How does Snapping manifest?

[conjurawr]

Hey guys,

I've been pondering about this for a while now and I cannot recall if there was any mention in the books! We all know that people have to Snap to become a Misting, but how does this manifest? What happens when you 'Snap'? Do you instantly know which metal(s) you can burn? And if not, how the hell do you find out? It's not like you're going to swallow all base metals because that's rather poisonous, isn't it?

I've started a Roleplaying group (WFRP rules) for Scadrial and I want my players to start the game thinking that they have no Metalurgic abilities, so they can get used to RP'ing first (they've never done so before). Then I want to encourage them to make a terrible, terrible decision that allows me to beat them up something fierce, in order for them to Snap! I already figured out which Mistings they'll become and my idea is now to offer them some opportunities to eat food that contains small traces of said metal so they can immediately burn 'something' when they Snap. Any more information on Snapping would be lovely though!!

[TheBobs he/him]

Swallow all the metals, immediately attempt to burn, induce vomiting?

[Eri she/her]

I suggest you try the official RPG, it's good. Not that WFRP is very bad (you're not using 1st ed, are you?), but Crafty Games did a really great job.

However, I have no idea, how does it look like. I suppose people knowing much about Allomancy (ie. having Allomancer friends and talking with them quite a lot) may recognize the event, for others it's just a very weird feeling during a moment of intense emotions. If the metal in question is in food / water / etc (and Luthadel has a lots of metals in the soil, so it is likely) the person will may start to burn it unconciously sometimes, and later figure out how to do that. But that's just my guess.

[fyodor]

I don't think that they are aware of their abilities until they ingest the metals and sense the metal reserves. For example, the mist-snapped people in HOA don't know that they're allomancers until Elend tests them with metals.

[Windrunner he/him]

To snap at least in the past, the nobility would beat you, then you would swallow various metals to see if you could burn them. Now this bothered Sazed when he ascended, so he changed the way snapping works. We don't know how it works now but it has to somehow follow the intent of Preserving something, because it has to follow Preservation's intent. We asked Brandon what snapping is like now but he RAFO'd it.

[conjurawr]

Thank you all for replying =)

@TheBobs: The vomiting would work indeed, but I find it rather crude! I'm looking for a more elegant solution =)

@Eri: I am in possession of the Mistborn Adventure RPG, it just doesn't suit my (and the players') ideal of the perfect RPG. It has some nice aspects but I find the WFRP (2nd Edition ;-) ) system appliable to almost everything that requires a big sense of realism and danger. Like the world of Scadrial. The Mistborn RPG is intended to start with people who already have some power, or are even Kandra. I prefer to make an RP group of Skaa that finally get the guts (or the proper motivation *que evil laugh*) to rise up and seek the revolutionaries in Luthadel.

@Fyodor: That's a great reference, they did get sick for one day if I'm correct right? Maybe this is the direct effect of Snapping? If this is correct I can keep to my original plan in order for them to Snap, without them knowing that they have Snapped, I like it It's so much more rewarding if your players experiment on themselves because of some vague hints from my part.

@Windrunner: I'm hosting a game during the rule of the Lord Ruler, that's why I opted for getting them beaten too!

[Eric]

@Fyodor: That's a great reference, they did get sick for one day if I'm correct right? Maybe this is the direct effect of Snapping? If this is correct I can keep to my original plan in order for them to Snap, without them knowing that they have Snapped, I like it It's so much more rewarding if your players experiment on themselves because of some vague hints from my part.

Mist-sickness lasts anywhere from minutes to 16 days. This was not happening during the Lord Ruler's reign, so it would be diverging from canon. Not that such is a bad thing, if it serves the story. Just consider the possible complications, such as TLR, having touched the power of Preservation, would likely recognize it and start hunting down those Skaa who took ill in the mists, and there'd be a surge in the number of Inquisitors as the disposable Mistings were caught.

Edited January 20, 2012 by Eric

[fyodor]

Thank you all for replying =)

@Fyodor: That's a great reference, they did get sick for one day if I'm correct right? Maybe this is the direct effect of Snapping? If this is correct I can keep to my original plan in order for them to Snap, without them knowing that they have Snapped, I like it It's so much more rewarding if your players experiment on themselves because of some vague hints from my part.

