What would you do with the Lord Ruler's powers? (Mistborn Spoilers)

[Two McMillion]

Let's suppose that one morning you woke up with the powers of the Lord Ruler. Of course, there's no atium in our universe, so let's say Platnium works in place of atium. What would you do with that phenomenal cosmic power? Become a superhero? Take over the world? Win in Vegas? Lose weight easily? Something else? What?

[Satsuoni]

Well, I would probably set myself up for life, all careful-like, and then...

Even basic Allomancy like steel/iron is quite powerful in our metal-filled world. With power like TLR's, it should be possible to open tumbler locks (and many other kinds thereof) with ease, arrange suicides with Emotional allomancy, etc... I would probably meddle Assassinate "important" political figures and see what happens, etc... And of course, I would search for the source of my powers and a key to worldhopping In other words, I would have fun

Edit: Epic fun

Edited September 26, 2013 by Satsuoni

[Two McMillion]

Yeah, I can imagine that for a lot of people here, "Figure out the answers to all the questions we still have about the metalic arts" would be high on the list. "Yeah, I could have taken over the world, but I had to figure out the way to Shadesmar." XD

[Morsk]

I put a lot of thought into this! Ruling the world is too dangerous, and would just get me blamed for social and economic problems that no one has solutions to, and assassinated.

I'd love to do something for nuclear disarmament or at least non-proliferation, but I'd need to work with some country for it, and they'd kill me as soon as I stopped following orders. So that's no good either. I could create a religion about nuclear disarmament, and claim the right to rule the world after I saved it from nuclear war. That's almost what Rashek did! But it feels creepy.

I think I'd just keep going to college forever.

[skaa]

1. Obtain Allomancy-grade metals (assuming I already know the correct ratios for the alloys).
2. Immediately start Compounding Gold Feruchemy to make a bunch Goldminds, and embed those in my body Miles-style.
3. Collect my one million dollars from James Randi (asking him to keep my powers a secret; I'm sure he'd be very glad to).
4. Live my dream life. No need to tell you the details; suffice to say a million dollars initial capital plus TLR's powers should be enough to achieve it. A thousand years of a relatively modest but pleasant life? Count me in!

I think a more interesting question, though, is what you would do if you were the Lord Ruler. What if you were Rashek, standing in front of the Well of Ascension on that fateful moment after killing Alendi? What would you have done differently? How would you solve the problem of the Deepness and Ruin's growing influence? How would you have handled the knowledge that the same threat would return in a thousand years?

 

Edit: I suppose my plot-related questions belong more in the actual Mistborn discussion forum than in here.

Edited September 27, 2013 by skaa

[king of nowhere]

I think I'd probably be paralyzed by indecision.

My instinct would be to use those powers for good. So my first idea would be to go to the various governments and either kill the corrupted politicians, or force them to resign. The problem is, who are the corrupt politicians, and who the good ones? I have opinions on it, but what if my opinions were wrong? Or, what if the corrupted politicians were actually more competent than the honest-buit-naive ones, and would lead the country to a general well-being while stealing a negligible amount, while the honest ones would lead all the country to ruination by wrong choices?

Then I could think to look for third world dictatorship. At least I can be sure those guys are evil. Except, maybe if I remove the dictator the country will fall into anarchy and civil war, and then a new dictator will take power, even worse than the one before.

 

Probably I would reveal my powers (at least some of them) to the world, and then use my gold compounding to donate liters of blood every day. What I like about being a blood donor is that it is the one thing I do that I can be absolutely sure is not accidentally making things worse. with gold compounding I could probably regenerate whole organs, so I could also become an organ donor - the only man to have provided 8 kidenys and 3 hearts all by himself to those in need. Maybe I could work for medical research. Go on, inoculate me with the ebola virus, and then give me this experimental cure that may heal me or kill me faster than ebola. if I am cured, great, the cure works. If not, I just have to tap my gold to fix everything. I would ask to be paied for all of that, so I won't have to worry about making a living. But I won't try to gain millions. I always favored a simple lifestyle and I dislike ostentation and waste, I wouldn't even know what to do with that kind of money.

 

In short, I will try to use my powerws for good, but without meddling in politics because I could not be sure I'm not misguidded into making things worse.

