Returned

You'll always be a torturer of Heralds to me, @Argenti.

We don't know enough about the underlying mechanisms for how Metallic Arts are inherited to assess how successful a matchmaking and breeding scheme might be. It's not impossible that it could work. What little evidence we have suggests that it would not work very well, though. We don't have any evidence suggesting that two Allomancer or Feruchemist parents are (at this point) more likely to produce an Allomancer or Feruchemist child than one parent with a normal Scadrian, which is one of they key concepts behind such a scheme. And a Mistborn doesn't seem to be any more likely to produce another Mistborn than a Misting, while a Misting obviously can produce a Mistborn. We have excellent evidence for general heritability of Feruchemy but the WoBs regarding the dilution of that trait seem to relate to interaction with Allomancy, not necessarily mixing with non-Terris people. If that's true then the change might not be recoverable through matchmaking alone. The nobility, pre-Catacendre, did at least some matchmaking along Allomantic lines but the population still lost Allomantic strength pretty quickly over a thousand years. Skaa apparently didn't (don't?) have the ability to maintain Allomantic lines at all, absolutely requiring a noble ancestor within five generations to yield an Allomancer (The Final Empire, p. 292). The only people for whom we even know that modern Allomancy (what we see after Lerasium was given by Rashek) is consistently heritable are nobles, and we know that Rashek changed them in some way from what they were before. It's possible that the heritability is more due to those changes than the Lerasium, if not the Allomantic strength. At this point in Scadrial's history noble ancestry might be pretty well distributed through the overall population, but how much noble background does someone need, and could that background be reconstituted into a stronger trait? Maybe. But it's not a sure thing. Overall, the evidence we have suggests that Allomantic strength and heritability come from two angles: being descended from those Rashek transformed into nobles, and being descended from people that burned Lerasium to become Mistborn. The latter piece seems to dilute with each generation, and even at its strongest point (the immediate descendants of the original Lerasium-burners) we don't have any reason to believe that all of the next generation were Allomancers, while we do have good evidence that each generation was weaker (Allomantically) than those that preceded them. We don't know how noble lineage affects things other than that it seems to matter a lot, somehow. Allomantic strength seems like it has some relationship to matchmaking, but it also seems like the main effect of that is to slow the degradation, not to reverse it. The changes in expressed Feruchemy over time don't have those same considerations and so a matchmaking scheme might be more effective there, but it's notable that we don't have any evidence that the current Terris efforts have been at all effective in that regard. So, from what we know now, the idea of a matchmaking program to strengthen Metallic Arts powers across generations is a maybe, at best. But medallion technology (never mind raw Hemalurgy) is so much more reliable, effective, fast, and scalable that I think it would be hard to get enough people on board with a matchmaking program to even make the effort. Regardless, there is clearly more to this for both Allomancy and Feruchemy than simple heritability and we don't have enough reliable information to make very confident guesses. Yes, I think so. Mistborns' Allomantic strength weakens over generations just like Mistings' do, and Mistborn don't appear more likely to produce Mistborn than Mistings or vice-versa. And neither is all that likely to produce an Allomancer at all. But Allomantic potential does seem to be preserved, in at least some cases. Kelsier notes this when he is describing Vin's father, though how precise his knowledge is is unclear. But it seems like the difference is in potential strength of an Allomancer child, should one be born, and not necessarily the likelihood of such a child being born. "Seems" being an important word there-- we have very little reliable information from which we can develop guesses.

I de-upvoted one, but it seems that wasn't enough.

How about this one: any small device which requires some electricity but not a whole lot at once is built with as little metal as possible, and/or the functional components are surrounded by an aluminum case (making them Allomantically undetectable and uninfluenceable). There is then a small cartridge which can be slid into the device, and the cartridge contains a reciprocating metal element which can be pushed/pulled within a track (probably against a spring) or which is mounted on a wheel and so it can be spun. Either way, the cartridge's metal element is designed on the same principles as a wireless charging mechanism and the motion of the metal element generates electricity. The interior of the main device is designed such that the cartridge, when inserted, either transfers power to the aluminum-encased components (perhaps via magnets) or directly conducts power through aluminum channels. The Allomancer can, at need, power the device directly or potentially charge a small power storage system in it (like a big capacitor or a more complex rechargeable battery-like structure) by Pushing and/or Pulling on the metal element in the cartridge. What the devices do obviously will matter, but I could imagine a small noise-generating machine (low-frequency pulses, maybe able to distract Seekers?), lights, a radio transmitter, or lots of other small-draw equipment. It's probably easier just to carry standardized batteries in an aluminum case and power things that way, but the idea of converting Allomantic power into electricity on demand seems like something that would have some valuable applications to an infiltrator, spy, or assassin.

