Trusk'our

Changes to the Spiritual DNA would though, which I think would be well within an Elantrian's power with some study and preparation. In any case, I think we don't align on the capacity of Elantrians and how difficult it would be for them to expand their repertoire at this time, so we'll just have to agree to disagree on this topic.

There's a limit to the total mass and number of Hordlings a Sleepless can control at a time. I think if a Sleepless tried to take over a planet-spanning structure they'd begin splitting into new, separate hordes. It's a really cool idea though.

It's been a bit since I last had the book on me, but I believe that Nomad comments that they regenerate from their injuries as he fights them. My main thought process on this was with Riina using her AonDor to overwrite people's biology with curses, which seemed very similar to the Nightwatcher's Boons & Banes. Those changes can last years at minimum (assuming I'm remembering TotES well enough and she'd been there for some time cursing people), but I suspect they're more like Hemalurgy and can last indefinatley without needing to expend Investiture. We've seen many instances of Investiture that can produce potent effects without being expended- the Heightenings, Hemalurgic spikes, and even Fused have certain abilities that their Voidlight provides without needing to actively expend it. This is likely because static Investiture acts as a conduit to the SR and continuously pulls energy into the physical world. What's more, AonDor is also capable of mimicking nearly any Invested process in the Cosmere, with only a few exceptions. So it would probably take a group of Elantrians some time to figure out how to create a passive but powerful change to their soldiers, but this idea is what I'm basing their greatest strength upon. For certain abilities, like regeneration, they may need to carry some extra Dor they can feed on occasionally. I had an additional thought today after posting on how Elantrians could make an even more formidable army: the Ire have been shown to be capable of creating pipelines of Dor far away from Sel, all the way into the edges of other solar system's subastrals. They'd need to protect those pipes from opposing forces, but they could erect fortifications to shore up stockpiles of Investiture and dole it out to troops on their front lines. Even if lines were cut, they could potentially last a while on those stores, then send out forces to reclaim the space used for the pipe.

The true strongest army should be Elantrians. Even if they can't take automatically accessable fuel with them off Sel, they could create an Aonic equation (saved in shorthand for ease of replication) that can permanently Invest a mundane soldier into a super powerful troop. Create hundreds of thousands of super-speed, super-strength, Investiture-sensing, super-intelligent, high-durability, regenerating, hungerless/tireless, flying/Gravitation using soldiers, then send them out to overwhelm any opposing armies. Give them guns too. If enemy armies attack their base on Sel, they harness the power of prep time and create tremendous Aons that obliterate any trespassers. If your armies begin facing a threat that cannot be overwhelmed through traditional means (Soulcast bunker, force field, undying cognitive anomaly, invincible Awakened construct, etc), keep a small force of Elantrians in the field who can come up with more versatile Aons on the front. Keep large amounts of purified Dor in those storage devices the Ire sell to keep them well stocked (perhaps giving some Investiture to troops with uniquely active powers too). Though Aons can certainly be rigged to do so, use Seons for organized FTL communication between army leaders for greater efficiency, even between worlds. I think Radiants are going to be the second best troop for an army. They can regenerate, and Surgebinding as a whole is very versatile (Soulcasting can provide food or other raw resources, Cohesion, Division, and Soulcasting can create fortifications and remove enemy fortifications, Gravitation can provide air support and greatly increase logistical options, etc). Shardblades and Shardplate, while not available to every Radiant, are very potent and can remain intimidating against even advanced technology (obviously less powerful against high-caliber guns and artillery, but they can be mixed in with such technology as the Surgebinding army advances rather than trying to replace it). The ability to create Squires is also very important, as a Radiant can stretch their power far more than most Invested individuals. Replacing Radiants is typically not hard either, as long as the Spren remain intact. The only weakness such an army might have is that their Bondsmiths may not be able to follow them to different worlds immediately (at least two of their Spren are physically stuck there, and distance seems to matter at least somewhat for the Sibling's bond, so it's not unreasonable to assume the other two suffer from this as well) until they learn to stretch Connection more. So gemstone runs through Shadesmar and Oathgates will probably be necessary for their full range of powers, at least until they master Connection (I will also assume Rosharan Investiture can be brought off world in this scenario as well). You might even be able to form new Spren for the purpose of creating more Radiants- though we don't know how hard that would be and it if I remember correctly it takes centuries for them to mature. Despite not being quite as individuay potent, I think a few other army compositions would be up there: A Threnodite/Shade army could be quite powerful. Shades appear to require no special circumstances to create other than the death of a Threnodite, so your soldiers could come back from the grave to leech the life from your enemies. Shades need no rations, no rest, physical barriers cannot stop them (except silver, aluminum, and presumably highly-Invested materials), most traditional weapons are useless to harm them, and injuries they cause are impossible to heal without a ready supply of silver or Investiture based healing. They can lose control of themselves in bloodlust much like Koloss, and I'm guessing the continuity chains are what let Threnodites keep them under their control, but I think you could turn them into a powerful and numerous force. Unfortunately, they can only come from a specific people, and Shades don't have any apparent external powers. Just the touch of death and incoporality. This means an opposing army with the right equipment could actually mess them up since they need to get within touching distance and silver polearms and bullets are an effective counter (though maybe they could hide in the ground like the Deepest Ones?) I actually think you could turn Charred into one of the most powerful armies as well. You could sacrifice tens of thousands of Canticlites to their sun (possibly import more people to be adopted as Canticlites), then take the Sunhearts and create Sunlit Charred from loyal human soldiers without the same mental weaknesses that the Cinder King's army had (if it cannot be done automatically with a raw Sunheart, just do what Rebek and her sister did at the end of TSM with Cinderhearts). They have superhuman strength, speed, and regeneration (though the last one likely requires an active expenditure of their Investiture). Basically a Thug/Bloodmaker Twinborn. Obviously can and should be equipped with modern weaponry. Like Shades they'd lack external powers, and they wouldn't have the touch of death and incoporality. However, being able to equip them with weapons and tools as you advance may make them more reliable and versatile. Not to mention that the sheer quantity of Charred could be overwhelming even to very powerful Invested- hard to fight twenty coordinated Bloodmaker/Thugs at once as a single person, no? If regeneration is used a lot, bring extra, disposable Sunhearts to renew Charred. Maybe use traditional corrupt Cinderhearts to control broken Charred for meat-grinder tactics (which can be made from the enemy population, like Koloss). Unfortunately, to get Charred- especially in large numbers- you'd need to find a way to access Canticle from the CR (as this is set about Era 2), which is also dangerous. Something you could set up with effort though, and would prove extremely useful afterwards.

