Origins of the Metallic Arcana

[killersquirrel59]

I extrapolated this theory from reading this one by Kardok on the possible origins of Feruchemy. I think that the associations we take for granted for each of the three Metallica Arcana are off.

 

What we previously understood is that Allomancy is the power of Preservation, Feruchemy is the power of Balance (Harmony in later eras), and Hemalurgy is the power of Ruin. However this never really made a great deal of sense. Hemalurgy is clearly from Ruin. The explanations of that make total sense. But as for Feruchemy and Allomancy, these powers make less sense with this origin. 

 

Allomancy is not really Preservation. The Investiture comes from outside channeled through the used metal. The power for it is clearly from Preservation (as there is no Shard of Balance, and as shown by the fact that the Mists are attracted to Allomancers), but it also has a definite aspect of Ruin in it in the form of the metal being used up.

 

Feruchemy on the other hand is about as close to Preservation as you can get. Nothing is gained or lost, only stored and redirected. 

 

So what is Allomancy then if not the power of Preservation? I posit that Allomancy is the power of Creation, which is noted requires the combined powers of Preservation and Ruin, but with more of Preservation which is why Preservation was weakened by it. It also explains, to a lesser degree why Allomancy is the newest power in Scadrial, only becoming known after the Ascension of the Lord Ruler.

 

I extrapolated this theory based on the stated theory that Lerasium, the God Metal and thus body of Preservation, was the origin of Feruchemy as well as Allomancy. The idea is that attempting to Tap a Lerasium metal mind imbues the Investiture that became Feruchemy. If the Terris people found the Well of Ascension and the few beads of Lerasium that existed there, before Allomancy it is not natural to think of eating it. However, by picking them up and examining them, it is quite possible that the act of concentration upon the metal was how the first Feruchemist learned to tap a metal mind. As this Investiture was coming directly from Preservation for the first use, the metal would not be used up, and would explain why the ability of Feruchemy was attributed to all Terris people in pre-Ascension times rather than a small selection of the population as in later years (it clearly wasn't a caste thing if Rashek as a simple pack man had it, and Alendi in the log book referred to tales of the powers of the Terris people, not of the Worldbringers or other notable subgroup). I could easily see these nuggets of Lerasium becoming holy artifacts to the first Worldbringers. This would also explain why the nugget found by Vin and Elend at the Well was encased in ancient pottery. After the Ascension when the existing Feruchemists had been transformed into Mistwraiths and Kandra by Rashek, only those who had not yet tapped the Lerasium were left. However, like most abilities of Investiture, there is a genetic component and the potential was already in the Terris people which is why Feruchemy survived in those left.

 

I would also guess that it wasn't that Allomancy wasn't known before the Ascension. I posit that it actually didn't exist at all. I think that Allomancy was actually created by Rashek while he held the Power of Preservation. However this power was tainted by Ruin as well, both from the aspect of Ruin that is part of Humanity as well as the trapped power of Ruin in the Well. It was created from the Investiture of the Preservation Shard, since that was the only power that Rashek held, which is why it is positively attuned to the Mists. I think Rashek then took the Lerasium nuggets that had previously been holy artifacts of the Worldbringers and created the first Mistborn with them, thus simultaneously preventing any new Feruchemists from being created. However his own paranoia and planning caused him to leave one nugget left, just in case it might be needed again. This is the nugget found by Vin and Elend at the Well in book 2. 

 

In a more general sense, this also explains why there are 3 Arcana though there are only 2 Shards on Scadrial.

 

Sorry, I know this was a bit rambling. I wrote it in kind of stream of consciousness. In summary

 

• Allomancy is not the power of preservation, but the power of Creation (or rather the power of Humanity).
  
• Feruchemy is the power of Preservation.
  
• Lerasium is the true origin of Feruchemy. 
  
• Allomancy was created, not by either Shard, but by Rashek when he held the power of Preservation.
  

 

Anyway, what do you think? It's my first theory on this forum.

Edited August 21, 2014 by killersquirrel59

[Lumen]

I believe Alendi was a Seeker with a Hemalurgic spike, which is how he was able to locate the well.  (Just as Vin needed the spike to find it).  So Allomancy, Hemalurgy and Feruchmeny all pre-dated the ascension.  

[WeiryWriter]

Sorry but Allomancy being of Preservation, Hemalurgy of Ruin, and Feruchemy being the balance of the two is direct WoB.
 

