Shardlet

Welcome Darkarma. I'm not sure I quite understand. When you say that "Hoid already has allomancy", are you saying that he had allomancy independent of any lerasium burning or because you theorize he burned the lerasium shaving? Also, I'm not sure what you mean when you said "As far we been shown when you burn metal, with the exception of Lerasium, you don't have to burn it all". As I understand it, when you burn a metal allomantically, the metal itself is consumed.

Yeah, the point is not to leave the bloodmaker alive. The point is to kill him. I don't know if I am not understanding you or you are not understanding me. Shoot a bloodmaker through the heart with ordinary bullets, he heals and lives. Shoot him through the heart with pewter bullets, he loses the ability to heal (because the pewter bullet spikes out his ability) and he dies from the bullet wound. I suspect that the physical wound is almost certainly the cause of death for a hemalurgy donor rather than damage to their sDNA or spirit web. It is tough to survive a spiking through the heart.

For me it is not necessarily the structural and defined nature of the magic systems that is particularly appealing. It is the originality.

Perhaps, but again, that is not the idea here. The pewter bullets are intended to act as hemalurgic spikes and passing through the heart of the bloodmaker would charge the spikes and remove that bloodmaker's allomantic and feruchemical ability to heal. This would then result in the death of the bloodmaker due the gunshot wound. In contrast, a bloodmaker being shot with a lead bullet would not result in the bloodmaker's death since he could then heal.

For this idea, Miles being killed in the process is a definite plus. The object is to kill the bloodmaker. The point of the pewter bullets (through the heart) is to rip his bloodmaking ability from him so that he would no longer be able to heal himself.

The book is unclear as to whether the ardents actually take care of the patients in the hospital. The surgeons and nurses are never referred to as ardents (this of course does not mean that they aren't). It seems to me that the ardents administrate the hospitals rather than doing the actual medical work. This would not necessarily require much actual interaction or attention to the patients specifically. Also, as gloom pointed out, it could be set up so that terminal patients are transferred to a specific hospital and that they are harvested from there. That way, the administration at only one hospital need be in on the plan. Au contraire, mon ami. As to Restares/Amaram/Dalinar, remember, Taravangian wanting Dalinar dead is a new development. I have little doubt that Taravangian would readily order his closest allies' deaths if they began to take actions which interferred with his plans. Taravangian appears to believe that what he is doing is that critical.

The problem I havewith the Miles-Death Rattle idea is that the start of the death rattles appears to be closely tied to events on Roshar. They started at about the time that Gavilar was courting the Parshendi (according to Taravangian). Seems like many things were set in motion at about that time (it is also the time where we pick up Kaladin's story).

I disagree, if Nightblood can make other people kill themselves, he could make Szeth do it too. Szeth's restriction against killing himself seems to be theologically and honorbound rather than by some supernatural prevention. While Szeth's honor which prevents him from killing himself would perhaps make it more difficult for Nightblood to get him to do it, Szeth's self-loathing at the murders he has committed would work to weaken that proscription. I get the impression strongly that the only think thing which prevents Szeth from killing himself is his honor whereas most people would have little or no desire to kill themselves.

It seems to me that Kabsal could easily be essentially playing a role with his interactions with both the ardentia and Shallan. I don't see any reason to assume he is not doing so. Perhaps he did indeed have feelings for Shallan. But, those feelings could have begun as he was playing a part to make his frequent visits more plausible. As to the Karbranthian ardentia, while at least some key members of the ardentia are in on Taravangian's extracurricular activities, it should not be assumed that most or even many of the ardents were. In fact, it seems to me that the fewer that were involved, the better. It seems that Taravangian, as well as his compatriots, would have a vested interest in making sure word didn't get out about the bloodletting. As to the watchful ardents such as the one watching over Shallan, recall she was on suicide watch. I don't see any reason to suspect that every patient in every hospital has an ardent watching over them. Again, too many eyes and ears for comfort. As to the ardents and Taravangian being evil, it appears that Taravangian is earnestly attempting to forstall or avoid the everstorm. He has rationalized harvesting peoples lives (even those who would not die in a timely manner without intervention) with the need for the information provided by the death rattles. He appears to have a plan which requires a lack of stability and unity among the nations. It is not uncommon for people who are not evil to rationalize (they would say justify) atrocities for the greater good. Even Jasnah defends the philosophical value of the ends justifying the means. I think it is premature to categorize Taravangian as evil. The ardents are even less clear. While there appear to be ardents who have divided, or at least hidden, loyalties, I don't think there is nearly enough information to lump all, or even most, of the ardents together in this. We have a very small sample of what appears to be a very large group. Undoubtedly there are those in the ardentia who at least desire to regain the power and authority they once held. But, we have only actually interacted directly with three or four ardents. One of whom may not have actually been an ardent, one who appears completely benign, and one who spoke suspiciously. Others, we have seen (such as the hospital ardents) but have only vague impressions of motivations and ideals. In all, your idea seems possible, but I think the evidence is too thin to assign any likelihood to it. Personally, I am more inclined to think of Taravangian's crew (including his stormwardens and bloodletting ardents), the Ghostbloods, and the Ardentia at large as three separate factions with some overlap. But, we know so little about these factions that evidence for that idea is perhaps equally thin. I look forward to Travangian POVs, Dalinar and Amaram interactions, and more Jasnah and Shallan interactions in WoR. These three groups will give us much further insight into these factions.

Love your qualifications.

