Islington

I'm not saying the ends can't justify the means for a Radiant. Look at Dalinar. He bullies Elokhar and breaks his breastplate at the end of TWoK to get him to stop being a baby. Jasnah sets up a sting to catch rapists. Shallan lies CONSTANTLY to infiltrate the Ghostbloods and to hunt the Unmade. Kaladin bullies Gaz to defend his men. I'm saying Taravangian is beyond the pale. He's reprehensible. It's like saying that experimenting on defenseless people without consent is worth it because you get good research. He's killed hundreds, and caused chaos to enforce HIS stability. The diagram even says if Dalinar manages to create stability, the diagramsts should kill him. Because the only rule that matters is Mr T's. He's not working for A greater good, he's working for HIS greater good. Honestly, he probably wouldn't even want to become a Radiant because he would have to work with a spren and accept that his judgement may be flawed in some areas. At least when the Blackthorn went nuts he was confirming to his own society's ideas of masculinity, even if it was gross and wrong. Mr T is cognizant of his moral bankruptcy and continues while weeping to himself so he can pretend to be a moral man "making a hard choice" instead of a disturbed genius holocausting people so he can accumulate power.

The series isn't going to take place across 30ish years, and Taravangian only really has Adrotagia to facilitate change in his life. Change takes loss or great upheaval of character, both in Sanderson's world and, usually, in real life. Mr T has distanced himself from everyone around him in his singular purpose. In all things, he is the anti-Dalinar. Dalinar seeks first mercy, T seeks first "justice". Dalinar seeks diplomacy, T seeks conquest. Dalinar invites those around him in when he sees visions, and then when he becomes a Bondsmith, T makes a secret cabal of assassins and spies when he gets the Diagram. They are meant to be foils. It is very unlikely his character arc is going to be redemption. He's probably going to double down and try to kill Dalinar when he begins unifying the other kingdoms, not see the error of his ways and give himself up for justice.

Rude. Sorry I apparently insulted your favorite character. Also, it's going to be a long walk from genocidal doomsday prepper to any kind of honorable leader. He bleeds people to death by the hundreds. He considered sterilizing stupid people. He utilized Szeth to kill an entire royal family several times over to try and kick of Roshar Battle Royale. He's an actual monster. He isn't an antihero, he's an interesting villain. He is capital E evil by basically every definition, and saying "But muh greater good" doesn't justify it per the black and white, good and evil moral code of the narrative. Are there shades of gray? Yes, but those shades so far have been navigated to find a definitive truth by our main characters so far. There is honor and justice or dishonor and evil, as per the magical rules of the world.

I feel like everyone saying Taravangian is going to become any kind of Radiant is forgetting that "Journey before destination" is part of the First Ideal. How you do something is as important as what you do. Mr T ain't getting that blade and plate anytime soon.

I would say the difference is whom you sacrifice. Kaladin runs out front to draw arrows, spends his own wages on supplies, and leads by example. Sadeas leaves Dalinar at the tower, cashes in on Elokhar's name, and uses Gavilar's memory to stay at war. Sure, people's goals could be the same, but it's all about the means. Doing a good thing a bad way is a bad thing. Journey before Destination, and all that.

I would say that we don't abstain from murder because others are good, but because we are good. The discussion of morality doesn't take into account mitigating circumstances aside from the threat of death. Adolin wasn't being attacked, he killed Sadeas because he wanted to. That being said, I would've stabbed Sadeas a long time before Adolin did. The way things should be and the way things are disagree, and though we should always strive for the first, we all err. In Alethi legality, I think Adolin has some serious plausible deniability.

The Nightwatcher boon that allows you to convert food to Investiture and the Feruchemic power that lets you store food. And then any power, because you're a wizard whose Mana is food. Just eat until you fill a Metalmind or two or fifty and then use whatever other power you want. Eat a hundred and fifty pigs and then make four more Nightbloods if you're feeling it. Use Gravitation to pull a moon into a planet you don't like. Make an Aon so big you can see it from Nalthis. As long as you have Bendalloy and a farm to eat, you're in business.

I would like to point out that unless Kaladin and Adolin have something going on, it's a love angle, not a love triangle.

