What's the inspiration behind Feruchemy

[Red Ferring he/him]

The topics says it. I'm sorry if this sort of question belongs elsewhere considering it's not directly about the story but the writing of it.

I've always been really fascinated by Feruchemy and am wondering if Brandon has ever mentioned what inspired it, if anything. I know the idea of metal being a focus for the power came about when he decided to put Allomancy and Ferucemy together in the same story.

[Curious Anamaximder he/him]

It was inspired by batterys.

[Sirce Luckwielder he/him]

One thing that I believe is that it is a compromise between Allomancy and Hemalurgy.  With Allomancy, you have an end-positive system. You get power where there was none before.  With Hemalurgy, you have an end-negative system.  Power is lost between the spike donor and the recipient. This makes sense based on Ruin's Intent of destruction and Preservation's Intent of continuity.  A combination of the two gives Harmony. To keep with the theme, Feruchemy is an end-neutral system.  You can't get super vision without having bad vision for a time. I think it is something like that, but I'm not quite sure.

[Red Ferring he/him]

One thing that I believe is that it is a compromise between Allomancy and Hemalurgy. With Allomancy, you have an end-positive system. You get power where there was none before. With Hemalurgy, you have an end-negative system. Power is lost between the spike donor and the recipient. This makes sense based on Ruin's Intent of destruction and Preservation's Intent of continuity. A combination of the two gives Harmony. To keep with the theme, Feruchemy is an end-neutral system. You can't get super vision without having bad vision for a time. I think it is something like that, but I'm not quite sure.

That's good logic but we know hemalurgy actually came last of the 3. It was added to round out the 3 like you say: positive,neutral, negative. But feruchemy and Allomancy came first and later were brought together.

The simple idea of batteries makes sense. I wonder if it came when someone told Brandon, "save your strength". And he said "fine I will! In pewter!"

[WeiryWriter he/him]

Actually I had to do with sleepiness.  In high school Brandon was always sleepy during class and wide awake at night and he thought how it would be great if he could store up the sleepiness during class so that he could use it at night.

[Red Ferring he/him]

Actually I had to do with sleepiness. In high school Brandon was always sleepy during class and wide awake at night and he thought how it would be great if he could store up the sleepiness during class so that he could use it at night.

He said that? The direct inspiration?

[WeiryWriter he/him]

He said that? The direct inspiration?

 

I'm pretty sure he did, but it was quite a few years ago and I'm having difficulty finding it now.

[Kurkistan he/him]

I also recall Brandon saying that that was the inspiration. It may have been... *goes to check*

 

Unrelated note: Weiry, do we have copies of these two Q&As?

 

www.goodreads.com/topic/show/264132-q-a-with-brandon-sanderson

-This one's locked to members of the group as of now

 

bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Fantasy-Science-Fiction/Post-Questions-For-Brandon-Sanderson-Here/td-p/354645/page/2

-This one's just a dead link.

 

If not, some WayBackMachining may be necessary...

[WeiryWriter he/him]

I also recall Brandon saying that that was the inspiration. It may have been... *goes to check*

 

Unrelated note: Weiry, do we have copies of these two Q&As?

 

www.goodreads.com/topic/show/264132-q-a-with-brandon-sanderson

-This one's locked to members of the group as of now

 

bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Fantasy-Science-Fiction/Post-Questions-For-Brandon-Sanderson-Here/td-p/354645/page/2

-This one's just a dead link.

 

If not, some WayBackMachining may be necessary...

 

Woo I'm not imagining things!  And I do not know whether we do but I'll check when I get a chance.

 

Edit: Just checked and I think both are in Theoryland. (Goodreads) (Barnes and Noble)

Edited May 28, 2015 by WeiryWriter

[Guest]

Whenever I think of Feruchemy I think of those people who're always saying "I'll do it later, I need to save my energy right now because I have a big (test, hockey game, whatever) tomorrow.

 

Brandon just made those excuses legitamate

[Allomancy she/her]

I think it comes from the idea of taking something for later.

[Kurkistan he/him]

@Weiry

 

Thanks for the find, though it turns out those weren't the interviews in question.

Edited June 4, 2015 by Kurkistan

[skaa he/him]

While we're waiting for someone to find the WoB about storing and retrieving sleepiness, let me share a couple of quotes I did find about the development of Feruchemy.

 

From one of Peter's Mythwalker commentaries:

 

The female Sserin Kkell power of weight manipulation is something that shows up again to great effect in the Mistborn world, especially in The Alloy of Law. The difference is that this original version apparently has no cost, no limitations. On Scadrial, a Feruchemist is reliant upon metalminds for weight manipulation: becoming heavier requires saving up weight ahead of time, and the more weight you want to use, the more time you have to spend lighter beforehand. But here, Vvenna has no personal consequences or requirements for increasing her weight (except that she has to be conscious). This concept is an unintended theme throughout this book, and it’s something that contributed to Brandon developing Sanderson’s Second Law.

From the Mistborn annotations:

 

Feruchemy (not called that, however) was a magic system I lifted from FINAL EMPIRE PRIME, a book I wrote some years before I wrote this book. I had a person who could store up attributes, such as strength, then use them when he needed them. The thing is, the magic wasn’t really that well formed, and this character never got any viewpoints, so I didn’t get to use the magic as often as I wanted.

When I was developing this world, I knew I wanted the Keepers to have the fantastic memories. I realized that Feruchemy would make the perfect magic system for Sazed and his people. When I decided that I could use metals as a focus for this magic system (something that made it much more interesting, because it put a definable limit on what could be stored and how much of it could be stored) I knew I had something really good.

(Note that Mythwalker, a.k.a. "Warbreaker Prime" was written before "Final Empire Prime".)

Edited June 7, 2015 by skaa