2 - We saw that there were hints of Hemalurgy before TLR took control.
-Alendi's many piercings.
Actually, it just says "piercings of the hero." This could mean only two (we know it is plural though). Two can hardly be counted as many.
He then added that the "bumps" (the part of each chapter in italics at the beginning of them) are written by a character who "knows everything." Thus, they go in depth into some of the more finer details of what is speculated in these threads. Such as how allomancy works or (these were exact examples) "Why everyone in the world doesn't have black lung disease" and "why the world got hotter instead of cooler in the nuclear winter scenario" (ie all the ash blocking out the sun). He seemed to imply that the bumps contained information about the series and world that were written in a scientific or almost encyclopedic way.
Perhaps the bumps are written by Preservation in order to tell the heroes about Ruin. Preservation could do this in the same way that Ruin alters texts. Preservation would be a being who would talk about the earth in a way that is "scientific" or "encyclopedic," as a scientist speaks of specimens. I'm assuming of course, that the heroees discover the text that contains the bumps, as has happened in the other two books.
EDIT: This is continued from the Ruin and Preservation thread:
... Thebit about the lynch pin spike is interesteing, as is the bit about the inquisitors ability to stay alive.
What if the sacrifices have nothing to do with power at all, what if the purpose of the sacrifices IS to keep the inquisitors alive, or the blood activates the hemalurgy. Perhaps the life force of the victim is captured in the spike, and transferred to the inquisitor?
There is a hole of course, Vin's mother used a sacrifice for Vin's earring, and she didn't need it to stay alive. Perhaps passing the life along is an added benefit, and the main purpose is just to activate the hemalurgy. Or maybe hemalurgy is meant to kill people, but the blood sacrifice weakens it, so it leaves them living with amazing powers. We know Zane cuts himself, and his blood weakens God's voice in his head, so perhaps blood weakens hemalurgy, and the blood sacrifices are used so that the hemalurgy doesn't kill the person.
Still has holes, just some thoughts I thought while reading.