Solicitation for FAQs and their Answers - Mistborn

[Kurkistan he/him]

Hello my fellow Sharders.

Through some depth of insanity whose true cause we shall never know, Chaos has been foolish enough to grant me a grain of authority. Specifically, I have been commissioned to compile a set of FAQ's, format them prettily, and then reap in the accolades for everyone else's hard work. This decision has been made due to the increasingly large amount of "common knowledge" that newer members don't know about, as well as, obviously, to answer frequently asked questions in a centralized manner.

As I am averse to actual work or mental activity demanded of my own person, I will be following the diabolical synergistic rout of harvesting crowdsourcing both questions and answers from the community at large. In my experience, this is a much better way to get actually useful results than me just locking myself in a room for a month and generating everything myself. The community asks and answers the questions it cares about quickly, responsively, and thoroughly with this kind of setup, and, most importantly, you don't have to place all your faith in one person (who happens to be me in this case) to keep on top of everything forever.

At this point, I could go on a hunt for questions and answers from various threads that already have them, or simply spitball various things I know off the top of my head. But that would both require work from me and deny you, the community, of a valuable opportunity to get used to providing me with your work so that I don't have to do it. So I'll be leaving even the low hanging fruit to you guys.

--------

Format:

I would kindly request that you write your submissions in the following way:

Q: Why is the sky blue?

A: Sunlight reaches Earth's atmosphere and is scattered in all directions by all the gases and particles in the air. Blue light is scattered in all directions by the tiny molecules of air in Earth's atmosphere. Blue is scattered more than other colors because it travels as shorter, smaller waves. This is why we see a blue sky most of the time.

Source: NASA

Canonicity: SCIENCE!

So, for facts that we actually care about:

Q: Who is Hoid?

A: A character who first appeared in an unpublished work who plays a role in all of Brandon's Cosmere books, to some greater or lesser extent, and is capable of moving between Shardworlds. His methods and goals are inscrutable. See the source for greater detail.

Source: Hoid article on Coppermind

Canonicity: Word of Brandon, in the books

Canonicity, so far as I can think, scales such:

In the books directly

Word of Brandon/Word of Peter

Word of Inkthinker (or anyone else with some role in the making of the work)

Sanderson-implied

-(semi-vague but easily deduceable comment. Like Hoid writing the letter)

Highly-regarded theory

-(So based on Brandon's comments and/or nearly unimpeachable deductions from the books. Like the Letter thread before Brandon's nigh-confirmation of it.)

Anything below this level is highly suspect. We might consider expanding the FAQ later, but we won't include less solid theories for the time being.

There might be some room for sub-divisions, or I might have cut it too fine, but you get the idea. Just some kind of qualifier so that we know which one to go with if there is some possibility of conflict between a FAQ and some new fact or theory.

You don't have to include canonicity or even a source for me to use a Q&A, but I and everyone around you would vastly prefer it, as it just makes everything easier down the road.

Aims:

I would like to see this FAQ cover a broad range of questions, from the simple "what's a shard?" to the more complex questions about Intent and Realmatics, with everything in-between for questions about individual series (such as how the 16-rule works in you-know-what-series, Cadmium/Bendalloy being swapped for you-know-what-metals, restrictions on Forging, etc.). Depending on how things go, it could end up being a big mondo-thread with a lot of subdivisions or spread out over various series-centric boards. The key is to get the content, though, and that's what I'm asking you guys for.

I'll have posted this in every board, and will watch them all carefully and start collating the results once they reach critical mass. After the initial FAQ is created, I would like it to be updated on a fairly regular basis. As to how much information the FAQ should cover, I don't think anyone wants a second Coppermind. Relatively simple questions, relatively simple answers: just let people who are new or have been out of the loop know what everyone else takes for granted.

And so now I leave it to you. Thank you in advance for your helpful (and excellently formatted) submissions.

P.S. This organization (meaning me with Chaos behind me wielding a big stick) reserves the right to reject, edit, or rephrase any submission in service of the goal of most clearly conveying useful information to the user-base. Though that would take work, so I'd prefer not to have to do it too often.

Edited April 11, 2013 by Kurkistan

[Kurkistan he/him]

Okay, I'll start the ball rolling here. This isn't me actually contributing, though! This was the example I used instead of Hoid, iniitally, then I realized it could spoil other boards. Don't think you'll get me to work that easily!

