Trusk'our

I'm hoping the title is just ambiguous enough for the spoiler period, but what with how it's always a good question to ask "how to I murder this powerful magical entity?" I want to extend this to arguably one of the scariest Invested beings we've seen in the Cosmere thus far. The Evil. For this challenge, I'd prefer to assume that advanced space-age tech is not available as with most of these I make (closer to Era 2 or 3 Mistborn), but given how they pop up even more (or are simply more relevant given how interplanetary travel has picked up) in that time period I'd say we can use that stuff if necessary. To begin, it doesn't appear that hitting the creature with Investiture actually harms it- the freaking thing seems to like the experience of regular Investiture, even being shot with it via laser, almost like it's a Larkin eating Stormlight when it sends out Skullsnakes (to presumably capture and bring back Investiture) and as it eventually skulks around Patji's Perpendicularity. This makes me strongly believe that the Dakwara is capable of not just withstanding contact with Investiture, but is capable of converting it to Negative Investiture upon consumption- it would simply make no sense to me as to how the thing is "fed and refreshed" by regular positive Investiture and negative Investiture otherwise (also, it's fully capable of forming a type of bond with a human that is Invested with standard Investiture, which further supports the idea that it doesn't have to destroy or be destroyed by regular Investiture upon contact). This actually reminds me of how Ruin's and Preservation's power acted like Investiture and anti-Investiture in Era 1, but can be mixed together as long as some directing force is at play. Unfortunately for us, that means we probably can't just blow up the dang thing with heaps of Investiture, at least not within reason. Maybe we can overfeed it and slow it down or make it go catatonic as arcanists apparently have (IotED pg. 252. Honestly makes me think of Nightblood's overfeeding), but it's obviously not a permanent solution. Nightblood may be a solution, ripping the creature apart, at least enough to permanently wound or maybe unravel and kill it outright even if it isn't fully consumed (or if it attacks Nightblood in return). Without resulting to McGuffins, Hemalurgy is looking pretty appealing. Get some giant spikes and some powerful steel Allomancy or mechanical launching devices, slam the hunks of metal into it and tear off sizable chunks of Spiritweb. Repeat until dead. This could even yield a unique type of Investiture that could be harnessed afterwards. speaking of which, non-lethal methods of containing or even utilizing an Evil might be easier. Capturing it in a Perfect gemstone like the King's Drop- which could be harnessed for some kind of uber-Fabrial- or maybe using a highly Invested person or people to warp it into a creature that must obey new rules, as was happened to the Dakwara. Any ideas on more unique solutions to destroy, or at least reliably contain the Evil?

Supposedly Regrowth can be used to resurrect a Blade-dead person though it must be done very quickly, or at least that is what I remember Wyndle thinking is what could happen in Edgedancer. I would like to think that, technically, enough Stormlight or other Investiture could heal someone automatically from a Blade and keep them from dying, but it would have to be Avatar-levels of Investiture. And that's purely speculation on my part.

A little, but more powerful, we get to interact with him more, he's even more innately powerful (didn't even have to absorb a Perpendicularity to get his power), he's still kicking, and he sees every single human being as an inferior entity that is destined to worship him and his kind (hmm, I guess TLR was like that too actually. Huh. Still feels different to me).

I mean, technically true, but a lot of the Invested abilities at least appear to greatly focus on a single Realmatic Aspect. I just found it an interesting upheaval of my previous expectations for the magic, is all.

Ah, I see now. It's kinda disappointing you can't use it at least twice though. Nice! I glad that was able to help in some small way. Thank you for your OG post by the way. It's been very helpful in navigating the game.

I don't think it matters if the added material is Allomantic in nature, it just has to push the aluminum to not be Allomantic itself. Steel with nickel added ceases to be the same type of steel- its molecular structure changes, which changes its validity as being an doorway to Preservation. Aluminum as I see it should be no different. Change the structure, change its properties, including its inability to be effected by Investiture. Intent isn't really a factor here as you said, at least as far as I'm aware.

It is the alloyed form. Harmony's servants tweak it before giving it to him.

