Guest Breaker Posted March 17, 2018 Report Share Posted March 17, 2018 In the Bands of Mourning, we hear the legends of the Lord Ruler’s bracers, endowing anyone bearing them with Mistborn and Feruchemist powers. A single pair of bracers. Obviously, we eventually find that the Bands are a real creation of Sovereign-Kelsier, a single, long, tapered piece of metal composed of carefully mixed metals. But I would like to talk about the Lord Ruler’s /actual/ bracers. Not all of them, as he wore many. His atium bracers. The special ones. Those bracers served as both a feruchemical storage and hemalurgic spikes. There are three things I find very interesting about them. First, Brandon had to know that any astute reader would doubt the Sovereign’s identity as the Lord Ruler, given that we know what Bracers he bore, and we know that his special ones, the atium bracers, would be unable to store other feruchemical traits, even given what we learned in the book early on re: F-Aluminum and F-Nicrosil. We know what his bracers were, and we know they don’t match the legends. Second, Vin and Elend sold the Lord Ruler’s atium bracers. Atium bracers that could only have ended up in the hands of Ruin’s inquisitors or burned by some Mistborn (barring somehow a Kandra contract or a Seer getting ahold of them.) And we don’t know what /burning/ a hemalurgic spike does, but that the results of such a thing, of effectively combining with someone else’s spiritual DNA could have crazy results. And these bracers were either repurposed by Ruin or burned by someone, more than likely. Third, we still don’t know what the Lord Ruler stored in those bracers. He had all 16 allomantic and feruchemical powers already, and he could have used either the well of ascension or nicrosil compounding to give himself such strength in allomancy as to need no hemalurgic boost, unless he was perhaps seeking a slight skill boost. Was he seeking the powers similar to a Kandra Blessing? Or something else entirely? in other words, there’s still some more to wonder about. I’ve tried to link this to Marsh’s feruchemical atium spike in the few minutes I’ve taken to write this, but I can’t see how he’d have made use of Rashek’s bracers, without any access to Rashek’s identity. Anyway, that about wraps up my ramblings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The One Who Connects Posted March 17, 2018 Report Share Posted March 17, 2018 58 minutes ago, Breaker said: Those bracers served as both a feruchemical storage and hemalurgic spikes. Team Sanderson has potentially backpedalled on their Hemalurgic qualities. Spoiler Brandon, Circa 2008: Quote Dalenthas Did the Lord Ruler have any Hemalurgic spikes in him? It would seem he'd need to for Ruin to influence him, but it wasn't mentioned. Or did his bracers work as spikes? Brandon Sanderson His arm bracers, which pierced his skin, were his spikes. Footnote: Brandon later clarified this. The Lord Ruler's bracers pierced his skin to provide additional protection from Allomancy, but they were not Hemalurgic spikes. Brandon, Isaac & Peter, Circa 2015: Quote Brandon Sanderson Well the metals that were stuck through him were so people couldn’t Push or Pull on them. If they were outside his body people would know he was a Feruchemist. Which is the very thing he was-- so he stuck the metals inside of himself to hide them. Questioner And he did that as Hemalurgic spikes? Brandon Sanderson I'd have to go back and look because-- Lord Ruler is he spiked or has he just got-- Isaac Stewart I thought he was... spiked but I can't remem-- Brandon Sanderson You're asking something that I wrote 12 years ago. Isaac Stewart Peter, was the Lord Ruler spiked? Brandon Sanderson Lord Ruler was spiked, right? Or is it just-- Peter Ahlstrom I don't think so. Brandon Sanderson --piereced with metalminds, right? They're not actual spikes, just metalminds. And I want to ask the Sharders on there [the recorder] about that Lord Ruler question, because I didn’t think he was spiked but-- Make of it how you wish. 1 hour ago, Breaker said: And we don’t know what /burning/ a hemalurgic spike does, but that the results of such a thing, of effectively combining with someone else’s spiritual DNA could have crazy results. And these bracers were either repurposed by Ruin or burned by someone, more than likely. Assuming they are still Hemalurgic in canon, the charge would've been decaying for a while. I'm pretty sure they also broke the bracers down into smaller portions of Atium , which would cause extra weakening of the charge inside(even if they didn't, whoever they sold them too would have so it'd be in swallowable beads). It's entirely possible that they didn't have much of a charge in them anymore by the time they were eventually burned. 1 hour ago, Breaker said: I’ve tried to link this to Marsh’s feruchemical atium spike in the few minutes I’ve taken to write this, but I can’t see how he’d have made use of Rashek’s bracers, without any access to Rashek’s identity. Marsh's spike granted F-Atium. If it was made from TLR's bracers, that means either 1) the bracers granted extra F-Atium power to TLR, or 2) the bracers were converted into a spike that stole F-Atium later on, making their original charge irrelevant. 1 hour ago, Breaker said: Third, we still don’t know what the Lord Ruler stored in those bracers. 1)He had all 16 allomantic and feruchemical powers already, and he could have used either the well of ascension or nicrosil compounding to give himself such strength in allomancy... 2) ...as to need no hemalurgic boost, unless he was perhaps seeking a slight skill boost. 