A few random Mistborn questions for an RPG

[Leviathan]

Hey all

So. I've been throwing some ideas around in my head for a Mistborn RPG I plan to run once the book is released. However I've got a couple of world questions that I thought I'd throw out there to see what peoples answers are.

Warning: I haven't read Alloy of Law yet, so no spoilers please (it's next on my list once I finish Dance of Dragons )

Note: The RPG I'm planning is for during the Lord Ruler's time

And now, on to the weird and eclectic questions

1) What would a Gold Allomantic Savant be like? The only thing I can think of is an.. almost controlled use of it to predict the future. As in "Hey, what will happen to me if I do X rather than Y" and seeing an image of what they'd end up like. Or alternatively, seeing what every single other variation of themselves might be, and what decisions would lead them to there.

2) It's mentioned a few times, especially in the first book, that Noblemen that take a Skaa 'lover' are expected to kill them immediately afterwards. Is it mentioned anywhere what (if any) similar rule there is for Noblewomen? Killing their bed-warmer obviously won't do much to prevent half-skaa offspring, but if 'morning after' contraception was reliable then the rules on killing skaa women mightn't be so strict. Would noblewomen not be allowed the same freedom with skaa slaves, or would they simply be ordered to to "whatever is necessary" to ensure they didn't bear a child?

3) Ok, big spoiler here for Book 3 Mistborn here

I know Atium has been revealed to be Ruin's body, but is there a reason given at any point for why it (apparently) only grows in the one place? I'm trying to work out if there's the possibility of more nodes existing in small concentrations in other places.

I'm sure I'll come up with more questions as my campaign idea solidifies, but that'll do for now

Edited December 13, 2011 by Leviathan

[Deus Ex Biotica]

Hey all

So. I've been throwing some ideas around in my head for a Mistborn RPG I plan to run once the book is released. However I've got a couple of world questions that I thought I'd throw out there to see what peoples answers are.

Cool! We will, of course, expect reports on events in yor game once it gets going.

1) What would a Gold Allomantic Savant be like? The only thing I can think of is an.. almost controlled use of it to predict the future. As in "Hey, what will happen to me if I do X rather than Y" and seeing an image of what they'd end up like. Or alternatively, seeing what every single other variation of themselves might be, and what decisions would lead them to there.

Well, Gold looks at the past, not the future, so predicting things that way is out (an Electrum savant might have some luck, possibly). And even for a high noble, burning gold constantly for weeks or months seems pretty non-feasible. If someone did pull it off, I suspect that they would mostly just lose a clear idea of which version of them is real and which isn't. At your option, they might start seeing three versions, rather than two.

2) It's mentioned a few times, especially in the first book, that Noblemen that take a Skaa 'lover' are expected to kill them immediately afterwards. Is it mentioned anywhere what (if any) similar rule there is for Noblewomen? Killing their bed-warmer obviously won't do much to prevent half-skaa offspring, but if 'morning after' contraception was reliable then the rules on killing skaa women mightn't be so strict. Would noblewomen not be allowed the same freedom with skaa slaves, or would they simply be ordered to to "whatever is necessary" to ensure they didn't bear a child?

Honestly? The Steel Inquisition doesn't want any Allomancers among the Skaa, so they wouldn't care who the father was, so long as the noble-blooded child was raised Noble.

The official policy is probably that noblewomen should never sleep with Skaa, ever, but I doubt they work too hard to enforce it.

3) Ok, big spoiler here for Book 3 Mistborn, so highlight this text to read it -> I know Atium has been revealed to be Ruin's body, but is there a reason given at any point for why it (apparently) only grows in the one place? I'm trying to work out if there's the possibility of more nodes existing in small concentrations in other places.

There seems to be a reason, but it's tied to deep, mysterious metaplotey stuff we don't know yet - it seems that every Shard (godlike beings such as Preservation and Ruin) has a "pool," of wich the Well Of Ascension was Preservation's and the Pits of Hathsin were Ruin's.

Of course, since its larger implications are all tied up with things from other series that are unlikely to be relevant to your campaign, if I were you, I would not worry about changing that detail for my own game.

-- Deus Ex Biotica

P.S. As I just recently learned, using the

tag (closed like a quote, with [/that]) can be used to hide things, rather than using odd colors, but in practice, people can just assume there will be unmarked spoilers for books more than 6 months old.

