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I see. Thank you for clarifying, it's been a while since I've read Rhythm of War. That definitely supports the idea that Progression is strongly linked with Cultivation in the same way that Adhesion is with Honor. Unless evidence to the contrary appears, I'm convinced.

Were there other Edgedancers in Urithiru at the time it was being suppressed? I'm ready to believe that Progression is at the very least more strongly linked with Cultivation than the other surges, if not her truest surge, but I would be more inclined to believe that Lift's ability to use surges had to do with her unique physiology and not purely that she was using Progression as opposed to any other surges. Progression being Cultivation's truest surge could be an additional factor, but I would feel more confident in the theory if we saw Edgedancers as a whole being less affected by the suppression like Windrunners were (i.e. twitching in their sleep rather than lying still.) Nothing like that is mentioned though. I like the idea that Truthwatchers already have a connection to Fortune and that it isn't exclusive to Enlightened Truthwatchers. I feel like that gives them more of an identity among the orders. Otherwise they just seem worse at healing than Edgedancers, since Truthwatchers have less mobility, and worse at Lightweaving than Lightweavers, since Truthwatchers get far less use out of illusions. The ability to use Fortune gives them their own gimmick, so I hope it turns out to be true. I would like to additionally put forward the possibility that it isn't only the surges of Illumination or Progression on their own that makes Truthwatchers special, it's that they have both at once. Both surges could have a link to Fortune/the Spiritual Realm, and having both offers full access through something like a Resonance. Progression works by accessing the Spiritual Realm like all Cosmere healing, and Shallan's art seems to access the idealized version of an individual in the Spiritual Realm. That could be due to Shallan's own unique attributes and not the surge of Illumination, but it might be something we see other Lightweavers do in the future. This could also be how Bondsmiths access Spiritual Connection. Both Tension and Adhesion use principles linked to Connection, and having both at once offers full access to the broader ability.

"Think of it as the lesser of two evils." "What's the other one?" Vimes drew his sword. "Me." -Terry Pratchett, Jingo I saw the Terry Pratchett quotes earlier in the thread and wanted to add more. "When people say 'we must move with the times,' they really mean 'you must do it my way.' That is what I'm tellin' you. And there are some who would say that Ankh-Morpork is...a kind of vampire. It bites, and what it bites it turns into copies of itself. It sucks, too. It seems all our best go to Ankh-Morpork, there they live in squalor. You leave us dry." - The Low King, Terry Pratchett, The Fifth Elephant I love this whole section of narration in Night Watch, but the last line is the best part: "As soon as you saw people as things to be measured, they didn't measure up."

If I was a fighter of some kind, I would have them turn into a pair of boots that are able to push off the ground to enhance my movements, letting me run faster, jump higher, or even deliver more powerful kicks. Since they are Invested, they could probably also mimic the Surge of Abrasion, giving the occasional glide across the ground or briefly increasing friction against walls to run on them. I'm not sure what I would ask for in terms of everyday life or a supportive role though.

Hello! I was raised Roman Catholic, but both of my parents are very scientifically minded and tended to have religion be present, but not omnipresent. I was very devout for years, being baptized, having first communion, and being confirmed. However, I really didn't have justification for my beliefs, I just believed them because that's what I was taught to do. Transferring from a catholic school to a more secular school, where I was exposed to people who practiced different religions and no religion at all, showed me that not everyone thought the way I did. A couple of years later, I watched some flat earth debunkers on youtube, which segued into full atheistic content that challenged the ideas I was raised with, and I didn't have an answer. Atheism doesn't mean too much to me by itself, especially now. I had a phase where I wanted to test my new arguments against believers, but that's pretty much done now. It does mean that I feel a lot less guilt for my actions, especially for things that are only wrong in the eyes of the church. If I do something wrong, I feel bad, I work to improve myself, and then I'm a better person who doesn't have to feel bad about it anymore. I don't tear myself up for committing a sin and feel even worse for no reason. I've felt so much lighter and freer ever since giving up my religion. There are times when I Pascal's Wager myself into praying, but it's more out of a psychological need for comfort in a stressful situation than it is a genuine attempt to communicate with a higher power. I subscribe to the belief that there is not a good reason to believe in a higher power, especially not a good reason to organize your life around that belief, and we should only believe when there is a good enough reason to do so. I'm not super up to date on recent scientific discoveries, but I am excited about how far the fields of renewable and nuclear energy have come in the past few decades. An interest of mine would be linguistics. I'm not proficient by any means, and I have no desire to be. It's purely a hobby. I just love learning about how words and phrases develop across time.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned it here yet, but once Era 4 rolls around, Lurchers would be incredible in space. They would definitely still have a tether for safety, but Lurchers would be able to easily walk all over the spaceship or space station to service it or for combat. Their maneuverability would be just as good as Coinshots in a ship entirely made of metal, and Ranette's trick of pulling tools to her would be even more effective in zero gravity, such as retrieving tools if they drift too far away or pulling tools along with them as they move. I do hope we get more of them earlier than that, but I think the space age of Scadrial would be their time to shine.

