Cade Strauss

In the most recent batch of released WoB's from Dragonsteel 2025, someone asked this question: "Questioner We’ve seen savantism applied to allomancers and soulcasters. I was wondering if we can maybe see that in the future with surgebinders, or if that’s being prevented by the Nahel bond. Brandon It is possible, but there are guiderails in place, like you’re saying, to prevent it from going too far. So, while it’s possible, you’re unlikely to see it, but that comes with the asterisk of ‘it depends on if I decide the story needs it,” so I can go back on that. I’m gonna say unlikely, right now." Dragonsteel Nexus 2025 (Dec. 5, 2025) I get that the Nahel bond stops surge savantism because of rational limitations...but what about Heralds? The Heralds were exposed to nearly constant surge use for thousands of years, not to mention the unbound abilities they'd have after Honor splintered. Wouldn't they have extremely savantic abilities with the surges? If Spook became a savant after nonstop burning tin for a couple years, what could a thousand do?

If Endowment created her own form of life, then I'd venture to guess that Ambition did as well. Both the Nalthians and the Threnodites are born with innate Investiture beyond that of a normal human.

Yeah that’s what I remember. The Vessel plays a large part of it and there are other nuances. I suppose if you’re a nihilist then Ruin is great

I wouldn’t necessarily denote them as evil…Autonomy, Ruin, and Odium yes.

I know there have been lots of theories over the years on what the Dawnshards are and which Shards fit under each category (As inferred by inspection of the mural in chapter 16 of Dawnshard), and I wanted to toss in the theory I developed post-Wind and Truth with the information gleaned there. Here's my idea of the Dawnshards and the 4 shards that fit into each category. Devise was based on Hoid's speech in the Epilogue of The Way of Kings. Exist and Change are confimed Dawnshards. Feel was my own idea. Exist Preservation Honor Dominion Valor Change Cultivation Ruin Endowment Ambition Devise Invention Virtuosity Reason Autonomy Feel Odium Devotion Whimsy Mercy The Dawnshards are supposed to be the 4 great commands used to create life. I tried thinking about the 4 things that we as humans need for our lives as sentient beings, as the 4 commands Adonalsium used to create. These 4 commands also need to fit into general groupings of Shardic Intents, not necessarily directly, but at least fairly related. The first is self-preservation, or Existing. On a physical level, we need to do the fundamental tasks to keep our bodies alive. We eat, sleep, etc. I felt that Preservation (obviously), Honor, Dominion, and Valor all fit the category of Existing Intent, listed from greatest to least alignment to the command. Preservation...demands existing. Honor calls for an eternal keeping of oaths. Dominion is a total and eternal control. Valor is an upholding of ideals and virtues. The second is the command to Change. To adapt, to alter, and to modify the world around us. Cultivation, Ruin, Endowment, and Ambition fit this category. Cultivation is about growing and changing. Ruin is the same ideal, but a different method: destruction and decay in the name of change. Endowment is gift-giving, changing the recipient to give them power or blessings. Ambition is your own personal desire to change the world and set yourself higher. Thirdly, we see the command to Devise. Humanity not only exists and changes the world around us, but we also create wondrous things that might not directly apply to our own survival. We create because it is in our nature. Invention, Virtuosity, Reason, and Autonomy fall into this category. Invention is rather self-explanatory. Virtuosity is creative excellence and falls very effectively into this category. Reason is intelligent thinking, and the core of all creative processes. Autonomy is performing and acting on your own, and it fits admittedly loosely compared to any other grouping. Finally, we see the command to Feel. We are more than soulless automations designed to survive and create. We have personalities and we Feel. Odium, Devotion, Whimsy, and Mercy fall into this category. Odium is rage, passion (by his own claim), and destructive power. Devotion is total affection and loyalty towards someone or something. Whimsy is unbridled, thoughtless emotion. Mercy is compassion triumphing over justice, and holding back the deserved punishment from someone. This is my Dawnshard theory. Any comments, questions, or critiques are welcome.

