Swimmingly

Then the brightest gems would actually be ones poorly cut. You could make Stormlight floodlights using badly cut gems, or even stormlight lasers with gem-cutter rejects as power sources

Fair enough. As little as I like it, I suppose Ete might have had a point

But then you might need a quite good Seeker to tell what he was doing

Given that all Cosmere works (so far) are set in a single dwarf galaxy, it would make sense that they see the same stars. And I have no idea how Shards affect suns. The White Sand world had some odd heliodynamics, but hard to say.

I was recently writing a short story involving a kid getting tested for Allomancy at a doctor, and the procedure involves giving him a cup of apple juice full of metal, having him try to burn it, then Leeching away everything that didn't work. Would this work to clear the stomach of a non-allomantic kid?

Maybe it's possible to insulate metals so that aluminum can't burn them off - and neither can Chromium. On the other hand, you can't access them. Possibly a pill you break with a molar containing back-up metal. Can you burn metal still in your mouth?

Allomantic iron and Allomantic steel work directly from the center of mass Aluminum foil hats protect against Soothing and Rioting This suggests that these forces originate from specific points, and target specific points. The hats make sense on the receiving end, as the allomancy is working on your brain - except, they aren't working on your brain. They're working on your cognitive aspect, which is held in a different dimension, and Stamps don't need to affect the head. Wait, what? So yeah. Why do hats work? Is it because you believe they should work? Would a glove or pair of underpants work? (Cold metal undies would keep SOMETHING from rioting, that's for sure) How about the Iron and Steel? Where would that originate from if you were weightless? What about Bronzepulses? What part of you picks them up? Does Pewter make you strong all at once or does it start somewhere and flow out? What point on you do Bendalloy and Cadmium bubbles originate from? Your center of mass? Your heart? The most temporally stable bit of you?

What I meant is, are bronzebeats simply beams of information interpreted by the Seeker, or are they waves that can be distorted to appear to be something they aren't - or even have an effect they shouldn't have? Given that metals seem to have weird effects when interacting with allomantic power (aluminum canceling it), it's not far-fetched to assume that there are applications for other metals as physical objects as well as catalysts/batteries. Perhaps a filter could be used to make a coinshot appear to be burning atium to a seeker, or switch the "polarity" of a metal - make Iron push when the ironsight lines pass through a filter, or a hat that turns an attempted soothing into a riot. A seeker might even be able to make copperclouds - and vice versa.

We also can't assume that anyone else IS like him until reasonably demonstrated - whatever he is has the same effect as the Windrunners - mostly - but seems to have a totally different cause

Just one mentioned in passing, originating from New Mexico, who was only killable by five people shooting at her simultaneously

But what about purely physical requests, like the old man who got the sheets? She probably loses no power granting something so mundane, does she? Unless the balance is not a per-transaction deal, but a judgment call, so a worthy person might get a lot and lose a little and an unworthy person might get a little and lose a lot, so it balances out overall, and even someone who gains nothing Investiture or attribute-wise might lose something to keep the balance in the black

I still think that there should be a distinction between the weaknesses of a power (using the clear space in a smoky room to observe indirectly the location of an invisible Epic or forcing that Epic to make noise, as her powers do not conceal her in these situations) and the weakness of the individual (the Epic loses her invisibility entirely at the touch of smoke totally negates her invisibility, having five people trying to kill you totally invalidates invincibility)

