Arcanist Lupus

Yes! Also, has nobody mentioned The Phantom Tollbooth yet? It's a must read. I was a big fan of T.A. Barron's The Lost Years of Merlin series as well. Also, Diane Duane's So You Want to Be a Wizard. That one's a little strange, though. (It has a white hole named Fred as one of the main characters).

I believe that was Preservation, but yeh. Brandon said somewhere that Preservation removed Cadmium and Bendalloy from the table in order to keep the whole "16" theme going without confusing anyone too much.

Awakening seems to have aspects of all three types. If we assume a Breath to be a unit of energy (and a Divine Breath to be unit of energy several hundred times as powerful as a Breath): Birth is ends-positive - it creates a Breath. Awakening is ends-neutral - no breaths are consumed or created, just transferred. Awakening a Lifeless is also ends-neutral - the Breath can't be recovered, but it's still there. It isn't consumed. (incidentally, could a Lifeless give it's Breath to somebody else?) Death is ends-negative - it destroys whatever Breaths the dying person holds without any corresponding outflow of energy. Returning is ends-positive - it creates a Divine Breath. Living as a Returned is ends-negative - it consumes Breath Giving up your Divine Breath is ends-neutral - although it uses up the Divine Breath, the energy released by the Breath is not consumed, it is used to heal someone. Creating Nightblood was ends-neutral (probably) - the Breaths are probably still in Nightblood. Wielding Nightblood is ends-negative (probably) - wielding Nightblood consumes Breaths, and the energy of the Breaths is apparently consumed unused. If indeed Awakening has all three aspects, I wonder if this is because it is the only magic system on Nalthis, or if this is a coincidence. Also, a parallel should be drawn to the chemistry terms "exothermic" and "endothermic". They're not entirely the same as ends-positive and ends-negative, but neither are they entirely different.

I find it difficult to believe that Shallan is "Obedient", considering that she killed her father. True, she was obedient before that, but it wasn't until after that that she started noticing the Symbolheads.

I believe Sazed said in one of the epigraphs that being a Sliver gave TLR some instinctive understanding of the three Metallic Arts. I agree it seems odd that he didn't mention the metals in the supply cavern messages, but again, knowledge is all well and good, but if he didn't have any Chromium or Nicrosil, it doesn't matter what it can do.

I mostly chalked TLR's power up to his being a Sliver. Also, the occasional use of Duralumin to make his point probably helped. (Also, I don't think this is likely, but if TLR was hemalurgically spiked, that could increase his power.) If Investiture storage works as you've hypothesized (which seems reasonable, but is not guaranteed), TLR could have easily used it to boost his powers as well IF he had a supply of nicrosil (and if he was compounding it, he'd need a steady supply of it.) Would he have been able to get it? Probably, but a steady supply would probably have been very difficult to obtain secretly.

Carrying presents is easy. Just put them in a metal sack, and Pull them along behind you. If you compound weight, you'll have more mass them them, and you will have no problems.

Oh! Oh! Oh! What if the Parshendi are the Knights Radiant returned from the dead/transformed? The only evidence for this at all is that in one of Dalinar's Visions, there's a pair of Knights Radiants working together. But it's a cool idea anyway. Also, it's the only semireasonable reason I've seen so far as to why the Radiants abandoned their job.

So, I was at a signing in Houston, and I asked Brandon how much choice the Shards had on which planets they ended up on. His reply was that they had a lot of choice, but it was not absolute. From this, I have created my theory, which I shall grandiosely call my "General Theory of Shardic Equilibrium". Simply stated, I think that Shards can only exist on planets in certain combinations without eventually destroying the planet and/or each other. For example, Ruin and Preservation had to be together. If one them had left Scadrial, then the planet would not have survived. Obviously Ruin alone would have destroyed the planet, but I think that Preservation alone would have been just as disastrous in the long run for the planet as Ruin alone would be. On the other hand, Endowment cannot be joined by any other shard* without eventually destroying Nalthis. I further believe that this equilibrium can only be maintained if the Shards are in the same state. i.e. both are controlled by cognitive aspects, both are Splintered, etc. If one is Splintered but the other whole, the world will eventually fall out of balance. This is what happened on Scadrial. Preservation had sacrificed his mind, and Ruin's mind was trapped. The two states were similar enough that they existed like this for a long time, but they weren't the same, so they eventually fell out of balance. Also, if there is no consciousness directing the Shards, they will remain in an unstable equilibrium. The world will not fall apart on its own, but any external influence has the potential to cause dangerous disruptions. This may be what caused the Reod on Sel. If Aona and Skai had been alive, this wouldn't necessarily have been a problem, but with them gone, this could have disrupted the equilibrium of the planet and destroyed it. Raoden partially restored equilibrium, but it remains to be seen if he did so too late. This brings us to Roshar. On Roshar, there are three Shards: Honor, Odium, and Cultivation. Honor (or at least his cognitive aspect) is dead. Odium is alive. Cultivation is probably alive. However, in order to restore balance to the world, either Cultivation and Odium are going to have to give up their cognitive aspects (the same way Ruin gave up his, if necessary), or Honor will have to gain a new cognitive aspect. I don't think there is any other option. All three Shards must end in the same state by the end of the Stormlight Archive. I have a side theory regarding the combination of Shards, but I'm tired right now, so that will have to wait for later. * there may be a certain combination of Shards that includes Endowment that is allowable, but any Shard in general would be problematic. EDIT: I've realized that "destruction" might not be the proper word to destroy the end result of every unbalanced planet. Let us simply say that any unbalanced planet would be in some way "unhealthy". (i.e. destroyed or distopian, like Brave New World or 1984.)