Really interesting line of thinking! I'm not sure of all of the details, but my thoughts are: Soulcasting doesn't appear to preserve the details of something's original material, aside from physical shape. As an example, when Jasnah transformed a human into smoke or crystal they weren't living smoke or living crystal (as far as we know, at least). They became what the were cast into, and that happened to be unliving. I'm sure that others can post corrections for me, but Soulcasting seems to actually convert one thing into another and forsake its original properties (again, except for shape in some cases). If that's accurate then a corpse Soulcast into some non-flesh material won't be a corpse any more, so the normal Lifeless elements seem like they wouldn't apply. Or at least wouldn't necessarily. Soulcasting an object which could easily be made to resemble a humanoid body should make it easier to Awaken afterwards, even if transformed into a harder-to-Awaken substance. It's easier to make a wax figure in a human shape and cast it to tungsten than it is to carve or mold tungsten. So in that sense it should be easier than Awakening a non-human-shaped piece of the same material, but I think that the difficulties with Awakening metal would overwhelm that. Think, but don't really know. I could easily be mistaken but I think that Soulcasting something which has been Awakened has a real chance of ending its Awakened status. We don't have any examples I can think of to compare with though. It just seems like too much of a cheat to Awaken something and then supercharge it by transforming it into a material which could never have been Awakened with so few Breaths. And that's assuming that the same visualization and Command would translate to the new material, which won't always be a given.

I, personally, think that the effects of swearing the fifth Oath as a Radiant won't provide a ton of dramatic or flexible new powers. It's a given that such a Radiant will be able to work with more Investiture and direct it more efficiently and effectively, since we see this improve with every Oath already it seems likely to continue. I don't know how much more powerful Radiants can become while still being characters that we can see participate in the plot without breaking the story just by their presence. We haven't seen much in the way of Surges changing through further Radiance, though we also haven't seen many people actually develop. Shallan may be a good counterexample, being able to Soulcast her illusions to some degree, but I don't think that that's something along the lines of "Soulcasting like an Elsecaller". Maybe their resonances become more pronounced and flexible, rather than individual powers? I don't think that manipulating essences will come up, nor making use of spren to cause changes in the physical realm. The former encroaches too much on Elsecallers and Soulcasting in general while the latter is what fabrials do already, and figures old enough to have known the Radiant Orders in the past seem ignorant of and surprised about captive spren fabrial technology. I don't think that Radiants will lose agency or be inherently constrained from making "bad" choices-- human freedom to choose to keep an oath or betray it seems like too much of a theme to be permanently taken off the table, though I do think that the depth of understanding required to reach the 5th Ideal will provide a lot of insight and guide a lot of decision making support. So more Investiture and possibly better/fuller resonance between powers seem to me to be the most likely effects swearing the 5th Ideal produces. There will be more effects but I expect them to be more personal and philosophical in nature than additional superpowers. A 5th Ideal Radiant will have a much fuller and deeply-held understanding of their Oaths and the view of the world they engender (such as Kaladin's perspectives shifting in ways that make him a fuller Windrunner but less capable as a soldier). They'll have the cracks in their spiritwebs (if not minds/souls, necessarily) filled in with... Investiture? The nature of their bonded spren? They'll have confronted the worst of their issues, though I'm not sure it's a guarantee that they'll overcome those issues, necessarily. Their spren will be more fully present in the physical realm, with expanded intelligence, personality, and understanding than they'd had previously. That also suggests expanded abilities with manifesting as different types of objects.