As a general comment, very freaking fast. He's said in interviews that he writes when he's stressed, when he has free time for fun, and as his job. He also treats it like a job, writing (or doing writing adjacent things) up to eight hours a day sometimes. He writes like he sold his bone marrow for it. Compare to others; Martin- I'm not a fan in general after the last couple books, but he generally writes pretty slowly. But, his books are exactly what he wants them to be. Weeks- Pretty darn quick. A book every year and a half or so. McClellan- Pretty quick. He must've picked it up from Sanderson Sensei. Abercrombie- Slower lately, weirdly, but his Half a King/War/World books came out really quickly. Rothfuss- Hahahahaha So compared to his contemporaries, he's pretty quick with his release schedule.

I asked Brandon on Twitter whether it was actually stupidity and compassion or if it was instead Cognitive connection and Spiritual connection and he told me I was on the right track.

Allomantic Pewter and Feruchemic Gold seems fun. Not as munchkiny as compounding, but you could store gold basically as long as you had pewter, which is cheap. And I'm sure a Wolverine-Thug would get paid well.

Delirium- Allomantically allows for the intuitive use of Investiture and Investiture adjacent objects. Nazh's spirit gun, a dead Shardblade, or dead Shardplate, etc. Allows for the intuitive understanding of Soul Stamps, guessing what an Aon will or could do, or what a Command would do. "Yeah, 'strangle things' would lead to a lot of breath use compared to 'choke men' you know" "Aon Rao could let you invoke Connection but at a lower rate than Feruchemy, I think". "Shardplate actually COULD feed off of breath, but the conversion is a bit against you I think" Note it DOES NOT allow you to USE that Investiture, just sort of "get it". Known, confusingly enough, as a Savant. Feruchemically it would allow you to store Empathy. While storing, the Feruchemist becomes sociopathic and devoid of empathy. While tapping you become more and more compassionate and understanding. Known as a Bipole.

See, this is the problem with these kinds of exercises. We assume that a perfect defense will be mounted, and aperfect counterstroke deployed. "Well, he couldn't really use pewter because they'd have to be too close, shardblade-into-dead" or "You can't throw stuff because A; Plate and B; Healing" But you wouldn't charge a dude with a sword head on even if you did have super strength. But if you had super strength, when you found an opening in Smokestance or they missed because you're a magical metal ninja, you could punch his head clean off. Reach doesn't always win a fight, although it is very very important. Throwing I-beams is blocked by plate, but if you had already punched a cracked spot, tricked them into falling from a height, Duralumin pushed them into a rock shelf, or any other thing that happens in a fight within a narrative, you might be able to use it to your advantage. As an aside, has anyone ever asked if you can Duralumin Zinc/Brass a Greatshell or Ryshadium or Aviar? They're invested, like a Kandra, but maybe that was just a Ruin thing, with the spikes and all. The spikes were special because they were Invested though, right? Anyway. Likewise, Lashing may not work on highly invested stuff, but catching them at just the right time could let you pull one off. Lightweaving may not work super well against Bronze, we don't really know, but at the right time it could be pivotal. The answer is, honestly, whichever Brandon wanted to win given the situation. He's written both of them with enough weaknesses that, plausibly, due to circumstances and luck, either could win. And that's good. Because when the Scadriali empire begins looking at intergalactic expansion the fight won't be a steamroll. You got me on the whole Atium and Atium alloy thing. It's just too easy. I think it's the second most "OP" form of investiture. Electrum, though, has been shown to basically let you make guesses about how an attack will play out. Which could be useful. And Wayne specifically uses bubbles to avoid attacks and shots from the outside, so a mistborn flying through the air spamming bubbles skillfully would be erratic to say the least. EDIT; Weirdly, I think Elsecallers would stand the best chance. "Oh, he jumped at me and looked mad so I teleported behind him and tried to turn his blood into smoke. It weirdly didn't work so I turned the ground into fire and his clothes into lightning and then summoned my lightsaber and Iron Man suit to finish him off"