Since this thread has a lot of information/discussion on Shardworlds, I'll throw in my tidbit from Brandon's Houston signing. I asked him how much choice the Shards had on which planets they ended up on. He said that they had a lot of choice, but it was not absolute.

I would guess that Marsh met with Spook at least once, they came to an understanding, and then he left. It would be awkward having him around. "Hi! I killed Elend, and I tried to kill Vin, but I was being controlled by the bad guy at the time, so it's all good! And I represent everything that was scary and intimidating about the Final Empire, but don't worry, I won't use my super powers for evil anymore! And I'm immortal, but don't worry!"

I think the four altars go to Kelsier (the Survivor), Vin (the Ascendant Warrior), Elend (the Last Emperor), and Marsh (Ironeyes). Also, I think Elend has a greater role than just "Vin's boyfriend". HoA, Chapter 1: I suspect that Elend gets credit for saving the people from the disaster, while Kelsier gets credit for stopping the disaster and saving the world, and Vin gets credit for killing the Lord Ruler. Breeze, Ham, and the others probably get credit at (approximately) the Apostle level. Also, I don't think that Spook made Sazed's words about the events of the books public knowledge. For one thing, they include awkward details like OreSeur's role in cementing Kelsier's legend, Spook almost turning evil, Breeze going into shock, and Hemalurgy. Sazed's metalminds were probably distributed verbatim, but his comments on the events of the books were probably heavily edited.

This is brilliant. Also, even if the time bubbles are anchored to the Earth's frame of reference, you could achieve the same effect by flickering the bubbles of the different reindeer. It would be hard to manage, but theoretically possible. However, you don't explain how he fits down the chimney...

They're not opposing each other, either. They just have different opinions on how much the world should be nudged towards the proper end result. Also, as far as Marsh being made full Mistborn, it doesn't matter whether they're working together in AoL, only if they were working together at the end of HoA. Also, I believe that Sazed has to have given Marsh some powers, because it wouldn't make sense for TLR or Ruin to give Marsh a Feruchemical Age spike.

I believe it says specifically in the book that Miles continued to age naturally. I would assume that Miles would live a very long time (in the 100 - 200 range, not the 1000+ range), but eventually his body would start to shut down, and there'll be nothing he can do about it. (for example, if his body shut down red blood cell production due to a hormonal command, it couldn't be "healed", because the body wouldn't see it as a problem, just a natural result of age, but it would kill him just the same. This is mostly conjecture, though.

Besides his visions, of course...

What I've gotten so far from this thread is that we're missing a fundamental understanding about what a Desolation is, and until we are given that, we're going to have no progress on understanding the link between Voidbringers and Parshmen.

The biggest danger with a Mistborn movie that I see is having the focus turn to Kelsier. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, (although it limits the potential of any sequels), but I don't want to see it happen. Especially as I feel that any Kelsier-centered Mistborn movie would turn into, or be viewed as, an Inception copy. (Supernatural thief? check. Dead wife? check. organizing/managing sidekick? check. Young girl with no experience with the magic system? check.)

Also, would they have needed to steal tin twice in order to see the metal particles like they do?

Yes, but their abilities weren't quite as powerful, due to Hemalurgic decay.

The Ars Arcanum: So it all comes down to what the author means by "unlucky". I usually take "unlucky" to mean that someone has bad luck, but it could be taken to mean the absence of luck. I hope that it's the later. It would effectively make a Spinner Ferring the Infinite Improbability Drive while they tap their fortune. It also seems like it might be too powerful. The absence of randomness is not nearly as problematic as bad luck would be.

That is the best idea I've heard all day.

I realize that, but I think there is still probably a limited enhancement of the mind, the same way tapping weight increases Wax's internal strength so that he doesn't break himself apart. It would be slight, and it would be specific to the part of your mind that controls your movement, perhaps, but I think it would still be there.An entirely random thought just ran through my head. If thought is related to electrical pulses running through our brains, does that mean that tapping mental speed would affect how our body conducts electricity? If so, what would that mean? Black hole, here I come!

Although by the same logic, tapping your Connection should increase your empathy and make it harder for you to con or kill people.I'm imagining a Feruchemical version of Dr. Jeckle/Mr. Hyde here, only instead of him constantly reverting, the problem is that in order to be Dr. Jeckle, he has to turn into Mr. Hyde. (also, Hyde hated, whereas a connection storer would just be emotionless) Also, storing connection should make it harder to use emotional Allomancy, because of your decreased understanding and perception of people's emotions. This depends on how much the mind is speeded up to compensate for the speed. If it doesn't keep up enough, eventually a Compounder will exceed speeds where they can control their motions, and will probably run into a wall. Painfully.Also, Brass Ferrings will be in high demand as engine minders. They could work in disgustingly hot rooms that nobody else could safely enter. They'd also be top choices for any sort of desert mining/excavation projects, or exploring the poles or going on mountain climbing expeditions.

Also, how would being a Chromium Ferring affect my luck, which is neither good nor bad, but utterly bizzare?