theory Re-Vin-carnation

[Pagerunner he/him]

[bands of Mourning and Secret History Update: Appended to the end of this post. I have not edited the original text of the post, so no one can infer anything about SH based on what I cut, add, or change.]

 

I just finished re-reading the Mistborn trilogy (got the hardcovers for Christmas), and it really jumped out at me on this read-through just how good Vin is at everything. If it had been my first time through the series, it probably would have bothered me how quickly she picks up Allomancy and other tricks. (I read it several years ago, and I don’t recall it sticking out to me, then.) As she’s learning Allomancy, all the Crew members comment on how naturally it comes to her – Marsh, especially, thinks she has already been practicing. Even mundane things, like how influential she is on Camon’s crew or how quickly she adapts to the nobility, stuck out.

 

However, having read (and re-read) everything in the Cosmere, it seemed more like a clue. Mentions of how Vin was a quick learner or trusted her instincts were slipped in about as often as mentions of her earring, Reen’s voice, or how Sazed wore his copperminds on his arms. It made me wonder… what was the secret behind how quickly Vin learned?

 

In the last epigraph of Book 3, Sazed speculates on Vin:

Vin was special.
 

Preservation chose her from a very young age, as I have mentioned. I believe that he was grooming her to take his power. Yet, the mind of Preservation was very weak at that point, reduced only to the fragment that we knew as the mist spirit.
 

What made him choose this girl? Was it because she was a Mistborn? Was it because she had Snapped so early in life, coming to her powers even as she went through the pains of the unusually difficult labor her mother went through to bear her?
 

Vin was unusually talented and strong with Allomancy, even from the beginning. I believe that she must have drawn some of the mist into her when she was still a child, in those brief times when she wasn’t wearing the earring. Preservation had mostly gotten her to stop wearing it by the time Kelsier recruited her, though she put it back in for a moment before joining the crew. Then, she’d left it there at his suggestion.
 

Nobody else could draw upon the mists. I have determined this. Why were they open to Vin and not others? I suspect that she couldn’t have taken them all in until after she’d touched the power at the Well of Ascension. It was always meant, I believe, to be something of an attuning force. Something that, once touched, would allow a person’s body to be able to accept the mists.
 

Yet, she did make use of a small crumb of Preservation’s power when she defeated the Lord Ruler, a year before she even began hearing the thumping of the power’s return to the Well.
 

There is much more to this mystery. Perhaps I will tease it out eventually, as my mind grows more and more accustomed to its expanded nature. Perhaps I will determine why I was able to take the powers myself. For now, I only wish to make a simple acknowledgment of the woman who held the power before me.
 

Of all of us who touched it, I feel she was the most worthy.

 

 

Sazed speculates was special because she was chosen by Preservation as a child and possibly drew in some mists. But he doesn’t stop there; he says that there is something else special about Vin, something he doesn’t understand. So, what could it be? Can we figure it out?

 

I kept this thought in mind during my reread, and some thoughts began to coalesce. The crystallizing point for this theory came to me after Kelsier’s death in Book 1, when Vin went back to Kredik Shaw and fought two Inquisitors. She prepared two tricks: arrowheads with rings on them (basically, the same thing Ranette would invent as anti-Coinshot bullets), and pewter dust to blind the inquisitors. It’s one thing if Vin has an affinity to learning how to use Allomancy because she was chosen to take Preservation or because she drew in some mists as a child; but I didn’t see how that would give her these kind of tactics.

 

So, it occurred to me that maybe Vin had these experiences from a previous life. I know reincarnation isn’t a common thing in the Cosmere, but there have been instances of the dead not staying dead (in Warbreaker, obviously, and Kelsier hangs around even if he doesn’t take on a new body). What if an experienced Allomancer who died during the Final Empire hung around like Kelsier did, but instead of sticking around and meddling, she (assuming it’s a lady Allomancer, as I will go into more detail below) bestowed her experiences upon Vin?

 

Before I dive in to the specifics, I’ll include a brief Table of Contents of the theory.

1. Vin’s Unearned Experience: the instances of Vin’s surprising aptitude
2. Vin vs Valette: Vin views herself as a combination of two or more people
3. Déjà vu: the pieces required for a reincarnation are already present in the series
4. Guess Who?: speculation as to Vin’s previous identity
5. Hoid: maybe this explains what warned her away from him
6. Kelsier: the ramifications on the future of the series

 

 

Part 1: Vin’s Unearned Experience

 

So, Vin obviously picks up Allomancy very quickly in TFE. Not only does she burn pewter and zinc on instinct, but she learns all of the metals extremely quickly. Other areas of her training, like acting like a noble or even her time on Camon’s crew, come to her naturally, and her instincts guide her.

 

Instincts became the keyword that I looked for; anywhere Vin trusted her instincts (or, even better, her instincts told her something, an active-voice sentence with “instincts” as the subject). I also looked for instances where the word “instincts” wasn’t expressly name-dropped, but people remarked how Vin learned very quickly. (Or I thought she learned too quickly.) Basically, any place that her past life could be manifesting. See the full list below. It’s roughly chronological order, not by importance. I’ve italicized the points that are more circumstantial; the good examples are all un-italicized.

1. On the first mission Vin went on with Camon’s crew, this quote jumped out at me when Vin first became suspicious:
   
   Vin’s instincts made her tense. We should go. Now.

   
   Ooh, an internal voice. We haven’t seen those before. Later on, she thinks something along the same lines:
   

   Vin prepared her luck. She could make Arriev more inclined to believe… but something restrained her. The situation felt wrong.

   
   Two active voice verbs, where Vin is the object, not the subject. As if something else is acting upon her. Is this Ruin’s influence? I don’t think so. Her earring isn’t in at this point in the novel; she starts wearing it after they get back to the lair, and she prepares to sneak out. These “instincts” can’t be Ruin’s influence.
   So, to summarize, Vin’s instincts tipped her off to the Ministry’s tactics, even when Camon, an experienced crewleader, was falling for the trap. Experience beyond her station.
    

2. She responds surprisingly well to Kelsier using zinc on her when he first meets her.
   
   She felt…serene. Unworried. And more than a little bit curious.
   
   Someone had just used Luck on her.
   
