TLR's strength answered

[Galavantes]

Reddit AMA today! Brandon responded to a question regarding TLR's massive soothing as confirming that he was a savant in pretty much every metal. Which basically blows away my theory of TLR using some feruchemical trick to ramp up his allomancy. Here's the connversation:

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1ced7z/iamstilla_novelist_named_brandon_sanderson_ama/c9fp8f8

[Observer]

I knew it! BOOYEAH!

 

Thanks for posting this

[NewbSombrero he/him]

Well, it doesn't rule out him using Feruchemy to somehow boost it as well. It just means he's a savant, which would further boost it.

[Voidus]

Yeah definitely doesn't explain everything, his Iron and Steel abilities in particular seem way beyond just being a Savant.
It is an interesting tidbit though, I suppose because of his compounding abilities he didn't need to worry about side effects of becoming a Savant as much.

[Sirscott13 he/him]

Did not Brandon Sanderson say that if a mistborn were to burn lerastrium he could become even stronger in his powers? Could not The Lord ruler just be lerastrium enhanced plus a savant using feruchemy to balance the secant side effects like storing the extra tin in a tinmind and storing all the attributes pewter offers to lessen the downsides of servants?

[Phantom Monstrosity]

I'm pretty sure his mass soothing is still way beyond what a mere savant would be capable of.

[dj26792 he/him]

I dont know, we saw spook get crazy strong from becoming a savant, and he was still getting stronger, if a savant is 3 times as powerful and spook was at least that what could the Lord ruler who started much stronger and was also a sliver manage with savant powers? That scene in the square seems at least a little bit plausible to me if thats all thats going on.

[Vortaan he/him]

Has anyone ever considered that during the square scene, where do you think most of the Soothing station staff were? Instead of just the Lord Ruler Soothing everyone, it could be that his extra powerful Soothings were already working on a pre-Soothed crowd.

[Voidus]

Has anyone ever considered that during the square scene, where do you think most of the Soothing station staff were? Instead of just the Lord Ruler Soothing everyone, it could be that his extra powerful Soothings were already working on a pre-Soothed crowd.

Doesn't explain how he does the same thing at Kredik Shaw, how it pierced Vin's coppercloud or why it's only when he arrives that it starts, it'd also probably harm the obligators views of him if he needed that kind of help just for appearances I think. They might have helped prep the skaa for it with their constant Soothing but I'd bet on TLR himself doing the actual mass Soothing that we saw.

[RenegadeShroom]

Hasn't it been said that Rashek produced his most dramatic powers by using Hemalurgy? Plus, there's the whole Compounding to power Allomancy instead of Feruchemy deal, which would neatly explain his excessive powers. ( Source for that is here: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/1729-a-late-breaking-report/ )

 

Heck, just that last part explains it pretty neatly. Elend could only achieve that kind of Soothing with duralumin, according to WoB. Compounding increases the power being used by what; about ten times? Hemalurgically enhanced and Savant-level Soothing, magnified ten times. That would easily be a powerful enough Soothing, I believe.

[Sirscott13 he/him]

Yesterday at the steelheart signing my brother asked what if a mistborn burned lerastrium. Brandon answered that it would just add that power on top of what they already had. We followed up this question by asking if this is how The Lord ruler got so powerful. We got a yes and no answer. When The Lord ruler used the well of assents ion he just rewrote himself to have so much allomancy strength. This makes complete sense to me because the beads of lerastrium are the physical body of preservation. The well was the liquid body of preservation. Would it not just make sense that moving the earth and changing biology is child's play in comparison to just making yourself super strong off of the base power of the well. Like the equivalent of burning multiple beads of lerastrium? It's a total duh moment. The Lord ruler didn't have any secret trick. He just simply rewrote his spiritual web to have unbelievable allomancy powers. Like vin with the mists? It makes total sense and it's all straight from Brandon's mouth. I'll kick my self forever over this one. He was just that powerful an allomancer. His feruchemy compounding was minimal in comparison to the allomantic strength. He just used it to keep himself from aging. Which after thousands of years required more and more stored up youth compounded just to keep himself young. His body just wanted to correct itself more powerfully so he needed to compound the stored youth more and more. That's why it was so easy to defeat him once he lost the atium minds. His body was accelerating to correction. The Lord ruler never had any tricks we have to speculate on. It's just simple information.

[Two McMillion he/him]

Seems like TLR had a lot of factors going for him:

 

- Feruchemy to fuel his Allomancy (Feruchemical nicrosil?)

- Being a savant

- Hemalurgy

- Using Lerasium

- Changing his body with the WoA

 

I hear people say that each of these factors isn't enough by itself, but all of them together? I think you would certainly end up with the kind of guy who single-handedly destroys armies.

[Sirscott13 he/him]

No I don't think he used feruchemy to fuel allomancy. Not only have we not been told it can do that but we know that those metals hadn't been discovered yet. And for hemuralgy he had one spike that ruin tried to influence him through but didn't use any others. His allomancy came directly from the well. He didn't need lerastrium. He just gave himself allomancy from the WOA as if he had burned hundreds of lerastrium. And he just compounded for feruchemy. This would make anyone invincible.