Returned

I'm still not sure that fiddling at the edges (like allocating different orders to different sections of government) will get what we want-- the best fit of orders to government functions has to be better than any other system of government could be for the concept to get across the finish line, and that's the part that I'm not as confident about. I think that Radiance is an amazing path for people who have been damaged by their experiences in the world but I'm not sold that the connection to necessarily good governance (never mind the best possible) is there. I also think that the concept gets fuzzy when some of what we think of as governance is split out by order, with some being wholly subordinated to others (if all Windrunners and Stonewards are in the military while the executive is all Elsecallers, then the Elsecallers are in charge and the other two won't be exercising much decision-making authority). But I think I've been dragging the thread off track from the discussion you want to have, so from here I'll duck out on these elements and let everyone else talk about them without my barging in and interfering My angle on this was more that the position for Lightweavers felt a bit forced, a product of the elevation of Radiants into government generally requiring that they be somewhere, rather than their Radiance directly making them objectively better than non-Radiants and therefore more deserving of and effective in governance. Reading your response I think that we're more aligned in this general area than I'd previously thought, but my critique (that Radiance makes people sufficiently better than others to control government, with all non-Radiants being excluded and ruled) still stands out for me. If we need to find someplace unimportant and out of the way for Lightweavers in the government, then it seems to me that Radiance as a sole basis for eligibility is suspect. But I've made that point already, too, so I won't harp on it further. As an aside, Nale explicitly says that laws and morality are not the same, and that laws themselves cannot be moral but that people who write the laws can be moral when they do so. We also see Skybreakers who violate laws without losing their bonds (like the one who kills Gawx in Azir, to Nale's sharp disapproval). That wiggle room should be troubling, as loss of a bond is the only accountability your system deals with. I won't quote the whole section (for brevity), but I still think that Nale is an excellent example that Radiance isn't quite the qualification that you claim it to be. My problem with Nale isn't that we literally can't think of some way to frame or justify his actions, nor that he doesn't believe in what he's doing, but rather that he's not necessarily right or effective in the actions he chooses. History is filled with people who sincerely pursued goals which were not practical or morally good. Nale is not less fallible than other people, nor even really more dedicated to following the law as such-- for example, when he was executing potential Radiants I'll argue that he viewed the law as kind of an empty formality. He used the laws on the books to officially permit the killings, but he was 100% dedicated to killing his targets no matter what laws applied-- budding Radiance (not a crime) earned a death sentence regardless of any other factors. In that framing the laws were an excuse that he used, not the guidance that informed his decisions. Interpretation is going to be necessary when applying laws in at least some situations, but I would not be confident that we're getting the best law and lawkeeping when all legal power is invested in a few people beyond any hope of appeal or control. Especially when the only criterion for choosing those people is their own observation of their belief that they are correct in what they do. I don't think that zealots who choose the focus of their zealotry make the best judges, or even very good ones. I feel that there is too much flexibility in what Radiants can do while maintaining their bonds, and too much subjectivity in what their bonds require them to do, for me to feel like we definitely get the most morally upstanding people or the most effective leaders when we consider them compared with non-Radiants. That leads me to oppose a system which elevates Radiants, strictly by virtue of their Radiant bonds, to rule over everyone else while completely shutting all others out of any political power or potential for self-rule. I won't push more on any of this, as I think that it might be derailing the thread from the ideas you want to discuss. I've expressed my critiques, you've read them and responded, and if neither of us is convinced then we just disagree on those points. But that's no reason for me to obstruct people who accept the premises (even just for arguments' sake) from talking about the government you've envisioned.

My thinking is based around the Honorblades being manifestations of Honor in the same way that Lerasium is a manifestation of Preservation. They're pieces of the raw, unlimited power of their Shards, but being in mortal hands allows that power to be used in ways that the Shards themselves are precluded from (though the things they can be used for may still be constrained by the Shards' natures). And we know that there are lots of ways a person could use Lerasium beyond just eating it to burn, even if we don't really know what those specific ways are or what they can do. In this conception the Honorblades are sort of like Lerasium that you don't have to consume to gain powers, which suggests that you could use the Honorblades in ways beyond just gaining Surgebinding powers (while also getting the Surgebinding anyways). When you're holding a fragment of a deity but are not constrained by the same rules that bind Shards' actions, nor the overwhelming influence Shards have on their Vessels' minds, you're holding divine power without divine limitations. Sort of like how Preservation couldn't harm someone for any reason, despite having effectively infinite power, but a person with Preservation's power (via being Mistborn, or even holding a Lerasium dagger or something) definitely could. Literally more power and capacity than a mortal can understand without the mind-expanding power of a Shard, but held in your hand without necessarily having any understanding at all.

