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I'm probably deeply misguided for thinking this. But hear me out. This has been bugging me for YEARS. Since the first time I read and completed the mistborn trilogy as a teenager. And it seems like no one’s addressed it. At least not comprehensively. So I will attempt to now. I humbly ask that you read the whole thing through before commenting. So you can see the full picture I’m trying to paint. Then judge my argument on its full merit. I am very open to the (probable) reality that I am very wrong. Still, it can't hurt to rant a bit ya? Brandon Sanderson (A living printer & absolute gigachad of an author) has either made the biggest accidental blunder regarding one of the most important magic systems in the Cosmere. Or has been setting up one of the biggest plot twists in the Cosmere’s history. And this is why; Allomancy, which Brandon categorised as ‘Preservation’s power’ in era one. Is NOT actually Preservation’s power, but rather Harmony’s. And I will be attempting to convince you that that is the case. Argument: Allomancy, functionally, has nothing to do with preservation, but in contrast, ferruchemy absolutely does. Ferruchemy’s whole shtick is that it allows its user to preserve attributes within metals for a practically indefinite amount of time for use later on. While allomancy on the other hand, not only doesn’t give one the power to preserve anything. But instead REQUIRES that one destroys metals by burning them in order to gain investiture and abilities. Yes, you get more out than you put in. But the same could be said about splitting an atom in a nuclear fission reaction. You destroy something in order to gain the power to do something. Ruin’s influence within this magic system is quite obvious. And yet we can’t say that it is purely his power, because even though mistborn are walking killing machines. Their power can be used to create and preserve just as well. (Ferruchemy being Preservation’s power also acts as a perfect contrast to hemallurgy. The two are exact mirrors of each other, just as the shards are.) Ferruchemy preserves. Pure and simple. Hemallurgy kills, steals, twists, and decays. Allomancy on the other hand just doesn’t quite fit either shard completely. It’s the odd one out. It always has been. Allomancy is an end-positive power precisely because it is not Preservation, or Ruins’ power singularly. And we can deduce this by looking at the natures of the two shards themselves. On their own, neither shard is capable of creating. Only preserving or destroying. Neither one is capable of producing an end-positive system. It was only when the two shards came together, agreeing to work in harmony. That they had the power to create an entire planet, biosphere, and human race entirely from scratch. Harmony did that. Not Preservation. Not Ruin. But the harmonious efforts of the two shards. And later on at the end of era one. It was only through the unification of the shards into Harmony that all the mistakes and errors made by either shard could be mended, and the world restored to its original state. The entire story is about Harmony. Harmony created the world. But once the world was created, and the agreement between the two shards fulfilled, discord followed. The two shards warred, each motivated by opposing intents. Leading to the gradual destruction of their world. And in the end, it was only the rebirth and re-establishment of Harmony that put it all back together. This thematic truth can also be observed within the characters themselves. One could argue that Vin’s entire story was about finding harmony within herself. Learning to accept the fact that she can’t cling to everything and everyone hoping that they don’t change. That they don’t leave her alone(Preservation.) While simultaneously accepting the darker parts of herself. Her capacity for violence is foremost among them(Ruin.) And through the marriage of these two sides of her, the part that seeks to protect, and the part that causes destruction. She finds harmony within herself. Learning to use that destructive force for the sake of preservation. The ruin within her yields to the preservation within her. And it is that resultant internal harmony that not only makes her so potent a mistborn, but gives her the strength to sacrifice herself to destroy Ati once and for all. Mistborn are children of Harmony. And this truth can also be seen by simply thinking about what separates them from all other allomancers. As well as what separates the normal mistborn from the great ones. Their ability to use all of their abilities in conjunction with each other to accomplish incredible acts. Vin’s creativity, her willingness to experiment, to see how two metals no matter how unrelated their powers may first seem, could work in unison with each other to produce unexpected and fantastic results. That is what made her a force of nature. Vin is the greatest mistborn we’ve ever seen precisely because she, more than any other character, mastered the art of using ALL her abilities in harmony. Viewing them as complementary pieces within a greater harmonious whole, rather than entirely distinct and separate elements. The way others, such as mistings, typically would. Counter: Platitudes! That’s all a stretch. We know that allomancy is preservation’s power because it comes from consuming beads of lerasium! Rebuttal: Does it though? This wouldn’t be the first time that the characters in the story said one thing about the nature of a metal, only for Brandon to come out later stating the opposite. I.e Atium’s true nature in era 1. So the same thing could be said about ‘Lerasium.’ I think that what we’ve been led to believe is ‘Lerasium’ is actually ‘Harmonium.’ And the fact that the beads are only found around the well of ascension is evidence of this. Why? Because the well of ascension is the location of the final clash between Ruin and Preservation. It is where Preservation died, sacrificing himself to trap ruin. I believe that when the two shards clashed here, the two clashing investitures produced beads of Harmonium as a side effect, scattering them around the well. And that it is the consumption of Harmonium that actually makes one a mistborn, not Lerasium. Counter: But in Era 2 we see what ‘Harmonium’ is actually like. It doesn’t make people mistborn. It stores allomantic charges and is extremely reactive and combustible. It can’t even be consumed! Rebuttal: Aha, exactly! Because what we see in era 2 isn’t actually ‘Harmonium.’ It’s DISCORDIUM! Somewhere in between the end of era one and the start of era two, something went wrong with either Sazed, his shard, or both. And this is what led to the shift in his shard’s capabilities and attributes in era 2. It is why he’s incapable of wielding the same degree of power he did at the end of era one. Because he’s not in harmony any more, he’s discordant. And that subtle shift has been reflected in his god-metal, twisting it from an inert metal, something that creates mistborn, to a hyper reactive metal capable of nuking cities if agitated enough. It also fits with the hero of ages prophecy. “They shall call him discord(not harmony!), and they will love him for it.” Counter: Okay then but if the beads that create mistborn are actually shards of ‘Harmonium’ created when Preservation and Ruin last battled at the well of ascension. Then what does true Lerasium actually do? Where do mistings come from? Why is it that Vin could burn Preservation’s mist to fuel her allomancy? Argument: Simple. Lerasium’s true property is that it creates ferruchemists. And in order to better support that, I need only ask. Why is it that only Sazed’s people have ferruchemy. What distinguishes them from other people on Scadrial? Simple, they are the only group of people that have been living around Preservation’s perpendicularity for centuries. They are the closest to preservation’s influence than any other group of people on the planet. I believe that either through continued exposure to high levels of preservation’s investiture over countless generations. Or the consumption of trace amounts of lerasium forming within the environment around the perpendicularity. Or even just being descended from the initial group of people who discovered the perpendicularity, who perhaps interacted with it and consumed the invesiture there somehow. And then passed on the power genetically. Mistings emerge naturally because all humans on scadrial have souls formed from both preservation and ruin. And I believe that a misting could snap from both the white or the black mist. Vin was able to use preservation’s mists to fuel her allomancy because 1) she aligned with the shard’s intent very strongly, hence why only she had the power to do this. And 2) She could absolutely have done the same thing with Ruin’s black mist if her personality aligned with his shard’s intent instead. Because allomancy arises from the union of both shards’ powers. Whichever one you can use to fuel it is entirely dependant on how strongly you align with the intent and not with the nature of your allomantic abilities. Counter: But in era 2 we see that when Wax splits ettmetal it produces atium and trace amounts of lerasium, which then go on to turn him and Wayne into mistborn! Rebuttal: No, we think that’s what happened, because that’s what the characters think happened. But the truth is, none of the characters actually know what true Lerasium is. Or what it’s supposed to behave like. Heck, they don’t even know what true Atium is like, because we’ve still never seen it! What we’re actually seeing here is the correction of an imbalance within the Ettmetal. The excess influence of ruin’s investiture in the metal is being removed, resulting in a metal that’s perfectly balanced between ruin and preservation. I.e, true ‘Harmonium.’ Ettmetal is actually ‘Discordium.’ It is innately imbalanced, carrying within it a bit more ruin than preservation, making it extremely volatile. But once split in this explosive reaction. The excess ruin investiture becomes malatium(not pure Atium, which we’ve never seen, because of whatever Leras did to ruin’s power in era 1), while the rest which is perfectly balanced with preservation’s investiture becomes true ‘Harmonium.’ And THAT is what turned Wax and Wayne into mistborn. If one wanted to produce actual Lerasium, they’d have to repeat the splitting procedure once more in order to fully split ruin’s investiture from Preservation’s. Producing pure Atium, and pure Lerasium. Whether or not that’s actually possible though is up for debate. Brandon seems to have eluded in past interviews that this should not be possible. The truth is that in era 1, Preservation did something spiritually to ruin’s power that made it so that it spawned into the world not as pure Atium, but rather as a twisted or dirty version/alloy. Malatium. Perhaps because he feared what true, pure Atium could do if people tried to burn it. And Somewhat similarly, there is a spiritual defect within Sazed and his shard that is reflected in his metal. Preventing it from manifesting as pure ‘Harmonium.’ But rather as a hyper reactive alloy, ‘Discordium.’ Which the characters refer to as Ettmetal. The truth is, we have never actually seen pure Atium, or Lerasium in ANY of the books. Only their alloys. I think that this may actually be intentional. And these intricate layers and webs of contradictions, and misconceptions will serve as the catalyst for the conflicts in the upcoming stories. And perfectly explain why Sazed has never been quite the same as the Sazed we saw at the end of Era one. Something insidious is going on. And he might not even be aware. It’s entirely possible that the main reason Sazed struggles to use his shard is because he mistakenly still thinks of the shard as Harmony, when in actuality it is Discord. The shard and the vessel are not in sync, and this is slowly destroying Sazed from within. Perhaps leading to the development of something… other. I personally think that this spiritual defect is a leftover consequence of the conflict between Ati and Leras in the past. We already know thanks to stormlight 4 that new shard holders inherit changes made to their shards by past holders. The shard’s investiture retains those spiritual bonds and quirks from the previous holder. My theory is that Sazed’s problems emerge from a confluence of 1) Whatever Leras did to Ruin’s power when he split it from him. 2) A weakening of preservation’s power, or rather output/influence/capacity, when he put more of himself within humanity than ruin did. 3) His own lack of awareness on the true nature of his shard’s nature and intent, gradually leading to him becoming an unfit vessel for the power, and thus incapable of using his powers as easily as he otherwise should. Setting up massive implications for future stories and conflicts. Conclusion: Perhaps I’m deeply misguided. Perhaps Brandon made a little mistake and I’ve been reading far to deeply into it for all these years. And in actuality none of this means anything. Perhaps Brandon is entirely unaware that this one little categorization choice he made ages ago could potentially yield all these implications. Or, maybe, just maybe. He did all this on purpose. Maybe Sazed was fated to walk the path of Discord from the start. Maybe we’ve all been duped for years and he’s been gradually working towards this grand reveal. If the latter is true my soul would quite literally ascend into the beyond. And I’ll feel like an absolute legend for having seen the whole thing coming from day one. But if not… Frankly speaking I’ll be so mad XD. Lots of love though Brandon! Thanks for the headache *End Note: The implications of all this kind of answers another question that's been bugging me as I’ve watched the grander narrative of the Cosmere slowly unfold. And that's the fact that Scadrians, without a singular doubt, seem like absolute A-holes in every story when viewed from an other-outworlder's POV. They seem exploitative, apathetic, and in many cases, they sow discord wherever they go. E.g. Sunlit Man, most interactions between ghostbloods and other-worlders, & the new secret project prologue. I noticed this because (in case you couldn’t tell by now) Scadrial and it’s people are the closest to my heart in the Cosmere. So their consistent douchebagery in other Cosmere stories has been very glaring to me. If my theory is true, and Sazed is actually Discord. And the traits of a shard can be seen reflected in the people of their world. This would all make perfect sense. Modern day Scadrians are children of Discord and that naturally makes them more prone to A-holery than most.*

