How did Kelsier and Demoux become misting/mistborn?

[Master Knapper]

What we are led to believe: 

1) You need a genetic predisposition to snap (ie you must have noble blood line).
2) You are either born an allomancer or you aren't, but you don't gain you power until you snap.
3) The mists (as preservation's subconscious) will try to make you snap if you go out into them.

If all three of these things are true, how do we explain Kelsier and Demoux?

Kelsier definitely has the genetic predisposition.  His father was noble, his brother was a misting.  My problem is that I can't see how he made it all the way to Mare's death without snapping.  As a world class thief, he had to spend a great deal of time in the mists.  He had to go through a lot of emotional and physical trauma during that time.  He is then captured by the Lord Ruler and sent to the Pits, where he spends at least some weeks/months on the edge of death.  None of that was enough to snap him?

Demoux and the other soldiers that became mistings in HOA.  Are we supposed to believe that they all had noble blood?

My theory is that to become an allomancer, you either have to have Preservation already attached to your spirit genetically, or you have to crack your spirit web sufficiently enough for Preservation to enter.  Mare's death, and his guilt around it, was enough to open huge gaps in Kelsier's spirit web, allowing preservation to enter fully, making him mistborn.  The soldiers spirit webs were cracked by the stress of the situation, and it was critical to Preservation's plan, so Preservation was able to force his way into their spirit web enough to make them mistings, even though they did not have the genetic predisposition.

Am I making too much out of this?  Curious as to what you think.

[Faceless Mist-Wraith]

The reason Kelsier didn't snap despite spending so much time in the mists was because the mists only began snapping people after Preservation made them. Before HOA, they had no affect on people.

As for Demoux, I believe it was explained in the annotations that the ones who were snapped had very (many generations) distant ties to allomantic bloodlines.

[Spoolofwhool]

Everyone in Scadrial had the disposition to become allomancers. Generally though, this disposition was took weak to allow the person to snap. This is why, before Rashek's ascension, there were so few Allomancers. However, due to Rashek granting the ancestors of the noble bloodlines lerasium, their allomantic disposition became far greater than the standard at that time, which was preserved in the skaa. This is why it was basically only possible for someone with noble blood to snap, as pure skaa heritage was too weak, although theoretically possible. Demoux snapped with the mists however, because the mists were designed to be able to bring out that weak disposition. 

As for Kelsier. While it is strange that he didn't snap sooner, it does take a high degree of trauma to snap someone. It's possible that he simply never was pushed to that limit. I feel like it was discussed by characters in the book that his life before the Pits wasnt that bad by skaa standards. 

[Kingsdaughter613]

It should also be noted that Kell has trouble feeling emotions like guilt and grief; he also has trouble connecting emotionally. (He almost certainly is a psychopath neurologically; he just doesn't act like one.) I'm of the opinion that snapping is just as emotional as physical - I think it's the 'being beaten almost to death by your parents' as much as the actual beating.

On top of all this, Kell has tremendous ego strength. So ordinary traumas either didn't effect him as they would others, or simply weren't able to create deep enough wounds in his spirit web. It took seeing his wife die in front of him and blaming himself for it, on top of months of trauma and deprivation to break him.

So, basically, he's just extremely resilient. Very little effected him to the point of snapping. I suspect that this may change over time, provided he keeps his empathy switch on.

[The One Who Connects]

On 10/6/2017 at 8:32 PM, Faceless Mist-Wraith said:

On 10/6/2017 at 5:33 PM, Master Knapper said:

Demoux and the other soldiers that became mistings in HOA.  Are we supposed to believe that they all had noble blood?

As for Demoux, I believe it was explained in the annotations that the ones who were snapped had very (many generations) distant ties to allomantic bloodlines.

