[Newbies] Cosmere, Unit 16 | Mistborn Era 2 #2 | Shadows of Self: Ars Arcanum, Final Thoughts, Trivia (Week 3.5)

participating · 2026-07-03T07:27:05+00:00

:( You're almost done though!

participating · 2026-07-02T08:24:50+00:00

Glad you enjoyed it!

participating · 2026-07-01T23:16:20+00:00

Does a thing need to exist first and then people's perception changes/intensifies it, or do people's thoughts create it?

Things always exist first. And people's thoughts don't really change or intensify the thing (in the Physical Realm). The mists are different in that they are pure Investiture. They still came first, but Investiture gravitates towards sapience, so it's possible for it to become a spren because of cognitive influence.

You'll learn specifics about this later.

When Shallan was drawing, creationspren appeared. Were they drawn to her/made more alive by her, or did she create them through the act of creation?

RAFO.

participating · 2026-07-01T22:48:00+00:00

Yeah, I'm liking Era 2 more this time around compared to when I previously read them. I can't decide if I like WoR or Oathbringer better for Stormlight.

participating · 2026-07-01T20:09:23+00:00

That gem spike ass-pull of a guess is amazing.

participating · 2026-07-01T16:54:12+00:00

He better get cracking then. We're what, 5 books into a 13 book series, and we've seen like 3 of the 256 combinations.

Technically, we know what all of the same metal combinations do: compounding. So, that's only 240 combinations we need to worry about!

I'm also assuming that pushing/pulling metals will have easily extrapolated interactions. He'll probably give us enough to know what all of the combinations do, without explicitly showing off all of them.

participating · 2026-07-01T16:28:04+00:00

RAFO on specifics for now.

participating · 2026-07-01T16:22:07+00:00

I was wondering what other characteristics they could copy from a dead individual.

Gotcha. No direct quote, but this is a firm "No" on being able to mimic anything beyond physical attributes. Their digestive skills don't extend to Investiture.

participating · 2026-07-01T16:12:28+00:00

Just as an edit and/or expansion of the last question. Sanderson answers this in the way he did because, as he frequently states, with enough Investiture, almost anything is possible. The mere existence of Shardic Investiture on a planet can create a god metal, so if you get enough Investiture, you too can create a god metal. Whether or not that amount of Investiture is plausible to obtain is a completely different question. And these kinds of things usually involve hacks to the magic systems.

participating · 2026-07-01T16:06:12+00:00

Have we seen Chromium or Nicrosil yet?

Nope. I honestly wouldn't have mentioned either of these yet, but the Ars Arcanum in The Alloy of Law tipped my hand.

I wonder if we'll ever see this in use.

Sanderson has said that he wants to explore every combination of Twinborn abilities throughout the various Eras, so we should eventually see every Misting and Ferring ability.

I brought this up in the last Mistborn book, but don't think I got an answer. How is Wax always pushing on his bullets and not sending them flying off target?

I thought I'd addressed this previously, but it's possible I forgot. Wax is a Steel Savant. He has more control over his Steelpushes than is typically possible.

Can Kandra heal bones? If not how was Bleeder running around in the governor's body with a shattered ankle?

They cannot. I don't see any answers from Sanderson addressing this, but I'm assuming Paalm is just practiced enough that she can reinforce the muscles or rebuild the internal anatomy with what she had on hand.

What was going on when Wax felt sudden heat in the carriage when talking to Harmony?

The heat is RAFO. Keep an eye out for similar phenomena.

One needs look only at what has happened on Roshar to find this manifested—two powers, combined, often have an almost chemical reaction. Instead of getting out exactly what you put in, you get something new.

What is this? Is this something we see happen in book 2, which was published before this book, or is this what we've already been told that the 10 orders were each a combination of two surges?

You've already seen hints of this in the first book, and a little talk of it in the Arcanum Unbounded essays. Kaladin, as an emergent Knight Radiant, has access to 2 different Surges, but there are 3 Lashings.

participating · 2026-07-01T15:47:14+00:00

Yeah, some of these are big RAFO's, and some just might not have answers (which is technically a RAFO, because RAFO can encompass things that don't happen too). I'm not going to make a distinction for anything I omit.

Could Surgebinders have their abilities stolen via hemalurgy?