Kelsier is a schemer. A planner. Everything we’ve seen him do is him putting one foot in front of another in the direction of one goal: Discord. Now, this isn’t surprising. We know Kelsier wants power. We know he wants control and secrets and worshipping. However, his methods of achieving said Vesselship is apparent if you look at everything he’s been doing for the last 300+ years. 1st Piece of Evidence: Pre-Death Years Kelsier’s exploits pre-death all point towards the character of Discord. He does not know Shards, Vessels, and the like exist at this point, but his character arc is still geared towards Discord. Before forming the team, Kelsier roamed around the countryside, murdering nobles like Tresting and causing chaos that forced skaa to unite and flee to the rebellion. His plan with the team was to start a house war, causing chaos within Luthadel so it burns itself from the inside. Even his methods of bolstering the courage of Demoux and the skaa in the caves involved tipping the scales so the unexpected would happen. Everything he did before the Lord Ruler killed him caused chaos and calamity to further his goal. 2nd Piece of Evidence: Cognitive Years This is where Kelsier’s plan begins to unfold. He realizes shards exist. He wants power. However, he has no clue that they can be combined, so he satisfies himself with claiming Preservation. He isn’t actively motivated towards Discord, as he doesn’t know it’s possible, but his character still creates chaos. He has the unique characteristics of creating so much chaos that it he can survive, making him a candidate for both Discord and Preservation. Once he leaves the Well of Ascencion, he travels to the Iri’s fortress, taking the Purified Dor in a chaotic encounter and uses it to try to help Preservation. Then he gets his goal. He gets Preservation. This is the one point in time where he doesn’t actively Pursue chaos. He gives it up. He gives it to Vin. Perhaps he wasn’t satisfied with its limitations and weakness, perhaps it was out of a good heart. I think it was a bit of both. 3rd Piece of Evidence: Post-Harmony Years Kelsier’s plan kicks into a higher gear than ever before. Harmony is possible? He’s cognitive. He knows his friends. He knows Sazed. Harmony is not final. I’m going to theorize here and provide my idea of what I think Kelsier’s plan is to take Discord. It’s simple: Create Chaos. How does one create enough worldwide chaos that the Intent of the godlike being who presides over it becomes so opposed to the literal events occurring in the world that the Shard’s power flips to align with the world? In addition, the power has to reject the current Vessel in favor of yourself? Not easy. If I were Kelsier, I’d start making weapons. Powerful weapons. Weapons that can shake the world. Weapons like…People. Kelsier has planted seeds in the far corners of the world that have begun to sprout. I think we’ve only seen up to the beginning of their growth by the end of The Lost Metal, but they will flourish soon, especially in Ghostbloods. His first seed is a people. The Malwish were forgotten. Left for dead by Harmony when the world was reshaped, they stood no chance against the bitter cold that came upon them. Until the Sovereign arrived. Kelsier came in and gave them strange and powerful tools. He gave them weapons that outmatched the abilities of the Northern Scadrians, who grew powerful under Harmony’s coddling hand. The Malwish grew strong under Kelsier. However, two powerful nations doesn’t necessarily mean conflict. Therefore, Kelsier needed a second seed. A far more volatile one… The Bands of Mourning. Their creation doesn’t make total sense. Why would an overpowered hemalurgic mastermind spend centuries plugging power into an artifact that anyone could use? Why would Kelsier store his power in a device that is not keyed to his Identity? Because he doesn’t want to be the one to use it. He wanted Wax (or someone else) to take them. He wanted them to be stolen (or recovered, depending on your view of British colonization) by the Northern Scadrians so that instant conflict would arise. And once the two countries begin to unite around them? They become mysteriously drained. How could that happen? The third seed is a person. Someone Kelsier has actually been training and controlling since day one. A man named Spook. A man who went from the least of the thieving crew to the last living Mistborn on the planet. He spent an undisclosed amount of time experimenting with Kelsier. He’s been in hiding for over 200 years (at least that’s what I believe. If he lived to 100, why not longer?) When Spook arrives in Ghostbloods as I believe he will, he may be of some use. But I think Spook is a time bomb. He will upset things. He will cause chaos. He will be the last straw that breaks Scadrial into a thousands pieces during the climax of the Cold War. Kelsier is playing a dangerous game. He is trying to create the perfect Cold War. He is trying to cause dissent, hate, anger, and chaos, but equally. He’s equipping both sides for a high stakes game that he wants neither side to win…or lose. Kelsier doesn’t want the Malwish to win. He doesn’t care who wins. He just wants to build to as much tensions as possible. As the world is crumbling and Sazed, the peaceful man, crumbles with it, he will be there, the perfect candidate for Discord. I don’t think this plan will work out perfectly. There have already been hitches. Autonomy’s influence in The Lost Metal was unfortunate for his plan. It’s hard to have a war when a bunch of aliens use a nuclear bomb to wipe out one side. I don’t know if his plan will succeed. However, I think it is in motion and at the least will come very close to success. Nothing in Isles of Emberdark confirm the identity of the “Scadrian Shard.” Only that the Vessel is worshipped. And what, if anything, does Kelsier love? Thoughts, discussion, and ideas are welcome.

