Era 3 Protagonist (spoilers, new WoB)

[Isilel]

There was a recent Sanderson update about the Ghostbloods:

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/544/#e16900

And what jumped out at me was this:

 

Spoiler:

 

 

 

Quote

So, while the lead is one of the same characters I've been planning a while, she's going to be involved in something else, originally planned for the second book. Note that the lead is not the nicroburst character, whom I'll make use of a little later. 

 

So, it seems that powers of the lead character are unknown again at this point, since IIRC in the earlier WoBs she was supposed to have been the  Nicroburst in question. I think that a Connector Ferring brother was mentioned at some point in the past - could it be that their powers have been switched? I imagine that under the tutelage of the Ghostbloods, there might be very creative and powerful ways of employing Connection... And that their leader in particular might be interested in using it to his advantage, somehow.

Though the issue of whether a Nicroburst can function as a "jack of all trades" if provided with relevant unkeyed Nicrosil metalminds to burn will remain open for a while longer...

 

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

Another thing in said WOB is that the whole plot outline of "Allomancer Swat Team hunting a Mistborn Serial Killer" is not happening, due to Brandon already doing that sort of thing with Bleeder in Shadows of Self and not wanting to repeat it.

Which is a shame, since the premise of a group of non-Mistborn Metalborn having to go up against a Mistborn Antagonist in a Modern setting with all 16 metals used to their fullest potential sounds really cool.

[RedBlue]

I find it interesting that the book 2 plot has been moved up to book 1.

Catching a serial killer sounded like it would have been a bit of a step down in terms of scope from Era 1. Maybe, with the groundwork having been laid in Wax & Wayne, Ghostbloods will be able to start with the wider-world plot stuff like the Cold War instead of building up to it.

It leaves me wondering if this means book 2 will get an entirely new plot.

[Isilel]

So, what power would you expect or want this lead character to have now? 

Personally, I hope for something that allows for a lot of creativity and is also new, which would preclude my beloved F-Tin. Hence, F-Duralumin. 

F-Chromium is also very mysterious and likely powerful, of course, but I just don't see a lot of potential for creative  usage.

Allomancy, we have already seen what it can do, Nicroburst could have potentially had sufficiently varied applications, but is out of running. A-Electrum could have been very interesting with extensive mental training to make the most of it, but somehow I doubt that it's in the cards either. Cosmere spoiler:

 

Spoiler

After all, Sak's power in SoTD/The Isles of Emberdark is pretty similar.

 

19 hours ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

Which is a shame, since the premise of a group of non-Mistborn Metalborn having to go up against a Mistborn

 

Well, this fight might still happen at some point, just without the serial killer angle and preceding detective investigation of the same.

 

19 hours ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

with all 16 metals used to their fullest potential

 

OTOH, addition of A-bendalloy to the other Mistborn combat abilities would make them pretty much unbeatable, except against a natural Steel Compounder, unless there is some mental limit on how many powers can be effectively used simultaneously. After all, an Era 3 Mistborn would have access to all the same medallions and unkeyed metalminds to burn, as a team fighting them.

IIRC, Vin never burned more than 3-4 metals at the same time, but it was never clear if it was due to the difficulty of multitasking or something else.

 

 

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

18 hours ago, Isilel said:

So, what power would you expect or want this lead character to have now? 

Personally, I hope for something that allows for a lot of creativity and is also new, which would preclude my beloved F-Tin. Hence, F-Duralumin. 

F-Chromium is also very mysterious and likely powerful, of course, but I just don't see a lot of potential for creative  usage.

Allomancy, we have already seen what it can do, Nicroburst could have potentially had sufficiently varied applications, but is out of running. A-Electrum could have been very interesting with extensive mental training to make the most of it, but somehow I doubt that it's in the cards either. Cosmere spoiler:

Funny enough, I'd like to see a Twinborn with Allomantic Gold.

Now hear me out, we've only ever seen it used twice on screen, and even then, it wasn't really used for anything and is seen as useless. But, I think that if paired with a Feruchemical Metal like one of the Spiritual Metals, it will become much more interesting. Or if just on its own, it could force the protagonist to using the Mechanical Metallic Arts to make up for it, either way I'd like to see it.