Edited December 13, 2011 by Deus Ex Biotica

[Leviathan]

Cool! We will, of course, expect reports on events in yor game once it gets going.

Of course

Well, Gold looks at the past, not the future, so predicting things that way is out (an Electrum savant might have some luck, possibly). And even for a high noble, burning gold constantly for weeks or months seems pretty non-feasible. If someone did pull it off, I suspect that they would mostly just lose a clear idea of which version of them is real and which isn't. At your option, they might start seeing three versions, rather than two.

Hrm. Probably right, it's strictly "What you may have been" so no reaching into "What you may become". I just thought that since Gold was commonly thought to be useless, it'd be amusing to have Savants actually getting a use out of it. Maybe even to the point of "If I think about Decision X made in my life, I see an image that corresponds with that choice"

Honestly? The Steel Inquisition doesn't want any Allomancers among the Skaa, so they wouldn't care who the father was, so long as the noble-blooded child was raised Noble.

The official policy is probably that noblewomen should never sleep with Skaa, ever, but I doubt they work too hard to enforce it.

Hrm. That's actually a good point on "it's more to do with the group they're raised with than their lineage" but you're no doubt quite right on it's not "Supposed" to be done.

There seems to be a reason, but it's tied to deep, mysterious metaplotey stuff we don't know yet - it seems that every Shard (godlike beings such as Preservation and Ruin) has a "pool," of wich the Well Of Ascension was Preservation's and the Pits of Hathsin were Ruin's.

Of course, since its larger implications are all tied up with things from other series that are unlikely to be relevant to your campaign, if I were you, I would not worry about changing that detail for my own game.

Well, the basic idea is according to records "Noble X seems to be making use of more Atium than he should be getting access to", and him possibly actually having found another (small) source for it. Perhaps somehow having had a few full nodes carved out of the Pits and carried to his location, where they're still producing Atium. Or perhaps there are a few naturally occuring in a cave system. Hrm. Odd ruins from a couple of centuries ago have been unearthed, papers within indicate someone stole some rocks from the Pits to try and artificially create a new location for Atium to grow?...

You get the idea

P.S. As I just recently learned, using the

tag (closed like a quote, with [/that]) can be used to hide things, rather than using odd colors, but in practice, people can just assume there will be unmarked spoilers for books more than 6 months old.

Fixed

[name_here]

The answer to three would seem to be:

Nope, Pits only. Beyond deep metaplot reasons, Preservation set up the Pits so it'd all be in one place where it could be gathered from and stockpiled so a bunch of Atium Mistings could burn all of it at once.

[happyman he/him]

Hey all

So. I've been throwing some ideas around in my head for a Mistborn RPG I plan to run once the book is released. However I've got a couple of world questions that I thought I'd throw out there to see what peoples answers are.

Warning: I haven't read Alloy of Law yet, so no spoilers please (it's next on my list once I finish Dance of Dragons )

Note: The RPG I'm planning is for during the Lord Ruler's time

And now, on to the weird and eclectic questions

(snip)

3) Ok, big spoiler here for Book 3 Mistborn here

I know Atium has been revealed to be Ruin's body, but is there a reason given at any point for why it (apparently) only grows in the one place? I'm trying to work out if there's the possibility of more nodes existing in small concentrations in other places.

I'm sure I'll come up with more questions as my campaign idea solidifies, but that'll do for now

Given that Ruin was looking for his body for roughly 1024 years without finding it, and how obscenely rigid TLR, the Kandra, and the Obligators were about protecting it, I would have to say that finding a place where atium is being produced would be extraordinarily unlikely. If such a place existed, Scandrial would probably have been destroyed all in one go after Ruin found it.

[Kurkistan he/him]

Given that Ruin was looking for his body for roughly 1024 years without finding it, and how obscenely rigid TLR, the Kandra, and the Obligators were about protecting it, I would have to say that finding a place where atium is being produced would be extraordinarily unlikely. If such a place existed, Scandrial would probably have been destroyed all in one go after Ruin found it.

Actually, a relatively large amount of people knew where it was produced (House Venture, Obligators, guards), but no one besides the Kandra knew where most of it was kept after being mined.

Edited December 13, 2011 by Kurkistan

[Deus Ex Biotica]

Weeeeeeeeeeell... I am not so sure.

