JustQuestin2004

1 hour ago, Trusk'our said:

Though, redoing multiple combats does seem a bit excessive to me. I'm more of the mind that you just accept how things played out and change from thence on. Did it really change the story that much?

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.

4 hours ago, Treamayne said:

How can Ruin be "an opponent" if it takes place centuries after Harmony's rise?

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.

On 4/25/2026 at 6:15 AM, Mist. said:

Conclusion: the entirety of Bridge 4 are all just Disney princess 

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.

10 hours ago, AaronGlover said:

Looking for 1-shot ideas or examples people have created for inspiration.

Here's one. I call it 'Horizon's Passion'.

It starts with all players as Singer Characters from Khabranth being led onto a boat before being sent out into the seas to fend for themselves. They start in Slaveform, but the game fully starts when the Everstorm hits their boats and allows them to pick whichever Form they have. Human characters are a bit trickier, but you could have them as secret stowaways that hid on the boat beforehand.

The PC's must navigate the ship through the Everstorm without crashing or dying. Roll a Plot Die to decide if there is a small Combat Sequence with Skyeels or not. PC's who chose a Sailing Expertise get advantage on rolls to sail the ship.

The goal is to last long enough through the Everstorm while having the ship take the least amount of damage possible, with a few endings being possible depending on the amount of damage taken.

-The ship is above half-health: The ship i fine to continue sailing, and the PC's now own the ship for themselves, free to sail wherever they see fit.

-If the boat is at or below half health: The sequence ends with the ship crashing into land, PC's taking some damage but all likely surviving. There the remaining survivors must band together to survive the wilderness in the Frostlands.

-If the boat falls to 0 health, the ship breaks in the middle of the sea and the PC's all die.

If the players continue playing after this point, give them a Level up and see where it goes.

On 3/24/2026 at 5:48 AM, Frustration said:

No wall is unbreachable, no watch omniscient, no defense is perfect, every Achilleas has a heel. We're still going to try.

Taking a spin off of the "To kill a [Blank]" threads, instead we have a different objective.

 

You have a Dawnshard and must protect it from anyone who would seek to abuse it.

A few rules

1. You do not know if anyone has a Connection allowing them to track the Dawnshard, you may make assumptions at your own peril
2. You cannot trust any existing organizations with it, they must be assumed to want it for their own ends
3. We will assume you have access to vast resources and can reasonably acquire most any materials you want.
4. You may use the Dawnshard to create its hiding place, but cannot store it with anyone who could use its power. You must prevent anyone from abusing the Dawnshard, including yourself.

How would you protect it?

Vast resources hmm? I'm going to assume that includes one of those FTL Ships from Scadrial or Roshar. I'll use that ship to try and leave the Cosmere entirely and try to leave the Dawnshard forever floating either in the endless void of space between the Cosmere and the rest of the Unknowable universe it resides in, or try to find a black hole and toss it in.

If that proves impossible, which it might since the Dawnshard is was used to make the Cosmere and is Connected to 'All Places' which could mean 'All Places in the Cosmere'. Then again the Dawnshards predate the Cosmere since Adonalsium used the former to make the latter so who knows? If they can't be taken out of the Cosmere then I'll try and find the furthest star system that has as little Investiture as possible along with no Shard or Perpendicularity nearby, then dunk the Dawnshard into that Star System's sun and hope for the best.

Though that might lead to the Dawnshard merging with the sun, which might not end well and make it accessible to any curious Shard that does find it, which probably would not be good.

1 hour ago, NovaOmen said:

The power house trait unfortunately reduces the cost to burn metals "to a minimum of 1 Investiture" sadly. Would've been super helpful for maintaining savantism though 

Really? "Rereads the Talent in question", it doesn't say that on the tree, but I suppose it might say that on the full description somewhere below. What a shame. Still, could be useful for lowering the cost of Speedbubbles, since those cost quite a bit.

