Ari

I will note that Brandon has been discussing an additional Cyberpunk Mistborn Era on Reddit, placed between the previous Era 3 and Era 4 books, in which case Era 4 would become Era 5. But that's a long way from being confirmed of course.

Even if Ettmetal is not one of the metals used directly in the Metallic Arts as practised by Allomancers and Feruchemists, it's still an "allomantic metal" in that it can power Allomancy.

It's quite difficult to say what Braize's magic would be, as the only magic we've seen that actually depended heavily on the Shard's intent has been Hemalurgy. Every other magic system has either been much more related to the planet's Focus, (eg. the systems on Sel) the planet's Manifestation, (eg. Roshar) or both. (eg. Nalthis)

Without giving away anything on this issue or any other... you should absolutely read secret history.

I feel like you're overplaying Kelsier's influence in those last two events. All he really did was give the people involved enough space to really be themselves. He didn't even influence Marsh directly at all. I can't argue with your feelings about Kelsier's ghost still being around though. That's a very personal reason to dislike the book existing and it's perfectly valid. I'd just say that even if there's an afterlife in a fantasy book, it doesn't undermine people who died sacrificing themselves not knowing what's going on. Their sacrifice is still noble. And there are some really appropriate themes for Kelsier in this book. But I understand that "undoing" that moment to any degree could feel like undermining your feeling about that moment.

The issue is that flattening the continents inherently distorts their shape and/or relative position to some degree. Compressing the size of the oceans probably doesn't solve that.

You can edit the title, but the BoM tag is mainly there as a courtesy to people in case they see the topic in the related threads, and for when this forum is merged back into general Mistborn but there are still stragglers who haven't read BoM. As for how tapping Investiture lets you use Metallic Arts, think about what storing Investiture must effectively do- it makes you not an Allomancer or Feruchemist temporarily, or greatly weakens your powers. Investiture is, effectively, your own capacity for magic. On top of this, the relevant Ferring would somehow also need to be storing in an Aluminiumind to make sure there's no identity locking their Nicrosilmind from others tapping it. So they have an unlocked Nicrosilmind which also stores the ability to tap the other unlocked metalmind in middle of the medallions. Boom, Feruchemy anyone can use. (The tricky thing is what's going on that anyone can tap the Nicrosilmind without being the right kind of ferring- it's possibly that's a property of Nicrosilminds in general, or that something really funky is going on there)

I'm definitely down to Spren, Oaths, or Gems as the focus for Roshar. lol. The argument against Oaths is that Fabrials don't seem to need them, the argument against Spren that none of the other foci work that way, and the argument against gems is that Radiants only seem to need them to store Stormlight. I'm sure we'll RAFO more and Brandon will poke holes in one of these three theories. I just can't make up my mind anymore on which it is, even though back a few months ago I would have been screaming that it was gems. There's also another relevant element- what I'm currently calling the Manfestation of investiture, which is reflected in the cognitive realm of each planet. (I've also heard it called the Essence, but I dislike that terminology) On Scadrial, it's as Mist. On Roshar, it's some weird mixture of storms and glass/crystal/gems. On Nalthis, it's as colours. It seems like the leakage can happen in any number of forms, so long as that form is either solid or liquid. Nalthis leaks its manifestation. Scadrial leaks its focus for one Shard. Aona's cognitive shadow on Sel leaks liquid investiture the same way Preservation does, and who else other than Brandon knows what that signifies?. The only thing that we've seen be consistent about these leakages is that we've never confirmed that the perpendicularity is anywhere but where the leakage occurs.

I think overtapping is a bit like the reason you can't just have a giant ant running around with the proportional strength of an ant- because its strength is relative to the area of its muscles but the required strength for it to move around is relative to its total mass. Likewise scaling up how fast you're tapping is like trying to add all the extra muscle you need to that giant ant, and you end up using a lot more of your metalmind's charge to do it.

Rshara is correct, Brandon has also explicitly said that Shadesmar is the Cognitive on Roshar, I just don't think it's made its way into Theoryland. I'm pretty sure the Cognitive reflection of planets is flattened, otherwise you wouldn't be able to walk into the Expanses. (the cognitive reflection of space) Don't ask me how that works though- there's all sorts of geometry problems to flattening a planet, not the least is- which parts of it do you have touch the cognitive reflection of space?

Depends if that Shard is also the Space Shard or not. If it is, it's not on Yolen itself, so it might be difficult to be Invested enough there to hide the planet.

I think it makes far more sense from an Investiture Cycle point of view if Leechers make you burn the metal without being able to use it as a Focus to get at Preservation's power, as both the Investiture and the metals are apparently "recycled" somehow. (We have a WoB that Scadrial isn't going to deplete its metals due to Allomancy)

Yeah Rust is a non-starter for obvious reasons. Sazed has explicitly said he does not understand the god metal located or the attack he's under. That rules out anything related to Ruin or Preservation. for sure, and suggests that if it is a Shard, they've done some innovating since Ati or Leras last spied on them. (Which would have been some time ago, as Leras was mostly brain-dead by the end of M:FE, and Ati was imprisoned until the end of M:WoA, and then rather focused on ending Scadrial) Autonomy is not wanting to be controlled by someone else, and to be capable of independence. It doesn't prevent free association or choosing to take assistance, otherwise everyone on Taldain would be isolated from each other lest they interfere with each other's plans. I think if you don't see Odium working together with Autonomy, there's the interesting coincidence of him Splintering Skai as well as Devotion when he visited Sel to explain, when they seem to be the chief opposition to each of those Shards. It's entirely possible they each see each other as transitory allies, with similar goals for now, that will come into conflict once Autonomy sees all of the oppressive Shards eliminated. Odium is scared of Harmony. But he also seems to have been doing pretty well at eliminating his potential competitors. I'd think being scared of Harmony would bump him up the list of targets dramatically, and Odium would at the least want to keep him distracted.