   She recognized it somehow, even though she’d never felt it upon her before.

   
   “Somehow” is a squirrely Sanderson word for when there’s something behind the scenes. (Okay, not every time, but it’s still a red flag.) Vin could have recognized this from her previous life experiences.
   When it’s just just her and Kell and Dox, she also resists his Soothing:
   

   The calmness fell upon her again. It encouraged her to be at ease, to be trusting, to simply do as the men were suggesting….
   
   No! She stayed where she was.
   
   Kelsier raised an eyebrow. “That’s unexpected.”

   
   After resisting his soothing, we see another interesting sentence:
   

   Logic and instinct now told her the same thing – that she needed to find out what this man knew.

   
   There’s that dang “instinct-as-a-subject” construction again. Pushing her to stick with Kelsier and learn Allomancy.
   That last point aside, the main takeaway from this point is that Vin has experience in recognizing and resisting emotional Allomancy.
    

3. Vin picks up being a Noblewoman very quickly. She sums up her experience during the first planning meeting with the crew:
   
   Kelsier turned to Vin, then smiled. “I guess that leaves you. How good are you at imitating a noblewoman?”
   
   Vin paled slightly. “My brother gave me a few lessons. But, I’ve never actually tried to….”

   
   However, when rubber meets the road, she knocks it out of the park. A sampling of praise:
   

   ”Very well done, Mistress,” Sazed said quietly. “Your accent was masterful.”

   ”…but we should probably get you up to attending two or three a week.”
   
   “Two or three…” Vin said. “I’m going to need more gowns!”
   
   Sazed smiled. “Thinking like a noblewoman already.”

   Kelsier chucked. “You taught her too well, Saze. In the future, Vin, perhaps you should try to be a little less charming.”

   
   And she keeps getting better. According to Sazed, in Chapter 24 of TFE:
   

   She’s growing quite proficient at courtly arts – better than many actual nobles that I have known.

   
   Maybe because she’s a reincarnated noble?
   Vin acknowledges in Hero of Ages how she took to the nobility naturally, because it was a part of her. I won’t quote that in-depth at this point in the theory; see Section 2 for a more in-depth analysis of what this means for her character.
    

4. Just a quote of interest from when Vin trains in steelpushing.
   
   This is what I was always missing, yet never knew it.

   
   Circumstantial evidence; doesn’t support reincarnation, but takes on new meaning.
    

5. The coin pouch trick is more substantial. Vin teaches Kelsier a new trick after only a few months of training, the first (of many) times she displays her Allomatic tactical ability. In fact, in Kell’s words:
   
   ”You’ve only been doing this for a few months, Vin,” he said lightly. “All things considered, your progress is fantastic. I would, however, recommend that you avoid Push-matches with people who weigh more than you.”

   
   “Fantastic progress”… maybe because she’s remembering skills she had in her past life. The push-match also struck me as uncharacteristic of Vin. She had always avoided direct confrontation, but here, she throws her weight directly at Kelsier, getting in a Push-match. Maybe that’s an instinct from her past life, where she may have been larger and it was an effective tactic. Again, not supporting evidence, but something that takes on new meaning. The evidence from this passage is how Vin learns super-fast. As she thinks to herself:
   

   Kelsier kept saying she was learning amazingly fast as an Allomancer. He seemed to think it was his teaching, but Vin felt it was something else. The mists…the night prowling…it all felt right to her.

   
   Kelsier is speaking with Sazed later.
   

   ”…it took me months and months to learn how to manipulate my Pushes and Pulls. It’s not as easy as it sounds – even something as simple as Pushing yourself up onto a rooftop requires an understand of weight, balance, and trajectory.
   
   “But Vin…she seems to know all these things instinctively. True, she can only use the first four metals with any skill, but the progress she’s made is amazing.”
   
   “She is a special girl.”

   
   That last line is Sazed. Sound familiar? (It’s because he calls her special in the HoA epilogue epigraph.) So, yes, her instincts (*cough* past life experience *cough*) make her special.
    

6. When Sazed is quizzing her as she gets her hair cut, he says:
   
   your memorization skills are admirable, Mistress,”

   
   Add another tally mark to the “Vin, you’re so good at everything” comments.
    

7. Remember when Kelsier said Vin only was good at the physical metals? Soon after that, she sits in on one Breeze session where she realizes how to Soothe subtly. She follows Kell as he goes to find Camon, and sooths him. He catches on, but only barely. His thoughts:
   
   So subtle! Kelsier thought. How did she get so good so quickly?

   
   I know how! It’s her past life experience coming through!
    

8. Learning the spikeway quickly was another example of her Allomantic tactics. I won’t do the full quote, but the narration does say “She got the hang of it quickly.”
    
9. When Sazed rescues her from the Inquisitors, he gives her some of Ham’s pewter to heal. He says:
   
   ”Ah, good,” Sazed said, undoing Vin’s makeshift bandage. “I feared that her body was too unfamiliar with Allomancy to burn metals unconsciously. There is hope for her, I think.”

   
   Vin was unconsciously burning pewter when she was on Camon’s crew – she recognizes it when Kelsier gives it to her for the first time. Her body has been familiar with Allomancy for a long time. As Marsh says later:
   

   ”Very few people, even Mistborn, are so attuned to Allomancy that they burn metals instinctively. That’s what interested me in you – that’s why I kept track of you and told Dockson where to find you.”

   
   Again, we learn that… Vin is special.

10. “Instincts” pops up again, but in an interesting context, after Vin has gone to a number of balls.
    
    I’ve been playing the noblewoman far too much lately. The other day, she’d caught herself sitting straight-backed in her carriage with a prim posture, despite the fact that she was alone. She feared she was losing her instincts – being Valette was almost more natural to her now than being Vin was.

    
    An interesting take on her part, since it doesn’t seem she’s losing instincts, but gaining new ones. Also, “Valette” is natural because her previous life experience was a noblewoman. (See the next major section.)

    
     
11. Training with Marsh. A huge clue. Marsh gives the spiel, gets her burning bronze, and asks her what she feels:
    
    Immediately, she felt two rhythmic thumpings in the air. The soundless pulses washed over her, like the beating of drums or the washings of ocean waves. They were mixed and muddled.
    
    “What do you sense?” Marsh asked.
    