Maybe with time I will start feeling I can do something more and try to become a power "to make things better", but I'm not sure I would actually succeed at that. Plus, those powers are cool, but they don't grant invincibility in the modern world. A cannon or missile would disintegrate me well beyond the capability of gold compounding, and even a flamethrower or a minigun would be dangerous. even enough regular soldiers probably would cause me to run out of gold eventually. I don't think I would have the power to rule the world by myself.

[Galavantes]

I'd probably burn the world.
Oh sure. I'd start out with good intentions. I'd start out as Superman, the guardian of all goody-ness. Then I'd get fed up and start laying down ultimatums. Then the government would still screw everything up so I would take over and run the world by myself. I would eventually become an inbittered ruthless tyrant. And finally I would give up and burn the whole thing down.

 

In short...I'd be the Lord Ruler.

[Dysphoric Kitten]

In relation to ruling the world, I agree with Creon from Sophocles's Oedipus the King.

 

In short, Creon, who is Oedipus's brother-in-law, tells Oedipus that he does not crave to rule, because Oedipus gives him the same privileges as Oedipus himself, but without the responsibility and without being blamed for being a bad king. (original text in spoiler dropdown)

 

 

I would be Asmodean from WoT. Well, I would probably also do some awesome things like saving people (I will spend some time as a special forces squad, then tire and just quit) and using a sweatshirt as if it was a

, exploring evolution all that, but most of all, I would refine art to the highest degree.

 

CREON: Then tell me this—

are you not married to my sister?

OEDIPUS: Since you ask me, yes. I don’t deny that.

CREON: And you two rule this land as equals?

OEDIPUS: Whatever she desires, she gets from me.

CREON: And am I not third, equal to you both?

OEDIPUS: That’s what makes your friendship so deceitful.

CREON: No, not if you think this through, as I do.

First, consider this. In your view, would anyone

prefer to rule and have to cope with fear

rather than live in peace, carefree and safe,

if his powers were the same? I, for one,

have no natural desire to be king

in preference to performing royal acts.

The same is true of any other man 

whose understanding grasps things properly.

For now I get everything I want from you, 

but without the fear. If I were king myself,

I’d be doing many things against my will.

So how can being a king be sweeter to me

than royal power without anxiety?

I am not yet so mistaken in my mind

that I want things which bring no benefits.

Now I greet all men, and they all welcome me.

Those who wish to get something from you 

now flatter me, since I’m the one who brings

success in what they want. So why would I

give up such benefits for something else?

A mind that’s wise will not turn treacherous. 

It’s not my nature to love such policies.

And if another man pursued such things,

I’d not work with him. I couldn’t bear to.

If you want proof of this, then go to Delphi.

Ask the prophet if I brought back to you

exactly what was said. At that point, 

if you discover I have planned something,

that I’ve conspired with Teiresias,

then arrest me and have me put to death,

not just on your own authority,

but on mine as well, a double judgment.

Do not condemn me on an unproved charge.

It's not fair to judge these things by guesswork,

to assume bad men are good or good men bad. 

In my view, to throw away a noble friend

is like a man who parts with his own life, 

the thing most dear to him. Give it some time.

Then you’ll see clearly, since only time

can fully validate a man who’s true.

A bad man is exposed in just one day.

Edited October 1, 2013 by Tal Spektor

[Shardlet]

 how do I make a spoiler dropdown?

 

By using this tag (without the *): 

 

[*spoiler]Monkey's don't actually eat bananas

 

Which looks like this:

 

Monkey's don't actually eat bananas

[Dysphoric Kitten]

Thank you, Shardlet!

 

BTW, I love reading your signature. Breeze is so Ruling magnificent!

[jag519]

Now when we say his powers, do we just mean Fer and Mistborn powers, or also being a sliver? Having touched the power and all that?

Is there a ruin like entity too, or just the preservation like one I get my powers from? Everyone's talking about after the fact, but while having the power of preservation I'd try to fix as much as i can.

 

But yeah, just being having F and M powers I'd probably just live really comfortably for a while, do what I'd normally do but do it really well.

 

First thing I'd do is Dboost my platinum to see the future of my actions. I'd probably do that before making any major decisions. 

 

I'd probably research to find out all of the information I can about my powers, we're assuming if we wake up with his powers we know how allomancy and all works. Which honestly, if it includes being a sliver, then it makes sense that we would know that.

