Trusk'our

I've been browsing the Arcanum and I've stumbled upon something that piqued my curiosity regarding Connection manipulation and magic usage: This feels pretty big to me. Does this mean that Connection is the lowest "program" for Investiture then? For example, if you were to look at and measure the power of an Allomancer or Feruchemist, would you mostly see Connections existing as the language used to tell the Investiture what to do? But diving into the main idea for this topic, how far can you take F-duralumin then? We know that you can at least store/tap things like Connection to people, places, and times, but full transformations of self through this method are not achievable for some reason (I'm still curious as to why this is though; if Connections are essentially the Spiritweb's way of recording what's happened to an individual and changing Connection to a land can trick your soul into believing its grown up in a place so you can effectively learn a new language, why not be able to change more?) Despite these limitations, it's making me wonder of advanced Feruchemical Connection could be used to be nearly useful as Forgery (actually, could that be some of the reason you can't get a full transformation? Maybe like Forgery it has to be a plausible change? Or, maybe it changes the base of the Spiritweb, but doesn't have the energy to translate to the Cognitive or Physical Realms, limiting its capacity?) I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on this.

I always imagined it as just referring to skimming one's weight off.

The removal of the body part in question seems unnecessary. Most magical healing, such as Surgebinding, does align your physical Aspect to your spiritual, but it's filtered through your Cognitive Aspect, meaning if you don't already heal it away because you feel like the illness is part of you then regrowing the lost appendage will regrow the tumorous growth with it.

It's been mentioned by Brandon and recorded in the Arcanum several times, but sure, I suppose that's fine.

For me, most of the Allomancer and Feruchemist names fit their abilities pretty well. Only Pulser and Slider feel a little ambiguous for Allomancy, and Sparker seems like it's the most disjointed with Feruchemy.

I saw the quote from Brandon before that the real difference between each Order of Radiant type and their powers is due to what is in the Spiritweb of the Spren, not the Nahel bond itself. I think that this difference in their Spiritwebs is that they possess the powers that their Surgebinders can use, like with Allomancy. Furthermore, I believe that while they have a functional set of Surgebinding powers innately, they simply lack the Connection to the Physical Realm to utilize them effectively (we see Syl use Adhesion to pull little pranks and Pattern unfailingly mimic human speech, but they are bonded to Kaladin and Shallan respectively, giving them an anchor to the Physical Realm to utilize their Surges, and Aviar, like Kokerlii, seem to be able to use their own powers with no issues, presumably because they naturally have ties to the Physical Realm. Maybe a 5th oath Radiant can allow their Spren full access to their innate powers?). Actually, I think that this is what is going on with Kelsier; while he possess the powers of a Mistborn in his Spiritweb, they are currently unavailable due to his improper Connection to the Physical Realm. However, what may be even more interesting is the fact that he could theoretically bond a person like a Radiant Spren and give them powers. Which, my thinking is would effectively turn them into a Mistborn. Era 3 Mistborn spoilers: Moving back to the general idea of a Spren giving powers to its bond mate based on their own powers, this makes me think that a Hemalurgist could, instead of grafting Spiritweb fragments onto themselves directly, spike extra powers into a Spren, then bond them to gain access to all powers without the direct side effects of Hemalurgic spikes. Basically, create an artificial Yelig-Nar to Bond. Makes me wonder if the easiest way would be to Hemalurgically empower a lesser Spren that won't hate the Hemalurgist as much, then use F-duralumin to make the bonding easier. Aaaaand I think I just made stealing the Nahel bond via Hemalurgy even more evil. Edit: I also find it worth mentioning that another piece of proof for this theory is Unsealed Metalminds made by Southern Scadrians; if F-Nicrosil can only store powers you already have, and the medallions function on the same principle as the Honorblades, the only way I see this working is by this mechanism being as I stated. You put the fully functional powers in the medallion, then bond it, which plugs it directly into your Spiritweb for use.