A-Gold/F-Chromium could be interesting, as it's theorized that Gold and Electrum utilize Fortune to work, which Chromium affects, so it's possible that Chromium could turn an Augur's ability into something new and interesting via the Storing and Tapping of Fortune.

A-Gold/F-Duralumin could also be interesting, as they might be able to amplify their 'Connection' to their alternate self for some effect, or store Connection to dampen the severity of the Gold Shadow's "I see myself and I see myself" thing, as that is a known problem with it.

A-Gold/F-Aluminum has been stated in the "Until Brandon Says Otherwise" dubiously canonical Mistborn Adventure Game to be called a 'Vessel', which raises the possibility of storing one's Identity to allow the Gold Shadow to possess one's body for a time, kind of like a more raw and improvised variation of what Moonlight does with her Stamps. (Not a Cosmere spoiler, since we've seen it in TLM)

A-Gold/F-Nicrosil would be interesting just to find out how F-Nicrosil works, both in general and how it works with Twinborn.

Or by combining A-Gold with a Harmonium Grenade, how would that work? We've never seen an internal Allomantic ability used with one of those before, so it could still answer some questions we've had.

Theres more possibilities with Augurs than we've been led to believe. There's got to be.

18 hours ago, Isilel said:

Well, this fight might still happen at some point, just without the serial killer angle and preceding detective investigation of the same.

Oh yeah, there's still a method to gain Lerasium that Harmony's trying to keep under wraps, which pretty much narratively guarantees  that someone somewhere will crack it and use it for themselves. Probably by the antagonists.

18 hours ago, Isilel said:

OTOH, addition of A-bendalloy to the other Mistborn combat abilities would make them pretty much unbeatable, except against a natural Steel Compounder, unless there is some mental limit on how many powers can be effectively used simultaneously. After all, an Era 3 Mistborn would have access to all the same medallions and unkeyed metalminds to burn, as a team fighting them.

IIRC, Vin never burned more than 3-4 metals at the same time, but it was never clear if it was due to the difficulty of multitasking or something else.

Yeah, an Era 3 Mistborn, with access to all metals and any amount of the Malwish Magitech, is pretty much unstoppable compared to Era 1 Mistborn. Atium or no.

As for the powers limit, no. Kelsier was ordered by Gemmel to keep all 8 of the basic metals burning at all times during the Eleventh Metal. The point of being a Mistborn is to have all the allomantic powers at once, if there was a limit, we would already know about it.

[Isilel]

On 6/28/2025 at 7:52 AM, JustQuestin2004 said:

As for the powers limit, no. Kelsier was ordered by Gemmel to keep all 8 of the basic metals burning at all times during the Eleventh Metal. The point of being a Mistborn is to have all the allomantic powers at once, if there was a limit, we would already know about it.

 

But IIRC, Kelsier didn't use all his powers at once in his PoV fights in The Final Empire. He didn't use emotional Allomancy to distract his opponents, nor did he Smoke himself during the fights to avoid telegraphing his attacks, nor did he use Seeking to have a warning about the enemy's powers and intentions, etc.

The same was the case for Vin and  Elend.

We later saw Spook combining Tin and Pewter in a highly effective way that the Mistborn never demonstrated. And yes, he was a Tin Savant, but if Pewter could balance _his_ over-sensitivity when burning Tin, then it should have been more than enough for them.

So, some soft limit on how many powers a person could keep track of and use effectively at the same time might exist, IMHO. This would be my preference, frankly, because Mistborn would be far too OP otherwise, now that they have 8 more basic metals and IMHO somewhat boring as a result.

I know that this is a minority opinion, but I would also like if the new lead character had just one Metallic Art to begin with, but one with lots of options for skilled and creative use, particularly with access to unkeyed metalminds to tap or burn, ferruchemical medallions that would well supplement their natural power, etc.

Until now, too many of Scadrian  lead characters were _born_ with super-rare one-in-a-million combinations of powers. And in large part that's what made them capable of fulfilling their heroic roles, made them protagonists. I'd like to see something different this time around. 

[Nitpicking]

31 minutes ago, Isilel said:

Until now, too many of Scadrian  lead characters were _born_ with super-rare one-in-a-million combinations of powers. And in large part that's what made them capable of fulfilling their heroic roles, made them protagonists. I'd like to see something different this time around. 

