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A House Of Ashes Discussion


Deus Ex Biotica

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From the Crafygames website:

To sate your appetite for new Mistborn material, this Tuesday, November 22, will see the release of a free 150-page digital novella entitled A House of Ashes. Written by some of gaming’s hottest authors, this book presents new characters, secrets, and spins on the Final Empire you think you know, and forges a new story that continues in the Mistborn Adventure Game. Indeed, this novella was originally slated to appear in the book but as we’ve simply ran out of room, and so we’re passing it along to all of you at absolutely no cost. We hope you enjoy this new trip through Scadrial.

Does anyone know anything about this? Was it vetted by Brandon Sanderson, and thus capable of giving us some new canonical data, or is it going to be pure (albeit probably very well-written and exciting) fanfiction?

-- Deus Ex Biotica

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Does anyone know anything about this? Was it vetted by Brandon Sanderson, and thus capable of giving us some new canonical data, or is it going to be pure (albeit probably very well-written and exciting) fanfiction?

We have indeed been working with Brandon to build the game - as much as his very busy schedule allows, at any rate - and he and his team have read and signed off on all of it, including this novella. That said, it's labeled very clearly as a "Companion to the Mistborn Adventure Game" for a reason. It has the seal of approval, but it's understood that the world and full canon are his and his alone. We hope he incorporates some of this into his work, but at the end of the day it's his choice what is and isn't actually true.

I plan to treat it as second-order canon: Can be overruled by direct quote from Peter or Brandon or textual evidence from Brandon's books, but otherwise assumed to be true.

This is absolutely how you should view it. :)

Hope that helps!

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Hey everyone,

A House of Ashes is available now. Go grab it from our site or from our exclusive partners at DriveThruRPG...

http://www.crafty-games.com/content/house-ashes-free-companion-novella-mistborn-adventure-game-now-available

Important Note: For contractual reasons anyone downloading this must be logged in, whether you're grabbing your copy from the Crafty Games site or our partners at DriveThruRPG. Thanks for your cooperation.

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I am editing this topic to be a general House of Ashes discussion.

EDIT: Okay, I finished looking at it for now. I have to get on the road soon, but I totally delayed things to give it a quick look. It was fun!

I very much liked the idea of honor guest. I enjoyed seeing the politicking in the Steel Ministry.

"The nobility is vast and convoluted," said Hutch. "It's the way they like it."

Sounds like what everyone says when they see the noble craziness on MBI...

For those wondering, A House of Ashes sticks very closely to Mistborn canon. There's new information, but it fits exactly as you'd expect. (Though, I didn't know that savants would be known by the nobility. That was the only thing that threw me off)

Edited by Chaos
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For those wondering, A House of Ashes sticks very closely to Mistborn canon. There's new information, but it fits exactly as you'd expect. (Though, I didn't know that savants would be known by the nobility. That was the only thing that threw me off)

It's not too surprising - Kelsier doesn't emphasize it as a secret, and given how near-addictive Pewter burning seems to get, sometimes, it makes sense it would come up often enough to be noticed.

What interests me more is the knowledge that there can be savants for metals other than Tin and Pewter. I'd always suspected that to be the case, but not even the Words Of Founding confirmed it before. Still more interesting data...

Edited by Deus Ex Biotica
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It's not too surprising - Kelsier doesn't emphasize it as a secret, and given how near-addictive Pewter burning seems to get, sometimes, it makes sense it would come up often enough to be noticed.

What interests me more is the knowledge that there can be savants for metals other than Tin and Pewter. I'd always suspected that to be the case, but not even the Words Of Founding confirmed it before. Still more interesting data...

I thought either the Words of Founding or the Hero of Annotations said that most Seekers became savants without realizing it.

Plus, since in the Mistborn 1 annotations it suggested that Allomancers can learn to see like Inquisitors, I suspect they are either iron or steel savants.