You've got a good memory Faceless. From the Annotations:

Quote

The Sliding Scale of Allomantic Potential

Noblemen, despite what Spook says in this chapter, are not immune to the mistsickness. The rumor Spook is referencing does have merit, however. You see, since the mists are Snapping people and awakening the Allomantic potential within them, it will affect far fewer noblemen than skaa. Why? Because a lot of the noblemen have already Snapped. They were beaten as children to bring out the powers.

However, that won’t stop all of them from being affected by the mistsickness, because the mistsickness is also awakening Allomantic potential that would otherwise be too subtle to be brought out. Pretend there’s a sliding scale of Allomantic potential. 100% means you’re an Allomancer—in this series, only two people have hit 100%—Vin and Elend. Buried within a lot of people, however, is enough of a touch of Preservation’s power to hit, say, 50% on the relative scale of Allomantic power. These people, when beaten and made to pass through something traumatic, awaken to their Allomantic abilities.

There are a lot of people out there, however, with something more like 20% to 30%. These are the people the mists are Snapping—since the mists are, themselves, partially the power of Preservation, they can touch people and increase their Allomantic potential slightly and then bring it to the forefront.

So Knapper, the Mists were acting like Lerasium and increasing people's Allomantic potential. Annotations x2:

Quote

Regardless, if a person can get more Preservation into them, they become better Allomancers. Hence Elend becoming a Mistborn. Like all people, he had the potential within him—it was just too small of a potential to be awakened through normal means. That little jolt of Preservation’s body, however, expanded and awakened his Allomancy.

So what all this amounts too is that Spool is right, and we have the proof to back it up.

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On 10/6/2017 at 8:32 PM, Faceless Mist-Wraith said:

On 10/6/2017 at 5:33 PM, Master Knapper said:

he had to spend a great deal of time in the mists.

the mists only began snapping people after Preservation made them. Before HOA, they had no affect on people.

Good memory again Faceless. From Idaho Falls back on '09:

Quote

Andrew the Great

Before the Ascension, why did the mists appear just as the Well was gaining power? Did they come out at other times?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

This one is trickier. From what I got out of it, it's because the mists are a manifestation of Preservation, and physical manifestations of Preservation (including Allomancers) are intended to do two things - stop Ruin, and protect the Well of Ascension. Which are kind of the same thing. So, when the Well was dormant, the mists didn't really have much to do. The Deepness form of the mists is a result of the conscious part of Preservation freaking out and trying to produce a way to protect the well, mostly by producing more Allomancers. That's why the mists do all the funky things in the Well of Ascension and Hero of Ages - they're trying to produce more Allomancers to combat Ruin.

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Andrew the Great

Why did the mist sickness only happen after the Lord Ruler's death?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It didn't. It just happened on a much smaller scale. As you remember, the Lord Ruler basically meant stagnation. Because it seemed the Lord Ruler would be taking the power again (as was intended, and as apparently had been done many times before), and because of the extreme stability of the Final Empire, Preservation (though it really only had a shadow of it's mind left) wasn't as freaked out. After the LR died, Preservation began to attempt to create more Allomancers for the reasons mentioned in question 7. It also left clues, such as the number 16 everywhere, so that people would know it was Preservation doing it, and not just random chance, or ruin. Turns out that that didn't work so well.

Leras sent the Mists into action as a reactionary response, not as a preemptive action.

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On 10/6/2017 at 5:33 PM, Master Knapper said:

He had to go through a lot of emotional and physical trauma during that time.  He is then captured by the Lord Ruler and sent to the Pits, where he spends at least some weeks/months on the edge of death.  None of that was enough to snap him?

As for Kelsier, well.. Spool and Kingsdaughter explained it well enough. His life wasn't that bad before his capture, he's a psychopath with trouble making the emotional connections that would cause trauma, and while he was in the Pits he had Mare. He had someone that kept him going all those weeks.

Up until she died, he had hope. And if there's one thing I've learned, it's that hope is one of the most dangerous drugs a person can have. The high can get you through anything, but the withdrawal is... extreme. Case in point: Once Mare died, his world came crashing down around him.

Edited October 10, 2017 by The One Who Connects