Someone (@Treamayne?) posted that this is what makes Biochromatic Breath and Awakening unique and interesting among the magic systems: anyone can in principle get Breath and learn to Awaken.

Warbreaker spoiler:

Spoiler

Even then, Vivenna was born with extra automatic Awakening ability.

 

[DoctaDajman]

On 6/30/2025 at 9:42 AM, Nitpicking said:

Someone (@Treamayne?) posted that this is what makes Biochromatic Breath and Awakening unique and interesting among the magic systems: anyone can in principle get Breath and learn to Awaken.

Warbreaker spoiler:

  Hide contents

Even then, Vivenna was born with extra automatic Awakening ability.

 

Is there a source for this spoiler? 

Warbreaker spoiler 

Spoiler

I know she was born with the royal locks, a manifestation of her lineage but I dont remember anything about her being more gifted specifically. She spends the majority of the Book confused by Awakening and frustrated that she cant do it.  

Her lineage grants her a cosmetic ability at best. It is a tiny part of her spiritweb connected to a returned generations ago. Returned are just juiced up cognitive shadows. 

Isnt it kind of endowments thing that everyone is born with the same set amount of Investiture but they can create gods by endorsing eachother wisely with said power?  

 

[clowncarcrash]

2 hours ago, DoctaDajman said:

Is there a source for this spoiler? 

Warbreaker spoiler 

  Hide contents

I know she was born with the royal locks, a manifestation of her lineage but I dont remember anything about her being more gifted specifically. She spends the majority of the Book confused by Awakening and frustrated that she cant do it.  

Her lineage grants her a cosmetic ability at best. It is a tiny part of her spiritweb connected to a returned generations ago. Returned are just juiced up cognitive shadows. 

Isnt it kind of endowments thing that everyone is born with the same set amount of Investiture but they can create gods by endorsing eachother wisely with said power?  

 

Oh I just looked that up. 

Spoiler

At first I thought user Nitpicking was.....well nitpicking because it was a cosmetic ability.... like to me thats like saying the nails on a Herdzaian from Stormlight was an extra investure ability but upon review on the Royal Locks page on coppermind. /https://coppermind.net/wiki/Royal_Locks It appears that royal locks does give people extraordinary abilities. That just wasn't apparent in Warbreaker. At least in the main story, I don't think I read the annotation that page cites. 

 

[DoctaDajman]

9 minutes ago, clowncarcrash said:

Oh I just looked that up. 

  Hide contents

At first I thought user Nitpicking was.....well nitpicking because it was a cosmetic ability.... like to me thats like saying the nails on a Herdzaian from Stormlight was an extra investure ability but upon review on the Royal Locks page on coppermind. /https://coppermind.net/wiki/Royal_Locks It appears that royal locks does give people extraordinary abilities. That just wasn't apparent in Warbreaker. At least in the main story, I don't think I read the annotation that page cites. 

 

Awesome!  Thanks for this. 

[TacoBellChoutaMeal]

On 6/28/2025 at 1:52 AM, JustQuestin2004 said:

A-Gold/F-Duralumin could also be interesting, as they might be able to amplify their 'Connection' to their alternate self for some effect, or store Connection to dampen the severity of the Gold Shadow's "I see myself and I see myself" thing, as that is a known problem with it.

I've been wondering if A-Gold/F-Duralumin would give a person an off-brand A-Malatium ability. By burning gold and tapping duralumin, could you see someone else's alternate lives if you had physical contact with that person? I know Connection usually refers to Connecting your soul to a certain place, but IIRC Handerwym was able to survive the Koloss encounter in Pits of Eltania by Connecting to the Koloss themselves, maybe not just the land. Also, a certain Bondsmith on another planet always needs to have physical touch to a person/object to Connect to them. Could a duralumin ferring Connect to one single person with touch? I don't know, I'm probably misunderstanding how Connection works. 

I had an idea for a story a few months back about a person with A-Gold/F-Duralumin abilities who goes around spiking people with Chromium (might steal destiny). Part of me wonders how similar that would be to the now-defunct Era 3 serial killer plot line.