Steel Speedster

I hadn’t thought about the highspren being scared of Nightblood, but I would imagine that if it refused to become a Shardblade for that reason that it would explain that to Szeth. I got the impression that all highspren are kind of distant, and that it’s not unique to Szeth’s. They don’t even initiate a bond until the Skybreaker is ready to swear the 3rd Ideal. The Coppermind also mentions that highspren are able to hide themselves, even from their knight, which most spren can’t do. True, although I seem to remember that the Reverse Lashing is a mix between the two Surges (hence why in RoW, Kaladin found it harder to do than a Full Lashing, but easier than a Basic Lashing, which he couldn’t do at all.) In any case, I’m sure WaT will have answers for us, considering that it is the Skybreaker book.

All valid points, but I do think it would be a bit strange if Szeth has had a Shardblade since the end of OB and never even mention it. The Surge of Division is also gated for Dustbringers (3rd Ideal I think, just like Skybreakers.) Do Lightweavers and Elsecallers gate their Surges? I can't seem to recall that ever being mentioned. Shallan seemed to use both Surges fairly early on, although her level is a bit hard to determine, so she might not be a good example. It may also be worth noting that most Orders seem to have one Surge that they tend to learn first and have an easier time doing early on. For example, Kaladin didn't use Gravitation at all until well after swearing the 2nd Ideal, but as far as we know, that Surge isn't actually limited to 2nd Ideal and up. As other examples, Lift learns Abrasion long before Progression and Venli learns Transportation before Cohesion.

Do Skybreakers earn a Shardblade at the 3rd Ideal or the 5th? All other Radiant orders seem to get a blade at the 3rd, but I'm not sure if that holds true for Skybreakers. As far as I recall, Nale is the only Skybreaker to have ever showcased a Shardblade, and he first showed it when he told Szeth that he was a Skybreaker of the 5th Ideal. I interpreted that to mean that a Shardblade isn't unlocked until the 5th Ideal. Now that I think about it, the Shardblade could have just been to show that he was a Skybreaker at all, and not only a Herald. Most people that I've seen talk about it seem to have assume that it is indeed unlocked at the 3rd. However, if Skybreakers do get a blade at the 3rd Ideal, why haven't we seen anyone other than Nale have one? Specifically, why haven't we had any indication that Szeth has one? He swore the 3rd Ideal at the end of OB and is already moving on to the 4th Ideal. One could argue that it's because of Nightblood, but given how dangerous Nightblood is to use, I would think that Szeth would still want to use a Shardblade sometimes if he had one. And even if he didn't, you'd think it would have been at least mentioned. Furthermore, I think that the nature of highspren themselves provides a reasonable answer to why this would be the case for Skybreakers. Highspren don't interact closely with their knight. Szeth has barely ever even seen his, and we don't even know its name. It makes sense to me that given this behavior, a highspren might not become a Shardblade until the 5th Ideal. Additionally, Skybreakers already unlock something else at the 3rd Ideal: the Surge of Division. It's not impossible that one Ideal may give a Radiant multiple new abilities, but since it was mentioned that Szeth unlocked that Surge, why wouldn't it have also been mentioned that he unlocked a Shardblade at the same time. Thoughts?

Shardnunchucks.

So, this would put her on the opposite side of Asylum’s position than Eighth and Eza? That works for me. I’ll wait to finalize that in case anyone else has suggestions, and since I went second-most recently.

Fenna, Smokestack The sounds of panic and confusion grew louder, but Fenna couldn't see where they were coming from. She ran towards the nearest building, then stored as much weight as she could, flared pewter, and leapt. She sailed gracefully to the top of the building and dropped onto the roof, allowing some of her weight to return. She still couldn't see much from her new vantage point--it was after all the middle of the night--but she could more accurately pinpoint the direction the sounds were coming from. Fenna sped along the rooftops in that direction, storing extra weight for each jump. She moved quickly, he pewter-enhanced legs moving her lightened body with incredible ease. In a few minutes, she came to a halt. Across the street was the Smokestack Constabulary. Rusts. Generally, Fenna tried to stay away from law enforcement. She hadn't done anything illegal yet--at least nothing the Smokestack Constabulary knew about--it was just a habit she'd picked up. But it seemed like whatever was happening was happening here. Just then, a pair of shrieking ravens appeared, flapping out of the constabulary building and disappearing into the night. Ravens? That was decidedly odd. Fenna stored weight and jumped towards the constabulary. As she flew overhead, she caught a glimpse of something standing guard at the main entrance. Do constabularies usually have guards on the outside? Fenna wondered. What kind of rusting idiot tries to break into a building full of constables? Well, apparently, she did. Flaring pewter, she landed on the roof. For another moment, Fenna contemplated turning back. But something was clearly going on here, and probably not anything good by the looks of it. There could be people inside who needed help. Pewter, another part of her said. There could also be pewter inside. A lot of constables are probably Thugs, no? She shoved that thought away. That wasn't the point of this expedition...but if there was any, that would be a bonus. Fenna stored as much weight as she could and leapt straight into the air, then, at the apex of her jump, she tapped weight, becoming any times heavier than normal. She plunged towards the roof. She flared pewter at the last moment. Then she hit the roof, smashing through and falling into the building. @Lunamor@Longshot97@Scars of Hathsin@Stormlightsong