I'm curious of Ba-Ado-Mishram's release would be as good for Odium as is commonly assumed. She's consistently worked for him in the past, so that's a point in favor of the idea. She's one of the Unmade, and so has some of Odium's nature to her which might bend her efforts towards his goals, so that's maybe another point. But Sja-anat isn't exactly pro-Odium and might favor his defeat, if only for the freedom to pursue her own ends. I wonder if Ba-Ado-Mishram might be similar. By granting forms of power during the False Desolation she did something that previously had only been Odium's province. Odium has enough raw power to destroy her, but might not do so for any number of reasons. Maybe Ba-Ado-Mishram has the potential to displace some of Odium's influence over Singers, it not the Fused, or could be the nexus around which a new faction coalesces. Maybe the fugitive Listeners who fled before the Everstorm was called...

We're on the same page with your meaning, and I disagree that capitalism is the "best" resource management system (though it certainly has its strong points). Obviously people can define "best" in all sorts of ways, and it's not really on topic for your thread, so we don't need to get into it further (unless you want to). With respect to the Silver Kingdoms and reign of the Knights Radiant (I won't quote the relevant sections, to keep this post tidier), I brought them up just as items to think about. I agree that we don't know enough to make strong conclusions about what they were like or why they fell, but that we know there were periods in which the Radiants did rule but ultimately encountered problems that undermined that rule-- so the Radiance as a basis for governance isn't obviously perfect. I don't think it's fair to demand that your proposed system be perfect or last forever (that's a lot to ask!). My questions are based around why it's the best option available, both because that's the topic of the thread and also because once you've chosen this standard for justifying rule there isn't really a way out of it, so it's good to be sure. Does it deliver the best possible rulers, what downsides exist for it, and is the former worth the latter? I think that's where the part comes into play: the system is not based on the opinions of the Spren or their radiants, but rather on the internal morality that they manage, which is why the clause of loss of the Spren, loss of position . This is something that is automatic of the radiant system and until now cannot be altered by anyone, the Stormfather cannot prevent someone from bonding to a Spren despite being the one who accepts the words, and at the same time he does not have the ability to maintain the bond when a radiant is breaking an oath. That's the part that doesn't track for me. The fact that one person makes a promise to another doesn't make them good at governing or ruling, and the reason for that isn't that they could break the promise in a non-obvious way. What I took from your premise (maybe wrongly) is that it wasn't the fact that an oath was made that mattered so much as that the oaths are related to the principles that each order follows. So a Windrunner is bound by oaths based around protecting people, and it would be obvious if one abandoned those oaths because their spren would die. I think we're on the same page with that (please let me know if I'm still not understanding). The issue for me here is that the flexibility in what that oath specifically means is pretty subjective, such as Kaladin noting that Syl had no issue with his killing unlimited numbers of Parshmen. Over time he changed his view on that and saw them as people to protect, even enough to encompass soldiers acively killing his allies. If there is a lot of variation in what an oath means, how a spren considers it, and how a Radiant can fulfill it, are we getting an enforceable promise to adhere to a virtue that people agree on? Even if we are, would that translate into being a good governing figure? And how do we deal with orders that are more flexible, like the Lightweavers, whose oaths are about understanding themselves and not really upholding virtues? I'm not convinced that the oaths compel people to be the best people in the literal sense of an aristocracy, or even produce attitudes and behaviors that we think of as being good. What I think that we do get is some degree of sincerity of belief and follow-through on those beliefs, at least for non-Lightweavers, which is worth something. But I don't think that there is a straight line between that and being a good ruler, nor does it lead to the Radiants being a functional ruling body. Is Malata's vision of government and morality the best one available? How should we weigh her views against opposing ones, like Dalinar's or Lift's? The obviousness of an oath being broken doesn't address those things either, so while I agree that that would be a strong indicator of what had happened I don't know that it expresses information we can use in pursuit of good government. If the oaths were less subjective, clearer in what they meant