Returned

I'm skeptical. This idea blends the magic systems enough, and in ways we haven't seen, that I think we're talking about apples and oranges. Surely some interconversions of Investiture across systems is possible (we know that for a fact, in at least some cases), but the mechanisms for accessing and using it aren't clearly just a blending of whatever details exist for each system. When Zahel draws Stormlight from Highstorms it doesn't seem like he needs any of the typical Nalthian steps to get and subsist on it. We also don't know if he can use that Investiture for Awakening, or for anything other than surviving. So I doubt that a Scadrian magic-user would be able to breathe in Investiture from a gemstone, even if that Investiture were removed from them via Raysium. Breathing in Stormlight seems specific to Rosharan magic and totally alien to Scadrial. Vin didn't breathe in the mists like Radiants breathe in Stormlight, she drew on them supernaturally, and the mists are very different from Stormlight in key ways. I also doubt that storing Allomantic or Feruchemical power in a gemstone would grant passive benefits to the Allomancer/Feruchemist-- those powers don't work that way. We're definitely going to see more ways that Investiture gets moved around and converted between magic systems going forward, and will learn a lot more about what's possible. This idea could be in the mix, my doubts aside. I definitely believe it would be possible to store an Allomancer's Investiture through some mechanism like what you describe. But it seems really impractical, requiring lots of rare materials and significant setup, when you could just carry more metals rather than gemstones. So if we see this in practice at all, maybe it would just be an R&D scenario, or exposition describing that it (and so similar things as well) are possible.

I hope that he does, if only because I hate the narrative device of a lackadaisical figure decisively and constantly wandering into every important event "randomly". Even if it's just a lampshade through Harmony or some as-yet-unknown detail of the setting I want there to be some in-world explanation. Resonances are kind of a mess for theorycrafting right now. We know that they exist but have so little detail it's hard to do more than just make things up out of whole cloth. What fits for me is that anything to do with temporal fiddling probably comes from the Spiritual Realm. We know that some effects come from the future and that this is accomplished via the SR. So for someone who uses a time-altering power a lot we might see some SR "leakage" or something. And he uses his Feruchemy very frequently, which is all about making himself whole. I can imagine a resonance It's also worth noting that Wayne is a pretty good investigator in his own right, though his approach differs from Wax's. It's not impossible that he's just clever, observant, impulsive, and intuitive. He could still be an investigative superhero, but more on the order of Sherlock Holmes rather than someone perceiving the future.

It's tricky since so much of the setting is hard to reproduce and the mechanics of Allomancy and Feruchemy so hard to imitate. A few, scattered ideas: Fog machines Mistcloaks for guests made of tassels and/or streamers A LARP-style version of a the Mistborn adventure game, as a one-shot

I think that that's a good guess. They have pretty good urbanization in many places, and Sebarial talks about having factories (well, manufactories) which mass-produce goods more cheaply than the other highprinces can manage. We can guess that they probably aren't machine driven (energy is still a problem until very recently, with advances in fabrials), but they've definitely learned to appreciate scalable industry. Add to that that they've long had Soulcasters to make a lot of production (food and other) much easier and faster, and now have access to nearly the full suite of Radiant powers, efficient Stormlight-driven farming, and advanced fabrial technology and I think they'll hit mature industry pretty quickly. But I agree that the peculiarities of Roshar suggest that their population won't change in the ways that the DTM chart suggests; they already seem deeply unusual (relative to the real world).