Essentially, the metal arts are spiritually genetic (ignoring you hemalurgy) I believe which could allow for some breeding. We see that the metallic arts have become watered down among the population esssentially removing the possibility for mistborn or full feruchemists but what if, with careful breeding, there could be a way to bring these power sets back into being outside the use of godmetals like Lerasium. Would this sort of breeding allow for a Fullborn perhaps? I do recognize that these people would most certainly not come close to the power level of an original allomancer or feruchemist but that is not quite the point. Perhaps you could strengthen the power level of people with this but the first priority I’d assume is giving someone a greater skill set in metals. What do you guys think? Am I missing some important info that would throw all this out the window?

Hey all your Brandon Sanderson fans. If you have nothing to do sunday afternoon and your a fan of dungeons and dragons 5e. Look no further. I , Branden the bard of the Hero's Risen Gm core has arrived! Sundays starting at 1pm est I will be hosting a dnd 5e campaign taking place 15 years after era 1. I have Sunday posted now but with more interest I will host this game on other nights as well . https://startplaying.games/adventure/cluj1am8500ca08jy8zqy1l97 Can't wait to see you all there

Figured I'd start a thread for furthering input; since there is going to be a Mistborn as an antagonist come era 3, what kinds of tools would help them perform the traditional processes of a Mistborn assassin/sneak/warrior? 1. Cloth-covered coins: we see Vin use this a little in HoA, where having a little cloth covering you coins used for Steeljumping gives you greater stealth. 2. Aluminum daggers: since this is going to be a lot more common come era 3, it would prove quite useful for a Mistborn to have some upgrades to their hand-to-hand weaponry. Maybe their would even be an alloy of aluminum to make it sturdier. You could also coat the blade(s) in a dark substance to keep it from being shiny in the dark. 3. Aluminum vials/pouches: this would keep your metals safe from being Pushed or Pulled on, so no need to worry about losing them in combat. 4. Fingerless aluminum-lined gloves: now, I see a lot of potential for these; you can handle Bendalloy nuggets in your palm to ingest while keeping them safe from Allomancy, you can add aluminum covered steel knuckles for more punching force, when punching a Leecher they won't be able to Leech you, and with the finger tips exposed you have more dexterity and can Leech your own targets. 5. Ball-bearing cannon box; not really something they're going to use to often as it's big and clunky, but imagine a box with 100-300 steel ball-bearings held in place by a thin cloth. Then put the box on its side and attach it to a crossbow handle. Basically, this allows the Mistborn to use a duralumin/pewter/Steelpush to make a massively destructive grapeshot when in battle. 6. Allomantic body piercings; another source of Allomantic reserves that my be more tolerant to being Leeched or may be usable for longer periods of time. Plus, they can just be kept in the body without the need to ingest them if the Mistborn were to be attacked unexpectedly. They could also be used in an emergency as a Pushable weapon or item to break their fall if they lose their coin pouch and have no other metal. What else do you guys think would be a good tool for Mistborn?

Hello! I made these a long time ago for a art server for me and my friends and figured I would share! Lil Marsh with hot cocoa (tfe spoiler) He's my personal favorite (no spoilers) Kelsier themed ones! (No spoilers) MAJOR BoM/M:SH And of course, TenCheems please credit me when using use!!!

So something I've been thinking about for the past week or so since I saw @IlstrawberrySeed post about Mistborn-Ferrings (Half Borns), is how would a Mistborn-Soulbearer work? Would they be able to store their ability to use allomancy in general or only be able to store one allomantic ability at a time? I'm just curious as to how it would work since I've been reading a lot of posts about F-Nicrosil and diving into the cult

