JustQuestin2004

So, I had a thought about Feruchemy's version of Savants, who are usually Compounders due to needing more power than they can naturally produce with Feruchemy alone, and specifically a small wrinkle in the idea of Atium Compounding and with Marsh. How could an Atium Compounder live for so long, if they die from old age the moment they stop tapping when they sleep after they reach a point beyond their natural lifespan? How does Marsh do this? Easiest answer is that with the 20+ Hemalurgic Spikes he has, one of them probably grants him Feruchemical Bronze so he never needs to sleep in the first place. But what there is another way? Savantism warps the soul in a deep, fundamental way. Making the powers you're using become even more natural to you and allow you to do things that aren't normally possible or feasible for non-Savants. The only thing we know about Feruchemical Savants is from Miles Hundredlives, where WOB stated the reason he lived so long when being executed by gunshots over a dozen times, is because he was a Savant. What if another benefit granted by Feruchemical Savantism is to become so used to be constantly and consistently drawing on the power of your metalminds that you can even do so while you're asleep?

The Ghostbloods themselves say they can do so when Shallan is spying on them in WaT, it's why some of their members are weirded out by Mraize and Iyatil's insistence on acquiring Ba-Ado-Mishram, since that doesn't help with their main goal. As for the other half, Feruchemy still uses Investiture just like Radiants do with Stormlight, when you tap a ridiculously high amount, like with the Bands of Mourning, your body starts leaking mist in a similar way to how Radiants leak Stormlight. Raysium extracts Kinetic Investiture, power that is being used, and can be used on all forms of Light known, from all three Rosharan Shards. Even extracting it and collecting it from Radiants. Plus, Leechers are able to drain a Feruchemist, so long as they are actively Tapping their metalminds, so in my mind there should be no reason that Raysium can't extract a new kind of Light from Feruchemists and Allomancers, since it's all just Investiture in the end.

Maybe there's a way to generate a near-limitless supply of Investiture wherever you go? If we're allowed to make an army with access to all of the Cosmere, then I think this is actually really easy. Firstly: Need some Compounders, doesn't matter what kind, either naturally born or through a few more esoteric ways like Essence Marks, they don't need to last long just long enough to get this started. Secondly: Have the Compounders start compounding, then after they completely fill a few massive metalminds to the absolute brim, have them tap those metalminds and have them jabbed with raysium, which will absorb their Investiture and put it into a Polestone. Thirdly: Use the same method that the Ghostbloods use the Blank the Investiture in the Polestone from Preservation's Light (Mistlight?) into a bunch of Unkeyed Investiture. Then you're done. The Compounders generate a nearly endless amount of Keyed Investiture, you just have to extract that Investiture with Raysium, then do what the Ghostbloods did to Unkey Stormlight and do it to the Preservation Investiture (Mistlight?). Now you have a functionally limitless supply of Unkeyed Investiture to power the rest of your Invested Army. Just need an endless supply of their metal, but if you have a Soulcaster, then that solves itself, they can just turn anything into the required metal. You can even expand on this method using Forgery to start turning other people into temporary Compounders as well, the Essence Marks don't need to last forever or even a whole day, just long enough to let the Temporary Compounders start Compounding, so that generated Investiture can then be turned into even more Unkeyed Investiture.

I know Hemalurgy is additive, I was referring to becoming a Savant when having a double-boosted power from Hemalurgy. As a second comparision to Lerasium Allomancers in terms of more potent Allomancers and how the extra power might effect their boost from Savantism. But yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking. More power per second will cause greater warping of the soul.

A thought just occurred to me, there are Allomancers of differing potency, like with Vin and Elend. They have an innate difference in terms of sheer power without Savantism. Then there is the boost one can gain from Savantism itself. My question is thus, do you think a Lerasium Mistborn and Diluted Mistborn gain the same level of boost from Savantism or would the Lerasium Mistborn be a better Savant? I think that it might be multiplicative, because there are two very different levels of Investiture flowing through them, which would cause more warping of the soul. Or if we go from another angle, a Misting having their powers doubled or more by additional spikes granting the same power they already have, like Steel Inquisitors with Bronze Spikes to double their Seeking. Do you think they'd have the same level of boost from becoming Savants as regular Seekers, or are they getting a little more from their Bronze Allomancy being stronger?

