Shardlet

The fact that the beads were mounted in dried clay or pottery of some sort suggests to me that they are placed there directly. It seems unlikely that they naturally formed that way. Also, if they formed over a period of 1024 years, then where are the 16 beads that would have formed post TLR ascension?

Are you thinking of a falx? If so, it is not really wielded like either a spear or a sword.

Food source is probably not an issue right now for the chasmfiends. One, they are being substantially reduced in numbers by both the Alethi and the Parshendi. Two, there are a lot of Alethi and Parshendi dead that end up in the the chasms as well as on top of the plateaus. Seems like the remaining chasmfiends are eating quite well. I doubt they will feel the need to leave the chasms to hunt humans for food. I think the big ecological impact is that they are not completing their pupating (or rarely so) and so you have a stage of their life which is not being met. With insects, their breeding cycle takes place after pupation. This suggests no new chasmfiends. This means that the species is moving towards extinction and their typical food source (which already has reduced pressure on it as seen in reason two above) will have greatly reduced pressure on it and will thrive like crazy. Unless of course it is a symbiotic thing where the food source eats chasmfiend excrement or something like that. In any case, what will be the effect of a population boom of this as yet unknown foodsource? What other role does the pupated chasmfiend play in the ecosystem? Would the population spren that normally bond with the chasmfiends be an issue?

You've argued opposing ways now . Either the depth of the chasms vary from place to place and the plateaus are fairly level or the plateaus are varying heights and the chasms are fairly level. Personally, I think the plateaus are fairly level and the chasms are shallow near the warcamps and slope downwards away from the camps. This would allow drainage as well as account for the varying chasm wall heights from the perspective of bridge 4 within the chasms.

I can agree with that.

The reduced gravity is important to consider, but this structure would have to be something like a minimum 1/2 mile in diameter (and I think that that is generously conservative). On top of which, the destruction of such a structure would result in an enormous amount of debris which I would expect would easily fill in or at least substantially fill in the craters.

If you'll recall though, he prepared prepared the rings in a brief period of time. Not much time to do much storing. He was also so busy with his travels and his studies that he was unable to do a substantial amount of storing. In any case, think of it like a flow restricter for a weaker feruchemist. A full powered feruchemist has no flow restricter. So, all other things being equal, the full feruchemist can store the same amount of charge quicker than a weaker feruchemist. Or alternatively, given the same amount of time, the stronger feruchemist has a larger store than the weaker. Edit: in any case, both allomancy and feruchemy are genetically passed on. The Terris people bred exclusively with Terris people (or nearly so) so a stronger genetic heritage was preserved among the Terris people. After Sazed's ascension, the Terris began to extend their dating pool (seen in at least the case of Demoux). If allomantic strength as well as versatility (mistborn v. misting) is reduced by genetic dilution, then it seems virtually absurd that feruchemy would not be similarly affected by genetic dilution. Especially since we have seen that feruchemical versatility is reduced in the same manner as allomancy (full feruchemist v. ferring). Weakened allomancy functions in a similar flow restricter type situation as I described above. The metal is the same, the underlying power is the same. But, the weaker allomancer simply is unable to draw on that power as effectively as a stronger allomancer.

Nobody ever addressed this idea at the time it was offered. But something occured to me yesterday. The craters absolutely could not have been the remains of large domed buildings (or any shaped buildings for that matter). There is no way such a construction could be built (even if it was a single piece) that was large enough to house up to about 10,000 people with open spaces for shops, military training, and battle staging. The materials simply do not exist that could support such stresses.

I didn't suggest that one could store more than what they have. Absent compounding, this is clearly not possible with feruchemy. What I said was that a full powered feruchemist could store 1:1 while a weaker feruchemist could store at 0.9:1 or 0.7:1 or whatever. The stronger feruchemist could store more efficiently than a weaker feruchemist, but nobody (again, outside of compounding) could store at better than 100% efficiency. And sazed did indeed use the healing in the ring in the fight with Marsh in Kredik Shaw at the end of WoA. As previously discussed, Sazed's broken arm was healed as well as the damaged caused by Marsh slinging the sack of rings into him.