Good question! I'm not aware of any specific references which would answer this. Instead I have four broad ideas that might do it: It could be related to the Dark One's potential influence and capacity to remove people's souls from the Wheel proper-- once you're his, you're his, eternally, to be spun back into the Wheel in his service. It could also be related to the idea expressed by Rand's epiphany at the peak of Dragonmount, that past errors can be redeemed (or at least not repeated) in future turnings of the Wheel, and that suffering in one lifetime need not be present in the next. It could also be related to the idea that people can be reborn into better or worse circumstances. Being reborn into slavery or some depraved circumstance isn't great, but I don't have any textual evidence in mind that really supports it. Finally, balefire removed massive numbers of people from the Pattern entirely during the War of Power. Even though those events are at the extreme end of memory, they were probably devastating and frightening enough to live on as a common saying for much longer. Of course virtually no people in WoT seem to know much about spirituality or religion, despite everyone adhering to the correct spiritual view of the world, and it doesn't factor into their day-to-day activities very much. The first suggestion seems out of reach for most people, requiring pretty specific knowledge about how the Wheel and the Dark One operate, but there are always Darkfriends who could reinforce or inject that knowledge into circulation. The second seems accessible enough in that it's not very specific and follows directly from the (universally accepted) idea of reincarnation. The third seems most accessible of all, and is even less specific. The fourth is plausible but reduces the comment to a figure of speech. That's not very satisfying, but possible, especially given the lack of spiritual reflection most people engage in; sort of like people saying "damn it" and not really expressing what those would mean if parsed. As for reincarnation, that's easier. While people assume it happens they don't really have evidence that it does or will happen for them. It's just the one spiritual/religious belief that runs through their lives. *Edit: I hadn't realized one of the examples I gave would be interpreted as an effort to get around rules or would merit a report; I've just removed that bit entirely. I apologize if anyone was offended or upset, as that was not my intent. I just wrote one of the first examples I thought of that seemed broadly accessible and understandable.

He'd only need to do enough to let Kelsier store Investiture into some nicrosil (and probably aluminum as well) on his own, and then they could compound it to store a lot more. And once you can compound at all the amount of time it takes to fill a metalmind is radically reduced. The reading I take is that time isn't going to be the limiting factor if they have much time to prepare at all. For example they probably aren't going to be able to find duralumin very quickly either, so for that to be an option but not compounding seemed disjointed. Ruling out compounding as an arbitrary limitation seems like what you're after. A lot depends, I think, on how much we're including in "full knowledge": that would have to include the properties of metals like we can look up on Coppermind, but may or may not cover all of the advanced engineering that goes into creating things like the medallions the Southern Scadrians use. I suppose that's true. We know that the process to create an unkeyed metalmind seems sound, but the granting of access to Investiture is not shown. It's theorized about, and we see the results in the forms of the medallions and the Bands, but we don't actually know the manufacturing process. If we're limiting full knowledge to what characters we've seen in the books already know they should be able to produce a couple of metalminds which Kelsier and Vin could use to compound. I'd choose some combination of steel, zinc, and gold if I were headed for a fight. Of course that's all out the window if they can't possibly get their hands on any nicrosil. I'm not a metallurgist and don't know how it's made, so I can't speak to that; I do wonder how the Southern Scadrians sourced it, as their industrial capacity didn't seem very good before the heat medallions. I suppose we'll find out eventually. In that case I'd imagine they might try chromium and cadmium to occupy and weaken Rashek/the Inquisitors, but would otherwise fight a lot like they did. They mystery around the Lord Ruler's power makes him seem even more insurmountable, to me, than precise knowledge of his incredible powers. But they still made the effort. They were committed.

That's not true. It would take some planning, but if they have full knowledge of the metals and their Allomantic and Feruchemical properties they would know about nicrosil and aluminum. Together those would be enough to kickstart the process.

Compounding works pretty quickly, especially if they can get at least a modest amount of duralumin. A few days should be plenty of time to create something Bands-like, as long as they can source the metals. That might be an issue for some of the most exotic ones (they won't be getting a lot of aluminum or atium on short notice), but in Luthadel I would think they can get quite a lot in a hurry.