Honestly, me neither. Also, weirdly, both Feruchemical Bendalloy and bronze can heal. I guess it makes sense, and it's good for balance, but I was originally expecting gold to be the sole power to do so (I'm sure it's the only one to heal injuries in combat though). Also, here's another angle on the Atium Allomancy.

I think it was more of a head-smash when TLR slapped him, but result wise it's nearly the same.

Good question. I imagine that they're using separate mechanics, with Hemalurgic spikes (presumably) losing Investiture as their captured pieces of Spiritweb are drawn into the Beyond (and/or the SR) along with the rest of the Spiritweb, gemstones losing Stormlight quickly because it's tied to the Rosharan ecosystem and Honor's Intent. My current assumption is that gemstone spikes function by trapping and stapling Spren to a person's Spiritweb. If such is the case there shouldn't be any decay at all.

Ah, my misunderstanding.

The weird thing with burning Hemalurgic spikes is that they will splice the Allomancer's Spiritweb with that of the spike. However, this won't allow you to bootleg your way into Lerasium- this process specifically won't grant you powers stored in a spike. Also note that you cannot automatically burn a Hemalurgic spike- it has an Identity, similar to a Metalmind and will need to either come from the Allomancer attempting to burn it or it will need to be blanked.

I very strongly suspect you could add prosthetic limbs or organs via Hemalurgy. After all, Shardblades remove feeling and function when they sever the Spiritweb from limbs and organs. Attaching an extra Spiritweb piece with a physical extension should do the opposite. You'd likely need to do a little work on the spikes and prosthetics to make them work together, but it seems like an intuitive possibility.

I believe Awakening skeletons actually takes upwards of a 100 Breaths if I'm remembering the scene where Vasher explains Awakening to Vivenna correctly. It's 1 Breath Lifeless that were the big thing.

There's some variation in Koloss output based on the host's attributes.

Once you know how it's not hard. Independent Koloss from Era 1 can do it, and they're absolute meatheads. I suppose that's true, but I think they'd still feel a broader range of "human" emotions that would eventually lead to them breaking with sufficient losses. Unless we're also comparing to Era 2 Koloss, in which case their craziness advantage probably goes away. Why not use Rosharan humans to build your Koloss? Or transform Singers in Warform or Direform to become elite Koloss brutes?

Using pewter Allomancy in combination should yield similar results. Aside from that, I don't believe there's anything in the Cosmere forbidding such a power from existing, but you'd probably need to tweak Feruchemy enough that it wouldn't exactly be the same thing.

Depends on some stuff, including what Era of Koloss we're talking about. Era 1 Koloss won't retreat from a fight. They're not psychologically wired for that. Meanwhile enemy armies will often break after only like 20% casualties I think? They're also pretty dumb, and can be out maneuvered if not directed by an Allomancer or other powerful, intelligent force. Era 2 Koloss are more intelligent, but probably still on the slower side cognitively. They can subsist off of basically any biological substance, so keeping them in the field with no supply lines is quite feasible. Infections and disease don't appear to be a major issue given how torn up they get and we never hear it slow them down. You can also create more of them if you have an enemy population, iron to shape into spikes, a potent Emotional Allomancer, and no morals so speak of. Also, you don't need an Everstorm to create Koloss with spikes. An offworld Koloss force could create more in the field, but more Direforms likely would have to be converted from Singers on Roshar. Direforms are very likely more Invested, and have full carapace armor. They have minds more intact and can use their own agency to occupy captured territory without you needing to worry about them simply destroying it all. They're also not going to get mind controlled, though given how Elend and Vin couldn't do this to a Koloss army untol the controlling Inquisitor was killed (at least as a whole. They got a few beforehand by causing enough emotional turmoil in them) I think this is much less of an issue than typically assumed. Unless you're going up against a Shard or something and don't have your own to back you up. I'd probably choose Koloss for an army, but I don't know how they'd compare to a Direform 1 v 1. Probably weaker, but they're easier to get in large numbers and replace, easier to field, and easier to force into meat-grinder tactics.