Did I spoil era 2 for myself?

[Munazir]

I have read only AoL haven’t started book 5 yet.

I read the Ars Arcanum at the end of AoL and I’m wondering is this a spoiler?

They talked about and 17 and 18 metal. God  Metals. Should I know that.

Can I read the metal charts? Like I know now that Aluminium Mistings can take someone reserves away. Should I know that yet? It is better to learn it during the future books. Like I didn’t know what type of Twinborn Wax was and enjoyed learning about it. It wouldn’t have ruined the story but I enjoyed learning about the Twinborn powers during the book rather then before.

How are Koloss and Koloss blooded a thing. 
Wax talks about a clan of Koloss and we meant something whose Koloss blooded. I thought anyone who wasn’t in TLR’s caches or in the caverns at the Pits died so how would Koloss have survived. If it explains later please don’t say.

Kandra. They all killed themselves so how do they work for Harmony. That’s what was said in Ars Arcanum. My guess is the Constanble is now one 

Edited September 4, 2023 by Munazir

[Argent he/him]

The Ars Arcana are usually written to be read after you finish the book they are a part of, so I wouldn't consider anything in them a spoiler. Some minor details are going to be revealed there, but that's intentional, you can think of it as a part of the book; it's just a small tease for things to come, not important plot details. 

[alder24]

18 minutes ago, Munazir said:

They talked about and 17 and 18 metal. God  Metals. Should I know that.

Yes, you should know that. Atium used in Era 1 was a god metal. Lerasium ingested by Elend in WoA was a god metal. It wasn't called a god metal, but it was said it's the body of a god. I think the term god metal appeared in AoL for the first time (outside of WoBs). HoA ch 78 epigraphs:

Quote

It may seem odd to those reading this that atium was part of the body of a god. However, it is necessary to understand that when we said "body" we generally meant "power." As my mind has expanded, I've come to realize that objects and energy are actually composed of the very same things, and can change state from one to another. It makes perfect sense to me that the power of godhood would be manifest within the world in physical form. Ruin and Preservation were not nebulous abstractions. They were integral parts of existence. In a way, every object that existed in the world was composed of their power. Atium, then, was an object that was one-sided. Instead of being composed of half Ruin and half Preservation—as, say, a rock would be—atium was completely of Ruin. The Pits of Hathsin were crafted by Preservation as a place to hide the chunk of Ruin's body that he had stolen away during the betrayal and imprisonment. Kelsier didn't truly destroy this place by shattering those crystals, for they would have regrown eventually—in a few hundred years—and continued to deposit atium, as the place was a natural outlet for Ruin's trapped power. When people burned atium, then, they were drawing upon the power of Ruin—which is, perhaps, why atium turned people into such efficient killing machines. They didn't use up this power, however, but simply made use of it. Once a nugget of atium was expended, the power would return to the Pits and begin to coalesce again—just as the power at the Well of Ascension would return there again after it had been used.

 

24 minutes ago, Munazir said:

Can I read the metal charts?

Yes, you can. Ars Arcanum in Era 2 doesn't contain spoilers for the book you're reading. It's just a reminder for you, so you can understand the magic system characters are talking about. When I was reading Mistborn for the first time (and second) I often looked at the table to remember what that metal does, or what metal this Misting uses or stuff like that.

25 minutes ago, Munazir said:

Like I know now that Aluminium Mistings can take someone reserves away.

That's wrong, Aluminum Mistings don't do that, Chromium Misting does that. But this is something that you can just read about and it won't spoil you a book.

28 minutes ago, Munazir said:

Like I didn’t know what type of Twinborn Wax was and enjoyed learning about it. It wouldn’t have ruined the story but I enjoyed learning about the Twinborn powers during the book rather then before.

The Ars Arcanum just contains quick and simple explanations, so if something appears, like an iron Ferring, you' ask yourself "what does he do" go to Ars Arcanum and refresh your memory. It doesn't spoil anything, it explains the magic system. Most of those metals and their properties were already explained in HoA book and Ars Arcanum, so this certainly isn't a spoiler.

30 minutes ago, Munazir said:

How are Koloss and Koloss blooded a thing. 

Wax talks about a clan of Koloss and we meant something whose Koloss blooded. I thought anyone who wasn’t in TLR’s caches or in the caverns at the Pits died so how would Koloss have survived. If it explains later please don’t say.

I don't think it was explained in books at all. It relies on your knowledge of HoA and Koloss named Human. Some Koloss were in Kandra's Homeland when Sazed Ascened. Below I explain it a bit more in a spoiler box, but I really think it wasn't said in anywhere books at all: 

Spoiler

He was so fascinated by their culture that he made them into true species, allowing them to breed true, have kids (Koloss Blooded) who later can decide if they want spikes to become Koloss or not. Some WoBs:

Spoiler

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, and as bonus aside, let me point something out to you. Human and his group of koloss were inside the Homeland when the sun came out, destroying everything on the surface. They were still there when Sazed rearranged the world and fixed things. TenSoon and the kandra were also inside, though they had been turned into mistwraiths. Hum . . . Wonder what happened to them. . . .