The OP has never been updated and Zas has been out of comission for a year now (boy, is he going to have a lot of catch-up to do when he gets back next year). The WoR readings all (well most actually) are in a single thread in the WoR subforum. The rest, as well as Q&As, are all in the Events, Signings, and Stalkings subforum. It would be a lot to combine links to all in a single thread. Easier just to plug through it in the subforum. At least it shows you what you've looked at and what you haven't. The lift reading is, unfortunately, AWOL since the man with the recording has apparently been extraordinarily busy. I know where it began and ended, but I am giving him right of posting since he has the recording. Don't hate me too much. I shall seek to encourage him further.

Welcome Korvin. I share your excitement and, I presume, anticipation. Glad to have you with us.

Argent is right that this has been spotted before. In conjunction with this observation, Brandon has stated that all Shards share the same origin. This suggests that some terminology and such are found in more than one world without there being a direct connection between those worlds except for that they both have Shards. If you are interested here are some of those previous threads that have discussed this: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/3102-sash/?hl=%2Bshash+%2Bwarbreaker+%2Broshar#entry50810 http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/3958-links-to-yolen/?hl=%2Bshash+%2Bwarbreaker+%2Broshar#entry62691 http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/1322-shash/?hl=%2Bshash+%2Bwarbreaker+%2Broshar#entry28359 http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/243-shash/?hl=%2Bshash+%2Bwarbreaker+%2Broshar

The rub is art is not necessarily representative. To be sure, Shallan has mad skills at representational drawing. But that says nothing about her artistic eye or artistic interpretation. Shallan's perfect memory is essentially a regurgitation of what she saw when she took a memory. Shai on the other hand, as a skilled forger clearly, has excellent skill as well (as evidenced further by her extraordinarily skilled actual art forgery). But, she seems to posess a more perceptive mind and is appears to have reasonably strong artistic interpretation as well. Given the info that we have so far, I think Shai would have the upperhand in producing a piece of artistic expression rather than a representation of a scene.

Glad to finally hear from you weebojelllo. Welcome.

Well, If the previous 'owner' of the blade gave it up (voluntarily or by death) and it was collected carefully to avoid bonding with it, then it could still be present. Also, if the 'owner' willed it to stay, it could have stayed that way also. Either circumstance seems an unlikely and unsafe means of storing a blade.

CAUTION!! The following post contains blatant grammatical nitpicking. If you or those you love are prone to nitpick caused reactions such as bursts of anger, nausea, skin irritations, or death, please navigate away from this post. David does not use bad metaphors. In fact, if I recall, he does not use a single metaphor in the entire book. David uses bad similes. A simile is, of course a comparison using a word such as like or as (e.g., David eats like a pig) whereas a metaphor draws a direct connection to something else (e.g., David is a pig). This is not a criticism of you Mikanium. The characters in the book erroneously used the term 'metaphor' to classify David's (cleverness?). It may have even been intentional on Brandon's part (I hope). This concludes the grammatical nitpicking. If you have disregarded the caution at the head of this post, or have discovered an adverse reaction to nitpicking upon reading this post, please seek immediate medical attention as necessary.

Welcome Lady. Glad to see you leaving the shadows and coming in to the light.

Seems like it would have to be a very large safe to contain a shardblade of any kind. My guess is that the glow comes from something we have little frame of reference for. Although it could conceivably be a trapped baddy spren. But, I suppose that would qualify as something we have little frame of reference for.

I'm not sure about the number of allomancers available to Army Venture. The events at the end of WoA likely depleted them substantially. there is little mention of other allomancers loyal to Elend in HoA if I recall. Ham being head head of security likely is the case since he had the most military training and experience of anyone in Elend's inner circle. As to Feruchemical gold healing a blade injury, I can readily get behind healing and arm, a leg or eve a chunk of torso. But, I doubt it could heal any cut that would've resulted in burned out eyes death. Before you point to Miles being healed of several gunshot wounds, know that gunshot wounds are rarely instant death. As to the night advantage, that would only be an advantage if the fighting were at night. Scadrial was darker because of the ash in the air, but it was not dark all the time. As to actual night fighting, Elend's army has little experience with night fighting. They hadn't even been out in the mists until the run up to Fadrex. In contrast, Alethkar is a land of war and conquest. On top of which, the army has been fighting regularly for the last 5 years. They have more experience, are better trained, and are better fed. Also, I would be astounded if Dalinar had not trained his armies in night fighting. Fighting is just too much a part of the Alethi way of life.

I think that stormlight healing, such as is enjoyed by Szeth and Kaladin, is likely limited as Szeth declares it too be. An important consideration in this conversation is: Can regrowth heal such a wound? I would say, yes. To me, regrowth is going to be on par with Feruchemical gold whereas stormlight healing is a charging of the bodies natural healing.

Clue gots to get an upvote .

That last quote I had forgotten about. Assuming Dalinar is correct, which I have no reason to doubt, Nohadon did precede the KR. Thanks Gloom. Very upvote worthy.

The rub is, those metals don't exist in metallic form in nature. Pretty much the only actual metals you will find in nature in metallic form in significant quantities are gold, silver, copper, and the platinum group metals. Iron and nickel can also be found mixed together in meteorites. You can rarely find metallic lead in nature and mercury can sometimes be created by lightning striking mercury compounds. Beyond that things get exceedingly rare.

Speaking of assumptions...We do not know that the KR did not exist before Nohadon. We do not know that the radiant orders were formed after the desolation. The radiants could well have existed before Nohadon (since there is not substantial evidence to strongly tie Nohadon to the radiants at all) and the radiants could have been established by the Heralds in the time approaching a desolation (since we do not know when they are released from damnation relative to the start of a desolation). Note: Hoid describes Taln's arrival as being late even though the desolation does not seem to have begun in earnest at all (i.e., no appearances of midnight essence or other desolation forerunners) .