The Ultimate List of Questions for Brandon

[Kidpen he/him]

8 minutes ago, The One Who Connects said:

Make of this how you will.

Hmm, would a better question be: Is the bond Nightblood makes with those he communicates with similar to the Nahel Bond? Maybe both?

Edited March 27, 2018 by Kidpen

[Fatikis he/him]

If a leecher touched a cognitive shadow/shade would they drain the investiture destroying it?
What happens to leeched investiture?

[Ishar]

So I saw earlier in a different thread that you said that Hoid isn’t quite human, although he was at some point, but his spiritual DNA was altered. Is it possible that this happened due to a bond similar to a Nahel bond, except not with a spren but more likely a Dragon or something (I have more thoughts on what that “something” could be, but imma leave it at that for now). This would then alter his spirit web making him what he is. Is that possible?

[Fatikis he/him]

2 hours ago, Ishar said:

So I saw earlier in a different thread that you said that Hoid isn’t quite human, although he was at some point, but his spiritual DNA was altered. Is it possible that this happened due to a bond similar to a Nahel bond, except not with a spren but more likely a Dragon or something (I have more thoughts on what that “something” could be, but imma leave it at that for now). This would then alter his spirit web making him what he is. Is that possible?

I don't think a bond like that would work. Sprens are essentially investiture where dragons are a race. A bond with them seems like a human bonding a Parshman. They could perhaps form some kind of a bond, but It wouldn't alter them into being nonhuman.

I have some interesting quotes on the topic.

Hoid describes himself to Kelsier as. 
"The flame's last breath, made of smoke at its passing."

This sounds a lot like a cognitive shadow to me. The investiture left over after the fire or man is gone.

Hoid to Dalinar (after namedropping Adonalsium)
"I wonder if you could do that to a man. Pull him apart, emotion by emotion, bit by bit, bloody chunk by bloody chunk. Then combine them back together into something else, like an Dysian Aimian. If you do put a man together like that, Dalinar, be sure to name him Gibberish, after me. Or perhaps Gibletish."

This is even stranger. This seems to describe what was done to Adonalsium and foreshadows Hoid's goal to resurrect Adonalsium.
Name it after me is telling. Seeming that Hoid isn't just describing an action he is taking, but that he himself is Gibletish. A giblet essentially being the unwanted pieces of food that are thrown out. 

Adonalsium held all investiture in the Cosmere. What is left after his power is divided? Giblets or a cognitive shadow. From Secret History we know that someone who has Ascended doesn't have to pass on. They can choose to remain. What if Hoid merged with the leftovers? A normal man that merged with Adonalsium's cognitive shadow or "The flame's last breath, made of smoke at its passing." Not a flame's last breath. THE flame's last breath.

Edited March 28, 2018 by Fatikis

[Ishar]

This brings me to my thoughts on what “something” could be. Is it possible that Hoid somehow bonded with Adonalsium before the shattering, he does mention “I made a vow... I said I would always be there when I was needed” Could this be somehow similar to an ideal of a radiant, and if so, is it possible that he helped shatter Adonalsium by breaking that vow, similar to what occurred in the recreance?

[RShara she/her]

Let's keep this thread about specific questions rather than theories.  Also, chances are, any questions about Hoid's past or motives will be RAFO'd

[Fatikis he/him]

If the soul is made of investiture could a nicrobursted leecher drain the investiture from someone's soul?
 

[Tineye Navigator he/him]

I have a few questions that I would love to have answered, and they relate to my (currently) only theory. That is a topic that Brandon RAFO's a lot, but I think it's worth a shot. 

1. Atium is powered by ruin, instead of preservation, so is atium allomancy actually end-negative?

2. (Assuming the above is true)Would lerasium spikes be end positive?(probably a RAFO)

These next questions are also RAFO, but I put a lot of work into them, so getting even a small answer or hint would be amazing!!

3. Atium can only be burned by a current allomancer, is the reason Lerasium can be burned by anyone because by ingesting Preservation, you have a larger portion of it in you so it becomes easier to snap?

