Bzhydack

So, Svrakiss are able to posess people. Weve seen this in other place, and im surprised you didnt bring this here. Yep, the Fused. Fused are Cognitive Shadows who posess Singers bodies to have eternal life in Material Realm, when they dont have body they are on Braize (or Roshar in Everstorm, this is not clear) in their spren form. Very similar to Svrakiss, but those seems to be more spren-like and posess only in certain circumstances. So maybe Svrakiss were some sort of Inspiration for the Fused?

Remember, Heralds were in that time not much stronger that normal humans. It was centuries of fighting what makes them so powerfull. Stormfather even said that "Not all Heralds were fighters at the begining". Rather that was simlpy lack of manpower and resources. Roshar is large, Humans were not so numerous as Singers. Heck, they also needet to simply rebuild their houses. Also, few Radiants can be only in few places at once. This would be not enough to just patrol some region, not even mentioned to kill entire species.

Yeah, but fundamental part of Evolution is small changes to give species better survivibliity. Literaly to preserve life. This is also why Preservation + Something would give Evolution. Also, Evolution dont always mean conflict. Yeah, it changes species to better survive, but this not always mean conflict, nature is not about fighting just for the fight. Evolution make species fly, climb better, see in the dark... But Revolution always mean conflict. Always mean fighting, and is also drive by strong emotions. And this is what Odium is about. BTW, I LOVE Idea of Cancer Shard. But I think it would be Cultivation + Ruin.

I feel like "Evolution" dont allign with Odium enough. Odium mean rapid, blinking, blowing and sparking, changes. Like emotions. Evolution is slow but constant. I think Evolution would be better with Cultivation + Preservation - preserving with constant change. So I always saw Cultivation + Odium as Revolution. One rapid, strong move to force change, drived by emotions like fear, loss and feeling of injustice - what generates hate for standing order. (BTW, isnt Evolution good also for Preservation + Ruin? Like proper Intent of Harmony?)

Voidlight is always desceibed as Black- Violet or Dark- Violet, and here we have Violet- Blue (of course if this is not a mistake or misdirection). So my assumption always was that it is Warlight, can be use by normal Radiants and is used because can last longer in space.

There is no push - pull efrect between not directly oposed Shards. Im not sure it is this efrect at all. Also worth mention that Odium is not as largly Invested in Roshar as Honor and Cultivation. Or rather wasnt until now. Dont underestimate support from other units. Right, Szeth was able to fight very large squad of Veden soldiers plus Shardbearers, but none of them knew how to handle enemy with Surges. I would bring other example. Remember swuad of Alethi soldiers in Urithiru? This one who almost get to the central pillar. They werent Radiants or even squires, all they bring to the field was spears, shields, discipline and experience. They go against number and power advantage and they failed only because of Pursuer, Fused with power they didnt know how to fight against. Another example - Moash was able to kill Leshwi, also WITHOUT shards or power, only thanks to his training. And here power difference is very significant, because both soldiers and Moash have literaly no power. Also, this was a war. Not some chalange. Desolations were brutal, and without hesitation. Its not Fused vs Radiants, we need to consider whole forces from one side and other. And the biggest weakness of Radiants is not some physical weakness, is their Oaths. They MUST have some behaviours, to maintain their powers. And Fused can exploit it - remember how Raboniel set Kaladin in place with just few words? Now imagine humans in times of Desolations - many small villages and towns, and 10 Dawncities scatter across Roshar. Radiants need to go from Urithiru or one Oathgate to target, what mean they have INSANLY big area to cover. Parshendi have number advantage over humans, probably big one. There is no Geneva Convention on Roshar, if Fused and Parshendi attack many settlements in the same time, and start to kill humans, Radiants need to react, and they can do this only by sending many small teams to every attacked settlement, because they need to protect every one of them. So this is easy way to expose themaelves to the traps, but they need to do this, if they want to maintain their power. And Radiants will last only as long as Stormlight they have. We still need to see true power of Thundeclasts. Remember, they can drop body and just take new one, if previous is too damaged. This is also true for Fused - they can simply drop body, if they dont like it, and they dont do this probably only because every earlier Desolation they need to return on Braize every time and are still not familiar with current situation. But back to the Thunderclasts - I dont know how many rocks (or anything really) you need to throw at them to destroy it. And good luck hit constantly moving target, even that big. They are also Invested, so probably immune to Surges in some degree. Sheer size is also very good protection - a lot of Stormlight is needet to Invest this beast. And Even Shardblade cant put one down in short time. Trapping Unmade in gemstone was also not known until False Desolation, so earlier Unmade were much more dangerous, because there was literally no metod to eliminate them.