 

Q: Why can Harmony read Wax's mind, when Ruin (quite plot-crucially) couldn't?
A: Because Harmony includes Preservation, who is capable of reading minds.
Source: Word of Brandon
Canonicity: Brandon-confirmed

[Voidus]

Q:In Alloy of Law why aren't there any full Mistborn and why are Feruchemists now only able to have one ability?

A: Allomancy has degraded in the population, much as the mistborn during the time of the original mistborn trilogy were weaker than Elend or the original Mistborn who were given Lerasium by the Lord Ruler. Feruchemy has become diluted as well through the combined effects of the Lord Rulers breeding programs, the slaughter of the Keepers by Ruin and also through mixing with Allomancy genes by interbreeding. This has allowed Ferrings to exist.

Canonicity: Brandon Confirmed.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Question: What's up with the rule of 16 for mistings when there are more than sixteen metals?
 
Answer: Preservation was screwing with the system to make a point.  He left out a few metals and only snapped 16 because 16 is a mystically significant number.  The ones that weren't snapped include mistings of nicrosil, chromium, and the fifteen atium alloys beside malatium.  They weren't 'replaced' in the magic system - preservation just didn't snap them.
 
Source: Various words of brandon.

http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Fantasy-Science-Fiction/Post-Questions-For-Brandon-Sanderson-Here/td-p/354645/page/7?nobounce
Preservation wanted Atium and Malatium to be of use to the people, as he recognized that it would be a very powerful tool--and that using it up could help defeat Ruin. But he also recognized that sixteen was a mythological important number, and felt it would make the best sign for his followers. So he took out the most unlikely (difficult to make and use) metals for his sign to his followers. But that doesn't have much to do with Hemalurgy's use here.

 

 

http://twg.17thshard.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=38591b7620547b954c233ed76ad558a9&topic=6655.msg138513#msg138513

I saw Brandon at a book signing back in mid-December, and I asked him about the 16 percent deal. He said that Preservation replaced the real External Temporal Metals with Atium and Malatium (at least I'm assuming Malatium, but he didn't mention that specifically. He only said Atium). So not-Cerrobend and Cadmium weren't counted in the 16%. Nicrosil and Chromium, on the other hand, were. So there are Chromium and Nicrosil mistings running around, not knowing that they're mistings.

When he was answering this, I thought he made it pretty clear that Preservation, with the 16%, was just making Mistings. Not Mistborn. I'm not sure about the people who died. I think maybe those who died from the Mists were Mistborn, but as far as I know, Brandon hasn't confirmed or denied this theory. Nor has he confirmed or denied anything regarding the Atium Mistings created by the mists/Preservation. Maybe they are Mistborn. Maybe they can burn Atium alloys. I'm betting not. I'm betting they're simply Atium Mistings, and that's it.

 

http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/1729-a-late-breaking-report/

We asked some questions about the Lord Ruler, like if he knew about chromium and nicrosil. Brandon said he knew about those metals, and then also said "The Lord Ruler knew a lot of things that no one knows." All right then.

 

 

http://mistborn.livejournal.com/111534.html

Purposeful oversight. It just didn't fit onto the table in a way I liked, plus I didn't want to get mired in the whole 'God-metal Mistings' debate on this poster, since in-world scholars still aren't certain what to make of Atium Seers. (Let alone the possibility of Mistings who can burn the sixteen Atium alloys.) Let's just say that the God Metals break the rules, and the poster does its best to acknowledge that without going into details.

The poster is the table as understood at about three hundred years after the events of the third book.

Edited June 11, 2013 by Phantom Monstrosity

[WeiryWriter he/him]

Q.  How can Vin pierce Copperclouds/ detect the Well of Ascension?

 

A.  Vin's earring is a hemalurgic spike granting allomantic bronze.  It was created by Vin's mother, who was schizophrenic and corrupted by Ruin, who used earring to kill Vin's younger sister, a seeker.  The ability to pierce Copperclouds, and presumably detect the Well of Ascension, is a matter of strength and with the hemalurgic spike Vin has twice the strength in Bronze.