The Hero of Ages Annotations (June 3, 2010)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

My favorite god, Sazed/Harmony, in my recent reread I got a bit angry at him because he didn’t let kandra be able to reproduce, but he let the koloss be able to do it. And I’m wondering if there’s a way he could have allowed that, but he chose not to? And also if there’s a way that it could happen in the future, so that two of my favorite people could have a baby?

Brandon Sanderson

There are a couple things that he was facing, and let me walk you through his philosophy on this, which you are allowed to disagree with. I want, for every character I write, there to be things they do that you disagree with, because otherwise I’m writing all characters to be the same person, if that makes sense.

The kandra have immortality and are able to perpetuate their culture by being immortal for as long as the individuals live. The koloss don’t have that, meaning that if he didn’t make koloss able to breed true, the entire people vanish in one generation and all culture associated with them. And so because of that, he took the extra effort to change the koloss to allow for this sort of thing. But he did it in such a way that they would not have to have hemalurgic spikes, because the idea of making new hemalurgic spikes is extremely distasteful to Harmony. Reusing old ones is a thing he was willing to allow, but new ones he didn’t.

Could he have changed the kandra to be similar? Well, the answer is kind of a fairly... yes, but they would no longer have been the kandra, they would have been rolled back to being what they were before the Lord Ruler. And so they basically would stop being what they are that makes them unique as a culture. And he decided not to do that.

You can disagree with that, and I think there are some pretty valid arguments against the choice he made, but that is the choice he made.

Is there a way going forward? Yes, this is theoretically possible.

Dragonsteel 2022 (Nov. 14, 2022)

 

Spoiler

Kogiopsis

How did koloss-blooded people happen?

Brandon Sanderson

Koloss-blooded people-- A koloss-blooded is the result of two koloss having a child. A full koloss is only made once you accept the spikes and are mutated into the final form. And so a koloss-blooded-- The koloss can breed true now but that's what you get. And so they actually have a ritual at coming-of-age where you can accept the spikes or you can leave. And so all koloss in the wastes-- in the Roughs that are in the koloss tribes are-- have chosen that and outsiders can choose it too.

Words of Radiance Portland signing (March 7, 2014)

 

 

 

36 minutes ago, Munazir said:

Kandra. They all killed themselves so how do they work for Harmony. That’s what was said in Ars Arcanum. 

Well, did they kill themself? They removed their spikes and were turned back into mistwraiths. But Sazed Ascended, he knew about them, what do you think he would do with them now when he's holding god powers? Again, I don't think it was explained in books at all, but just in case you don't want to know it, spoilers box:

Spoiler

He gave them their spikes back, bringing them back to being Kandra. A won't quote a WoB because of spoilers.

 

[Kaymyth she/her]

Quote

I don't think it was explained in books at all. It relies on your knowledge of HoA and Koloss named Human. Some Koloss were in Kandra's Homeland when Sazed Ascened. Below I explain it a bit more in a spoiler box, but I really think it wasn't said in anywhere books at all: 

You can pick up details of this from "Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania" which is included in the Alloy of Law supplement to the Mistborn Adventure Game, and was then reprinted in Arcanum Unbounded.

[Munazir]

I forgot that the Kandra when back into mistwraiths. If it wasn’t explained in the books Is it a WoB. Same for the bit about Koloss. I haven’t checked the boxes yet is it a WoB.

 

Lerasium and Atium are the two god metals then. Lerasium turns someone Mistborn and Atium gives you future sight. Those seem very unbalanced. Atium seems a lot weaker then Lerasium since Atium could be countered by Electrum

[Munazir]

50 minutes ago, Kaymyth said:

You can pick up details of this from "Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania" which is included in the Alloy of Law supplement to the Mistborn Adventure Game, and was then reprinted in Arcanum Unbounded.

I’m about to start that. I thought Allomander Jak was a story and not a real life event in Scadrial

[Kaymyth she/her]

18 minutes ago, Munazir said:

I’m about to start that. I thought Allomander Jak was a story and not a real life event in Scadrial

It is, and most of it is abject nonsense (though the Handerwym footnotes are deliciously funny). However, the koloss lore we get from it is accurate, according to Brandon.

[alder24]

9 hours ago, Kaymyth said:

You can pick up details of this from "Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania" which is included in the Alloy of Law supplement to the Mistborn Adventure Game, and was then reprinted in Arcanum Unbounded.

 

Oh right, I have a tendency of forgetting about it.

8 hours ago, Munazir said:

I haven’t checked the boxes yet is it a WoB.

The 2 last spoiler boxes contain short explanations, as per warning before, and the boxes within those boxes are WoBs on which I based those explanations. No spoilers in those WoBs, they talk about questions you've asked.