The rub with that idea is that the the plateaus then would vary in height significantly. The only plateau that is discussed that details any sort of topography is the Tower which slope upwards. If the plateaus varied in height substantialy, it seems like that would be a noted feature and not something to drop in a later book. It also seems unlikely that the plains would be referred to as plains. Typically plains are pretty flat. Also, I can't help but think it would be nigh unto impossible to navigate the plains with the bridges. How do youlift one end of a bridge 20 feet and maintain that rise whil pushing it over the chasm?

If we accept Exhibit A on the premise that Ruin whispered to Kelsier that should keep the earring 'just in case', then we have to also label Vin as a villain because she released Ruin from his prison as a result of hearing his promptings as well. Exhibit D is unlikely since the plan was only for Marsh to become an obligator. The Inquisitor's taking such a rapid interest in Marsh was completely unexpected.

But, Aeromancer's point highlights the process Vin went through to pull off the trick. This process may well be easier for a sparker. But even so, I don't think it would be easy for them and especially to do it a multiple of times in succession. Not conclusive by any means. But, food for thought.

I'm not sure that they would've withheld it from Sazed. He is the one most trusted by both Vin and Elend. He is first in line to the imperial throne. That is a position of exceptional trust to give someone who is not a blood decendant. I think it would be more likely that Sazed would refuse to take it and use it. Particularly with how he was feeling after Tindwyl's death. True Vin's bloodline was purer than most anyone around and she was a powerfull mistborn. But, it was also readily apparent to her that Elend was much more powerful than her. So, I think it would have given her a noticable bump in power. Nevertheless, I agree that Vin would have been unlikely to use it since, like has already been stated, three mistborn are better than two. Consider though, that Elend was the only lerasium mistborn in the last thousand years. So any mistborn at that time or after (with the exception of Elend) would have had an increase of power. To further support this, I point out that the quote says 'most mistborn' as shown below: Quote

Yolen Yomen wouldn't have believed him. Also, it is not like Lerasium is a weapon of mass destruction where you compromise your morality to use it. It makes a powerful mistborn. I think Ham would have been the likely choice. Maybe perhaps Spook, but I think he likely would have been overlooked. Also, he was in a bad place emotionally at the end of WoA. Edit: Just noticed that I gave an obligator the name of a planet.

No, Demoux and all the others taken by the mist sickness were natural allomancers who had not yet snapped. That is why the nobility was mostly untouched by mistsickness. Most had already been abused to forcefully snap them. The reason the mists started snapping people was because the mists returned to a default state to cause the snapping. This was part of the system set up by Preservation before he committed almost all of himself to form Ruin's prison.

I think that the level of feruchemist does make a difference in the efficiency. I would suggest that this is a relative efficiency of storing rather than tapping. I would think that once the charge is in place it can be used fully. But, if one is a weaker feruchemist it could take longer to store up a particular amount of a trait. So a fully powered feruchemist can store at a factor of 1 while a weaker feruchemist could store at a factor of 0.9 or whatever. The power still comes exclusively from the feruchemist. But, the capability of a weaker feruchemist to store is reduced relative to a stronger feruchemist.

Welcome Rime. Glad to have you with us. Cool avatar as well. We've tossed around a lot of ideas about the men of red and gold but that is the first time I recall hearing someone to suggest Sadeas and Elhokar. I admit though, that is seems strange that Miles would utter words about two men on a different planet many thousands of years in the future. This scene though is one of the most foreboding in the whole book though. To me, more so than Wax's encounter with his uncle.

This isn't necessarily a criticism of your theory. It is well thought out and presented. But some spoiler info that has some bearing on it is So, this may affect your consideration of the plains being the place closest to honor.

lol. This makes me think of the Princess Bride: "So you've made your choice?" "Not even remotely!" But I do see a result where each thrust results is an ineffectual meeting because each has shifted and reshifted what they intend to do until their blows become so weak that they might as well be slapping each other with soggy pasta. It actually sounds like a rather disapponting fight to watch.

