GB Ultra

[Frustration]

So I was having a discussion with @Trusk'our the other day about Scadrial, when an idea came to me, and not necessarily a nice one.

We know that Era 3 is supposed to be a 1980s spy thriller, there is a cold war between the north and the south, the ghostbloods and other secret societies are a big deal, and we're probably going to get more information on hemalurgy.

Alone these make for an interesting story. Together, they spell out something sinister.

I present this hypothesis, that in era 3 we will see the Scadrian equivalent of MK Ultra.

 

MK Ultra took place during the 1950s to 1970s, as part of the Cold war between the USA and the USSR, involving the CIA and other government organizations. They were undertaken with a large amount of drugs, psychological torture, abuses of all kinds, electroshocks, sensory deprivation, and the more you look at it the worse it gets.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I rest my case

[Argenti he/him]

19 minutes ago, Frustration said:

So I was having a discussion with @Trusk'our the other day about Scadrial, when an idea came to me, and not necessarily a nice one.

We know that Era 3 is supposed to be a 1980s spy thriller, there is a cold war between the north and the south, the ghostbloods and other secret societies are a big deal, and we're probably going to get more information on hemalurgy.

Alone these make for an interesting story. Together, they spell out something sinister.

I present this hypothesis, that in era 3 we will see the Scadrian equivalent of MK Ultra.

 

MK Ultra took place during the 1950s to 1970s, as part of the Cold war between the USA and the USSR, involving the CIA and other government organizations. They were undertaken with a large amount of drugs, psychological torture, abuses of all kinds, electroshocks, sensory deprivation, and the more you look at it the worse it gets.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I rest my case

Oh, almost certainly. And probably another selective breeding thing.

[Trusk'our he/him]

51 minutes ago, Frustration said:

So I was having a discussion with @Trusk'our the other day about Scadrial, when an idea came to me, and not necessarily a nice one.

We know that Era 3 is supposed to be a 1980s spy thriller, there is a cold war between the north and the south, the ghostbloods and other secret societies are a big deal, and we're probably going to get more information on hemalurgy.

Alone these make for an interesting story. Together, they spell out something sinister.

I present this hypothesis, that in era 3 we will see the Scadrian equivalent of MK Ultra.

 

MK Ultra took place during the 1950s to 1970s, as part of the Cold war between the USA and the USSR, involving the CIA and other government organizations. They were undertaken with a large amount of drugs, psychological torture, abuses of all kinds, electroshocks, sensory deprivation, and the more you look at it the worse it gets.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I rest my case

I wonder if this is where we'll see the start of automatic Unsealed Metalminds- ones that can drain or tap a person's attributes without their consent. 

If so, Copperminds would be a terrifying form of brainwashing. 

[Frustration]

3 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

I wonder if this is where we'll see the start of automatic Unsealed Metalminds- ones that can drain or tap a person's attributes without their consent. 

If so, Copperminds would be a terrifying form of brainwashing. 

"Your Honor, I have no recollection of the event, I'm innocent."

"We have video evidence of you killing the President."

"I am... pretty sure I'm innocent."

[Trusk'our he/him]

8 minutes ago, Frustration said:

"Your Honor, I have no recollection of the event, I'm innocent."

"We have video evidence of you killing the President."

"I am... pretty sure I'm innocent."

Lol, essentially yes.

Does make me wonder. . .

Since Copperminds cannot remove muscle memory from an individual, could you potentially strip away all their memories, use them as you wished by implanting new ones with a specific directive in mind- like assassination- then swap the memories out to keep them and their own side unaware of your tampering?

[Immortal Platypus]

5 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

Since Copperminds cannot remove muscle memory from an individual, could you potentially strip away all their memories, use them as you wished by implanting new ones with a specific directive in mind- like assassination- then swap the memories out to keep them and their own side unaware of your tampering?

this is a terrifying idea when combined with people from certain other books. 

Spoiler

Heralds especially, though Elantrians would probably also have some muscle memory drawing Aons. I'm just imagining a brainwashed Taln fighting the other nine Heralds at once, and with some support, winning (probably not realistic, but it depends on the support. If you could actively brainwash the others, if you defeat one (probably Kal first, he's the smallest threat) then you remove one of their Heralds and potentially add one to your side.)

 

[Schizoposting]

Personally, I found the portrayal of the Ghostbloods in TLM as being a bunch of goodhearted people doing their best to protect Scadrial* to be pretty goofy. A ruthless space mafia is a lot more interesting, IMO, than what we got. 

So, hopefully, Brandon will show their more ruthless side in era 3, by perhaps doing what the OP suggests, and have the Ghostbloods do some less than ethical experiments. 

*This also begs the question of why any non-Scadrian would care enough about protecting another planet to join them

[Returned he/him]

We're probably already in MK Ultra territory on Scadrial at the end of era 2, depending on how particular you want to be. I agree that it will almost certainly be worse in era 3. Supersoldiers are already very achievable in the Cosmere and so I'm curious about what the specific aims being pursued will be. Nothing good, presumably.

[DoctaDajman]

On 1/17/2026 at 3:58 PM, Trusk'our said:

Lol, essentially yes.

Does make me wonder. . .

Since Copperminds cannot remove muscle memory from an individual, could you potentially strip away all their memories, use them as you wished by implanting new ones with a specific directive in mind- like assassination- then swap the memories out to keep them and their own side unaware of your tampering?

How nice. Jason Bourne with pewter allomancy would be terrifying. 

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

On 1/18/2026 at 5:49 AM, Frustration said:

So I was having a discussion with @Trusk'our the other day about Scadrial, when an idea came to me, and not necessarily a nice one.

We know that Era 3 is supposed to be a 1980s spy thriller, there is a cold war between the north and the south, the ghostbloods and other secret societies are a big deal, and we're probably going to get more information on hemalurgy.

Alone these make for an interesting story. Together, they spell out something sinister.

I present this hypothesis, that in era 3 we will see the Scadrian equivalent of MK Ultra.

 

MK Ultra took place during the 1950s to 1970s, as part of the Cold war between the USA and the USSR, involving the CIA and other government organizations. They were undertaken with a large amount of drugs, psychological torture, abuses of all kinds, electroshocks, sensory deprivation, and the more you look at it the worse it gets.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I rest my case

Well, we still haven't seen what exactly the other Attribute Spikes do to normal humans besides Iron Spikes turning people into Koloss...

Plus, we do know that Snapping, while changed by Harmony, is still a thing in some capacity... 

And we know that the Ghostbloods now know its possible to use Hemalurgy to use normal people's souls to make Allomancers from the Set, and Kelsier has already stated that he'd be fine with using Hemalurgy on people who are 'the strict opposite of innocent'...

And if that particular secret got leaked to, say, the Malwish, I'm sure they'd be just fine sacrificing their own people, probably those second-class citizens called the Blanks, to get more Metalborn.

Yeah, there's a guarantee that we'll be seeing some screwed up things done with Hemalurgy in Era 3.