for behavior and motivation, and directly related to government or virtue, then I could be more on board with Radiant bonds as a basis for rule and more comfortable that the difficulty of hiding a broken bond provides a useful check on dishonesty. In that light I could maybe get on board with a new Order of Radiant, or a re-fashioning of what oaths need to be sworn. But with the Radiants we've seen I wouldn't be comfortable with elevating them this way-- Radiants aren't less fallible than other people. Well, if you could give another example, it would be good since Shallan in particular is a very abnormal case, and even if she were the most common Lightweaver of all, that specific order within the scheme that I proposed would be the Ministry of Culture, so since most of us are artists I don't see a problem. Now if we talk about her role as an intelligence ministry, well it would be something more circumstantial and you could only have a select group of them for those tasks. I don't think that we know Shallan to be an abnormal case, and given the nature of Radiance and the progression Lightweavers follow I would not feel confident saying that she is such an outlier. But let's leave that aside. What role would such a person have in government, exactly? Ministry of Culture could describe a lot of things, and so maybe I'm (again) thinking in the wrong direction for what you mean, but it doesn't sound to me like they would have much specific role at all. Making art is a great thing for a society to do but I'm not clear on why that's specifically a governmental function, nor what we gain by elevating individuals into the government to do it, nor why the Radiant bond is helpful or useful in that role. I don't think there's much evidence that only the best artists can become Lightweavers, and their oaths don't seem like they add much in the system you've outlined, so I don't know that we're getting the best of the best in this area. The most aware of themselves and their self-deceptions, perhaps, but that doesn't seem to me to be so connected to the best at any given job. And we could always get people like Melishi, who are simply not good fits for their orders. Is the worst (in terms of what the Order values) Lightweaver really better than the best non-Radiant in those same terms? I'm not interested in your personal evaluation of Nale (well, I am, but that's not the topic driving the discussion we're having). What I am interested in, in terms of the discussion, is what arguments you present for why Nale is so much better than everyone else that he should be in charge of the government (or at least much more so than other Radiants, and infinitely more so than non-Radiants who don't count at all). The main element you've suggested is that the Radiant bond makes him so, both because he has one at all and especially because he's hit the maximum degree that bond allows. What I don't see is why that should be so, particularly when he acknowledges that he has some severe problems affecting his judgement. It is interesting that, even though it opposes the specific claim your system requires, you are uneasy with his assessment of Ishar. If Nale is in charge because he's a 5th Oath Skybreaker then you don't have much ground to doubt him, and none at all to oppose any decisions he makes or policies he advances. He's the only 5th Oath Radiant on the scene, so he should be the best of humanity and the most in charge (by your arguments). If his decision with regard to Ishar is problematic and you think that your (mortal, non-Radiant) opinion is better, does that affect how you think about placing Radiants in charge just because of their Radiance?

I could swear there was a reference somewhere to Ishar threatening to destroy [them] utterly if they did not bend to his outline for the Orders and the Surges they would be permitted to wield. It's been too long since my last full re-read to feel confident I could find it though. Additionally, the whole idea of the Knights were to preserve human knowledge between Desolations. That's obviously a desirable goal for human and spren alike, and if Ishar (the most knowledgeable, non-Shard being on Roshar about relevant matters) said that this was the only way to make it work I could see people largely going along with it even without the threat of destruction.

Interesting. I hadn't really thought that the Fused would bother with much building or even society on Braize, figuring that they wouldn't have much in the way of materials on a barren world, are immortal (and probably not really corporeal), and are permeated with Odium's hateful essence. Why build anything? In my mind they were just roving around trying to find and torture the Heralds, maybe practicing their fighting (conventional) or Surgebinding (if they have access to Voidlight there), then passing the time idly or slumbering as their hatred intensified until they were returned to Roshar for a Desolation. It's not even clear that they have bodies, in a physical sense, there since they only get bodies on Roshar via possession of an existing Singer.

