The Hero of Ages, -2000 years ago

[Aryanath]

Hey everyone. I'm new to this forum and this is my first post, though I've been lurking for quite a while. I should probably make an introduction post but I'll dive right into my questions here. (Brief Background: I wanted to try a different sort of fantasy after spending a while with "gritty" series so I began reading Sanderson a few months ago. I started with The Emperor's Soul as a sampler, liked it and then read The Way of Kings, which I really enjoyed. I became especially interested in the Cosmere and that got me to reading Mistborn as well, so here I am). 

 

Anyhow I'm almost done with the series (Mistborn) but one thing's been bothering me a bit. Sorry if this was discussed elsewhere. Basically, the HOA and the refilling of the wells are supposed to occur every thousand years, right? At that time, obviously Ruin is going to manipulate things so that he can escape, like he almost did with Alendi and did with Vin. So what happened a 1000 years before Rashek? Why is nothing mentioned about the previous HOA or well then? Or did Ruin only get trapped sometime in the 1000 years before Rashek? But if this has been happening for a while before, it seems odd that nobody else figured out the secrets of the well either to keep Ruin imprisoned or release him before. Thanks. 

[Riceloft]

Chances are that was before Adonalsium was shattered, thus there was no "Ruin" at that time.

[Shardlet]

Welcome Aryanath.  Glad to have you with us.

 

It is unclear how many cycles had occurred.  There were at least two (pre-Rashek and during the reign of the Lord Ruler or TLR).  TLR was obviously not big on sharing information.  It is clear that some knowledge was out there about the Well and Ruin's prison.  Kwaan's message imploring that the "thing that is imprisoned there must not be released" demonstrates that much at least.  Add to that, Ruin had been manipulating information to expedite his release.  So, some information was out there and handed down till TLR's time and some residual info was left by TLR.  But we don't know how many cycles occurred.

Edited January 8, 2014 by Shardlet

[Oudeis]

Chances are that was before Adonalsium was shattered, thus there was no "Ruin" at that time.

 

?? No. Why do you believe Adonalsium shattered within the past two thousand years?

[Moogle]

Anyhow I'm almost done with the series (Mistborn) but one thing's been bothering me a bit. Sorry if this was discussed elsewhere. Basically, the HOA and the refilling of the wells are supposed to occur every thousand years, right? At that time, obviously Ruin is going to manipulate things so that he can escape, like he almost did with Alendi and did with Vin. So what happened a 1000 years before Rashek? Why is nothing mentioned about the previous HOA or well then?

 

Keep in mind that Preservation and Ruin's Shardpools were both incredibly inaccessible. They were high up in the mountains of Terris, a cold place where no one would normally go. The reason Alendi found the Well (along with Rashek) is because he was a Seeker with a Hemalurgic spike to enhance his abilities. Vin wouldn't have been able to find the Well of Ascension without her Seeker abilities, so it's just very possible that no one found the Well for thousands and thousands of years until Ruin manipulated Terris culture into using Hemalurgy (Allomancy was very weak back then, so Hemalurgy was required to get Alendi strong enough to sense the Well) and changed the prophecies up so people would use the power 'selflessly'.

 

Also, if you were curious, the Well refills every 1024 (2^10 if you're looking for a way to link The Way of Kings' focus on 10) years. Preservation had a thing for 16, which is 2x2x2x2.

 

Welcome to the forums.

Edited January 8, 2014 by Moogle

[Aryanath]

Thank you! 

[name_here]

It's pretty unclear how long things have been going on or how long Scadrial has even existed. Personally, I think there have been at least a couple previous cycles, and there must have been a hero for each of them. I got the impression that letting the fully-charged Well sit unused would be bad, since the original prophecies did say someone needed to go visit the Well. Presumably, not as bad as going there and releasing the power, since Ruin went with a complicated ploy instead of just murdering everyone who tried, but still bad. Probably the prison remains weak while the Well is full, allowing Ruin to intensify the mists and otherwise make life difficult but not fully escape.

 

As for what exactly happened, I'm guessing that for whatever reason the previous cycles went smoothly. Most likely Ruin was less successful at tampering with events. For instance, if the prophecies were either written in metal or transmitted orally without using copperminds, tampering with them would be difficult, and even if written in paper people who didn't rely on copperminds would be more likely to notice tampering. With the prophecies intact, the candidate heroes would know to do something with the Well, and quite likely they'd be better-educated and less arrogant than Rashek. So they'd go to the Well, fix the problem in a controlled manner instead of touching off a new catastrophe and then repeatedly over-correcting, and then leave.

 

Then they'd probably reign as the hero-king/queen of a golden age of prosperity before dying of old age if their personality was anything like Alendi. Either they assumed they fixed the problem forever, or they found out what was really going on but decided to leave it be because they'd won 1024 years of non-apocalypse, figured that next time would work out too, and were afraid they would break something if they tried to fix it for good. Probably at least some of them came back home and explained the situation, then instructed people to keep the prophecies around for the next iteration/the true Hero Of Ages who would fix things for good.

 

Now, the cycle immediately prior to Alendi probably went somewhat poorly and set up his failure by destabilizing things badly enough that people stopped securely recording the prophecies. It might have been as simple as the Well user not figuring things out and people getting sloppy, or they misused the Well and inadvertently altered the climate enough that the existing cities stopped being suitable locations for settlement and the resulting turmoil made the prophecies a low priority.