Moash may die, but discussions around him never will. He's a reasonably well-drawn character (Moash, not Vyre!), who gets more depth and clear, consequential decision making opportunities that we readers observe than most characters do aside from the series' core protagonists. That extra complexity gives a lot more weight to individual choices he makes (since we see him making them) plus a lot of context for why he might be making the choices he does. But he's also decidedly a villain, and readers are unlikely to forgive killing Teft even if they'd be open to giving him a pass on killing Elhokar. That makes him polarizing. With a window into his mind and decision making process we see him doing things that are very difficult to justify and then we get people breaking into groups: some sympathize with him and want to forgive or excuse his behaviors (to at least some degree) because they find his choices understandable though not good. Others see his decision making process and assess that it is not good enough to drive the choices he makes and so despise him even more than other villains in the series whose minds and choices to become villainous we don't see (cremlings like Torol Sadeas and Amaram, for example). I really do think it's primarily an emotional response thing which people often try to fit into a broader (often sketchily defined) moral outlook, and people have their motivated view of him whether that view is to excuse or condemn. That he personally betrays and harries one of readers' favorite characters in the series just casts the stakes of judgement into sharper contrast.

It's definitely a cool idea, and I think you could muffle the chamber with the spring to keep the noise down. My idea with the springs was to allow the kinetic energy of one being released and moving a metal plate to give more force to Push or Pull against, allowing things like on-demand Allomantic mobility even when anchors are unavailable, without needing to haul something heavier than your own body. The spring gun is definitely a less awkward and more generally usable idea though!

I've been trying to think of cool ideas, but my best ones have come out half-baked so far! Hopefully I'll come up with better ones than these two, but here are mine for the moment: 1. A reversible cloak with a metallic element on both sides, sort of like an emergency blanket. On the one side, a thin metallic lining (or bits of metallic thread, like embroidery or stitching) and on the other side aluminum thin enough to still be flexible. The edges of the cloak are weighted and stitched into the non-aluminum side in key places, and the whole cloak can be folded up with either side facing outwards. But as long as the non-aluminum side is facing the Mistborn they can push and pull on those edges to move the cloak in interesting ways, snapping it, spinning it, etc. But the idea is that the Mistborn can unfurl it quickly, push it forward like a net to trap others, flip it around and cover themselves. Tactics would develop quickly to counter, but a net that blocks Allomancy as it approaches could be a handy tool. And a large-ish piece of fabric that could alternately be Allomantically manipulated or provide a barrier against same could be a pretty versatile item. 2. A metal box with multiple heavy springs inside, compressed by metal plates and held by metal latches. The box itself is reasonably heavy, but the springs can contain a solid amount of energy when compressed. The Mistborn uses Allomancy to release the appropriate latches and then the spring extends, pushing its metal plate forcefully outwards. The Mistborn can Push or Pull against that motion while the spring is extending and gets the effect of working against greater weight than the box or plates actually offer, even if the box itself is in midair. A bit bulky, and troublesome to reset, so not an ideal tool and maybe a bit disposable (of necessity). But I like the idea of carefully engineering of the springs and weighted plates to allow for emergency maneuvering or extra force at any time.

I like the chulls. They seem relatable, in their role in life on Roshar (natural and otherwise) if not personally.

That's a good point, though I think it's worth mentioning that Ruin's influence on Kelsier was enough to make him a poor Vessel for Preservation regardless of his well above average Connection to the latter. There may be some fuzziness there though, as aspects of character may be relevant beyond actually directly interacting with Shardic powers.