Interesting theory! Maybe, and I don't have more to add on the specifics of the Mistborn goal. I can see why Kelsier would want such a thing (he was a great Allomancer) but I have to assume that given his skill at planning, organizing, thinking laterally, and his long experience as a non-Allomancer (way more than he ever had as one), he might not think in such specific or narrow terms. But what I think is more in keeping with the current state of the Cosmere, generally, is that Ba-Ado-Mishram is very powerful (as one of the greatest class of spren), has powers that can work in ways others were not aware of and likely still are not (granting forms of power to the Singers was a shock to everyone, and her imprisonment had consequences that were also unexpected), and she's not in the pocket of a Shard (that we know of, at least; she's willing to strike out on her own, perhaps like Sja-anat). Whatever specific benefits she can offer to someone who wins her favor or allegiance, I think that the possibilities she offers are inescapably attractive to people involved in Cosmere affairs at the highest level. She's a game-changer in any struggle on any Shardworld (or elsewhere), and all the more so for being out of commission for so long. Having her on your side means the game can change in your favor, and her being on someone else's side means the game becomes harder for you. While Odium's influence on her current nature is undeniable we don't know what she was like after she was "made" and before she was "unmade" (as Sja-anat put it)-- I wouldn't limit our assumptions of her nature or powers to being only Odium-derived. Her fundamental nature and capabilities may even pre-date the Shattering, which would have reality-shaking implications in a web of conflicts defined by the Shards contending against one another. A portion of magical power, capacity, and will which is not inherently bound by the compartmentalizations of reality those Shards have imposed... it changes everything. Even a slim chance at that would be worth a lot for anyone partiicpating in those conflicts.

I think that we just don't know enough about the Shattering to make firm guesses on this sort of topic. It's not clear to me if the sixteen knew how holding a Shard forever would affect them (though one would think that they must have had some idea). It's not clear why they chose the sixteen aspects they did when breaking apart Adonalsium's power, nor if they would have chosen the same sixteen with thousands of years' worth of observation of the fallout. We don't even know if "Ruin" is the concept they had for the Shard that Ati took up, though that seems likely too (it's what the other Shards call it). We also don't know how enthusiastic or reluctant the members of the cabal were-- per Hoid (I think? It must have been...), some of them were actively interested, others had no other choices left to them, and certainly other motivations existed, too. Maybe Ati didn't want to be involved at all, and especially not with that particular Shard. Something must have compelled the group to choose (or allow) "bad" Shardic aspects like hatred and ruin, even if that thing was mechanical necessity, and something led each person to the Shard they took. I can't be certain without knowing what goals the sixteen had, but it seems hard (for me) to believe that what they've been getting over the last six thousand years is what they wanted.