That depends if the bomb is conventional or magical in nature, of course. But if the bomb is conventional that does make a good argument for it being something like Uranium. Thanks for the more detailed Chemistry! I'm by no means an expert lol. Atium, Lerasium, and presumably Harmonium are all solid forms of Investiture. There's a reason Atium seems to be almost exclusively used for violence- it's metallic Ruin. They're all also metals. It's valid that Lerasium or Harmonium could be ettmetal, although I imagine Lerasium and Atium would translate using the Connection medallion. Harmonium possibly wouldn't, as the Basin is still asking if it even exists. But likewise, they probably don't have a word for Uranium, either.

Merging is good if each thread has unique points to make. If one thread is all just rehash, you can probably reduce confusion by closing the less useful thread and linking to the more original discussion.

Yeah, it's apparently mentioned offhand in the new edition of Elantris in its Ars Arcanum.

Quote incoming from theoryland, confirming no Shard on First of the Sun: (It also seems to imply no Splinter there either)

We have WoB that Odium is not using that particular trick, but has other ways to manipulate people. I don't think Odium is directly influencing his boon or curse, just the trust he's placed in it. (ie. he sends a hatespren to give Taravangian visions on a day that Taravangian is feeling very smart. Everyone assumes that these visions are genius-level predictive ability, when in fact much of it is just Odium's minion feeding Taravangian things he will interpret in a typically unempathic way) Supporting evidence: (All from the chapter named Lift, I-9 of Words of Radiance) Where Wyndle complains about how he didn't want to choose Lift, he explicitly mentions her visiting the Nightwatcher: Wyndle discusses his invisibility, and why Lift can see and touch him, and he refers to the Nightwatcher as his mother: And the last discussion of Lift's boon: Some backup that Wyndle is a Cultivationspren: (we also have WoB that Wyndle sees himself as such in the same way Syl sees herself as an Honourspren) Taken together, these quotes paint a picture that the Nightwatcher is viewed as something equivilent to Cultivation by her Cultivationspren. It's not definitive that they're the same thing, or that the Nightwatcher is Her spren, but it's clear at the least that there's some association.

Yeah, I understand the Investiture Cycle is effectively a thing that happens as a result of a Shard being heavily Invested in a planet, and it functions a bit like humidity. But doesn't the recycled investiture show up at a Shard's perpendicularity? (somewhat like water running downhill towards lakes or in rivers in the water cycle, the perpendicularity seems to act as the place where investiture goes when it's used up all its potential energy)

Losing your metalmind is still end-neutral. The power is there to be tapped, and unless you stored Aluminium at the same time, it's still keyed to you. You just stored too much too quickly

We don't actually have any evidence for that, do we? I mean, it's not impossible, but it's all empty speculation at this point. And it would be very interesting that Honour's cognitive shadow could affect them so much if he wasn't already heavily Invested in the highstorms. Shouldn't investiture only be leaking as a solid/liquid at the relevant Perpendicularity? In which case, we'd expect to see all the greatshells up in Horneater territory, or perhaps in Shin if we're talking Cultivation. I'm not sure I buy gemhearts as the relevant leak, I'm pretty sure we just have traditional Shardpools in play, filled with liquid Investiture. That said, I don't agree with Oversleep either- the leak from the Cognitive and Spiritual for using large amounts of Investiture on a planet does not have to be manifest as the planetary focus. (Hell, good luck with that for Endowment- her focus are Commands) For example on Nalthis, Endowment's leak appears to be flowers, used to make the best dyes, which plays in to colours being a catalyst for Investing objects on Nalthis.

Fortune is a Feruchemical attribute. They could just as easily be talking about that. Also, it doesn't really fit the naming scheme for Shards. Also, welcome!

You're right that Odium is just as likely opposed to Devotion as he is to Honour. I also agree that Justice is part of Honour's intent. Stagnation is essentially another name for Preservation. Cultivation would probably have issues if they came into direct contact before Harmony showed up. All of the yes to your second paragraph. I've been saying similar things for a long time. I don't know if you're necessarily correct that Shards can't go up against their opposites. There's some revealing stuff ia recently released mistborn book that suggests that what happened with Ruin and Preservation is atypical.

Hahaha we know tons now, it's just that we know enough to understand exactly how ignorant we are of some key details. Focuses are something we got from Brandon talking about how Aons and Metals work. They are definitely a part of the magic system. You can't abstract them out because there are exceptions for Vessels and future-Vessels using powers without foci. The rules for Vessels are different.

I would imagine it's extremely perilous to travel the Cognitive Realm, at least in any place rich with ideas, without any investiture. That said, I imagine you could technically worldhop while being a drab yourself (at least most of the time) so long as you have invested objects you can draw power from as needed.