4. If atium allows user to change the future, does Lerasium allow the user to change the past(Similar to forgery, which is also end positive)

[Sariel he/him]

I'll try to give my answers to those questions, according to my understanding of the magic system (tl;dr in the end):

1. In general allomancy, the power comes from preservation, and the metal is just a gate, or a bridge. However, with atium, the power comes from the metal itself, as atium is made of pure investiture. 

2. I don't think so. As atium doesn't change allomancy, lerasium would probably function as a normal spike, except for the unknown attribute it steals.

3. Maybe, but I think the official explanation is that every human on Scardial has a piece of Preservation, and that piece allows them to burn lerasium. According to the coppermind, lerasium create a permanent connection to Preservation and rewrites the user's spiritweb. In addition, snapping is only for 'sleeping' allomantic abilities, not new ones. Also, there isn't such connection between atium and lerasium. They are not opposites.

4. Again, atium and lerasium are not opposites. What atium does is not changing the future, but more of informing the user of the near future by allowing him to pick into the spiritual realm (which is interesting, because Ruin himself is bad at reading the future). Forgery, too, doesn't really change the past, but more allows to rewrite an object's (or a person's) spiritual connection, or possibly it's spiritweb (it may actually be the same thing). It always seems strange to me, as it is mentioned many times in The Emperor's Soul that Forgery works on how the object views itself and how others view it, which is cognitive and not spiritual. So, in conclusion, probably not. 

tl:dr

No, no, maybe but I don't think so, highly improbable.

[Calderis he/him]

1 hour ago, Tineye Navigator said:

1. Atium is powered by ruin, instead of preservation, so is atium allomancy actually end-negative?

No. The investiture is still functioning according to Allomancy's rules. "of Ruin" could only really loosely be attributed to the user being turned into a  ridiculously efficient killing machine. To be end negative, there would need to be some form of investiture loss. 

1 hour ago, Tineye Navigator said:

2. (Assuming the above is true)Would lerasium spikes be end positive?(probably a RAFO)

I strongly doubt it. Just as atium is forced to follow the rules in Allomancy, lerasium should be bound to Hemalurgy's rules. The nature of Preservation may slow the decay... But I don't see how the system would gain an input of investiture in contrast to a loss as is constant in the rest of hemalurgy. 

[Oversleep]

18 hours ago, Fatikis said:

If the soul is made of investiture could a nicrobursted leecher drain the investiture from someone's soul?

No:

Quote

Oversleep (paraphrased)

Let's say we have a Twinborn aluminium/nicrosil and he tapped a lot of nicrosil, so much he started to emit mist and then burned aluminum. Would he destroy his own Investiture?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

No.

source

[Fatikis he/him]

3 hours ago, Oversleep said:

No:

Your WoB is interesting, but it does not dismiss the possibility. 
First there is a major difference between using allomantic nicrosil to using feruchemical nicrosil. 
The Nicroburst being a major player in this. You aren't just tapping or even flaring the chromium. You are bursting it which should cause much more extreme results. Tapping a lot of stored Aluminum probably isn't going to work the same, but it would be similar. I'd say this WoB is evidence it might not work, but not a hard no.

Next there is a huge difference between using yourself and someone else.
I assume there would also be a need to be knowledge and intent in the actions if they are possible. You'd have to know the soul is made of investiture and you'd need to be actively trying to leech it.

Edited March 30, 2018 by Fatikis

[Oversleep]

46 minutes ago, Fatikis said:

Your WoB is interesting, but it does not dismiss the possibility. 

You are clearly confusing things here. Feruchemical nicrosil is here to provide a huge amount of Allomantic power, easily far above effects of burning duralumin or being Nicrobursted.

Nobody is tapping aluminum here, either. It's burned, which has the same effects on yourself as if you were Leeched (perhaps it's even stronger as you are the one doing it and not someone else trying to influence you).

[Fatikis he/him]

7 hours ago, Oversleep said:

You are clearly confusing things here. Feruchemical nicrosil is here to provide a huge amount of Allomantic power, easily far above effects of burning duralumin or being Nicrobursted.