I'm going to have to throw a "citation needed" comment out for this one. I, personally, find democratic principles to be critically important in governance for a lot of reasons. But which specific principles are included, and in what way, and how they might be balanced against each other when they conflict is far from settled or homogenous. Also important is how we're defining "responsible". You can get multiple systems of governance which equally satisfy those definitions but that are pretty different from each other even if we have an agreed definition for "responsible" (which I think we don't and won't, but that's separate). I'll also suggest that capitalism isn't "the most effective [...] system for responsible governance", and that when people say things in that vein they are packaging in a lot of value judgements which make comparisons and critiques difficult. More broadly, I'm not especially on board with the idea, mainly because I think that it skips a few steps regarding what we want governance to achieve, the methods which we accept as valid to realize those achievements, and some features of Roshar's spren situation which might frustrate them. I'm posing these as questions some may find interesting in your framework and foster more discussion, not direct challenges to the concept: 1. The natures of Radiant spren aren't fixed. We see this with the Honorspren in Lasting Integrity: what the spren think of as honorable isn't exactly a fixed idea, and so what the Honorspren actually represent and how they judge situations aren't fixed either. It's unclear if they can make these changes themselves (Pattern's statements about how spren change suggest that they cannot, but it's not clear how expansively these should be taken), or if they are reflections of the attitudes and ideas of sapient Rosharans. But in either case, if the Radiant spren don't represent timeless values in consistent ways, are we getting what you want from a government that takes their assessments as a core justification for their right to rule as well as defining what that rule actually entails? 2. Spren don't necessarily agree or get along. Honorspren have a poor reputation among many sapient spren due to their arrogant, conquering past, for example. Cryptics are widely mistrusted. How could government respond when these disagreements are relevant to governance, when the concept of personified moral ideals applies equally to all of them? If we apply a hierarchy among the different types of Radiant spren do we still get to claim the same basis for the right to rule? How would we keep the Orders (and their spren) in their assigned positions? 3. Spren have their own natures, opinions, and agendas, at least some of which will be relevant to government. Spark kind of opposes the government, and possibly humanity on Roshar. Many spren have an active dislike for humanity after the Recreance. I think that the Stormfather would be a bad mayor, for a lot of reasons but primarily because he's not that into human circumstances and affairs. When we have Radiant spren whose values and opinions range from "protect the weakest, no matter what" to "humanity should be removed from Roshar, no matter what", do we really feel comfortable granting power and status to individuals just because they are Radiant spren? 4. How, if at all, does the government you describe differ from the one the Radiants actually operated during their period in charge? There were problems that arose, from time to time, and eventually intrigue and subterfuge which directly undermined the Radiants and their operations. Do we believe that the different orders would work together better now than in the past, if so why, and how could we handle or defend against future acrimony? 5. How important are the humans to this model of government, outside of swearing Oaths sufficient to bring spren into the Physical Realm? It's the ideas which comprise Radiant spren that is the main justification of this system of government, and the spren already are those things in the Cognitive Realm. They are also immortal and capable of learning and processing information. What value does their being brain-damaged for most of the course of the five Oaths serve, as well as their inevitable "deaths", if their nature and immortality are what make them effective as components of government? Why not just have a court of spren in charge and be done with it? 6. Are Radiants truly the best people in any sense, and especially in their capacity to rule? Are we cool with someone like Shallan, whose powers wrap back around her to deceive even herself, having an important role in government specifically because she has the power and inclination to deceive herself so utterly? When the foundation of even potential Radiance is spiritual and psychological damage, have we necessarily identified an ideal subset of people to raise above the rest? How do we deal with Radiants progressing through their Oaths but not yet having successfully addressed their problems? For that matter, how awesome is a 5th Ideal Radiant necessarily going to be-- how thrilled would you be for Nale to be in charge of your life and circumstances?

Presumably it's "brother-in-law". At least, I've seen that abbreviation elsewhere and commonly.

Given the mechanics we know of in the Cosmere, and the nature of what you're describing, I don't know if we'd even call such things "artificial" intelligences. They'd be essentially the same, intelligence-wise, as the person they copied and the mode of intelligence would be "natural" enough. The nature of the soul in the Cosmere is something we'll likely never quite get closure on, but I wouldn't even feel confident that the copy wouldn't have a soul (in whatever sense a person might mean it). My feeling is that, if the copying were done perfectly and the Identity and patterns of thought (memories of experiences, decisions, all perfectly copied) are the same then any copies might "share" the soul of the original. The soul exists primarily in the Spiritual Realm, where location is not even a thing and energy is infinite, so why couldn't a soul "be" in two "places" at once? (I'm getting very Children of the Mind vibes from the idea, though it would probably be cleaner in the Cosmere!). And something more exotic could happen, too, like souls being duplicated too, or or an effectively new soul being "created" as soon as the mind of the copy becomes sapient but distinct in sensation and autonomy from the original, and more. Various figures in the Cosmere are already essentially what you describe (though via other mechanisms and without duplication concerns), though we might say that they effectively are their souls and so the issue is elided. Spoiler-tagged for those concerned about some of the big Cosmere reveals:

Hoid. He provided the through line that demonstrated that the books were connected once I recognized him in a couple of places, and then I kept an eye out for him in every subsequent book and reading. He could still have been just an Easter egg, but things he said and did seemed too purposeful and convenient to individual plots to jibe with the rest of the writing (the books were better written than such a kludge would indicate). When Hoid said "Adonalsium" to Dalinar in... I think it was Way of Kings... that then registered with Sazed saying it in Hero of Ages, and made clear that there was something within each series that had no context but was relevant to more than one series. And if more than one, maybe all.