We don't know enough about them to say much in the general case, and in some practical senses they may well work as you suggest here. If they can't be tapped, for example, then application of the ironminds on Malwish ships becomes very different and are a depletable resource on voyages. But that doesn't mean that the Malwish can't have dedicated Metalborn who deal with the excess weight in some sort of centralized facility. That the Bands could do it all but guarantees that medallions could also do it (theoretically, assuming that the medallions and Bands work according to the same principles), though there are obviously substantial technical hurdles separating the two already. However, we do have a WoB indicating that medallions grant the ability to store attributes in a metalmind other than the relevant portion of the medallion itself. This seems to suggest that a medallion allowing storage of an attribute would allow storage of that attribute in an appropriate metalmind of another medallion: We also do see people tapping an attribute and also storing it, so in at least some cases the Feruchemical ability must be bidirectional (storable and tappable, both): I really wish we knew, specifically, why the heat medallions at the end of BoM couldn't be refilled. It's a puzzle, especially when compared with some of the Set's similar technology. My current suspicion revolves around Identity of the medallion itself, but suspicion is all it's going to be for a while I did not forget about Straff but I'm not sure this is the argument you are thinking. By "breeding program" I presumed you meant increasing the proportion of Metalborn among the Malwish by selectively combining lines of descent, and that's the part that we haven't seen work despite at least some efforts to do so. I'm not sure what you mean to indicate with a "decent clip" of Allomancer production, given that we don't have much information on how many existed across generations; if the number of Allomancers per X population increased or stayed the same that would be one thing, but if it dipped it would be exactly the opposite. We have zero evidence (that I recall, at least) that two Metalborn are more likely to produce Metalborn children than one Metalborn and one normal parent. We know (anecdotally and without citation, but at least from a character in-text) that Allomancy fades pretty quickly outside of strictly noble lineages. From what we've seen it appears that Allomancy and Feruchemy become less pronounced in populations over time absent specific events to offset that (the Lerasium beads for Rashek's friends, Sazed making Spook Mistborn, etc.). We don't know anything about the natural Mistings, maybe that's a baseline rate among Scadrians that hasn't been (can't be?) breached. But in any case it's not as easy as "get a Metalborn parent in the mix" when skaa Allomancers' powers dwindle so quickly across generations. Maybe the Malwish are just stuck with the baseline rate of natural Allomancers and can't alter it via matchmaking-- we don't even know if natural Allomancy is heritable. The unifying trait of consistently heritable Allomancy on Scadrial is Rashek's altering of people into nobles and skaa, with only the nobles getting "extra" access to Allomancy. Given their dependence on medallions to live it's possible, perhaps likely, that the Malwish probably have about as large a population at any given time as they can support. And if their population is limited by the medallions available then arbitrarily expanding the population generation after generation is a pretty difficult strategy to pursue, especially given that even among the much more Metalborn-rich Northerners Allomancy is pretty rare. If an approach that is "more children lead to more of the useful medallions" doesn't pay off pretty quickly you'd have some problems. Though of course it's possible that the limiting factors on Southern populations are not related to the number of medallions available, in which case that pressure would be far less intense. And all of that leaves aside other issues (practical, cultural, or social) which a breeding plan could introduce.

Interesting angle, as Kelsier was involved in the development of Spook's book, was the Sovereign to the Malwish, and was already dependent on Hemalurgy when he visited the South. I wonder how much the Malwish need Metalborn powers outside of what the medallions grant at this point in the story. It seems like once you have a handful of the key unsealed metalminds you'd be able to keep producing them without necessarily having fresh Ferrings or Mistings born every few years or needing more Hemalurgic spikes than they already have, even if having Metalborn or Hemalurgists makes the process easier or better in some way. We know so little about how those metalminds are produced I wouldn't feel like betting too much on it, but the fact is that there seems to be a pretty sizeable population in the South that depends on those medallions and so it seems unlikely that they are teetering at the edge of disaster in terms of access to them. Maybe they've been limiting their population growth to what their medallion supply can support? As to the breeding programs and caste restrictions, Sanderson already did that and it was not really effective so I'm not sure I'd sign on to such things making inescapable sense. The time period of the first three Mistborn books had caste restrictions (routinely violated) and at least ad hoc breeding programs related to keeping Allomancy in family lines. It worked to slow the dissipation of Allomancy somewhat but that appears to be as good as it got. The breeding program for the Terris (as the Keepers approached it) may have worked in the manner you're describing though, so maybe there is some hope for it (if their initial stock of Metalborn is adequate). Otherwise the goal of "more and stronger Allomancers/Feruchemists" via selective breeding has been a consistent failure over centuries of in-book time, and coming/already present technological advances seem more promising in that regard while also being much easier and faster to undertake.

Yes, it is possible (especially if you're expansive with your definitions of "child" and "have"). It's not impossible that such a child would have Shard-esque powers, though it's not clear how that would work as it has never happened. Here are a couple of relevant WoBs that I'm aware of:

I agree, though I think that regular people will not have much access to bazaars in the Cognitive Realm (save for the black market, which will definitely exist). I wonder how effectively this could be accomplished... a trade in Breaths is probably not stoppable, but the ability to manufacture unkeyed metalminds seems ripe for centralized control. And Hemalurgy will upset everything anyways. The future of the Cosmere is conflict, between worlds, groups, and Shards, and I think that as a part of the conflicts those with the ability to do so will lock down access to Investiture manifestations as thoroughly as they can. Raw Investiture, like jars of Dor, will probably have a thriving trade everywhere. Within-system commerce might be common (like Scadrians having access to a wide variety of unkeyed metalminds). But I feel like Worldhoppers will deal with systems that discourage accumulating a variety of powers.