Nobody is tapping aluminum here, either. It's burned, which has the same effects on yourself as if you were Leeched (perhaps it's even stronger as you are the one doing it and not someone else trying to influence you).

I think it is pretty clear the situations are similar but not the same.

A twinborn isn't going to accidentally destroy their own soul. Intent is pretty important in these circumstances.

We also have no information on how powerful Nicrobursting can be. You can tap a mind multiple times for huge amounts of power. Someone about to be nicrobursted could also hold huge metal reserves all used up in an instant. We currently have no example of how powerful this could be. It is very possible a gut full of nicrobusted allomancy could compete with tapping metal minds. We've never seen anyone with absurd reserves of metal prior to duralumin usage or being leeched.

Edited March 30, 2018 by Fatikis

[Calderis he/him]

9 minutes ago, Fatikis said:

We also have no information on how powerful Nicrobursting can be. You can tap a mind multiple times for huge amounts of power. Someone about to be nicrobursted could also hold huge metal reserves all used up in an instant. We currently have no example of how powerful this could be. It is very possible a gut full of nicrobusted allomancy could compete with tapping metal minds. We've never seen anyone with absurd reserves of metal prior to duralumin usage or being leeched.

We have been told (though it is old) that Nicrosil Allomancy is not a one-to-one comparison to duralumin externally. It's most likely slower burning, and not nearly as instant of a burst. 

Quote

Kirrin

Also, you should tell us what the last two metals are.

Brandon Sanderson

The last two metals are Chromium and Nicrosil. We'll reveal what they do on the Allomancy poster. Suffice it to say that in the next trilogy, the main protagonist would be a Nicrosil Misting. And, to make a Robert Jordan-type comment, what those two metals do should become obvious to the serious student of Allomancy... (It has to do with the nature of the metal groupings.)

Happy Man

If I read the poster correctly, and have the correlations down, these metals are the external enhancement metals.

The simplest idea is that they do to another person what Aluminum and Duralumin do to the Allomancer burning them. If this is true, then Chromium would destroy another Allomancer's metals (useful skill, that, especially in a group of Mistings fighting a Mistborn) while Nicrosil would cause the target's metals that are currently burning to be burned in a brief, intense flash. This could be used either to enhance a group of Mistings or to seriously mess up an enemy Allomancer.

Peter Ahlstrom

The other metals do not have exact one-to-one power correlations like that, so it seems more likely to me that they would work differently. It could be like an area effect weakening or enhancing spell. You would want an enhancer in your party, and you wouldn't want to go up against a weakener.

Nicrosil is a rather more complicated alloy than the others. It's an interesting one to pick, rather than something simpler like nichrome (though I guess that's actually a brand name)

Brandon Sanderson

Nicely done.

Ookla is right, the others don't have 1/1 correlations. But I liked this concept far too much not to use it.

In a future book series, Mistborn will also have become things of legend. The bloodlines will have become diluted to the point that there are no Mistborn, only Mistings—however, the latter are far more common. In this environment, a Nicrosil Misting could be invaluable both as an enhancer to your own team or a weapon to use against unsuspecting other Mistings.

Douglas

I take it either Spook did not have children or Sazed made him a reduced-strength Mistborn rather than giving him the full potency of the 9 originals and Elend?

Brandon Sanderson

Spook is a reduced power Mistborn.

Chaos

Very interesting about the Nicrosil.

So, if there is no more atium, then that would mean in any future trilogy, there would only be 14 metals, right? Somehow, that doesn't seem right, but maybe that is because it irks me that one quartet to be left incomplete with the absence of atium.

Would it be possible for Sazed to create a replacement metal, by chance, or will the temporal quartet remain inherently empty? It doesn't seem like it's too far of a stretch for Sazed to make more metals: after all, the metal Elend ate was a fragment of Preservation, and now Sazed holds Preservation.

Brandon Sanderson

That's a RAFO, I'm afraid. Suffice it to say that what the characters think they understand about the metals, they don't QUITE get right. If you study the interaction between the temporal metals, you might notice an inconsistency in the way they work...

