Returned

Fantastic, it's really come along nicely! When I saw all of the line breaks I was apprehensive, but after reading it I think that that structure really works. It gives me the impression of a staccato, rapid-fire train of thought wrapping around Megan's emotional struggle. It's great! It's nice to have the extra words as breathing room for any more adjustments you'd like to make. But the piece is pretty well streamlined and focused as it is, so I'd be careful about adding much new content that you won't have enough space to flesh out-- diluting focus will tend to make the piece feel more bloated and less impactful. As ever, with each editing pass we get to more nit-picky details which lean more towards style and choice than anything else. So please feel free to ignore my suggestions below if they pull the piece away from what you want it to be. I think that "bloodred" and "crimson" are repetitive here, and slightly at odds with each other. I would keep one or the other. If you really want both, using one of them elsewhere in the piece is probably better than keeping both here or trying to describe the flame with both in the same paragraph. I like the repetition of "miss" in this line, but since Megan's feelings are driven by recalling David (rather than seeing him) a couple of words to that effect might be helpful. Along with something describing that she is involuntarily remembering him or that she expects/worries that the feelings will surge when she sees him again at Soldier Field (or both!). As currently written the line is more suggestive of a problem that occurs for Megan when she's around him, which isn't quite the case here. Since memories and expectations are seated firmly in Megan's mind, rather than an objective circumstance in which she sees David, there is an opportunity here to further underline Megan's internal state. And as that is what really drives the piece (as I read it, at least), I think that it would be a good opportunity to make use of. This sentence is a run on (which is fine for the style and subject), but it's overstuffed. There are enough changes in topic and temporal focus (what David is, what he wants, what he's spent the last ten years doing, what he's going to do now, and why he's going to do it) that it becomes a little bit awkward to follow. I think that you can address this with punctuation (a comma after "for it", maybe), or possibly breaking the sentence up. If you do the latter I'd try to keep the sentences slightly incomplete, like dependent clauses, to keep up the breathless rhythm that the current sentence has. I like this line, but smell doesn't link to blackening very cleanly. Adjusting it to "see it blackening", "practically see it blackening", or something similar might be worthwhile. It's not a big issue either way, even leaving it as it is, just something I noticed as I was reading. I'd put these together on the same line as they are elements of the same thought. Doing so makes the next line, "I don't want it any more", stand out more strongly. This is a great inclusion but won't be clear to someone who hasn't already read Steelheart. At minimum I would change it to something like "Firefight. Me." This feels like a key moment that expresses the tension between Megan and Firefight, the person that loves David and the Epic that can't abide him, and the choice she's making between two mutually exclusive options (as she thinks of them in that moment). I would be careful expanding this section too much more, since it's so expressive and dramatic as a succinct item in the midst of Megan's stream of consciousness.

I'm pretty burned out on Wit, to be honest. It's not that I don't find him interesting, because I do. It's that his character is so integral to the wider Cosmere, and the mysteries of his character and backstory are so woven into the end of the overarching story, that the constant hinting and teasing have become wearying to me. We learn tiny bits, but they're often not all that substantial. He's such a lambent character at this point that I just cannot get very invested in any glimpses we get any more. What's the point when I know that my curiosity isn't going to be satisfied now, or soon? And what's left is a character that mostly delivers exposition. Maybe we'll start to see less of him on screen again, but I feel like we are going to remain on a series of unresolved cliffhangers about him for a long time. I look forward to the payoffs, and I'm positive that I'll enjoy him more on re-reads when the Cosmere stories are complete (or much closer to it), but for now I've just barely started to dread seeing him as a major character in any given chapter or scene. Whenever he breaks out of that I'll be very excited, but in any new book segment I have little expectation that this time is going to be the one. I want to reach the destination very much, but the journey seems less palatable than it used to. I do like hearing from others less jaded about his appearances than I've become-- people that are more excited than I have been tend to notice more exciting details that I've missed, and they are there.

I could've sworn I saw some reference somewhere that said she'd be an Archivist, which seems like it could be pretty cool for a computer programmer/hacker sort of character. Though I don't have the provenance of that, so it might just be another rumor. But I think that there is a strong role for a copper Feruchemist with all of the secrets and powerful knowledge that will be swirling around in era 3. I have no idea what the resonance would be but I'm very intrigued about nicrosil + anything.