When storing weight in iron your bodily fluids don't suddenly boil away through your eyes and mucus membranes nor burst your capillaries despite their suddenly reduced density while retaining equivalent volume. That's never explicitly narrated but must be true based on when we've seen people store large amounts of their weight. To the extent that physical processes in the brain are relevant to physical speed, we really don't have any reason to think that they aren't also slowed during storage (though, as ever, magic can cover any piece of discontinuity at any point). In any case you're ignoring the distinction that I drew in my post; I did not suggest that F-steel speeds up "thinking", only that it affects physical processes (including in the brain) which are relevant to physical movement. It's not even about survival (though that is obviously important), it's about ability to use the magic at all. Choosing to grab an object requires neurochemical and electrical activity, including assessing when the object is in reach, stopping your arm from continuing to move, closing your hand around it, receiving sensory input that you're touching it, that sort of thing. The brain is and must be involved because that's how moving your body works. We have some reason to think that people tapping F-steel are not numb, for example, even though the sensation of touch is a process that runs through the brain. When Bleeder killed targets in a whole room full of people she had the ability to see them, identify them, choose one to target, aim the gun or position the knife, kill them, and then move on to the next. Reflexes alone can't account for all of that, even if reflexes themselves were not physical processes which run through the brain (which they are and do). Unless a Steelrunner needs to waste their speed while waiting for their minds to catch up to physical circumstances around them (which could be the case), or they always pulse their tapping of speed without any narration to that effect (also possible) they must have some capacity to process information more quickly than if they weren't tapping at all. Otherwise utilizing their speed would not allow for anything like normal physical function even though we have seen examples of exactly that. Let's try an example: you're a Feruchemist at bat in a baseball game. In case A, the pitcher throws the ball and you tap F-zinc. Your mind races and you can apprehend the spin of the ball, its trajectory, speed, and any other characteristics of the pitch that you need in order to understand where the ball will be when you could hit it, how the bat should be positioned, the angle and timing of the swing, and so on. But even though your thinking is quick enough to do all of that in an instant you cannot physically move the bat where it needs to be any more quickly than you normally could. You may not be able to hit the ball despite your thorough knowledge of its path, even though the physical components of thought may be sped up to do the thinking (with magic there will always be some breakdown of realistic mechanisms). In case B, the pitcher throws the ball and you tap F-steel. You cannot make any detailed observations nor extrapolations of the ball's path because your thinking is not sped up, but you could position yourself such that you could hit the ball from any angle at any time. Or, at any rate, it seems to me that that is something F-steel would allow. To suggest that there is no element of perception or information processing which is sped up along with your body is to say that this is untrue, and that a Feruchemist could not be more successful in hitting the ball when tapping steel than at any other time. Saying "reflexes" doesn't seem to me to cover this, as in real life a normal-speed batter could swing, decline to swing, try to bunt, etc. Another example: you are a Feruchemist evaluating calculus equations. You tap zinc and look at an equation. The relevant relationships between items in the equation become more clear to you and you can run through any necessary calculations and algebraic manipulations required in a flash, even potentially intuiting details you didn't already know. But you can't use any of that sped-up thinking to write down the results or any intermediate steps any more quickly, even though similar neurochemical processes must be happening more quickly than normal in your brain to allow the thoughts (or the magic directly covers for them). The zinc can save you time in solving the equation, but not in writing the solution down. You then release zinc and look at another equation, tapping steel. You can write down anything you like at incredible speed (writing with a pen is a considered, deliberate action and not a reflex) and with your normal penmanship, but you cannot solve the equation any more quickly than you could if not tapping steel. The steel can save you time in writing down the solution, but cannot save you time in figuring the solution out. The position that you have advanced would seem to preclude a Steelrunner from being able to write at all.

