Allomancy genetics questions

[Vortaan he/him]

If there was one thing TLR needed to keep under wraps, it was information about Feruchemy.

 

After all, that's what led Vin, with just a few hints, to take down TLR.  Now imagine a small army of trained Mistborn, knowing exactly how TLR was staying alive and healthy, attacking him.  It would still have been hard, but somebody would have succeeded eventually.

Add in some Twinborn and maybe a bit of Hemalurgy, and it becomes an even trickier fight for TLR.  Much, much easier to just suppress Feruchemy entirely.

 

Probably would have been easier to suppress knowledge of atium and Hemalurgy. Admittedly that creates a huge economic gap, but the whole suppressing Feruchemy thing doesn't seem to have worked too well, since even some of Elend's books make mention of metalminds. However, make atium mythical and suddenly your immortality is mythical and your Inquisitors are pretty damnation unstoppable. The flaw in this is Seekers sensing atium, I suppose, but making sure your Inquistors burn copper before they use atium seems reasonable.

 

Secondary thought: the economic factor had to have come AFTER the Empire was pretty much established. During the conquest/building years, the Great Houses are probably not powerful enough to be major economic clout, plus there's no deathcamp at the Pits to mine the atium. So why did the Lord Ruler base his economy on atium?

[happyman he/him]

Probably would have been easier to suppress knowledge of atium and Hemalurgy. Admittedly that creates a huge economic gap, but the whole suppressing Feruchemy thing doesn't seem to have worked too well, since even some of Elend's books make mention of metalminds. However, make atium mythical and suddenly your immortality is mythical and your Inquisitors are pretty damnation unstoppable. The flaw in this is Seekers sensing atium, I suppose, but making sure your Inquistors burn copper before they use atium seems reasonable.

 

Secondary thought: the economic factor had to have come AFTER the Empire was pretty much established. During the conquest/building years, the Great Houses are probably not powerful enough to be major economic clout, plus there's no deathcamp at the Pits to mine the atium. So why did the Lord Ruler base his economy on atium?

 

These are good questions.  I think it was a matter of prioritization.

First priority: stop Ruin from finding the Atium.  Since he will be looking pretty much regardless, subtlety is needed.  Hence the enormous shell game that made up the plot of Atium in the books.

Second priority:  Stay in power, with the Atium being hidden.

It may not have been the ideal choice to go with the Atium economy, Allomancy for the nobiltiy, and suppresion of Feruchemy, but I think it lines up pretty well with the above priorities, with the first far more important than the second.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Sazed seemed to believe that suppressing feruchemy was probably the most practical thing to do.

Otherwise you end up with people who have an unbroken (but Ruin-corruptable) chain of memories going back to the beginning of the Empire. If you're a man who's trying to keep secrets, that's a bad thing.