42 minutes ago, Jult said:

The Agent and Envoy trees (new branches tailored to Scadrial):

I really like the Grifter Talent Tree from Envoy, making an enemy Determined just to turn it against them sounds hilarious. The Insult To Injury just to rub salt in the wound makes it even better.

43 minutes ago, Jult said:

F-Iron and F-Copper (or at least the right half of each tree):

F-Copper has an interesting Talent, Keeper of Knowledge, that gives your Coppermind 5 additional Charges and literally increases your Intellect by two. That sounds really good for Intellect builds, just gain two more stat points for it by Tier 2! You could probably reach 6-7 Intellect by Level 6 as an Archivist. Not too shabby.

I feel a little inspired to make a Koloss-Blooded Archivist just to make a 'Brawny Nerd' kind of character.

F-Iron has some interesting stuff too. Letting you lower certain kinds of damage and move further. Pretty basic but useful.

47 minutes ago, Jult said:

F-Chromium was also quickly flipped by, but I couldn't get a shot that was clear enough to bother posting. I did some squinting and there are 3 near-legible skills:

Whispers of Destiny - After a test, spend 1 charge to feel how impactful the upcoming scene will be and become Focused when an important person, place, or moment arrives.

Right Time - While tapping Fortune, use the Ready Action as a Free Action.

Right Place - When a scene begins, spend charges to Move once for each charge spent.

Ooo, Fortune stuff. I like it. All about gut feelings and being sort of ready for whatever happens next. Nice.

50 minutes ago, Jult said:

A-Bendalloy (shown in full):

Awesome, good ol Speed Bubbles being a game changer as usual. Literally making 'Bonus Rounds' if what I'm reading is right. Plus more downtime, better for endeavors, forced 1v1, oh man its so cool.

58 minutes ago, Jult said:

The pages I grabbed for our local Hemalurgy expert:

Ah, so you need to complete a Goal to get the full Talent Tree, similar to the First Ideal Goals, except you can pick a specific Starting Kit, which it seems to say will let you skip that part and get the Talent Tree immediately. Neat.

Thanks so much @Jult I really appreciate this.

Does there happen to be anymore higher quality pictures from the Sneak Peek? I would love to see more. Literally anything.

Thank you @Jult you're a legend!

-I wonder about the Embedded Metalmind Talent, because does that mean you can't have smaller embedded Metalminds like an earring?  Or would those be restricted like they can only contain 1 Charge total?

-Anyone catch that the Misting/Mistborn Key Talents are called 'Snapping' while Ferring/Feruchemist are called 'Heritage'? Does this confirm that Feruchemists don't need to Snap to gain their powers?

-Also, finding it pretty interesting and balanced that there's some key differences between Misting/Ferring and Twinborn, as some very interesting Talents aren't shared between them. Like Powerhouse for Mistings, which is crazy good since it reduces Investiture Maintenence Cost by 1, and the only Allomantic Skill we know of right now is the Ghostblood Enforcers 'Burn Pewter', which requires 1 Investiture per round to maintain. Assuming it works like that with the PC Pewterarms, then with Poewrhouse they'd be able to maintain 'Burn Pewter' indefinitly, and with the 'Instinctual Burn' Talent would let you already be burning pewter before each Scene, meaning it woul cost you 1 Investiture total to indefinitely use 'Burn Pewter'. Crazy.

-Looking at the Prerequisites between Metalborn and Radiant Paths, and while the 'First Ideal' Talent requires you to be at Level 2, so you can't start the game as a Radiant, there is no such restriction to the Metalborn Paths. So this probably means that you could start the game as a Metalborn, which is great!

The way this campaign is set up, where you have Era 1 characters going from Level 1-6, then have them set up a Legacy for Era 2 so the player make new Era 2 characters that start at Level 3, is really cool. Especially since that means you don't need to start from complete scratch on the second half of the campaign and can pick some extra Talents.

The 'Gilded Few' sound almost like an Era 1 version of the Set, with prominent members being a Mistborn and Hemalurgist. But they're for Era 1, who will continue the antagonizing in Era 2? The Set themselves? A new criminal group descended from the Gilded Few? 

