How a certain person maintained a duralumin-level Soothing for an extended period of time

[Ookla the Newt she/her]

I was purposefully vague in the title bc spoilers, but how did the Lord Ruler cause such an intense Soothing in so many people? My first thought was duralumin like what (WoA spoilers)

Spoiler

Vin does to Straff Venture at some point in WoA, which has a similar description

but that's only for a few moments (consistent with duralumin's effects.
 

My second thought was Compounding, but I'm not certain if Compounding could account for it either, since I was pretty certain Compounding => amplified feruchemical abilities, not amplified allomantic abilities.

Sry if this question is rly trivial.

[Trusk'our he/him]

40 minutes ago, Booknewt said:

I was purposefully vague in the title bc spoilers, but how did the Lord Ruler cause such an intense Soothing in so many people? My first thought was duralumin like what (WoA spoilers)

  Hide contents

Vin does to Straff Venture at some point in WoA, which has a similar description

but that's only for a few moments (consistent with duralumin's effects.
 

My second thought was Compounding, but I'm not certain if Compounding could account for it either, since I was pretty certain Compounding => amplified feruchemical abilities, not amplified allomantic abilities.

Sry if this question is rly trivial.

Rashek's incredible Allomantic strength most likely was primarily a result of him using the Well of Ascension to rebuild his Spiritweb into being a very potent Mistborn (think Lerasium, but on steroids) mixed in with centuries of practice and Savantism. 

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/263-chris-king-interview/#e9889

Chris King

Did the Lord Ruler use lerasium to gain his super Allomantic abilities or did he grant that to himself with the Well's power? If he used the bead, does he count as one of the nine original Allomancers that Sazed mentions?

Brandon Sanderson

Excellent question. He did not use the bead. He-- In all of this he granted himself basically, he rebuilt himself to be extremely powerful and he did not use one of the beads.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/190-rfantasy-ama-2013/#e4070

theFinisher4Ever

Was the Lord Ruler using Feruchemy + Allomancy to Soothe all of the people around him? Or was he, as I like to think, flaring for so long that he became a Soother Savant?

Brandon Sanderson

He lived long enough and used his metals enough (particularly Soothing) to become nearly a savant in every area, if not a full savant.

Brandon has also hinted that some type of Compounding ability could further enhance one's Allomancy, but we don't know what it is yet (though quite a few Sharders, myself included, think it has to do with nicrosil Feruchemy).

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/246-alloy-of-law-17th-shard-qa/#e5494

Chaos (paraphrased)

I continued to ask about the Lord Ruler and his Allomantic strength.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

There's an upper bound to the amount of power you can get from being a savant. Brandon said that, obviously, the Lord Ruler wasn't using duralumin and Elend could only get that powerful in Soothing using duralumin. He implied that there was a way to Compound to enhance Allomancy.

Good question btw.

Edited October 20, 2025 by Trusk'our

[HSuperLee]

The Lord Ruler was just that powerful of a Mistborn. He represented the theoretical apex of that particular branch of power, even without cheating. He didn't need duralumin to pull off those effects, he could do it with a normal burn.

[Treamayne]

1 hour ago, Booknewt said:

but how did the Lord Ruler cause such an intense Soothing in so many people?

@Trusk'our has already answered the most-likely scenarios, but I would like to point out one easily-forgotten foreshadowing:

Spoiler

The Ministry also has the Soothing stations - it could simply be that Rashek was using a very powerful Soothing around himself, but dozens of Obligator Soothers were also supplementing the Soothing of the Crowd.

The executions had been part of Luthadel for a long time - the "Policy" of how the stations soothed the crowd during an execution would be routine and standardized long before the events of TFE. 

Hope that helps.

[Ookla the Newt she/her]

All right, thank you!

Additionally, if the Lord Ruler was a savant or near savant, how did the side effects of that manifest? Bc I don't remember anything that might indicate a side effect of that in the book, but I wasn't actually looking for it so I might have missed it. Or was it just a side effect of Sanderson not yet having changed being a savant? (I remember seeing a WoB about him changing that around the time AoL was written)

[Trusk'our he/him]

12 minutes ago, Booknewt said:

Additionally, if the Lord Ruler was a savant or near savant, how did the side effects of that manifest? Bc I don't remember anything that might indicate a side effect of that in the book, but I wasn't actually looking for it so I might have missed it. Or was it just a side effect of Sanderson not yet having changed being a savant? (I remember seeing a WoB about him changing that around the time AoL was written)

I don't recall seeing any effects, though we don't have a point of view from him, nor do we stick around him for long.

Basically, almost any effects could have shown up for him and we wouldn't have a good way of knowing what they were.