I don't think that the ten days of sickness are a direct effect of snapping. I just think that the mistsickness inflicted so much agony that it snapped everyone with even slight Allomantic potential.

Edited January 21, 2012 by fyodor

[Ironeyes]

Did the mists snap people who already had allomantic potential, or did it create said potential AND snap it? Recalling the large number of people that were snapped, and the exact 16%, it seems unlikely that there would be that many people with any noble ancestry, especially when you consider how much half-breeds are hounded.

[Zas678 he/him]

It emphasized the potential that was there. There's a quote that talks about it in the annotations.

Got it! It's Chapter 49 part 2

The Sliding Scale of Allomantic Potential

The Sliding Scale of Allomantic Potential

Noblemen, despite what Spook says in this chapter, are not immune to the mistsickness. The rumor Spook is referencing does have merit, however. You see, since the mists are Snapping people and awakening the Allomantic potential within them, it will affect far fewer noblemen than skaa. Why? Because a lot of the noblemen have already Snapped. They were beaten as children to bring out the powers.However, that won’t stop all of them from being affected by the mistsickness, because the mistsickness is also awakening Allomantic potential that would otherwise be too subtle to be brought out. Pretend there’s a sliding scale of Allomantic potential. 100% means you’re an Allomancer—in this series, only two people have hit 100%—Vin and Elend. Buried within a lot of people, however, is enough of a touch of Preservation’s power to hit, say, 50% on the relative scale of Allomantic power. These people, when beaten and made to pass through something traumatic, awaken to their Allomantic abilities.There are a lot of people out there, however, with something more like 20% to 30%. These are the people the mists are Snapping—since the mists are, themselves, partially the power of Preservation, they can touch people and increase their Allomantic potential slightly and then bring it to the forefront

.

[Ironeyes]

I stand corrected. It just seemed that, since lerasium creates mistborn, and the mists are another form of it, maybe the mists could create allomancy. I guess not.

[Windrunner he/him]

The one thing I don't get is why Preservation chose to only snap 16% of the people of Scadrial. I doubt that exactly 16% of the population were those low power Mistings, there must have been more that weren't snapped since this mist doesn't create Mistings. I know it was a sign of hope to people, but I'd prefer more soldiers to an obscure sign of hope. But I guess that maybe the people would never have realized that the mist was snapping people unless it was 16% of the population. Anyone have other ideas?

[CrazyRioter she/her]

yeah, it was a message from Preservation, it's petty much said outright in the HoA epigraphs.

[Zas678 he/him]

I stand corrected. It just seemed that, since lerasium creates mistborn, and the mists are another form of it, maybe the mists could create allomancy. I guess not.

My response to this is that Lerasium requires energy. Once the Lerasium is burned, then the power is gone into the person's sDNA. Mists, on the other hand, spend a little bit of energy to get you to use what you already have inside of you. So mists don't require nearly as much energy because they are working with what you already have rather than dumping all their energy into you (like Vin).

EDIT- 1000th post! But that's not nearly as important as a number that's coming up very soon....

[Aethling he/him]

Different people appear to have widely different experiences.

Vin snapped at birth. She did not know what she was, but she could tell when her "luck" was running low. Residual metals allowed her to consciously and unconsciously use separate metals. She definately used pushing and pulling before she was instructed, and she used pewter to restore her body and be able to withstand the pain of her beatings.

Kelsier seems to have more of an emotional snapping than a physical one. He snapped as the result of Mare's beating and death. He seems to have instinctively known how to use at least some of the powers.

Elend wasn't really so much a snap since he was a tabula rasa. Once he took the nugget, his body instinctively used pewter.

When the mist snapped people, all it took was a store of the right metal for them to tell something was different. They might not have burned it instinctively, but they could tell the store was there when they took a vial. The situation at the camp may have contributed to the lack of residual metals on their systems. Atium mistings were limited due to the willingness of the LR or a nobleman to waste Atium. Duralumin mistings are pretty much useless as Sazed states.

So, after snapping, at least some of the people could tell something was different. They may not have been able to use it without instruction, but they could tell something was different with their bodys.

[fyodor]

So, after snapping, at least some of the people could tell something was different. They may not have been able to use it without instruction, but they could tell something was different with their bodys.

