Musicspren

I would like to announce that I just took my last exam of the semester, and now will have 24 days of break. I'll be a bit more present here and plan (hope?) to do a full mistborn trilogy reread during the break. Edit: I would like to edit my announcement to announce that my grades are in and I have all A's (one of which has a +, one of which has a -, one of which is actually a P on a pass/fail course, and the rest of which are normal, unalloyed A's).

Upvote for OotS reference. One thought (impractical at the moment, but...): Spikes. You could even defeat a gold compounder if you could spike one of his gold abilities away. If you took away allomantic gold, he would survive for a while, but would eventually run out of stored gold and be as vulnerable as Wayne. If you removed feruchemical gold, he wouldn't be able to heal. In AofL times, there is exactly one person (or, if you prefer, inquisitor) alive who knows how to do that, but it is theoretically possible.

This sounds somehow familiar; someone who is dissatisfied about current conditions, is unable (or unwilling) to identify the source of the problems (or has just decided he deserves more than he has), so is lashing out in general. He's a one-man Occupy Elendel.

King Taravangian's intelligence

If the velocity of the bubble is constant, why don't they drift? Scadrial isn't just moving. It's spinning and orbiting. The spin should make the bubble move upward (although that might be minimized on a pole), and the orbit should make it drift away from the sun. We don't see either of these happening, even to a small extent. I think that pulsers and sliders subconsciously attach bubbles to things, specifically the cognitive or spiritual aspects of them (think spren). Most bubbles are attached to the planet itself, or perhaps the ground, so they maintain a constant position relative to it, irrelevant of spin or orbit. A pulser or slider on a train would probably instinctively attach the bubble to the train, so it would follow the train even if it changed velocity.

The enemy's gate is down! Pull yourself down!

This just inspired an aluminum-foil hat theory: Miles was burning gold, and a Nicroburst touched him. We frequently ask what would happen if you burned duralumin and any metal other than the basic eight; what if duralumin (or in this case Nicrosil); what if Nicro'ed gold makes you actually switch with the alternate self? Obviously we don't know if people know how to make or burn nicrosil...but that's why this is is an aluminum-foil hat theory.

Banjo the Clown

Meanwhile, the Dor

who played the

Note: This is my second post here. Do not enter me twice. Anyway, I present: The High Imperial carol, "Inquisitor Santa Wasing Coming to Elendel" Wasing the watching without the weep, Pausing the pouting, rewards to reap Inquisitor Santa wasing coming to Elendel! Wasing seeing the sleeping, Wasing watching the wake. Wasing knowing nice and naughty, So gooding the good to make Wasing the watching without the weep., Pausing the pouting, rewards to reap Inquisitor Santa wasing coming to Elendel!

Atium was still the key in theory. One of the keys, at least. He had to put his excess age in the atium bracers. The compounding (of gold, etc.) was for when he emptied his bracers (when he was in the Terris room), but the atium was essential for him remaining alive most of the time.

Flare + Tap = Flap. E.g.: "Wax flapped his ironmind, causing himself to crash through the floor" Don't believe me? Remember that 2 + 2 = Pickle. Then it should make perfect sense.

Brandon said TLR used compounding, but not directly that he used atium compounding. Atium compounding is the natural assumption, but my theory assumed gold (and possibly pewter, zinc, and steel) compounding were involved in the process. If Brandon is being evasive, saying he used compounding but not what he compounded, my theory could still work. (Also, this is my 100th post. And 100 is 102, so it unites two important numbers in the Cosmere.)

said "Ookla!" to

I don't believe duralumin could help matters. The benefits of nicrosil would be that 1) you could compound ordinary allomantic powers to make the stronger, and 2) TLR could conserve atium, if we view it as storing vitality. Duralumin would give approximate the first, but not the second. Actually, there could be a danger if TLR were compounding vitality and burned duralumin for some other purpose, accidentally including the vitality in its burst. He would have a huge amount of vitality momentarily, but would then be ancient (this is not a danger if atium stores age). Marsh is puzzling; he probably has duralumin, but that won't help with immortality, and I find it very doubtful he has had access to nicrosil after the world was remade. I don't believe it's possible to "constantly use duralumin", because you would have to constantly replenish your metals. I suppose there could eventually be NG tubes for allomantic metals...but that would be weird and painful.