I've imagined the difference between F-steel and F-zinc to be primarily about processes, plus a bit of the "necessary secondary power" aspect of superhuman abilities. The former piece, about processes, is that physical processes should all be sped up by the F-steel, including things like neurochemical signaling. Your nervous system and brain work faster in a physical context but other processes aren't affected. So you don't think faster (in the abstract sense that you do not come up with ideas or process them more quickly), but the processes that relate to movement are sped up appropriately to suit your physical speed: you can see and respond to things around you, can choose to stop moving and immediately do so, etc. But you don't "think" faster, nor do physical processes unrelated to movement occur and more quickly (for example, your wounds shouldn't heal more quickly while tapping F-steel). F-zinc seems to speed up the rate at which you come up with ideas and increases your ability to recall and arrange ideas together in ways that lead to what you want. The "necessary secondary power" piece is one that is already confirmed multiple times in text and out. In the same way that tapping F-iron magically makes the body strong enough to endure its own increased weight, F-steel grants enough secondary capability to make the physical speed useful. If brain activity related to controlling your body weren't commensurately increased you would have a hard time using the speed to much effect. You wouldn't be able to find your footing while running quickly, would have disconnected, spastic, individual movements, and similar. We see clearly in the books that these are not the case. What F-zinc speeds up is not physical processes, except to the extent that such processes are necessary to accomplish what zinc does grant.

It's also worth noting that a lot of time has passed between the end of Warbreaker and RoW, so it's likely that Vivenna is a much more skilled Awakener than before, and that the "cloth that is an extension of my body" genre of Commands is one that Vasher was actively refining before he and Vivenna were especially close. The "act as my hands and grip what I must" type of Command is pretty abstract and could cover a lot of situations, including those unforseen by the Awakener, without needing time and presence of mind to Awaken the clothing in a flash during the heat of battle. What we see of Vasher's cloak and, separately, his tassels suggests to me that the best use of Awakened clothing in a fight is a flexible Command related to parrying and entangling opponents. Years of additional practice and refinement would, I expect, yield a pretty incredible and responsive style of combat impossible without an Awakened garment. I imagine the surface of the cloak rippling and stiffening to turn blows aside or bleed off their momentum, tripping or disarming or blinding enemies, actively hiding the position and motion of Vivenna's sword, and allowing her to resist Invested attacks/effects at a minimum. And I think that potential applications go beyond those, or anything we've yet seen or imagined.

I wouldn't bother nerfing it. It's powerful, as is most Metallic Arts magic, that's kind of the point. The balance for Feruchemy is already present anyways: storing a useful amount of an attribute, as most people seem to operationally define on 17th Shard, takes a long time and is risky while being done. Storing so small an amount that you aren't in active danger while doing so doesn't yield much of the attribute to be used later, and storing a lot at once leaves you vulnerable while also not storing much operational time/excess amount of the attribute. What we see of Feruchemy actually happening in the books tends to represent weeks of intensive storage, at minimum, drained away in minutes at most and often far less time than that. But discussions here always seem to assume that storage is easy and therefore that large amounts of attributes will always be available, even though what seems to happen is you get one high-leverage Feruchemical application event per month at best. How much time separates the most dramatic uses of Wax's stored weight? How long does Bleeder's stored speed last her, and is there always enough for her to accomplish her goals? How often does Sazed get to use his super speed, and how often does it actually resolve his issues? Steelrunners seem to drain their speed very quickly while tapping it. Expertise in applying it and experience working with the magic will grant a lot of finesse (my favorite example is always Ham's expertly judicious use of Allomantic pewter), but that's not really the typical Steelrunner case. I suppose we could talk about what the optimal approach would be to reliably have X amount of speed available to suit different use cases and see where that discussion leads but I don't think that that will lead to a conclusion that nerfing is necessary. Steel Feruchemy more versatile for sure, but is it generally more dangerous than a Coinshot tossing nails and ball bearings around them and then Pushing? Not necessarily by a lot. Summary: Steelrunning is amazingly powerful if you have enough stored speed to successfully address some immediate goal to which physical speed is relevant, but because you generally won't have enough stored you will really have to be judicious in choosing which goals get the resource allocated to them. That means you don't get to use ultra-deluxe-super speed very often, and it's already not a guarantee of success when you do. Steelrunning is already limited, not in what it can accomplish, but in how often you get to use it and how long each use can be.

