Era 3 metalborn technology

[Frustration]

With era 3 on the horizon(in several years) I thought it would be cool to try and apply earth-like technological developments up to the 1980s and see how it might impact metalborn on Scadrial.

 

1. Camlebaks for those of you who aren't into mountain hiking camlebaks are backpacks that carry water bottles inside. A straw allows the wearer to drink while leaving their hands free and also not impairing their movements. Needless to say lining the bag and straw with aluminum and filling the water with metals allows for massive advantages in combat, especially if nicrobursts or duralumin comes into play via hemalurgy, advancements in medallion technology, or mistborn returning.

2. The development of bulletproof vests, Kevlar offers great protection with little weight against small arms fire, which makes it extra effective against aluminum bullets as the soft and light metal doesn't have the density needed to punch through standard kevlar.

2.5a Steel plates in addition to kevlar allows Lurchers to once again be useful pulling bullets away from their friends, while also giving them greater protection as they can wear armor specifically reinforced above where they pull the bullets to.

2.5b Ceramic plates in addition to Kevlar give all soldiers some level of high caliber bullet resistance while also not requiring them to wear metal.

3. Night vision goggles nerf Tineyes as now anyone can effectively see in the dark

3.5a Infrared vision adds another nerf to tineyes, as well as to general metalborn stealth as it makes it far easier to see someone hiding in the air or the mists if you can see their heat signature

3.5b Bronze ferrings get a needed buff because of the above

4. The easy availability of adrenaline allows Electrum ferrings to store quite frankly ludicrous levels of life or death determination. I do not envy the first person who gets to face them.

 

I'm actually really excited to see some of these, but this is far from an exhaustive list. What other fun technology should we expect to see?

Edited April 23 by Frustration

[MrHobbes343]

I would argue that having Tineye's would probably cause your society to be more likely to bypass redundant technologies like night vision.

 

If you already can leverage a natural trait then why would you spend the resources and capital to replicate it with Tech?

Southern Scadrian Medallions are a known quantity and The Basin is not likely to respect Southerners Patent claims?

 

I do look forward to better equipped Lurchers and Camlebak powered Metalborn teams though.

[Isilel]

An accessory that would allow for quick switching between medallions:

An aluminium bracelet with a number of medallions set into it, with a movable inner part with a window that allows just a single one of them to touch skin at a time. 

Frankly, I expected the Ghostbloods in TLM to already possess something along these lines and was disappointed and confused that they didn't. Or used any medallions at all. 

[Frustration]

On 4/24/2026 at 12:35 PM, MrHobbes343 said:

I would argue that having Tineye's would probably cause your society to be more likely to bypass redundant technologies like night vision.

 

If you already can leverage a natural trait then why would you spend the resources and capital to replicate it with Tech?

True but only one in a thousand people are born mistings. Assuming an even distribution that makes only 1 in 16k people a tineye.

I'd imagine that they would develop night-vision later than we would, but by a 1980s equivellant it should be there.

 

I also had a thought, this is the time when DNA studies become more common, so we might see the first uses of hemalurgy on animals.

This could creare animal monsters, or(and I think far more interesting) we can have humans with super enhanced senses or strength.

[PanLin they/he]

On 4/26/2026 at 2:49 PM, Frustration said:

True but only one in a thousand people are born mistings. Assuming an even distribution that makes only 1 in 16k people a tineye.

I'd imagine that they would develop night-vision later than we would, but by a 1980s equivellant it should be there.

Well following this logic, I wonder if Scadrial will end up with a much bigger freelancer economy than the real world. Especially once global communication is established, I imagine there'll be loads of agencies (and later, websites like Fiverr) where people advertise their various misting and ferring powers for hire.

F-pewter sherpas/bodyguards, A-zinc/brass crowd control / party hype-people (those people who stand on the street and try to get you to come to their club would be much more effective if they could amp up your FOMO), F-bronze sentries / CCTV monitors. I'd genuinely be surprised if there isn't at least a small industry based around this.

Edited May 3 by PanLin

[Trusk'our he/him]

Hmm, Metalborn technology?

1. Metalborn computers: splice a portion of a functional Spiritweb into a Feruchemically rigged computer with spikes or other Hemalurgically Invested components, potentially speeding up its Awakening and giving it a closer to human understanding of the world. Add in select Unkeyed/Unsealed Coppermind memories to help this process along and shape the budding personality. 

2. Metalborn controlboards: make a keyboard/control room setup specifically designed for a Coinshot or Lurcher to use their power when pushing buttons. They're no longer limited by human limbs and could learn to control a lot more at once (Unsealed Zincmind may be useful on top of that). Given how difficult it is to automate complex cognitive tasks, this could be quite useful, at least until Metalmind computers are fully realized. 

3. Hemalurgy ports: take a cue from cyberpunk and make artificial "ports" in specific bindpoints that can receive Hemalurgic spikes when needed, but don't leave gaping wounds when you want to remove or swap powers. 

4. Floating real estate: use the SOscad method of reducing the weight of their airships to make floating buildings or gardens. At a bare minimum, make taller skyscrapers (just make sure to add more support to shield from high winds).