Do we know for certain that Urithiru was always as it is now, a physical manifestation of the Sibling? Or could it have been an impressive tower shaped into the mountain, onto which the Sibling was later grafted? None of that precludes the birth-as-gaining-sapience angle, nor does it mean that the Sibling's nature could not have been influenced by something that Honor and Cultivation did together, but I'm curious if that piece of the tower's history has ever been addressed.

It is interesting that the term could technically be correct, as the complete power set of each art is heritable and so the word could fit-- it's the full array of the Metallic Arts powers that a person could potentially be born with. But funny that the one time such a person existed it didn't happen that way, never happened since, and likely will never happen in the future. Sort of like my favorite bone name, the innominate bone (innominate means nameless, so its name is the bone without a name).

I think that there is too much focus on compounding per se. In the Cosmere we're right at the cusp of reliably known, interconvertible Investiture forms. At least some of those seem likely to be capable of accomplishing what Metallic Arts compounding does, and in a likely more straightforward way than dealing with whatever difficulties Identity Contamination imposes (or that figuring out the one solves the other).

I like the idea a lot! Let's flesh it out a bit more. 1. Knowledge of Hemalurgy would be a unique advantage, but I would be curious as to how they gained that knowledge. Even the Lord Ruler struggled to make more than his three types of construct, and he personally Ascended, lived for a thousand years, and had access to compounded F-zinc as well as F-copper. The Set has done some amazingly fast work learning about Hemalurgy in a short period of time, but hasn't made any new constructs. I think that the best avenue for this is to think about Bleeder, who produced the only new constructs we see in-text. Could a Shard other than Harmony or Ruin have that kind of expertise, and be active on Scadrial alongside Autonomy? 2. How and when might they have split from the rest of the Southerners, and how much "Metallic Arts essence" could they have taken with them? It seems like in the early days the Malwish just barely survived the Ice Death, but we don't really know how many Excisors they have nor how they work. Could there have been enough to support a second population? How many Metalborn were there, and how many could the Maskless (or their forebears) have taken away from the rest without dooming them? 3. How dangerous are they, really? It seems hard to think that they would be a major threat to the Malwish, who are so organized and technologically capable, especially since their society seems relatively stable (and certainly not yet conquered or known to be engaged in a consuming war, the latter of which seems unlikely if they were preparing for war with the Northerners). I wonder if the Maskless are just strong enough to not really be conquerable by the Malwish, and their Maskless-ness is more culturally dangerous to the Malwish. Rejecting masks altogether seems like it would be pretty subversive. 4. If they do not have many Metalborn, and never did, then how much Hemalurgy could they have engaged in, and how well could their reserves of Metallic Arts power survive centuries of Hemalurgic degradation? What features could new types of construct have that would be worth the cost? 5. There were eleven Lerasium beads at the Well (nine for Rashek's favored friends, one for Hoid, and one for Elend). But Preservation's numerical jam is 16. So were there five more? If so, what happened to them? If the Maskless had a lot of Metalborn the Malwish would probably know and not be able to deal with them well in a conflict, at least in the early days before their technological developments took off. So perhaps the Maskless are dangerous but not hostile to the Malwish? Or maybe they've used the Lerasium in a different way than eating it and gaining Mistborn, as Sanderson has stated is possible with the right knowledge... tantalizing, but I don't know how to even guess at what those different ways might be.

That's a great catch that honestly never occurred to me to check. I just searched the text of all of the Mistborn books, including Secret History, and the term isn't there even once! As a fan term it's likely created by fans like us on 17th Shard, and we're a detail-oriented enough lot to have chosen a more properly descriptive name. It's probably too late to change it, especially since "Fullborn" has a nice sound to it and resonates well with "Metalborn", which is commonly used at least in era 2. But I think that the best angle (and one which follows the reasoning you laid out above) would be to highlight Rashek's innate Feruchemy along with the divinity he held at the Well, which is what he used to become Mistborn. "Divinely Metallic", "Maxmetaled", "Preservacious", "Pinnacle Scadrian"... none of them have the same cachet. But I'm not really good at naming things, so that shouldn't be surprising in my glib first draft ideas

"Fullborn" is just the word for the thing it represents. I don't think it's meant to be etymologically decomposed any more than "Mistborn" is-- they were never borne of the mists! And Mistings would have the same claim to the word. I do agree that it gives the impression of something that it isn't (full of all of two sets of powers by birth), but I treat it more as an idiomatic word than a deceptive affront.