I have another proposal for how Unsealed Metalminds are manufactured and how the mechanics of such work. We know from Navani's experiments in RoW that Investiture likes to pick up and echo things, right? Well, I'm now thinking that this may be tied to how Unsealed Metalminds are created by the Southern Scadrians. When a Feruchemist stores an attribute in a Metalmind, it is keyed to their Identity. I think that this is like how two radios can be in tune to each other at the same frequency, where the stored attributes echo the Investiture Pulses of the attribute and Identity (personalized frequency, essentially) of the Feruchemist. However, I think that more than just Identity is echoed. We know from the Hemalurgy table that Connection and Identity are somehow linked together so much that a duralumin spike is capable of stealing either one (not sure if it's a choice like Atium or all like Lerasium). I think that this points to the idea that when a Feruchemist stores an attribute it resonates to their Connections as well as Identity, potentially making the Metalmind have Connections of its own that mimic the Feruchemist. This also fits with the idea that Feruchemical duralumin is somehow utilized in the creation of Unsealed Metalminds, at least the ones used by the Southern Scadrians. So, here's my current theory; a Metalborn uses an Unsealed Nicrosilmind to store their own power in another empty Nicrosilmind. They simultaneously blank their Identity and Tap a blanked Connection to their user. Because there is a strong Connection to the practitioner remembered by the Metalmind, this Blank Connection tries to reach out to the person holding it, much like how their translation medallions work. This Connection works to bond the user and the medallion, effectively plugging the power of the Metalmind directly into their Spiritweb, much like what is done through the Nahel bond. There is an Identity possessed by the Metalmind, but I think it's possible that this is just a natural evolution of Investiture being left alone so that it develops more of a mind, and since it was originally blanked, the new Identity forms to allow its Connections to bond with users. It's also possible Identity isn't blanked at all, and is merely sidestepped as Spren and their Radiants do. Excisors are the only thing left out, but I suspect them to simply be an Unsealed Nicrosilmind that allows for other powers to be stored. In fact, perhaps this is why only a few powers can be turned into medallions as of yet; the Metallic Arts are very rare amongst the Southern continent of Scadrial, so perhaps the first Unsealed Metalminds brought by Kelsier are able to copy a few powers, such as brass, and a few other Feruchemists have been born over the centuries to allow things like iron medallions. In any case, this is all highly theoretical right now, but personally I think it has merit. Thoughts?

My thinking is that you take a given memory, then deliberately store portions of it in separate Copperminds. You then take different memories and store fragments from them, then archive those memories in the previously made Coppermind to fill in the gaps. For instance, you may be able to store a memory of when you walked down the street to your house, then tap the specific portion of the memory that has the information regarding who is walking (perhaps by taking the memory of your proprioception) and replacing it with another person's senses (who was walking down another street). After all this, you've effectively made a new, false memory that says the other person went down the street to your house. If you tapped it, it would be jarring and you could likely tell it was false because of the incorrect proprioception (or maybe extra tangential memories attached, like Kelsier's recollection of the Southern Scadrien houses. That could be useful to add for realism), but you could give those memories to the other person to make them think they walked down the street to your house instead of theirs, or, you might be able to eliminate the jarring impact of the false memory by temporarily storing any conflicting memories. Yeah, at the very least, it would probably require a level of skill that Shai has with Forgery, so it's not exactly something that could be done easily, but the benefits might be powerful nonetheless.

I made a post on the Cosmere forum a while back suggesting the possibility of hacking F-copper and gold to create new powers for an individual, using the Cognitive Aspect as a blueprint to overwrite the spiritual. At the time, my thinking was that someone would either tap a Metalborn's memories of using their powers from an Unsealed Coppermind or perhaps fabricate them from scratch using a futuristic computer to simulate and store them in a Coppermind. However, I've given it more thought, and I don't think that this is strictly necessary. What if you had an experienced Archivist who could take Unkeyed Copperminds and specifically archive memories together, splicing them to create a new, convincing memory? What's more, they could possibly use a form of self-perception through training to modify their own memories, kind of like Wayne's method acting, but more extreme. If the Archivist couldn't fully believe a roll they played, they could choose to selectively store conflicting memories temporarily, perhaps even tapping other's memories to solidify the illusion. They could have entire personas stored in separate Copperminds, creating and collecting spliced, faked, and mimicked memories to get the act spot on. Actually, having an Archivist character do this sort of thing in a book like Wayne (but better), would be pretty cool in my opinion.

