I need help for understanding a quote from BS about TLR

[Meg]

At first I beg for your pardon for this post. I stumbled about a quote that I don't understand and where I'm sure, native-English speakers or one with a better knowledge than myself, can help me.

I see that it's not your task to "translate" or interpret things for me, but I'd be very happy, if someone could help me.

 

 

 

Interview: Jun 20th, 2009
Idaho Falls Signing Report - Andrew the Great
Andrew the Great

Why did the mist sickness only happen after the Lord Ruler's death?
Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It didn't. It just happened on a much smaller scale. As you remember, the Lord Ruler basically meant stagnation. Because it seemed the Lord Ruler would be taking the power again (as was intended, and as apparently had been done many times before), and because of the extreme stability of the Final Empire, Preservation (though it really only had a shadow of it's mind left) wasn't as freaked out. After the LR died, Preservation began to attempt to create more Allomancers for the reasons mentioned in question 7. It also left clues, such as the number 16 everywhere, so that people would know it was Preservation doing it, and not just random chance, or ruin. Turns out that that didn't work so well.

 

My question is about the part "as was intended, and as apparently had been done many times before."

 

I've read the sentence now a few times, but I don't know if I read it right. Does the part in brackets belong to TLR? Or does it belong to any possible Slivers that took Preservation's power prior to TLR?

 

I'd be happy if someone can help me out of my confusion.

[Shardlet he/him]

It could be read either way.  But given what has been determined about how atium compounding works, TLR would have been having to consume an increasing amount of atium in order to achieve a progressively diminishing effect.  This suggests that the statement is not exvlusive of TLR.  But, I suppose that taking the power at the well could very well allow for TLR to hit a reset button on that.  More convincingly, everything in the story seems to indicate that TLR was in power for about 1000 years.  In light of that, I would expect that the quote indicates that there were others who took the power previous to Rashek.

[king of nowhere]

others took the power before rashek, many times. I'm sure we have confirmation of that.

And we also got confirmation that the period of the well was 1024 years, so rashek had only taken the power once

[Kadrok she/her]

others took the power before rashek, many times. I'm sure we have confirmation of that.

And we also got confirmation that the period of the well was 1024 years, so rashek had only taken the power once

Really? I'd like to see that confirmation because I was under the impression that the well was only used twice... there's some serious awesome to be had from my MAG group if we have confirmation that there were other Welldrinkers.

 

There's this:

Interview: Oct, 2008

Hero of Ages Q&A - TWG (Verbatim)

Chaos (15 October 2008)

When did Preservation decide to imprison Ruin in the Well? No need to be specific, I should think. A simple "Near Alendi's time" or "Way before Alendi's time" would suffice, or whichever time of reference you want to use.

Also, this one is not a question, but nice Hoid reference in there. I especially like it how the Ars Arcanum refers to Slowswift as "bears a striking resemblance to a well-known storyteller." I'm on to you...

Brandon Sanderson (15 October 2008)

Way before Alendi's time. Hence the need for the prophecies. But Ruin managed to corrupt them.

Tags

mistborn, hero of ages, alendi, ruin, preservation, hoid, terris,

But "way before Alendi's time" could easily be... 1024 years or so.

 

At first I beg for your pardon for this post. I stumbled about a quote that I don't understand and where I'm sure, native-English speakers or one with a better knowledge than myself, can help me.

I see that it's not your task to "translate" or interpret things for me, but I'd be very happy, if someone could help me.

 

 

 

 

My question is about the part "as was intended, and as apparently had been done many times before."

 

I've read the sentence now a few times, but I don't know if I read it right. Does the part in brackets belong to TLR? Or does it belong to any possible Slivers that took Preservation's power prior to TLR?

 

I'd be happy if someone can help me out of my confusion.

That comes down to the purpose of the well.

 

 

Interview: Oct, 2008

Hero of Ages Q&A - TWG (Verbatim)

Kaimipono (16 October 2008)

What was Vin supposed to do at the end of Well of Ascension? How exactly did not-using the power, end up releasing Ruin? I still don't get how that all worked. Can you explain it?

Brandon Sanderson (17 October 2008)

What was she supposed to do? Well, this is difficult to answer, since the prophecies have been changed and shifted so much. Originally, the prophesies intended for a person to go take the power every thousand years and become a protector of mankind for a period of time. Someone to keep an eye on Ruin in Preservation's absence and watch over the world as he would have done. Imagine an avatar who arrives every thousand years and lives for their lifetime blessing the people with the power of Preservation, renewing Ruin's prison, and generally being a force for protection. (Note that Ruin wouldn't have gotten out if the prison wasn't renewed, he'd simply have been able to touch the world a little bit more.) Obviously, it changed a LOT during the years that Ruin was playing with things.

What should she have done? Well, Ruin's release was inevitable. Even if she hadn't let him go, the world would have 'wound down' eventually. The ashfalls would have grown worse over the centuries, and the next buildup of the Well might not have come in time for them to do anything. Or, perhaps, mankind would have found a way to adapt. But Ruin was going to get himself out eventually, so the choice Vin made was all right. There weren't really any good choices at this point. She could have decided to take the power and become a 'good' Lord Ruler, trying to keep the world from falling apart. Of course, she would have had to make herself immortal with Hemalurgy to make that work right. And since she was already tainted, chances are good she wouldn't have ended up any better than the Lord Ruler himself.

Tags

mistborn, first mistborn trilogy, hero of ages, well of ascension, vin, ruin, preservation, shards, terris, allomancy, hemalurgy,

Interview: Oct, 2008

Hero of Ages Q&A - TWG (Verbatim)

Chaos (15 October 2008)

How were the Terris Prophecies created in the first place? Every other magic related thing is quite logically explained in terms of Ruin and Preservation, except that one.