If we're sticking with things we've seen in the Cosmere already, you have lots of choices. Refugees (as from Ashyn), conquerors (as from Autonomy), scholars (like Khriss), explorers (like from Nalthis), people with specific personal goals (like Vivenna), meddlers with various unclear goals (like Hoid), and zealots under someone's direction for some specific task (like Ishar's Tukari) are all reasonable motivations for worldhopping (or worldhopping-adjacent) groups that have been used to good effect in Cosmere books you've read. If your planet has just recently been discovered in the Cosmere setting then an intriguing (to me) possibility would be people looking to escape the influence of Shards (specific ones, or possibly any). You could also work with an idea like the planet having vestiges of previous Shardic interference but having been abandoned by such beings for some reason-- lots of potential to work in unique magics or information about the Cosmere and Investiture that would otherwise be impossible to get.

I think that the broadest issues are ultimately going to be social, not practical. The problem with unsealed metalmind supply so far is related to the Excisors: they are the bottleneck in production, though not so much so that Malwish seem to be lacking them to any meaningful degree. Power on Scadrial has not been widely shared, and those who have it tend to make use of it for their own benefit. There are a lot of good applications of unsealed metalmind technology that would make Scadrian society better in any number of ways, but I doubt that the elite few who can produce them would be so dedicated to the common good that they would make them freely available like that. Nor would there necessarily be enough people who would spend their time filling them in exchange for nothing. So I imagine a dual supply problem, both with metalminds and with the attributes they can store. So the applications that will impact society the most will likely be discrete: you can buy a functional metalmind for the trait you want and then do your own Feruchemy with it, just like the Malwish storing their own weight to suit their own needs while on an airship. Still cool, and we'll see people doing emergency preparation (like storing a ton of nutrition in a bendalloymind) both for themselves and to sell as a commodity. But I would be surprised to see Scadrial end up with an Elantris-like public spirit.

That theory did not occur to me, though after reading your description I see the connections. During my reading I was sure that Dust was Hoid, which would make it difficult (though not impossible) for Lightsong to also be the same person. I'd assumed that the characters were just similar in their (seemingly) unserious, almost lackadaisical attitude towards the world around them-- convergent personalities, essentially. I think Wayne is in the same category, sans the memory issues that would make the theory compelling.

We might see more Fullborn, one way or another; the Bands still exist, as far as we know, and that they definitely can exist suggests that they can be duplicated. But not many and I doubt it will matter much. Power inflation has reached absurd levels as it is, and with so many books yet to be written it seems like it can only continue. We'll see more situations in which raw power won't help (there's a bomb at the core of Scadrial but your love interest is on Roshar and will be executed exactly when the bomb goes off, so you can only pick one!), direct countermeasures (you're in some sort of Leeching field, so your amazing compounded power is gone as soon as you prepare it), and standoffs ("I'm a 6th Oath Radiant, Rashek Jr., and even you can't handle that, so stay out of my business!"). Besides, it's not like Rashek was undefeatable despite his awesome might. We've even seen multiple Shards go down, and they're even more potent than Fullborn. It's just as well, for my tastes, since Fullborn are cool but don't exactly lend themselves to interesting plots very easily.