I like the new additions! Burnout is always tough, but I'm sure you'll manage. 261 words is still a substantial number, but there is enough on the page now that it might be time for the red editing pen before starting to deplete them. Editing is also usually easier than writing new material, so it might be a good break as well. The piece has a lot more depth now, along with enough information for any reader to be able to appreciate both the broader setting and Megan's immediate struggle. I particularly like the linking of the Reckoner's jackets through mentioning David's and, later, Megan's resistance to her own. The only section that I might adjust on this front is "the powers that turn us all malevolent", which may be a good spot to use some of the extra available words: "turn us all malevolent" could be made a little bit clearer that it's about Epics (though I think the reader will understand anyways), and is also a really good opportunity to express more about Megan's difficulties and mindset. For example, it would be interesting if there were a subtle, though noticeable, change in Megan's thinking as she uses her powers. There are a lot of ways that something like this might be expressed, and this particular one may not suit what you want to show. But my read of the theme is that Megan is pitted against David in every way except for her human emotions. Duty to Steelheart, David's determined opposition to Epics, and Epic powers damaging the less malevolent human bonds like the one Megan has started to develop for David. The overall cadence is good too (that's always one of my personal issues when I'm trying to push through a block to write more), but individual sentences are starting to get overstuffed. Some are definitely defensible even while long (the second-to-last line is an example of this, giving a good stream-of-consciousness vibe while still being easy to follow). But the sentence that starts with "I scoff" is a run-on: it has too many discrete actions with little relation to each other. Some of it can be lifted out into other sentences, allowing tighter focus for each piece and a more fluid combination. It's hard to balance an inner monologue featuring a strong character voice and more focused prose for a reader, but I think that the piece in general would benefit from having some (not all!) of those longer sentences be broken up. As ever, the editing process is about tightening focus, so as you review I think it's a good idea to evaluate how much each line contributes to your aims and how they might better do so. The piece is already strong, so I think you'll have a relatively easy time polishing it up. That will in turn make it easier to find good uses for any remaining words, or make you feel more confident that you don't need them all.

Es muy provechoso, gracias. Uso de la idioma típica es exactamente lo que necesito, y es difícil a buscar las respuestas de preguntas especificas mientras consumir los medios sin un gran cantidad de inmersión. Y ya entonces es difícil a tener confianza que mi impresión de algo es correcto o si es un error que indica que no capto la idioma correctamente.

Tengo una pregunta general sobre el subjuntivo. ¿Es usado mucho en expresión hoy? En inglés técnicamente existe pero se está volviendo obsoleto. Probablemente un estudiante de inglés aprendería los conjugaciones subjuntivos, pero la mayoría de hablantes nativos de inglés no se da cuento si es usado o no. En tu opinión, ¿merece el subjuntivo la atención de nosotros?

As in my post, I'm referring specifically to Dalinar's trying to accommodate Evi's wishes about a massacre and, later, his interaction with the Nightwatcher. He did go in for numbness, too, but these examples are things for which Moash doesn't have any analogues. Moash ditches the guilt and then goes on doing the exact same things that made him feel guilty in the first place, even while retaining the full memories of his actions. Again, Moash's story (narratively so far, I'm not saying the situations are identical) is equivalent to burning Rathalas, always remembering it, and having his guilt removed so that he can keep razing cities full of innocent people to the ground. I'm prepared to believe that Dalinar might have come out a lot more like Moash now without Gavilar, Jasnah, and WoK, plus the Cultivation's intervention, but he did receive those interventions. Moash, on the other hand, got his own intervention from Odium. This seems to me like a sign of difference between the two, not a similarity. I could see an argument that Moash trying to help the abused Singers in Oathbringer is an effort to change and improve, though I don't find it persuasive. If and when we see Moash do anything to try to improve or come to terms with what he's done, then I might see more merit in your argument. But so far the only evidence that he will be redeemed is that you're asserting that he will because someone else was. I think it's unreasonable to conclude that the arcs are the same when Moash's current situation is equally consistent with a totally different outcome. Though by the same token Dalinar's story isn't done either-- if he winds up as Odium's champion he'll probably look a lot more like Moash does now, and I think that there would be a lot of interesting parallels to Moash's story. I'm not trying to argue you out of your view that Moash is on the road to redemption of one sort or another, just that it's not a foregone conclusion and that similar themes might be a contrast rather than a guarantee of identicality.

