Koloss-blooded people and Kandra in Alloy of Law

[Helwar Noble]

THIS POST IS FULL SPOILERS

 

Hey there fellow Sharders, I bring a fairly simple topic today, not crazy theorycrafting, no bizzare "what-if"s... Just a pair of little questions that bug my mind.

 

They both have to do with the "Ruin/Hemalurgic-Species", Koloss and Kandra, but each in a different way.

 

 

Question the first!

 

How the **** are there Koloss halfbreeds in AoL?

I mean, yeah, they were humanoid... 12 foot tall humanoid beings that could only be bored or enraged, none of which is very propense to sexual attraction by the way, AND, they couldn't really procreate. They were MADE, not born, and they were kinda undead... They were nothing else than a dead body with 4 hemalurgic spikes.

 

Setting aside physical impossibilities, what human female could have survived an "intimate" encounter with a Koloss? And what's more important, what human female would have wanted an intimante encounter with a Koloss? 

 

It just blows my mind. One could argue that Koloss are like the "orcs" in fantasy, and noone questions the existance of halforcs... But to me Koloss are more like Ogres in size... with chicken-sized brains, the temperament of a dog with rabies, and they are pretty much undead...  They have more in common with Warcraft Abominations than nothing else...

 

I just CAN'T comprehend the crossbreeding here. If someone has a good explanation about this and can share it, I will be most thankfull and cover you in virtual hugs.

 

 

Question the second!

 

Aren't all the Kandra just Mistwraiths by the end of TFA? 

 

The question background is this: I finally convinced a good friend to give the books a try, and he devoured the four Mistborn novels in a weekend... Well, he told me that two known Kandra appear and interact with Wax. It's been a while since I read AoL, and sincerely I don't remember it all that well but I trust him when he says so.

 

The thing is... How? Didn't all Kandra commit to the First Contract and give up theyr Blessings? Even if they somehow used the left blessings to make new Kandra... wouldn't they be NEW KANDRA? not old ones?

 

I don't totally comprehend the act of giving "sentience" to a Mistwraith... But I don't think they could become "sentientless" and then return to their own selves... If that was the key they would strip any prisoner Kandra of his blessings and give'em later when they are freed...

 

 

 

 

Well, thank you all for your attention, and future responses

 

*I added the Spoiler Alert at top, I dunno if it's really necessary nowadays, but better safe than sorry, I'd hate to Ruin someone's experience. (See what I did there? )

[Left Tarachin Superstar]

I can answer the first question a little.

We know that when Harmony ascended part of all the things he fixed is that he changed the Kolos. Exactly how or what specificly he did, we're not sure (that I know of) but we do know that now they can breed.

I'm assuming that Harmony did something similar to the Kandra.

[WeiryWriter Prime]

1) We don't know much about koloss-blooded yet.  However a little while back the makers of the Mistborn Adventure Game did an interview about the Alloy of Law supplement coming out this summer and they talked a little bit about them. (I don't remember at what point in the video they talk about them but at about 20:40 they show a picture of a koloss-blooded guy)  If I remember correctly koloss-blooded refers to an individual that is a child of koloss but do not have the spikes and that earning their spikes is like a coming of age thing.  But anyway, Alloy era koloss aren't the homicidal rage monsters that FE era koloss were, Harmony changed them.

 

2) There are still kandra because eventually people realized they should probably put the spikes back into the mistwraiths, restoring them to kandra-ness.  Both TenSoon and MeLaan are seen or mentioned in Alloy.  MeLaan is the woman who gave Wax is Pathist earing, and TenSoon replaces Officer Brettin towards the end of the book.

 

Mistwraiths are essentially people who have a blockage between their cognitive and physical aspects, the spikes help to clear that blockage.  The spikes don't so much "give them sentience" as allow them to manifest their inherent sentience.

[Helwar Noble]

Thank you both

 

Hum, the fact that Koloss became a species as opposed to some construct thingies really helps it. Why keep 'em at all? Only Harmony knows... meh.

 

The coming of age thing with the spikes I didn't know either. But I don't think that that explains everything... I seem to remember - and I could be mistaken - that at some point Wax talks about Koloss ancestors, which would mean crossbreeding at some point in the past. Could a Koloss youngling breed at all with a human? He's not mature enough to have the spikes, is he mature enough to procreate? And if we're talking about a full Koloss crossbreeding with humans, I still have the same size and proportion issues as before, even if they are now more mentally sane. 12 feet tall humanoids against normal humans, that bolt will not fit in that screw...

 

 

As for the Kandra things, your answer has pretty much anything I needed to know, and then some Thank you

 

+1 to both of you for being so helpfull and easing my mind.

[Curiosity Rambleman]

About how the Koloss became a true-breeding race… I have my own theory. Brandon has said that it would be theoretically possible to create sentient life with excess Ruin in place of excess Preservation. This makes me wonder if Sazed took some of Ruin's power and invested it in the Koloss to make them a little more sentient. This could have removed the imbalance between the two Shards' power, though that would mean that there wouldn't be any more atium… 

[Aether Listener]

About how the Koloss became a true-breeding race… I have my own theory. Brandon has said that it would be theoretically possible to create sentient life with excess Ruin in place of excess Preservation. This makes me wonder if Sazed took some of Ruin's power and invested it in the Koloss to make them a little more sentient. This could have removed the imbalance between the two Shards' power, though that would mean that there wouldn't be any more atium… 

That... is actually a very good idea. I do wonder, though, if there would not still be an unbalance due to the enormous difference in numbers between humans and Koloss.

[WeiryWriter Prime]

The koloss having more Ruin than Preservation is a theory that has been around for awhile, though I do not believe it's ever gotten a thread of its own. It is a theory that I am certainly inclined to agree with.

[Glaring at the Survivor House Lord]

If you use Koloss offensively, they're Ruining, if you use them defensively, they're Preserving.

They're like humans...

[Curiosity Rambleman]

Being new to the 17th Shard, I'm unsure of what the protocol is. Should I start a new thread for the theory?

[Aether Listener]

Just go ahead and post whatever you want, though do a quick search with some keywords first. Even old theories can sometimes benefit from a new Thread, and should you end up posting something that is too similar to an active Thread, the admins will only lock the Thread and refer you to the correct one, without any repercussions, of course..

[Left Tarachin Superstar]

Upvote for the theory, it definitely sounds plausible.

[WeiryWriter Prime]

There really isn't a reason not to post it I guess, beyond the fact that its an old theory (at least a year old).  Personally I don't really see the use, there really isn't anything new to be discussed.  I could see the point of expanding it to a discussion about what Harmony is doing with the excess Ruin, but I'd rather we just use one of the plethora of threads already discussing that.

[Sasuga Spren]

I know this topic is a bit old, but I'd like to add in...

Koloss also do not start out as 12 foot tall creatures. They begin as a little bit larger than a standard human, 6' on average to start. So a 'small' regular Koloss would really just be like an Olympic weight lifter or U.S. football linebacker.