Authors Note: Happy Birthday, to me! This is a reverse birthday gift, from me to all of you! In case you've forgotten or just haven't seen it around half a year ago, I set up a thread for snippets and dropped a bunch of idea titles for stores I want to write. Unfortunately, my poor writing skills and constant ideas for other stuff kept me from ever truly being able to just sit down and write a real story. That ends today! My hopes for the Cosmeric Tales is, while Brandon is typing out his doorstoppers with his feet, I'll try to tide you over with smaller stories, mostly separate from Brandon's, that could 'plausibly' have or will happen in the Cosmere. By god it's been a while but thanks to this experience, It'll be a much smoother ride for me to give this site the stories it deserves, or needs. Either one. So without further ado! I give you the first of the Cosmeric Tales! The Duststalker Prologue The gunshots echoed throughout the town. Dek couldn’t help but flinch at every single one, he’d never heard so many in a single night in all his life. The only impulse flashing through his mind was to get himself and his younger brother Nid as far away from those horrible sounds as fast as he could. Unfortunately for him, his brother had other ideas. “Dek, lemme go! I can help!” Nid pleaded with his brother. But the young adult wouldn’t hear it, “No, nonono, rust that, we’re not going near that at all! We’re getting to town hall and praying that the conners can deal with this.” Dek fired back, while pulling his brother along. “B-but it’s never been this bad before! What if they can’t?!” Nid yelled back. “If they can’t, then we stay right bloody quiet till this all blows over.” Dek’s frazzled reply did nothing to assuage the younger boy. Nid stopped walking, then Dek jerked to a stop, unable to pull his brother along anymore. He turned to glare at Nid. “This is not the time for this Nid! Stop showing off and let’s go!” He barked. Nid returned the glare and ripped his hand out of his brother’s grip, “You go! I’m gonna try and do something instead of just hiding!” He yelled. Dek balked at this, “Are you out of your rusted mind?! You’ll be killed!” “I can help! I’m metalborn aren’t I, I can do this!” Nid was adamant. Why? Why did his brother have to have these damn thoughts, acting like he could do anything? Why couldn’t the brat see that Dek was just trying to keep him safe. “No! You’re not a lawman Nid! You’re just a kid! Now come on!” He tried to pull his younger brother’s arm, trying to drag him to safety by force if he had to. The boy still didn’t budge. Nid glared at his brother, then tore out of Dek’s grip once more, “I’ll show you I can do it, I’ll prove it!” He yelled at his older brother as he started to sprint away, appearing to skim across the ground as he did so, like a skipping stone. Dek froze in place, he knew he couldn’t stop Nid, not really. If he tried to go after him, he’d be risking his own life. If he didn’t go, his idiot of a brother would probably get himself killed. He wasn’t bulletproof for god’s sake! Nid was still moving and was starting to leave his sight. He bit his lip so hard it almost bled. “Harmony’s lost balls!” Dek bit out as he turned and sprinted towards the gun fight. Dek kept to the edges of walls as he ran, doing his best to avoid where the gunshots were frequent while following his brother. He turned a corner in pursuit and saw his brother running towards a much larger man, dressed in a vest with a wild mane of black hair. He was pointing a gun towards a cowering woman, a hearty and cruel laughing echoing from him. It ended when his gun ripped its way out of his hand, flying in the air towards Nid. The boy dashed to the side to avoid it slamming into him. The outlaw turned towards the boy with shock plastered on his face “What the hel-”. Nid yelled as he sped up to the man and leapt, slamming into him shoulder first. The former gunman gasped as Nid tackled him straight into the dirt. Nid climbed to his feet and watched as the frightened woman fled away further into town. The boy winced as he rubbed his shoulder, while Dek was left stunned upon witnessing what had just happened, he’d never admit it to his brother but what had just happened was incredible, he’d just taken down an armed man nearly twice his size in seconds. Nid stood above the man and looked back at Dek with surprise written on his face, “Dek? You came-” He was interrupted by the bandit quickly rising and punching him in the chest, sending Nid to the ground. Nid let out a pained gasp as he fell and grasped his chest, gasping for air he no longer had. Dek was shocked as the bandit started to stand up, he knew that the kind of tackles Nid gave were the kind a normal man didn’t just get up and walk away from. Not so easily at least. A fearful thought flashed in his mind, ‘Metalborn’. “Ya little rustin’ bastard!” The bandit snarled as he stood up and stood over Nid, preparing to stomp down on his head. Dek rushed the man, then pushed him away from his downed brother as hard as he could, the outlaw barely stumbled and caught Dek by the face, then shoved him back with brutal force. Dek felt as though his neck had nearly snapped in two. He fell and landed harshly on his back, the furious man stomping towards him, “You shoulda waited for yer turn boy!” he growled out. Dek trembled at the threat, was he about to die? Was Nid going to die? He saw a glint next to him. A revolver, the bandit’s gun. The one Nid had torn from the man’s hands earlier. He frantically reached for it, wrapping his hands around its handle as he pointed at the outlaw. The bandit’s eyes widened as he tried to reach for Dek. Trying to stop him. But it was too late, Dek’s finger twitched on the trigger and the gun fired. A bang echoed through the night as the bandit stumbled to a stop. He brought his hands to his neck where the bullet had gouged through. The man who had just tried to murder the boys gave a weak gurgle, then collapsed to the dirt, blood pooling around his head. Dek sat there in shock. He’d just shot and killed a man. The man had tried to kill him and his brother, he was protecting them! He was in trouble for this, he must have been. You couldn’t just shoot someone, right? It all felt wrong, he’d taken a life and now he felt as though he was going to throw up. A pained cough broke past his spiraling thoughts. Nid still laid on the ground, curled up around his chest. Dek dropped the gun and stumbled over to his brother, kneeling beside him as he spoke, “Nid, Nid look at me!” He urged desperately. Nid lifted his head, gasping all the while, “Can’t. Breathe.” He gasped out. Did that man break Nid’s ribs? Had they punctured through his lungs? Was Nid going to die anyway? Dek shook his head, “Nono, you can. Deep breathes okay, in and out Nid. In and out.” Nid’s breathing slowly calmed from erratic to deep. Dek lifted Nid’s black shirt and saw a large bruise right on the center of his chest. He tried to feel around it, Nid gave a groan as he did but Dek didn’t feel anything wrong, at least he was pretty sure. Harmony help him, he wasn’t a rusting doctor! “Okay, we need to go. Lose some weight and I’ll carry you.” Nid gave a nod as Dek began to lift him. He struggled at first, then it was almost like he was holding a sack of flour instead of a mid-teen boy. A neat trick Nid