Peter Ahlstrom

Uh-huh. That was already noticed by theorizers in the forums here. Gold works like Malatium and Electrum works like Atium. Yet they're on opposite corners of the metal square.

Brandon Sanderson

Ah. I wondered if that had been noticed.

source

 

[Oversleep]

51 minutes ago, Fatikis said:

A twinborn isn't going to accidentally destroy their own soul. Intent is pretty important in these circumstances.

Why? It has nothing to do with intent. You burn aluminum, you get cleansed of Investiture.

52 minutes ago, Fatikis said:

We also have no information on how powerful Nicrobursting can be. You can tap a mind multiple times for huge amounts of power. Someone about to be nicrobursted could also hold huge metal reserves all used up in an instant. We currently have no example of how powerful this could be. It is very possible a gut full of nicrobusted allomancy could compete with tapping metal minds. We've never seen anyone with absurd reserves of metal prior to duralumin usage or being leeched.

This is not quite right.

Duraluminum does not use up everything in an "instant". No, while it does speed up burning, the effect is far from instantaneous. We see this in WoA and HoA, when our Mistborns burn duralumin. The duralumined metals last for a few seconds - which by definition is not instant. Therefore it's quite likely that duralumin can only compress this much. So more metal would give you more time with superflare.

But we have never seen someone with duralumin accomplish things that are possible by someone at Mistpoint (tapping so much nicrosil they start to emit mist). Pushing on trace metals, for example.

[continuumg]

How technologically advanced was Yolen prior to the shattering?

[c4m]

are vet, rial, and cob worldhoppers?

[Leyrann]

You have previously said that allomancy can be compared to the Shards as a "further deviation on an established pattern". Is there a non-arbitrary pattern to the Intents of the Shards?

(for reference, the WoB: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/95-general-twitter-2016/#e833)

(note that this does not mean it is the only non-arbitrary pattern possible)

Also, related to this thread in general: Might it be a good idea to update the first post to link to Arcanum instead of Theoryland?

EDIT: Another one: How many Rosharan seconds go in a Rosharan minute, and how many Rosharan minutes go in a Rosharan hour?

Edited April 4, 2018 by Leyrann

[Stark he/him]

It has been stated that Vyre's actions that earned him his name would be considered akin to Hemalurgy, if not outright Hemalurgy, by some Cosmere scholars.  Would those same scholars have similar opinions about trapping a spren in a specific gem to elicit a controlled power response?  If not, why not?  How would they view it as different?

[I Am Witless she/her]

YOU GUYS I JUST THOUGHT OF A QUESTION THAT NO ONE HAS ASKED BEFORE.

People from Roshar think that all birds are chickens, right? Well, birds are related to dinosaurs. Would they call a feathered dinosaur a chicken?

[continuumg]

The Thaylen belief system the Passions; did that originate with Odium?

[The One Who Connects he/him]

10 hours ago, continuumg said:

The Thaylen belief system the Passions; did that originate with Odium?

Make of this as you wish:

Quote

Questioner
Navani’s emotion fabrial, are those correspondent to the Thaylen Passions in any way?

Brandon Sanderson
Yes, but the Thaylen Passions would’ve come second to some of this.

Questioner
So through a cultural filter?

Brandon Sanderson
Yes. There is no magic to the Thaylen Passions, they are a religion but with no magical component. Sometimes a religion is just a religion.

[Stark he/him]

Both the Lord Ruler and Hoid have been shown to have regeneration factors that rival Wolverine, and are equally difficult to kill through conventional means.  As a result of this, have the Lord Ruler and/or Hoid been creatively dismembered enough that the Kandra could theoretically have collected enough of their bones to create one or more full skeletons for them?

 

If so, what would the kandra have done with the ability to imitate the Lord Ruler and Hoid?

 

I was reading about Evil Deadpool, and then thought of the kandra, and what they could do with multiple copies of the Cosmere's most infamous regenerator's body parts. 

[Rayze]

Cosmere question: since Ruin and Preservation working together were able to create life on Scadrial, is it possible that Harmony can repair a splintered Shard?

Edited August 28, 2018 by Rayze