therunner

While Kaladin does seem to be naturally better Windrunner than Szeth (unsurprising, considering Szeth ends up Skybreaker), I don't think we should discount the very simple fact that this was Szeth at the very end of months long mental breakdown. Poor man was utterly mentally broken, and on some level wanted to lose (as his PoV chapters in TWoK clearly show). So I would not be so quick as to say Szeth simply won't win in air against Kaladin, especially now that he is healing somewhat and would not fight with inferior version of the same surges. As to original thread question, I'd bet on Kaladin still in PR, and quite likely in CR as well, he is simply better combatant. Though Shallan is far more useful in CR than he is.

I don't think that would work, since Spikes have some Identity of their own (hence Identity Contamination), Identity Ferring's powers would not affect them at all. Ferrings powers affect themselves only, and Spikes are not theirs at all hence would not be affected. As such all it would do is probably let the remnant Identity in Spikes and/or Hemalurgic instability take over Ferring, i.e. bad time for Ferring.

As most of the above, I too do think Stormfaker theory is less likely, if not entirely refuted. Personally I am leaning towards this being Stormfather, but with more of Tanavast shining through at moments, like when talking about Heralds as his champions (by implication).

I would also say Catecedre, but I would say the comparable event in Rosharan system is not Ashyn migration/destruction, but Binding of Odium, and that had bigger effect on Cosmere as whole (so far). Binding literally stopped Odium's killing spree in its tracks (at that point he already destroyed 3 shards), and quite likely assured that Preservation+Ruin even lived long enough for Catecedre to happen in the first place. If Odium was not bound, and decided try to his luck elsewhere, Scadrial would likely be his next destination, due to presence of two Shards. And his presence would destroy the fragile balance of power, and most likely lead to Splintering of both Preservation and Ruin.

Not exactly. One, Charred are significantly more powerful than Mistborn. Mistborn not burning metals is nearly the same as regular human, the don't have increased strength or healing, which appears at around ~1000 BEUs. So we can say Mistborn are below that threshold. People who are in this category are e.g. Elantrians, Returned, Heralds and Yumi, who by themselves are physically improved, not Mistborn or Knights Radiant who need external Investiture to reach that level. Two, Auxiliary directly says that: which shows that person's soul is much less Invested than that, even when you include a full blown Cognitive Shadow. (and also that Knight Radiant without Stormlight is also quite likely below thousand BEUs) You also ignored the last part of the WoB, which says that it is not necessarily they (Mistborn and Radiants) are Invested, but more Connected differently Nomad for example does not seem to be particularly Invested, despite still being bonded to remnant of Spren, which is still quite a lot of Investiture (as Aux can form Shardblade). I would not use the 'Sliding scale' WoB too qualitatively, since it e.g. says that both Vin and Elend are 100% when we know that Elend was in fact more powerful than Vin. See e.g. this WoB some of the people snapped by Mists were of relatively usual strength, and the general strength level differed in the population. So the Mists are only increasing their power a very small bit to help it to the fore front. And since Allomancy comes from a small extra bit from Preservation, it stands to reason that it is only a bit of soul, not that Mistborn have ~1000x the size of the soul. So even after breaking they would be in that range. In addition, different Allomancers are differently strong, suggesting different Investited levels, so it is not even that every Mistborn is equally Invested. E.g. Wax is very weak Mistborn, and used basically free floating dust, certainly ~1000x less Lerasium than Elend did, so his Investiture levels must be also much lower. So being Mistborn vs Misting is not just question of being more Invested, but also of kind of Invested you are. So I still maintain that Mistborn are not particularly Invested, and if not in the 2-3 BEU range, than at most in low tens BEU range, and certainly not in ~1000s BEU range. Breaths are not pieces of soul, they are Gaseous Investiture. They are pieces of Investiture attached to a person's physical body, not their soul, like Stormlight or Mists are when breathed in. So of course you can replace them with other type of Investiture, we already knew Vasher is doing exactly that when feeding on Stormlight. Growing artificial soul (which seems to require creating full blown sapient entity, like e.g. Nightblood), vs programming a spike from raw Investiture are two different things. I'd say you will avoid majority of Ruin, as it is the creation of spike that is the most ruinous, and you will be going around that. And Brandon is rather free with the fact he considers it to be 'evil' as far as Invested Arts go. Well, for one Medallions are more restrictive than Spikes, and primer cubes are more of a tool than something that grants you as a person, power. So motivation does exist.