    “I…think there are two different metals being burned. One’s coming from Kelsier down below; the other is coming from you.”
    
    “Good,” Marsh said appreciatively. “You’ve practiced.”
    
    “Not much,” Vin admitted.
    
    He cocked an eyebrow. “Not much? You can already determine the pulse origins. That takes practice.”
    
    Vin shrugged. “It seems natural to me.”

    
    What takes practice comes naturally to Vin… it’s been the story of her life as she learns Allomancy. Again, I suggest that this is because she actually does have prior experience.
     

12. This doesn’t really have anything to do with anything, but I suspect Vin unconsciously burns gold in Chapter 24. She just came from a ball, where I suspect they had gold-plated utensils (I looked over the chapter, and I didn’t see any mention of anything), and she’s sitting with the crew, having a good time. She imagines she sees herself out in the shadows, as she was before she met the crew. Sounds a lot like the gold shadow she sees of herself later. Anyways, it’s of no substance to this theory, except maybe showing she can unconsciously burn more obscure metals.
     
13. Allomantic tactics. When fighting Shan, she extinguishes her atium a few seconds early, tricking Shan into thinking that she had run out. When she turns it back on, she confuses Shan, and Vin kills her. A nice bit of trickery for someone who has thus far only burnt Atium against other Atium-burning Inquisitors (and she got subsequently steamrolled by them). Again, unearned experience; tactics she may have learned in her previous life. Kelsier notices how good she is:
    
    You killed a fully-trained Mistborn? Kelsier thought with shock. You’ve practiced for barely eight months!

    
    He goes on to tell her that directly:
    

    ”But you’re strong,” he said. “Stronger than you have any right to be. You killed a full Mistborn tonight!”
    
    “By luck,” Vin said, face flushing. “I just tricked her.”
    
    “Allomancy is nothing but tricks, Vin. No, there’s something special about you. I noticed it on that first day, when you shrugged off my attempts to Push and Pull your emotions.”

    
    Allomancy is nothing but tricks, and Vin comes up with new tricks time and time again, things that Kelsier and even the Inquisitors (coming up in another bullet point) don’t have figured out.
     

14. Ah, the Inquisitor fight in TFE Chapter 36. The place where this theory came together for me. I won’t quote the passage directly, but Vin uses rings on arrowheads to launch un-Steel-able projectiles to shred one Inquisitor, then uses a cloud of pewter dust to blind another. These don’t come from being strong in Allomancy; these are tactics, tricks. Vin comes up with these all the time. Why did she think of these when others didn’t? She even thinks that she wasn’t sure how their eyes worked, but she knew a perfect way to block out their senses. How did she know? Here, more than anywhere else, when her soul is damaged by Kelsier’s loss, her past life begins to creep in the cracks, giving her the training and experiences of her past life to help her with her battles.
     
15. Oh my, I’ve got this many examples, and I’m only starting WoA. Hoo boy. Anyways, we start off with some more talk about Vin being “special,” this time from Elend as she spars with Ham.
    
    Vin gave Ham a good contest despite the ridiculous differences in strength, reach, and training, and Elend found himself smiling despite himself. She was something special – Elend had realized that when he’d first seen her in the Venture ballroom, nearly two years before. He was only now coming to realize how much of an understatement “special” was.

    
    She winds up beating Ham, a good thug. Vin is a quick learner when it comes to fighting, too, not just when it comes to Allomancy. He also remarks on her strength in Allomancy; she might have her Allomatic strength determined by her previous life’s strength, during a time when Mistborn were more powerful (not as powerful as Elend, though).
     

16. She gives OreSeur dog bones. That’s another new tactic – no kandra had used animal bones before, as we find out in Book 3. Vin really does come up with these all the time. I wonder how she does it…
     
17. She instantly picks up Duralumin-Steelpushing herself. She first uses it to go rescue Breeze, and she lands at just the right spot.
    
    She had, fortunately, picked her trajectory well: she was shooting right toward Breeze and his pursuers.

    
    A brand new skill, and she does it perfectly the first time. I think she might have past-life experience with duralumin. She wasn’t the only one to discover it; the Lord Ruler mentioned it in one of the storage caverns.
     

18. There’s another very powerful clue for me when Vin was researching the Deepness. She starts the chapter being barely trained in writing:
    
    She selected a pen, then pulled out a little jar of ink, remembering the days when Reen had taught her to write. He’d quickly grown frustrated with her scratchings, complaining about the cost of ink and paper. He’d taught her to read so that she could decipher contracts and imitate a noblewoman, but he’d thought that writing was less useful. In general, Vin shared his opinion.
    
    Apparently, however, writing had uses even if one wasn’t a scribe. Elend was always scribbling notes and memos to himself; she’d often been impressed by how quickly he could write. How did he make the letters come so easily?

    With a sigh, she leaned down and began to write out the first word. She had to make each line precisely so that the ink didn’t smudge, and she had to pause often to sound out words and find the right letters. She’d barely written a couple of sentences before a knock came at her door.

    
    A very clear picture: Vin has little experience writing, and is not good at it. But, apparently, she can write very well anyways.
    

    [Elend] held the paper up, then looked over at her. “Did you write this?”
    
    “Yes,” she said.
    
    “Your penmanship is beautiful,” he said, sounding a bit surprised. “Why didn’t you tell me you could write like this?”

    
    Vin, of course, brushes it off and starts talking about the Straff’s army. But it seems a little heavy-handed to me. Perfect penmanship? What an odd thing to mention. The only thing more Mary Sue-ish would be…
     

19. …oh, no, she’s also the most graceful person in a dress. When Tindwyl takes her and Allrianne shopping:
    
    ”I’m sorry, my lady,” [the dressmaker] said, turning to tap on his assistant’s notebook, sending the boy away with a point of his finger. “But I don’t rightly think I’ve ever seen someone move so gracefully. Like a…passing breath.”
    
    “You flatter me,” Vin said.
    
    “No, child,” Tindwyl said, standing to the side. “He’s right. You move with a grace that most women can only envy.”

    
    *gag*
    I certainly hope this is indicating she spent a long (previous) life as a Mistborn noblewoman. Because otherwise, this is getting out-of-hand with how good Vin is at everything.
     