@buzzbuzz is correct that there is a bit of a spectrum. The ideal form of duralumin, for example, requires 96% aluminum for every 4% percent copper. You could have a little more copper or a little less and it would still function as duralumin, albeit less efficiently. If memory serves (and it has been a while, so take this with a pinch of copper), Wax believed there could have been as little as 1% of ekaboron in the Set's aluminum bullets to adjust for ballistics. This was simply an educated guess on his part though (and mine at this point), so we don't have a perfect idea of how much aluminum can stand to be tainted, but my assumption based on duralumin percentages is that it only requires a very small amount of impurity to completely counter its typical properties.

No, it should not require an external source of Investiture to summon a Shardblade, at least not normally. At the very least, there has never been mention that there is a Stormlight requirement to summon them. The Investiture for many net neutral Invested Arts (and I would absolutely consider Shardblades one, at least in regards to their own power) pulls a little from the Spiritual Realm to facilitate transfer between states. Aux's position is fairly unique, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if whatever mechanic that was normally in place was destroyed and now he requires a small amount of Investiture to be summoned. Also, welcome to the Shard! Generally when asking questions in the Q&A it is most optimal to begin a new thread to ask a question for added streamlining (and so the answerer to the original question may get a mark if they give a correct answer so that the topic may be completed).

I'm still fairly new to this system, so all these combos are great info. Thank you for providing them. If you get Font of Life on top of Fast Talker, can you use basic Regrowth up to 5 times in a round since it now costs only 1 action to use and you effectively have up to five actions for spiritual skills? Can you use basic Regrowth on a person to heal them multiple times in a single round, or does it have to be 1 heal per round per person (with excess Investiture healing them on the next rounds)? For example, it says that using basic Regrowth on a person infuses them, which causes them to heal your Progression die + your Progression modifier at the start of each of their turns. But if you only infuse them with 1 Investiture with one action, can you make a second action with basic Regrowth to infuse them a second time and heal them a second that same round? Also, isn't it Applied Medicine to add ranks in lore to healing (though you have to get Emotional Intelligence anyway, so the point is largely moot)?

Ah, understood. Yes, I think that would work just fine.

It appears that Smokers and similar powered beings can not only block Invested attempts to affect their Cognitive Aspect, but that they can also block something directly linked to their physical nervous system. That's kinda crazy to me, since it feels a little reminiscent of pewter Allomancy where it can affect your Physical Aspect in some way. This reminds me of aluminum Savantism, which could be expanded to cleansing unwanted Investitures and impurities in the body. Makes me think, perhaps copper Savantism would not only protect the mind from external Invested sources, but I think it could help shield the mind from anything that would cloud its ability to think clearly, such as alcohol, trauma, pain, or some amount of physical warping (like from Hemalurgy). Think the Blessing of Presence, but through Allomancy- it might not enhance the mind's performance in other ways, but I think it would at least protect its standard functions.

Well, since you asked, here's a few off the top of my head. . .

Feruchemy's my #2, for basically the same reasons as yours. Great control, potential for creativity and power, and of course the ability to feel weak now to become very powerful later. Hemalurgy is my bread, butter, mashed potatoes, steak, etc. It's just so cool that anyone can learn to change such a fundamental property of themselves to eventually fit what they desire. Allomancy is good too, but I generally prefer it as a supplement to the other two. True, true. Better to have disagreement than a hollow echo chamber.

I agree. And honestly, that makes me hate him all the more. It's a behavior that is the polar opposite of humility and respect and love for those who are weaker than you. The anti-(ideal) Radiant, so to speak. Being able to and actually overpowering, embarrassing, and destroying any meager mortal as you will is just something that I (love to) detest.

Personally, I think that's the more powerful option, since you're already seeing the future and you can train reflexive action to respond to such stimuli. Six of the Dusk spoilers:

Honestly, I think that could have a chance of working, maybe even without Atium depending on your reaction time and whether Pulses are emitted ahead of the power itself. Yeah, electrum at the very least doesn't give you cognitive enhancements like Atium- it takes a lot of practice to use with effectiveness in quick-paced scenarios. I do think it should provide something to help though, like how tin allows you to focus on specific sensory inputs and pewter lets you ignore pain and exhaustion. Just much smaller than Atium.