Might be, but it would certainly not be as easy to give away, which is a rather fundamental part of Breath that allows for Awakening to function so well. Per TSM most Invested people in Cosmere are between 2-3 BEUs. And per WoB (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/93/#e2675) Mistborn are not particularly Invested when not burning metals. Hence simple conclusion, Mistborn and Mistings are rather close together in how Invested they are, in Cosmere terms. When jar of Dor is ~10k BEUs, no one is going to notice 1 BEU more in Mistborn compared to Misting (and I doubt the difference is as large). On Scadrial it might seem like a lot, but it is not in grand scheme of things. So in absolute terms, no, treshold for Mistborn is not 'much higher' than the threshold for Misting. Not everything that is hinted at will be possible. E.g. burning Metalminds was hinted at in Era 1, but it turns out to have some rather large limitations (it must be yours or perhaps no-ones). The limitations is exactly why I think that is what will be the actual mechanism of democratizing Investiture. Sanderson is rather clear he prefers magic systems with limitations (hence why he made it so Hemalurgy is no longer capable of Compounding). Not to mention he apparently spent a lot of time figuring out how Medallions work and are made (with several pages of notes just on making them), which would be rather pointless exercise if Medallions were nearly immediately superseded by artificial spikes. Free Hemalurgy without moral compromise is rather boring, and would interfere with his vision of Scadrial as 'Earth-analogue' with some Invested tech on top. So even if artifical spikes were possible, I will bet that they will be either restrictive in some way, or far weaker. After all, Hemalurgy is art of Ruin, so if you avoid Ruin, why should it work as well?

That would not work. Sure, spore requires water but that water is somehow (Invested wise) transported to main Aether, which then magically supplies matter of the spore. There is a lot of Investiture moving there, just supplied by Aether, not by the person. So you would read 'is Spore Eater', but you would have no Connection to any Aether, and nothing would be happening. If the Aether would somehow accept this forged Connection, then you would be Spore Eater in truth. Hence, stamp is insufficient for that without external source of Investiture, just like you cannot simply stamp yourself to be Allomancer.

It cannot be just that, simply because there is also e.g. Luhel bond. What is the difference otherwise? Additionally, Oaths are needed part of Nahel bond (as far as we know), which is different from simply Bonding Deadblades. And Identity is also Involved (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/331/#e9407 ) Even so, Ferring is nowhere near the capabilites of Bondsmith, much less unchained one. Both Plate and Spren would retain their Connection to Knight, and the Bond. Don't forget that Oaths are necessary here (and they have to be accepted), and Ferring will swear no Oaths. Still won't work. Blanking Identity won't work in my opinion, because it seems that it does not even let you tap others Metalminds. It might even let you be severely influenced by the Spren if you tried to Connect to them (sort of like reverse breaking into Hemalurgic Constructs).

No notes, Iron allomancy is more useful from utility perspective, and the offensive aspect of Steel is lessened from Era 2 onwards (while never fully vanishing). Not really, Iron has very little offensive usage, not unless you have some way to reliably get metal right behind your opponent. I'd say without Pewter it would be next to impossible. Not because dodging something you pulled towards yourself requires superhuman reflexes, but because doing that and using it to strike someone and dodging those opponents would require superhuman assistance. You need to perfectly coordinate it, or you don't really do anything. So can Coinshot, they just curve the other way. As you say, this is heavily reliant on environmental setup, which makes Iron better when Allomancer has control of battlefield before hand (i.e. either ambush, or defensive fight in previously prepared location). In comparison, Coinshot does not rely on environment nearly as much, they just have to carry metal on their person. So defensive fight, yes Iron would be better. But Steel would be better everywhere else, and is more versatile to boot. This tactic will be less useful as stronger and larger caliber become available, because Lurcher will get hit and any material can take only so much damage before breaking, especially since the material must be non-metallic (making it rather weak against guns). Re-use is also possible liability, as enemy Coinshot can still push on those projectiles lodged in shield. Coinshot can deflect so long as they have metal, and are not reliant on wooden (or possibly some aluminum alloy) shield. I would say they have different strength and weaknesses in mobility, rather that one is strictly better. Steel is more flexible, you always have ground, and as long as you have some coins, you can jump. Iron requires metal to be near your goal (and in your range, which is few dozen meters at most), or you have to carry effectively a grapple gun (which, when you have it, you don't need Iron anyway). Yep, no notes. Depends on how exacting allomantic alloys must be. Impurities are in most Iron ore, which could cause issues. I'd say they are both equally hard to come by. So all in all, I'd say Iron has more out of combat utility, but is severely behind Steel in combat (with exception of ambush/home field fight), and bit behind Steel in mobility. My opinion of course.