 

Source: Word of Brandon, Coppermind Articles on Vin and Vin's earring

Canonicity: Brandon-Confirmed

Edited April 17, 2013 by WeiryWriter

[Eowyn]

Q.  How can Vin pierce Copperclouds/ detect the Well of Ascension?

 

A.  Vin's earring is a hemalurgic spike granting allomantic bronze.  It was created by Vin's mother, who was schizophrenic and corrupted by Ruin, who used earring to kill Vin's younger sister, a seeker.  The ability to pierce Copperclouds, and presumably detect the Well of Ascension, is a matter of strength and with the hemalurgic spike Vin has twice the strength in Bronze.

 

Source: Word of Brandon, Coppermind Articles on Vin and Vin's earring

Canonicity: Brandon-Confirmed

 

Just wanted to offer a slight correction to this.  Brandon said specifically that Vin's mother was not spiked by Ruin, as she 'was crazy enough on her own'

 

 

INTERVIEW: Oct, 2008

Hero of Ages Q&A - TWG (Verbatim)

DARXBANE (16 OCTOBER 2008)

Did Vin's mother actually have a spike, or was she so crazy that one wasn't necessary for Ruin to influence her?

BRANDON SANDERSON (17 OCTOBER 2008)

She was crazy enough on her own.

[WeiryWriter he/him]

Just wanted to offer a slight correction to this.  Brandon said specifically that Vin's mother was not spiked by Ruin, as she 'was crazy enough on her own'

 

I didn't mention anything about Vin's mother being spiked.

Edited April 19, 2013 by WeiryWriter

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Question: What's up with hemalurgy and feruchemy? / What's up with heat being mental feruchemy/ What's up with the feruchemical attribute quadrants?

Answer: Long story short, the quadrants originally lined up, but Brandon accidentally swapped a couple feruchemical metals in Mistborn. The rest of the metals in the system got revised, so it's now realmatically aligned instead of quadrant...ly. Hence, there are eight physical, four cognitive, and four spiritual feruchemical abilities - that means a pewter spike can steal one of EIGHT feruchemical abilities, which is pretty nifty.


Source: Word of Brandon
http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=839

SATSUONI
2. How is heat a mental attribute in Feruchemy?
BRANDON SANDERSON
2: Because I messed up. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but that power was supposed to be swapped with another one. (You might be able to guess which one.) However, by the time I realized my mistake, it had already been canonized in print in the trilogy, so I was stuck with it. I've been tempted to go back and correct the error, but it reaches pretty far back. People drawing upon warmth is mentioned in the first book. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that in general the 'physical, mental, etc' things are applied by people--they are boxes that people investigating the magic have used to describe it.

http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=689

Are the usual quadrants (Physical, Mental, Temporal, Enhancement) preserved in Feruchemy and Hemalurgy?
Brandon Sanderson.

No. In Ferchemy, it is based Realmatically. There is a quadrant of Spiritual, a quadrant of Cognitive and two quadrants of Physical.

 

http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/1729-a-late-breaking-report/

As it turns out, there is an error in the Feruchemical table when Brandon put it in Mistborn 2. If you look closely, Determination (insert metal) doesn't belong in its group. The group that it is in is obviously more physical powers. Determination was supposed to be a mental metal, and Warmth was supposed to be in that Physical group. He just made a mistake originally. But it turns out that Feruchemy obeys different rules than Allomancy, so Brandon isn't retconning it, but saying that Feruchemy works differently now. Apparently there was going to be a table of Feruchemy at the end of Alloy of Law, but it wasn't ready because Isaac kept thinking like an Allomancer. Feruchemy has its own rules (for example, Brandon confirmed that pewter does steal Feruchemical health, probably because that second group of physical Feruchemical powers are also "physical", so pewter can steal them.) Hemalurgy also obeys different rules.

Edited June 11, 2013 by Phantom Monstrosity

[Voidus]

Has Brandon confirmed that Pewter can steal all 8?

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Hero of Ages, chapter 36 intro

For example, all of the original Inquisitors were given a pewter spike, which--after first being pounded through the body of a Feruchemist--gave the Inquisitor the ability to store up healing power. ...This, obviously, is where the Inquisitors got their infamous ability to recover from wounds quickly, and was also why they needed to rest so much.

