Trusk'our

So, if I understand you correctly, you're hypothesizing that medallions may use Hemalurgic nicrosil to hack what is stored in Unsealed Nicrosilminds (similar to how Compounding uses Feruchemical Investiture to overwrite Allomantic power), thus transforming them from being a temporary ability to a permanent one? Basically, you spike a power with nicrosil, then Feruchemically store a power with the same metal to add to the Hemalurgic charge?

Welcome to the Shard! You may want to think about introducing yourself in the Introduction Forum. As for the question here, I believe that this truly is Elend we're interacting with in SH. Even if one has a hard time believing Cognitive Shadows are still the people they were when alive because parts of their souls were replaced with Investiture, Elend hadn't had this happen yet; he was just an Invested person who's soul hadn't yet faded into the Beyond, and his Spiritweb !)and Cognitive Aspect hadn't been changed. As for what he saw, it likely was more to do with hope than a sure knowledge of what would come next, or else he could have chosen to stay at that point and live again by Sazed's healing and would retain that information. That is beyond what even a Shard can see, so this is my best guess as to what he saw what would become of him and Vin.

I'm honored Hmm, Awakening the larva of Mexican jumping beans is definitely out there. They can certainly be surprising, perhaps used as an alarm system in a pinch. Actually, does it have to be a Lifeless, or could an artificial jumping bean be used? If it's just the concept that matters and not the beans themselves, perhaps creating an object that is capable of locomotion while appearing normal could be done, like a pen with a hallowed out chamber that contains an Awakened "bean" to always move back to its owner, or put itself away. Awakened objects that have little flexibility (like swords) have difficulty moving around, but this might be a viable hack to circumvent that. Perhaps an extrapolation of this idea could be a poisoned dart (or other projectile) that realigns itself to auto-correct its aim against enemies via jumping bean mechanics. Basically smart bullets, but using another method. Plus, artificial Awakened beings have a special sense that doesn't use eyes, so such a thing would probably be able to "see" through its enclosure. On how specifically to achieve an improved artificial Mexican jumping bean, perhaps a miniature humanoid shaped spring would be most efficient. . . . I think I got away from the main idea of the thread, however. Honestly, I'll have to give it a little more thought.

A lot of great ideas have been posted by others already, but a power armor using the same principles as Vasher's clothing should be quite effective. A better armor would be lots of leather, sinews, and ropes expertly intwined to form the shape of a human muscle-suit. Since it's closer in shape to a human and thicker than clothing, it should be comparably cheaper, more durable, add more strength and power to the user, and it can absorb more damage. Add some modified plate to it after Awakening and it's even more heavily fortified. Ooo, I like this. Maybe if you only Awakened a small vaugely human shaped piece of rope independently from the crossbow as a whole with the Command to pull when the crossbow is fired, it would be cheaper, and therefore easier to mass produce/use as a lesser Awakener.

Typically when an Archivist stores a memory for later they take a short term memory that they just learned to keep it fresh and safe from the mind's natural forgetfulness. But, what happens if you store a very well memorized piece of information? For example, let's say a Scadrian college student memorizes flashcards for a test that's coming up months in advance. Their friend has that same test totally forgot to study somehow, and they convince their more responsible friend to store their heavily memorized info into an Unsealed Coppermind as their tests are a day apart. The (lazy) friend then taps those memories. What happens? Do they: 1. Decay as normal: as with other Coppermind usage, do they just fade quickly out of clarity after being tapped? 2. Stay memorized as they would for the original person: since they were preserved by the donor originally, would they do the same when tapped by the new person? 3. Stay memorized, but only for the person who stored them: assuming more Connection is necessary just as with skills, would only the memories tapped by the donor stay, but if used by someone completely Unconnected to those memories tapped them, would they decay quickly? Personally, I'm leaning towards #2, as if you're storing a specific neural pathway in a Coppermind and regrowing it when tapping, it only makes sense that it would stay the same for the new person. Which, honestly, makes Unsealed Copperminds even cooler, as you may be able to get more permanent information this way.

A Savant is capable of using their Investiture with far greater control, efficiency, and in a broader way than a non-Savant can. This last part in particular makes me wonder, would a Savant be able to discover deeper uses and more fundamental discoveries about their powers? For example, would a Coinshot or Lurcher Savant be able to realize they can see as an Inquisitor can with their Allomancy? Could a Thug realistically learn to harness Pewter's other hypothetical mind-over-matter abilities? Perhaps a Seeker could learn to hum the Rhythms independently by feeling the Spiritual Pulses more deeply and intuitively. Maybe Soulcasters could learn techniques Radiants would struggle with, such as creating a more complex device entirely from Soulcasting. In any case, thoughts?

