PorridgeBrick

Rosharan physiology doesn't seem to be perfectly 1 to 1 with Earth. After all, hair color is coded differently in the genome, allowing for stripes of two different hair colors. I don't see why their violet eyes couldn't be natural to them. Edit: And more weirdness, too. The Natan have blueish skin and white, wooly hair. Thaylen have enormous eyebrows. Iri are golden everywhere. There's lots of bizarre Rosharan mutations already, so eye color isn't that implausible.

My own hypothesis for how the genetics of it work is that surgebinders only pass on the lightness of their new eyes, not its color. So if they were brown-eyed, and became blue-eyed as a Windrunner, their children would still have brown eyes, just light ones as opposed to dark. And since no one naturally has red eyes except albinos, the trait of having light, red eyes would never occur without having a nahel bond.

We have to remember that Harmony changed back the Metallic Arts. I find it very plausible that before his Ascension, when Atium was in the temporal block, that Gold spikes could steal Feruchemical atium too, as part of its quadrant. Thus Marsh's spike would not actually be reproducible today. Anyways, my thoughts. 8 Steel: Pretty clearly just doubling up all the metals. 8 Spikes, 4 powers possible. 8 Bronze: Same thing. 8 spikes, four powers. As Marsh is a Bronze misting, that means one power is tripled. I'll put my money on Allomantic bronze tripled, for the sake of symmetry. 2 Pewter: This one is interesting. Feruchemical steel, definitely. But what is the other? Weight, as the only physical power not covered yet? Or strength, for maximum overkill when combined with the doubled up Allomantic pewter? 2 Gold: Feruchemical gold and Feruchemical atium. 1 Aluminum: Allomantic duralumin. 1 Atium: Allomantic atium. Arcanist, I doubt he has 23. Inkthinker does specify that it's at the height of Marsh's power. If he got another spike after, then 22 would no longer be the height.

I really don't see any need for human attributes, when you can obtain that just as easily through Allomancy or Feruchemy, without the nasty side effects. He's got Pewter compounding. How much stronger do you need to be?

You called?

Hey, this is SA talk here. No Scadrians allowed!

I'm pretty sure half the forums have been nominated for that list by now. We need to find strict, testable criteria for examining list-worthiness methinks. Just being creepy doesn't cut it any more.

Bleh, didn't even notice it was missing. Edit time. I think this is the best version of this list. It's got 22 spikes, which fits better with the description "upwards of twenty". Any more spikes, and you either start using human attributes or doubling the remainder, which I find unlikely to be doubled. I doubt the use of human attributes, because Compounding can cover all those traits easily, and without the horrific distortion inherent to human attributes.

Okay, so here's the new list then. I took down both Allomantic zinc and Allomantic brass. It seems unlikely to me they'd do one and not the other. So to compensate, I doubled up both Allomantic pewter and Allomantic tin. I fear I'm creating too mucn of a monster here though, with compounding AND doubled up spikes. If this is right, then you really had best not grapple with Marsh, because he will tear you limb from limb like others snap twigs. And best not to get within a mile of him, because he will sense you.

Shallan's blade. Living. Very misty. Argument invalid.

Okay, now to amend this for Marsh. I'm pretty sure he's got Allomantic steel/Allomantic iron doubled. Even if they're savants, they still have weaker powers from hemalurgic decay, so extra power there helps a ton. Besides, I thought this was confirmed in the books?Feruchemical tin is a decently likely choice for a spike. It's better than Allomantic tin in several ways– there's total control over how fast you use it up, you can have insanely massive power stores in metalminds, and you can select each sense you want individually– no wasting energy enhancing nonexistent sight. Compounding makes it even better. But you might not even really need Allomantic tin, since Feruchemical tin is better in all aspects except having to store. And storing is less painful for an Inquisitor, as their steely eyes should be unaffected. Doubling up Allomantic brass and Allomantic zinc are just guesses, really. Super-powered mind control is great for paralyzing your enemies while you stab them to death. Allomantic duralumin can do the same, but you're left vulnerable. An Inq without metals is completely blind. With all these, the total is 21. If the number is more than that, they'll probably start with doubling up Allomantic pewter. All that's left after that are any human physical traits, which tend to distort, so he likely has very few – one for strength and one for intelligence at most, probably. So that sets the max at 24, min at 21.

Anyone know if those metals are simplified at all in the MAG?

Some possibilities for the remainder. • Feruchemical tin. Enhanced hearing and smell is pretty helpful, particularly when your sight is rather impaired in some respects. • Another Allomantic pewter. Physical strength is nice. • Maybe some of the human, non-allomantic/feruchemical attributes like strength? Of course, they do tend to rather distort their bearers, as seen in koloss. • Allomantic gold, for compounding. • Maybe double up on Allomantic zinc or Allomantic brass?

Actually, while enhanced color recognition, and maybe life sense too, is a large factor in aura recognition, it may not be all of it. Even though perfect color recognition kicks in at Third Heightening and life sense at Fourth, the ability to sense the auras of objects comes in at Seventh, well after those two traits are maxed out. And aura recognition for people is maxed out well before color and life sense, at First Heightening.

Not having a book doesn't mean he won't be a major character. It just means we don't see his flashbacks, and tbh, we don't need them. It's not Adolin's past that is interesting, it's his future. We want to see what he will do next, how he will change, how he will react. But Szeth? It's all about finding out who he was, how he became who he is now. Jasnah, Eshonai, Taln, Lift– they all have unknown, mysterious pasts, pasts that are some of the main points of why the character holds our interest. They're the ones that need flashbacks. Adolin's past is pretty much covered by Dalinar. We don't need to retread stuff so Adolin can have his own book.