My reading of that scene is that Odium was working to manipulate Hoid in some way but figuring out the best way to do it, and removing memories of each "bad" attempt. I think that the significance of Hoid's "everything went as planned" thought is that it is a result of that manipulation, not Hoid somehow predicting or influencing which memories the new Odium would annihilate. Hoid is wrong because that's how Odium wants him to think, not what really happened. But beyond that I think it's even less likely that Hoid wants or needs his bond to Design to be removed, especially with such a complicated method. He's extremely knowledgeable about the Cosmere as well as magic systems, their uses, and consequences. He made a point of bonding Design when he had the chance, and I doubt he'd do that incautiously-- why bond a spren just to turn around a short time later and lose it, along with the power it granted? And if he really needed to, he could just sever the bond himself without risk of exposing himself to Odium. It's not impossible, though, that Hoid had something he needed the bond to do and then did it between the end of Oathbringer and the end of Rhythm of War. We really don't know what he's up to or what methods he might employ to do it. But I suspect that the "something will happen that is relevant" is more likely to involve people with bonds being more able to travel around generally. Unfortunately it'll probably be a while before we find out for sure...

With full knowledge, Kelsier teams up with Sazed to make something like the Bands of Mourning and matches Rashek Fullborn to Fullborn. However, using his cunning, Kelsier keeps his complete knowledge a secret in ways that manipulate Rashek into using up too much of his metals immediately available for compounding and then overwhelms him. Rashek dies, and Kelsier and company rule over the newly freed Skaa empire, slaughtering nobles along the way. I can scarcely imagine how this would change events in Well of Ascension, though I have to imagine that Ruin would be able to respond effectively. The overarching plot would probably remain similar.

Almost certainly not. I'm interested in playing it, but I don't have the time or group available to actually do so for now. How have you liked it?

A proper Radiant Blade might be able to take a wedge-like shape that could guide the cannonball halves off course enough that they would miss the Shardbearer, though they would still have to absorb the a good deal of kinetic energy in the process. Definitely a don't-try-it-without-Plate scenario. Other shapes a Radiant spren might manifest could also be useful, especially if you can drive a spike or wide blade down into the ground in front of yourself (with the flat perpendicular to the path of the cannonball) and a larger, shield-like section to actually be struck. The spren won't break, the force is resisted by the ground rather than your Plate or body, and there isn't any residual projectile coming at you. Scholars like Navani might even be able to conceive of very precise structures which dissipate the kinetic energy even more efficiently, like crumple zones in a car chassis (though a Shardblade probably isn't going to crumple, no matter how it's configured). Otherwise I have a hard time seeing the cannonball being cut in half a foot or two before impact being much help. Maybe better than nothing in a truly desperate situation, sort of like how Vasher describes a lastclap: an unreliable move at best, and if you are in need of it you're far more likely to die than not even if you execute the maneuver perfectly.

In addition to the very good points made by @Duxredux describing that Wax gets extra precise, reliable, real-time information on his targets and shooting that could help refine his practice, I have to imagine that being a Coinshot helps you develop a great sense of linear paths away from oneself (you can only push directly away from your own body). Also, I think that there may be a couple of other items: First is that some people have natural talents that exceed those of others. Given that Harmony chose Wax specifically for his role we might presume that he has some natural skills and talents that most people don't. He isn't just some guy given a handgun and lots of practice, he's a naturally exceptional marksman given those things and more. Second is that he has an exceptional gunsmith working for him in Ranette. She painstakingly crafts weapons for him very precisely since she is very interested in guns and something of a perfectionist about her craft. Maybe her being a Lurcher gives her even more insight-- for example, with enough practice she might be able to sense exactly how much metal is in a part of a gun by judging the iron lines coming off of it. Third, if he pushes on a bullet it guarantees that he'll be adding momentum to it in exactly a straight line. If his initial shot is pretty close to being on-target that push might be enough to help ensure that it doesn't deviate much from what he wants to hit. The physics of it would be odd though, so I don't know if that could be much of a factor. Fourth, he might be able to quickly tap an Ironmind to minimize recoil. It would only take a fraction of a second, and might not drain much stored weight. He might not even notice it after a while, though I have to assume he would be aware of it as something he generally does (if, indeed, he generally does it). Finally I think that the fantasy and narrative elements are unavoidable. Handguns are hard to aim precisely, especially over even a modest distance. Once a gun is fired you have very little time to react in any way before the bullet reaches its target, almost certainly too little to perceive and respond to anything about it (even a fast pitch in baseball leaves very little time for a batter to respond, evidenced by the fact that a very good batter hits the ball in ~1 out of every 3 attempts; bullets go a lot faster than the ball!). It's a more exciting and streamlined story if he tends to hit his targets. In any case, he definitely is a freakishly, suspiciously good marksman.

