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The Lord Ruler using temporal metals


Rhoran

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If the Lord ruler was proficient in all 16 metals and forced Vin to burn Aluminum before she was brought to him (showing that he had knowledge of more than the basic eight metals) why didn't he use Cadmium or Cerrobend at any point in the book? He could have used it to kill her without much effort.

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I think he knew about those "new" metals of Era 2, like you said, Cadmium, or Nicrosil, as during the time at the Well of Ascension he learned basically all about Allomancy.

But the biggest problem with this metals is the process to produce them. The technology was simply not far enough to produce this metals. Maybe he could have produced some of it during his Ascension, but I guess he just didn't do that.

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He knew of all the metals but he may not necessarily have had all of them for the reason that Thunder_93 gives. And even if he did have them, he might not have used them for the same reason that we don't see him using F-Steel or any of his other absurdly powerful abilities: He was so arrogant and had gone for so long without needing to use anything close to his full power that he didn't think he'd need to, until it was too late.

Edited by Weltall
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We did see him use F-steel, actually, when he moved "faster than even pewter could account for" in the throne room while beating up on Vin and Marsh.

But it's true, he was taking the time to monologue - choking Marsh and saying, "How dare you! After what I gave you?" and stuff like "Did you think I was some common Inquisitor?" and "how many of you must I kill before you idiot skaa see the truth!" to Vin.

He doesn't think he's a bad guy, even to the skaa; he's out to save (Preserve) them too, as we see later with the storage caverns. If they would only just listen, and know their place! (Sounds like Shallan's father on Roshar in Stormlight Archive, doesn't it?)

Meanwhile it was fully within his power to Push or Pull out Marsh's spikes from him with Allomancy so strong that it would not care about the investiture in them, or to zoom over to them with Steelrunning speed and then just crushing their heads with a combined flare of Allomantic and Feruchemical pewter before they could even react. No temporal metals needed.

Hell, for some real fun, he could have duralumin-soothed Marsh (if he would even need the duralumin), taken control of his body, and forced MARSH to kill Vin. I'm pretty sure he knew about The Weakness in the hemalurgic constructs; since the kandra themselves knew it, how would The Father not know?

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Also, didn't Leras (Preservation) alter the "Allomantic table" to add atium, in that there were such things as Mistings who could burn atium (and presumably its designated alloy, malatium, "the eleventh metal", even though as a god metal it probably could alloy with all the other metals)? That implies that the "16 spokes of allomancy" was minus one metal and its alloy until Harmony's ascension, with atium/malatium in its place. Probably the temporal metals (cadmium/bendalloy), leaving chromium/nicrosil as the metal that was "known to TLR but impractically hard to get/use" in The Final Empire, and which disruptive and enhancing abilities TLR would probably not want around except for himself to use, anyway.

(Though giving Inquisitors A-chromium would have made a lot of sense, as only Mistborn could be forced to burn aluminum)

 

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Another reason he didn't use it is because he had no way to anticipate what Vin's power level was. He assumed that he was a god and nothing could challenge him (in the physical realm).

Spoiler

At the end of the first book when Vin fought him, he had no idea to predict that Vin was so invested that she was able to push the metalminds out of his arms. Meaning that since he had no reason to assume, to use those metals even when fighting another Mistborn. He was a Sliver and he had no reason to assume that Vin was invested so much. 

 

Edited by FeruchemicalBreath
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I've seen this subject we're going to a lot here in the forum. I think we don't have to discuss about that anymore, it's obvious, that the Lord Ruler was ridiculously strong, and if he used his full power, he would have killed them with ease. The only reason why he lost, was that he underestimated his opponents, and his arrogance (which, both are a bit relatable, after being for 1000 years a "god")

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On 4/18/2018 at 1:27 AM, Rhoran said:

why didn't he use Cadmium or Cerrobend at any point in the book?

Another thing to remember is that any metals he orders production of for their powers, the Inquisitors would know about(or find out about). Inquisitors that learned about new powers would eventually find Mistings that have those powers(or take them from a Mistborn) and gain those powers themselves.

TLR, overconfident as he was, had absolutely no reason to give his Inquisitors(and subsequently Ruin) a potential advantage over him. Thus, no Nicrosil/Chromium in Era 1, to give one example. His persecution of Terrismen/Feruchemists also served this aim, as it limited access to powers like Speed, Mental Speed, and Fortune.

In the specific case of Cadmium and Bendalloy though, I think it was the tech level that sealed the deal on keeping it hidden.

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