had been lucky enough to be born with, they called it Feruchemy. Dek rushed back the way they came. “Still think it was a good idea to play lawman?” Dek couldn’t help but jab at Nid. “Shut it” he mumbled out. Well, all Dek could do was hope he learned from this. The town hall was nearly in sight, they were so close to safety. A terrified squeal rang out from behind as Dek turned his head towards it. He nearly tripped when he saw an enormous shirtless man wearing shredded pants, metal lining its buckle, standing almost taller than a house and his dark skin seemed too tight around such a mountain of muscle. With his hands above his head he carried a horse, it struggled and squirmed in the man’s giant grip. The man grunted then with a yell of effort, took a step forward and threw the horse. It sailed above the boys’ heads, the sight had them frozen as the horse sailed through the air, screeching as it did. It smashed through the wall of the town hall, the building shook and the sounds of screaming echoed from the building. Dek just stood there, holding his brother as his mind struggled to understand what had just happened. The thundering footsteps behind shook him back to reality as he remembered the Koloss of a man that was now beginning to step towards them. Dek could say nothing, he simply gave a frightened scream as he sprinted away with his brother in his arms. Giving into fear as he ran, his heart thumping in his ears. They needed to leave, get out of town, hide in the rusting bush for a week for all he cared. Just be anywhere besides right in front of a bandit that could chuck a horse like a brick! He could feel his brother’s breathing becoming shallow and uneven as he struggled to breathe once again. His rhythm startled by the chaos that seemed to follow them. Dek couldn’t pay attention to it, not when every part of his mind screamed at him to run, not when he himself started to struggle for breath as his legs protested the strain of such a long sprint. The enormous man was lumbering behind them, but he seemed too slow, they were quickly losing him. Dek sprinted through the town, he went behind buildings and across streets to evade the man. The starry sky giving just enough light to see where he was, among the gunfire there was a shrill laughter in the air, Dek looked around, then in the distance where the gunshots were most frequent, saw a shadow flying through the air in the distance, visible only through the stars they blocked with their passing. Was that a person? He didn’t know and didn’t care. He kept running. Dek paused as they rounded past another house, catching his breath. He didn’t hear the footsteps anymore, they must have lost him. He looked at his brother, whose eyes were fluttering as he tried to steady his breathing, he was doing poorly. Dek shook him “C’mon Nid, don’t go to sleep, it is not a good time for that!”. Nid tried to focus through the pain, he looked at Dek, his eyes glistening, “Sorry…” he gasped out. Dek shook his head, “Be sorry later, just stay awake and I’ll get us out of here”. He tried to say with more confidence than he felt. Any confidence he had was shattered as a loud voice shouted not far from them,” This way! He’s going this way!”. Dek cursed, they were being followed! How did they know where they were? Was that giant some kind of tracker? He rushed between houses and made it to a larger area with stands and carts full of amenities, the markets. They were near the edge of town. So close. Dek tripped as his brother’s weight returned to normal. Dek checked his brother, and to his horror, Nid was unconscious. “Of all the bloody times! Damn it Nid wake up!” He tapped as he tapped his brother’s face, but there was no response, he was out cold. Dek felt the sweat fall down his pale face and into his red scarf, he was already tired just from running but he couldn’t carry his brother’s actual weight, he wasn’t used to it. He looked around frantically, he could hear the shouting of bandits coming closer, the gunshots that had once been far had gotten closer, too close. The sounds of the gunfight had moved towards them, why? Were the outlaws pushing towards the markets? Had the constables fallen back? As he spotted a mostly empty crate next to a stand selling some kind of black sand, an idea struck him. He dragged Nid towards it and struggled to stuff him in it, his brother was thankfully a bit smaller than most other kids his age. Thank Harmony for that. After putting the lid over the crate, hiding Nid’s unconscious body from sight, he crouched behind the stand itself. He’d done it, he’d hidden his brother, now what about himself? Dek froze as he realized he hadn’t thought that far ahead. It was too late, he could hear the bandits enter the markets, he heard a loud, graveled voice call out “Lost him, damn. Alright boys, Hezen and Dashei have got the conner’s on the ropes. Spread out, grab all the supplies that aren’t tied down! I want you all to grab food, water, and any metal we need by the armful. Bring them back to the carriages within the hour!” Dek heard their footsteps scatter. He stayed still, hoping he was unseen. He could hear a heavy set of footsteps near the stand he was hidden under. He heard a dark chuckle, full of mirth and malice. It sent a chill down his spine to hear it, but the next words spoken made his heart stop. “Ya fingers are pokin’ out.” The stand was lifted and thrown over Dek’s head, the jars of black sand smashing on the ground Dek whirled his head back at the monster that now loomed over him. Dark blue skin, with patches of gray, was stretched tightly over muscle, the skin of his face was pulled into a horrid, tooth-filled grin. Dark red eyes stared back into his hazel ones, Dek couldn’t muster the will to run, scream or even breathe as the beast stood over him. A rough pair of hands grabbed him by the arms and lifted him up with inhuman strength, a laugh full of unbridled sadism came from the one holding him up. “Thought ya could hide, huh? Not a bloody chance, now let’s have some fun!” The beast began to squeeze him by the shoulders, Dek screamed as he felt his arms being slowly crushed. “That’s enough Kev, drop him.” The gravelly voice from before ordered, the hands loosened and Dek fell back to the ground. The one who tried to crush him, Kev, turned with an annoyed groan, “Come on, Thev! I’m just doin’ my thing!” He whined. Dek turned his head to see them. Two men, with mottled blue skin. Koloss-blooded. Kev was dressed in ragged, torn clothing, his black hair a wild mess. The other, Thev, dressed in a more intact suit with a vest, seeming much cleaner than Kev. Dek looked beside himself without turning his head, the crate wasn’t knocked over. Thev rolled his eyes to Kev, “Yes, your ‘thing’, turning people into red smears on the ground with your bare hands.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Do try to remember we need some alive.” The descendant of Koloss looked at Dek with discerning eyes, “And this one looks worth keeping alive.” Kev turned back to look at Dek’s frightened face, then leered. “Yeah, he does.” He walked back to Dek and grabbed his face as he continued, “He’s gonna scream well, I think.” Then slammed Dek’s head into the ground, then Dek saw no more. The last thought on his mind was a prayer to Harmony, praying for his brother’s safety.

