happyman

Yes, ironically, this subject is something writers think quite a bit about, and they have decided that using just "said" is good enough for most uses. If the reader is paying attention to the tags, the argument goes, then they aren't paying enough attention to the dialogue. I have no idea whether this is really good or bad, but I do know that explicitly avoiding using "said" can make for some really, really distracting prose. I've also read lots of works where "said" is the default go-to word and which were otherwise good to great. I would make the argument that you shouldn't use said only if the replacement is actually better.

Nooooooo, I don't think so. The way to defeat Atium is to provide a feedback loop. If the Sparker can actually read the Seer and react well enough to make a feedback loop, I think he or she would partially have defeated the Atium. If that is enough to tip the balance, I don't know. Atium is a bit...mystical.

Add feet to that, and you could walk on water.

Pulling the moon out of orbit (if it existed) or significantly affecting it's path is something I doubt any Allomancer could do, ever. No, not even with compounding. Moon is big, y'all. Conservation of momentum means that you pull on the moon, you move. You pull on the moon and the planet, you make practically no difference to the already extant gravitational attraction between them. Pulling on the moon and planet to make them collide would mean effectively multiplying the total force by a factor of something like, I dunno, at least 10. This is almost certainly a wild underestimate. Seems unlikely.

Nice breakdown, but I feel it would be more complete if it added flaring.

If he can see the future, too, using some of his magic (Allomancy or otherwise), he might cast a lot of shadows. But I expect that if Hoid can see the future, Atium burners would notice.

So you only get powers if you don't want to use them? Now I want this to be canon.

My guess is that he probably has a way of making even Elantrian-style magic work. Or, if not that, he has access to magics which can duplicate most things Selian-magics can do.

Yeah, I was trying to answer your question about whether Brandon had used it. So congratulations! I think you got one that isn't in the books.

I don't think that one's in the books anywhere, but given what "bad dancing" is capable of, I don't think I'd want anything valuable near you...

It's interesting to wonder why we feel that having a physical body would limit a shard. After all, I have a cell phone, but it doesn't limit me in any significant ways. It also doesn't open up any really serious weaknesses to me that aren't almost trivially countered. (Just don't answer the phone if you don't want to! Block calls if it really becomes important.) I don't see why manifesting a body would be anything more than a trivial exercise of power to a Shard. After all, they wouldn't be just a body, even during the manifestation.

Yeah, the Hobbit does kill main characters. (It's been out how many years, folks?) Kids books have that happen all the time, especially the older ones. Mortality is something we have to live (or not) with.

I actually believe that the Shards can manifest their physical bodies in the physical realm. After all, the bit about tearing physical troughs through them has to be somewhat metaphysical. Vin's body came back in one piece after she killed Ruin. Leras and Ruin's bodies also came back after their respective deaths. In addition, we had the question of how, exactly, Ruin had to get the Atium, and were told he had to do it physically...somehow. I suspect that with some focus and energy, a shard can manifest itself physically with its body. The properties of that manifestation are a good question, though.

I have to ask what definition you are using. Investiture in the Cosmere is a very specific, technical term. A metalmind contains a type of investiture. Nightblood does as well. Magical things in general do. IIRC, people who are using magic have abnormally high levels of investiture, such as Allomancers burning metals. It seems likely that Elantrians are constantly invested. It would be why they glow. I don't see why Windrunners or other surgebinders would be invested, though, except when they hold Stormlight.

Just making sure you've covered the basics, is all. We wouldn't want Wayne to be unhappy, now would we? Of course, I don't think anything short of another apocalypse would make Wayne unhappy, but let's not risk it.

Yes, but can you hit him so hard, he spins around twice and then falls over? That's a thing, with him.

That's a pretty good theory too. Don't forget, though, that we do have a few other instances of people seeing the future in the Cosmere. They should be included for balance. We have Shards with the ability to do so (Honor, but Cultivation is better at it), people who have held significant amounts of Shardic power (TLR), Atium (the raw power of a shard) and whatever-happened-with-Wyrn-killing-Hrathen.

"The whole is greater than the sum of it's parts" is the only sensible thing I can think so say here. This is true all the way from atomic particles to the human race. Shards of Adonalsium is another case where this would seem only logical. Basically, what I see here are people asking whether there are "Ruin" atoms and "Preservation" atoms, and if so, how are they combined? Or did the combination produce "Harmony" atoms, which are made of one ruin atom and one preservation atom? Answering that requires an extremely reductionistic understanding of the powers, which I don't think we have at the needed level.

Coming at this...might it be the case that Sazed was exercising his power through Wax in the same way Vin exercised it through Elend towards the end of HoA? In the case of Vin and Elend, it was quite powerful, probably because Champions were fighting, or something. I'm guessing that what Wax experiences in the mist is a much less powerful manifestation of the same thing. Which would, probably almost as a default, give a taste of the power of pewter, and maybe some of the other powers as well, although at a fairly low level.

Can you do this? Yes, yes you probably can. Upvote!

Yeah, that's the main argument in favor of the "everybody sees something" theory. Of course, we'd then need to understand why some see things while they are still alive (even if dieing) on Roshar, and it takes others until they are completely dead. Given that the death cries need to be explained anyway, that's not really a problem for this theory, though.

I agree with the sentiment being voiced here. My main uncertainty is whether it is only Returned that see the future after they die, or if everybody sees the future after they die, but Returned, Returning as it were, are the only ones to tell living people about it.

He's more complex than even I described, I'll give you that. I'll just say that on read-through's, I can't help but feel like part of him knows he's playing a game, and even more, why he's playing it. That he keeps his God-form even though he doesn't have to, as Vasher shows, just underlines this. Once again, I think you are taking him at his word more than you should. But we could argue this forever, and until I do a careful reconstruction of the text, I doubt I will have a good argument for more. Ah well.

Thank you for that quote, Windrunner. Lightsong's attitude towards himself has always been a bit enigmatic and slightly hypocritical. I mean, unlike Vasher, he actually does take advantage of other people's perception of him as a god, even while he claims to not believe it. He also tries his best to live up to their needs, despite his alleged unbelief. It's one of the pillars of his character, really. After all, he told Siri she couldn't rely on him when the chips were down. So who sacrifices his life in order to save Siri? Yeah, that's Lightsong all over again. His disbelief is all talk. He belief is all action. Which one does he really hold? I think that results answer for themselves.

Combine this with the idea that Atium and Lerasium are real elements under a layer of spiritual wrapping, and tapping the charge of such an alloy could turn the alloy back into a mundane metal, and we would have a truly balanced way of gaining Feruchemical abilities. One time tap, and then wham, it's just steel! Or something like that.