Oh wait! We know from WOB that the Set were created indirectly from Kelsier's actions between Era 1 and 2, and that it might come up in a possible Secret History Novel if he ever gets around to writing it. Could this be it? Could Mistborn Legacy be the origins of the Set?

4 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Personally it's a close one, but I think I'd have to go with Transformation. The huge number of creative things you can do by transmuting matter is just staggering.

Can't deny that. Turn almost anything into almost anything else.

You could turn lead into gold, heal people of poison and give them more blood, make nuclear material with enough know-how, the list goes on.

It really is just limited by your imagination.

3 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

I like it!

It would open up options for players in a believable way, but not be too rediculously powerful (no Blade, Plate, or second Surge).

I would probably rule out Adhesion as one of the options though, since that is supposed to be of Honor alone. But I doubt that would be an issue- I can't imagine it's one of the more popular Surges.

Had a thought after making this. What if this is asked by a player who already has a Spren, Bonded with one just for the power but didn't want to deal with the whole 'Oaths' thing.

Here's another version of this.

Request: "Make me a Radiant without Oaths" (While the PC already has a Spren Bond)

Boon: The PC gains a custom Shardblade that retains their Surge skills for whoever holds it. They gain the same Ranks in the Surge skills as the PC, if they did not possess those Surge Skills already.

Curse: The PC's Spren has been rendered into a Deadeye due to the forsaking of Oaths, the Nightwatcher turns the poor thing into a bastardized version of an Honorblade. It cannot be summoned or dismissed and thus will attract attention and add disadvantage to all Stealth Tests while equipped, the remainder of the PC's Radiant Talent Tree become locked permanently, and every Round the PC holds this Blade, they hear the screams of the Spren they betrayed and must pass a DC 20 Discipline roll or lose 2 Focus and be forced to Drop the Blade.

A fitting reward for someone who would prefer to forsake their oaths. They get pretty much their own Honorblade that can't be unsummoned and thus is much easier to steal and is really difficult to actually use for the PC alone.

I know this is super late, but I actually have a few and want to start discussion on this.

Request: "Make me a Radiant without Oaths" (For those who want to game the system)

Boon: Gain a single Surge skill of the player's choice, along with an Investiture Score and the 'Breathe Stormlight', 'Regenerate' and 'Enhance Actions', as if the asker has gained and finished the 'First Ideal' Goal. Player can pick Talents from their Surge Talent Tree.

Curse: The Player becomes part Spren, they cannot attract a Spren to form a Bond with anymore and they become tied to the people who bare their strongest Connection to the Physical Realm (I.E. The other Party Members). When beyond 50 ft of any of those people, all stats are temporarily reduced by 1.

Basically, the player becomes like a proper (Non-Immortal) Human Fused and can specialize in only a single Surge, but they lock themselves out of the full potential of Radiancy and are more dependent on their party, so no lone wolfing without penalty. Hopefully annoying but not unplayable.

10 hours ago, Qianweilian said:

If you have Forms of Wisdom and 4 Discipline, than you should be able to take the Ambitious Mind talent. Do you have an available talent (e.g. do you need to lvl up?) Can you send me a copy of your character sheet? (I got the pdfs, but not site stuff).

I add levels to the character to preview later talents and developments. I previewed what level 6 would be like and still couldn't select it. I'm really thinking that its a bug and I think I'll just have to cheat a little on the site by turning off 'prerequisites' when I pick it.

Also, how would I send it to you? Crop an image of the sheet? Or is there another way on the site itself?

Are you able to select Ambitious Mind?

Hey, so I'm coming up with a Singer War Doctor character who uses the Forms of Destruction to basically hulk out, but for some reason the site isn't letting me pick the Ambitious Mind Talent even when I'm meeting the requirements. I have 4 ranks in the Discipline skill and the Forms of Wisdom skill, yet it still won't let me pick it.