It has been several years since I visited, and I spent the whole time in Dublin, but one thing I remember clearly is the roads. A lot of roads are very narrow and often winding, so driving can be challenging. Some roads even go so far as to have stone walls on either side. I would say to be extra careful when driving, and rent a small car if you can. Other than that, I can't offer much advice. I was not the one who planned the trip I was on, and I am not familiar with the landmarks you are interested in. That said, I hope you and your family have a lot of fun!

In a campaign I was in, our spore druid realized that since yeast was a fungus, he could theoretically control the fermentation process. After a couple of rolls, he ended up making a super high concentration alcohol that we named Starshine. We offered it to basically every friendly NPC we came across, to varying levels of success, which was always fun. The party would also drink it themselves when they wanted to relax and have a good time. On one occasion, we were on a decent sized boat traveling up a river, and the drunk party had the brilliant idea to knock on the door of a tenuous ally (later full antagonist, not because of this) and when he opened the door, there would be the druid in the form of a horse. We called this prank Just Horse, because you open the door, and there is just a horse. The druid was no longer drunk in horse form as well, just to add to the in-character awkwardness.

Welcome! I'm relatively new as well, and it has been very welcoming. I haven't welcomed anyone before, but I'll do my best with a question: If you could have anyone in the cosmere as a teacher to teach you their Invested Art, which Art would you pick and who would be your teacher?

Heavy spoilers for the end of Rhythm of War and parts of Wind and Truth: I don't know how much hacking you would need to do for other magic systems. The Heightenings that come with Breath seem to be another example of this effect: passive abilities that come from holding investiture, but not using it up in the process. Even holding stormlight grants enhanced strength, speed, and not needing to breathe, although that may be more of a general effect of holding investiture. It seems like if the investiture is stable enough, like Breaths, or if the person's body can hold investiture in a more stable way, like the gemhearts Fused have, then a person can hold investiture and not have it drain away. Then it's a matter of the individual magic system if they get a unique passive effect, like the passive surges of the Fused or Heightenings, or a more general effect, like a boost to stats that we see with stormlight. Hemalurgy is another example that I had not thought of, though it's less pure investiture and more a fragment of spiritweb. I don't know if those are effectively the same thing or not. That might require knowing how to convert between investiture in some way, but the principle seems sound. Channeling passive effects of some investiture into another system.

Looking through your character list, I think it might be more interesting to leave shards out of it. They are more like forces of nature, so any non-shard in a fight with them would be completely unfair. I initially thought of Metalborn.io as well, but it seems like yours takes existing characters and pits them against other characters in random settings and conditions, do I have that correct? It might be neat to have an expanded Metalborn.io where it is a fully generated character with a chance for different power sets around the cosmere, but that would be even more challenging to put together, so I would not expect that.

Just because it consumes no voidlight doesn't mean that voidlight doesn't need to be present for it to work. The passive effect of how the Fused use their surges is something that comes from holding voidlight, just not expending it in the process. Wind and Truth spoilers: And a Word of Brandon: This hypothetical mistborn would need access to voidlight, even though the only thing they would be doing is holding it within themselves. And without Fused physiology, it would probably leak like stormlight does for Radiants, although we never see any examples of a human holding voidlight to my knowledge.

Soulcasting with mistborn is a potent combination. I think another big problem aside from getting the spike in the first place would be sourcing the Voidlight. Even if Voidlight wouldn't be consumed with the passive ability, the mistborn would still need to get the initial infusion from somewhere, and unless you work for Odium, he probably is not giving that person any. Additionally, the human physiology would likely make the Voidlight leak, so even if the passive ability itself does not consume the light, levels would still go down. Bonding a Cryptic or Inkspren might be easier and grant more side benefits than just the surge.

Ah, thank you very much for providing that. I looked to see if anyone had done a similar topic, but clearly I did not look closely enough. I hope I was at least able to add a new perspective on things, even if the ideas have already been introduced.

It's certainly possible, although presumably only Harmony would know if you need four of one kind of spike to pass the trait down and get something like a Koloss-blooded for offspring. On that topic, it will be interesting to see in Mistborn Eras 3 and 4, where presumably there have been several generations of mixing, how far Koloss-blooded have spread through the population and if that has resulted in a general boost in physical strength for the Scadrian population. Maybe it's something like having noble heritage if you're a skaa back pre-Catacendre, and it only lasts a few generations before getting too small to have any effect.