Eric Lake

Allomancy provides many very dramatic effects, which some have noted is not very much like Preservation. Could you walk me through how Allomancy is of Preservation, though it does dramatic, dynamic things?

Brandon Sanderson

One of the 'basics' of the magic in all of the worlds is that the energy of Shards can fuel all kinds of interactions, not just interactions based on their personality/role. I did this because otherwise, the Magics would all be extremely limited.

The 'role' of the Shard has to do with the WAY the magic is obtained, not what it can do. So, in Preservation's case, the magic is a gift—allowing a person to preserve their own strength, and rely upon the strength granted by the magic. While Hemalurgy has a huge cost, ending in net entropy.

 
(source)
 

Czanos

Preservation can fuel Allomancy, (Minus Atium.) but can Ruin fuel Hemalurgy? (Or Atium?) And could Sazed fuel all three Metallic Arts?

Brandon Sanderson

Both gods could, if they wanted, fuel all of the metallic arts. Preservation is stronger at fueling Allomancy, Ruin stronger at fueling Allomancy or Feruchemy when it has been given via a spike. Both are balanced when it comes to Feruchemy. But this rarely comes up in the books, as it required expending power in a way that the gods were hesitant to do.

 

(source)

 
Allomancy actually did exist pre-Ascension of the Lord Ruler, it was just incredibly rare and weak. Alendi (the guy Rashek killed) was a Seeker.

 

 

Also, as a note, Alendi was an Allomancer, as the epigraph notes here. He had to be—he heard the pulsing at the Well of Ascension when nobody else could. “Ah,” you might say, “but I thought that you said Allomancy didn’t exist before those beads.” That isn’t 100% true. The legends say that Allomancy came with the Deepness. Alendi was one of the very first Allomancers, and he gained his powers as the mists began to cover the world.

 

(source)
 
Congrats on your first theory.
 
 

Edited August 21, 2014 by WeiryWriter
added quotes and links

[killersquirrel59]

Shame. I liked it, but I suppose it wasn't to be.

 

Although none of those quotes directly say the Shard associations of each Arcana...

Edited August 21, 2014 by killersquirrel59

[WeiryWriter]

They are explicitly stated in the HoA epigraphs for chapters 32-24:

 

 

32 Allomancy, obviously, is of Preservation. The rational mind will see this. For, in the case of Allomancy, net power is gained. It is provided by an external source—Preservation's own body. 33 Hemalurgy is of Ruin. It destroys. By taking abilities from one person and giving them to another—in reduced amounts—power is actually lost. In line with Ruin's own appointed purpose—breaking down the universe into smaller and smaller pieces—Hemalurgy gives great gifts, but at a high cost. 34 Feruchemy, it should be noted, is the power of balance. Of the three powers, only it was known to men before the conflict between Preservation and Ruin came to a head. In Feruchemy, power is stored up, then later drawn upon. There is no loss of energy—just a changing of the time and rate of its use.

[Shadowspren]

Also, suggesting that Feruchemy came from people 'Tapping' Lerasium which is the Godmetal of Preservation then would mean that there would be a reaction from people trying to tap Atium. But as we have seen, tapping atium is age and doesn't give any powers. Being born as a Feruchemist would be due to the fact that Scadrians were made by both Ruin and Preservation which gives them the balance. But because Preservation gave people sentience, Allomancy would be a manifestation of that extra Preservation within each person.

[Oudeis]

I would simply like to applaud your use of the term "arcana" which is something I'm trying to encourage.

[Kadrok]

 

I extrapolated this theory from reading this one by Kardok on the possible origins of Feruchemy.

Hooray! People do read my ravings!

Sorry but Allomancy being of Preservation, Hemalurgy of Ruin, and Feruchemy being the balance of the two is direct WoB.

 

 

Shame. I liked it, but I suppose it wasn't to be.

 

Although none of those quotes directly say the Shard associations of each Arcana...

They are explicitly stated in the HoA epigraphs for chapters 32-24.

To be fair, the epigraphs are in world, and people in world (even "gods") can make mistakes... I'm not ready to confidently stride forward and claim that Sazed is wrong there, but that distinction does leave us a tiny gap to doubt in. Someone in world saying something is "obviously" x tends to raise red flags for me, given my experience with Brandon's worlds.

Also, suggesting that Feruchemy came from people 'Tapping' Lerasium which is the Godmetal of Preservation then would mean that there would be a reaction from people trying to tap Atium. But as we have seen, tapping atium is age and doesn't give any powers. Being born as a Feruchemist would be due to the fact that Scadrians were made by both Ruin and Preservation which gives them the balance. But because Preservation gave people sentience, Allomancy would be a manifestation of that extra Preservation within each person.