I don't understand, is this a bug or is there something obvious I am yet again missing?

1 hour ago, Trusk'our said:

When Ishar claimed a portion of the Well of Control, it appears that he gained a status not unlike an Avatar. Wielding a small but very potent fraction of Odium's Investiture seems to have allowed him to do some crazy things, like Connecting himself into Shinovar to become its deity, supercharging his Honorbearers, and creating his own brand of human Fused.

I wonder then, if he had enough authority as a conduit for Odium's power, could he have pulled away the Connection between Odium and the Fused, killing them permanently?

 

On one hand, he is by far the lesser when compared to Rayse or Taravangian in Investiture, so a "tug of war" between their Intents would probably fizzle out.

On the other, the power wasn't entirely aligned with its true Vessel (neither Rayse nor later Taravangian), preferring someone like BAM more. This doesn't necessarily mean Ishar is more aligned than the Vessel, but it does leave precedence for the Shard preventing its Vessel from forbidding another from using it in grand ways- and Ishar himself wasn't denied the use of Odium's power when he found the Well suggesting he may have been a decent fit for it, at least enough that he could wield it for millennia.

I'd say it'd be difficult but not impossible for Ishar to pull that off, but it'd probably take some prep work and could only be done on a smaller personal scale, so no mass killing Fused half the continent away.

If he can almost successfully steal the Nahel Bond of the Stormfather himself from Dalinar, along with his 'Opposition' to Odium (however the hell that would have worked, was he stealing Destiny?), then pulling off stuff like opening Honor's Perpendicularity without the Stormfather, the main holder of Honor's power, being unable to feel a thing...

Yeah, I think he could absolutely pull it off. At least a few times before Odium gets wise and tries to interfere anyway, after that it'd probably be a tug of war between them, but I think Odium would come out ahead of that since he is still a full Shard, weakened grasp over it or not, and Ishar is probably more like the Lord Ruler was, using the Well to access a 'sliver' of what Odium holds the lion's share of.

It's hard to say since they all have near-limitless amounts of power, but if we go with 'Who has the most Investiture left' I'd be willing to bet on Reason because they may or may not be Invested on a particular world. If they aren't and really have just spent thousands of years doing nothing but hiding then that would mean that by default they have the most Investiture left out of all the Mono-Shards.

10 hours ago, PanLin said:

True! And that is an important distinction, thanks, but we also know the effect is additive. Mistborns get stronger, and Mistings become Mistborns with a stronger affinity to their original Misting power.

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Shardlet

If Vin and Elend hypothetically each blindly ingested equivalently sized beads of lerasium, would Vin be a stronger Mistborn than Elend, or would they be equal?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, Vin would be stronger. It is additive, not just an overwrite.

The same thing happens with Hemalurgy; with Hemalurgy when you’re spiking someone’s soul, you’re ripping off a piece and adding it.

Firefight Seattle UBooks signing (Jan. 6, 2015)

This quote even calls out Hemalurgy, conveniently—in the same way Vin is a stronger Seeker with her earring, Lerasium beads and Nicrosil spikes add to your existing Spiritweb; Lerasium rewrites it to incorporate the new chunk of Preservation, and Nicrosil nails an extra chunk of someone else's Spiritweb to you.

Another couple of wobs talking about how (at least how I read it), Nicrosil spikes used on people from Scadrial essentially steal the chunk of their Spiritweb that is Preservation/Ruin, and how Preservation-coded Investiture, in the form of the mists, can theoretically be used to distill Lerasium.

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Volratho (paraphrased)

Humans on Scadrial have Investiture of both Preservation and Ruin inside of them.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes.

Volratho (paraphrased)

Feruchemically, does storing Investiture in Nicrosil store this connection to Ruin/Preservation/Harmony?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

You are on the right track, and asking the right questions but RAFO.

Shadows of Self Chicago signing (Oct. 12, 2015)

 

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BlackYeti

Because you've talked about alloying the god metals with other ones-- I was wondering whether you would be able to melt them down as you would with normal metals.