They knew something was different AFTER they ingested metals. They didn't have any idea until that point.

[Aethling he/him]

Exactly. The only real question I have is where were the residual metals in the soldiers that snapped. I can understand no Atium as it only occured at the pits. Copper and Pewter users could have used it instinctively without knowing. Tin is harder to explain away because they would definately known their hearing, sight, smell, and touch were better. Iron, well, that would be fairly obvious to those that used.

The easiest explanation is that all the stores gradually flushed from their system due to the army being on the march for so long. Pewter and iron are generally heavier than wood for the common soldier so they might not have had access to utensils made of those. Still, cooking for that many men probably required some type of metalic vessel.

We could go into a long discussion of why they did not have to built of stores, but that would be pretty silly to do. It is much easier and efficient just to say they did not have the residual metals in their systems. Once they had the metals introduced, they could tell. At one point, Sazed even questions how many mistings were never discovered solely because their metals were not available.

[Ironeyes]

Vin was also an incredibly powerful allomancer, so she could get greater effects from smaller amounts of metals, the same way Elend could get an even bigger one, because his is more powerful than her. Perhaps the newly created mistings just weren't powerful enough to get a noticeable effect.

[fyodor]

2 things

1. In Mistborn 1, it's stated explicitly that TLR chose the capital because of the high mineral content, which is why Vin got enough residual metals to perform minor feats of Allomancy. It may be that the soldiers were consuming less mineral-ly water.

2. Vin gradually came to notice her abilities over 16 years. It's plausible that the soldiers never figured out what was going on, but might have after enough time.

Exactly. The only real question I have is where were the residual metals in the soldiers that snapped. I can understand no Atium as it only occured at the pits. Copper and Pewter users could have used it instinctively without knowing. Tin is harder to explain away because they would definately known their hearing, sight, smell, and touch were better. Iron, well, that would be fairly obvious to those that used.

The easiest explanation is that all the stores gradually flushed from their system due to the army being on the march for so long. Pewter and iron are generally heavier than wood for the common soldier so they might not have had access to utensils made of those. Still, cooking for that many men probably required some type of metalic vessel.

We could go into a long discussion of why they did not have to built of stores, but that would be pretty silly to do. It is much easier and efficient just to say they did not have the residual metals in their systems. Once they had the metals introduced, they could tell. At one point, Sazed even questions how many mistings were never discovered solely because their metals were not available.

[fyodor]

3 things

1. In Mistborn 1, it's stated explicitly that TLR chose the capital because of the high mineral content, which is why Vin got enough residual metals to perform minor feats of Allomancy. It may be that the soldiers were consuming less mineral-ly water.

2. Vin gradually came to notice her abilities over 16 years. It's plausible that the soldiers never figured out what was going on, but might have after enough time.

3. According to the quote above, the newly snapped allomancers were pretty weak. It may be that they needed more in the way of ingested metal to know that they were Allomancers.

Exactly. The only real question I have is where were the residual metals in the soldiers that snapped. I can understand no Atium as it only occured at the pits. Copper and Pewter users could have used it instinctively without knowing. Tin is harder to explain away because they would definately known their hearing, sight, smell, and touch were better. Iron, well, that would be fairly obvious to those that used.

The easiest explanation is that all the stores gradually flushed from their system due to the army being on the march for so long. Pewter and iron are generally heavier than wood for the common soldier so they might not have had access to utensils made of those. Still, cooking for that many men probably required some type of metalic vessel.

We could go into a long discussion of why they did not have to built of stores, but that would be pretty silly to do. It is much easier and efficient just to say they did not have the residual metals in their systems. Once they had the metals introduced, they could tell. At one point, Sazed even questions how many mistings were never discovered solely because their metals were not available.

[Exile he/him]

I think you guys are putting to much stock in burning metals unconsciously. I would think you would need a large amount of the metal to really realize you're doing it. A flash of strength or enhanced senses would be hard to notice. Blue lines sprouting from your chest would probably be easier though.

Also I think it is interesting to think about the awesomeness of, after your really intense beating at the hand of other nobles of your house, you swallow the 8 basic metals and feel for reserves. Imagine finding one and not knowing what it is. Or finding all 8 there. Like winning the lottery or somesuch.