Fighting Retribution is not the main goal, Dalinar learned this, just fighting forever won't work and direct conflict with another god will just lead to Roshar and probably the entire solar system being utterly destroyed. The biggest part, I feel, is doing what Dalinar figured out in the last Vision with Nohadon. Make the Shards themselves want to stop fighting and causing war. Honor was left alone for thousands of years and now has a mind of its own, an immature mind that only interprets it's own Intent in one way, keeping one's word no matter what. The key will be having TaRetribution pay very close attention to the actions of his enemies, which will let Honor take a close look as well and learn. With the other Shards in the Cosmere finally willing to act against Odium, he won't be able to act directly without the rest of the gods coming down on his head, so he won't be able to just snap his fingers and kill all his enemies without revealing himself to the other Shards and be victim to the Cosmere's biggest jumping. Which will give our heroes the breathing room they desperately need. I suspect Taravangian's need to know everything and be in control of everything will help Honor the most, allowing it the most information possible to grow. But also be able to see just how much of a loop-holer and rules-lawyer Taravangian is, it was already unsure of Taravangian treating Gavinor the way he did. On the smaller scale though, the Radiants and those aligned with them are indeed in a very tough spot. The Surgebinders are stuck in Urithiru for now, and even when they do find a way out they'll have no Stormlight for their abilities. But there is still hope, another source of Light that Taravangian has no control over, Lifelight. Specifically the Nightwatcher, and her Bondsmith, being able to produce Lifelight like Dalinar did by opening a Perpendicularity. Still, there are upsides. There are now Unoathed, people who can wield revived Shardblades and Plate like Radiants do, and it seems like they will be composed of the thousands of Deadeyes that are now recovering. With Venli's people taking the Shattered Plains, they are able to both give the more peaceful Singers who aren't totally on board with the Voidbringers a place to be free and get in touch with Listener culture, and a place for the more tired Fused to just finally retire. Plus they have control over Roshar's now singular Perpendicularity, which will definitely come in handy. Then there is Ba-Ado-Mishram, now recently freed and full of conflicting feelings and intent, but it seems quite clear that she is not willing to just shack back up with Odium ever again, new Vessel or no. She will be the true Wildcard in all this, as she once wanted peace and nearly achieved it, but now is driven into madness through her millennia of imprisonment. She not only could have 'usurped' Odium due to being a better Vessel, but also is 'chosen' by the Tones of Roshar itself somehow. Hard to say how this will play out, but it will definitely be important. In conclusion, I know that many people think the ending is too bleak, but personally I think its just like the Empire Strikes Back, the heroes are down and wounded, but they aren't out by a long shot. There is still hope, still options, still a possibility for a new victory even in these dark times.

Stepping away from how the technology and magic of the Cyberpunk Era, I think another possibility is thus: Will Hemalurgy become public knowledge by this point? Because I have a feeling that between Era 3 and the Space Age, the knowledge that Harmony has done almost everything he can to suppress will inevitably get out for anyone to learn and study for better or worse. Especially in the Information Age as Era 3 is the beginning of Scadrial's computer age. The ability for him and his agents to conceal such information will be gradually outstripped by the ability to spread such information. Or potentially, Discord might not even bother hiding it for whatever reason. How would the world change when everyone knows that it's possible to take power from others? And how to do so? I could see a Bad Future for Cyberpunk Scadrial where natural Metalborn are hunted by ruthless corporations to harvest their powers, with the rich and powerful doing everything they can to subvert the rule of law and basic human decency. Though I think its more liekly that, as the knowledge of non-lethal Hemalurgy spreads, corporations will coerce as many people as possible to willingly let themselves be spiked for the Preservation in them in exchange for monetary compensation, much like how Breaths are traded for money on Nalthis only much more painful. According to the Set, it should take 20-30 non-metalborns to make a spike that should be able to grant a power, after being properly 'coded' to do so. So, I could see there being some kind of black market for this, with people either willingly giving up their Preservation and becoming a Drab-equivalent for money, or even it being a punishment for getting into debt with criminal groups or loan sharks.

That's what I'm thinking, stuff like that becomes a lot easier with how Hemalurgy functions. Just attach the technology to a spike then insert the right way and then you have an easy way to insert metal directly into a human body without risk of metal poisoning or infection. Which cuts out much of the hard part that comes with putting metal into one's body. Then comes the complication of how the recipient is meant to actually control the arm, as Hemalurgy just allows the attachment, it won't do anything more than that. You'd need to find a way to directly connect it to the nerves, or perhaps the soul even? But that part could be handled by the Cyberpunk Era being a post-modern setting and thus sci-fi tech, like directly connecting it to the nerves and what not to be controlled by the brain, which isn't exactly sci-fi anymore considering that there are prosthetics that function like that in real life.