Attraction to something about him, what he's doing, or something happening to him? That's the "default" way that lesser spren work. Windspren follow Kaladin at various points in SA, and not for espionage. We know very little about corrupted (or "enlightened") spren though, and given Sja Anat's general activities I think that espionage is a very reasonable guess.

We don't know a ton about how Shardplate is shaped, which should also make a difference. If it's got lots of planes and curves it might be very difficult to get a straight-on hit, which could diffuse the bullet's energy considerably for most shots. It's interesting that Plate seems to be very rigid, which could make it less effective at resisting (certain types of) bullets than metal chest plates that were used in the early days of real-world firearms. I wonder if the properties of living Plate could be changed to deal with new threats, sort of like a toned-down version how a Radiant spren can manifest as all kinds of different metal objects.

It doesn't seem like they can command the spren that form their plates beyond pretty basic things. Like, I don't know that you could give complex instructions to a windspren to have it secretly observe someone and then report back. Other spren might be different. The instances we've seen of Kaladin channeling windspren to do things, like blunt Highstorm winds, seem to surprise everyone though so maybe there are things that are newly possible that no one has really thought of before. But we still don't know if those are things everyone with sufficiently advanced oaths can do or if its more specific to Kaladin.

You don't even necessarily need a screen, depending on what you want to do with the computer. A spanreed could write output, sort of like the old-fashioned punch card computers and printed output.

I'd imagine they still have the ability to do visual Lightweaving, though probably not through visual art focuses like Shallan uses. It's strongly implied that other Lightweaver focuses may include things like written descriptions and other types of art, perhaps sculpture or something more tactile. Vathah just imagines how he wants to present himself, and the illusion comes together alright. In the same way that Shallan's drawings don't need to include things like every pore on Sebarial's face for her illusions to perfectly include them a blind Lightweaver may not need to have a complete image, or even a specific visual image at all, but their Connection to what they want the image to express might still produce a serviceable visual illusion. The amount of Stormlight required seems more like an issue with the oaths a person has sworn than specifics of the illusions they create. I don't think we have any examples of Shallan's lower-quality illusions needing more Stormlight to sustain, though we have few such examples to work with.

A few ideas: Drinks colored with food coloring, and light-up coasters underneath if you can find them and the cups are translucent A couple of curries, especially seafood, in spicy/savory and sweet varieties, that can be served with rice or naan bread etc. Small cakes (cupcake sized) shaped and decorated to look like rocks that guests can cut through easily with their "Shardknives"

I get the feeling that one of Jasnah's defining traits is a lack of empathy. Maybe not to sociopath levels, but she lacks a certain sentimentality and emotional motivation that others seem to expect and they never get comfortable seeing her not display them. I suspect that Jasnah actually is as smart as she thinks that she is, but that her judgement is not as unerring as she assumes. She doesn't seem to have much capacity for humility or doubt: if she's convinced herself, how could she be wrong? Though I think that even that is more of a "we have to do something now, and here is the best thing I can think of to do, so we have to do it" sort of situation. As others have pointed out, she relies on her social and political station to get her way more than anything else anyhow, and doesn't seem to grapple with that. But I, too, like the examples of her being wrong about things for the same reasons the OP describes. While I disagree with her decisions on matters like annihilating all Parshmen or killing Renarin a lot of that is due to the broader perspective that being a reader of the novels allows me. She presumes that the Fused will continually overtake Parshmen bodies, that the Fused will work endlessly towards eradicating humans from Roshar, and that the Parshmen will gladly assist them in that. She's wrong about some of those to varying degrees, but under those assumptions it wouldn't seem like there are a lot of alternatives to total war all the way to the end. Definitely she should have listened to Kaladin instead of dismissing him, but she's focused on winning the Desolation for sure and avoiding human extinction on Roshar. I can see how that line of thinking might be appealing to someone, particularly someone raised in a royal family in a culture that glorifies war. And if she lacks empathy or sentiment I can see it being hard to sway her away from it. I wonder if more POV chapters for Jasnah will show a more nuanced person, feeling and dealing with doubt and uncertainty. I assume we'll find out at some point.