This is a fragment of another fanfic I'm working on. It is the introduction of a compelling character who will act as a detective against the main characters. Is 3600 wods long. All critisism is welcome. Obligator.pdf

Welcome! Most of my art does not fit either Sanderson memes or the gallery forums, so I have made this thread to post my silly little doodles I will spoiler tag everything by book, so new readers are welcome! I will also be putting my shipping content in a separate spoilers Spoiler-free Final empire Secret History

Hellooo! I finished my handmade mistcloak the other week and just threw together some stuff I have collected for Ren faire over the years. My Vin cosplay is about 80% complete, I plan to change out everything that has metal to just leather so I have to craft that myself, and I will be adding some bandages to kind of represent Vin more so in book 2. But overall I am super happy so far with how it looks! In action: https://imgur.com/gallery/ZS2n2cI

They are classified as hemalurgic constructs on the coppermind, but I am unclear on if that rules out them also being cognitive shadows. There is a WoB where he says Kandra are not cognitive shadows because they didn't die they merely changed. Two railroad-sized spikes through the brain doesn't seem survivable. Do their spikes simultaneously kill them and "staple" their soul, or an investiture fossil of their soul, to their body? https://coppermind.net/wiki/Hemalurgy#Hemalurgic_Constructs https://wob.coppermind.net/events/331/#e9405

I’ve been rereading the Cosmere recently, and while I read Hero of Ages, I started to think. Some of the issues those characters face is the fact that the mist is staying for longer and longer, and soon there will be no more daylight for plants to grow. The characters seemed very worried about this, with good reason, but I find a solution pretty easy. Mist cannot enter buildings so why not build a greenhouse for plants to grow in. I’m not sure how tall this building would need to be, but it’s only as tall as a Mistborn can Push on a coin before the link is almost gone. This greenhouse would also remove the extreme labor needed to remove ash from crop fields. While this would certainly be challenging, I am certain that the might of the New Empire could achieve this task. I recognize that perhaps there were bigger issues going on at the time, but I almost wonder if they had just focused on food generation and building as many greenhouses as possible, they might have had some success. Of course the gathering Koloss army would just kill everyone anyway. What do we think of this idea for stopping the mists? Anyone have any better ideas? This is my first post here so I’m sorry if anything is wrong or odd.

Good afternoon y'all, I wanted to make a discussion about a certain God Metal that I have been thinking about and I would love to hear ideas and theories as to what it could potentially do. To clarify, I am talking about the God Metal of Endowment, I haven't really seen many discussions relating to Endowment, so I wanted to make one of my own and see what crazy abilities could spurn up. My theory, probably not going to happen, but burning Endowments God Metal could potentially make them an awakener with a tremendous amount of breaths. I feel like the God Metal of Endowment could work similarly to Lerasium. But that is my theory at the moment, what are yours?

Hemalurgy, like a lot of things in the cosmere, requires Intent. Just stabbing someone isn't enough to make a Spike, you have to mean it. Which from everything we've seen basically means you have to already know hemalurgy is possible. You have to read about it like Wax, or see it done like the Inquisitors, or learn it from divine power like Kelsier and the Lord Ruler. There's wiggle room for experimentation, but that experimentation is "what happens if i spike someone with this metal", you still have to know about it initially. Even in Spook's case, when he got spiked with pewter by a random soldier, the Intent came from Ruin manipulating the soldier to do what Ruin wanted, and Ruin of course knew. It's the equivalent of me, knowing about hemalurgy, hiring an assassin and giving them very specific instructions about how to kill; even if they don't know personally, there's still Intent involved. So does that mean that, even though hemalurgy works everywhere across the cosmere, someone can never learn about it independently, only if they see it or read about it or are told about it? If some mad scientist artifabrian on Roshar, who knew nothing of hemalurgy, went "hmm. animals like chulls and chasmfiends, and people like singers, they have gemhearts in them." and did horrific unethical experiments turning living beings and people into fabrials, could their experiments trying to push and pull on the spren inside gemhearts with metals produce hemalurgy even if they were never told about it? (Especially if Raysium gets involved to forcibly transfer the spren, but that makes things even more complicated so let's stick to more simple metals.)