Certainly not. It is not 'just' a Connection, it is a Nahel bond specifically that grants them both. You can become squire by using Connection, because that is all squires are, people with close (positive I suspect) Connection to Radiant. But Radiants are more than that. Bondsmiths could not steal Bonds until Honor's restrictions started falling away, and even then it does not seem to be trivial. And Bondsmiths have far grater control over Connection than Ferring. Still no, as it is not just question of magnitude. And even if it was, Living spren are effectively becoming part of soul of the Radiant, you won't overcome that, no more than Connector Compounder could take away Mistborn's Connection to Preservation. Still no. Plate is Knights it is coded to their Investiture (and so does not interfere with their Surges). Dead blade is still not just Connection, and as @Treamayne showed is also coded to specific person.

I don't think it would make temporary Mistborn, you would still lack 'Mistborness', you would just be more Invested with variety of effects like we see in TSM. Mistborn are not even all that more Invested than Mistings, in the grand scheme of things. It would not be power, not unless you programmed it. We see something similar with Set's experiments in TLM, and the powers are temporary and volatile (if they are granted at all), but it has one advantage, in that it is taken from soul of someone (so it comes partially pre-programmed I would think). If it is just unkeyed raw Preservation's Investiture, that alone won't grant power. It would Invest the person, but not grant them power. You can have Invested soul without having powers. The Investiture would be basically what Mists are, and those have to be guided to Invest person to grant them powers (i.e. programmed). I think we will get there, but by technological means, i.e. Medallions, not by Investing the person directly. Brandon stated that is direction Scadrial is going, mechanized Invested Arts. And we do see that in TSM as well. I am in favour of this as well, and I think that is the direction it will go. Also, this way Roshar and Scadrial would be furhter differentiated, with Roshar having less, but more powerful magic users with broad powers, and Scadrial far more, but less powerful specialized in few skills. Sort of generalist vs specialist move.

But what you are trying to Store is Forgery, which you are trying to manipulate and interfere with (by Storing and then Burning), both of which Forgery is explicitly sensitive to. You are effectively trying to store a fake part of Spiritweb, without disrupting it, which sounds damn near impossible to me.

It cannot be Ghostbloods, since they are clearly the competing organization to Gavilar, and are trying to get access to that very kind of information (among other things). Not to mention, they don't seem to possess that knowledge by Era 2, which is later on. Nicrosil Compounder would likely not be able to create more Breath, as Breath is Investiture of Endowment, and Compounders get Preservations Investiture. See this WoB (different idea, but similar issue of having wrong type of Investiture)

Aluminum has a field effect, so theoretically even something like 50:50 alloy could still retain that effect. Duralumin though suggests that would not be engouh, as it is 96% Aluminum. Nevertheless, impure metals must be veeery close to the Allomantic metal, since Steel is at most 98% Iron and 2% Carbon (and can go as low as 0.02% carbon to still count IRL). So anything that is less than 99% Aluminum would not count as 'impure Aluminum', and bullets are almost certainly less Aluminum than that (by simple requirements of ballistics). But bullets of 'aluminum' specifically don't have metallurgic properties of Aluminum, otherwise they would be useless as bullets.

Issue with that is that Aluminum used in bullets is not pure Aluminum (they must be alloy due to ballistics), and hence is not usable by Allomancers. Best bet is F-Gold medallion to keep them functional, and then manually dig it out.

I don't think that would work. If it acts as a single spike realmatically, then it has invalid charge for them metal it is composed of. Or more precisely, the charges stay in the appropriate metals, and so it is Realmatically multiple spikes, just basically glued together. I mean, you cannot just weld together Ironmind and Steelmind, and by touching one, use both. Atium would get around the issue I think is there. But it still assumes that removing the Identity of Donor lets you re-use spikes on different people, which I think will still be highly problematic (as you cannot necessarily store 100% of given attribute, so certain remnants of Identity will always be present).

Fair enough. Hmm, good point. Do you recall where specifically this was? I assume somewhere close to end of BoM. Yes, that is true. But I am pointing out that Hemalurgic spike must have rather specific composition to work. So either you see it as a single spike, which is not made out of any Hemalurgically viable metal; or, you see it as multiple spikes welded together and you are trying to get multiple spikes in a single bind point. That is my point, it has to be both singular (one spike = one bindpoint) and plural (different metals = different spikes = powers from different quadrants). It would be like trying to push a gun as both a singular object and trying to also separately push on a specific part, which I don't think is possible (from how steellines split). My mistake then. More clarity never hurts.

True, but since her word is also the primary source for this statement, so doubting her knowledge is odd (especially when it is communicated in Ars Arcanum which is used to give us more 'external' and objective viewpoint of the magic systems than stories do). In addition, Medallions also cannot grant more than 3 powers and those are apparently stupidly rare, giving another example of limitation on granting powers. Not everything can be overriden with perception. If you see spike as a single object, than a simple question arises, what is the metal composition of this singular spike? If you say multiple metals, then you imply it is not a single spike, you still separate it into multiple sub-objects (like Wax did with bullet). And hence it should require multiple (and different) bind points. If you say single metal, then it is an alloy, and not hemalurgically viable. So this is my issue, you both have to see it as one object, and as multiple at the same time. I understood you, I just disagree you can reuse bindpoint that way. A single spike goes in a bindpoint, and having 'single' spike made out of multiple sub-spikes does not seem feasible to me. It sounds more like a semantic argument then a physical one. Welded spikes are still that, welded spikes not a single large spike.