Yeah. Just so that I’m consistent, I’m going to add details about how pewter savantism works (at least how I’m theorizing it to work for this character) to the character sheet.

But I think being a pewter savant would make you rely heavily on pewter. Spook relied on tin for his senses, but it seems like a pewter savant would rely on it for physical operations. That’s just speculation, though.

As far as metal toxicity goes, I have seen some WOBs that say that Allomancers are immune to metal poisoning, although those are in direct contradiction to some things in the original trilogy, so I’m not sure which is accurate. If pewter is the only thing keeping her alive (which maybe isn’t exactly how pewter savantism is supposed to work) then you could also argue that metal poisoning is a better option than dying from lack of pewter. Maybe I’m overestimating how bad pewter savantism is. I suppose if there’s any time you wouldn’t need pewter it would be while sleeping. Thanks for pointing that put. I think I will edit that a bit, because it does seem a bit inconsistent.

Fenna Koss, Smokestack, Fenna’s Apartment Fenna awoke to a disturbance outside. Tiredness and discomfort flooded over her immediately. She reached for the small vial by her bedside and downed it, then burned pewter, numbing all pain. The noise that had awakened her was the sound of shouting and screaming. Something was happening. She sat up, and for the first time noticed the faint red glow that filled her apartment. Striding to the window, she threw back the curtain and looked out. The moon was red. Blood red. Fenna stared up in alarm and amazement. Rust and Ruin. what is that? New as she was to this world, this could have been a normal occurrence for all she knew. The sight of panicked people standing in the street outside, however, told her otherwise. Whatever was happening, Fenna had to be ready. She didn’t know what to expect, so she prepared for the worst. She hurriedly got dressed, then went to the cabinet where she kept her metal vials. She was getting low. The cabinet contained enough pewter to keep her alive for a few more days on a low burn, but if she was forced to use more than usual tonight… Fenna downed one vial, fully replenishing her reserves. She secured the remaining vials one by one to her belt. They attached tightly, only removable if she pushed the release latch. She left one vial in the cabinet, in case something happened and she lost the ones she was carrying. The ironminds clasped to her ankles were empty. Fenna had moved all the weight she had stored yesterday—she needed to leave room so she could make herself lighter. A long iron bar on top of a drawer held her excess weight. Fenna tapped a moderate amount, storing it in her anklets in case she needed it. Finally, Fenna hung her weapon—a short, hefty wooden stick—from her belt, and left the room, heading down to the street below.

(Edited/deleted previous post, which is no longer relevant, to avoid double-posting.) After Fenna and Arranis finish up with their fight, which will probably be soon, I have two ideas for what they could do. One or both of them could continue on to help Eighth and Eza in their current situation depending on whether you three ( @Lunamor @Stormlightsong @Longshot97) want that to happen. (And if that sounds good, but you need more time, they could be stalled by zombies or something.) Alternatively, one or both of them could find the remaining constables in the building (who I would guess have holed up in a room somewhere) and try to organize them to resist Asylum. Does any one have any input, or alternative ideas? @Scars of Hathsin

@Koloss17 I would say there are two main ways she could be motivated to get involved. First, the more noble side of herself could lead her to helping someone she meets, especially if they put her in their debt. Second, anyone who could give her a steady supply of pewter could pretty easily get her to do what they want. If she gets on the wrong side of the law (again) she might also be persuaded to ally with someone for protection.

(Hopefully this is an okay instance of double-posting. If not, forgive me.) Here I’m posting the character I will be using for this era. (The other two I plan to use for the next one.) @Koloss17 Here is the character for official approval.