20. And then, we have The Big One. Taking down Zane. Beating someone burning atium without your own atium. And what word shows up in the narrative?
    
    There! Vin thought, immediately wrenching herself to the side, forcing her instinctive attack out of its natural trajectory.

    
    Instinct: that word keeps popping up. She let her body do what it wanted to. This is a crazy technique, and, again, it’s one she does perfectly without practice. It reminds me of the way she resisted Kelsier’s Soothing when she first met him. She has experience resisting Allomancy; mental metals, and now atium. Techniques I think she learned in her past life. Vin doesn’t think she’s the first to figure it out:
    

    ”I’m sure I’m not the first to think of it,” Vin said wearily. “But it isn’t the sort of secret that you share.”

    
    If it was a technique she had done in a prior life… then, yes, Vin, you were the first to think of it. And the second to think of it, as well. Maybe someone else can take bronze… (that’s a reference to Olympic metals, not Allomantic metals.)
     

21. Oh, and don’t forget the flying horseshoes trick. The annotations say that she is the first one to pick up that particular trick. So, that’s not one tactic that’s definitely not from a previous life.
     
22. Oh, good, things are going a lot quicker through the rest of the trilogy. I’m on to Hero of Ages, now, and I’m 30 chapters in before Vin does something surprisingly well. It’s when they crash Yomen’s party. She dives in from a position of power, something she had never had in her previous ball interactions, and she instantly takes to it. Elend notices:
    
    [Vin] seemed to be doing well – she took to the courtly scene far better than she liked to let herself think or admit. She was graceful, poised, and the center of attention.

 

So, there are three main categories where these examples fall in to: Learning Allomancy quickly, learning Tactics and Fighting quickly, and learning Nobility quickly. If it were just Allomancy, I could believe it was enhanced intuition provided by Preservation. Even the anti-atium and anti-Inquisitor tactics, on a good day. But all three categories? It seems too much of a stretch that being chosen as Preservation’s hero would give her penmanship and the mindset of a noble. So, I think these experiences come from a past life as a noble.

 

 

Part 2: Vin vs Valette

 

One major theme of Vin’s character arc is reconciling her two different personas. She wonders, is she Vin the street urchin? Or is she Valette the noblewoman? Eventually, she determines that her true self is a combination of the two. She needs to incorporate both the experience gained on the street with the noblewoman who goes to balls. This conflict is presented from the beginning, from Kelsier’s first training session with her:

”Anyway, most Mistborn live two lives – the life of the courtgoing aristocrat, and the life of the sneaking, spying Allomancer.”

 

 

When she was thinking of how “Lord Renoux” adopted his persona:

When you become Lady Valette, you show a completely different side of yourself.

 

 

She begins to realize that she isn’t actually either of them, but something else entirely. From WoA, Chapter 35:

…Vin thought of what it might have been to wear the dress to a real ball. To be herself – not Valette, the unconfortable country noblewoman. Not even Vin, the skaa thief. To be herself.

 

 

She tries to push the “Valette” persona off as an act, but her conversation with Tindwyl when they were dress-shopping begins to change that. Vin says she sees a problem with wearing dresses because it wasn’t really her; Tindwyl asks, “And these can’t dresses be part of who you really are?” More pointedly:

Tindwyl paused, looking at Vin. “And you. You are so much more than you are willing to accept, child. Why look at only one side of yourself, when your Elend sees so much more?”

“Is that what this is about?” Vin said. “You trying to turn me into a queen for Elend?”

“No, child,” Tindwyl said. “I wish to help you turn into whoever you are.”

 

 

This conflict continues, somewhat, into HoA, Chapter 27:

Attending those balls in Luthadel had changed her dramatically, leaving a residual effect that she’d never been able to shake. Something within her had responded instantly to the dancing and the parties. For the longest time, she’d struggled to understand how that part of her fit into the rest of her life. She still wasn’t certain she knew the answer. Was Valette Renoux – the girl she had pretended to be at the balls – really a part of Vin, or just a fabrication devised to serve Kelsier’s plot?

…somehow, in the chaos and mess she’d discovered who she was. Not a girl of the streets, though that was where she’d been raised. Not a woman of the court, though she appreciated the beauty and grace of the balls. Someone else.

Someone she liked.

 

 

She eventually realizes in Chapter 32 that being a noble is an essential part of her:

There was a part of her that had craved this acceptance since the first day she’d attended a ball.

This is a part of me, she thought. I didn’t want it to be – perhaps because I didn’t believe that I deserved it. I found this life too different, to full of beauty and confidence. Yet, I am a noblewoman. I do fit in here.

I was born to the streets by one parent, but I was born to this by another.

She’d spent sixteen years on the street – she’d earned that side of her. Yet, it had taken her barely a month to adapt to noble life. It had seemed impossible to her that something that came so easily could be as important a part of herself as the years spent on the street.

But it was.

 

 

Since I was thinking about the context of reincarnation, this took on a different meaning to me entirely. Vin isn’t just a combination of her two sets of experiences… what if she is a combination of two different people? Vin the street urchin represents her current life experiences. Valette the noblewoman (and Allomatic experience) comes from a previous life. As she struggles with these two halves of herself, she’s actually trying to merge her current and previous identities, to create who she truly is.

 

Oddly enough, combining multiple people into one is a concept that is presented elsewhere in the Mistborn trilogy. Koloss and Steel Inquisitors are both described as being multiple people combined into one. Steel inquisitors first, by Noorden, the friendly obligator. Immediately afterwards, Elend realized how koloss were created:

”They said that an Inquisitor was a fusion of many different people. In order to make an Inquisitor, the Canton of Inquisition had to get a whole group of Allomancers, then combine their powers into one.”

…”we believe that he was trying to combine two men into one. That would make a creature with the strength of two men, but the mind of neither.

 

 

I thought it was an odd way of characterizing the change; Hemalurgy has been presented more as stealing someone else’s attributes, not combining multiple people.

 

But it gave me some insight into how Vin could be the combination of two people. Marsh was still Marsh, even though he had other people “combined” into him. Same with Human the koloss; the annotations give his backstory, so he is a real person. The reincarnation isn’t a Wheel of Time kind of reincarnation (like the Heroes of the Horn being spun out into new identities), but someone who has already died giving up her experience to Vin.