Pewter definitely can steal gold, which is part of the other quadrant of four physical metals.

I'll see if I can dig up a more direct quote about stealing all eight- I've seen it somewhere, but not sure where.

Edited April 22, 2013 by Phantom Monstrosity

[WeiryWriter he/him]

Because this came up in a thread today.

 

Question: How is Marsh still around during Alloy of Law?

 

Answer: When the Second Generation seized control of the kandra during Hero of Ages their leader, KanPaar sent a kandra to sell a bag of atium.  He thought the kandra should use the Lord Ruler's atium cache to become rich, he however revealed the location of the cache to Ruin.  Marsh has the bag that was sent away to be sold and is using the same compounding trick to achieve immortality that the Lord Ruler did.

 

Source: Word of Brandon (entry 82)

[happyman he/him]

Because this came up in a thread today.

 

Question: How is Marsh still around during Alloy of Law?

 

Answer: When the Second Generation seized control of the kandra during Hero of Ages their leader, KanPaar sent a kandra to sell a bag of atium.  He thought the kandra should use the Lord Ruler's atium cache to become rich, he however revealed the location of the cache to Ruin.  Marsh has the bag that was sent away to be sold and is using the same compounding trick to achieve immortality that the Lord Ruler did.

 

Source: Word of Brandon (entry 82)

 

Even better, all of this could be inferred from canon.  Marsh explicitly said he had atium when he met Elend at the Pits, and he was present and involved when Sazed explained compounding (particularly age compounding).  It's a simple enough step from there!

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Well, I managed to trawl up a quote on exactly which metals preservation replaced. 

 

Anyway, are we going to get a sticky thread at some point?

Edited June 11, 2013 by Phantom Monstrosity

[Kurkistan he/him]

Care to share that quote with the class, Phantom?

Chaos is on stickying, but I think he has a lot of stuff on his plate.

Edited June 11, 2013 by Kurkistan

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Care to share that quite with the class, Phantom?

Chaos is on stickying, but I think he has a lot of stuff on his plate.

I've edited it into my earlier post, along with a couple others I found that were related to the subject. 

[Kurkistan he/him]

Ah, thanks. I think we already had enough links in the FAQ thread, but your additional info will be nice if anyone wants to follow the attribution trail down the rabbit hole to your initial post.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Ah, thanks. I think we already had enough links in the FAQ thread, but your additional info will be nice if anyone wants to follow the attribution trail down the rabbit hole to your initial post.

Yeah but as you can no doubt tell, I like to be thorough when looking stuff up.

Generally, when doing research, I like to be thorough.

[Ete'ni]

.

Edited June 23, 2014 by Ete'ni

[Kurkistan he/him]

You are right about the earring allowing the communication, as I cite in the FAQ proper, and you are not alone in speculating on whether Wax got Allomantic Pewter from his earring. Heck, I even got a RAFO from Brandon on the topic.

[Ete'ni]

.

Edited June 23, 2014 by Ete'ni

[Kurkistan he/him]

Oh... that explains... I actually thought that it might be reasonable not to throw away all those ruin's spikes. Guess, Harmony has found his way to play favourites

 

But it doesn't explain why Wax feels stronger in mists even without the earring. By all means a person looses the ability when allomantic spike is removed like what happened to Spook.

 

Wax feels like he - to some point - draw on mists the same way Vin did. Even in the first chapter he's like that though I didn't find any mentioning of the earring in it. The earring is for prayers, it was stated this way. When Wax was praying before the final battle, he hesitated and left the earring as he considered the upcoming as his prayer. To me, it indicates that such was not the usual practice. Though Wax always feel better in mists. And Wax became a Pathian on the way to Roughs. It just doesn't match.

 

That point is addressed later on in that same thread, with a full source here.

Edited September 8, 2013 by Kurkistan

[happyman he/him]

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.

Edited September 9, 2013 by happyman

[Windrunner he/him]

That's kind of what I always assumed. Although I'm not certain that he's using less on Wax then Vin did on Elend, exactly. He just has more limited options with Wax because Wax has fewer powers available. If Sazed is both temporarily increasing the power of the charge in Wax's earring (which I'm assuming Ruin would be able to do) while simultaneously powering that pewter that he's gained, I'd say it's a fairly significant use of power.