In the hardcover it says atium. Shouldn't have been pewter. He didn't have any basic metals. All his basic metals came from Preservation fuel direct. This (direct fueling) started at the beginning of the Marsh fight if I am not mistaken.

Upon rereading, I see I spoke poorly. I did not intend to suggest that the seer would have less physical limitations. Clearly the same physical limitations would apply. I think we must also make the assumption the the fighting skills of the seer and the sparker are equal. I still maintain that the seer would not see more than a few shadows (really I think two). This is because atium v. atium gives a few seconds head start to both burners causing a chain reaction of compounding choices for both. In contrast, the sparker can only react to a choice that the seer is actually carrying out. This results in the original shadow of the sparker and the reaction shadow. The first shadow would rapidly disappear as well. There would be no compounding of shadows because the sparker must wait for the seer to do something. On top of which, the seer can see the choices of the sparker while the sparker must interpret the movements of the seer. That key difference is why I give the advantage to the seer. An increase in mental speed does not include increased perception, smartness, intuitiveness, etc. The sparker may be able to think faster, but that may well just mean he comes to the wrong conclusion quicker. This is a challenging discussion because there are so many variables. But I think at the end of the day, the seer has the advantage. Edit: also, I really, really, doubt that you could mentally slow down time such that you would have the equivalent of an hour to contemplate a second. Sounds pretty extreme to me.

It actually didn't say he was low. In fact it actually said something to the effect of 'and then his atium ran out'. A couple of paragraphs later it says that he then burned duralumin with atium. This tells me he had at most just a titch left when he burned duralumin, (unless we are to infer that Vin supplied it, which seems extraordinarily unlikely). Also, I don't know how much knowledge or insight into Ruin's plans and Marsh's future would be found in a minutes worth of atium. I recall Brandon saying that Elend chose to not kill Marsh because of what he saw in the info dump. In any case the scene is in chapter 81 if you want to check it out electronically. It seems pretty clear that he certainly did not have a significant quantity of atium left at that point.

I looked it up today (hardcover pg. 544 and 545). Elend didn't burn duralumin until his atium was nearly depleted. And, I doubt that atium could be direct pumped by Preservation, so I don't think that is an option. I agree with you that it would be unexpected if preservation pumped duralumin is any more powerful than regular metal fueled duralumin. So, I am inclined to think duralumin does not just provide a sum total of the metal reserve being enhanced, but actually boosts beyond that. The other alternative I see is that atium's god-metal status may play into it. If so, what happens with duralumin boosted lerasium ? I think this would be an excellent question (series) for Brandon: At the end of HoA, Elend burns duralumin with his remaining atium and gets a massive download of knowledge. Does a duralumin enhanced burn provide the sum total of the reserve of the metal enhanced or is it a synergistic effect where you get a greater effect then the sum total of the reserve? If Brandon answers that it is sum total, then ask: So, Elend was nearly out of atium when he burned duralumin; Did the massive download occur as a result of atium being a god-metal? If yes, then ask: If an allomancer with the power to burn duralumin burned duralumin and lerasium (default burn) would there be an enhanced effect since lerasium is a god-metal as well?

The problem is, a fight is not a chess match, per se. The combatants are not limited to specifically constrained rules of movement in the way chess pieces are. One cannot, even with Feruchemical zinc, accurately predict the entire course of a fight or even a series of actions of others (like in the case of the new Sherlock Holmes movies). Every action you take will change what they intend to do and people react to stimuli differently. People are inherently unpredictable from move to move. You could make some reasonable guesses and assumptions if you have substantial knowledge of your opponent and their fighting style, etc. But, even then, good luck. However, if the sparker is observing the actions of the seer and basing their action out of reaction to a move the seer has made, then yes, there would be a second atium shadow. This is what has been discussed so far (mostly). Not planning out a chess game, if you will.

I would presume that if someone burned atium around Hoid, they would see an atium shadow from him. I can't think of a reason why that would not be the case.