Koloss are created by using four iron spikes on a person, giving them tremendous amounts of strength. However, there are three other spikes that steal attributes: tin - senses, zinc - emotional fortitude, and copper - mental fortitude, memory, and intelligence. Assuming the spikes are created and prepared in whatever way that produces koloss with iron spikes, what sort of hemalurgic constructs would be created using four of the other attribute spikes? Copper: I'll start with copper, since I would imagine it would be a sort of paired metal to iron. Iron spikes increase strength at the cost of intelligence, so copper spikes would presumably do the opposite - increasing intelligence, memory, and mental fortitude at the cost of strength. A hemalurgic construct made with four copper spikes would have shriveled muscles, possibly even shrinking over time, but with a massively enhanced ability to think, reason, and remember. There would probably also be more resistant to shardic control than a koloss would be, since we know copper spikes offer that advantage with kandra. Tin: I have a hard time coming up with how the body would be twisted with four tin spikes. It may be the case that the twisting would be more internal, like the Inquisitors, so it would not be as visible externally. I imagine the result would be something like a allomantic tin savant, where the spiritweb is twisted to allow for greater sensory input. I have no idea whether they would be more resistant to extreme sensory inputs than a tin savant, but they would certainly have other negative effects if that was not one of them. Zinc: Zinc may be the hardest one of these to figure out. The only thing I can imagine for an ability would be an extreme resistance to shardic control, just like copper, but also emotional allomancy in general, since emotional fortitude would probably give them a greater resistance to having their emotions tampered with. Other than that, this hemalurgic construct would be rather limited, though the benefit to that might be less twisting of the body due to the spikes, much like tin might offer. Mixing and matching: Finally, we come to the possibility of mixing and matching these spikes to create something without extreme capacity in one area, but that is maybe a little more balanced. The first that came to mind was two iron spikes with two copper ones, sacrificing some of a koloss' strength for more intelligence to balance it out and use their strength in more creative ways. Using different parts of the spiritweb might result in less twisting too, giving them more of a normal appearance, but still having increased strength and intelligence. A fun thought experiment would be someone who has one of each spike, which in my mind would be something like a Scadrian Captain America (Captain Elendel?) Someone with boosted strength, senses, mental abilities, and a resistance to both shardic control and emotional allomancy. A little underwhelming compared to what else hemalurgy can grant a person, and especially compared to the abilities granted by the other invested arts, but it might be fun to see a modern-day hazekiller with these spikes going up against mistings, ferrings, and twinborn and having to be creative in how they outmatch each opponent. What does everyone think? Any more ideas for what someone with four tin or zinc spikes could be like? Is there anything you feel I got wrong?

Hello! I have listened to Epic the Musical. I've been trying to figure out a witty comeback using Epic lyrics like you did, but I couldn't think of anything. My favorite Cosmere weapon is a living shardblade. I really enjoy how flexible it can be with its shape, and I especially loved all the demonstrations we got in The Sunlit Man of how creative you can be with its applications. My favorite book not by Brandon is Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan, and by extension the whole Riyria Revelations series. It's written so well and the characters are so much fun to watch. The magic is pretty soft compared to the cosmere, but it's well balanced and certainly not the solution to every problem. It also has one of my favorite scenes, where the author completely upends the whole "You helped me, so now I'll join you on your quest" trope. As for the fancy words, I don't have any desire for any at the moment, but if I think of something I will definitely let you know. I will admit, I did a little bit of looking around and tried to see what was going on with the cookie before responding, so it wasn't purely me seeing through it. I'm glad to be part of a group that thinks about the same things. I love plopping myself into a fictional world as an average human and going, "Okay. How powerful can I reasonably get." The cosmere is such a good place for that impulse of mine.

Thank you for the welcome. I would not like a cookie at this very moment, but I'm sure at some point a cookie would be nice, depending on the cookie. The way the question is asked makes me a little nervous about these particular cookies, though. Thank you! It has to be Feruchemy. One of the flashier ones would be really fun, but I think the one that benefits me the most in my everyday life while still giving me some opportunities to be flashy would be Feruchemy.

I looked around to see if anyone has raised the question before, and on the Compounding page on the Coppermind. As far as I can tell, Feruchemical attributes are stored as two components: the percentage of the user's attribute that has been stored, and the length of time that it was stored for. Compounding multiplies the Feruchemical attribute using Preservation's power by having the metal act as a new sort of key for the power, and it is generally assumed that the amount of power released is proportional to the amount of power that was already stored in the metalmind. The figure that has been thrown around in and out of the books is ten times, though I am sure that number varies with the strength of the allomancy the compounder has access to. My question is, what is being multiplied by ten when burning a metalmind? Is it the percentage, or the duration? Using the typical Feruchemical example of 50% of one's strength at 1 hour, if someone compounds that, do they receive: 500% of their strength for one hour or 50% of their strength for ten hours or some combination, like 250% of strength for five hours. I personally think this gets a little too complex and is not likely to be the answer, though I could be wrong. In any of these cases the user modifies it from there based on their needs, just like all Feruchemy. However, 50% of strength for ten hours does not equal 500% of strength for one hour, due to compression of investiture. If the percentage was being multiplied, losses to compression would not be as big of an issue, and the only limit would be the amount of metal one had access to and could burn, rather than the availability of metals and loss of investiture to compression. I personally think that the duration multiplies rather than the percentage. What do you all think? Am I overthinking this?

Thank you very much! In terms of pure Intent, I would probably gravitate most towards Autonomy, followed by Reason. I would have a very different interpretation of the Intent than Bavadin, so no taking over other planets and starting wars.

I have read a lot of posts on here, but I have some ideas and I wanted to share them, so I finally decided to create an account. I have read everything up through Wind and Truth, and I am waiting for Isles of the Emberdark to come out in print before reading it, so I am staying far away from spoilers about that story. I am excited to have more people to discuss the cosmere with, especially on the magic mechanics side of things.