 

I don’t think I’m saying Vin is a Hemalurgic creation; the experiences of a past life spiked onto an orphan girl. But I think it’s a similar concept, not necessarily carried out using that magic system.

 

 

Part 3: Déjà vu

 

So, conceptually, it’s a bit of a stretch to say Vin’s experiences belonged to a dead person. I get that – there isn’t a single hint of this kind of previous lives in the trilogy (or even in Alloy or SoS). But I think all the pieces are there in the trilogy itself.

• Dead individuals stick around. Kelsier sticks around. Vin’s previous incarnation could have stuck around in a similar fashion.
• Combining multiple people into one. I discussed this in Part 2, so I won’t go into detail here.
• The gods made Vin special. According to Sazed, Preservation chose Vin after she was born, because she snapped so early. Ruin also made his mark on her when she was young, spiking her with her sister’s Bronze ability. A third individual, “meddling” like Kelsier, could have also imparted past life experiences onto her.
• Souls can return to bodies. Sazed says that he didn’t figure it out in time to resurrect Vin and Elend, but WoB says it’s possible. http://theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=727
• Minds can be used to power magic. I’m not sure my Realmatics are quite right, but we saw Preservation turn his mind (soul?) into Investiture to imprison Ruin. It wasn’t his body, his Shard’s power; it was just his mind. The mind of Vin’s past life could be the power behind this reincarnation of its experiences.

So, while the way I’ve assembled them may be novel, I think that it is a natural progression of what is presented in the novels.

 

 

Part 4: Guess Who?

 

I strained my eyes looking through the pages, trying to figure out who could have been Vin’s previous life. This person had to be dead before Vin was born (duh), and they had had to be born after Allomancy was discovered (because Vin knew tricks against both Steel Inquisitors and atium burners). And, lastly, this person had to be a Mistborn (since Vin had good instincts in all metals).

 

I also think that her previous incarnation needed to be a noblewoman, because of how her internal conflict played out between orphan and noblewoman. I guess it could have been a nobleman, but Vin always sounds secure in her femininity. She’s a combination of Noble and Urchin, not a combination of Man and Woman. Now, gender and status aren’t deal-breakers; if I could find a character who met the previous three conditions who was a non-noble or a man, I would consider them a strong candidate.

 

So, boil this all down, compare it to characters from the books… and I’ve got nothing. Gemmel is the only Mistborn who’s dead before the series begins, but he was still alive after Vin was born. (Also, not a girl.) Alendi crossed my mind, but he was only a Seeker, and he never fought Atium burners. Other than that, we don’t know much about the history of the world.

 

So, I can’t point to an individual who I think was Vin’s previous life. But I can describe what I think she was like: a noblewoman Mistborn.

 

 

Part 5: Hoid

 

Now, the part where this really got fun was when Vin decided to avoid Hoid (hmm, that might be the Cosmere name for Tag. Avoid Hoid. It’s got a nice ring to it.)

 

Uhh… let’s try this again. When Vin decided to avoid Hoid (stay on target), she trusted her instincts.

Her ears picked out a faint sound. The man was humming to himself, as the instructions said that he might be doing.

Vin hesitated.

She couldn’t decide what it was, but something bothered her about the situation. It wasn’t right. She didn’t stop to think, she simply turned and jumped away.

…
 

As she had countless other times in her life, Vin simply accepted her instincts and moved on.

 

 

Remember, Instincts = Past Life in this theory. So, something about her past life told her to stay away from Hoid.

 

But what could it be? All Vin heard was humming. She didn’t even see Hoid. Just heard him.

 

What was he humming, anyways?

 

I wonder if Vin recognized it. Could it have been a song she knew in her past life. Has Hoid visited Scadrial before? Did he work with Vin’s past life, someone who knew that song? That’s a very Hoid thing to do; hum a song from a bygone era that no one living knows (except Vin has a vague memory of it because of her past life).

 

And, hey, let’s go down the rabbit hole. Hoid was looking for the Well of Ascension to get a Lerasium bead. Vin’s previous life might have thought she was the Hero of Ages as well, looking for the Well of Ascension, even though the thousand years hadn’t passed. After she died, she stuck around, and saw who Preservation chose to take her power and use the Well of Ascension. And she (old Vin) decided to grant her experience and skill to the new Vin.

 

Mad speculation, of course. We know precious little about what Hoid has been up to. I have no idea what Vin’s previous life was all about. So, please disregard the previous paragraph. (I’ll stand by the rest of this section, though.)

 

 

Part 6: Kelsier

 

So, this is a fairly complex undercurrent for Vin’s character. If Brandon was writing something like this into her arc, how is he going to get it across to the readers, now that the trilogy has been concluded? What are the ramifications on the future of the series? He doesn’t have plans for flashback books, so how would we ever learn about Vin’s past life?

 

I’ve compared Vin’s previous life to Kelsier a number of times throughout the theory. That’s where I think it becomes relevant: not in learning about Vin, but as a key trait of a character in a future trilogy who Kelsier reincarnates into. He would grant his experiences, his motivations, to a new character, to aid them in… well, whatever a future Mistborn trilogies would be about.

 

That way, we can learn about the circumstances of reincarnation, without going back to Vin. We learn it all through new eyes, and then someone like Harmony says, “I’ve seen this before. Although we didn’t realize it at the time, the Ascendant Warrior had the experiences of another to aid her. What you have is what remains of Kelsier, the Survivor. You can trust it.” Except, probably in much more epic language. That also would let us see some of that hinted-at Hoid/Kelsier animosity!

 

Vin was known as the Heir to the Survivor. I don’t think she inherited anything from him, though; I think she was the Heir to someone else’s experiences. This hypothetical future incarnation of Kelsier, however… he would be the true Heir to the Survivor. Another mythical Hero who we thought was Vin this whole time, only to have the rug pulled out from under us.

 

Again.

 

 

Summary

 

Okay, here’s the gist: Vin is so good at what she does because a dead person has passed along her experiences and skills. That is why Vin learn so quick and come up with her tricks, and it also contributes to her “identity crisis” between skaa and noblewoman.

 

This might become relevant in the future if Kelsier reincarnates himself in the same fashion.

