Origins of Feruchemy and their relation to Shardpools

[_Tempus_]

Feruchemy is an end-neutral magic system that exists solely in the Spiritual Web of the Terris people and their descendants. It doesn't matter if any people in a person's bloodline was a feruchemist or not, as long as there is a Terrisman/woman, then the person would have a chance of becoming a feruchemist. Feruchemy does not require Snapping, or at least it wasn't shown or mentioned that it requires Snapping. So then, why do the Terris people have feruchemy written in their Spiritual Web?

A theory is that the pre-final empire Terris people lived in a close approximately with the Well of Ascension and Ruin's Perpendicularity (dubbed as the Lake that Fedik, one of Alendi's travelling companions, discovered. He was attacked by Ruin in the form of the black mist spirit shortly afterwards.) The two shardpools, with totally opposite intents, affected the Terris people. This would further explain why feruchemy is an end-neutral art, as Preservation's (end-positive) and Ruin's (end-negative) were in a tangle, canceling both out into a magic system that does not create or take. But this theory have some flaws in it. If people living in proximity with shardpools have their Spiritual Web changed, then what does it say for the people at other shardpools? The pool below the Pits of Hathsin became the new location of Ruin's perpendicularity, used by many Worldhoppers to enter Scadrial, with a trade-network there that even Rashek was aware of. Until of course Kelsier destroyed it. So do the skaa workers in the Pits have their Spiritual Web changed? This would be hard to know, for most usually die in a year or so, and they won't exactly be birthing children would they. But after Kelsier saved the workers, it is unknown what happened to them. The people near the Well of Ascension bear no changes too. For all we know, everything stayed the same. The Unkalaki (Horneater) people lived on mountain peaks with a lakes on top to warm the environment. The lakes are Cultivation's Perpendicularity. According to Rock, some Horneaters (like himself) can see spren in their true forms and can see spren that wants to be hidden. Whether or not it was an effect of the shardpool, we do not know. Afterall, the Horneater people have Listener blood in them, who could also see spren. An example to prove the theory that the shardpools gave the powers of feruchemy is Patji's Eye, the emerald lake on Patji. (still a bit confused about which shard. It's related to Autonomy, at least, but Patji is an avatar of Autonomy, so can avatars have shardpools?) The lake changed the environment around it, growing Patji Fingers, trees that bear fruits which the worms eat, which the aviar then ate, gaining talents and powers. So did the Terris, who farmed near the shardpools, ate food that were invested? 

Another theory is that another Shard came to Scadrial, who then changed the Spiritual Web of the Terris people. And it is proven that Scadrial was visited by other Shards before the events of Mistborn: 

Quote

mender

Was Scadrial visited by any other Shard before the events of Mistborn? If so, which one?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. Several.

This might be referencing to Trell or Autonomy or something like that (still very confused with Autonomy and his/her avatars), but it could also mean that a Shard invested the Terris. Who knows?

The final theory is that Preservation himself invested the Terris community directly. Afterall, Preservation did help found the Terris religion and he gave them the prophecy of the Hero of Ages. Why wouldn't he invest the Terris people? But that also raises some questions. Why the Terris? Why not any other nations on Scadrial, after all the Terris people are just herdsmen and farmers. Is it again related to the close proximity of the Well of Ascension, or perhaps he foresaw that the Hero of Ages is Terris himself? 

For all we know, the origins of feruchemy are still unknown and any questions asked are RAFOed. Lets hope that "The Lost Metal" might provide some answers, along with Trell and Autonomy and their confusing relationship. Feel free to add on to those theories, or prove why they're wrong. Thanks for reading this.

   

 

[TheHeadHancho]

Well, seeing that Scadrians are made of only Ruin and Preservation’s Investiture, it could be possible that living next to shardpools for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, could have an effect on their sDNA, but beyond that I don’t see another thing that could have happened that is more likely.

[Fatikis]

I think there was a natural shardpool with the mixture of the two powers that the Terris people sat a top of. Over generations this created the first Feruchemists. Now we see that Southern Scadrians seem to have quite a few ferrings without Terris blood. The Southerners also seem to be near Harmonies shardpool as they have access to Harmonium.

I doubt Trell or Autonomy was involved with Feruchemy in anyway.

[Weltall]

Brandon has RAFO'd how feruchemy became part of the Terris sDNA but he's implied that the extra Preservation in Scadrians might have been a factor. I seem to recall another WoB that there is a method of becoming a feruchemist other than being born with the sDNA but I can't find it right now.

12 hours ago, _Tempus_ said:

This might be referencing to Trell or Autonomy or something like that (still very confused with Autonomy and his/her avatars), but it could also mean that a Shard invested the Terris. Who knows?

The above WoB (and the one I think I've seen) suggest not, and it would do very weird things to the Terris sDNA if they had a third Shard's 'genes' in their makeup. And would probably have made Sazed's Ascension impossible, especially given some things we see in Secret History where there was just a severe Presevation/Ruin imbalance.

Anyhow, we'd all love to know what's up with Autonomy. What I believe to be the case (and I can't claim credit for developing the theory) is that Bavadin is creating Splinters of herself on various worlds in order to make it easier to find and access all of the Investiture that became associated with Autonomy at the Shattering. We know that there's lots of it out there which the Shards can theoretically access, but the Vessels don't have infinitely expanded minds and they can't actually use all that power normally. But if Autonomy spreads her influence through Splinters, she might be able to gather that extra power with relatively little exposure. There's a long WoB here where Brandon talks about how Shards work, in the context of Autonomy's relation to the Investiture on First of the Sun.

[teknopathetic]

On 4/29/2018 at 10:03 AM, TheHeadHancho said:

Well, seeing that Scadrians are made of only Ruin and Preservation’s Investiture, it could be possible that living next to shardpools for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, could have an effect on their sDNA, but beyond that I don’t see another thing that could have happened that is more likely.

I have a Reddit PM WOB that says the Terris were given Feruchemy as a gift, and that Brandon may get into how that occurred at somepoint. 

from mistborn sent 1 year ago

It was more of a gift than an accident, but I do plan to someday dig into it more.

 

 

Edited May 1, 2018 by teknopathetic