I would go further - I think when gemheart breaks, Singer would die. This is one of the way to kill (temporarly) Fused. Seems like Singer needs a little of Stormlight (or Voidlight, maybe simply Investiture) in his gemheart to live, even if he doesnt have spren inside.

Southerners have very limited possibilities, if we talk about number and type of Metalborn. For example, we dont know how would Medalion work if it would be the Twinborn who is making them - as his Identity is not as Metalborn with one power, but with two. And 3 skilled Twinborn should be able to make Medalion with 6 powers. What is very resonable number.

Maybe, but Im sceptical. There is some... Spiritual Inertia (lets call this this way) in Cosmere. Your soul knows who you supose to be and what you supose to know/do/can etc. And any active attempt to change this is generating eee.... Spiritual Resistance? Of some sort. Remember Lord Ruler? His soul knew how old he should be, so when he stops fooling his Soul with magic, he reverted to his deafult state and this killed him. With soulstamps we can see this also very well. So maybe this will be possible, but amount of skill and power required to do this will be astronomical, and effect probably wont last very long on living organism. We deal not only with simple Connections, we deal also with Identity and while it is also made from connections, they are very complicated and with many layers. And we must deal also with Spiritweb itself, mess with Spiritual Realm and Spiritual Ideal itself. So, im sceptical.

While this theory is very interesting, it have one very large flaw. Fused came to existence BEFORE Radiants were a thing. And Radiants were not any Shard's invention, they were spren Idea, not Honor's. Right, we have Futuresight, but I doubght Odium would be able to forsee this, he wasnt able to See possibility of some Singers spliting up from his force, for example. No, I think reason why Radiants now seem to be much stronger than centuries ago is different. First, they have much larger support from non-radiants. Remember, every earlier Desolation hit humanity so hard that they were brought into stone age. But earlier Desolations were much closer one to another - it was like maybe few generations between them, so there were simply much less humans, and they were much more split. We can see in Dalinar's Vision that Knights once operate in small teams (one-two) because they need to cover very large areas. With less humans and more Singers (as enemies) they cant be as massed in one place as they are now, when they can choose battlefield, because they have large, good equiped armies to back them up. With much less humans and often Desolations Fused could be able to kill Radiants faster, in earlier stages of Oaths progression. Second, seems like not all Odium's forces are on Roshar, or as active as should be. We've seen just two Thunderclasts for now, should be more of them, also Unmade are not as active as they were - for example Re-Sephir wasnt doing too much, Sia-Anat is activly betraing Odium, and few of them we simply didnt see yet. Third, Regals and Forms of Power are still not very experienced in using their powers, so Fused dont have as large support as Radiants have. Forth, Fused alone are very, VERY degenerate. They are mad, mostly, so they are not as dangerous as they were before. And I dont think Fused were much stronger then than now. Remember, humans WON every earlier Desolation on Roshar, even if they were much less numerous, even if they have just wood and stone weapons.

Everstorm dont probably dont have Spren. Yet. Is just matter of time when this amount of Investiture would gain sapience. What if we would make syntetic gemstone with proper size and shape?

Remember, memory in coppermind is slowly fading, if is uploaded/used. So if nicrosilmind works the same, it will also lose charge over time.

The most important factor is if spanreed is, well, reed, it will br simply to fragile to being dangerous. Spanreed cant be heavy, because its need to be easy to use for very long time. And it has weight of gemstone and the other spanreed. So need to be as light as possible.