Except this objection ignores the difference between the burning effects of each metal. Lerasium's ridiculously powerful "grant full Mistborn powers to you, and Allomancy to your descendants, and also secret *hush* *hush* stuff Brandon hasn't told us yet" also doesn't seem to fit with Atium's "see a few seconds into the future of everyone around you, kind of like external Electrum".

I would simply like to applaud your use of the term "arcana" which is something I'm trying to encourage.

I thought this was an Outis/Mac/Darnam(is that your other name or am I confusing things?) thread when I clicked on it for that very reason. I also may have gone "Oh no, Mac's diabolical plan to get the clunky 'system of investiture' replaced with the streamlined 'arcana' is working!"

Edited August 22, 2014 by Kadrok

[killersquirrel59]

I just used the term arcana because I'd seen it previously on these forums and it made sense as a streamlined way to refer to all powers of investiture.

 

 

 

Except this objection ignores the difference between the burning effects of each metal. Lerasium's ridiculously powerful "grant full Mistborn powers to you, and Allomancy to your descendants, and also secret *hush* *hush* stuff Brandon hasn't told us yet" also doesn't seem to fit with Atium's "see a few seconds into the future of everyone around you, kind of like external Electrum".

 

Maybe it's something special about using the God metal in its own Arcana that gives such a significant power boost. An Atium spike in Hemalurgy is by far the most potent, granting the ability to steal any power rather than only allowing specific ones.

There may be some support for a slightly altered version of my theory however. In the quote from HoA when Sazed says that he suspects Alendi was a Seeker, he notes the following

 

 

 

I suspect that Alendi, the man Rashek killed, was himself a Misting—a Seeker. Allomancy, however, was a different thing in those days, and much more rare. The Allomancers alive in our day are the descendants of the men who ate those few beads of Preservation’s power. They formed the foundation of the nobility, and were the first to name him emperor. The power in these few beads was so concentrated that it could last through ten centuries of breeding and inheritance.

 

Note specifically him referring to the fact that Allomancy was "a different thing in those days." So something about the Ascension changed the nature of Allomancy. Perhaps it was Rashek that caused that change as I describe, bringing some aspect of Ruin from his human nature into the Arcana. 

 

It would make sense if Allomancy in its previous, idealized form did not involve eating metals but was simply powered on the trace metals that everyone consumed as part of daily life, that it was simply a power of Preservation at that point. However, once metal started being cultivated for the purpose of being burned away, that speaks of the influence of Ruin's aspect of Humanity, that of progress.

Edited August 23, 2014 by Rubix
Please don't double post. Use the edit button instead.

[Oudeis]

I did not invent Arcana, it comes from the text, when every book ended in an Ars Arcana. Clearly, there's at least one person who has traveled to multiple Shardworlds who thinks that "systems of investiture" are better called arcana, and I'm prepared to oblige.

[killersquirrel59]

Hah! I may not be so far off possibly. Confirmed WoB that says that Feruchemy came from Preservation.

 

Q.  For Feruchemy, can you only inherit that? Or is there another way to get it?

A.  You could obviously get it through a Hemalurgic spike.

Q.  Yeah, but that’s kind of a different thing.

A.  It is hereditary, but it came from somewhere. [...] Which is a RAFO, but it’s not a big RAFO. There’s not something you missed in the books, or anything like that. It originally came from Preservation long ago. And there are other ways to get it, but you have not missed any major plot points regarding that. Good question.

[killersquirrel59]

Also, not quite sure if this might be relevant, but it might be something.

 

 

 

Q:  Is Wit/Hoid an Allomancer?

A:  He did steal a bead of Lerasium off of Scadrial.  If he were to make use of that bead, certain powers would have been gained.

 

Brandon dances around the question of whether Hoid gained Allomancy from Lerasium, but confirms he could have gained a power from it. Couple that with the confirmation above that Feruchemy was granted by Preservation in some way and we already know that Hoid is a Feruchemist...

 

possibilities

 

Also coupled with this one...

 

Q:  Has Hoid used his Lerasium Bead for Feruchemy?

A:  Hoid got the bead originally because he wanted to become an Allomancer.

 

...still dancing around the question of what he used the Lerasium bead for, but noting he originally wanted Allomancy.

Edited September 3, 2014 by killersquirrel59