skaa

It's actually "The Lost Metal", but yeah that is a possibility. I do hope Scadrians can get access to atium once again so that we can finally see some atium alloy experimentation.

It is storing Connection (Feruchemical duralumin) that has that effect, not storing Identity.I think a Pewterarm-Windwhisper Twinborn could be a good enough sniper in most cases. Using Feruchemical Sight, he'd see distant objects even without a scope. It's also handy to augment only the Sense that you need for sniping. Also, I don't think I could trust a Spinner to not store luck at an inopportune time and inadvertently sabotage an operation, so I wouldn't use them when building any team.

Yep, we've seen spikes being removed from vital body parts. Vin noticed that removing both eye spikes from an Inquisitor is enough to kill him. Thanks! And the blood in motion is important. I imagine that the Feruchemist's fresh blood would trickle down the needle at least a little bit, and that this motion is enough to trigger a Hemalurgic effect of some sort, though obviously not the Hemalurgic effect we have been accustomed with. Indeed, Intent is important here. It appears that Sazed's metal rings did not become Hemalurgic spikes, which is fortunate because otherwise bits of his Spiritweb would have been torn off the moment he removed the rings. And yet a Feruchemist can tap from his metalminds without them necessarily being inside of him. My method does not require the needle to access the target's Spiritweb. It simply uses the Hemalurgic process (triggered by the Feruchemist's blood and the needle hitting a bind point) to trick the metalmind into initiating what constitutes as a Feruchemical tap.This obviously is largely speculative as I noted from the start. You're right that it's a good idea to ask Brandon whether this is even possible (assuming he won't just RAFO it). All I know is that Brandon already implied that there are other ways to do Hemalurgy (as I quoted in the OP). I just decided to think of one theoretical way. Not all Feruchemical charges work only "for the moment". A wound healed via Gold Feruchemy doesn't reopen once the metalmind is released, for one. Other attributes, like Memory, and perhaps even Calories (Bendalloy) and Identity (Aluminum) are similarly longer lasting than others.But yes, being limited to Feruchemical charges is an issue with this method, which I addressed in the "Possible Objections/Questions" section. I admit that Feruchemical healing is the application I was specifically thinking of when formulating this theory, though as I mentioned in the OP I have a hunch that Nicrosil Feruchemy could somehow grant another person Invested powers through this method. That would depend on how much of Hemalurgy Brandon patterned after acupuncture. From what I've read, acupuncturists try to hit certain points in a person's "meridian system" without hitting any blood vessel, though even trained ones sometimes fail and inadvertently cause bleeding. I've posted a WoB in the OP where Brandon says hitting the right nerves is what's important, though apparently blood is still required to make the metal attuned to the Spiritual Realm... but I don't think you need the recipient's blood for that.

