Ruin's influence on people

[+Invocation]

So I noticed something on my most recent read-through of Era 1 that I hadn't consciously registered before: Ruin's influence on people (him whispering and how much they react to it) is visible to other characters seeing the results. That was a little confusing, at least to me, so here's an example: in Urteau (did I spell that right?), when Spook is listening to "Kelsier" tell him what to do and responding positively/doing what he is told, Sazed makes the observation that Spook looks like an Inquisitor with the spectacles beneath the blindfold. Not a big thing, I can see where he's coming from, but the timing of it, with Sazed having seen Spook and his dramatics before and never thinking about it. This is even present within the first book to a degree, when as Kelsier is becoming closer to Ruin, Vin notices him visibly getting more intimidating (no one else seems to notice this, but I guess it fits because she's more attuned to Preservation than most other people). If I remember correctly there's a couple other examples scattered about here and there. Each and every one of these causes some uneasiness for whoever notices it.

Now here's my idea on why this happens and why they all get likened to people with extreme Ruinous influence (beyond just it's a way for Brandon to let people make the connection easier): The little bit that grants human sentience is Preservation's influence, which would naturally recoil at added Ruinous influence and the more heavily Invested by Preservation the people are, the easier they notice it, it seems, with Vin noticing the change in an un-spiked person, meanwhile it takes Sazed multiple encounters with a spiked person to notice, but no one else seems to.

What do y'all think?

[garlick]

Toward the end Sazed was more of a mix of ruin and preservation. I think I remeber a WoB saying that years ago. Its why he was able to take both shards up. He was equally connected to the shards. 

 Your idea sounds very plausible and if sazed was a mix of both that would explain why he took so long to take notice.

Edited December 7, 2018 by garlick
Spelling

[+hwiles]

I think this raises an interesting conceptual solution for what may eventually be a real social problem for Scadrians: the detection and regulation of hemalurgy. If people with abnormally significant Connection to Ruin naturally repulse, or affect by proximity, people with abnormally great Connection to Preservation, that implies to me that people, or constructs like Kandra, with hidden spikes should theoretically be able to be picked out of a crowd if the right technique or technology were utilized.

It sort of points to the potential existence of a natural visceral response to Investiture by Scadrians, particularly in unbalanced or unnatural cases like Inquisitors or Mistborn who enjoy murdering the innocent, which should be able to be manipulated or augmented.

Maybe I'm grasping at straws but that's my two cents. Have an upvote for a solid set of scene analyses.

[Scion of the Mists]

I don't think that this effect is going to be noticeable enough to identify kandra.  Brandon is concerned about being able to easily identify kandra.  He even went so far as allowing kandra to breed with humans, which he clearly didn't want to do, just to ensure that a blood test wouldn't be able to ID them.  

A "Spidey sense" would likely fall afoul of this.  

[Calderis]

Even if this were a thing in Era 1, which I find dubious in itself, it definitely shouldn't be in Era 2. The emergence of Harmony changed the interaction of the Shards. The mists themselves aren't even repulsed by Hemalurgy any longer. 

Quote

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Seventeen

The Mists Form

In writing this book, I had to nail down a few worldbuilding issues I'd been contemplating even before the first trilogy ended. What would happen to the mists, for instance, once Sazed took over and became Harmony?

The mists, obviously, are a big part of the series. It didn't make sense—either narratively or worldbuilding-wise—to lose them completely. However, they'd been created as an effect of Preservation trying to use his essence to fight against Ruin's destruction of the world. So . . . wouldn't they go away?

I decided that Sazed would still send them. They're part of the nature of the world now. To acknowledge what had happened, they wouldn't come every night any longer. But they would come. They were changed in that they are no longer simply the raw power of Preservation; they're now a part of Harmony—so they no longer pull away from Hemalurgy in the same way as they used to. They still have the odd effect of being able to power Allomancy. (And Feruchemy as well—if one knows how to do it.)

The mists are, in part, the raw power of creation. And when one is favored of Harmony, the mists have a greater effect than they might otherwise have. We'll see more of this later.

source

 

[Bigmikey357]

If this was true then I see potential problems. Namely, false positives. Some people are naturally unlikeable. That doesn't have to be ruinous influence. But I can see people taking it all out of porportion, attributing all types of malodiois behaviors to Ruin and thus meet out punishment to otherwise innocent people.

Edited December 13, 2018 by Bigmikey357