8 hours ago, Munazir said:

Lerasium and Atium are the two god metals then. Lerasium turns someone Mistborn and Atium gives you future sight. Those seem very unbalanced. Atium seems a lot weaker then Lerasium since Atium could be countered by Electrum

Do they? Well here is a thing you don't know - Atium that appeared in era 1 isn't the Atium you think it is. Brandon realized that he needed to change its mechanics as he was writing HoA, and it wasn't explained in books at all. It was a retcon. Atium in era 1 was actually an Atium-electrum alloy, not pure Atium like Lerasium was - pure Atium allows you to peer directly into SR and see a greater picture, just like Elend did at the end of HoA - you can't really counter this that easily. The effects of pure Atium were also written at the Allomantic table attached to HoA. As a side note, a Mistborn burning Lerasium would get a different effect from it. Lerasium turning you into an Allomancer is a side effect, not main effect. So we still don't know what Lerasium really does and if Atium has a similar side effect.

WoB about Atium retcon:

Spoiler

Xais56

Brandon has said that everyone ought to be able to burn Atium, like they can all burn Lerasium, and the fact that they can't was an oversight on his part that he would've done different in hindsight.

Maybe now he's had an in-universe reason to re-write the laws of allomancy it's back to his intended concept; Mistborn burn all 16 base metals, mistings burn one base metal, non-allomancers can only burn godmetal.

Peter Ahlstrom

My explanation for this is that Preservation somehow caused all naturally occurring atium to form as an alloy of atium and electrum. The atium Mistings were actually electrum Mistings.

Xais56

It's a very tidy solution, but it creates the maddening question of what does pure atium do?

Peter Ahlstrom

That answer has already been revealed canonically. RAFO.

Footnote: It has since been clarified that the effect was revealed on the Table of Allomantic Metals poster and seen at the end of The Hero of Ages.
General Reddit 2021 (Nov. 2, 2021)

WoB from HoA annotations, explaining mechanics of Allomancy and Lerasium:

Spoiler

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Preservation's Power

All right, so maybe I lied about there only being three magic systems in this book. It comes down to how you term the powers of Preservation and Ruin, who kind of blanket the entire system. There are a lot of things going on here, and—well, the truth is I don't want to mention all of them, for fear of spoiling future books. However, I'll give you a few rules to apply.

First, to these forces, energy and mass are the same thing. So, their power can take physical shape—as Preservation's did in the bead of metal Elend ate. Second, there is a bit of Preservation inside of all the people—and it's this that allows the people to perform Allomancy. It needs to be awakened and stirred to be of use, but when it is, a proper metal can draw forth more of Preservation's power. It's like the metal attunes the bit within the person, allowing it to act as a catalyst to grab more power.

Allomancy is not fueled by metal; it is fueled by Preservation. The metal is the means by which a person can access that fuel, however. If there were another way to access it, then the metal wouldn't be needed.

Preservation's touch on people differs. Some have more, some have less. This doesn't make them better or worse people—indeed, some most touched by Preservation have been among the worst people in the world. As Ruin later points out, there is a difference between being evil and being destructive.

Regardless, if a person can get more Preservation into them, they become better Allomancers. Hence Elend becoming a Mistborn. Like all people, he had the potential within him—it was just too small of a potential to be awakened through normal means. That little jolt of Preservation's body, however, expanded and awakened his Allomancy.

As a tidbit, that was a side effect of what that bead of metal did. It wasn't the main purpose of the bead, and if another Allomancer were to burn it, it would do something else.

The Hero of Ages Annotations (Nov. 12, 2009)

 

 

Please, in the future try to avoid double posting. You can quote multiple posts at once, if you want to answer to many people, or if you already wrote a post and want to add more, you can edit it using an edit option. Here are some tips for you: 

Spoiler

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Hope that helps.

 

[Firesong she/her]

8 hours ago, alder24 said:

 

Do they? Well here is a thing you don't know - Atium that appeared in era 1 isn't the Atium you think it is. Brandon realized that he needed to change its mechanics as he was writing HoA, and it wasn't explained in books at all. It was a retcon. Atium in era 1 was actually an Atium-electrum alloy, not pure Atium like Lerasium was - pure Atium allows you to peer directly into SR and see a greater picture, just like Elend did at the end of HoA - you can't really counter this that easily.

Additional detail (saying it for them, not you, Alder), that is just how future sight works in the cosmere, it gets really messed up by other people with future sight. They have a destructive interference as it creates new possibilities of them responding to the future and acting in ways they wouldn't do otherwise, thus it branches apart into incoherence. So it isn't that it is "weak", it is just that the future isn't set in the cosmere, thus things like this make it even harder to discern it. 

Not going to give any context, but you do see this destructive interference effect in other cosmere books. It is a pretty fundamental mechanic in how future sight works. 

But yes, we don't know the true use of Lerasium (it having another use isn't a retcon, it was stated as early as the WoA Annotations), just a side-effect it has. It is likely going to be very important to Era 3 and 4. 

And no, you didn't spoil yourself on anything. You should know about the extra metals not in Era 1, as Harmony stated there are two more pairs left undiscovered. And God Metals are just a term for something you have already observed but didn't get a name for. The powers of the different metals also, while technically a spoiler, is not one that would ruin any plotpoints. Unlike things like Malatium, the powers of the metals are not big plot reveals.  

Avoid reading the Ars Arcanum for TLM, though. That one does have spoilers. Pretty sure BoM's does too. Avoid those ones. But otherwise, you are good.