Brandon Sanderson

If you could distill the god metal: you could distill it out of the mist, that's theoretically possible.

Manchester signing (Aug. 6, 2014)

 

So again, if Lerasium grants all Allomantic powers and boosts existing ones, can enough Preservation-coded Investiture do the same thing? And if so, would you unlock one Misting power first, then all at once when you reach the right threshold, or is it gradual, and your Spiritweb just determines which order you unlock them in?

Fair points all around, though I think it might be more likely that additional Unkeyed Nicrosil Spikes will just boost the power you already have.

Could make for an interesting difference, having people with one single power that's boosted beyond natural levels. Like a Lerasium-level Misting. Rioters and Soothers that can take control of Kandra on their own, Augurs and Oracles able to break into the Spiritual Realm just from casual use, and so on.

1 hour ago, Trusk'our said:

I would like to point out that we do not have confirmation that the spikes used by the Set are made of nicrosil. I think it's the most likely option, but it could very well be that they tried to use the typical metals for extracting powers because that's what they knew already worked.

I do think that they were probably nicrosil. I just felt the need to point out that it isn't technically canon yet.

Also fair point, but they do talk about specifically stealing investiture, not powers. And that's a big difference when it comes to the wording of these things. I feel like they would have specified more if they were doing something like that. Like "See, even though this woman isn't a coinshot we've managed to charge this steel spike just a little".

1 hour ago, Trusk'our said:

First, as you said, Identity contamination. Having so many conflicting soul fragments in one bindpoint is probably going to confuse the Spiritweb so thoroughly that it's a miracle anything useful would attach to the bearer. I think the reason their was some measure of success was probably because a random piece of Spiritweb temporarily aligned with that already existing in the bearer- i.e. if they had the buried potential to be a Coinshot and a Spiritweb fragment that belonged to a donor that also had the potential (and a higher than average one at that) to be a Coinshot, then they could stack and make the bearer of the spike become a Coinshot until hypothetical fulgurations in the spike caused them to misalign again.

You put it better than I could and I thank you for that.

1 hour ago, Trusk'our said:

Second assumes that the Set was in fact using nicrosil as their Hemalurgic focus for these experimental spikes. From a meta perspective it would be very weird for nicrosil to be capable of achieving the same results as all other power-grafting metals. That's what refined Atium does! It would be awfully weird to give one of the (as I understand it) cheaper metals the very power of Ruin's essence (perhaps less efficiently, but still just as versatile and way, way less expensive).

I'm going to make the leap of logic that nicrosil Hemalurgy can steal more or less any innate Investiture on a Spiritweb, or at least the extra not directly related to a creatures innate attributes, but it does not preserve the original function as well as most spikes. Over time, their contents could decay into a more base form of Investiture, one that isn't coded to provide a specific power as with other spikes, but instead would be like grafting on Breaths or other innate Investitures from different worlds. That would also fit well with this WoB stating that nicrosil is used to steal general Investiture, not powers.

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https://wob.coppermind.net/events/472-jordancon-2021/#e14896

Pagerunner

The Hemalurgy table, you wrote down "atium steals any power, lerasium is all abilities, nicrosil is Investiture"; what's the difference between those three?

Hemalurgic atium, lerasium, and nicrosil. What's powers, abilities, and Investiture?

Brandon Sanderson

People are Invested in ways that do not give them active powers. So for instance, everyone on Nalthis is Invested. Everyone in the cosmere is, really. You want to steal their Investiture, but they don't have a power. You're still ripping off a piece of their soul. So there is a distinction between the actual Investiture that's in a human being and a specific power that they have.

So that distinction is pretty easy. You can also, with Hemalurgy, steal specific things. You can steal just general Investiture. You can steal, if you want--this is where the kandra Blessings come from. You can instead steal specific things that are not like stealing Allomancy. Stealing, for instance, someone's mental acuity.