I actually think a Pewter compounder would stand a better chance than a Mistborn. They'd be the Hulk and just punch the Knight into orbit. On a more germain note, I think order would be very influential. Fighting a flying gravity man like Kal would be different than a teleporting wizard like Jasnah, and both would be different than fighting a slidy Swamp Thing like Lift. Let alone whatever Dalinar can do with Tension/Adhesion and what Dustbringers, the primary shock troops, can do with Division. I think we don't know enough to do anything other than My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad. However. A Mistborn has SO MANY powers. Sixteen powers. Thirty-two, technically, if we count all the Atium alloys, which since we don't know what most orders of knights do and THEY'RE fair game, should be allowed. The sheer amount of versatility would make them a nightmare to encounter. They could fight you so many ways. Headbutt your head off (a thing Vin's literally done), throw I-Beams at you from a football field away, see your future, see THEIR future, move so fast and erratically (thanks to Time-a-lurgy metals) you can't pin them down, stay up after you smack em way too long, or (maybe) suck up all your Stormlight, or make it all explode out of you, if Nicrosil works. If guerilla warfare is allowed, it gets worse. They can make you hate yourself, your squires, and your best friend. Kill all of your emotions except existential dread. Make you full of rage and unthinking. Get you to finally bone that love interest that's way better than the other one, Shallan. Heck, I'd argue that over any extended period of time, even as short as a week, a Mistborn could make a Radiant break his oaths through emotional manipulation, which is a huge weakness compared to Mistborn's easy peasy genetic lottery. That would be dependent on the opponent though. If we extend the game to full Feruchemy, or even some Twinborns or Compounders, the game gets even weirder. Can a Gold Compounder or Bloodmaker simply heal a shardwound? If so, the Feruchemist just got a big boost of power. Like I said, it's a weirdly intellectual dumb conversation. I think we just don't know enough.

A comprehensive dictionary/encyclopedia of AonDor, including CayShan, Soulstamping, Aons, and Dahkor runes explaining how Selish magic works as if the reader is a 15 year old reasonably educated individual. Then, I'd like Vasher and Khriss' notes about investiture, the cognitive realm, and the spiritual realm. I'm assuming that realmatic theory holds true for my universe. Then, I'd like Lerasium, as it seems to be the easiest way to access investiture as a layman. Between Vasher, Khriss, and my encyclopedias, finding a way to convert investiture should be hard but doable.

It may be philosophical. A Lightweaver "lies" and actualizes that lie through metaphor and hope, leading to their use of Illumination, Transforming people and things into that hope. A Truthwatcher could "see" the way things are supposed to be, according to the actualization of Honor's design of what is right and use Illumination, Progressing things into that grand design. A Windrunner is overjoyed to use the Storm of stormlight to move, protect, pull together, and use Adhesion and Gravitation. The law divides the guilty and the innocent and the imperiousness of that law is above all; that's why Skybreakers have Division and Gravitation. Different mindsets for similar powers.

39% Willshaper 37% Windrunner 35% Elsecaller What a weird combination.

I think Autonomy would be more of a hands off kind of guy. He would only interfere if someone *wink* was infringing on Autonomy. Say, by babying their people and stunting their growth. And Hoid would have a beef with him because Hoid can't stay out of people's business, and would probably want him to get involved.

This makes me feel more like Marasi.

Smoker. Smoker. SMOKER. I feel like Marasi.

59% Bondsmith/Skybreaker. Hm. I will bring men together under THE LAW.

So I've seen people talking about Bendalloy/Cadmium FTL travel. I am apparently a big stupid moron, because said posts sound like Greek theoretical physics instead of regular theoretical imaginary magical physics. Could someone explain it like I'm five?

Feruchemical Investiture compounding would be absolutely broken. Infinite metal Mistborn is hella crazy. Being able just to use the near infinite Investiture to duralumin blast with everything all the time would be crazy. What would Duralumin Bendalloy/Cadmium even look like? A huge bubble or even MORE time compression? And Duralumin'd Nicrosil would just be rude if you could wipe out whole squads of allomancers with it.

Honestly, the breeding idea was mostly because of how they're taking no men hostages. I feel if they were trying to build a Mistborn, they'd take whatever mistings and ferrings they could get. Of course there could be another reason they only took women; the ransoms could be higher, given the gender roles of the society for instance. But only women made me think a way more sinister direction, I guess, than Hemalurgy. And that's saying something.

I figured they were trying to breed a mistborn. Play the longer game.