I think that the first /n/ in "Inquisition" is newsworthy.

I hadn't seen that explanation of the diminishing returns in Feruchemy; I stand corrected. That would put a limit on Rashek's (and Marsh's) age if atium stores vitality, although it would actually make emptying his atiumminds less demanding if it stores age.

of Doom to

Farewell, Shard of Flame. I look forward to your return.

What did I say last contest? That I didn't want Hemalurgic spikes. What am I doing now? Entering a contest for spikes *ahem* prizes. Also, is Davinna writing this? Wait-I have an idea. Inquisitor Santa, do you like waffles?

Although I would be hesitant to think that TLR had nicrosil when no one seemed to even know of chromium, it is quite possible given what people have heard at signings. It would make the amount of atium necessary much more reasonable. But Marsh? He would have to have both a spike giving him Feruchemical spiritual powers (I suspect that would mean a chromium spike, but I don't know for certain) and a supply of nicrosil. I'm not saying that's impossible, but I don't know how he would have those (the spike could be from Ruin's guidance, but not the nicrosil). Rashek I can rationalize as "he's the Lord Ruler, he might have learned of it when he took the Well's power, and he can make people give him what he wants." Ironeyes, however, is unlikely to have access to it; even if he somehow has the requisite spike, he would need a supply of allomancy- and feruchemy-grade nicrosil. Wouldn't that make it end-negative?

@Morderkaine: Those numbers are extremely high; I'll agree that even gold/pewter/steel/zinc might not be enough to keep him alive; it's hard to say. However, no theory I've seen seems to explain why he would need to spend time being old (compounding should make being old as unnecessary for him as being unhealthy would be for Miles), so I was trying to come up with an explanation. Given the regularity of TLR's visits to the Terris room, I assume he didn't just go there when he felt like being old for the fun of it. If that were the case, there almost certainly wouldn't be a fixed schedule of when he went. @Eric and Kurkistan: I think the "Vitality" concept could be enough to get rid of my argument about age being a negative quantity. However, the limits of supply still remain. If TLR is compounding vitality for an average of one hour every day, he needs a lot of atium. Marsh, once he's beyond a natural lifespan, will also use up atium quickly (even though he won't need as much as TLR for a long time). So I'm not embracing the idea of vitality just yet.

There's another way; all he needs to do is talk to Hoid and he can be... The Lord Santa in Shadesmar! He goes into Shadesmar outside the house (making certain to keep all the cognitive presences of his presents with him), then returns to the physical realm inside. Same process, minus presents, to get back outside. Speaking of presents, how is he going to transport them? Are they stored in Shadesmar? I'm not sure how to transport that many using only the metallic arts. Also: What makes you think the multipliers stack by addition? I would think that a bendalloy bubble inside a bendalloy bubble would be 8*8, so nine bubbles would be 89, or about 134,217,728x. Multiply that by 55 (base speed), and they're going at about 7 billion km/h when viewed from outside (Several times the speed of light as "viewed" from outside, but possible because they're only going 55 km/h inside.) Control might be an issue at that speed...but there is always compounded zinc.

This is one of the greatest problems with my theory. Whichever way it worked, the Keepers could still use it to disguise themselves; they would just have to begin being young before they could be old in my theory. It could still disguise them. The word "often" is also difficult; I am taking it to mean that they use atium for that more than for anything other purpose, not that they actually use it frequently. But I am stretching it to try to fit with the other facts. I like the idea of lifespan a bit; it frames it as more of a positive quantity again. My disagreement is that if TLR was appearing younger by tapping stored lifespan than he had compounded, it means he probably had to lengthen his lifespan to at least 3000 years so he would appear young at a little over 1000. Although we can't way what the limit was, gaining enough from compounding to go from a lifespan probably 60-80 years to a lifespan 3000-4000 years sounds extreme. The other issue I have with lifespan is that, when TLR's bracers came off, he should have died as soon as his body reverted to an age past whatever his natural lifespan would be. As it was, he was very weak (like he was very old), but did not die until Vin speared him.