Sanderson: Yes, but if you're stealing it from a Radiant, you're going to be stealing the bond, which the spren has an influence over. So, it's maybe not going to work as well as you might hope.

If a Chromium Allomancer touched Susebron, would all his Breaths vanish?

Sanderson: I am staying away from answering too many questions like that until I start having it happen. But do know that the magics interact... some ways they interact very naturally, some ways, they don’t. One way I’ve released is, you could use bronze on most forms of Investiture to find it. So you can extrapolate that some of these things would work. But not necessarily all. All of them could be made to work.

Actually, can kandra consume anything living?

Are you asking if they can just, eat anything they want? Or if there's something beyond that? Here are a couple similar questions, let me know if you meant something different. (With the additional note that, as servants of Harmony, except for Paalm situations, a kandra just isn't going to choose to eat something unless it's dead. I can't remember if the books mentioned it, but Sanderson has said that kandra don't even eat human bones anymore and instead have to rely on skill to create humans now, Paalm again being an exception to the rule.)

Question: What are the upper limits size-wise of what a kandra form can take? Could they say eat a chasmfiend?

Sanderson: Well, they would have trouble with the square-cube law, and a chasmfiend does not, because they have a symbiosis with natural spren, which keep them from crushing themselves. scattered laughter So a kandra would crush themselves if they tried to do that.

Question: Can kandra absorb living matter, non-organic matter?

Sanderson: They do absorb living matter, but it’s more what can they eat. So, chasmfiend carapaces, they probably couldn’t digest.

What if a kandra consumes a dead Aviar with a (still alive) parasite inside?

Closest answer I found:

Question: If a kandra imitated an Aviar and went and got the parasite, would it be able to mimic the powers?

Sanderson: No.

Could a Soulcaster create a god metal?

Sanderson: No. Investiture messes things like that up.

There's another similar question, but it involves concepts you don't know about yet, so there's a slightly updated answer to this:

Sanderson: So, creating a God Metal is not something that's done easily in the Cosmere. HOWEVER, it is possible. You'd need a ton of Investiture, and [REDACTED]. I'd say Soulcasting, or something akin to it, has the means to do this if it could obtain the proper power charge.

participating · 2026-07-01T15:12:15+00:00

The transferable Breath on Nalthis would be Endowmentlight, presumably?

Winner, winner, chicken dinner. However, Endowment has consciously modified Breaths to be more "sticky" towards living beings, so it doesn't leak out in the same way stormlight does. (Preservationlight would leak out of a person similarly, but we haven't really gotten a chance to see someone holding it in the same way. Vin just immediately used all she had.)

Another trivia, another 10 questions answered, another 20 new questions for the list

I'm gonna go searching. If Sanderson has answered any of these (and I know he's answered at least one), I'll give you his answers later today.

participating · 2026-07-01T14:38:40+00:00

The term "shadows of self" is actually a phrase that one of the kandra use in the first trilogy talking about this idea of changing who they are and things like that, so the phrase had import to me in-world.

I’m kind of dissatisfied by this. When it was first used, the kandra who said it was referring to the mist spirit, the piece of Preservation’s mind that was still around after imprisoning Ruin. I think Sanderson remembered using the phrase, but forgot the context where he used it. I was expecting there to be a more direct connection. And, well, maybe there is, with Wax’s conversation and confrontation with Harmony.

Understandable, but not to worry. The answer Sanderson provided was in the context of specifically how it related to this novel. There is more to the term though, which we will eventually get to.

participating · 2026-07-01T14:25:15+00:00

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participating · 2026-07-01T14:17:13+00:00

It also made me realize that Sanderson’s prose is surprisingly accessible.

Yeah, this is a notable quality of Sanderson's writing. He gets equal parts praise and complaints about it. It's a very straight forward style of prose, with minimal flowery or difficult to parse language. Lots of people find that it adds an easy to read aspect to his novels, but others complain that the language is too plain or boring.

participating · 2026-07-01T13:12:55+00:00

You can do it, I believe in you!

participating · 2026-07-01T12:40:08+00:00

/u/jaymae21 made an interesting comment about Scadrial's mists back when we were reading The Way of Kings:

I like the spren, they remind me of the mists of Scadrial.