Does anyone have any 1 Shots they've created or any ideas for 1 Shots that they could give for inspiration?

I don't know about instantly sensing, seeing as autonomous sentience is the key part of this ability. However, mental communication seems like it would be make sense in this case. I also agree 100% that native creatures would work better. The Stone's memory and presence would have a definite effect on the creatures.

That's true, they might. Yes, I'm aware of Lightweaving substantiation via Illumination and Transformation. I intend to scale the strength of the ability as the ideals increase. I don't necessarily want another vision ability, so I was looking for something different. Also, I did consider matching the abilities of the Fused by the Masked Ones, the Fused that wield the surge of Illumination, do not have the same ability as Renarin. In fact, it's very on par with Shallan's skills.

For the RPG, I was planning a character with my GM and had a brilliant idea. I have always been a die-hard Stoneward fan. They're awesome. However, I didn't want to be just a normal Stoneward, so I had the idea of bonding a peakspren that is secretly enlightened/corrupted (Depending on your interpretation) and keeping it between the GM and I for as long as possible. It would add character tension (see what I did there?), as the Stonewards' mantra of "I will be there when I'm needed" is brought into question: who will I be there for? My radiant allies, or Sja-Anat's side? More interestingly, though, this brought forth the question of what tweak to powers would an enlightened bond provide? The only enlightened spren ability information we are provided with, bookwise and in the RPG handbook, is on Truthwatcher Mistspren. Therefore, me and my GM got together and workshopped a fitting tweak or ability. Almost immediately, we both agreed that Cohesion should be the affected surge, as it is the more "Spiritual" of the 2. After running through ideas, we came to this: Enlightened Stonewards can use their Cohesion, connection to the spren of stone, and enlightened ability to create sentient automations out of stone. The original size and shape of the creations is dependent on the Stoneward, but the automation gains sentience due to the Spren of Stone's interaction. The creation would also have control over its own Cohesion, allowing for movement of limbs while retaining a generally hard form for combat. The amount of stormlight coming into play would be critical. Small creations could be powered for long amounts of time with stormlight, but medium and large creations would eat it up much faster. It's a combination of the temporary/investiture consuming nature of midnight essence and the sentience provided by Type IV Awakened entities. It's essentially the ability to create temporary 4th Tier Invested entities out of stone, without the self-improving nature due the short lifespan inherent from Stormlight's natural evaporation that isn't present in Breaths. However, they don't need to follow initial commands and their personality would be comprised of the Spren of Stone in tandem with the Stoneward. The limitations would be Rosharan stone as a required material and the limits set by the required amount of stormlight. It doesn't seem to overpowered to me, and is fairly easy to explain away or hide from my fellow players. Thoughts, critques, or comments?

Guys...WaT's finale with Notum the honorspren becoming one of the Unoathed is unbelievably overpowered, once you think about it. We know he can use Shardplate due to his small physical presence. Notum is also a spren, and though he prefers to stay in full-sized human form, it's entirely possible for him to shrink down like Sylphrena, becoming any size he wants. Spren are implied to have size limitations the bigger they go, but we haven't seen any for size reduction. Shardplate changes size to fit the wearer, even out of the ordinary shapes, as seen when the Elit Ruthar's Shardplate helmet resizes to fit snugly on Kaladin's hand. So... Theoretically, Notum can shrink to an inch tall, sneak through fortifications, guards, or enemy forces with no strength reduction (Syl has the same strength at an inch tall as full sized as far as we can tell), and beat the heck out of everyone with tiny super strength. This is awesome. I can see Brandon not letting him become microscopically small due to overpowering, but still. Brandon has to use this. Notum is Ant-Man now.

Page 504, Line 3 of the hardcover version (Chapter 53, Makari Sin, Szeth self-reflecting after he asks Pozen and the Edgedancer Honorbearers "Why?") "He'd changed, hadn't he." It's a question, and should be written as: "He'd changed, hadn't he?"