In light of a recent signing and questions answered by Brandon there, we know that invested gemstones and hemalurgic spikes are basically the same. Similarities that I see: 1. Both hold a charge of Investiture that is A. specific in type and B. not tied to any one Identity. 2. Both do not require a specific Investor - anybody can leave a gem to be Infused and anybody can spike someone. 3. Both require a cognitively active agent to release their active Investiture 4. Both lose their Investiture over time These similarities imply that other things are similar about them as well: 1. Using a cognitive entity (spren) and a given something to focus that power on, gemstones can be turned into fabrials. This suggests that spikes, too, given a cognitive entity (the spirit of an ancestor/enemy? An animal bred to the purpose or spiked to enhance the required attribute?) can be used to run machine - perhaps even a person can direct a machine this way. 2. Fabrials can be charged from ambient Investiture. On Roshar, the high storms charge gems automatically - on Scadrial, there does not seem to be a way to do this without a Shard personally applying power. Given the absence of spren on Scadrial, the devices probably use a person as their cognitive focus. Potentially, they might be charged by the mists directly, or through animals, though that seems a little cruel; perfect for the villians if that's what they're shaping up to be.

Then we have the problem of Kaladin having done something whereby he gained physical knowledge of a place he had never seen. This knowledge came of some kind of Investure focused around the movement of a highstorm, or had all the illusion of doing so. Their are several possibilities of what this was in my mind: -a vision from a shard, similar to Dal's -a subset power available to windrunners -a subset power available to pressure or gravity surge users -a subset power available only to surgebinders -a symptom of a forming Nahel bond -a quirk specific to Kaladin (likely only if it was not in fact stormriding) -something theoretically available to anyone using Stormlight (except Szeth, probably, cause Szeth seems to be the exception to every rule in the book) -A precursor to Aether's idea of stormriding (also known as foreshadowing) These options are not mutually exclusive. Personally, I believe that Kaladin did in fact stormride, and that involuntary stormriding is a symptom of forming a Nahel bond with a windlike honorspren, though there is little backing this up.

It's also possible that a large enough Splinter of any shard makes you functionally immortal while you hold it - So atium, when burnt feruchemically, simply gives you enough Ruin that you do not age. Except I just remembered that Feruchemical atium compounded can reduce you to a baby, so never mind

Immune to all disease and aging does not mean immune to falling off a ten storie building.

If the answer is the same, then that means the whole frequency of thumps thing is just the allomancer detecting Investure and interpreting it in a certain way. If it sounds different, then Investure really does produce some kind of radiation that can push, pull, have different timbres, etc.

I would say that the quality bit is true, if not entirely the competence. It just means that the value quality over punctuality, which, depending on the industry and job, can be correct or entirely backwards

Thanks

Just to get this straight, the weakness disables the powers by the Epic's personal weakness, but checkmating is simply doing something that the powers themselves can't cope with? Because sometimes the line seems blurry, like with the sunlight, which might be something that dispels the effects of NW's powers, but might also be his personal weakness.

I mean having the bullet constantly releasing poisons. And if they aren't already tapping, knocking them out before they can turn on the Feruchemical gold, effectively taking them out of the fight. Basically, something that does slow damage over time, forcing the ferring to drain all his metalminds on a single bullet.

Hoid doesn't seem like the "ultimate control of everything through brute force" kind of guy. Perhaps, however, he's more the "amass the capacity to use any and all magical tools to achieve my aims where and whenever I go anywhere, exploiting the strengths and weaknesses of local systems to best effect, without revealing my multi-planetary capacities" type.

I hate to double-post. Sorry.The stormriding seemed much more like an out-of-body experience type thing to me. More like a cognitive link between the windspren-like honorspren and the windspren/stormspren/whatever that drive the/exist within/are caused by the storm extending to allow a Windrunner's Cognitive presence to be relocated with the storm?

I wonder if the Surges/voids are Realmatic concepts applicable to other magic systems as well. For example, Health working very much like ReGrowth(note that Health can act differently depending on how much power is used), Allomantic iron and Allomantic steel using forces similar to the basic and reverse lashings, etc.

I like some of these. But Crossfire's just seems silly. Though, come to think of it, naming yourself after your weakness (getting caught in a crossfire) Though Steel heart - courage - lack of fear occurs to me as well I can think of some silly ones as well - Refractory - reefer - smoke Fortuity - get lucky - attractive women Nightwielder - darkness - sunlight Mitosis - splitting up - music from when he was part of a group (belonging, not split up)