 

[Frustration]

59 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

3. Hemalurgy ports: take a cue from cyberpunk and make artificial "ports" in specific bindpoints that can receive Hemalurgic spikes when needed, but don't leave gaping wounds when you want to remove or swap powers. 

This actually got me thinking.

The first successful insulin pump to be implanted in a human was in the early 1980s. They could also use this to continously pump metals into their system by detecting when they were running low.

Spoiler

ReaderWarrior

Does a metal need to be swallowed to be burned? Or can it be injected or snorted?

Brandon Sanderson

It could be either of those two things. Yes. Basically, metal into the body in any way is going to work, generally. There's nothing magical about the stomach, even though it works the best when we talk about it. It's just more intermixing the nature of the metal with your soul in the cosmere, your Spiritual entity, is what gives them that ability.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/425/#e13947

 

 

 

[PanLin they/he]

1 hour ago, Trusk'our said:

3. Hemalurgy ports: take a cue from cyberpunk and make artificial "ports" in specific bindpoints that can receive Hemalurgic spikes when needed, but don't leave gaping wounds when you want to remove or swap powers. 

Inb4 we get future-era Scadrians walking around looking like people from the Matrix. Imagine some sort of secret agent with like a briefcase of modified spikes ready to plug-and-go as they like.

[Qianweilian He/him]

21 minutes ago, PanLin said:

Inb4 we get future-era Scadrians walking around looking like people from the Matrix. Imagine some sort of secret agent with like a briefcase of modified spikes ready to plug-and-go as they like.

What, like this? 

Spoiler

[Trusk'our he/him]

36 minutes ago, Frustration said:

This actually got me thinking.

The first successful insulin pump to be implanted in a human was in the early 1980s. They could also use this to continously pump metals into their system by detecting when they were running low.

Ooo, even better than the camelback. 

Maybe give it an Awakened Metalmind to operate that system and add on Unsealed Metalmind abilities. 

Quote

Inb4 we get future-era Scadrians walking around looking like people from the Matrix. Imagine some sort of secret agent with like a briefcase of modified spikes ready to plug-and-go as they like.

Exactly. You just use whatever modern preserving method is needed to keep them from decaying and you have nearly any kind of ability you need.

It's too dark? Become a Tineye. Want to check for Seekers? Become one yourself, or go Smoker and ignore them altogether. High balcony you need to reach? Become Coinshot or Lurcher.

Edited May 3 by Trusk'our

[Qianweilian He/him]

34 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

Exactly. You just use whatever modern preserving method is needed to keep them from decaying and you have nearly any kind of ability you need.

It's too dark? Become a Tineye. Want to check for Seekers? Become one yourself, or go Smoker and ignore them altogether. High balcony you need to reach? Become Coinshot or Lurcher.

I imagine that would not be splendid for your spiritweb's integrity. Although, f gold might mitigate that.

[Trusk'our he/him]

14 minutes ago, Qianweilian said:

I imagine that would not be splendid for your spiritweb's integrity. Although, f gold might mitigate that.

Lol, when has that ever concerned me?

[Through The Living Grub He/Him]

I'm imagining that companies are going to sprout up that sell filled metal minds, or pay people to fill them. This is immediately nullified by common compounding or turning Investiture into metalmind attributes, but would be fun to see.

I also imagine that certain people might become prisoners used to constantly fill these metalminds, similar to how the Set was breeding people to spike for allomancy.

[Joltizard1337 He/Him]

i keep seeing people say "awakened metalmind" what does this mean?

[Nitpicking]

1 hour ago, joltizard1337 said:

i keep seeing people say "awakened metalmind" what does this mean?

A metalmind can be given enough Investiture and the right Command, which causes it to become aware and able to act without another sapient being giving specific instructions. For instance

SPOILER FOR ISLES OF THE EMBERDARK

Spoiler

In Emberdark, it's possible for a starship to be piloted by an awakened metalmind.

More generally, it's possible to Awaken things with methods other than Breath, but the underlying Cosmere mechanism is the same: gather enough Investiture that isn't already associated with a sapient being in one place and it tends to become sapient.

IMMEDIATE EDIT: I don't believe we have seen an Awakened metalmind in Mistborn itself to date, a lot of this is from Words of Brandon and stories that take place in the future of The Lost Metal. TLM does have an "Identity Lock" that could be a primitive Awakened metalmind, I guess.

Edited May 5 by Nitpicking

[Joltizard1337 He/Him]

thanks for the clarification i haven't gotten to any of the distant future books yet

[Joltizard1337 He/Him]

 I think it would be interesting if they somehow found a way to use allomancy for energy generation

 similar to the possibilty of FTL travel using bendalloy. i'm not sure how they would achieve energy generation but i;m sure its possible somehow

[Qianweilian He/him]

1 hour ago, joltizard1337 said:

 I think it would be interesting if they somehow found a way to use allomancy for energy generation

 similar to the possibilty of FTL travel using bendalloy. i'm not sure how they would achieve energy generation but i;m sure its possible somehow

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