 

I'd try and make sure I could world hop. 

 

It's likely if I let people know about my powers i'd always burn platinum to make sure no one could kill me. Then, if someone tries to kill me with normal weapons, usually metal based, magneto that rust and push all metal they use away, being like 1k pounds and Dpushing away from me, that would probably be able to protect me from the armies with their guns. 

Oh no, non-metalic weapons? Good thing I was compounding speed, fastthought, strength and healing. Oh, now I noticed a battle will start, time to Dburn my Platinum and see how to win the fight.

Oh, I can't win? time to world hop.

 

I would also totally watch tv and things while storing all of my stuff up at the same time. haha. Possibly do that in a time bubble. haha.

 

 

I'd probably be the reason we no longer have metals to use anymore. haha.

 

I'd probably try and become a scientist, I'd plan on living forever, so I'd want to make sure tech advances enough to keep the planet alive with me. haha

 

I'd hope to figure out not just world hopping, but a way to travel through space. 

[Two McMillion]

You just get Feruchemist and Mistborn powers. No Well of Ascension, or if there was one you slept through your chance. You know everything about the powers that you can learn here on 17th Shard.

[jag519]

So, yeah, pretty much what I said then, oh, and if I know everything we know, I'd also figure out how to use my powers for normal space travel, since we know it could be done and will be done, but i'll want to know sooner. haha

 

If nothing else I'd just find a way of surviving in space (pretty much a space suit and compounding breath so I don't need too much oxygen) and if nothing else, just get something heavy and push and pull against it while making my self heavier to push and lighter to pull. lol.

I'd do a lot of testing to see what is the best way to use other powers with that to go fastest and safest. lol

 

Or, I don't know, find Brandon and ask him these questions I don't know the answer to and use emotional alomancy to make him tell me. haha

[Dysphoric Kitten]

What does platinum have to do with it?

[Two McMillion]

What does platinum have to do with it?

 

There's no atium in our world, so to give our hypothetical 17th Sharder the fuller extent of his powers I picked an expensive metal and said it had the effects of atium. BS has stated that atium is made of atoms like any other metal, it's just its spiritual component that's different. I interpret this to mean that atium is simply another name for an ordinary elemental metal with extra spiritual stuff added on. Maybe it's platinum, maybe not.

[Unknowingly]

as much as I would like to do good in the world Im going to be honest and just say I would start out good and then eventually I would probably get corrupted by all the power and become evil...

[happyman]

I'm seeing a lot of Epic ideas here.

 

Personal longevity seems like the place everybody starts.  Makes sense, I guess.

[jag519]

I feel like what ever I try to do I'd probably end up a metal junky, a servant in most types and severely storm up my body. 

[name_here]

Well, aside from employing personal longevity and superpowers to live well, I'm honestly not sure. I'm not up for becoming a dicatorial god-king, but would also rather not just ignore problems. Probably I'd intervene in the situations where I'd want powerful nations to intervene in the real world, and hopefully compounding Zinc would help me figure out if that's a good idea in the situation.

[Guest Alaxel]

First off, I would immediately aquire all the allomantic metals I need and begin Compounding Gold immediately.

Then I would find Brandon Sanderson and ask him to train me in the most effective use of my powers, as well as reveal any Allomantic or Feruchemical metals that we're currently unaware of as well as their uses.

Then I would go destory the Federal Reserve and slaughter every employee and salt the earth where it once stood.

On live, national television, I would publicly charge Obama with treason, find him guilty immediately, and execute him on the spot. I'm sure my practical immortality would be revealed during this endeavour. This would lend credibility to the threat that I am coming to slaughter every politician of any even remote significance. After that task was completed, I would seize power of the American governemt and allow the positions of the politicians I just killed to be filled with the warning that the same fate awaited anyone with corruption in their hearts.

I would take a short break to go and kill the Queen of England and her entire lineage, the entire Rothschild's family, all the Rockefeller's, George Soros, etc. Anyone who uses a massive amount of wealth to influence governemts to enforce policies that benefit megacorporations but exploit the working man.

Back to my newfound job as Supreme Dictator of America. I would withdraw from the United Nations and denounce them as an unethical organization and refuse to allow American rights and liberties to be reduced to some global lowest common denominator. I would abolish the practice of Fractional Reserve Banking and reinstate the gold standard. I would abolish the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration. These are terrorist organizations. (Fact: Terrorism is using terror or the threat of terror to influence people. Therefore, every civil liberty these organizations have taken from you to 'keep you safe' from terrorism is, itself, terrorism.)