I don't disagree, but it's hard to say how Hoid's actions fit into his goals when we don't know what the goals are. We also don't really know what's good for the Cosmere, and a lot of things that are presented to us as "good" end up not being so great when we see a fuller picture of events. I don't find the secrecy to be too damning, since one of Hoid's most valuable and practical attributes is the depth and breadth of his knowledge. Plus, once someone else knows one of his secrets he can't expect it to remain a secret; new Vessels seem to learn a lot about what older Vessles knew, and today's Shard ally might be tomorrow's Shard bitter enemy. I definitely agree that there isn't any definitive reason to think that Hoid is a hero of the story, and we've got indications (including the example you gave) that people are generally a little bit too ready to ascribe pure and beneficent motivations to him.

I think that whether or not Moash feels guilt is less important than what he actually does. The contrast to Dalinar is that, for a long time, Dalinar didn't care about the consequences of what he did because he thought that his mode of action was morally correct, or at least acceptable. To his mind there wasn't much to feel guilty about, and when there was he faced up to the consequences of his actions. My key example is sparing the young heir to Rathalas when his moral system, religious beliefs, and orders were to kill him. When the consequences of that decision came around he was 100% prepared to fix it, even as he was willing to try an unconventional (for an Alethi) route to do so. When he speaks to the Nightwatcher he doesn't want numbness, he wants forgiveness, and his treasured memories of the wife he consistently failed were the price rather than the prize. And those doesn't even include his later transition into Radiance. Moash doesn't do that. He's never wrong, in his own mind, he's always righteous, and anything he wants is always acceptable or even the only good decision that could have been made. Who cares if he feels guilty or not when he continues to make the same decisions? Continuing with the comparison to Dalinar, it's as if he chose to keep burning cities just like he did Rathalas. That's the contrast: Dalinar felt guilt and tried to change, while Moash maybe felt guilt (I think he did), but then doubled down. And along the way he also made himself more comfortable in engaging in the same behaviors he has consistently chosen. None of that means there can't be a redemption arc for him, but so far I don't think the "he's exactly like Dalinar" position is a very strong one.

My feeling is that the level of agreement for a Parshendi to be a "volunteer" is lower than the word suggests. For all the talk of Passions and committing to pursuing what you want, the Singers don't seem to have much freedom to choose what they want to do. Most of them probably don't have many substantial interactions with individual Fused either, so I don't know how much an individual Singer really understands about the process. I could imagine it seeming more like the personality changes different forms bring, especially when the host of a given Fused is someone you've never met.

I think similarly to you, OP, but I also think that we have enough Cosmere books yet to be written that Hoid's plans are probably bigger than opposing Odium and his end goal may not be quite what we assume (even though reviving Adonalsium is still my best guess too). With Odium as the main major antagonist in Stormlight so far I think that it's not going to maintain that role through the next 10+ novels that will bring the metastory to its conclusion. It would be a bit counter to Sanderson's style so far to keep the same major villain like that for so long, especially when they're so powerful and also so directly involved in many events on-camera. Although having other Vessels deal with the Shard might be enough to overcome that, so who knows? Gathering powers is intriguing, but also gives Hoid a lot more tools to work with as he goes about doing whatever he does. It could be directly related to his end goal (whatever it is), but it could also just be a means to helping him accomplish his ultimate aims. Whatever it is you want to do, it seems like it could only help to be Mistborn, and be able to Lightweave, be an Elantrian, etc.