The only thing that is confusing me right now is the black lake (and the story surrounding it) at the end.

Well, Ruin has a pool... as far as I knew, the pools for Ruin were under the Pits of Hathsin, but hey.

With the spikes and the mists pulling away from Roan, that blake lake has to be Ruin.

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Maybe Ruin has several such lakes?

I do have one minor gripe - the old informant seems like someone who should know better than to think that he'd be protected from Rioting just because he was in a Coppercloud (if those clouds protected people other than the Misting making them, then Breeze would have had a lot less fun during The Final Empire). Though I suppose he might have just said that to conceal what he knows...

-- Deus Ex Biotica

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These stick out to me:

Kelsier's pamphlets mentions Atium Mistings, even names them as Seers. I'm pretty sure Kelsier didn't know those existed because that's the kind of thing he'd have told Vin about which would've required her to not be surprised that Yomen is one. Augur is also named

The Black Lake is certainly not a new thing. It's there on maps, all the way back to Sanderson's concept map (as the number 1 lake no less). It's obviously Ruin's lake like Preservation's lake was when Alendi was going to the Well. But Rashek remade the whole world, going so far as to create a false Terris to hide the Well. I'm certain he wouldn't leave Ruin's lake lying around. Not to mention a pure black lake that wards off the mist wouldn't go unnoticed for a thousand years.

Alas, I do have a possible explanation for this so I can't point at this and proclaim NONCANON!!! and be all smug and elitist and crap as easy as the other one. Rumors speak of Survivor, this is happening after Lord Ruler's death. The exact timing is nebulous so it might be after Ruin's escape. Ruin's trapped mind was the black mist Vin saw going to Well and it wasn't there after she used the Well. Therefore, the smoke might have escaped to taint the lake. Or Ruin concentrated his essence there once his mind was free. I doubt even a large cave full of smoke could have enough mass to fill a lake that big but such physical issues may not concern Ruin much. Whatever the details, Ruin could've blackened the lake for a while (or even permenantly, Vin and co. might not have had any reason to go check out Black Lake after Ruin's escape). I'm reasonably certain Black Lake shouldn't actually be black during Lord Ruler's reign. It's not a waterproof rationale, but it's plausible.

Also, what happened to the apprentice Inquisitor? He had no qualms about killing scouts. Why didn't he kill the tineye girl? Why didn't he kill rebel skaa?

Other than nitpicking, all stories were cool. Especially the Bylerum Job and Hazekillers were seriously awesome.

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Perhaps an Ashmount went of extra forcefully and exposed a pool which had once been buried by Rashek?

Heck, maybe it somehow didn't get covered over, so The Lord Ruler has instead just waited for people to discover it, then periodically killed them all off. Seems like his kind of solution.

The lake is pretty clearly tied to both Brandon Sanderson's works and his larger mythology - I'm quite willing to cut it slack and see where this goes.

-- Deus Ex Biotica

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I'm still in the middle of it, so forgive me for not responding to earlier posts, but I would like to add a word on savants:

I believe that what we see in "A Savant in the House of Measure" contradicts what we know about most savants. The novella depicts them as "addicts" who need to flare their metals at all time, like Spook in HoA, while that has previously not been the case.

Tin and Pewter, we know, are particularly dangerous because of their physical effects, but the others are never shown to be harmful. I can't track it down now, but I'm fairly sure there's a quote or passage to the effect that Steel/Iron savants simply become more precise, Zinc/Brass savants get slightly greater range, etc.

From the epigraph to chapter 16 of HoA:

In most casees, with most metals, the effects of [becoming a savant] are very slight. Bronze burners, for instance, often become bronze savants without knowing it. Their range is expanded from burning the metal so long. Becoming a pewter savant is dangerous [. . .]

I understand that savantism as a risk for all metals creates interesting situations and constraints, especially useful for a game that requires a reason for Allomancers not to be flaring their metals at all times, but I would like to note that the approach currently being taken to the effects of becoming a savant for most metals is inaccurate so far as the rest of Mistborn canon is concerned.