NSA. Gone. I would delete every bit of data they illegally gathered and formally apologize to everyone who was a victim of their illegal spying.

I would impose outrageous tarrifs and taxes on American companies who are outsourcing overseas so save a buck. They will accept my polite way of saying, 'keep it domestic so the whole country profits with you.' or they will be destroyed.

I would then abolish every single government run social program. Social Security. Medicare and Medicaid. Welfare. Food Stamps. All of it, gone. These programs will be reinstituted as privately run programs where participation is entirely optional. If you don't put anything in to it, you won't get anything out of it. No one in America will be compelled to financially support a stranger. Oh, and these programs will exist purely on local levels.

Every restriction on owning a firearm will be repealed. Even if you have a felony conviction, no one will prevent you from owning a gun. Free men are armed, slaves are not. However, the punishment for using firearms to commit murder will result in long and excruciatingly painful torture. It will be so severe, so dire, that no one would dare abuse that law.

Incarceration will almost be entirely stopped. Every crime will be punished either by a fee equal to damages caused plus 10%, or physical punishment. Got a DUI? Three lashes in the public square. Then you're on your way and all is forgiven. And sexual assault crime or any crime resulting in someone's death will be punishable by death without appeal.

Then I would demilitarize local police forces. They are a police force, not a military. Every police officer, no matter their rank, will be required to study and pass examinations on the Constitution. If any officer knowingly violates a citizens constitutional rights, they will be fired and incarcerated for no less than four years.

Taxes will be simplified. 10% across the board while the government may only spend 9% of revenue from taxes. No exceptions. Since I will refuse to recognize the nations debt to the Federal Reserve, the extra 1% from taxes will be spent paying off foreign debts.

I would then cease all foreign aid for any reason. Other countries are not my responsibility.

I would reform public education. Remove standardized tests and other practices such as purely busy-work homework. That doesn't educate children. It trains them to be drones in the workforce. Schools will start encouraging critial thinking and innovation.

Genetically Modified Organisms will be banned. So will pretty much every other form of unhealthy diets. I don't mean to ban sugar, but I will ban the production of food that's nearly void of any nutrition just the the company who produced it can save a dime. Also, no more fluoride in the water. I have yet to see a single recent study that shows anything other than negative side effects.

The practice of being "Politically Correct" will be abolished. That's merely a censor on free speech. Instead, people will be encouraged to learn how to defend themselves, verbally, from an accidentally insensitive statement.

Essentially, I would spend a few decades doing things of this nature. I would force feed freedom down American's throats. Some will choke on it die, but it leaves a better world for those of us that would flourish on it. After enough time has passed where the system stabalized, I would reinstate the Republic and step down from power to admire my handiwork.

Yes, I know I will cause much pain and suffering. Unfortunately this country is beyond the event horizon where voting can turn our problems around. It will have to get a lot worse before it gets better. 25 years after I stepped down I would be remembered as a tyrant. 125 years after I stepped down I would be remembered as the man who ultimately transformed America into the bastion of freedom it once was.

(I apologize if I hurt any feelings. It was not intentional. Everything I said I would do comes from a place of love for this Country and its people. If you think one of my policies is wrong, please refrain from directly debating it in this thread and, instead, send me a PM and I would be delighted to have a civil discussion with you.)

[Argent]

Ambitious. My plans got to "encase everything in my house in metal and never be forced to leave my chair again." Then I got bored...

[Guest Alaxel]

/>Ambitious. My plans got to "encase everything in my house in metal and never be forced to leave my chair again." Then I got bored...

Surely you'd at least visit Brandon Sanderon? If you suddenly find yourself in possession of powers that he created, I think you ought to go show him. He's pretty much entitled to it.

[king of nowhere]

I think many people here are understimating the prote4ction offered by gold compounding.  sure, you're basically immune to normal bullets, but it has been stated that decapitation will still kill you. any grenade weapon that can tear your body to pieces is  effectively decapitating you, therefore killing you. also miniguns and other machine guns, they have a high enough rate of fire and impact power that they will not perforate you, they will tear you to shreds, again killing you. a flamethrower would also work, if you are exposed for some time. being hit by a cannon or a missile is definitely death for you. and iif a plane drop a bomb on you, atium/platinum won't help: you'll see the room exploding one second before it does, at which point it will already be too late to reach safety.