Until the Lord Ruler's death, Ruin seemed more limited in his actions, and even if he weren't, he can't pull together and end the world until he's been let out of the Well of Ascension.

That said, for what Leviathan is describing, it would make more sense to me for there to be a hidden cache from some dead House, Mistborn, or Kandra (think like Zane's stash, but much bigger) that someone finds - in the case of a defunct Noble House, that could be decades or centuries of Atium, carefully hidden in the middle of nowhere, for some modern-day baddie to discover. For bonus points, said baddie could pretend privately that they had a secret Atium Mine, to further confuse the matter.

-- Deus Ex Biotica

[Aradel he/him]

Well, the basic idea is according to records "Noble X seems to be making use of more Atium than he should be getting access to", and him possibly actually having found another (small) source for it. Perhaps somehow having had a few full nodes carved out of the Pits and carried to his location, where they're still producing Atium. Or perhaps there are a few naturally occuring in a cave system. Hrm. Odd ruins from a couple of centuries ago have been unearthed, papers within indicate someone stole some rocks from the Pits to try and artificially create a new location for Atium to grow?...

You get the idea

Considering how long it took to grow atium geodes in the pits themselves? Transplanting crystals would take decades at least to start producing anything. They would only be able to sneak out a few crystals at a time, making the mysterious atium cache very small.

You could have someone take out a kandra, who demand to be paid in atium, and steal theirs. Might be an opportunity to introduce a kandra posing as a human looking for his 'friend' to aid the adventurers. (The plot thickens...)

[Leviathan]

Considering how long it took to grow atium geodes in the pits themselves? Transplanting crystals would take decades at least to start producing anything. They would only be able to sneak out a few crystals at a time, making the mysterious atium cache very small.

You could have someone take out a kandra, who demand to be paid in atium, and steal theirs. Might be an opportunity to introduce a kandra posing as a human looking for his 'friend' to aid the adventurers. (The plot thickens...)

Oh I have plans involving Kandra already, never fear

From the above discussion I think I'll go with:

X amount of time ago a previous family in charge of the Lord Ruler's Atium supply decided to try and expand the business. They secretly, over the course of years, moved a number of Atium Crystals, some raw geodes, and a moderate cache of Atium itself to a location well away from Luthadel. With these supplies they hoped to be able to setup a second, smaller Pits of Hathsin.

Unfortunately the Crystals never grew, and the Great House was mysteriously wiped out during a house war. Somehow they found all their allies turned against them, signed and documented deals had loopholes they didn't realise, their critical supplies raided and their Mistborn dead in the night (ie, Inquisitors & Obligators carefully manipulated things to ensure the house was destroyed without the Lord Ruler having to reveal that they were messing about with his Atium and doing it publicly).

A moderate noble from an unremarkable house whose family bought out some of the formerly Great House's real estate after their destruction, has recently been found by Obligator bookkeepers to be using and stockpiling more Atium than he should have been able to sensibly acquire.

Is he simply a more shrewd businessman than they thought, able to purchase more Atium than expected? Has he somehow managed to steal Atium from another house? Or did the previous house's efforts really create a new Pits of Hathsin and it has now been uncovered?....

Edited December 13, 2011 by Leviathan

[Zas678 he/him]

As to the second question, there is this:

17th Shard:

Jordan also asks, "Are there forms of birth control on Scadrial?"

Brandon:

Yes, there are. Witness, Vin and Elend not getting pregnant across several years.

17th Shard:

Right. It's just not really mentioned in the books.

Brandon:

Yeah. I stay away from that intentionally. There are a lot of things I just didn't discuss due to the the feel of that book.

So that could answer that question for you. I hope your game goes great!

[Leviathan]

As to the second question, there is this:

So that could answer that question for you. I hope your game goes great!

Well that answers that one

I'm certainly hoping the game goes well. Just need them to hurry up and sell the book (it's the 15th in Australia dangit!)

[Aeshdan he/him]

"Jordan also asks, "Are there forms of birth control on Scadrial?"

Brandon: Yes, there are. Witness, Vin and Elend not getting pregnant across several years.

17th Shard: Right. It's just not really mentioned in the books.

Brandon: Yeah. I stay away from that intentionally. There are a lot of things I just didn't discuss due to the the feel of that book."

Shame. It would have been nice to keep House Venture alive. Plus, if some of Vin and Elend's genes had survived, we'd proabably still have Mistborn in AoL.