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BoM broadsheet


Mason Wheeler

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In the broadsheet piece that appears before chapter 15 of Bands of Mourning, we see an ad for someone willing to listen to the (presumably) paranoid fantasies of those who believe their metal tools are talking to them.  It's illustrated with a hammer with a speech bubble over it saying "HELLO!"

But what if it's not a paranoid fantasy?

Hello, would you like to smite some nails today?

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19 minutes ago, Mason Wheeler said:

In the broadsheet piece that appears before chapter 15 of Bands of Mourning, we see an ad for someone willing to listen to the (presumably) paranoid fantasies of those who believe their metal tools are talking to them.  It's illustrated with a hammer with a speech bubble over it saying "HELLO!"

But what if it's not a paranoid fantasy?

Hello, would you like to smite some nails today?

Oh I'd definitely say it's not just a paranoid fantasy (though it might be concerning Nightblood itself) the add mentions "K and N", i.e. Khriss(who writes the Ars Arcana) and Nazh (who collects maps and stuff for her).

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I think we are supposed to think 'awakening', but I don't believe that is true. 

 

What if old metalminds are being smelted into tools. These metals would have a lot of magic in them. Maybe the application of a new intent, or something else, is creating sentient metalmind tools. 

Im reminded of Shai describing how a window wants to be an unbroken window. A metalmind wants to have the identity of a feruchemist, but if that metalmind was forged into a hammer, then the objevt would have two identities. Plus, there would be a lot of stored investiture that could fuel some interesting reactions. This would be a hilarious consequence of the industrial revolution. 

We dont really know what happens to a metalmind after the owner dies. Maybe the investiture can bleed into the metal over time. Then some human comes around, reforges the metal, and says "you are a hammer" and gives the metalmind a new cognative identity. The voila - i am a hammer starts talking in the physical realm. 

 

Feruchemists were pretty rare and lived away from the main populations. Now many loose metals might be invested. Plus, people might be smelting old relects from the genocide of the keepers. 

Edited by teknopathetic
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Interesting, I initially thought they were looking for awakened objects, but discarded the idea once I remembered how implausibly difficult awakening inorganic materials is. I eventually settled on the idea that k&n were looking for people with an abnormally strong presence or connection to the cognitive realm; probably to recruit new world hoppers, thoughts?

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  • 3 months later...
On 8/13/2016 at 4:57 AM, teknopathetic said:

I think we are supposed to think 'awakening', but I don't believe that is true. 

 

What if old metalminds are being smelted into tools. These metals would have a lot of magic in them. Maybe the application of a new intent, or something else, is creating sentient metalmind tools. 

Im reminded of Shai describing how a window wants to be an unbroken window. A metalmind wants to have the identity of a feruchemist, but if that metalmind was forged into a hammer, then the objevt would have two identities. Plus, there would be a lot of stored investiture that could fuel some interesting reactions. This would be a hilarious consequence of the industrial revolution. 

We dont really know what happens to a metalmind after the owner dies. Maybe the investiture can bleed into the metal over time. Then some human comes around, reforges the metal, and says "you are a hammer" and gives the metalmind a new cognative identity. The voila - i am a hammer starts talking in the physical realm. 

 

Feruchemists were pretty rare and lived away from the main populations. Now many loose metals might be invested. Plus, people might be smelting old relects from the genocide of the keepers. 

I also agree that while this seems to be Awakening at first, I don't think it is.  It makes no sense that an Awakener would: 1. Awaken a piece of metal, 2. Worldhop to Scadrial, and 3. Lose the item that they put so many Breaths into for another random person to find.

I think that your idea about reforged metalminds is plausible, but not with normal metalminds.  If metal usually takes a LOT of Breaths to Awaken, then it should take a LOT of Investiture to give it sentience.  In that case it would probably take the Bands themselves to supply enough Investiture for the sentience of the metal tools if possible at all.

My next idea would be Hemalurgic spikes, but those do not seem to be just lying around, and they would have to be piercing the person for Harmony to speak to them.

Next, it could be an unlocked coppermind, such as the coin that Hoid gave to Wax, and the talking tool would simply be the person tapping the memory.  I find this highly unlikely, however.

My last, and what I consider most possible, idea is related somewhat to Roshar and Sel.  When Honor was Shattered by Odium, Honorspren became the Splinters of Honor, and they were able to unite with humans to make them Surgebinders and become their Shardblades.  In this case, they were able to speak to the humans.  Similarly, Seons on Sel have Splinters, the Aons at their hearts, and they can also speak to the humans they are united with.  I believe that Khriss and Nazh are trying to see how badly Harmony is hurt by Odium at the moment by trying to see if He is beginning to Shatter and create Splinters.  They mostly likely assumed that this would manifest in the form of metal, as that is generally the method for the Scadrial systems, the Splinter most likely becoming a metal tool or weapon similar to a Shardblade.

Or, it could be that Nazh or Khriss lost their Awoken hammer, lol

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