal (which is when a middle class grows). Scadrial can be applied to a similar process, we see factories and examples of extreme income inequality (even dissidents and political extremists) along with high amounts of corruption; and since Brandon has most certainly said that Scadrial is the most Earth-like planet by these standards, we can place it definitively in the Gilded age, except without the strangling monopolies (aristocratic business-owners sort of take their place). So Scadrial is extremely reminiscent of the US during the late 18th century, with extreme income inequality and large businesses that are strangling the economy, however, the roughs are based on the American Wild wests, and the homesteaders who live out there probably have similar (or better) standards of living then their counterparts in the basin. Roshar is a weird one, it's probably one of Brandon's most fantastical worlds, and it's economic development very different than that on earth. Based on what we can see of living conditions in Kaladin's home town (nobody gets to starve, and most people seem to have a fair amount of wealth for the time) Roshar is surprisingly wealthy considering the adverse conditions (highstorms). AND they have manufactories, but no industrialized agriculture. Though this seems to be because of the labor-intensive and specific nature of Rosharan crops (practically just big melons with wheat grains in them). Life probably isn't too good for them though. Yeah, Elantris could probably win an offensive war because of it's infinite supply of resources and the immortal nature of the Elantrians means that generals could become insanely good. But this would require very good leadership and management, though they are about to go into a defensive war against the fjorden, so the use of Aons could bleed their enemies dry in the mountains while they prepare a counterstrike.