Pagerunner

So abilities is like the half that's all the strength, speed, all that kind of stuff? Those are abilities, versus the Metallic Arts are all powers?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Pagerunner

Then Investiture, is that offworld magics?

Brandon Sanderson

No, no, it's the raw power.

Pagerunner

Nicrosil is their soul?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. A piece of their soul, essentially.

Pagerunner

So how would you go about stealing an offworld power?

Brandon Sanderson

It's going to depend. A Breath, you would steal with nicrosil. It's general Investiture, is what you would probably going call that. You could forcibly remove someone's Breath from them. The ability to be a Sand Master you would steal with the power ability.

This could help explain why there were some results in the experimental spikes creating powers, but only temporarily. The spikes could have broken them down into a less usable form over time, as that's not what they're designed to do.

Would be a reasonable limit to Nicrosil Spikes for them to only give you enough Preservation Investiture to unlock your own random Allomantic power instead of just granting you a specific Allomantic power like other spikes, so you can't just stack more to gain more powers and it would even still have carry the theme of some people just being born more special than others in Era 3. Since some people would have the potential to be a Coinshot or a Slider, and others would be a Gnat or an Augur. Though with Harmonium Devices the less useful Allomantic powers will probably gain quite a bit of usefulness.

I think, from a meta-perspective, that there's been more than enough foreshadowing that Nicrosil is the key to mass producing Mistings without gratuitous amounts of murder. It'll just require a lot more development.

1 hour ago, PanLin said:

Huh, that's interesting. I wonder if that would work better if you stored the recipient's Identity first, then spiked them with this new spike, then let their own Identity back in over the top.

I was thinking about something like that, only continuously storing Identity when you want to use the power. Which probably wouldn't be a great time for the recipient.

1 hour ago, PanLin said:

Like, we know from your quote that a person's Misting/Ferring ability is already decided by their Spiritweb, they just need some extra Preservation and the right conditions to unlock it. To give a specific power, surely you'd have to make sure the recipient's Spiritweb isn't going to colour it somehow, or tailor it specifically. Maybe someone with the conditions to become a Pewterarm needs a Nicrosil spike with a Lurcher's Identity to actually become a Tineye instead, but that same spike given to a Seeker will make them a Smoker.

Hmm, that does sound like an issue, what with Identity Contamination being a thing. This is likely something that you'd probably need a much deeper understanding of the Spiritweb to pull off. 

2 hours ago, PanLin said:

We know Godmetals can get pretty funky when used as spikes, so maybe there's one that lets you steal specific aspects of a Spiritweb, literally something like "the chunk of Spiritweb that defines Misting/Ferring powers" as if you're searching through someone's source code for the right data address. Maybe an Ambition or Cultivation spike?

Maybe, we know that anything that can be stored in Feruchemy can be stolen with Hemalurgy.

So, there are plenty of Hemaurgic Properties that we haven't seen yet. Maybe 'Potential' is something that can be stolen? Stealing someone's potential for Allomancy rather than the power itself?

2 hours ago, PanLin said:

Hell, maybe there's another Godmetal out there that can hold an Identity charge without it getting used up. Super speculative, but imagine just having a set of 32 'filters' in your Hemalurgy lab that you just pass Nicrosil spikes through to charge them with specific Allomantic and Feruchemical powers.

Who even knows, besides Brandon. God Metals and their alloys could be used for pretty much anything as far as we know.

2 hours ago, PanLin said:

Unless we're barking up the wrong tree and this is all just based on what the recipient's power would have been anyway.

Which raises another interesting point—a side effect of Lerasium is making someone a full Mistborn, because they're just smacking pure Preservation into their Spiritweb. Does this mean that everyone actually has the potential for all abilities, and the 'single' power a Misting develops is actually just the least buried, and if you keep pumping them with Preservation-coded Investiture, they'll gradually manifest all the powers?

Not quite, Lerasium rewrites your Spiritual DNA to give you a strong Connection to Preservation. So, I don't think its just a matter of power, or at least its a level of power that would take a lot more than 20-30 people to reach, maybe more spikes than you could use without running into either the Flaw or the Limit.