In this extremely speculative post, I will try to describe a hypothetical form of Hemalurgy that I think is a substantial improvement over the form Ati taught Rashek during his Ascension. My purpose is to address the three main drawbacks of Rashek's Hemalurgy: It harms the source of Investiture, a.k.a. the Hemalurgic sacrifice/victim. Even if the harm isn't lethal (a possibility that so far has only been theoretically-confirmed), the victim will still end up with a chunk of his soul torn off. It harms the recipient of Investiture. Hemalurgy as it is currently known warps both the physical body and the Spiritweb in order to accommodate the sometimes ridiculously big spikes impaling the recipient. This, of course, is a trade-off that some recipients of Hemalurgic Investiture will gladly accept, but that doesn't change the fact that removing that huge Pewter spike containing stolen Gold Feruchemy will result in a wound that could kill you. It relies on the Hemalurgic spike staying inside a body. In this form of Hemalurgy, the issue of Investiture-leeching (in the form of Hemalurgic decay) is a top concern because it happens the moment the spike leaves the victim's body. And if the recipient ever removes the spike, the Investiture is also removed, forcing him to keep the spike in as long as he needs the power. Now, just to be clear, the alternative Hemalurgy I'm about to describe will still involve blood. This is still something that bears the mark of Ruin, except the damage is so negligible that Ati could very well have been blind to its possibility (assuming I'm correct that it is possible). Without further ado, here are the five steps towards a safer, more harmonious form of Hemalurgy. Step I: Get a very thin needle. There is one aspect of Drawback 2 that is easily solvable: If you don't want big-chull wounds, don't use big-chull spikes. Needles are perfect for this purpose, especially acupuncture needles, which can be inserted in the body without any bleeding. Incidentally, did you guys know that Brandon's concept of Hemalurgy was inspired by acupuncture? Note that last bit: "Not the way they know how to do it." This implies that there are more ways to do Hemalurgy, which is good because that's exactly what I'm proposing here. So, now you've got a sterile needle made from one of the 16 Metals (or a god metal, if you're lucky). The problem with acupuncture needles, though, is that such small pieces of metal aren't very useful in "traditional" Hemalurgic techniques. For one, it doesn't hold much Hemalurgic charge. Also, it might be tricky to reach the proper bind point in the heart of an adult victim using just a needle. Good thing my alternative Hemalurgy doesn't require stabbing the Investiture source's heart. (Goodbye, Drawback 1!) Step II: Carefully insert the needle into the target. You might think I missed a step. Why are we already inserting the needle into the target without first obtaining a charge? Well, we'll charge the needle later. Meanwhile, just ensure that the uncharged needle is inserted precisely into the proper bind point. Also, we shouldn't let any blood vessel be hit (which should be easier with a very thin needle), since we do not want the intended target's Spiritweb to be damaged. Remember, it is through moving blood that sDNA attaches to the metal: (We probably will have to hit a nerve, though, as implied in the first quote above.) But if there's no blood involved, how is this even Hemalurgy? ("Hema" is from the Greek word for "blood".) We'll address that in Step IV. Meanwhile, let us now charge our needle. Step III: Store a Feruchemical charge into the needle. There are two things I forgot to mention. The first is that the person doing to needle-insertion is the source of Investiture himself. The second is that this person is a Feruchemist. Once the needle is inserted into the intended target's bind point (making sure that enough of the needle is still sticking out), the Feruchemist touches the part of the needle sticking out and starts storing an attribute into it. If it's a golden needle, then he stores Health. If it's an aluminum needle, then he stores Identity, etc. (Edit: In hindsight, I suppose you could store the charge before inserting the needle.) At this point you might object that Sazed himself told us that a Feruchemical charge cannot be accessed by anyone except the person who stored it. And Brandon himself said that accessing someone else's metalminds requires some fiddling with Identity. I will answer that Sazed did not know about Hemalurgy at that point, and that I, in fact, intend to fiddle with Identity. Using blood. Step IV: Add a drop of the Feruchemist's blood onto the needle. Here's the most speculative part of this post. The Feruchemist will offer his own blood as sacrifice (just a tiny bit, so it's only a bit of a hassle), dropping it on the part of the needle sticking outside of the target's body. By doing this, the Feruchemist creates something we've never encountered before in the Mistborn books: a Hemalurgic spike inserted inside a target but with the sacrificial blood outside of the target. I hypothesize that the blood will do two things: First, since the blood belongs to the owner of the needle's Feruchemical charge, this will somehow trick the needle metalmind into believing it is in its owner's possession. (This is the Identity-fiddling I mentioned above.) Second, since the only bit of blood on the needle is exposed outside, and the rest of the needle is inside, this will cause a hybrid state of sorts. Investiture will try to escape the needle as in Hemalurgic decay, but at the same time it will try to Hemalurgically Invest its "owner", which it just so happens to think is the guy with the needle stuck to him. The result is that the needle's recipient will steadily tap the Feruchemical charge of the needle until it is depleted. If my assumptions are correct, then at this point the Feruchemist can keep on storing into the needle as much as he wants, and the charges will keep on being absorbed by the recipient. Step V: Remove the needle. Now that the intended recipient has had his fill of whatever attribute you wished to give him, feel free to remove the needle. There goes Drawback 3. Just don't forget to dispose of used needles properly. We are hygienic Hemalurgists now. Possible Objections/Questions This doesn't seem as powerful as traditional Hemalurgy. How would you obtain Feruchemical and Allomantic powers this way?I would guess one of the Spiritual metals (nicrosil, probably) might help with this, though you might need a Twinborn or Fullborn to achieve this. Even if you could not obtain powers this way, you have to admit that Gold Feruchemists (among others) could help far more people with this method than with the traditional method of being fatally stabbed. Stop being selfish. Are the bind points used for these Feruchemical-Hemalurgic needles the same as traditional Hemalurgic bind points?Maybe. *shrugs* Haven't really thought much about that yet, but the idea is you can't just stab a Feruchemical needle onto some random body part and expect this method to work. The Hemalurgic "art" of locating the right bind point still applies. If this is true, why hasn't Harmony taught it to people yet?Probably because neither Ati nor Leras knew this could be done with Feruchemy and Hemalurgy. Sazed would have to discover this on his own while playing with the powers. Assuming my theory is correct, of course. What do you guys think? Is there any WoB I'm forgetting that refutes the possibility of this sort of Hemalurgy?