EDIT:

And in "Opportune," we once again see the false interpretation of Copperclouds as being able to protect against emotional Allomancy for all in their area of effect, not just the Smoker.

EDIT 2:

-I would like to note that I do find the short stories entertaining, and they do a good job fleshing out Scadrial. I'm just harping on inconsistencies because those are what jump out. I found the Hazekiller interlude to be quite interesting.

In "The Journeys of the Keeper of Dominances" it is stated that a Feruchemist storing senses into a tinmind must store all five senses at once, while it was my very firm understanding that the five senses were each stored separately, even in seperate tinminds.

Edited by Kurkistan
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Good catch - in The Final Empire, nobody knew where the Atium came from besides Kelsier, The Lord Ruler, the Kandra, and House Venture.

Of course, A House Of Ashes shows Kelsier publishing lots of information on Allomancy and the like to be distributed to the Skaa, so maybe he let knowledge of the Pits get out that way, too.

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Good catch - in The Final Empire, nobody knew where the Atium came from besides Kelsier, The Lord Ruler, the Kandra, and House Venture.

Of course, A House Of Ashes shows Kelsier publishing lots of information on Allomancy and the like to be distributed to the Skaa, so maybe he let knowledge of the Pits get out that way, too.

Yeah, and I guess it's just needed for the game. Not everyone who will play this game will have read mistborn, so the story needs to provide more information than would actually have been leaked by Kelsier and his crew.

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In "The Journeys of the Keeper of Dominances" it is stated that a Feruchemist storing senses into a tinmind must store all five senses at once, while it was my very firm understanding that the five senses were each stored separately, even in seperate tinminds.

Yeah that's right. Also something nitpicky is that he (Fisal) says Feruchemists don't feel age as much because of goldminds. But you have to store health (and feel like crap, worse as you get older I would think) in order to tap it later.

And he taps the goldmind to make him look healthier and more youthful? Gah? Also it seems to be written like the goldmind would only temporarily heal Fisal's wound on his abdomen "He tapped

his goldmind for health so he could overcome his wound, but it wouldn’t last long."

I don't mean to gripe, I enjoyed the story but these items just stuck out to me :P

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Also it seems to be written like the goldmind would only temporarily heal Fisal's wound on his abdomen "He tapped

his goldmind for health so he could overcome his wound, but it wouldn’t last long."

First two I grant you, but this last one is just a poorly worded sentence. I took it to mean that the health burst would not last long, which is too be expected.

Of course if he barely had enough health to heal that relatively minor wound it calls into question how he could not be feeling his age :)

The part that I am confused by, and I feel like I have to be missing something, is how Ryia survived her encounter with Jass. Also I don't get how she tell Horna that her love is Lord Bylerum, but then we learn that Roan loved her. I feel like there are two different characters named Ryia, or that I am very dense and I am missing something.

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I wondered about the idea of a minor house having a pair of Mistborn at once - couldn't they just announce they'd had one, and try to marry into a Great House since their Allomancy genes are clearly superb? On the other hand, I really have no idea how many Mistborn there were during The Final Empire. Assuming that punk Vin took out before fighting Shan Elariel really was a Mistborn (and not just a Coinshot wearing a Mistcloak as a decoy), at least one House had two of them in the city, and was willing to commit both at once.

Since most of the Mistborn die offscreen in the house wars between books one and two, it is really hard to judge, and I can understand an RPG rounding up.

-- Deus Ex Biotica

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  • 4 weeks later...

The part that I am confused by, and I feel like I have to be missing something, is how Ryia survived her encounter with Jass. Also I don't get how she tell Horna that her love is Lord Bylerum, but then we learn that Roan loved her. I feel like there are two different characters named Ryia, or that I am very dense and I am missing something.

Ryia is in love with both of them at the same time.

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