I like it a lot as a setup for the rest, and the colloquial way Megan speaks to herself feels natural and fluid. I think you can make good use of the remaining 559 words, (what a frustrating number to work with!). Given that that will still leave this as a relatively short piece set towards the end of a novel, I think that they'd be best used providing a little bit of background to express the scenario and stakes (a small portion of the 559) and the rest heightening the conflict Megan is dealing with. Depending on the contest the reader may not be familiar with Steelheart, in which case something like an "Epic nerd" might come across as a typo instead of a very succinct description. Even a single line which clarifies that Epics are superpowered humans, and that Megan is one of them, will help someone who doesn't know the books to understand. If it fits what you want to express, underlining that David is opposed to Epics generally or Steelheart specifically might also be worthwhile-- making clear that Megan isn't instructed to murder some passerby but has a role to play in a high-stakes contest can make Megan's inner conflict more well-rounded. You wouldn't need too many words to set that up if you want to keep the focus on Megan and her (nascent) struggle (which I think is a good idea, from what's written so far). Since 559 words isn't all that many to work with I think that it might be an effective use of them to make the scene more immersive and descriptive. Where is Megan, what kinds of things surround her there, and how would someone with her attitude in her mental state perceive them? How can your descriptions of those things move the reader to feel the similarly to her, to enhance her inner narration? A maximum addition of fewer than 600 words can get used up in a flash, so I probably wouldn't try to insert details to make the scene more complex, even avoiding things like similes, but would instead try to deepen the tone and mood of what's already there with every sentence. All subject to your style, voice, and preferences, of course. You've got a strong base already, and have chosen a really good point in the narrative to work with Megan in an interesting way, so I'm excited to see the final product!

También, ¿cómo usa el signo de exclamación a máquina? El internet no está ayudarme con esto, y prefiero no copiar y pegar.

|Hola! Estaba mejor en el pasado que hoy, y lo siento por los errores que escribirá aquí. Estudió en colegio e universidad, pero desde entonces y hoy he faltado oportunidades a practicar (particularmente hablar y escuchar). Un rato, miré telenovelas y me ayudó mucho pero no pude tolerar el cambio de Pecadora a Alma Indomable y dejé. Aun así, mi español siempre era más académico que normal en el mejor de casos. Si ustedes puedan tolerar mi tortura de la idioma, me gustaría participar aquí. Particularmente estoy interesado en los colocaciones típicos a hispanohablantes, pero me beneficiaría de cualquier práctica y corrección que puedo encontrar.

I'd not double-checked which sub-forum I was in when the topic turned into spoiler-evidence territory, and have already lost track of how long it's been since TLM came out. Thank you for fixing my post to comply with the policy, I'll be more attentive in the future.

And even then we'd have trouble accounting for some physical differences, skill, experience burning metals, etc. Maybe something more complicated could be worked out via Feruchemy, but it still seems difficult. For example, a piece of metal of known composition and mass could be filled X% full by one person and Y% by another. It still seems like there would be lots of issues to deal with, and I don't think an in-world character would find much use for the information and so wouldn't pursue it. Right, but that doesn't give us information on the rate of decrease in Allomantic strength from an initial hit of lerasium (by itself). Maybe there could be some cool extrapolations but I feel like we'd still need more information that in-world sources are unlikely to bother trying to get. Unrelatedly, I made an edit to my above post to remove the spoiler, per @Frustration's comment, but it'll still be in your quote of it unless you change it. Could you help me clear up my mistake and update it when you have a chance? Still too early? Thanks for the reminder, I've edited it (hopefully enough).

It might be interesting to know the rate of dilution across generations removed from someone who burned a given amount of lerasium, as suggested in the OP, but we don't have enough information to make good guesses about it. For practical reasons relating to how Allomancy works, I suspect that we'll never get to this information outside of a WoB (or similar).