Interesting question! I’m not sure. I would say it depends on whether the futuresight of electrum is channeled to Ruin in any way (even though he might not need it.) if it does, then I think there would be the same amount as normal, but otherwise, probably only one, because shadows only seem to split when someone sees the future and can change it.

It says if the Inquisitor was burning atium. Vin can’t tell for sure, which shows that she knows from past experience that electrum always has many shadows. I think it’s pretty definitive that electrum creates multiple shadows. But that’s actually a downside, because without practice, it’s nearly impossible to learn anything useful from the shadows, which is why Vin and Elend never used it for anything other than countering atium.

Wait, I need protection from the gingers? *glances suspiciously at Block* Thank you for the offer, but I think I’ll remain neutral in this conflict…or maybe I’ll have to start my own cult…

True, that does seem fairly plausible. What about iron spikes though? The spikes that steal general human attributes are supposed to warp you even more, which is why the Koloss are monsters. If we use an iron spike to steal a Koloss’ strength (assuming its spikes are Identity free) and give it to a normal person, do you think they would be twisted just as much or only as much as a one spike person? From my memory, HoA seemed to suggest that it would be the Investiture that’s the problem and not the number of spikes.

Oh, phew! Those sound like related safe cults. (Except the Cult of the Stick. That sounds pretty dangerous .) Unfortunately, I don’t think I would fit in any of those—my hair is dark blonde or something.

That does seem plausible. I generally consider F-electrum the weakest Feruchemical metal, but that might be one good use for it. My theory about what shadows you see when using A-electrum is that it shows all futures above a certain threshold of likelihood. What you intend to do dramatically affects the likelihood of each future. For example, if you’re just walking down the street, the majority of your shadows are going to continue doing that, even though physically it’s just as possible for them to go any other direction. This fits with your idea about determination. The more determined you are, the more likely certain futures are and the less likely others are. I do think, however, that to narrow down to one shadow, you would have to be very determined to do something very specific. In the walking down the street example, you might be determined enough to keep walking that there are no shadows doing other things, but there still could be variations in the position, speed, etc. of the shadows going down the street. And this is a relatively simple example. In more complex situations, there would be even more variations that produce extra shadows. Fortunately, it isn’t really necessary to only have one shadow—you just want to have few enough that you can pay attention to all of them. In fact, I think it would be good to be able to see other possibilities, so that you have more options.

Thank you! Um… my instincts say that’s not a good idea. What kinda cult are we talking about?

So, if you did this and managed to cram the power of let's just say 4 Coinshots into one spike, does it have the same effect on you as having four separate spikes would? Is this a way to get a greater amount of power without opening yourself up to outside control? Or is it just the raw amount of power that matters?

That first method seems highly inefficient since you have to spike four people for everyone one person you steal from, and you also have to either be mistborn or spike yourself. Sounds like it would work though. I forgot you could steal identity with a spike. The problem is that leaves them dead, and impossible to spike for something else. You can spike someone without killing them, but it's difficult. This would probably be the most effective way to do it. But, yeah, also completely evil.

Yeah, I have seen the backwards communication idea before, and it seems like it should be possible. The question would be, could a person get that disciplined? Also, can the shadows be burning electrum as well? If they can, then theoretically, you could get information from really far in the future, but otherwise you're pretty limited. I'm not sure if it is possible to keep a shadow from splitting at all. The question here is, how much does your intention to follow a certain path affect what shadows you see? Does it affect it at all? As a simple example, let's say you plan to run forward. Barring some radical change to the situation in the next few seconds, at least some of your shadows are going to run forward. But how many? If you're absolutely irrevocably set on running forwards, will all of them run forwards, or will some do other things, since it is physically possible that you could?

Thank you! Glad to be here! Okay, yeah, you might have to have everyone (or all but one) divest themselves of identity, which would require them to do it willingly. For Kandra, I assumed that the spikes became keyed to them simply because they use it for so long and rely on it for their sentience. It seems like their sentience is almost stored in the spikes, because being without the spikes for a time causes memories to decay.

What you might be able to do is, get a bunch of people who all have the same attribute, which you want to steal. First, spike one person's power into another, then spike that person's now hemalurgically enhanced power into someone else. Repeat until you've stolen all their powers, cramming them into one spike, and give it to yourself. According to Alder's second WOB, it would work, although that "technically" indicates that it might be more complicated than this. I wonder if this would be away to have more power without the consequences that attend having many spikes?