Identity contamination is the (likely) reason for Compounding not working after Era 1, but soul not getting more powers from spikes is a separate from that. The wording in Ars Arcanum also specifically says that soul stops getting powers, implying that the limit is 3-4 powers obtained unnaturally, not spikes themselves. Spike made out of multiple metals is still multiple spikes. Only if you alloyed them would it count as single spike, but than it would of course not be Hemalurgically usable. So at best you need 8 spikes to become artificial Fullborn, and I doubt even that (as per the reasoning above).

That is only after Sazed altered Koloss to turn them into a true breeding species. So Koloss after Catecedre pass that to their offspring, nothing from the spikes.

I'd dispute that. Medallions are composed of multiple parts, of which only the nicrosil is special (as it grants you powers you don't have), and as far as I know, using Medallion you cannot modify the Nicrosil component. The rest of Medallion is simply just a piece of relevant metal, into which you store. As such, since Honorblades are self-aware (so I think they are alive enough for Cosmere), you would be unable to store in them.

No problem, we all make mistakes (as can be evidenced by my misreading of parts of your post). I simply don't think there are any differences that matter. Of the top of my head the only differences between Stormlight and Mists are Mists linger, Stormlight evaporates Mists don't glow, Stormlight does Mists cannot be easily captured in gems, Stormlight naturally is Two of those can be explained via nature of the Shard Mists linger because they are of Preservation, and hence persevere Stormlight naturally 'bonds' to gems because Honor is shard of Connection and bonds Other than that, both can be used to power Invested art, both provide the same feeling to user, both can be drawn in if you have appropriate Connection (e.g. Nahel bond), both can be somewhat controlled by respective Shards. Additionally, we know Tineye can see through Mists, as if they were not there at all. If they were partly regular matter that makes little sense. But if they are pure Preservation Investiture, than it makes a bit more sense. And per this WoB that is something they could do with other Gaseous manifestations of Investiture (possibly with some shenanigans) Breaths are far more different than either Stormlight or Mists, yet it is Gaseous Investiture as well. As such, I don't see much evidence to suggest Mists are anything more than another gaseous manifestation. Storytelling wise, there is also little need to have them be anything else than that. But I am open to discussion.

That is it. I don't think we have ever seen Investiture become physical matter of gas. Well, Soulcasting would be example, but that is something else. But Mists are not that, Mists are the same as Stormlight, i.e. gaseous Investiture. They are both gas in the same sense as air is gas, just with different properties because they are not ordinary matter. No, Mists within Vin act exactly like Stormlight. They power her Invested art (she has run out of metals by the point she starts draws them in HoA), they heal her (she is literally dying when she breathes them in, and then is healed and kills Inquisitors), and they leak out of her. Her body does not convert it to Investiture, it is Investiture already. Edit: Misunderstood here, you don't say she converts Mists to Investiture, but that Mists convert Vin to Investiture. Though I will say I don't think that happens till the end of the fight where she does fully Ascend. The lack of glow can be down to any number of things, for example the simple fact that Mists don't glow at all, whereas Stormlight always glows, even when not contained. Edit: Vin even describes nearly the same sensation as Radiants do, i.e. feeling urge to move, as if light flooded her body etc. Also, Stormlight does not give off heat at all, it is not like plasma.

That is not true, Stormlight is Gaseous Investiture (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/76/#e6353 ), as are Breaths. It is affected by environment, if not to the same extent as regular matter (because it is not). Mists also don't behave as you would expect. It acting in body also does not have to do with its phase state, but with its nature. Mists act similarly when Vin draws them in, https://wob.coppermind.net/events/467/#e14782, because they are the same gaseous state of Investiture. Trapped Light responds to proper sounds, i.e. sounds created with Intent, not to any sounds. And neither sunlight nor electricity is a gas...well, electron gas is a thing, and it actually can interact with phonon (quasi-particles of sound) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19938-9 . Photons can also interact with phonons (and technically, also can sunlight and sound). Investiture is the third (and fictional) part of Matter and Energy, so Investiture is not matter or energy but its own thing, including when manifesting physically. Godmetals are not regular physical matter that is Invested, they are Investiture in solid state (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/314/#e8929). And in the same way Mists/Lights are Investiture in gaseous state.