Found it! And I didn't think I was going to today, or at all without re-reading all of Rhythm. I'm pretty sure it's the one I was thinking of, though unfortunately it's not quite as I remembered it, and not a great support for my position: My read of it is that the power likes questions and arguments, full stop. Those can't ever be opposed to the Shard because they're a major part of what it fundamentally is, though the Vessel may not feel similarly. It's the opposite of being agreeable or giving way to another's desires, and doesn't seem conducive to working together as a team. The drive isn't towards conflict, exactly, but certainly towards non-compliance and challenge. This is reflected pretty well in how the Fused seem to operate amongst each other and especially around the Singers, I think. I still feel that my position is correct (or at least a strongly supported interpretation), but 100% respect that others may not find it persuasive based on what I've been able to muster. And I'm suggesting less that Odium's power can't bind things together than that that sort of thing is more in Honor's portfolio, and so I wouldn't expect Odium's contrary and disagreeable aspects to mimic Honor's core thing all that strongly. I also think it's likely to be Lift, and I wonder what issues that might cause. It's a lot of Surges and a lot of raw power to be held by one person, and dual tracks of oaths might be an issue. And I also agree that my theorycrafting here is far from airtight, so I'm not surprised if you and others are holding it in abeyance. I think that we need to see more Voidbinding in action before any theories like this have much weight, and I think that when we do see it it's going to upend a lot of what we've guessed at so far. Yeah, I don't think that we disagree. I was just reiterating my position that Surgebinding + tons of power from an entity a person is Connected to != Bondsmith. My mention of the Heralds were meant as more of an analogy than a 1:1 comparison.

I've been basing that interpretation of Odium's Intent through a quote along the lines of "Odium's power can't help but promote conflict, even against itself". I don't recall the exact quote nor where it's from offhand and can't look it up right now, but that's the thrust of it. Based on that I've thought of conflict being as central to Odium as destruction was to Ruin and growth/development is to Cultivation, at least so far. We'll see if that bears out. All good and accurate observations. What I'm not as convinced of is the hard division between powers by Shard, given that the three on Roshar are significantly Invested there and that people can apparently use each others' forms of Investiture to power their magic in at least some circumstances (Surges with Stormlight, Lifelight, Towerlight, or Voidlight). My current impression (and I don't have a strong textual basis for this) is that the magic available on Roshar is largely a function of Honor and Cultivation having Invested themselves there so strongly, including defining the Surges themselves; I don't think that their powers are so discretely categorized any more. A Radiant strongly aligned with Cultivation, perhaps more so than Honor, still progresses via Oaths binding them to ideals, and a Radiant strongly aligned with Honor rather than Cultivation still needs to grow and change to advance. Odium is the odd one out, as a latecomer to the system. But as his Investiture continues to develop there I'd bet that the magic will become more complicated due to needing to interact with his power too (an example being Enlightened spren). I maintain that the powers on Roshar, as elsewhere in the Cosmere, are very heavily mediated by the Shards which grant them. I don't believe that there is any sort of "all else being equal" or "in a vacuum" sort of power. I don't think that Hoid, for example, can just be a Bondsmith despite his enormous Investiture and knowledge, and similarly I don't think that if Syl somehow absorbed enough Investiture Kaladin would suddenly be a Bondsmith. We'll learn a lot more about this in book 5, when we have Navani and the Sibling as an example (though the Sibling is half Honor anyways), and even more if and when someone bonds the Nightwatcher. At present we don't know much at all about Bondsmithing, but I personally don't see much reason to think that it's about raw power or a spren's greatness. It's intriguing, but vague to the point of uselessness (which is a big part of the intrigue!). It would make sense, given the fragments we've learned, since Ashyn was primarily under Odium's influence (so no Adhesion) and Honor was on Roshar (so his Surge would be present there along with him). I'm not 100% convinced of this, since the Surges seem to work system-wide, but I just am not knowledgeable enough about the timeline or the nature of the powers to feel confident about any conclusion. But that just further suggests that Odium's forces can't use Adhesion as others might be able to, if they can use it at all, which is contrary to the topic of the thread. If Adhesion is accessible to a person whose powers derive from Honor to some degree in the first place, that seems uncontroversial. It would be one thing to power it with Voidlight or Lifelight, which should work OK under at least some conditions. But it's another to access one Shard's primary thing through another Shard with a conflicting (though not diametrically opposed) alignment. To my mind it's like Allomancy and Hemalurgy: you can use the latter to become and Allomancer, even Mistborn, but you can't make Hemalurgy not be destructive just because you use it to work with an end-positive power. You could probably find some way to use Odium's power to fiddle with Adhesion (if not necessarily the same way as you would through Honor's power), but if the source of your access to Adhesion is somehow Odium I don't think that you can expect to avoid Odium strongly influencing how that works for you. But I can appreciate that there are other arguments, even using the same examples, that have obvious merit and that people may find persuasive. Very true, but that's why I mentioned that the other Heralds don't seem to have similar abilities. If it were just a matter of Connection to a powerful force, spren or Shard, they would all be able to do similarly. Because they can't (presumably), it follows that it isn't.

