Kelsier's Mistborn Powers

[_Tempus_]

In the Hero of Ages, Demoux mentioned that Kelsier only got his allomantic powers AFTER Mare died (which is quite strange considering that he's part of a thieving crew with skaa mistings in it, which would include many many near-death situation, with many chances of being Snapped). So, why did Kelsier acquire his powers after SIXTEEN months in the Pits of Hathsin? (theres that number again!) From a certain novella, we've learnt that it was Preservation who spoke the word to Kelsier after Mare's death: Survive. This urged him to escape the Pits and whatnot. But why would Preservation take considerate notice on Kelsier, who was a nobody before? Wouldn't there be more important agenda to do, like focusing more on Vin and the refilling of the Well of Ascension? Perhaps he sees him being influenced by Ruin, or foresaw that he would train Vin? Whatever the case, I believed that Preservation somehow gave Kelsier allomantic powers by saying those words. And by doing so, he affected the future of Scadrial with the creation of Survivorism 

Spoiler

, the survival of the Southern Scadrians with the Bands of Mourning and him being a Cognitive Shadow, which might have perhaps affect the future of the Cosmere as a whole. This seems quite big and not all all unintentional to me.

But as Demoux said, it is quite strange for Kelsier to have finally Snapped even after going through many traumatic and life-threatening events. Feel free to add on to this theory, or add in suggestions and stuff like that. Thanks!

[Gasper]

I agree, Kelsier does seem to have a greater importance that is currently being hinted at. Maybe Preservation saw something (i.e. Odium, Ambition, something bigger) and needed someone that was a big enough pain to stick around and deal with it. Some one who was able to overcome fear, demigods, and the cognitive realm. I think there are bigger forces at work than the shards, as a great Jedi once said, "there's always a bigger fish."That is why Kelsier needs to stick around.

[Weltall]

We know that Preservation had a master plan (spanning thousands of years, against an opponent who could also see the future) that was cunning enough that he was able to pull it off even when he was dying and couldn't even remember what his plan was, so having a role for Kelsier beyond 'Vin's teacher' and 'convenient temporary Vessel' is certainly possible. And Brandon has been planning Kelsier's return since his 'death' so there's obviously an important role for him in the future, whether it's by Preservation's design or not.

Brandon mentioned in the annotations that it's odd that Kelsier didn't snap earlier and talks about how it's believed that power correlates to how much trauma is necessary. Considering that Vin is a a more powerful mistborn than Kelsier (at least in terms of raw power) and she snapped as she was being born, this explanation smells fishy. A suspicious type (or someone who knows Brandon's love for sneaky answers) might suspect that he does have a reason and he didn't want to share it with us. xD

Edited April 26, 2018 by Weltall

[Jehoiada]

I think it has to do with perception, because Kelsier not that he was arrogant, but he always new he was in controll of the situation and when mare died that was the first moment he didnt know what to do and thus was able to snap. Maybe Preservation couldnt give someone a little bit of his/her powers with that type of attitude.

[The Deity]

Given that Kelsier is not as attached to many things, when he finally lost Mare (someone he actually cared about) he experienced the emotional trauma of losing his wife along with the Physical pain of being in the Pits of Hathsin.

[Yata]

Kelsier is a sociopath.

He is able to emotional disconnect from stuffs...for people like him, Snapping is hard. We know also Kelsier was a very strong Mistborn and the Snapping threeshold is proportional to that. So It's not too strange he snapped only so late in his Life.

[Xtafa]

I assumed it was simple because how strong of will he was. It took the Pitts and Mare dying to finally push him far enough to Snap. 

[Weltall]

While true, Vin snapped mid-birth and as the books make apparent and Brandon has confirmed, she was stronger than Kelsier. The snapping threshold doesn't seem like it can be that high if Vin could be snapped by an especially difficult birth. And Brandon is perfectly willing to admit that Kelsier has many psychopathic traits and could easily have been the villain of many other stories, so if the explanation is as simple as 'Mare's death was the one thing that finally hurt him and sufficiently cracked his soul' then I think he'd have been fine with telling us that outright. There's also Kelsier's memory of hearing Preservation's voice before, which we haven't heard about in any other snappings and which seems an odd detail for Brandon to have thrown in if there isn't something important about it.

Basically, there's enough material here that I don't think we can dismiss it completely.

[Kingsdaughter613]

Actually birth is probably one of the most traumatic moments in our lives. Good thing we don’t remember it!

Think about it: here you are in this nice, comfortable, moist environment. Sure it’s been getting a little cramped lately, but it is all you’ve ever known. There is also this really nice thumping vibration that is just so soothing. 

Then! Suddenly you are being shoved into this tiny, 10cm tube. When you come out it is to a bright, dry, cold place with no nice thumping vibration. Some stuff just came out of your bottom. There is a loud, strange noise that is coming from inside you. It’s cold inside your chest. It’s completely foreign.

Vin’s difficult birth probably means she almost died as she was being born, likely by near asphyxiation (which is probably one of the worst ways to die.) That, combined with the emotional trauma, could have been enough. Without modern medical techniques many infants in her situation would probably not have survived or been severely disabled if they had.

Birth is the first great trauma of our lives. We go from the only world we have ever known to an entirely new one. Everything changes, and a difficult birth is painful for the baby as well as the mother. So I don’t think it is so strange that she Snapped then. I think the only reason more people didn’t was due to high infant mortality rates. Difficult childbirth probably lead to stillbirth most of the time.

[ShardplateJoe III]

Harmony also fixed Spook, and made him a mistborn. It is also possible, not saying this happened, just that it is possible, that Preservation gave Kelsier mistborn powers when he knew the time was right. Given Preservation's mental state, it could be unlikely, but still, possible.

[Gasper]

It is possible that Preservation snapped Kelsier. Think about, as mentioned above, Kel (Kelsier) went through massive amounts of trauma before being sent to the pits, why would that not snap him? It make sense that Preservation did the snapping. Sure, Leras may not be in his full mind, but I think that he may have left reminders to snap the psyco half-skaa who was being sent to near Ruin's perpendicularly. That brings up another point, what if Kel's connections to Ruin aided in the snapping. That would go with Preservation being five steps ahead of Ruin. He used Ruin's power of destruction against him, using it to create cracks in Kel's spiritweb, similar to how a gemcutter facets a stone. That would give him more control to break Kel's spiritweb in such a way that he became a mistborn and not something like an aluminum gnat. It might also help explain how Kel was able to hold on in the Cognitive Realm so long.

[Eldergod3]

One thing no one seems to be considering is that maybe Vin is the outlier, not Kelsier. Maybe Preservation/Ruin interfered with Vin's snapping so she could survive her childhood.

[goody153]

19 hours ago, Eldergod3 said:

One thing no one seems to be considering is that maybe Vin is the outlier, not Kelsier. Maybe Preservation/Ruin interfered with Vin's snapping so she could survive her childhood.

Not sure if there was ever an epigraph about this since i read the original trilogy a long time ago,

But it seems reasonable after all both Ruin and Preservation were banking on Vin to do things for them. Both needed her to survive 

[Slimy_Slider]

Pretty sure Preservation was directly responsible for snapping Kelsier. In Secret History;

Spoiler

Right before Preservation dies and Kelsier Ascends, Preservation gives him a little lecture before giving the command to "Survive". At that moment, Kelsier has a minor flashback to his snapping in the Pits after Mare's death, recalling a memory of that same voice giving him the command to "Survive".

I personally felt like this was pretty strong evidence towards the idea that Preservation either snapped Kelsier directly or had a hand in how he did so and the power he got from it.