@Nameless Probably this is the best way to look at this, and basicly similar to mine pint oof view. @AquaRegia But this is fun with HardMagicSystems, we could try to understand this with our world laws. Mainly pointless, but still fun

Skimmers are storing weight. But this mean they are somehow in dual-state while storing (and tapping as well) - their physicochemical density are always the same, they have the same amount of matter in every cell, so it unaffects piercing bodies or Gamma rays, or whatever. But their relative density changes, because they have less (or more) mass in normal body volume. Its like they are able to radiate some subatomic particles from their atoms without changing the size and durability, and later absorb them. Particles with mass but without size. Iron Feruchemy just breaks normal physics.

Im with @cometaryorbit Some magic systems are not based on Connection but also on proper Spiritweb pattern. Allomancy, Feruchemy, or Sandmastery you gain not by Connection to Shard, rather this Connection is consequence of having proper Spiritweb and proper Innate Investiture. And this is not something over Bondsmith have power. Maybe he can weaken this Connection, but even if we gain someone insanly Connection to Preservation this person would not become Allomancer because of lacking proper Sprirtweb pattern. But Rosharan or Selish magics are totaly in Bondsmith capability.

Still doesnt matter. If you are not Ishar, you dont have the same experience and understanding of Blade and Surges. Cant even recharge himself without proper knowledge.

Even if is not unlimited (and probably never was) they still have something available, what we can see in Nale's case.

Dakhor Monks can be scary AF. Seing human being, with masivly deformed bones, superstrengh, being also fanatic... Also Bloodsealer can be very scary. Ishar's Honorblade plus Ishar is insanly scary combo - in hands of literally anyone else his Honorblade is not as dangerous, because 1. Need large amounts of Stormlight to be activated and 2.Othes dont have Ishars k owledge how to use it. I would count both Nightblood and Ishar's blade equaly scary, but for different reasons. Chasmfiend is very scary, but it is still animal. Treat it properly and it can be dealt with. Very wierd noone vote for Fullborn Yet. But I agree, scariest things in Cosmere are Shades. Purely instinctive, morderous bloodthirsty ghosts injuring just with touch are terrifing. And the scariest thing, if the are angry that you simply cannot run from them.

What about Nicrosil? Its hemalurgic property is to steal Investiture. The blade alone should be relatively easy to make, because metalind, even melted into something else and alloyed with other metal still contains its charge (someone here already came up with idea of "Ferring Armor" - take bunch of Ironminds, alloyed them int steel, and we get steel-strong armor with also anti-magical properties) but we can have this effect simply by using Aluminum. But if we would be able to make composite ferring-steel and nicrosil blade and somehow get Nicrosil to steal enemy's Investiture in contact (probably with blood)...

Bendaloy is now rather expensive metal on Scadrial, probably because is relatively new alloy. But remember, we have whole unexplored planet. Also, bendaloy components are cadmium, bismuth, lead and tin, and two latter already have use in Allomancy. In our world bendaloy have not very wide use, but on Scadrial, where is magical with very usefull power I can see why they would want to produce it in very large amounts. Especially if our prediction about Scadrian Warp Drive will be true. Also, faster you burn Bendaloy, then larger time compression is. In fact, you dont need burn very fast during storing metalminds. Also, it works on others too - gather few Ferrings around you and help all of them charge metalminds. Maybe even for a price.

While I agree with almost all of this, I would deliberate with some. I think this would be hard (not impossible) mainly because you would have Shards themselves to decide if they want keep this Connection. Remember, Conection works both ways. So maybe this would be easier when there is no Shard Vessel around (like Dor) I think body disconected from Spiritual Ideal would not be dead, but not functioning (almost no difference, but still) What is even more terrifing, because mean with addition of some Cognitive Shadow (or something else) you will end up with undead.

Ilusions are tricky because you can cast ilusion AROUND object. But im almost sure you cannot use Transformation, Cohesion, Tension, Adhesion, Progression on gemstones. Not sure about Gravitation (gemstones are always in bags), Division or Transportation. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/36/#e1525

Arent gemstones immune for using Surges on them? Is, but not fully opened.

I would for controversial one. A-aluminum. You can easily remove foreign Investiture from your body, and this makes you immune for many off-world threats.