I'd prefer them to be longer but tighter narratively. The books are long, and getting longer, but are also becoming more unwieldy. There are (to my eye) increasing portions of the books that are fanservice (irrelevant to the story, and rewarding only if you are personally invested in that particular thing), increasing portions that are basically recitations of lists (of powers, of categories of powerful people), and a real gaps-and-islands issue with character POV (sometimes unavoidable, but if you like character X you might go a very long time without seeing them, let alone seeing them do something). I think that we've also hit a point where the scaling of conflicts has become unmanageable (if every climactic threat is the biggest ever it becomes harder to set it up in the same number of pages as the previous one). I'll read any number of pages as long as I'm engaged, but my average engagement per page for SA has dropped a bit. Some things will look different in hindsight (there were bits of Wheel of Time which I didn't love the first time through, but on re-reads I have enough context to appreciate them more). But overall I feel that there has been more of a disconnect between characters observing and experiencing the world, developing their personal storylines, and the major events of the world as it is in each book. So I don't have a target length that I think is generically appropriate for each, and there is some portioning of events across volumes that I think dictate what each book really needs to cover. But I wish that the books were a bit tighter in pacing and content they have. If it feels like there is bloat, the book will feel too long for me.

I put it glibly, but what I had wanted to express is that Odium is about conflict in the same way that Honor is about bonds. It's not bond breaking that would be the focus of an Odium-based Adhesion power, but that the push towards conflict would undermine the commitments that seem to underlie Honor's less physical applications of Adhesion. I appreciate that this is a popular idea, but I'm not convinced it's accurate; Ishar could manipulate bonds pretty effectively before spren bonds were even a thing, and we don't have any indication that any of the other Heralds could do similarly (so it's not just about proximity to Honor's power). There is certainly more to it than just "powerful spren + Radiant-style bond = Bondsmith". But I'll definitely grant that "Honor's truest Surge" doesn't necessarily mean that Honor needs to be involved with accessing or applying it.

I don't know if a Fused could use Adhesion in a way that would align with Honor's Intent, being so permeated with Odium's essence as they are. If they could use the Surge at all I have to think it would be in a way that at least follows Odium, if not in a way that directly opposes Honor. I'd call them something like Unravelers or Oathbreakers, and I think that their use of the Surge would be something like taking things which are bound together and cause their connections to weaken and fail. Physically they'd break things in ways that would make it harder to put them back together (maybe like the reverse of Dalinar fixing the statue, causing edges to be irregular so that they couldn't just be put back together as they were originally). Spiritually (or at least more metaphorically) they'd cause groups to distrust one another by emphasizing things they cared about but didn't have in common, play up ideas and ways of thinking that make it harder for people to keep their oaths (like preventing people from advancing in Radiance, or causing them to fail to live up to their commitments and losing Radiance altogether), and help people keep the letter of oaths but violate the spirit of the agreements as much as possible. The physical side is interesting because Adhesion seems to be duplicated by some combinations of the Surges relating to axial interconnections and Division. Adhesion has some physical powers, for sure, but it seems to me that its most important (and distinct) contributions to Roshar are less tangible: the creation of the Oathpact, the formation of the Knights Radiant, the coupling of Oaths to powers in the first place, and the concept of gaining might by uniting a changeable person with a less changeable ideal.