Very minor Mistborn spoilers:

When an Auger burns gold, they see an alternate version of themselves, presumably how they could have turned out had they made different decisions. In fact, not only do they hallucinate this alter ego as an Oracle Misting would, they think it's thoughts and feel it's emotions too. This makes me wonder a couple of things. This process of seeing more about yourself and learning about what you could have been I think could lead to you altering the course of your like, particularly if you continue to use this ability on occasion. In fact, this is kind of what Miles did, and part of what made him such an introspective man: In any case, an Auger could use this to their advantage, seeing alternate versions of themselves, then using that introspection as a tool for self improvement. Perhaps a person who loves self improvement would love gold Allomancy as a tool to help them. This also makes me wonder, would this tactic screw up future sight? While something short term like electrum or Atium/electrum wouldn't likely be affected directly, something like Renarin's or Odium's long term visions probably rely on someone making more consistent decisions. Gold Allomancy used in this way lets you access information via the Spiritual Realm, albeit less directly about the future and more about personal choices. But getting that information should still affect your decisions, so would it interfere with some future sight?

While it is true that Hemalurgically spiking something requires blood of some type, it is theoretically possible to Spike an Awakened computer. As such, I imagine that there would be some kind of substitute when dealing with spiking exotic entities, like Spren or Awakened constructs. Maybe if it's an Awakened machine, oil would play that roll? Hmm, actually, thinking about this further, maybe this is why spiking Savantism isn't doable; if you can only add or subtract Spiritweb fragments and not truly change the Spiritweb base of the recipient, you can't just take the Savant's warped Spiritweb with a spike and get the same results they would have from using their power, as your Spiritweb isn't technically changed by that power yet. Still, if you can change someone into something as drastic as a Koloss just from adding human Spiritweb fragments, it doesn't seem implausible that some Hemalurgic spike configuration could let you achieve a physiological transformation on par with, say, what the Soulcasting Savants have. Meh, should be super easy, barely an inconvenience ; just heat the Awakened Metalmind enough to make it softer, then spike it. Or, maybe create an android thingy with rubber or leather bits at the right Bindpoints to be more spikable. Artificial Spiritweb, artificial body for Bindpoint piercing.

Soulcasting works by altering the Spiritual Aspect of an object/entity, which then causes changes in the Physical Realm. Hemalurgy works similarly by taking a pre-existing Spiritweb fragment and stapling it onto another Spiritweb to produce effects in the Spiritual and Physical Realms. So, does this mean you can Soulcast with Hemalurgy? Say, you spike an Awakened Metalmind or other metallic construct and target whatever Spiritweb fragments that determine its physical makeup. It you implant that Spiritweb fragment into an animal or human, will they transmute into the substance in question? Maybe you could even recycle the spike and get a more or less indefinite supply of rare metals this way.

It's all good here how about you? As for The Big Bad Book of Hemalurgy, it got postponed for a while, but I found a searching technique that should make looking for my old posts much, much easier. Still may need to hold off on it, as I have other things that preoccupy my time usually, but I'll work on it eventually. Oh, when it's just sitting in a Metalmind it's static, just like a Hemalurgic spike or an innate Allomantic or Feruchemical power. Only when actively stored or tapped does this change.

I don't know if that's the difference I'd ascribe to Allomancy and Feruchemy; Feruchemy is kinetic too, but only when storing or tapping. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean Hemalurgy can't target Kinetic Investiture. Warbreaker spoilers: So, maybe a nicrosil spike could siphon off an Allomancer's or a Feruchemist's Kinetic Investiture, similar to Harmonium, but my instinct suspects not. As for other spikes having more uses, like steel taking more than physical Allomancy, I would guess that it can take more kinds if powers from other Invested Arts, but they must use similar Bindpoints on the Spiritweb.

I'd choose Scadrial in a heart beat, personally. . . assuming I get to choose the era, of course. Era 1 would be tough, but 2 wouldn't be too bad, but 3, that's when stuff gets good.

Welcome to the Shard! Mostly we try to ask these kinds of questions in the Stormlight Archive forum to prevent spoilers for other, just in case they stumble on it unexpectedly.

Yes, they would be a perfect duo. Not for anyone else, but for themselves, yes. As for who I think is better, it depends; I love Lopen for his optimistic outlook in WoK, as he was able to help Kaladin out and maintain a sense of levity in such dire situations. Wayne feels more empathic to me, as he has actual serious regrets in his past. He too supports his friends, and again brings levity to the scene (albeit in a much cruder fashion). Personally, I found Wayne funnier, though in TLM he seemed more crass and less whimsical to me, which reduced that trait.

Eh, we all love a good theory here. Better to share an idea to get feedback than not to

Reincarnation isn't the standard occurrence in the Cosmere afterlife (as far as we know). Fused reincarnate and Returned are resurrected, but those aren't normal by any means. Most souls move to the Beyond after death, and what exactly that's like is up to the interpretation of the reader and characters of the story. Breaths aren't your consciousness, but they are a part of you; giving it up shouldn't affect your existence in the Beyond any more than getting Hemalurgically spiked would. Still, gathering lots of Investiture in the form of Breaths is pretty powerful, especially since you become biologically immortal and have greater intuitive insight with Awakening.