Space in the Cognitive Realm expands and contracts depending on how much stuff is there. Empty space takes up almost no space, while a city or rainforest, with lots and lots of objects, takes up a ton of space in the Cognitive. So if Roshar was annihilated completely, most of the area it takes up in Shadesmar would be gone.

But do Spikes count as an impurity? They're integrated into your Spiritweb, so I don't think any Spiritual check for foreign objects would actually notice them and destroy them. Normal, burnable metals don't have that sort of integration, so Aluminum can target them.

Careful, here. The reactant of Awakening is most definitely not light waves. If it were, a maximally drained object would be black, and not the other way around. It's really some strange, Spiritual or Cognitive concept of 'color' – magical pigment. I don't see much of a relation to the focus here. Not only is the reactant not lightwaves, but the focus isn't soundwaves either, since you can instinctively Command. The focus is the thought itself, the intent, the idea. Just like Allomancy's focus and reactant overlap, Awakening's intent and focus overlap. The Spiritual Concept of color and the Commands don't really have much relation that I can see, other than in the fact that both are Spiritual/nonPhysical. Sorry, but this sounds like the effect, not the focus. The focus is the pattern, the blueprint for your effect. It's the independent variable to the effect's dependent variable. Use a different version of the focus (tin vs. iron, for example), you get a different form of the Investiture (sight enhancement vs. steelpulling). So in this case, you're saying that the effect on Roshar is determined by which form of kinetic energy you have. If you have a fire near you, you can use Friction or Lightweaving, because the pattern of heat is corresponds to the Friction surge, and the pattern of light energy corresponds to Lightweaving. This isn't how the magic works that we've seen. Yes, surgebinding can produce heat, or light, or gravity, or all kinds of kinetic energy, but that doesn't make it the focus. Steelpushes, enhanced sight, enhanced bodily functions, etc – these are produced by Allomancy, but they're not the focus. They're just the effect. And besides, I really don't think we can extrapolate a focus from the reactant. In the case of Awakening and Shshshshsh, the two are really not all that related, so Roshar's shouldn't have to be all that related. I say passively because it's not actively intended. When Kal surgebinds, he doesn't think "I should drain all the heat around me." It just happens as a result of him surgebinding. In Allomancy, Vin doesn't think "Destroy this metal", she thinks, "Use this reserve of Investiture the metal makes accessible to me." Awakeners don't think "Drain all the color around me", but more "Make this object do my bidding!" @Tempus & Skaa Well said, Tempus. Edit: Sorry, Ipad posted it a bit early. Give me a sec. Edit: Done.

I think reactant is the best term for this so far. Also, @Tempus, I hadn't checked that thread yet, so I didn't know the gas expansion hypothesis was debunked. Too bad. I rather liked the idea. In any case, with that idea out of the question, I have to agree that the frost effect probably does come from draining the surrounding heat of the area a la Awakening color drain, so point for you there. Anyways, here's my understanding of the generalized process here. Investiture (fuel) + Focus (controls, defines the power) + Reactant (passively consumed by reaction) -> Effect Preservation's power (Investiture) + Metal (both focus and reactant) -> Allomancy Breaths (Investiture) + Command (Focus) + Color (Reactant) -> Awakening Stormlight (Investiture) + ???? (Focus) + Heat (Reactant) ->. Surgebinding Dor (Investiture) + Symbol (Focus) + ???? (Reactant) -> AonDor Shshshshsh (Investiture) + Shshshshsh (Focus) + Shshshshshsh (Reactant) -> Taldainian Investiture

I'm likewise leery of the idea of calling it 'fuel', because that's the Investiture. Dunno what other term we could use, but we really need a better one. And I'm not quite sure that the frost effect is an example of this, or if it's a result of gas expansion as EMTrevor was saying. But certainly, Allomancy and Awakening are pretty sure examples of it.

We are talking about Compounding here though, where storing is only needed for one single moment. I can see Feruchemical cadmium and Feruchemical bendalloy as being pretty nasty for addiction. If you Compound long enough, would your body simply forgot how to breathe, your lung muscles atrophying until they're completely useless? And the same for your digestive system with Feruchemical bendalloy.

The "pressure system" for Investiture makes a lot of sense. We know that on Sel, there's a lot of pressure for the Dor to get out, and the symbols act as openings for that pressure to escape. We also know that Sel's Shadesmar is pretty dangerous, likely because of the high pressure. And in the case of Roshar, we know that it does not have the same problems as Sel because the spren are able to act as "outlets"– the pressure can't build up, because some of it gets bonded to the spren instead. The pressure is a pretty plausible mechanic for highstorms, too, with a pressure wave in the Cognitive/Spiritual forcing along the storm and infusing gems with Investiture to let some of it out. And there was some talk in another thread about metals acting as a low-pressure area so that Preservation's power (likely again under pressure) will flow out.

Beautiful. It's great to hear from people who really know what they're talking about. Just one thing though. I don't think the cells 'overclocking' is what's causing the healing factor. After all, they can heal shardblade wounds, something no bodily function, no matter how powered up it is, can replicate. The healing factor is entirely separated from any physiological mechanisms. It's a completely magical, Cognitive 'healing', a la Feruchemical gold, where it's essentially reconstituting, recreating and reforming the body, instead of healing like a natural body would. The other physical boosts definitely come from 'overclocking' though. Edit: Also

“They come from the kitchen, two dead men, a soufflé in their hands, and I know that I have seen true glory.”