I've had books with issues like you describe (not Sanderson novels), and more with other issues related to printing (especially "special, exclusive editions" for retailers like Barnes & Noble). I've had books with several pages completely black, pages or whole chapters missing, and persistent obvious typos (those clearly due to errors in optical character recognition). I assume you've confirmed that the pages are out of order or missing, as opposed to just being mis-numbered. If so, it sounds like there is a problem with the print run, in which case it is likely that every copy from that print run is going to have the same issues. Be prepared for the possibility that, until a new run is printed, there won't be any "good copies" of that edition; it's possible but not guaranteed that there are a handful of good copies out there mixed in with the run. If it is the case that there are batches of correctly compiled copies floating around out there I fear you'll have to manually check a book to see if you've found one or not. I think that it is unlikely someone in a book warehouse is going to do it on your behalf. The most a seller can really do is give you a refund-- they cannot provide a copy without the problems if no such copy exists, though they are responsible for selling you what you actually want (a correctly compiled book) and so a refund is in order because you got a defective product. The publisher/owner of the IP can't necessarily do anything for you either, as they are not necessarily the printer (though they may want to speak to the printer about it) and did not make the error in printing (unless they are or own the printer), nor did they decide to distribute the problematic copies. The steps you've already taken are the right ones, as far as I am aware. It's too bad Dragonsteel isn't willing (or perhaps able) to make it right. B&N probably has access to other editions or print runs, but staff at the store might not have access to the information to identify which one might lead to a good copy to order for you from one of their warehouses. If all you want is a copy with the right pages in the right order (a pretty reasonable ask!) and aren't going to be able to physically review the copy you're considering buying, then my advice is to look for other editions or different print runs. Editions are usually not so hard to check, as the front matter of the book will list the publication date, but print runs you might need to contact the publisher and/or printer about. Good luck, I hope you are able to track down a satisfactory copy and/or that the wait for a new print run isn't too long.

Also a potential item of interest: you would need an ironmind large enough to store a sufficient amount of your mass during your effort to run across the surface of the water, and you cannot magically alter the weight of that item. Depending on the amount of time you want to spend not sinking and the amount of mass you need to shed, the weight of the ironmind could potentially undermine the whole effort. Though the examples we've seen suggest to me that you can probably use a pretty small amount of iron to store sufficient mass. I bet you could "pulse" your mass so that you have an appropriately small amount while descending towards the water's surface, stop storing weight to allow good-enough running motion of legs, store again for contact with the water's surface, and then stop storing once more to overcome the air's resistance as you move forward. It seems like a pretty precise operation, though, and I feel like you'd steadily lose velocity as you moved forward and wouldn't be able to recover much of it.

Ah, I see now. In that case I think I'd say the point of no return is the earliest time he let his pain and guilt flow over to Odium. I don't recall exactly when that is (we may not even know, it could be subtler than when Odium flatly makes the offer). Denying his responsibility for his actions and their consequences is the key thing that doesn't fit with Radiance at all, so giving in to that is what shuts him off from the image. Maybe. I'd wager that the visions are related in the sense that they interact with Fortune (that seems to be key to the mechanism that makes them work). I don't think that the past-looking element of malatium fits with Renarin's powers, though. His powers tap the future and I don't think we've ever seen them deal with the past. That fits with what we see of Adolin in the paddock: it's an aspirational vision, and the healing nudges him towards realizing that vision. I suppose we can't rule out that it worked differently for Moash, as we know very little of Truthwatchers' powers, but it seems to me that reaching into the past would be novel and limited to this singular instance so far. The implications would be interesting if the Truthwatcher healing did work that way on Moash and differently for others, though. I don't think that Kaladin's forgiveness would matter directly to Moash's Radiance progression. It's too external, and Moash needs to deal with himself to progress, not collect acceptance from others. People don't have to forgive Dalinar for his past, for example, in order for him to progress. Though I do think that Kaladin's judgement is important to Moash and his view of his own moral condition I don't think that it can be the linchpin for his potential to be better. Accepting that he won't/can't be forgiven for what he has done might be one of the things a better Moash has to accept living with. As to Kaladin, I'm torn. Allowing Elhokar to be assassinated obviously feels wrong, certainly given the scope of events in WoR. But Kaladin kills an awful lot of people that can't protect themselves from him, and Syl can't explain to him why that's acceptable, nor can she rule out a Radiant on the other side killing the people Kaladin wants to protect and protecting the people Kaladin tries to kill. A Skybreaker probably couldn't countenance an extralegal assassination as part of a coup either (what legal forms would you need to have filed for that, I wonder?). And Syl does mention that Kaladin has made two promises as the heart of his bond weakening. I think that the issue in this case isn't some objective standard that says killing in some situation is never OK but rather that Kaladin doesn't really believe that killing Elhokar is going to protect people, as he flirts with trying to persuade himself is true. His real reason was that he found Elhokar distasteful and a symbol of the worst elements of injustice in the society which had so badly abused him-- that he didn't matter except as an object of what Kaladin wanted and so it would be OK to sacrifice him just like a petty officer sacrificed Tien. Hence the perspective suggestion I offered up. I think that if Kaladin were in the field and had a chance to personally kill a Fused commander via a method like those proposed to kill Elhokar, and thereby avert a battle that would get lots of humans and Singers killed, he would be able to do it and maintain his bond. Whom it's acceptable to kill, and probably under what circumstances, are issues that Kaladin has been dealing with and he's been moving away from the idea that it's acceptable at all. The difference must lie in what Kaladin thinks is right, as per the words of his second Oath. But in WoR he's much freer with violence and I think that he (or maybe I should say "a Radiant with the appropriate perspective") would be able to kill Elhokar, or allow him to be killed.