There has been a lot of discussion and theorizing, surrounding why the ghostbloods want Ba-AdoMishram. I think there are several reasons- but there’s one possibility I haven’t seen, any discussion around- Could it be that Kelsier believes BAM could bestow metallurgic abilities to Scadrians? Kelsier is desperate to defend Scadrial- we saw this at the end of The Lost Metal- he tells Sazed that they need access to their most powerful resource, Mistborn and feruchemist- he asked Sazed: “is there a way to expand our access to metal born? They have the seed inside them don’t they, the heart of preservation?” BAM was able to connect directly to the singers and grant forms of power. To quote directly from RoW Chapter 114: “I’ve been speaking to Kelek, the Herald. He seems to think the reason you’re hunting him is because of an Unmade. Ba-AdoMishram? The one who Connected to the singers long ago, giving them forms of power? The one who, when trapped, stole the singers’ minds and made them into parshmen? “Why do you want the gemstone that holds Ba-Ado-Mishram, Mraize? What are you intending to do with it? What power do the Ghostbloods seek with a thing that can bind the minds of an entire people?” I don’t think it’s a leap to assume Kelsier could believe BAM could bestow metallurgic abilities. How the mechanics of that could work I have no idea, maybe it’s not possible- allowmantic abilities can be granted by lerasium, but we know it existed before the ascension of the lord ruler- perhaps that was merely a result of “having the seed of preservation inside of them”, instead of needing to draw directly from preservation’s body in the form of lerasium. The origins of feruchemy is entirely unknown- perhaps a result of scadrians being of both ruin and preservation. Could BAM bring this out of them, by connecting to Scadrians? BAM functioned as a lesser Odium before granting forms of power. The key difference is that this method of using investiture seems to be external, versus being born with it as on Scadrial- however, all forms of investiture originally are bestowed somehow (lerasium). Yes, BAM is of Odium not Harmony- but perhaps BAM could enhance those latent abilities, bring them to the surface. I’m not sure, all of this speculation- but given Kelsier’s overwhelming drive (protect Scadrial) and Shallans quote above, it seems like a strong motivating factor for wanting BAM.

My thought was, what if the majority of a person's identity and memories were saved by using Feruchamey and placed in a machine (a robot, computer, or anything else) would this function much like AI does in our world. Maybe not a perfect recreation of a person, but have the fundamentals of that person? Would this be a way to "save" important figures from history from this discovery forward or upload those who previously did similarly? Case in point, the Lord Ruler saved an imperfect back up version with only enough memories and identity to come back as a much weaker version in hopes to someday have others help restore his memory. Somehow, the Lord Ruler returned?

I've been thinking about how silver works in the Cosmere, and realized that we know that it interrupts investiture. My thoughts are that silver is allomantically inert due to needing to be an alloy with another metal to be burned by a Mistborn or else it just does nothing as it has the ability to interrupt investiture. In addition, we know that Electrum (45% gold, 55% silver) is able to block the godmetal of Ruin (Atium). Do we know if the other godmetals have a silver counter part that can interrupt them as well? Can someone tell me if I am just slowly losing my mind or if I'm on to something with silver, because the amount of disruptive power that it seems to have for the few times it has shown up I think could be huge and we as a fan base are just overlooking it.

Just found out my school’s engineering department has a crucible and stuff to make silicone molds so I am going to try to cast some Terris rings and bracers for fun! Gonna post updates here. (For reference sake I have never done anything like this before so we’ll see how it goes)

Hello, in my most recent rereading of the Mistborn series, there's something that's been bothering me. The overarching storyline of HOA was ruin trying to find where the atium was being hidden, but one thing I don't know is how he was supposed to access it. He knew where it was once the atium soldiers started burning it up, but apparently knowing where it was wasn't enough. He sent koloss after the atium, but what was supposed to happen after that? Were the koloss supposed to give it to ruin somehow? Was Marsh supposed to do something? I don't know the specifics of how a shard can interact with the physical realm and I think this answer could help me put some other things together too. This feels like something that would probably be answered in a WoB, but I'm not sure how I'd condense this into a search query, so any responses are appreciated.