OMG guys! -3 codes to go before we get the final Shardhunt item! So excited! Just kidding, Peter. Take your time!

Well... at least it looks like they used the same model for Wax as in the Alloy of Law cover, except he looks older now.

Ooh, interesting! That's exactly the same situation as the Rithmatist. I hope someone could find that WoB about Reckoners.

@Aidandog: The Cosmere is a dwarf galaxy, apparently, so Megan will have to do some major intergalactic reality-warping in order to make Earth part of the Cosmere. Also, the sixteen people who held the Shards of Adonalsium are from the planet Yolen, where Hoid is also from. Definitely not Earth.

When it comes to the short stories, my least favorite is Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell. Not only because the Hellish Investiture we've seen in the story seems absolutely useless in normal everyday life (unlike every other manifestation of Investiture we've seen), but also because one of the villains has the same name as one of my all-time favorite authors, Chesterton (How could you, Brandon?! *sobs*). Nonetheless, I am very forgiving when it comes to short stories. A bad short story is at least just a minor distraction, and Shadows was actually pretty well-written despite my irrational complaints about it. In the end, I voted Elantris as my least favorite Cosmere novel. I'm sure the upcoming new edition will bring improvements that will make me like it a bit more (especially if it will finally get an Ars Arcanum! ), but I fear my problem with it isn't just the unpolished prose. Frankly, I think Elantris would have been a better story if the parts concerning Sarene (including her coming to Kae in the first place) was removed, with Kiin being given a more active part in the story and replacing Sarene as the Teoish viewpoint character. I dunno, I guess given how Kiin was already part of Raoden's circle of friends, how important his family is to the story, and how interesting his own backstory is, I just felt that he could have been a much better viewpoint character. Removing Sarene would have let Brandon write a tighter, more focused story. Also, there would have been no icky love triangles.

I know those recordings will be transcribed at some point, but could you tell us which of the answers given last night (that you are allowed to share) do you think is the coolest?

A... Snoopy Nazgul Panda. Oh! I thought you got that name from the Peanuts character. So by "snoopy" you mean "given to snooping"? Hmmm... Interesting. Alright! Let us all welcome the new Society mascot: Snoopy!

I applaud Shlee's principled stance. I believe many of us here rightfully detest the trickery of the spiked DA denizens. And yet I believe some of them, like Brother Snoopy here, might not be incompatible with our cause. As I shall soon demonstrate. Snoopy, there was a time before you succumbed to being a Hemalurgic beagle when you were something else: A panda, and a rather inexorable one at that. The panda is a symbol of peace and diplomacy, for while sharing the same general characteristics as the other members of Ursidea like the grizzly bear (a godless killing machine filled with the souls of its victims), the panda stands alone as being almost herbivorous and docile. This, my brothers and sisters, is what we want Invested people to become. We tire of their bullying, of their murderous tricks, and their haughty pride! We want them to stop being grizzlies! Rather, we want them to be content to live in peace and harmony with their Investiture-challenged neighbors. I am talking about Yin and Yang, black and white balanced and living as one, like the black and white of a panda. And so, as we are about to accept you, Snoopy, into the Society, I offer you the position of Chief Panda, along with this aluminum panda-shaped armor painted in black and white, which henceforth you are to wear at all times while in Society premises. Do you accept this position and this requirement?

I accidentally downvoted Argent. Sorry. Someone please fix my mistake. I wanted to upvote that post. Thanks! Edit: Thanks, WEZ!

Other smoke-related supernatural stuff on Roshar: The smokespren with a symbiotic bond with certain Rosharian fauna. The smoke that comes out of people's eyes when killed by Shardblades The Soulcasting connection between smoke, smokestone, and the Essence of Vapor. Only a crazy person would believe that all these things are connected somehow, which is of course why I do. On a more serious note, since the black smoke coming from Nightblood when unsheathed is the Breaths/souls that he consumed slowly leaking out, then maybe Innate Investiture in general appears as black smoke when forcibly ripped out of the body, which would explain the smoke that comes burning out of people's eye sockets when they get killed via Shardblade. (Update: Here's a WoB linking Nightblood's smoke and the smoke that comes out of people's eyes after Shardblade-induced death.) If this is true, then the anti-Stormlight in the black orb might just be the harvested essence of severed souls... which would be a cool power source for magical villains.

You read HPMOR? That's awesome!It's still 3 in the afternoon where I live, so assuming they sleep for less than eight hours and start posting answers as soon as they wake up, I might still get that "best day ever". Get to it, Americans! (Just kidding. Take your time. ) By the way, what is "Pact"?