The powers of mistborn and feruchemist ccombined are awesome, but not enough to challenge the armies of all the world. at least not without considerable chances of failure. you're fast healing, you don't have superman's invulnerability.

[...]

Yes, I know I will cause much pain and suffering. Unfortunately this country is beyond the event horizon where voting can turn our problems around. It will have to get a lot worse before it gets better. 25 years after I stepped down I would be remembered as a tyrant. 125 years after I stepped down I would be remembered as the man who ultimately transformed America into the bastion of freedom it once was.

(I apologize if I hurt any feelings. It was not intentional. Everything I said I would do comes from a place of love for this Country and its people. If you think one of my policies is wrong, please refrain from directly debating it in this thread and, instead, send me a PM and I would be delighted to have a civil discussion with you.)

I don't want to discuss your actions one by one, I'll only point something I see as a fatal flaw here: you claim to do all this for freedom, but then you are forcing your opinions on everyone. you call all the politicians corrupted, but the law of probability states that most of them are likely to be well intentioned. you're killing them all just for disagreeing with you. you're killing every rich person who is influencing the economy. but is there any way a billionaire can NOT influence the economy? and shouldn't freedom also allow them the chance to influence the economy? you'll be imposing your ideals on everything in the name of freedom. shouldn't freedom also mean that a people is free to govern itself, including deciding whether they want medicare or not, if they want foreign aid or not, or all the other kind of stuff? If you are instating a tiranny in the name of freedom, something is deeply wrong. Anyway there will be rebellions, big ones, and since everyone will own a gun they will be very bloody. you'll have to kill millions of people. tens of millions. and they won't  be bad guys, they'll be people who loves freedom like you. they want to be free from a guy who assassinated the government that was freely elected and forced everyone to do like him. You'll probably have also to forbid free speech, all in the name of freedom.

And remember, hitler was sure he was doing the world a favor by getting rid of jews. stalin was sure he was doing the best for his country. most dictators were convinced they were doing good, but they only managed to kill lots of people for no reason. the world still remember them as tyrants however.

 

That's why I would be afraid of using those powers. I also tought a similar list, adjusted for my own political ideas, starting with "go to the parlament. ask all the people there if they are honest or not. zinc compound and use tin to detect all the stuff like eye movement, sweating, heartbeat, that willn give away a lie. kill those most dishonest, make sure the other moderatly dishonest will be expelled. take the remaining, and ask them if they are competent at their job. you barely completed high school after failing twice? out. you changed university to get an easier grade because you could not pass your original one? out. You're a very skilled medic? that's great, but you should be healing people, not passing laws. out. Those who remain, that are both honest and competent, I will charge with fixing the country". But then it will all spiral downwards. I'd kill all the members of mafia, then I'd kill all the people who did business with mafia, then I killed all those who were too scared to denounce the mafia. I'd kill all the people who won't be sincere in answering yes when I ask them "are you honest?". I'd end up killing half the world population. the rest will probably enter in a war between those who support me and those who are trying to kill me.

Now that i think about it, taking down mafia and making sure the parliament is honest is something I could do. But I would have to be very careful to stop there and not go power crazy.

[Guest Alaxel]

I'm glad you brought that up, king of nowhere. Freedom is my endgame, not the means I'd use to get there.

Similar to Dalinar Kholin realizing that he can't simply act as an example. Not yet. First he must force the Alethi people to accept his will before he can expect them to follow honorable rules of behaviour by themselves.

I would likely be more viscous in my methods, but the amount of people I would directly harm would be extremely small. The people whom I would indirectly harm would merely be those who are unwilling to look out for their own well being, rather than relying on the State to support them.

Also...I would have sworn that my idea of showing Brandon Sanderson my powers was the most interesting part of my post haha.

(Oh, and the Lord Ruler did survive a beheading, as well as being flayed and also being burned alive. If you were prepared for that kind of damage, you would have to be exploded quite thouroughly to be unable to heal.)

[Robot Aztec]

The lrod Ruler wasn't beheaded all the way it was like halfway only