Continue to live, at any rate. Kaladin did try to convince him to abdicate, though it seems clear he would never have done so.

That's kind of what drives the "bloat" feeling for me; I don't necessarily want two complete novellas and a whole different book plus an end-book style climax in the middle of the book. Not as a vehicle for what is published as one novel. I don't think that Oathbringer drags too badly, or that it doesn't have the content of the other SA books. I think that it's less focused, which is easy to perceive as drag and bloat. I've enjoyed my re-reads of the book have more than my first pass through, which is unusual for a Cosmere book for me. We have more plot threads to follow and when a person likes some of them more than others it feels like it takes longer to get back to the ones you want. We get a lot of what are essentially self-contained segments which don't always have a ton to do with each other narratively or thematically. They're new side plots which move the main plot only a little bit and don't necessarily drive character development as much as we've seen in other SA books, and some of the transitions between them felt a bit jagged to me. Several of them begin and terminate within the book while not having changed much along the way: the overarching plot as well as characters' subplots would have been largely similar if no one went to Kholinar, for example. Some of those are certainly setups intended to pay off down the line, but until those payoffs happen the setups can consume a lot of pages. We still learn a lot about the world, but that's also true of perusing the Coppermind wiki, which wouldn't be good as a novel by itself. And I suspect that one of the biggest issues is that multiple characters spend a lot of screen time confronting depression (which tends to change the tone of a book away from "action") and failure on a downward slide over the whole book, which can make it feel like they aren't accomplishing much. It's an important plot sequence for both Kaladin and Shallan, but I can see why people responded differently to Oathbringer than the previous two SA books.

Moash has gone the full evil route, but any or all of it could end up being blamed on Odium (and/or the Black Fisher, who I think might be riding Moash in some way or another). The complete absence of feeling due to surrendering that feeling to Odium has been brought up too many times to be meaningless. I also think that overcoming what seemed insurmountable self-loathing is a strong theme in SA, so redemption isn't out of the question for him narratively. But even then I think we'd be looking at an epiphany leading to immediate self-sacrifice rather than any return to the Urithiru group; I just don't think that anyone would have him back under any circumstances. We've already got Szeth for that plot role anyways. But Moash's plot has been thin. He had a handful of moments of character development, but virtually all of it happened before he left the Shattered Plains. At this point he just seems like Dark Kaladin, a view of what might have come from all the choices Kaladin might have made in his despairing resentment but didn't. There is already too much recurrence of SA characters for me (like Jor), and Moash has burned too much on-camera time doing nothing but being empty and evil. I'm more than ready for him to be cycled out for good, not unlike Amaram was. And, frankly, I'm ready to have fewer named villains who appear only to be short-term rivals for established characters anyways (I'm looking at you, Pursuer). I feel like SA has reached a point where there are a lot of characters reappearing for the sake of reappearing more than appearing to further the plot or to deepen worldbuilding elements. More and more Moash has been tipping the the wrong way on that (at least for my tastes).

But wouldn't they be related, as he's almost constantly burning gold for his compounding? Maybe not, my fuzzy recollection is that in the one scene in which we see this described he's only burning the gold lightly. I suppose that compounding is pretty efficient with any amount of Allomancy. So maybe he can thread the needle and burn gold way below any threshold required for savantism while also being indestructible.

Wasn't it pretty clear that Miles Hundredlives was a gold savant? He was burning it more or less constantly while awake for his compounding, and we do get one scene of his experience burning it in Alloy of Law. If my memory of that scene is correct this might be one of those metals with which becoming a savant is possible but not very impressive. I don't have time to find and re-read that scene right now, but I'll check into it later.