"Hotlanta", eh? What, do the people there greet each other with "What's up, hotman?" like in pre-war Fire Nation?

(Warning: The hypothetical scenario I'm about to propose relies on the accuracy of my Cosmere theory on Investiture resonance in metal. Given this, complaints like "but there's no evidence that this is possible!" will be ignored.) One of the cool things about Awakening is that almost every single Nalthian is an Awakener. As long as you are Nalthian and you don't give your Breath to someone else, you have within you the power to do magic. You could do it right now, if you wanted. Right this instant. No traumatic Snapping necessary (since the Nalthian equivalent probably happens during childbirth). No need to attract Splinters. Just grab something organic and say a single-Breath Command (since that's all you've got, presumably), and VOILA! Magic! I think that's awesome. Except... we don't really know many single-Breath Commands, do we? We only know of the improved Lifeless Command "Awaken to my Breath, serve my needs, live at my Command and my word. [insert security phrase here]", but that Command makes the one Breath used irretrievable. You'd be a drab afterwards, and that would be a drag. From what we've seen in Warbreaker, access to other less permanent Awakening Commands requires much more than one Breath. So unless you could buy more Breaths from poor, desperate people, then you really can't do much with that bit of magic within you. Well, you could use "My life to yours, my Breath become yours" to transfer your single Breath to a non-living, non-corpse object, then retrieve the Breath using "Your Breath to mine", but that's not much of a party trick, is it? Generic Breath-transfer Commands cause Breath to be transferred without adding a specific Awakening Intent to it, unlike other "real" Awakening Commands. Unless you're a Returned, whose single Divine Breath already contains a healing Intent, generically transferring your one Breath won't do much to a target object. Bummer. Enough of this rambling; what's your point, skaa? The point is it would be much more ideal, certainly much more ethical, if Nalthians can use their single Breath in more useful forms of Awakening instead of relying on getting more Breaths. Normally, this would require Awakener scholars to look for single-Breath versions of multi-Breath Commands, like how the Five Scholars figured out the single-Breath version of the Lifeless Command. I believe there must be many Commands that can be improved this way because, by the Law of Comparability, BioChromatic power is not simply a function of the number of Breaths. Nevertheless, this task of finding more single-Breath Commands will probably prove difficult even for people with the Sixth Heightening's Instinctive Awakening. But what if there was an easier way? What if there was a way for regular Nalthians to somehow shape their one Breath with the Intent of a multi-Breath Command, then use the generic Breath-transfer Command to transfer this Intent-laden Breath to a target? If this can be done, then a Command that would otherwise require multiple Breaths can be used by a person with a single Breath. I got this idea from the concept of the Returned using the generic Breath-transfer Command to heal people; they could do this because the healing Intent is already in the Breath. So how would I theoretically go about doing this? This is where my metal theory comes in. I believe that if an Awakener could somehow pass his Breaths through a piece of metal while Awakening another target using any Awakening Command, the Intent of the Command would become "imprinted" on the piece of metal, such that any raw Investiture that subsequently passes through it would be shaped/filtered by that particular Intent, like how metals filter Preservation's power in Allomancy. Note that the Awakener will NOT be Awakening the metal, but rather just attuning the metal to the Command. Once the piece of metal has been attuned that way, another person with just one Breath could take that metal, then while holding it, use the generic Breath-transfer Command ("My life to yours, my Breath become yours") to transfer his Breath to a target object of his choosing. When this happens, the metal in his hand will resonate with the Intent of the previous Awakening Command and shape the Breath with this Intent, thereby Awakening the target object with just a single Breath. This is similar to the ter'angreal concept in the Wheel of Time, but I guess it's okay to just call these Awakener Wands. Limitations and Disadvantages Each Awakener Wand could only be used for one specific Command. So you'll need multiple Wands to use multiple Commands. This would necessitate the labeling of each Wand so that people would know what each one does, and there's the risk of mislabeled Wands that do dangerous things. It would probably be very easy to overwrite the Command Intent that an Awakener Wand is attuned to, like how Feruchemy and Hemalurgy can easily override the Allomantic attunement of metals. Awakener Wands would still require multi-Breath Awakeners to create the wands in the first place. The reliance on multi-Breath Awakeners will only be lessened slightly. Then again, in the end the important thing is to empower people with only one Breath, so this is just a minor setback. The economy based on the buying and selling of Breath would probably take a direct hit once Wands become widespread, as Breath prices would probably go down. The demand won't disappear entirely, of course (as implied above), but I imagine the poor will have to find other ways to earn a living. Or they could sell their Breath to the Returned. I think you will still need the Ninth Heightening to Awaken metals, so it's probably useless to create a Metal Awakener Wand because it would be very, very stupid for a person with Ninth Heightening (with 20,000+ Breaths) to use the generic Breath transfer Command to Awaken metal (which can normally be Awakened with just 1000 Breaths). Even with the disadvantages taken into account, I still think the widespread use of Awakener Wands would be an improvement over the status quo on Nalthis. What do you guys think?