Brandon Sanderson (15 October 2008)

The Terris prophecies were created by Preservation before he attempted his imprisonment. He knew that he wouldn't be able to do much for the world after he did what he did, and he foresaw a LOT of what was to come.

Tags

mistborn, ruin, preservation, terris,

 

The Lord Ruler, ironically, had one go with the well and was fulfilling the purpose of the Well. Basically the mists were there to snap mistings so that someone would snap with Bronze, find the well, take the power and use it to fix any problems with the world and Ruin's prison. The "apparently many times before" refers to the possibility of previous Slivers, though we don't know if there was more than one cycle before Rashek became Protector and did it badly. If Vin had left him alone I imagine he would have taken the power again and made the world even better as he had more experience with the power, and would have been able to create far smaller problems while solving the problems created previously, perhaps even correcting the mists to bring them back in line with what Preservation originally set up.

 

In my opinion what happened in the books (Harmony) was the ideal solution, but there are other possible set ups that wouldn't have been terrible... if someone became Protector, and fixed the mists, and taught people about Ruin and Preservation rather than covering it up (as Rashek did) then it would be a very different world. Everyone would write on metal, and Copperminds wouldn't be considered reliable... the Protector could be chosen by the people to take the power every cycle, and each Protector could write their experiences out on Steel plates stored in the Well Chamber in order that each Protector could benefit from the experience of those before them. Things would be kept pretty much in balance, with the Protector using the power each cycle to fix whatever damage Ruin causes in the interim... yep, that would be pretty cool.

(Suffice it to say that I would have run things differently in Rashek's shoes... I would conquer the world but I would probably be breeding Allomancy and Feruchemy into the population rather than breeding Feruchemy out, and letting Allomancy dwindle. The higher the percentage of Allomancers-Feruchemists there are in the population, the less dangerous such individuals are to the populace... "and when everyone is super... no one will be!" to quote Syndrome. With the increase in these arts, I'd be able to increase production of food (Pewter/Brute farming) and bring about other benefits to society. I'd institute education for all, and particularly higher learning, probably utilising the Worldbringers to bring about a kind of global enlightenment. Everyone will know that we're sitting on a contained Ruin, and about his ability to alter Copperminds and non-etched text, and that he needs to be managed every 1024 years, and if I'm not alive at the next cycle there will be a very strict selection process for the next Protector.)

[Meg]

Thank you for your help and thoughts. I'll try to pin down some points here (and hopefully nobody feels bothered).

 

1. We know that it's been 1,024 years, and that "TLR befuddeled the timespan."

 

2. I think, yes, it seems TLR only took the power of the Well once.

 

3. Thanks for your quotes, Kadrok. 

 

Hero of Ages Q&A - TWG (Verbatim)
Chaos (15 October 2008)
How were the Terris Prophecies created in the first place? Every other magic related thing is quite logically explained in terms of Ruin and Preservation, except that one.
Brandon Sanderson (15 October 2008)
The Terris prophecies were created by Preservation before he attempted his imprisonment. He knew that he wouldn't be able to do much for the world after he did what he did, and he foresaw a LOT of what was to come.

source 

 

That's interesting. Given the rest of your quote, this could mean that TLR was the first "protector" who took the power of the Well. This could mean that the imprisonment of Ruin might have happened 1,024 years before TLR's ascension. It could, too, mean that the protector prior to TLR failed in surviving the whole timespan. But my gut says that the first possibility seems more likely. So the Terris Prophecies would have been made by Preservation around 2,048 years before the Ascension of TLR (what would fit "way before Alendi's time").

 

But I straggle.

 

4. As a side note: In the meantime we know that Slowswift is an homage (I hope that's the right word) to "Grandpa Tolkien" (HoA Annotations).

 

 

 

 

[Kadrok she/her]

Yep. Rashek is a Protector. The only question is, is he the first or were there others? If there were earlier ones, perhaps they didn't survive the whole cycle due to not being Feruchemists or figuring out Compounding. Or (even cooler) maybe they did, but didn't protect the world openly, becoming a Gandalf figure or some such. I wonder how long it took for Ruin to corrupt the prophecies.

Edited September 21, 2013 by Kadrok

[Shardlet he/him]

I am inclined to think that Rashek was not the first.  Otherwise, I would be rather unimpressed with Preservation.  Rashek, barely stopped Alendi from inadvertantly releasing Ruin.  It would be a pretty poor showing for Preservation to lose the first time around.  It seems to me that others took the powert before, but did not use hemalurgy the way TLR did.  This would mean a usage of the power and a natural lifespan following.  The historic impact could well be lost.  Whereas TLR left a huge footprint because he did not trust that anyone else would use the power rather than release it.

[Kadrok she/her]

I am inclined to think that Rashek was not the first.  Otherwise, I would be rather unimpressed with Preservation.  Rashek, barely stopped Alendi from inadvertantly releasing Ruin.  It would be a pretty poor showing for Preservation to lose the first time around.  It seems to me that others took the powert before, but did not use hemalurgy the way TLR did.  This would mean a usage of the power and a natural lifespan following.  The historic impact could well be lost.  Whereas TLR left a huge footprint because he did not trust that anyone else would use the power rather than release it.

Which may contribute towards the ongoing debate as to where the missing 4 Lerasium beads are (for those who believe 16 beads were created, rather than that the well generates them over time). It is possible that previous Protectors became Mistborn for their lifetimes, though that raises some interesting questions about the origins of Allomancy, and there are bound to be WoB contradicting the notion that there were Lerasium Mistborn before Rashek's time. Perhaps the hypothetical Lerasium-Protectors feared what would happen if Allomancy spread, and remained celibate so as not to pass on their powers...