 

Also, sorry for direct-quoting 30% of the text of the Mistborn trilogy throughout this post.

 

Bands of Mourning/Secret History Update:

Not gonna lie, Secret History blows some pretty major holes in my original idea: that Vin's instincts and experience come from a dead noblewoman. But some parts turned out pretty well. An analysis:

 

Loss: Vin's experiences are from a dead noblewoman, hanging around like Kelsier. Fuzz explicitly tells Kelsier that no one else has stuck around like he has. We also see that some of her instincts (i.e. about Hoid) come from Kelsier, so her instincts aren't all from the same source; I thought that Vin's past life had to be a Mistborn noblewoman to incorporate all of Vin's different kinds of instincts.

 

Win: Vin's instincts are not her own. We see Kelsier utilize his Connection with Vin (and later Spook) to communicate with her, something Vin interprets as her instincts. We also learn that Vin had a strong Connection to Preservation in order to take the Shard, from which we can deduce that Leras's Cognitive Shadow also passed along "instincts" related to Allomancy. So, while I posited that it was a dead noblewoman, it was actually a dead Shardholder (and, for a portion, a dead Kelsier) that gave Vin her instincts.

 

Loss: Her Allomantic tactics are from her previous life's experience. It appears that Preservation gave her knowledge of Allomancy ad how to use it as part of preparing her to take his power.

 

Win: Vin's instincts aren't all due to being Preservation's successor. Obviously, her interactions with Hoid are from Kelsier, not Fuzz. I think that leaves an opening for some of the other things I identified as being Mary-Sue-ish; namely, how quickly she adapted to nobility and how she had good handwriting when performing her research. I said (and still say) that it doesn't make sense for those to come from Preservation, and Secret History raises the possibility of others passing along "instincts."

 

Loss: Why she was afraid of Hoid. I thought it was her memories, but it was actually just Kelsier warning her. Surprisingly close - I just had the wrong dead person. But, still, very far - it wasn't because of what Hoid was humming, or buried memories within Vin. But I acknowledged that it was a lot of speculation, so I'm not too sad about this loss.

 

Win/Loss: Kelsier. So, Kelsier actually followed exactly what I predicted he would do: pass along his experience as instincts after he was dead. (In the specific instance of communicating about his experiences with Hoid to Vin.) However, I'm not gonna call it as a win - it looks like Kelsier is trying to return in the flesh, not pass along his experience to another. Yeah, I could probably make a good argument that I predicted Kelsier's reincarnation, but it would miss the point of what I originally said, so I view Kelsier's future as a loss for this theory.

 

So, if I want to move forward with this theory, (and I do), I need to revise some pieces. The big revision: Multiple people utilized their Connection to Vin to pass along her "instincts" about about Allomancy and nobility. To revisit the points from my original theory:

1) Vin's Unearned Experience. Vin gets her Allomantic experience and tactics from Preservation. However, points 3, 6, 10, 18, 19, and 22 all indicate a proficiency that I don't think Preservation could give to her: the instincts to be a noblewoman.

2) Vin vs Valette. Unchanged.

3) Deja Vu. Unchanged, but not that important to the overall framework.

4) Guess Who? It can't be a dead Mistborn noblewoman; however, it could be a Cognitive Shadow from elsewhere, or even someone still alive and floating around in Shadesmar. Secret History gives us some cool possibilities, but no clear frontrunners with regards to Means, Motive, and Opportunity.

• A member of the Ire. They have techniques to produce temporary artificial Connections. Don't see why they'd be helping Vin out, though, since they don't want her to take up Preservation. Means, but no Motive or Opportunity.
• Khriss. She was there in Scadrial up through the end of the second book, and that's where Vin's instincts about being a noblewoman stopped being mentioned (see the list in Point 1). We see her, ironically enough, at a ball in Bands of Mourning (showing that Khriss knows how to act like a noble), and Vin's brief foray into researching the Deepness could have also been Khriss's influence. But, again, no idea why she'd be helping Vin; she seems more like an observer, not an active player. Opportunity, but no Means or Motive.
• Senna. All we know about her is she's someone Leras knew. She could have been a Cognitive Shadow from early Cosmere history sticking around (maybe another dead Shard), she could have been a mortal in Shadesmar who had been working with Preservation. Among myriad other opportunities, but she was definitely involved with Preservation. She could have been influencing Vin throughout the first two books, but was killed (for real) by Ruin when he escaped, which again goes to explain why my list in Point 1 has very few entries from the third book. Motive, but no Means or Opportunity.

5) Hoid. Discarded.

6) Kelsier. Discarded. Kelsier is trying to return to a body, not reincarnate as someone else. Unless he is trying to leverage his Connection with Spook to take over his body (not something I think Kelsier would do to someone he called "friend"), it will follow a different mechanism than what happened with Vin.

Edited March 7, 2016 by Pagerunner

[Kelek's Breath he/him]

Upvote just for the amount of time it took to compile the quote list. As to the theory I like it, but I'm kind of weak in Realmatics theory so can't comment on it.

[Yata he/him]

Your theory is very nice, but as far as we know a cognitive shadow can't interact very much with the "living" (and download your entire experience in another Human is a pretty strong interaction).

A Cognitive Shadow is quite an "HumanSpren"

Edited January 16, 2016 by Yata

[AerionBFII he/him]

Dude....like serious Upvotes for the sheer amount of time and effort you put in for that.

It's a nice theory and I like it but I will side with Yata on this one,

I'm fully expecting her to be reincarnated in the next Mistborn Trilogy.

[Haradion Drogon]

I think we'll see Vin again. Possibly at the end of Book 5 of Storm Light, in a way that will blow our minds.

Nice theory. I like it.

[King's Twit he/him]

I like this. It's interesting and I'm almost certain that Kelsier will become relevant again in one way or another; it could be that he will be reincarnated (or pseudo-reincarnated).

 

We know that Snapping involves creating cracks in your spirit web which the power of Preservation then fills. What if a cognitive shadow (of a person who is mostly of the power of Preservation) could get in there fast enough to fill the cracks themselves, or at least be a part of the power that fills the cracks? Maybe this is more difficult with adults, since they already have developed minds and personalities, but a baby, like Vin when she Snapped, is pretty much a blank slate.