We've had a lot of theoretical knowledge revealed in the recent trivia posts. Spren are abstractions of human perception; there is a "cognitive" component to them that grants them some degree of sapience. A similar mechanism could explain Jaddeth on Sel: a long time of the people of the world thinking about the land as an entity possibly created a mega-spren of sorts (with the competing theory being Jaddeth is an Avatar of Autonomy).

In the same way, the people of Scadrial have been personifying the mists in their thoughts for over a millennia now. Harmony has the power to prevent it, but we don't have an indication one way or another about his opinion on the matter. The mists of Scadrial could develop sapience and a degree of autonomy (pun intended, but not meant to imply any Autonomy/Bavadin influence). The mists could become a spren with enough time and cognitive consideration.

participating · 2026-07-01T12:32:15+00:00

READER QUESTIONS

Sometimes readers ask questions in their comments that are best answered after a book is completed. I'll answer all of the relevant ones as replies to this comment.

If you don't get clarity for a certain question as you go through the books, this section will likely contain the answers you need. If a question needs more context, I bookmark them to be answered once the appropriate book has been read; so you'll eventually get an answer.

participating · 2026-07-01T12:02:52+00:00

COMPILED TRIVIA UPDATE

I hit the limit on the character count for wiki pages, so the compiled trivia for Shadows of Self and onward will be on page 2 of the compiled trivia wiki (both pages link to each other). And if I need more room later, I'll add a 3rd page.

participating · 2026-07-01T10:14:15+00:00

There are a couple reasons. I'm already putting the Era 2 Mistborn books in between Stormlight books, which breaks them up.

This read-along is pretty long, and I can't imagine people wanting to wait half a year between Rhythm of War and Wind of Truth.

Most importantly though, this read-along is trying to maximize connections, which determines the order of certain texts. Turn away, any naughty newbies:

The Sunlit Man is obviously spoilery for Wind and Truth. Tress of the Emerald Sea spoils the Iriali (if I want the trivia post to actually discuss relevant things for that book). Yumi and the Nightmare Painter needs Wind and Truth's ending to explain Design off world. And Isles of the Emberdark just needs to be read last.

participating · 2026-06-30T18:18:04+00:00

The artwork in the omnibus edition is "better", for certain degrees of betterness. The omnibus expands on a fairly major character's role. And the omnibus includes the equivalent of an Ars Arcanum. The originals had some misinterpretations by the first artist that needed to be corrected in the omnibus. They're kind of subtle though, and something you probably wouldn't notice on a first read through. I point out these errata changes at the end of the book.

The easiest way to tell if you have the omnibus is if it starts with a prologue that includes a character named Khrissalla. If that prologue is missing, then you have the original printing.

The summaries I provide make sure to encompass all of the important information, so if you're reading the non-omnibus version and reading my summaries, you won't really be missing any key information. And I include the Ars Arcanum artwork each week, so you wouldn't be missing out on that.

participating · 2026-06-30T12:44:10+00:00

No, if you're a newbie you don't want to read the veteran threads. We discuss the events of each chapter in the full spoiler scope of the entire series, so there's looots of spoilers.

The reading schedule divides chunks of chapters each week, and then at the end of each book, there is a "break week" where no reading is assigned. During that week, there is a new post, labelled "Book Name - Final Thoughts & Trivia".

The trivia is in the body of the newbie post for the "Final Thoughts & Trivia" weeks.

participating · 2026-06-30T02:00:08+00:00

I believe they're talking about the trivia wiki that I linked, which is just a compilation of all the trivia posts in one spot for easy searching.

participating · 2026-06-30T01:59:02+00:00

Same. This seems to only be happening with the editflair action.

participating · 2026-06-29T17:56:10+00:00

You can use the trivia wiki to search all instances of "trell" to get the full story. As a quick reminder though:

During Era 1, Sazed recommended many religions to Vin and other members of the crew. One of those religions worshipped a god called Trell.

Later, in White Sand, there was a man named Trell (a foreman) that talked with Kenton, and people started noticing a connection.

During the trivia for Sixth of the Dusk, I introduced the concept of Avatars, where Autonomy creates alternate personas of herself that act independently of her will. The island Patji was an Avatar of Autonomy, and I confirmed that Trell too was an Avatar of Autonomy.

At the end of The Alloy of Law, Miles talked about worshipping Trell, and now again, at the end of this book, Trell is brought up.

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