What? That's not how people usually think? okay, but in all seriousness, that's a good point. As a side note I do wonder though, were Inquisitors influenced by Ruin's Intent more strongly during the time of the Final Empire? It's mentioned in TLM Ars Arcanum that Ruin was pressing on the fabric of Scadrial at the time, and while Marsh was quickly corrupted after the fall of TLR (his social and emotional skills being visibility impared as well as his desire to kill enflared) he doesn't seem to have any issues with mental stability or morality afterwards. Could be similar to how Elantrian lifespans work, but with less Investiture to go off of so there's no true immortality. I hadn't thought about that, but that makes a lot of sense. Alright, you've convinced me that there would be significantly greater consequences for the donor than the recipient, especially when considering their mental stability. That's a fair concern, and if aluminum Hemalurgy truly is as destructive as hypothesized at its maximum, I could see something like this happening. However, Brandon's pretty good at "balancing" the magics (i.e. Hemalurgy's been nerfed significantly since Era 1), so whatever he and his team comes up with I'm sure will solve it, whether it's giving aluminum Hemalurgy a weaker effect than I've suggested, or just making it too impractical. Indeed, Marsh had 11 in TFE, got 10 more around the time of HoA, and recycled his 22nd from a deceased Inquisitor after the events of the Catacendre. He could have more that he's given himself in his 350 years since HoA, but unless he removed some he has at least 22 Hemalurgic spikes.

I think that's a bit extreme (we haven't seen Inquisitors go insane even with 20+ spikes piercing their Spiritwebs, though admittedly this is in regard to recipients, not donors), but really we'd need more examples in the series before anything conclusive can be said. Oh definitely. If my suggestion is truly how it works then other types of spikes would almost certainly be better, just like how Lerasium in Hemalurgy is a colossal waste of potential, or how A-gold, while unique, is pretty terrible for most practical situations. That is an excellent point; if aluminum really can just destroy all powers and it's a cheap metal, it would screw with the plans of any highly Invested being who wanted to be superior over others. Some possibilities I could see for this: General Cosmere spoilers: Plus, there is the matter of them requiring a correct Bindpoint to hit, which is really hard to do, especially if Fortune and Steelsight are out of the equation. I personally think that there's enough versatility through other methods to achieve this end goal without Hemalurgic aluminum even getting involved. It could be that aluminum Hemalurgy is mostly a dump-power, like gold or aluminum Allomancy; useful in a few specific situations, but largely suboptimal. It's definitely good to have multiple perspectives on the matter, even if that means they must disagree. Especially since it all really is just speculation at this point. Plus, it's quite enjoyable to discuss such topics with another person who's clearly put in some real thought into the given topic, and for that I thank you, friend.

I don't know that removing all powers would destroy one's mind. It would definitely be bad though, worse than being a Drab. And, just because it doesn't allow for much practical application doesn't necessarily mean that isn't how it works. Perhaps H-aluminum will become one of the more direct Investiture counters available; even if Fullborn can be created in Scadrial's future, if any good and slightly lucky shot can strip you of all your powers, you're done. That's Feruchemy though, not Hemalurgy, which has always worked by tearing off pieces of Spiritweb, not suppressing them. If you really wanted to use Feruchemical power to suppress Investiture- TSM spoilers:

Some Bindpoint probably needs to be hit, but if it truly targets all powers that an individual has (which as you said the wording seems to strongly indicate) then you'd only need to hit one in order to remove all powers. We don't know exactly how large a Bindpoint's area of accessibility is yet, but I suspect that this wouldn't be too hard to pull off. Almost certainly. It would also be somewhat strange for Atium to only steal one power while Lerasium took all, which from a meta perspective helps push the idea of Lerasium stealing innate human attributes rather than Metallic powers.

I believe this is how it works; you spike someone with aluminum, which excises all of their powers (or, perhaps it has the ability to do that like Atium but only targets one at a time based on the Bindpoint, but the wording makes it sound more like Lerasium Hemalurgy only for powers rather than attributes), but because it's aluminum it can't hold or donate a Hemalurgic charge so the Investiture dissipates into the SR. I'm also of the train of thought that aluminum Feruchemy doesn't keep an Identity charge in it, but it can be used as a key just like with Allomancy to start up the process of accessing the Investiture. Basically, my thinking is you can blank your Identity but can't actually tap. But going back to the idea of Hemalurgic aluminum @alder24 and @Quantus, I find it incredibly unlikely that an aluminum spike suppresses powers while implanted in a recipient's body, as that's far removed from any way Hemalurgy has been seen used or how aluminum's mechanics seem to function. Honestly, silver implants might work better for that, even if not technically magical in nature as disruption of Investiture is its whole thing.

Personally, I have a hard time choosing between Dalinar and Kaladin; Kaladin's a tad more relatable, gets more action, and is just awesome. Dalinar is more mature in and I generally see him as a roll model, and is just awesome. So, a tie between the two, but each for different reasons.