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Something I never understood about Skaa


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What was TLRs motivation for the Skaa segregation? And why was he so intent that nobles not breed with them? Unless I missed something (which is likely) I don't recall this ever actually being explained.

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Hmm in my opinion it was a couple of things. One was that the Lord Ruler hated the non-Terris people of the world before his Ascension. He felt that Terrisman should be dominant because of the their Feruchemy. So when he founded the Final Empire, he was getting revenge on the people of the world for their supposed "crime".

Of course he then went and oppressed his own people even worse. I don't think he wanted to though, he was just afraid of facing someone who could challenge his rule, so he ultimately loved his power more then his people. It is interesting to note though that it would have been far easier for him to have just committed genocide and wiped the whole population of Terrismen out rather then slowly breed it out of the population. He just wanted to get rid of Feruchemy in them, not destroy them. It's possible that if he ever actually managed to breed out their magic then he would have began treating them better, and perhaps favoring them like he did for nobles.

He was intent on no skaa-noble breeding because he was worried about the power he gave his allies getting into the hands of his enemies. Allomancy is part of his "divine" powers, so if the skaa understood what he was doing with Allomancy, then they might be able to figure out how to counter it. That is also the reason he obfuscated it's abilities so much, so even skaa with powers might not know how to use them, and wouldn't recognize, that he, the Lord Ruler, used the same magic.

Also it kind of undermines his divine reputation. Wouldn't a god be able to keep the power he gave his friends out of the hands of his enemies? People would doubt his power and rebel if they thought he couldn't even control who used the magic he gave them. Does this help?

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What was TLRs motivation for the Skaa segregation? And why was he so intent that nobles not breed with them? Unless I missed something (which is likely) I don't recall this ever actually being explained.

My thoughts: Remember that TLR is rather racist. Actually, now that I think about it, he is probably a Terris (specifically Feruchemist) supremacist, with a very firm belief in a "strong rule over the weak" ideology, rather than being racist against a specific people (though, he does seem to hate the Khlenni a lot.) Thus, in his view, beings who are "superior" (noblemen, in this case) shouldn't fraternize with "weaker" beings (Skaa). As he is their god, he decided that everyone should follow his rules, ergo, the banning of Skaa-noblemen relationships.

My 2 clips. :P

Edit: Ninjas!!!!

Edited by Thor
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I know for guaranteed I read Brandon saying that TLR really made nobles to be the leaders (taller, smarter, handsomer(maybe)) and skaa to be the workers (shorter, stouter). By the time of mistborn there had been plenty of interbreeding so everyone was basically the same.

I believe it was in the annotations, but it's not worth it to me to go search through all of them.

EDIT: apparently it was in one of the epigraphs.

Edited by Lantern13
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I know for guaranteed I read Brandon saying that TLR really made nobles to be the leaders (taller, smarter, handsomer(maybe)) and skaa to be the workers (shorter, stouter). By the time of mistborn there had been plenty of interbreeding so everyone was basically the same.

I believe it was in the annotations, but it's not worth it to me to go search through all of them.

Nah, it was in one of the chapter bumps. I remember reading it.

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It is explained in the text or chapter heading.

He controlled the fertility of the nobles to keep down the chance of a rival coming into being.

Skaa are supposed to be the work force, so they needed to be able to reproduce fairly often, but they were not supposed to be able to use any of the magics. The interbreeding was designed to keep the magic out of a segment that produced more offspring, thus increasing the chances of a rival arising.

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  • 3 weeks later...

My thoughts: Remember that TLR is rather racist. Actually, now that I think about it, he is probably a Terris (specifically Feruchemist) supremacist, with a very firm belief in a "strong rule over the weak" ideology, rather than being racist against a specific people (though, he does seem to hate the Khlenni a lot.) Thus, in his view, beings who are "superior" (noblemen, in this case) shouldn't fraternize with "weaker" beings (Skaa). As he is their god, he decided that everyone should follow his rules, ergo, the banning of Skaa-noblemen relationships.

My 2 clips. :P

Edit: Ninjas!!!!

I'm not sure that would be his reasonaing behind it, but it would suit his personality :P

I think that the Skaa/noble segregation was also intended to keep Allomancy from becoming too diluted, since he wanted to keep the Mistborn around.

Yes, but in so doing it would keep them to a minimum, would it not? Seeing as the fertility of the nobles is limited and as such they will have less kids and there will be few Allomancers. Something often noted in the books. And then that would say that the Lord Ruler wasn't giving due consideration to his own prophecies ("The Hero of the Ages will lead an army of Allomancers"), of course one can argue that he believed that he had already killed the Hero, but that would be counteracted by his consideration of Ruins possible escape and the genocide of the Resolution in the kandra.

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I'm not sure that would be his reasonaing behind it, but it would suit his personality :P

Yes, but in so doing it would keep them to a minimum, would it not? Seeing as the fertility of the nobles is limited and as such they will have less kids and there will be few Allomancers. Something often noted in the books. And then that would say that the Lord Ruler wasn't giving due consideration to his own prophecies ("The Hero of the Ages will lead an army of Allomancers"), of course one can argue that he believed that he had already killed the Hero, but that would be counteracted by his consideration of Ruins possible escape and the genocide of the Resolution in the kandra.

There will be fewer Allomancers, but more of them will be Mistborn. As we see in AoL, full interbreeding produces a lot of Mistings but no Mistborn.

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  • 5 years later...

Allomancy is hereditary, and is passed down by the noblemen. By integrating the noblemen and the skaa, the Lord Ruler would've given his peasants power. You've seen how many skaa mistings there are even with the Lord Ruler's laws about killing the skaa women. If skaa and noblemen were integrated, the rebellions would still probably not get much done, but they would do way more damage.

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1 hour ago, Narcoleptic Axolotl said:

Allomancy is hereditary, and is passed down by the noblemen. By integrating the noblemen and the skaa, the Lord Ruler would've given his peasants power. You've seen how many skaa mistings there are even with the Lord Ruler's laws about killing the skaa women. If skaa and noblemen were integrated, the rebellions would still probably not get much done, but they would do way more damage.

Uhm, it might not be the best idea to necro 6 year old threads with questions that really have already been answered if your post is just answering that question again...

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