Feruchemy in Inquisitors

[Display-Names-Are-Stupid]

I've gotten myself confused, and I hope someone has a simple answer out there.

Inquisitors during the Lord Ruler's time would sometimes have a gold spike for Feruchemical gold, but where did the Lord Ruler get a feruchemist to create these spikes? It was my understanding that the Terris people had hidden the fact that ferchemy remained from the Lord Ruler, is that incorrect and he did know about it and they only hid some members? 

After Ruin took over they got more feruchemical powers, I'm assuming from kidnapping terris feruchemists, but is that ever addressed by the Terris people in the books? Surely they'd have mentioned if Inquisitors were picking them off? 

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

5 minutes ago, Display-Names-Are-Stupid said:

Inquisitors during the Lord Ruler's time would sometimes have a gold spike for Feruchemical gold, but where did the Lord Ruler get a feruchemist to create these spikes? It was my understanding that the Terris people had hidden the fact that ferchemy remained from the Lord Ruler, is that incorrect and he did know about it and they only hid some members? 

A few answers to this:

-They were actively looking for Feruchemists and could sometimes find one or two. The Keepers made sure to keep themselves well hidden.

-Not all Inquisitors got the same powers, some were given Duralumin and Atium, others weren't.

-They reused spikes from dead Inquisitors.

7 minutes ago, Display-Names-Are-Stupid said:

After Ruin took over they got more feruchemical powers, I'm assuming from kidnapping terris feruchemists, but is that ever addressed by the Terris people in the books? Surely they'd have mentioned if Inquisitors were picking them off? 

Ruin sent Koloss and Inquisitors after the Terris, the Koloss slaughtered the regular people while the Inquisitors hunted down the Synod, the Terris leaders who had Feruchemy. None of the refugee's that we saw in Era 1 would know about Hemalurgy or that their Feruchemists were being specifically hunted, more than usual at any rate.

[Display-Names-Are-Stupid]

1 hour ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

A few answers to this:

-They were actively looking for Feruchemists and could sometimes find one or two. The Keepers made sure to keep themselves well hidden.

-Not all Inquisitors got the same powers, some were given Duralumin and Atium, others weren't.

-They reused spikes from dead Inquisitors.

Ruin sent Koloss and Inquisitors after the Terris, the Koloss slaughtered the regular people while the Inquisitors hunted down the Synod, the Terris leaders who had Feruchemy. None of the refugee's that we saw in Era 1 would know about Hemalurgy or that their Feruchemists were being specifically hunted, more than usual at any rate.

Ah, thanks! Been a while since I read the trilogy. 

I'd had in in my head that the Lord Ruler was unaware of feruchemy lasting. I remember not all Inquisitors had the same spikes even in the LR's time, but I just stumped myself on how they got the feruchamy.

I didn't realise they reused the spikes, I thought there was a scene in Secret History where they put them into the Well of Ascension to dissolve? But my brain may have made that up.

[Treamayne]

@JustQuestin2004 Already mentioned the Gold Spike, but here's the WoB for reference:

Spoiler

17th Shard

Very careful roleplayers have counted the numbers of Inquisitors appearing in the novels and they claim there must have been 25 if Vin and Elend killed two Inquisitors between Mistborn 2 and Mistborn 3. Could you clarify the numbers of Inquisitors there were? They've literally counted.

Brandon Sanderson

They literally, yeah…No, I mean, I've got it written down somewhere. I'm now so separated from this book. I had always imagined there being around three dozen Inquisitors at any given time.

17th Shard

Oh, okay, so quite a bit more than 20.

Brandon Sanderson

Right. Well the thing you've gotta remember is that, with the powers they're given, they're pretty much immune to disease and things like that, particularly after they've gained their healing spike.

17th Shard

Right. Is that common to all Inquisitors?

Brandon Sanderson

It does not come to all. It comes to almost all. That's a pretty common one, but being an Inquisitor does not mean you get it. I think it mentions in the books that there's one spike that they all get, but I can't remember what it is.

17th Shard

I would imagine that would…well, okay, a steel spike so they could see.

Brandon Sanderson

Right. Yeah, obvious, but the thing is you've gotta have a Keeper to be able give a healing spike. The ones alive now pretty much all have healing spikes, but there were times throughout history when he needed a new Inquisitor and he didn't have a Keeper (a Feruchemist) handy. He could make an Inquisitor without that. That is not what's keeping them alive from the spikes being driven through their bodies.

17th Shard

So the linchpin spike is not always the same type of spike.

Brandon Sanderson

It doesn't have to be. The linchpin spike is just, when you're putting that many spikes together into somebody it needs a spike to coordinate them all. That is part of what's holding their body together from all of this damage, and it doesn't have to be the healing spike. The nature of Feruchemy is separate from that, if that makes any sense. For instance, you could put a few spikes into an Inquisitor without a linchpin spike, and they wouldn't die.

17th Shard Interview (Oct. 3, 2010)

 

4 hours ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

Ruin sent Koloss and Inquisitors after the Terris, the Koloss slaughtered the regular people while the Inquisitors hunted down the Synod, the Terris leaders who had Feruchemy. None of the refugee's that we saw in Era 1 would know about Hemalurgy or that their Feruchemists were being specifically hunted, more than usual at any rate.