Hemalurgy and cybernetics are a match made in the Beyond. Hemalurgic Spikes, when placed properly, warp the body to some extreme degrees, as shown by the Inquisitors whose hearts and brains are warped around the spikes. And without any infection, even with blood being passed around. There's no doubt in my mind that when technology advances ahead far enough, people will be inspired by the idea of putting metal inside your body to make you stronger and decide the next best step is to start putting full on technology inside your body. There are many ideas for this, but I have a few I'd love to talk about. -Modular Spike Systems: Having a set-up whre you can store many Hemalurgic Spikes within your body without them piercing you, and be able to switch between them rapidly. Could fake being a Mistborn by switching between the different powers. Could also go further by adding on some Unsealed Metalminds to give yourself even more powers than the "3 Spikes max unless you want to get turned into a meat puppet" limit would allow. Could also allow easy transfer of Feruchemical Attributes through said Unsealed Metalminds, like Copperminds that would act like the BD's from Cyberpunk, plus Goldminds for quick healing. And so on. Maybe there could also be a way for one to attach a cybernetic limb and have it be connected to your soul instead of your nerves through a spike, allowing you full control over it?

More of an OCD-ish thing, since I'm both the players and the GM I'm kind of just doing whatever I want.

You might get a laugh out of this, but I didn't realize that character's start each Combat with their Weapons automatically drawn without needing to use up an Action unless they're surprised. I was doing a solo Stonewalker's campaign and had to go back and redo every chapter 1 combat scene because of how much that changed.

I think that the main reason she hasn't moved from the Valley is likely due to Cultivation. The Nightwatcher's whole schtick is probably due to Cultivation to act as a smokescreen for when she herself acts. Many people have gone to the Nightwatcher for the Old Magic, this is what led certain important individuals like Dalinar, Taravangian and Lift to visit and instead gain a Boon from Cultivation instead of the Nightwatcher to further her own plans. And since Cultivation has just left the planet, chances are that the Nightwatcher is no longer bound to that schtick anymore. So, I think in the backhalf we'll be seeing a more independent Nightwatcher doing her own thing, travelling around and giving Boons and Curses to all kinds of people. Heck, that could be a main plotline, tracking her down since she might not be in the Valley anymore and is the only source of Light that Retribution can't take away, thus her bonding with a Radiant would be an absolute necessity for the Radiants, and the Fused trying to hunt her down and capture her.

Sazed's 'darker half' Discord? That sounds even more terrifying that Ati to be honest, having Harmony's dark side having it out for you.

I picked Scadrial for the place to live, a Full Feruchemist for the powers, and finally Odium for the enemy. Why Scadrial? Because while it has many problems of its own (The Set, Trell, Bleeder, the cold war, etc), it is also more tame and subtle compared to places like Roshar, I would not enjoy the endless darkness of Shadesmar and I wouldn't risk the unknown that is Sel at this point. Why Full Feruchemist? Its a bit risky, but I'd have a very steady career, I could work for Harmony and the Kandra to help create Unsealed Metalminds, they said in BoM that they were waiting for a Full Feruchemist to be born to further research Feruchemy. I would be protected by the Kandra and Harmony, and would get to play a massive role in researching the Metallic Arts, which would likely give me fame and riches beyond my wildest dreams. Plus, there's always the chance I could potentially get my hand on an A-Atium Spike, then use Feruchemy to fiddle with my Identity so I could compound youth, as well as get some of the Atium they produce at the end of Era 2. Just an overall great deal. Why Odium? Because while Taravangian, who will soon become Retribution, is a very terrifying enemy to have, he is also going to be forced to keep to himself and away from Scadrial, so I don't have to worry about anything direct from him. Of course direct action has never been his forte so I may have screwed myself here. Oh well.

Oh my Stormfather, lets see the specifics. Moash -Magic Hair: Not especially. Stormlight alone shouldn't count. Does his new crystal spike crown thing count? -Magic Hands: Can send you falling upwards or stick you to a wall with a touch so yes. -Talking to animals: Not really, though some humans would probably consider talking to Singers to be such. -Poisoned: Does having his emotions sucked out to make him a sociopath count? Or having his eyes burned out? -Cursed: Considering all the stuff Odium has been doing to him, yes. -Kidnapped or enslaved: Yes on both counts, first as a Bridgeman by humans, then by the Fused. -Problems solved by a big strong man: Kaladin certainly tried his best with this one. Odium kind of counts by fixing his 'problem' (feeling any amount of guilt). That's around 4/7, he just needs to get poisoned, dye his hair and talk to some crabs and we'll make a princess out of him yet.