Why were the Bands of Mourning drained?

[Treamayne]

On 1/17/2024 at 4:22 PM, listerfeend said:

this...murders my happiness in ways that I don't know how to cope with

On 4/12/2024 at 11:52 PM, RustyToaster said:

If memory serves, the last secret histories was written as Sanderson realized he needed to expand on specific elements between Era 2 books. So that book wouldn't have been on the plan then either.

2 hours ago, listerfeend said:

This Awakens my happiness slightly. 

Technically speaking, the first Secret History was always a planned part of the Cosmere - but at the time of the first trilogy Brandon was unsure if he would be able to write that story. Ditto Secret History 2, there is planned content, he just does not know if/when he will be able to write the story. WoBs:

Spoiler

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Brandon Sanderson

Kelsier's Bones

I don't know if I mentioned it previously in the annotations, but I originally had TenSoon leave Kelsier's bones in Luthadel, burying them again following his appearance to Wellen and the other guard. My alpha readers, however, were very disappointed in this. They saw Kelsier's bones as a very important artifact, and they wanted to see more from them. So, I added the scene where the people in the warehouse saw TenSoon and he gave them advice, then I had him bring the bones with him.

However, I wasn't sure what to do with them. I'd already written the book at this point, and was just revising. I realized there wouldn't be another chance to make use of the bones. But I figured the readers were right, and TenSoon should bring them just in case.

Where the bones are at the end of the book is something of a mystery. They made it back to the kandra Homeland, I'll say that. However, what happened to them then . . . well, you will have to see.

The Hero of Ages Annotations (Feb. 9, 2010)

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Juan Jesus (aka Guinruneh)

When you wrote The Way of Kings... do you know who [Redacted]?

Brandon Sanderson

When I started it, I had two options for myself, depending on what I decided to do with Secret History and things like that. I wasn't 100% sure that the thing that happened in Secret History, that I would be able to write, so I had a backup plan in case that didn't happen in the Cosmere. So, there is a world where [Redacted] is TenSoon imitating somebody else. If I didn't do all the stuff that happened in Secret History. But since I did have a chance to do that, and I did decide to go with that, then I went with plan A, which was the original plan.

Barcelona Virtual Signing (July 8, 2021)

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Questioner

I like Mistborn: Secret History. Is there going to be a Mistborn: Secret History 2?

Brandon Sanderson

I hope to be able to write one. But this comes back to the "Let's make sure I'm getting the things that I have promised sequels to moving at a reasonable rate before I do side projects like that." So, I'd like to do one, but I'm not promising one.

Skyward Seattle signing (Nov. 10, 2018)

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Timsama

Is finding out what the deal was with Mare, is that an Era 2 thing we're going find out or is that...

Brandon Sanderson

No, unfortunately it is to be left, probably, as a mystery. It is a minor secret that I do not consider a major Cosmere thing, more of a backstory thing. I might eventually get around to it. The chances of it factoring in are very, very slim. I stay closed lipped about it because there is a part of me that thinks I will work it into Secret History 2, sort of like flash-backing material, but I'm not 100% sure I will.

FanX 2018 (Sept. 7, 2018)

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Questioner

Are we gonna possibly get another Mistborn: Secret [History]...

Brandon Sanderson

So, depends on my time. Like, Mistborn: Secret History, I started writing in 2006, and I released it in... 2016. So, it took, like, 10 years to get that, because it was a side-project of a side-project. It's, like, so self-indulging, Mistborn: Secret History is...

So, Secret History 2, will I ever have time to do that? Well, it depends on if I can do it in a way I don't feel is interfering with the main Cosmere timeline. Because we would all like to see Secret History 2. But not if it means we don't get Stormlight 9, if that makes sense. It's gonna depend on my writing time, on how I'm feeling about various things. You are more likely to get it the more I work on Era 3, because Kelsier is a part of Era 3.

JordanCon 2018 (April 21, 2018)

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Questioner

I believe you've said that you've toyed with the idea of writing books more like Secret History from other characters' viewpoints. Would you consider doing one for Marsh, like, during the events after the Ascension of Harmony to The Alloy of Law?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, that's a possibility, people have asked me for a Marsh viewpoint before. I would like to do more Marsh. So, we would have to see-- Like, when I do-- if I can find the time for it, Secret History 2-- Mistborn: Secret History 2, that would cover time before the start of Era 2 and it's possible I can slip in some Marsh. I mean, in Secret History we got some Spook, so…

JordanCon 2016 (April 23, 2016)

 

Hope that helps

 

Edited April 15, 2024 by Treamayne
SPAG/Clarity

[+robardin he/him]

 

We still don't fully know who created the Bands, how, and why.

In BoM Allik said that the Sovereign created the Bands. That would mean Kelsier.

...Who then left it at that frozen temple, extra-forbidding to any Southerner, in the Northern hemisphere? Does that sound like Kelsier to you?

Why would he do that, and then be now the one behind the shenanigans to bring the Bands back into the the hands of the Malwish? I mean, he knew where it was all those years (didn't he?) - until maybe five years earlier, he could have just popped over to that temple and unscrewed the spearhead off of the statue and nobody on Scadrial would have even known, much less have done anything about it!

It feels like he was somehow doing Harmony's Work at the time, over 300 years ago, in creating and then depositing the Bands how and where he did. Or perhaps kandra did all that booby-trapped temple stuff under direct orders from Harmony, secret from Kelsier, who knew the Bands existed but not where.

In any case, it seems Kelsier wants the Bands to "democratize access to Metalborn powers" and maybe machinated something to get them into the hands of the Malwish.

Kelsier does seem to be in charge of something or some group down there, as when they contacted him by seon from Bilming, he was on an airship in flight from the South and wouldn't reach them physically for quite a while yet.

And who, by the way, don't seem to have some kind of reciprocal monitor from Elendel to demand the Bands be flipped back again to them should the Malwish refill and then use them. The agreement cited was "alternating turns", not "you get one shot and then we take them - ohhh they're drained, too bad you can't refill them like we can with medallion tech, LOL and L8R losers!".

[Espella]

On 4/15/2024 at 8:25 AM, robardin said:

In BoM Allik said that the Sovereign created the Bands. That would mean Kelsier.

...Who then left it at that frozen temple, extra-forbidding to any Southerner, in the Northern hemisphere? Does that sound like Kelsier to you?

Still not entirely clear on the why he left it there, but the multiple layers of traps and secrets only to have it actually be the spearhead outside sure sounds like the kind of defense plan Kelsier would come up with. There's always another secret, after all. I'd be willing to believe Harmony talked him into putting it somewhere where nobody could misuse it back when they were on better terms and now that they've already been taken out he set up a plan to get his people in the South to get their hands on it, so that he can to work on using them while still not breaking whatever agreement he and Harmony had set up when he hid it in the first place. It would explain why he was hanging out in the South at the beginning of Lost Metal, he went down there to hatch the plan with Daal and whoever else he was working with, since he knew Autonomy was going to be an issue at some point soon (thus giving an opportunity for a crisis that would result in the Bands getting pulled out) but underestimated how quickly the Set was going to act.

 

On the how of the stealing/draining my first guess when I read initially that they had an allomantic grenade with aluminum set up for Daal to use that would make it impossible to use investiture in range and thus would make it seem like the Bands were drained because nobody could use them in range, though thinking back I'm not actually sure if anything has confirmed exactly how the grenades work with aluminum. Chromium could probably do the trick as well but my thinking was it would be better to prevent people from drawing on the bands than to leech them once they had, both to make it less obvious and to preserve whatever is still stored in them.