Other inhabitants of Scadrial?

[Oudeis he/him]

Not everybody is an allomancer in the north

But a fleet of mechallomantic cannons flinging explosives on ships powered by mechallomantic engines, with everybody able to operate mechallomantic small arms and body armour,

Are we so certain this is how it will work? Maybe not everyone can use mechallomancy; maybe it's just a mechanical way to amp a Misting's power up to Northern levels.

Regardless, the fact remains that the North needs only one strike force to gather enough information to start making their own mechallomancy, and Wayne could do that in his sleep without Allomancy.

[Swimmingly he/him]

Are we so certain this is how it will work? Maybe not everyone can use mechallomancy; maybe it's just a mechanical way to amp a Misting's power up to Northern levels.

Regardless, the fact remains that the North needs only one strike force to gather enough information to start making their own mechallomancy, and Wayne could do that in his sleep without Allomancy.

Unless they speak a whole different language, have an entirely different skin colour, etc. They might be a little out of Wayne's espionage capabilities, though he could probably amble in and stay undetected for a few minutes. With a bit of bendalloy, he could probably Slide in, copy down some plans, and get out. I bet he would need allomancy though.

[Swimmingly he/him]

Also, note that just because you have a copy of an object, you can't necessarily reproduce it, and the strike force might not even have plans to steal. Especially if the mechallomantic devices have some mystical component.

[Levian]

I don't understand how Allomancy of Feruchemy could be used mechanically without the people having the abilities themselves. I mean, the metals on Scadrial aren't magical in any way as far as I know, and as someone pointed out they could probably burn the same metals from any other planet. 

 

So how do machines have the ability to burn metals like an Allomancer? When I first heard people talking about it, I had assumed that they had Mistings and possibly Mistborn, but instead of using their abilities to shoot coins and zip around the night flying off coins, they put their abilities to use powering machines - future book spoilers  

similar to what I've heard about the third set of Mistborn trilogies.

Edited December 5, 2013 by Levian

[Shardlet he/him]

Fact is we don't know how it works.  Brandon has given us scant information which so far appears to indicate that it is not simply allomancers et al. using their abilities to operate machines.  Brandon is being very cagey about it so far.

[WeiryWriter he/him]

I don't understand how Allomancy of Feruchemy could be used mechanically without the people having the abilities themselves. I mean, the metals on Scadrial aren't magical in any way as far as I know, and as someone pointed out they could probably burn the same metals from any other planet. 

 

So how do machines have the ability to burn metals like an Allomancer? When I first heard people talking about it, I had assumed that they had Mistings and possibly Mistborn, but instead of using their abilities to shoot coins and zip around the night flying off coins, they put their abilities to use powering machines - future book spoilers  

similar to what I've heard about the third set of Mistborn trilogies.

 

They definitely wouldn't have mistborn, none of their ancestors would have burned lerasium so they just wouldn't have the allomantic potential.  They could have mistings, but they would be so exceedingly rare as to be non-existent (as it was during Classical Scadrial, only more so).  I also doubt they would have feruchemists, that gene was exclusive to the terris population which is in the north.

 

As Shardlet said we just don't know how the mechanical Metallic Arts work.  Chaos has an exellent theory about this, which can be found here.  It wouldn't work the way you describe however, since that is still accessing them though genetics, same as the Northerners.  The Southerners access the Metallic Arts in a technological manner.

[Oudeis he/him]

I don't understand how Allomancy of Feruchemy could be used mechanically without the people having the abilities themselves. I mean, the metals on Scadrial aren't magical in any way as far as I know, and as someone pointed out they could probably burn the same metals from any other planet.

 

People keep saying that; I disagree. We know Shards Invest in a planet itself. I think that Ruin and Preservation specifically Invested in the metal of Scadrial, which is why it's the focus of their Investiture. I'm sure I saw a WoB once (I need to figure out how to use Theoryland) that Ruin and Preservation would not have the "shardblindness" they get from Scadrian metal on other shardworlds, meaning there in fact is something inherent about the Invested metals of Scadrial; thus a machine built to tap this Investiture could work even without an allomancer to power it. Allomancers are simply people who can directly access the innate Investiture of each metal without a "crutch", as it were.

 

 I also doubt they would have feruchemists, that gene was exclusive to the terris population which is in the north.

 

I disagree. Kwaan, a terrisman, had traveled far. Compared to how much space must've been available on the planet at the time of the First Ascension, presumably only a tiny fraction of the land was still viable, so either he let a LOT of people simply burn, or he moved people around, presumably easier than moving planets. Even then, whichever people WERE saved at the Southern Pole, with Terrismen traveling so widely it's not terribly unlikely that some of them would have been swept up in whichever handful of population Rashek saved.

 

Not to mention, his stated purpose in saving those people was to preserve genetic legacy; if he did ever want to hit Ctrl + Z on the planet, wouldn't he want a full sample to fall back on, not just not-his-own-nationality?