Ah forget it, I've almost posted this same bloody topic a dozen times before but kept holding back because I think to myself "No, no it would be spoilers to a Post-Era 2 Story I will definitely write one day", but now I'm waiting for Era 3 instead so whatever I'll just post this and get on with my life.

Here are my thoughts and theories on how the Nicrosil Spikes used by the Set work and how to potentially improve them.

First off the docket, the mechanics behind them and where we've seen stuff like this before and what that might tell us.

-The Set's Nicrosil Spikes work by non-lethally shaving off the excess Preservation Investiture in the souls of all Scadrians, it takes around 20-30 normal people to fully charge a spike. This means that they're trying to make Allomancers by artificially raising the amount of Preservation in a person's soul, we have seen this before.

--With the Mistsickness, where the Mists went out of its way to forcibly Snap people with Allomantic Potential that was too deep to be brought out by a beating, so the Mists slightly raised the potnetial of these people and forcibly dragged out the power, causing sickness and sometimes death.

There is a correlation here, the trauma and raising of Preservation via the Mist is similar to what the Set are trying to accomplish. But its not working as well as they want, only some people are gaining powers and even then its only temporary until the power 'gives out'.

Why is this? I have a guess for that too. Identity Contamination.

We were properly introduced to this concept in TLM, where Marsh stated it is the reason why Hemalurgists in Era 2 are unable to use Compounding. Hemalurgic Spikes are also similar to Metalminds in the way that they are Keyed to the Identity to the person that charged them, the 20-30 victims in this instance. Which means that Nicrosil Spikes have a lot of differeing and conflicting Identities within them.

Now its not quite clear on what is the precise factor/s that decide what kind of Allomancer a person is born as, but I'm willing to bet that Identity is one of those factors. Perhaps all the differing Identities are confusingthe Investiture on what power it should manifest as, and the few times it does grant a power is because there is a majority of Identities that share potential for a specific power?

Therefore the next step to improving the Nicrosil Spikes is to simply Blank the Identities of the victims. Likely through a Malwish Harmonium Device that is charged with F-Aluminum to do it by force. But I don't think this is the end point, as I beleive that this Blank Nicrosil Spike will grant a power, but it will be random, based on what power the person was already slated to gain if they had enough Preservation. For example, one Blanked Spike would make Person A a Coinshot, but if that spike were to be taken out and given to a Person B, it would make them an Augur. This methd would probably also not allow for multiple powers to be granted by just Blanked Spikes, since most people only have the potential for a single power not more.

So how to improve on this and 'code' the spike to give a specific power? Go a step further, figure out a way to determine what power a donor could have had with one of the Blanked Spikes, then if their power is a desired one, make them one of the 20-30 donors but Blank every Donor's identity except theirs so that the Spike will be Keyed only to their Identity, which might  be enough to make the Investiture in the spike to manifest as a particular Allomantic power. Maybe.

It would be a more complex operation requiring specific magical machinery and many people losing a chunk of their souls, but it would theoretically allow for a mass production of Allomantic powers through Hemalurgy.

Or this could be a load of bunk come Era 3 and I'm nothing but a madman with too much time on his hands. You decide!

4 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Any ideas on more unique solutions to destroy, or at least reliably contain the Evil?

Divine Intervention? Get a Shard involved and Smite the bugger. Of course with how little most care about things outside their worlds and how most Eidoliths don't go near populations, that's much easier said than done.

Could also be just get a massive aluminum net, probably do some tweaking with an Alloy or something to strengthen it enough then drop it on the Evil.

Silver railguns to cause damage? Shades get hurt by the stuff and the Evils are kind of like bigger, meaner versions of Shades.

Being a Copper Savant is noted to be less debilitating than other forms of Savantism, like Tin Savantism.

I imagine that the drawbacks are difficult to notice, maybe it does make a person more resistant to trauma, to the point that at times they might come off as a sociopath?