Recently I have been rereading the mistborn series. This prompted me to realize that there are a decent few things that I don't understand. For the most part this is all Era 1 stuff. Specifically 3 things. 1.) What makes ruin/harmony able to talk in someone's mind? I was under the impression that in order for ruin to talk/manipulate someone, they had to have a sufficiently damaged spiritweb. This could come from people who have had a truly rough go of it, or hemalurgic spikes. As far as I was aware, the spike had to be hemalurgically charged. But in WoA, Marsh uses Sazed's rings as weapons, pushing them into Sazed. This nearly kills him, but he hears a voice that reminds him that those rings are metal minds. I assumed this voice was ruin, since ruin is the only one who could actually do that. So, does it have to be a spike? Or is it really just anyone pierced by metal? 2.) The atium plan. This one I think is the most easily explainable, I just don't get it. The lord ruler's plan with the atium was to sequester a massive supply, effectively keeping a chunk of ruin's power away from him, slightly weakening him enough to level the playing field between him and preservation. But then, elend and his seers burned all of that atium, which enraged ruin because he couldn't have done it himself. This leads me to believe that the process of burning the atium actively converts the investiture into energy, which permanently weakens ruin. So, then, why even stockpile it? Why not just burn it all? The simple answer that makes the most sense to me is that by burning the atium, the power becomes "dispersed" and needs time to "coalesce". Which would make burning all that atium a significant postponing to ruin's plans, but burning it piecewise as it formed wouldn't be useful. 3.) I left this for last because it's the one I'm least confident that we even have an answer for. Why is metal the thing that is easiest to push and pull on? It's obviously not because if it's connection to allomancy. You can push and pull on all metals regardless of if they are allomantic. And it doesn't have anything to do with preservation, since metals on other planets can be pushed and pulled on just fine. If hard stop, only metal could be pushed on, then I would be comfortable calling it "because leras said so". But anything *can* be pushed, it's just metals that are the easiest. But of course, metals aren't just the easiest, they are the easiest by far. So there's a pretty big divide between metal and everything else. I have a theory on this that I think answers a lot of these questions, but it has enough holes that I'm not confident enough to say it is definitely true. It's pretty cosmere connected though, so it's probably a discussion worth having there instead of here.

We know that Kelsier is Thaidakar. That's what they call it in Roshar. Perhaps Thaidakar means Survivor in a Scadrial language, and from the point of view of the inhabitants of Roshar it is understood as Thaidakar, because it is an extraterrestrial word. Perhaps the origin of the name Thaidakar was already explained in Lost Metal, but I have not read it.

As of late, my brain has been hyperfixated on feruchemy. It is probably my favorite MoI and it is the power I would choose to have if I had a choice. I was thinking about feruchemy in general and I started thinking about cadmium. I remember seeing some people say that they didn't see the use in the power, but after some consideration I believe that to be untrue. In the ars arcanum, cadmium is said to "store breath". The thing is that this definition is a bit vague, and that's probably just because it's meant to sound more mystical. I think more directly, it stores oxygen, which would line up with the examples provided of its use. If this is true and my understanding of metabolism is correct, this power is actually really useful in a variety of situations. First thing's first, your stamina gets an effective boost if you tap enough breath. Even using proper breathing techniques, your body goes into oxygen dept as you engage in rigorous work. If you tap breath, but not too much, you can give your body all the air it needs while you run a marathon or do exercise, which should have an obvious advantage. Of course, your muscles would still get sore and you would still run out of energy since oxygen isn't the only resource needed to make ATP. Taking smaller hits of oxygen could also give small boosts to mental and physical processes. I did a cursory google search to verify if taking breaths of increased oxygen improved performance in any way, and the results were conflicting. Logically though, if you have more precise control over how much oxygen is entering your blood stream, you should be able to temporarily boost energy production in your cells and gain a small boost. There are a few caveats to this power if it does work in this way. The first thing is hyperventilation. If you tap too much oxygen at once you could start damaging your body, which is not a usual concern with feruchemical powers. This does make it easier to store in the long run I believe. Because its usage would be limited to shorter bursts or sustained burns, you wouldn't really have any situations where you'd use up all of your breath in a big burst or something, since your body can only use so much oxygen. This is, however, balanced somewhat by its dangerous storage method, requiring the user to breathe extra hard to get enough air. Then on top of all this, cadmium is an expensive and dangerous metal. I don't know how one would exactly prevent cadmium poisoning if you'd have to make contact with it as much as a feruchemist would, but I'm sure the Scandians have developed something to by pass this glaring issue. All in all, this power isn't too bad, although it is more on the dangerous side. I think my understanding of metabolism is pretty good, but also I haven't had a biology class in 3 years, so I probably definitely have something wrong. That's it for now.

"The new sheriff? Yes, I've heard of her, I've never seen her in action, no one has. She works during the night, but believe me, she is not silent at all, she behaves like one of those mistborn of yesteryear, some rumor that she is. Just pray that your head isn't worth the coins she would spend to get to you." (Maybe it's an era 1 spoiler) Body reference: https://twitter.com/theposearchives/status/1744170789400891393 Vin face reference: Ben McSweeney

So I was scrolling through the forums yesterday when I saw a topic discussing what the most useful twinborn combination would be in the modern day. After thinking about it I decided that F-Zinc would be my preferred Feruchemical power, and I realized that F-Zinc has been heavily underutilized. Mental speed is an amazing power for basically any situation, whether it be scholarship, combat, politics, sports, basically anything that takes a brain, which is most things. I imagine compounded zinc would have a similar effect of atium, not seeing the future, but being able to take in and calculate everything around you so fast that you can anticipate everything that's about to happen. Combined with rioting I think it could make for someone particularly threatening. I really want to see F-Zinc be utilized more in the future because it really is just an awesome power, and I can't stop thinking about the possibilities of compouned zinc.

I've been rereading Mistborn and some of the things that steel inquisitors do make me giggle. Specifically I remember thinking it was a little funny that they had a whole celebration after converting Marsh. Mind you they were dismembering people but I just thought a bunch of these monsters rejoicing like this was funny. I also think the fact that they have to sleep so much is a bit funny. Like one guy can return from slaughtering a whole family, but then he has to go to bed because he sweepy. Uh please don't think I'm psychotic or something I just saw a bit of humor in how unapologetically evil these guys are.