The point I was trying to make, maybe unclearly, is that the Shardbearer's enhancements to speed eventually hit a point where they degrade with every passing second. Shardplate isn't really operable without at least some Stormlight to power it, it leaks Stormlight through cracks, and any damage to the armor consumes additional Stormlight to repair, while the pewterarm's capacities are enhanced to about the same level as long as they have more than zero pewter in their stomach (leaving aside flaring). The pewter also does a lot of the work for the Misting, even when physically exhausted (such as during a pewter drag), while the Shardbearer's abilities are enhanced but not replaced by the armor (I think it's Dalinar who notes this when digging the latrine trench: the armor lets you do more work, but you don't get less weary from it). So, if we're assuming enough pewter to last for the duration (which I know is pretty contrived, but for the sake of argument), the core strategy for the Misting is to not get hit, at any cost, because (as you note) being hit could be devastating. The Misting won't tire as quickly, and so won't slow or become sloppy due to fatigue, while the Shardbearer will tire at a normal rate. The Shardbearer is also on a clock no matter what they do, as the Stormlight inexorably is consumed just to keep the armor functioning. A matchup between a Shardbearer with dead Plate and Blade versus a pewter Misting is most favorable to the Shardbearer at the very beginning and inevitably becomes less favorable for them as the fight goes on. The pewter Misting's performance only degrades if they are hit (though, in that case, the degradation is likely to be very severe). So for every second that passes in which the Shardbearer has not already won, the fight increasingly favors the Misting. Once the Stormlight is drained away sufficiently that the Plate is an impediment to the Shardbearer rather than an advantage the shift may be decisive. Meh. As above, the only winning play for a pewter Misting is to not get hit by a sharp edge of the Blade for a long enough period. Probably not easy, but dodging blows from a single weapon is exactly the kind of thing pewter allows even better than being filled with Stormlight does (if I remember correctly). We see quite a few people with lesser benefits than pewter grants dodging Shardblades, including Kaladin, Szeth, Dalinar, and various Fused. We're also handwaving away the quality of the Misting (Ham gets less out of pewter than Vin, who gets less out of it than Elend), but I don't know any way to account for that. A pewterarm's best strategy is just to wait out the Shardbearer, and if they can wait long enough (which can be defined in a few different ways) then victory becomes all but guaranteed. I don't know that I would bet on the Misting, nor would I suggest that the Shardbearer doesn't have the advantage overall, but one in every hundred attempts seems way off to me given this.

It's an interesting angle but as you note is totally separate from the discussion here. If we're just talking about a classic "versus" thread, then the recovery is less important: if your powers are sufficient to defeat a Shardbearer once, then they will be again (presumably-- matchups that can go either way might not be so sanguine about it). Shards are kind of limited in their flexibility. Regardless, once the Shardbearer is dead and the Blade available it should be easier to destroy more of the Plate because you can just bash the one with the other. I think that assuming an honor guard, or any other people on the field aligned with one participant, radically changes the nature of the question. If the Shardbearer gets a dozen extra soldiers, why does the other combatant get nothing? What is the context of the broader conflict in which the Shards will be re-deployed, by either side? if we're talking about something like an extended conflict of traditional military engagements (like the wars on Roshar) between Shardbearers and other Cosmere magic users then the main value of Shardbearers becomes that they can tie up the most versatile and effective fighters their opponents can field. This is also the way that Shardbearers get used in battles on Roshar as well: Shardbearers deal with other Shardbearers because no one else can reliably prevent them from dominating the field. And since it's hard to use the Shards without nontrivial training, I would imagine that depriving opponents of them is by far the most important goal-- well beyond trying to use them yourself. If we're opening the discussion up in that direction, I think that Shards become a lot less valuable in nearly every way. It's like Adolin notes in RoW: he used to be one of the, if not absolutely the, most important figures on any battlefield. Millennia of war persistently saw full Shardbearers as the apex of battlefield performance, and entire battles turned on his presence or absence. But with the advent of Radiants and Fused all over the place he becomes somewhat outclassed. The nature of battle simply changes when slaughtering hundreds of mundane soldiers is no longer sufficient to gain a durable edge, and other combatants can do more things than he can, more easily, and with more flexibility. In a world of soldiers wielding Breaths and Metallic Arts and AonDor and Sand Mastery and more, a Shardbearer is a lot more like a regular soldier than an overwhelming force. Still dangerous, still important, and sometimes very much so, but not pivotal.

I always liked Edwarn's line in BoM about distracting Wax with dead-end leads to keep him out of the Set's hair: It stuck with me because Edwarn is such a manipulator (as is the Set more broadly), and the line expresses both that he needs to keep Wax out of his business but also that Wax is little more than a nuisance. Those two ideas are in contrast to each other, but Edwarn's character and thought process come through in his dismissive attitude. And his scheme worked really well! Right up until it didn't, which is how so many TTRPG antagonist plots end up. It would need some tweaking to fit your specific plot and environment (specifically, the villainous organization would need to be actively diverting and deceiving the PCs with cutouts and other distractions), but probably wouldn't need too drastic of an overhaul.