Let's assume it's Spook. I think that's the only way someone could pull this off. 1. He's a Mistborn with 300 years of experience in Mistborn training, hemalurgic studies, and feruchemical storing. 2. He has access to the inquisitor spikes. Let's assume he has at least doubled his Allomantic Steel, Iron, Pewter, and Duralumin by using Hemalurgic spikes in addition to his natural Mistborn abilities. 3. Those inquisitor spikes (and new ones he could have made) would also give him at a minimum Feruchemical Iron, Steel, Gold, Brass, and Cadmium. The doubled Steel, Iron, and Duralumin would assist in getting him to the jet, and pewter in combination with a specialized wingsuit would keep him alive at those speeds. Breathing won't be a problem with Feruchemical Cadmium. The friction from air resistance can be easily stored through Feruchemical Brass. Feruchemical Gold fills any gaps or injuries caused by combat or flying at that speed. Duralumin and Iron reloading is accomplishable with Bendalloy bubbles/Feruchemical speed and practice. He'd also be equipped with ammunition that he can push to destroy incoming missiles and attack the jet with. I think Spook has a chance with prep and resources, which he has (he was sort of the king of the world for a century.) It's still going to be difficult, I just think it's a fantastic idea and I'd love to see it implemented. I think the physics would work out given the right circumstances. I like your points.

Ok as Ghostbloods is in the works, I've been thinking about it and I would love nothing more than a fight scene between a full Mistborn and an F-15. Ghostbloods is intended to be a Cold War era, both technologically and culturally, with the combination of Malwish/Elendel disputes over the BoM and the creation of the Trellium/Harmonium Bomb. In the real world, the F-15 fighter jet entered service in 1976. The Cold War lasted from 1947-1989. Therefore, if Scadrial is developed to the point of a Cold War time period, there's a good chance F-15's will have been invented and deployed. I would love to see a Mistborn fight a fighter jet. I know there are a lot of theories about Spook returning (Please, Brandon, please) and he would be even more perfect to combat a fighter jet. Any Mistborn could do it, but the generations he's had to train in addition to his access to inquisitor spikes would make him a perfect candidate. The problem with breathing and temperatures at high altitudes could be easily solved with feruchemical Brass and Cadmium (Heat and breath, respectively). I simply think this would be one of the coolest fight scenes Brandon could write and I'm hoping to see something like it. Thoughts?

I loved the ending of this book. I came into it with a lot of different theories I'd either heard or came up with myself, and Brandon masterfully subverted my expectations and came up with a unique, powerful, and crazy ending. The more I think about it, the better and better Dalinar's decision appears to me. This book sets up Roshar for a struggle, but it's not a crushing defeat. The key players survived. The spren are safe. There is no more stormlight, but Urithiru is safe and Azir is well defended. The Unoathed can hold it for now. Yes, certain characters ended in a world of hurt. Jasnah is the lowest we've ever seen her. Shallan is alone. Sigzil is heading off-world. However, they're truly set up to grow and make a massive push. So while this book ended with a shadow over it, I think the heroes are set up to make a huge comeback. - Adolin and his Unoathed will turn Azir into a refuge and continue to fight against the fused. - Sigzil has been set upon his Nomad journey and will begin to grow in that world. - Lift is training with starving Vasher and is clearly setup to be one of the main, if not the main character of Era 2. - Szeth will live peacefully, although in darkness, with his wife-to-be in Shinovar. - Kaladin is a storming herald! The heralds are going to be pivotal to Era 2, especially as they're going to regain their sanity. - Retribution. Oh, poor Retribution. Taravangian has been set up to fail in so many ways. He has no time to plan. The other Shards want to destroy him. Dalinar has embedded a time bomb inside of Retribution in the form of Honor's power gaining sentience and watching, leading to what I believe will be an eventual splitting of Retribution's power in the pivotal moment. In addition all of this, Taravangian is weak. He has kept his city alive, afraid of losing them. Taravangian could not make the decision to kill them. That will come back to bite them, even though it was good and merciful, as it was going back on his word. All in all, this book satisfied my with its ending. Dalinar's arc made sense and was glorious. Gavinor will turn good, I'm confident, and prove a powerful ally against Taravangian. The stakes have been raised all around in the Cosmere, and I can't wait to see what happens next.