The image Renarin made isn't a gold shadow or malatium shadow, so it's not like Vin seeing the happy Terrisman someone might have been. Renarin's projections (Lightweavings, properly?) show the best possible version of their subjects, probably mediated by Renarin's perceptions or ideas. That's what happened to Adolin in the paddock. So the image of Moash isn't what an alternate path through life might have made him but rather is the best version of him that could exist. I don't think that there is a point of no return in any mechanical sense (like as might relate to a Radiant bond). The whole concept of Radiance is of improvement, that it's never too late to be a better person than you were. The most important step a person can take is the next one. The problem with Moash isn't that he made the wrong choice at some key point in the flow of events on Roshar, it's that he keeps making the wrong choices in ways that indulge and reinforce the personal feelings that have broken him (or that he perceives that way, I guess). It's not even so much the wrong choices themselves. For example, had Kaladin's genuine perspective been different he might have been compelled to kill Elhokar. But his uncertainty about what the right thing to do was, and even more his struggle to examine his options and himself to figure out what was right, led him to commit to mutually exclusive, opposed tasks at the same time. He knew that at least one thing he was doing was a betrayal of his beliefs and oaths, which cost him dearly. But when he had reflected enough to understand what was right (from his perspective and congruent with his character) he became more Radiant than ever. Moash can't face what it would mean for the right choices to actually be right, in the sense that he obviously should choose them for moral/practical/whatever reasons, so he keeps making decisions that he can't really justify and guarantees that he cannot grow as a person in the way Radiance provides. It's telling that he needs Odium's constant, numbing influence while other bad people (like the Sadeases, Mr. and Mrs.) never did. Moash hasn't reached a point of no return and, until his own permanent death, never will. He chooses, every day, to be who and what he is. Vyre is a dead end, but not something that Moash cannot turn away from.

We should also be clear about what we mean when we make a statement like "hide from a Shard". I presume that we're talking about Shards' near-omniscience and directly perceiving the Smoker. We already know that that might work (a coppercloud protects against magical perception of magical activity), though the scales of power involved make it hard to judge without an example. The best analogue I can think of is Vin trying to control Marsh in HoA: the type of activity is the same (control a Hemalurgic construct) and the mechanism is the same (use emotional Allomancy), but Ruin is vastly more powerful than Vin and so her effort hits a brick wall. I imagine a coppercloud will have a similar issue, and even then I think that the hiding effect is more about obscuring magical activity than your person, spiritweb, cognitive representation, etc. I mean, anyone can see a Smoker just by looking at them. We know that Shards can pay more or less attention to specific places, though their capacities are so great compared to a human's that a little bit of a Shard's attention can go a long way. But a Shard that's intentionally focusing on you is going to be difficult to hide from. Hiding inside of aluminum is probably a workable method (at least it might work), but a Shard isn't limited to using only its own senses. It would be easy to send a minion, Sliver, Splinter, or other avatar to look around with all kinds of enhancements that aren't inherently magical.

Thank you, I'd forgotten that detail. In that case something must be fundamentally different about the heritability of Allomancy post-Catacendre. Spook was a full Mistborn, and only Mistings came from his line over 300 years? There don't even seem to be more of them than in the Final Empire. Either that or Mistborn became much more discreet than in Scadrial's past. At more than triple that time frame Allomancers were still producing Mistborn in Rashek's time, even with just one side of the family line having Allomancy in it anywhere near a given Allomancer (a la Vin).