3) Was he seeking the powers similar to a Kandra Blessing? 4) Or something else entirely? 1) TLR using the Well to become a powerful Allomancer is Canon. (Many of use are against him using Nicrosil at all because there was no mention of an "unknown metal" found on his body, but that's not relevant right now) 2) I still don't understand why Zane got precision from his spike. As has been pointed out before, Marsh's soothings are still blunt beyond belief, so he didn't get skill from his spikes. Is it Steel only? Does it only enhance a power you already have? Etc..? There are too many unknowns here. 3) Very bad idea. Koloss and the Chimeras from Era 2 are examples of what spiking in Human Attributes do to a person. Even one would probably noticeably warp TLR. 4) What else is there to steal, and how would he know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Breaker Posted March 17, 2018 Report Share Posted March 17, 2018 I’m outlining all of these things not to suggest that any of them are true, but that there are likely problems. The Lord Ruler had to have been spiked for Ruin to have corrupted him. He then had to have wanted something spiked into himself that he didn’t already have at maximum, and those bracers still almost certainly got used for atium-burning. I don’t have any idea how this would relate to Marsh’s odd spike. I just threw in the comment because they both feel like similar loose ends and I’m really goddamn curious about that spike. I don’t believe that the Lord Ruler wanted a human property from spikes. I am, however, wondering what he /did/ pursue. Even if his bracers are no longer considered his spikes, he had to have had some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoolofwhool Posted March 17, 2018 Report Share Posted March 17, 2018 1 hour ago, The One Who Connects said: 2) I still don't understand why Zane got precision from his spike. As has been pointed out before, Marsh's soothings are still blunt beyond belief, so he didn't get skill from his spikes. Is it Steel only? Does it only enhance a power you already have? Etc..? There are too many unknowns here. I think it's that the spike location influence how the power is applied. So in Zane's case, a steel spike through the sternum granting him steel allomancy was influenced towards granting greater control over his pushing strength, while the steel spike through an inquisitor eye was influenced towards decreasing the lower limit of what they could push on, so they could see those trace metals. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The One Who Connects Posted March 17, 2018 Report Share Posted March 17, 2018 1 minute ago, Spoolofwhool said: I think it's that the spike location influence how the power is applied. So in Zane's case, a steel spike through the sternum granting him steel allomancy was influenced towards granting greater control over his pushing strength, while the steel spike through an inquisitor eye was influenced towards decreasing the lower limit of what they could push on, so they could see those trace metals. That's an... interesting way of putting it. Your idea sounds reasonable, but as much as I want to support it, I'm not sure I want even more complexity to Hemalurgy. It's bad enough as it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoolofwhool Posted March 17, 2018 Report Share Posted March 17, 2018 5 minutes ago, The One Who Connects said: That's an... interesting way of putting it. Your idea sounds reasonable, but as much as I want to support it, I'm not sure I want even more complexity to Hemalurgy. It's bad enough as it is. The point of hemalurgy is that it's suppose to be massively complex. Also, I think that different bindpoints for one attribute have to change how it's applied somewhat, for what we've described to be possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ookla the Absent Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 Wow... that's, the first time I've even considered Hemalurgy working like that I was always under the impression though that hemalurgy just transferred raw ability. Zane practiced his steel to hone it to a razor precision, while Marsh didn't see any particular reason to get much good at emotional Allomamcy... he simply didn't often need to rely on it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calderis Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 12 minutes ago, Gargoyle said: Wow... that's, the first time I've even considered Hemalurgy working like that I was always under the impression though that hemalurgy just transferred raw ability. Zane practiced his steel to hone it to a razor precision, while Marsh didn't see any particular reason to get much good at emotional Allomamcy... he simply didn't often need to rely on it It was more than just practice. Quote Kaimipono What was Zane's hemalurgical power? (Or was he just spiked for control?) Brandon Sanderson Extra power with Pushing on metals. It lent him extremely great precision. source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ookla the Absent Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 ...huh. Wow. I'd never seen that before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Breaker Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 There’s a lot of good stuff in the Well of Ascension an Hero of Ages era Q&A stuff. It’s a finished trilogy where a lot of the mysteries were solved, so we get real answers about some big details. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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