Edited January 16, 2016 by King's Twit

[Khyrindor he/him]

While I don't think Vin herself will show up again (WoB says he is done with the characters and they are happy where they are), I could totally see Kelsier bestowing his power on somebody, and Harmony drawing the conclusion that that is what happened to Vin. I think I really want that person to be a certain Mistborn serial killer in a world that doesn't have Mistborn anymore... Kell's Heir as a bad guy anyone??

[DreamEternal]

While I don't think Vin herself will show up again (WoB says he is done with the characters and they are happy where they are), I could totally see Kelsier bestowing his power on somebody, and Harmony drawing the conclusion that that is what happened to Vin. I think I really want that person to be a certain Mistborn serial killer in a world that doesn't have Mistborn anymore... Kell's Heir as a bad guy anyone??

So many of the current bad guys are gis fans/imitators that it is more than a reasonable thing to expect a rogue mistborn to also pattern himself on him, even if not in such a literal way.

[Patar he/him]

This was a very well put together theory, and the pun in the title made be chuckle. I don't necessarily believe that Vin will be coming back to life, but I can't help that you make some solid points. I'm also not entirely sure on the Realmatics stuff, so I won't really delve into that. I do have a few thoughts, however.

 

I think most of us are in agreement that Kelsier isn't quite done yet, and that he'll have a role to play sometime in the future. Whether or not he is a cognitive shadow or reincarnated when that happens, we will just have to wait and see. And this sounds like something that Kelsier would want to do. I can see him wanting to linger around for a few hundred years, wanting to cause trouble. I can't really say the same thing for Vin. I think that she is happy with Elend, and unless something terrible were to happen, I can't say for certain that Vin would WANT to come back to life. Maybe if events outside of her control made her, that would be a different story, but I don't see her doing it willingly. She's had a rough life, I think she deserves some rest.

 

That being said, I wouldn't mind if she came back. Vin is one of my favorite characters ever, and as long as she had a good reason for coming back, and that reason made sense, I'd be thrilled to see her resurrected. Once again, this was VERY well put together. Well done 

[Lightning he/him]

Good catch about inadvertently burning gold!  Upvote from me.

[Citadel16 he/him]

I've been thinking about reincarnation in cosmere as well.

 

in WoR, the letter sent to hoid uses the words:

 

 I am told that in your current incarnation you've taken a name that references what you presume to be one of your virtues. This is, I suspect, a little like a skunk naming itself for its stench. 

hmn... food for thought.

[Khyrindor he/him]

I think Frost is talking more about Aliases there. Hoid "grows back" and heals rather than regenerates.

[TheOneKEA]

I really like this theory a lot! Your research and collection of quotes supports a very interesting argument that makes a lot of sense.

[Kaymyth she/her]

I've been thinking about reincarnation in cosmere as well.

 

in WoR, the letter sent to hoid uses the words:

hmn... food for thought.

 

I believe that was an acerbic swipe at Hoid calling himself "Wit". 

[Flywinged he/him]

Unless I'm mistaken, it seems like many people have misinterpreted your theory. I don't think you ever claimed to think Vin would or wouldn''t come back to life, merely that it the time of the first Mistborn trilogy, she was a reincarnation of some previous person, most likely nole. I very much like this theory. I'm inclined to believe its true, but as you sort of mentioned, there is no hard evidence any where other than Sanderson-esk allusion to something else going on. Upvote for you because I think this a very interesting theory that doesn't have any flaws that immediately stick out to me.

[Pagerunner he/him]

Thanks for the upvotes and kind words, guys. I was worried I'd get torn apart, seeing as most of this could be explained as "Can't Vin just be talented? Why try to cheapen it with a complicated explanation?" and the prediction parts of the theory are all pretty blatant speculation.

 

Your theory is very nice, but as far as we know a cognitive shadow can't interact very much with the "living" (and download your entire experience in another Human is a pretty strong interaction).

A Cognitive Shadow is quite an "HumanSpren"

 

Actually, as Dalinar bonded with the Stormfather, he received visions, memories given to him from the Almighty. Even within the Mistborn trilogy, we see burning Atium (pure investiture, the body of Ruin) expands the mind of the user. So, investiture has been seen to interact quite strongly with humans before, and since cognitive shadows are comprised of investiture, they might be able to do some crazy things to people if they know how.

But I do agree that it would be a rare interaction. That's why I suggest it comes at a steep price to the cognitive shadow, much like Preservation expended his mind to trap Ruin. It would be a one-time event that sacrifices the cognition of the cognitive shadow.

 

I like this. It's interesting and I'm almost certain that Kelsier will become relevant again in one way or another; it could be that he will be reincarnated (or pseudo-reincarnated).

 

We know that Snapping involves creating cracks in your spirit web which the power of Preservation then fills. What if a cognitive shadow (of a person who is mostly of the power of Preservation) could get in there fast enough to fill the cracks themselves, or at least be a part of the power that fills the cracks? Maybe this is more difficult with adults, since they already have developed minds and personalities, but a baby, like Vin when she Snapped, is pretty much a blank slate.

 

That's a great point, Vin snapping so young. Being a baby, and having experienced nothing but the womb and then pain, the cracks in her soul might have been much larger than those of an adult, which is why dead people aren't reincarnating left and right. They need a much larger crack than simply Snapping into Allomancy.

 

I've been thinking about reincarnation in cosmere as well.

 

in WoR, the letter sent to hoid uses the words:

hmn... food for thought.

That is interesting. "Incarnation" is a bit of a loaded term - when referring to a person as such, I can't think of any context other than reincarnation. (A franchise, whether a movie series or a sports time, is usually where I would think of using that word, but nothing like that for individuals.) The mechanisms I think are behind reincarnation (cognitive shadows, cracks in the soul) aren't exclusive to Scadrial, so it might be something we can see elsewhere. There are some hurdles to compare Hoid to Vin, though.

Hoid has clear, distinct memories from the past, though, where Vin just has "instincts." So, if Hoid was reincarnating himself, he would need to take over a person much more... drastically than Vin's previous life did. Although, Hoid (who admits he would let Roshar burn to get what he wants) might be willing to sacrifice that one person. He might need even larger cracks than Vin had, so he might go for someone who's essentially brain-dead from shock. (Hmm... sounds like Taln. That makes me wonder... could the new Taln be a reincarnation of the old Taln? But that would require old Taln to have died... and since the other Heralds are running around, it makes me think the Heralds are immortal in a much more mundane sense of the world. Unless they're all reincarnating all the time. Oh, boy, now I've got something to think about when I reread WoK and WoR...)

