Inconsistency in HoA

[Vortaan he/him]

Just noticed this during a reread. In chapter 18, Sazed is musing about the deprivations of the Terris people. The quote I am thinking of is this.

 

There were few of them remaining. They had never been a very large population, and the coming of the mists and the difficult trek down to the Central Dominance had claimed many lives.

 

This is very interesting to me because later the Terris people tell Sazed that no Terrismen have been taken by the mist sickness. Is this an inconsistency, did Sazed just assume some people died because other were attacked... or did the mixing of Terris and Allomantic bloodlines happen a lot sooner than we assumed? Were there possible Twinborn as far back as HoA?

[Phantom Monstrosity]

I think it's more the issues with feeding their population.  The mists weren't the direct cause.

[Vortaan he/him]

I think it's more the issues with feeding their population.  The mists weren't the direct cause.

 

It's specifically mentioned in conjunction with the trek from Terris. They are also in the Central Dominance and shouldn't have hit as much of the daylight issue, and were in the Central Dominance from the end of WoA. I find it more likely that Sazed assumed that the Terrismen lost people to the mists, but if they hadn't isn't it odd that no one noticed it before then? Elend was tracking all kinds of data about the mist sickness, why would he leave the entire remaining Terris population out of his figures?

[Observer]

Maybe Preservation tried anyways?

Or maybe it's because the non-feruchemist population was still open to being hit by them, since they didn't have enough balance or whatever gives you feruchemy?

[Chaos he/him]

I think you're reading it incorrectly. The second phrase suggests it was the trek down to the Central Dominance that did them in, and I interpret the first phrase to mean "the trek is harder due to the mists and it being harder to get food." It in no way directly implies that any Terrispeople were struck by mistsickness. Considering they were moving from the Terris Dominance, I think it's pretty clear that a lack of food due to the mists would be a very serious concern.

Also, Twinborn did not exist during the time of the Final Empire. I think Windy showed me a very esoteric quote once that suggested that Allomancy actually had a difficult time mixing with Feruchemical powers, and so even if people did interbreed, it would be really rare for there to be an actual Twinborn. These extreme rarities meant that, hey, it was so rare that it never actually happened

The Terris people was very insular, actually, and mostly bred with their own kind.