She (potentially) gives quick access to things that are hard to get, or can't be come by any other way. People seek her out for all the usual reasons someone might take a bad, or at least dangerous deal: desperation, arrogance, thirst for power. I'll be interested to hear if your outlook changes any down the line. I think that you're using a broader and more judgement-containing definition of "smart" than what is related to Taravangian's boon/curse, and maybe not appreciating his moral system (a very hard-edged utilitarianism). "Smart" Taravangian (a designation with an ambiguous cutoff) isn't hyper-rational, exactly, just really good at dry computation and extrapolation. He also loses access to some traits that are hard to quantify, like empathy, and so cannot factor them into his designs. It's a bit like asking how someone can be perceptive if they're blind. He definitely has the resources to make it happen (a strong enough "suggestion" of suicide which is indistinguishable from murder). He really thought that the city would be better off without all of the "dumb" chaff in it. And he really thought that people (the survivors, anyways) would be onboard with the idea of killing the "dumb" half of the city because of that. And certainly his designation of the "smart" half includes that they would appreciate that improvement borne of the massacre. His total lack of ability to empathize prevented him from appreciating that other people might disagree with his calculation (unthinkable, since he's so much smarter than everyone) or that emotional factors might influence how they viewed his plan. I guarantee that, if you could convince him to explain his reasoning, he'd be able to present some very cogent equations indicating why that half of the population simply had to go, and that you'd have a hard time refuting them under the philosophy he espouses. There is some really interesting stuff that buds off from Taravangian's boon/curse, and adhering to the Diagram that he trusts but can't quite understand. I like your line of thinking on it, and hope that you'll continue to post your thoughts as you encounter more of him in the future. It's a very intriguing setup that he could be so intelligent as to create the Diagram, but also be wrong-- is something a bad idea because on a given day he's too smart and therefore too heartless, or because on that day he's super-smart but not smart enough to appreciate the error?

I wasn't referencing this to talk about Halfborn, but rather to point out that "Allomancy and Feruchemy traits interfere with each other" doesn't eliminate the possibility of a child inheriting both traits. Were that the case, the Lord Ruler's actions wouldn't track. Whether or not such offspring could potentially be Halfborn is a separate issue. I don't see any reason they'd be more or less likely to be Fullborn, Mistborn, full Feruchemist, Misting, Ferring, or Twinborn than the normal inheritance patterns would suggest, and Halfborn seems (to me) like it would just be another point on that continuum of possible outcomes. The don't have to be. The "strength" of Allomantic traits doesn't need to be expressed in a person at all for them to pass it on to children, only present. We don't know a lot about the mechanisms of this, but the Straff/Zane example is pretty clear in this direction, as is Spook's case. The "strength" of those traits (latent or not) hasn't been all that well defined but you are correct that even a person with no Metallic Arts powers could produce a child that does have them. The era 2 Terris efforts are to increase the "strength" of Feruchemical ability in their population, the reverse of the dilution which has led to only Mistings being born, and never any more Mistborn. Yes, that is correct. We certainly know that Mistings and Ferrings don't need to have the same metals as their parents, and that the parents don't need to have powers at all. My curiosity is more about whether or not, for a Twinborn, one trait is more likely than the other to be passed on or if there are other factors which influence the process. I'm thinking of Khriss' comment to Wax that he is one of only a few (three? I don't remember offhand) Crashers ever to have existed. Twinborn are so rare, even compared with Mistborn, Feruchemists, Mistings, and Ferrings, that it's hard to feel confident about guesses regarding them and the heritability of their powers. You're probably right that there aren't other meaningful factors beyond the Allomantic/Feruchemical traits. We might learn more in era 3, but the whole issue might just be superseded by Hemalurgy and medallion technology.

The Lord Ruler was explicitly concerned about someone being born with powers from both Feruchemy and Allomancy, which was why he tried to exterminate the Terris people and later to breed Feruchemy out of their population. Since he gained his knowledge of the Metallic Arts from his brief Ascension I'd assume that his concern was realistic, even if unlikely to actually happen. As for parentage I don't think we need anything unusual. As the Feruchemical and Allomantic traits weaken in the population we see fewer and fewer Mistborn until they just aren't born naturally. In era 2 the Terris are trying to work in the opposite direction, to consolidate Feruchemical ability in the hopes of giving rise to new full Feruchemists. So to get a Halfborn I think we'd just need one parent with a strong enough Allomantic/Feruchemical trait to allow for a Mistborn/full Feruchemist in their offspring and another with a weaker trait in the other art. Or even both parents with strong traits in their respective arts, since either could probably produce a Misting or Ferring normally. I don't think we know enough about the heritability of Allomancy and Feruchemy to get more specific than that, though. I'm curious about how a Twinborn's traits might be passed on (could they produce Twinborn children with only their own abilities in the parentage?), but Twinborn are so rare that I doubt any in-world information on it exists.