 

But back to Hoid. How would that help him with his apparent goal of gathering magic abilities? He would need to retain his abilities from body-to-body. Remember, Vin was stronger than other Mistborn of her day (except Elend, obviously); maybe some of her power came from her previous incarnation. So, if Hoid can keep abilities from incarnation to incarnation, he could jump into a body on a new world, and use that to access its power (reincarnate on Sel to become an Elantrian).

 

Unless I'm mistaken, it seems like many people have misinterpreted your theory. I don't think you ever claimed to think Vin would or wouldn''t come back to life, merely that it the time of the first Mistborn trilogy, she was a reincarnation of some previous person, most likely nole. I very much like this theory. I'm inclined to believe its true, but as you sort of mentioned, there is no hard evidence any where other than Sanderson-esk allusion to something else going on. Upvote for you because I think this a very interesting theory that doesn't have any flaws that immediately stick out to me.

Yeah, I realize now that I left it a little vague what I thought of Vin in the future. So, I guess I'll spell it out here: I agree that Vin's story is done. When she sacrificed herself to kill Ruin, she said that Elend was all she had to live for. She doesn't have a need to stick around to meddle.

 

I don't view Vin as a Dragon-like figure (for those who haven't read Wheel of Time, the Dragon was a title for a prophetical figure who would reincarnate every Age to defeat the Bad Guy) who comes back time and time again, in a recurring cycle of death and rebirth. I think it was a one-time event, more like a ghost merging with Vin.

[Eagle of the Forest Path he/him]

While I don't discount your reincarnation theory completely, IMO Vin's talents and aptitudes can be explained in a simpler fashion.

 

Part 1

Vin's quick progress in allomantic and other skills can be seen as her being remarkably good at learning.

 

We know by WoB that she drew in a portion of the mists as a young child.

We also know by other WoB's (about slivers, but they're transferable here) that drawing in a lot of investiture (or a portion of a shard) expands the mind.

I believe Vin would have been rather smart to begin with, but with the residual effects of the mists added in, she would be remarkably good at assimilating new skills. Exactly as she is described in the books.

 

Part 2

Your take on the Vin-Valette conflict, while interesting, kind of devalues Vin's internal struggle IMO.

 

If seen as Vin adapting to new circumstances and accepting her changing personality, it's a story of personal growth.

If seen as Vin initially struggling against a cognitive shadow that has taken up residence inside, it becomes a story of her fighting off an infection and eventually failing.

Which is not saying it can't be true, but if I got to choose which story I'd like to read, I'd pick personal growth.

 

Part 3 

I'll pass on the other listed items, but I'd like to point out something about Minds powering Magic.

 

If one defines a person's mind as their cognitive aspect (somewhat hazy on the Realmatics myself, but I think that's at least somewhat right)

and you propose that the transference of experience into Vin was powered by a Cognitive Shadow burning up its mind, wouldn't the Shadow's experiences be burned up (as I can't really see those as anything but cognitive), leaving nothing to be implanted in Vin?

 

I'll skip over parts 4,5 and 6, since I don't see anything that I can confirm, refute or offer any alternatives to.

 

While I don't agree with your theory, I accept that it's a possibility. I admire the amount of effort you've put in and hope to read more of your ideas.

[KnightGradient]

Firstly, wonderful job with the quotes, and speculation on each one individually and as a whole. Upvote for that.

 

Secondly, I think Brandon's a great writer, but to add a plot that's entirely based in the subtext, and can only be read by crazy people(i.e. The Shard), and is only relevant for people who are versed in realmatic theory, that would test the limits of his skill.

 

Thirdly, I do agree with EagleOfTheForestPath in that it does cheapen the plot in some places, since Vin is characteristically independent. To have some shadow manipulating her in the same way R&P did feels like stretching it.

Fourthly, I really really want this to be true because even if Vin doesn't come back, it means that she could come back. That would be a great false hope for me.

[Yata he/him]

Fourthly, I really really want this to be true because even if Vin doesn't come back, it means that she could come back. That would be a great false hope for me.

But this theory if it is true (but I don't think), this don't give more chance to see a "Vin Reborn" in the future books than before.

 

This Theory works through the idea that a Cognitive Shadow may "imprint" itself on a living people. But Vin didn't left any Cognitive Shadow (Kelsier did it), She is with Elend in the far far place beyond the three realms (Sazed himself stated the Vin&Elend's status).

Edited January 18, 2016 by Yata

[Adamir he/him]

I may be stretching it here, but going by your theory, could Miles Hundredlives be a reincarnated Kelsier?

[Eagle of the Forest Path he/him]

I may be stretching it here, but going by your theory, could Miles Hundredlives be a reincarnated Kelsier?

 

Hasn't it been confirmed that Kelsier is still hanging around as a cognitive shadow at the time of AoL?

[Kaymyth she/her]

I may be stretching it here, but going by your theory, could Miles Hundredlives be a reincarnated Kelsier?

 

Lurking cognitive shadows aside, that would suggest that Kelsier willingly reincarnated himself into a man with no apparent sense of humor.  I have trouble believing that to be possible.

[Khyrindor he/him]

I want to see Kelsier's new Heir be the Mistborn serial killer as a bad guy next arc. Kelsier would make a fantastic villain, and well, he is a psychopath. 

[The Invested Beard]

Your evidence would also more soundly support a theory that Vin was being more directly influenced by Preservation than anyone else ever was and that Preservation was stepping in as her instinct. I think it may be a bit of a jump to conclude it's some random mistborn noble, but that's just me.

[Yata he/him]

Your evidence would also more soundly support a theory that Vin was being more directly influenced by Preservation than anyone else ever was and that Preservation was stepping in as her instinct. I think it may be a bit of a jump to conclude it's some random mistborn noble, but that's just me.

But Preservation can't "talk" to you, He may just listen your thought. Harmony itself can't talk to anybody without using Ruin's power.