Five members voted in favor of Screwloose, with no votes against, two abstentions, and one favorable but foreign vote that was ignored (Sorry, Ms. Steelheart!). I therefore induct our brother Screwloose into the Society. *hands Screwloose the armaments of membership* Congratulations! Use these wisely in the defense of our cause. As for Snoopy, four members voted for him, with one vote against, two abstentions, and one ignored. I prefer that all members treat each other in harmony, and so I will allow one day of discussion on this issue before I remove Snoopy's probationary status and replace it with... something. *evil grin* Ehem. Meanwhile, I'll be in my room drafting a theory. Have a nice day.

Is the profile pic lurid, perverted, or otherwise improper for general viewing? If so, perhaps a mod could force the guy to change it. Some forum members are kids, after all.

Thanks! (Edit: I just had a not-important-but-interesting realization. Since Kae became the capital of Arelon after the fall of Elantris, it could be called the "Eastern Capital" due to its name. In Japanese that would be 東京, or Tōkyō. ) It's in reference to the various stuff that lead me to this SA theory (and eventually to this Cosmere theory). Here are some of them: We have never seen a working fabrial that explicitly did not have a metal setting/latticework/framework of some sort. The metal framework containing Vstim's Alerter fabrial actually has dials that can be used to fine-tune the fabrial's behavior. Obviously metal could affect that particular fabrial in some way. Navani talks of an issue with the "alignment of the gem housings" as the probable reason why the Davar Soulcaster no longer works. The gem housings of a Soulcaster fabrial is metal. Shallan doesn't realize that the gemstone lamps in the Oathgate room are fabrials until she noticed the latticework of metal enclosing each one. I thought my phrasing of the question makes it seem innocent enough that Brandon won't instinctively say "RAFO!" upon hearing it unless metal is really important in Fabrial Science. You could, of course, phrase the question any way you want.

If I may still submit a question, I'd be grateful if somebody could ask this one: The city of Kae is named after the Aon for "east". Are the Outer Cities around Elantris all named after the Aons for the cardinal directions? And if so, could you tell us their names? Brandon might not remember all the names, but it would be nice to confirm that the other three Outer Cities are named after directional Aons as well. I also placed a list of questions for Brandon in my signature in case anyone wants more stuff to ask.

Welcome, burngis12! If you don't want to join the discussions yet but don't mind knowing about various concepts in Brandon's books (including stuff revealed in WoR), you can go ahead and read the Coppermind wiki. I know I'm in the minority who actually enjoy "spoilers", and you will be spoiled if you go to the Coppermind, so feel free to ignore that suggestion if you're one of the normal people who hate spoilers. Anyway, have fun finishing the Way of Kings!

I read Baka-Tsuki's translation of the Suzumiya Haruhi light novels back when Haruhi was gaining popularity outside of Japan. I'm glad I read them before the anime got re-aired in 2009 with new episodes mixed in with the old ones, because that meant I was part of the minority who were slightly less confused by the Endless Eight episodes. Too bad Baka-Tsuki had to remove the translations when the copyright holders knocked on their doors. I obtained a copy of the "official" English translation for the first book and was thoroughly disappointed. I actually enjoyed the "amateur" translation more!

Today I'm just chillin' in my room since Chinese New Year is now a national holiday here in the Philippines. I'm excited to go to work tomorrow and eat lots of 甜粿 ("tikoy", also called 年糕, nian gao, or Chinese New Year cake) that I'm sure at least one of my Chinese coworkers will be bringing to the office to share with us. I'm not Chinese, though, so I'll just spend today doing the things I usually do when there's no work (e.g. surfing the net, reading books, cooking, and sleeping).

Must be one of the Voidbringer forms. I guess this one can absorb all light in the vicinity (making other things seem dark) and convert it to heat energy? Intriguing. Which doors do these keys unlock? Are they literal golden keys, or are they a metaphor for one of Vedeledev's powers/privileges? Or is "golden keys" just euphemistic darkeyes slang for... certain female body parts?