Technically, this is not accurate. The Inquisitors hunted the Synod on their own, before Ruin's release (he may have sent pulses, but was not controlling them). Ruin sent some inquisitors out to hunt the Keepers that were not in Tathingdwen, when it fell (because they were out teaching, as Sazed should have been doing) - but that was separate from the attack on the Synod. 

WoA Ch 56 (Ruin is freed in Ch 58):

Spoiler

“The Synod came out into the open, my lord, once the empire fell.” He accepted a cup of his own, but Elend noticed that it was only half full—a precaution that proved wise as the elderly steward’s shaking nearly spilled its contents. “They became our rulers. Perhaps it was not wise to reveal themselves so soon.”

“I’ve known Keepers, friend,” Elend said softly. “I find it hard to believe that they could have been easily defeated. Who did this?”

“Steel Inquisitors, my lord,” the old man said.

Elend shivered. So that’s where they’ve been.

“There were dozens of them, my lord,” the old man said. “They attacked Tathingdwen with an army of koloss brutes. But, that was just a distraction, I think. Their real goal was the Synod and the Keepers themselves. While our army, such as it was, fought the beasts, the Inquisitors themselves struck at the Keepers.”

“They took the bodies with them, my lord,” the old man said.

HoA Prologue (Captured travelling Keeper)

Spoiler

“Please,” the prisoner whispered, trembling. Even a Terrisman steward would break down when confronted by his own violent death. The man struggled weakly. He was in a very awkward position, as he had been tied to the table on top of another person. The table had been designed that way, with depressions to allow for the body underneath.

“What is it you want?” the Terrisman asked. “I can tell you no more about the Synod!”

Marsh fingered the brass spike, feeling its tip. There was work to do, but he hesitated, relishing the pain and terror in the man’s voice. Hesitated so that he could . . .

Marsh grabbed control of his own mind. The room’s scents lost their sweetness, and instead reeked with the stench of blood and death. His joy turned to horror. His prisoner was a Keeper of Terris—a man who had worked his entire life for the good of others. Killing him would be not only a crime, but a tragedy. Marsh tried to take command, tried to force his arm up and around to grab the linchpin spike from his back—its removal would kill him.

Yet, It was too strong. The force.

<snip>

It called itself Ruin.

Hope that helps

[+robardin he/him]

On 10/24/2024 at 11:37 PM, Treamayne said:

The Inquisitors hunted the Synod on their own, before Ruin's release (he may have sent pulses, but was not controlling them). Ruin sent some inquisitors out to hunt the Keepers that were not in Tathingdwen, when it fell (because they were out teaching, as Sazed should have been doing) - but that was separate from the attack on the Synod.

So this bit always made we wonder about the nature of the repression of the Keepers in the Final Empire. I think it speaks a little to the conflict, even nearly a thousand years later, that Rashek must have felt in being so brutal with his own people, to control and to limit Feruchemy -- the ancient and signature power of the Terris -- in the population.

The fact that the Inquisitors went Feruchemy spike-harvesting almost as soon as TLR fell, suggests that they (Inquisitors) always knew about and desired these powers (esp. F-gold), but were limited in access to captured Keepers, probably mostly reusing existing spikes from previous Inquisitors. So yes, the Synod "coming out into the open" was like putting a shingle outside a door saying "TATHINGDWEN FERUCHEMY SPIKE RESERVE -- OPEN FOR WITHDRAWALS".

But it could also be that TLR himself had been holding them in check from simply rampaging through the Terris Dominance to fully extract or to harvest for Feruchemy, which check was now absent.

It seems to me that the "Terris breeding programs" were meant to manage and limit the existence of Feruchemists (as well as to ensure no crossbreeding with Allomancy) rather than to eliminate them entirely. Cynically, this could be because he would need them to exist for potential spike harvesting; but more likely, Rashek had realized that fully eliminating the possibility of Feruchemists would basically mean wiping out all Terris folk, and he could not bring himself to do that.

Also, note that the "Book of the False Dawn" that Elend nearly got caught reading, specifically mentioned various cover-ups of disastrous events or retcons by TLR like "the revision of the Deepness Doctrine" as being found only in banned texts, "or the metalminds of Feruchemists". Not "Keepers", either, but "Feruchemists"! We don't know exactly how old that book is, relative to Elend's time, but the author Deluse Couvre didn't feel the need to explain or to footnote what a "Feruchemist" was, so his intended audience was expected to know what that meant.

And that book wasn't even banned, as Kelsier later explained to Vin. It was borderline enough that the Steel Ministry decided banning it would actually draw attention to it, and they hoped it would just die of disinterest due to its "stuffiness".

So I suspect knowledge of the existence of Feruchemy and Keepers was something of a "well-known secret" among the nobles of the Final Empire, known to be a topic not to be caught openly discussing or admitting knowledge of lest you draw the attention of the Inquisitors, but otherwise kind of like knowledge of the kandra and how to find and to hire one. Officially these things don't exist, but hey, "IYKYK".