Welcome to the Shard! So, I will say that I think it's fairly unlikely that Shallan is a Smoker. Allomancy is genetic (unless Hemalurgy or Lerasium is involved), and what's more, Shallan would need to consume copper in substantial amounts to use this ability with any frequency. You could get metallic residues in drinking water and food, but that's only a very tiny amount. Using Stormlight to fuel Allomancy is technically possible, but it would require some refinement first. As for how Lightweaving is hidden for her, her illusions cover her Stormlight glow, feeding off it.

Tried reading that one and. . . Well, it's pretty inherently confusing, to say the least.

It's all good Actually, there was one time I tried to do basically the same thing, but turns out that the post was over a year old and it ticked people off Ever since that little blunder I've been a bit paranoid about the age of threads I respond to.

With the thoughts on nicrosil, duralumin, and steel Compounders being able to utilize hacks that make their powers more and more powerful, I only realized just now that there's a much simpler solution; hire a Nicroburst, or get a Primer Cube. With the right set up, any Compounder can greatly increase the speed at which they fill Metalminds. Though, a Double Nicrosil Compounder gets the advantage of getting speed plus efficiency, as increasing their Allomantic power while metabolizing all the necessary metals in an eye blink multiplies their power even more. I suppose they could use the Primer Cube too, using their own Allomantic power on top of it all with nobody else required. Still, any Compounder with a Nicroburst should have a leg up in Compounding potential.

Yeah, using Lerasium in Hemalurgy is probably the worst way to use it. Honestly, you could argue that using Atium would be terrible too, as while it has more efficiency it just replicates what other metals can do (there may be other uses, but they probably won't compensate for the waste). Also, @Cerulean and @hwiles, I don't want to be a bother, but these responses are digging up a topic that's about two and a half years old. It may be best to form a new thread to further this discussion if you would like.

(You're right, this doesn't give you a feedback loop in the same sense as nicrosil does; you aren't increasing the total Investiture for the process, just compressing it more over a shorter time frame. Basically, my thinking is that if you don't store while Burning, it speeds up the process of burning, which makes you faster, which makes you burn through your Steelminds faster. Essentially just a way to shift your limitations on Compounding steel (in the short term, again, because no extra Investiture is introduced to the system of Compounding) from your Steelmind's storage space to your metal stores and Allomancy's strength.) Nevermind, disregard the above section entirely. As for how fast you can go, I think that you can get closer to Mach 5 before you completely burn up. That said, you probably couldn't maintain a speed close to that for very long as you'd still accumulate heat over time, but 10x speed seems on the lower end for a Steelrunner in my opinion. Edit: oh goodness, thinking about it more is actually starting to break my brain. Okay, if you Compound 100% of an attribute (yes, you can't store that much technically, but lets say you fill it up to that amount by storing at a lower percentage for longer) to get 10x the amount of Feruchemical speed, you can effectively turn 1 Steelmind nugget into 10 charged nuggets. If you don't store one of those while actively burning, you are now at 2x speed, which allows you to Compounding and get 9 Steelmind nuggets, but in half the time. Now you burn one of those while not storing a tenth of it to make 9 more Steelmind nuggets in the remaining time to give you 18 Steelmind nuggets instead of the 10 you'd get without this hack. Feruchemical compression loss prevents this from being an infinite loop, but to me it actually seems that you can effectively use more metal to make more Metalminds more quickly.

Yes, Compounding Steel is broken. Several times over, I would say. But I just had a quick thought as to how a steel Compounder is even more busted than before (because of course they are). Normally, a Compounder Compounds their Metalmind, making more attribute than they need in the moment, so they store it to tap later. They could instead choose to just use the attribute when burned by simply not storing it in the first place, which means that a steel Compounder can boost their tapping by activity adding more physical speed while they fight. But, since they can also Compound their metals faster when tapping/Compounding speed, wouldn't the process of Compounding while using those stores create a feedback loop, making them faster and faster? The only limitation is the size of their Steelminds, but as seen with Pewter dragging, this is a relatively easy thing to fix (just eat more steel nuggets). A double steel Twinborn just carrying around a fat sack of Steelmind nuggets to beat over the heads of their enemies while Compounding insane amounts of speed would be hilariously powerful. (Yes, there's a practical limit to how fast they can be without other powers, but they can maintain ridiculous speeds for a long time by essentially pewter dragging) Edit: wait a minute- since burning a Steelmind makes you faster and more powerful at burning it, wouldn't Unkeyed Steelminds do this too? This might actually make it less powerful though, as you'd get less and less relative time to use your heightened speed, as you'd blow through your Steelmind(s) in a similar way that duralumin Flaring does. So, maybe only a true Compounder who can also store the excess attribute to slow down their Allomancy would be all that effective. Hmm.