Actually, isn't Emotional Allomancy immune to Atium sight? Though, perhaps electrum would work better, since it shows the end state of the person being hit with it.

It's been hypothesized to be the case, and Brandon has said that it is the direction he wants us to be looking in regards to the power. Sorry, the WoB I gave in the initial post to help clarify is kind of hidden, merged with the quote box underneath.

Bit weird for me to post on my emotions more than picking apart the nitty-gritty gears of some obscure magic system, but I figured this is as good a place and time as any. I hate Xisis, to be specific. Holy smokes, I absolutely abhor his arrogance mixed with his level of power and elegance. Truly the worst combo in my opinion. It's honestly wonderful. I haven't felt this way about a character since Highprince Sadeas. Not even Crow managed to provoke this kind of response from me, and she was written as a pretty hate-able character. Hope he gets Hemalurgically nailed at some point so we can see how that reacts with draconic Spiritwebs. Also, weirdly, he made me like Hoid more. Hoid is also kind of arrogant and overpowered in his own ways, but. . . he's very human about it, and pretty redeemable in my eyes. He doesn't dismiss a person's ideas or thoughts outright, though he'll give you a few barbs, and though it isn't his primary goal he does help people from time to time, often without demanding recognition or compensation. I legitimately hadn't considered him in this light before, but I'm glad I got something (or, someone) to change my perspective a little.

I too am a bit late to welcome you here. . . . . Welcome! Funnily enough, I'm in exactly the same boat as you. I finished IotED about two (maybe three? I don't keep track) weeks ago, making me currently up to date on all books Cosmere. I've seen some of your theories, and they're quite interesting. Glad to have another person who likes to poke into Cosmere mechanics here (though you'll find we almost never agree on things, lol). So now I ask the most important question: what are your thoughts on each of the three Metallic Arts, which is your favorite to read about, and what is one aspect of each that you'd love to see expanded upon.

Personally, I kind of doubt it too. Change and Exist feel like they'd make Create, but that leaves two remaining Dawnshard Intents. I've toyed briefly with the idea they may be Feel and Think, though it's a pretty loose framework and it hinges on Dawnshards each aligning with 4 of the Shards' Intents.

I do not believe that metals holding Investiture counts as non-reaction. Compounding's core concept revolves around overwriting the spiritual pattern of a metal with a Feruchemical charge. Hemalurgic spikes have a similar phenomenon where burning them splices the spikes' Spiritweb to that of the Allomancer.

A few Shards could create like Ruin and Preservation could all on their own, but most could do it with the help of one other Shard. Some would need a third Shard.

Perpendicularities have a lot of power in them, at least compared to what the standard person would hold. We've also seen that they can boost nearby Invested phenomena, such as the Well of Control augmenting the clash between storms, Honor's Perpendicularity infusing Radiants, and the Well of Ascension keeping Kelsier "alive" (though that could have been Preservation helping more directly). Basically, my thinking is that using an Invested Art aligned with a Shardpool's Shard near said pool with likely cause some form of resonance (not Resonance, just an alignment) between the two, like with how the Mists swirl around Allomancers burning their metal. I suspect that with most Perpendicularities you would get a small boost of power if you did this- you're not actively feeding on it like with Autonomy's temporary Perpendicularity on Scadrial, the power could be piggy backing off of what you do, almost like Harmonium grenades. This likely would also depend on how dedicated the power is to something else currently (like the Well of Ascension had a grander purpose, so diverting it to something else might be harder) or if the power is looking for more suitable Vessel (like Ishar taking up the Well of Control, or at least a portion of it with Rayse's disharmony with the power at the time). I think it's also interesting to consider that a high density of Metalborn near Autonomy's temporary Perpendicularity was helpful (as I recall, at least). It could be that many Invested people near a pool can help bolster its formation.