Spoolofwhool Posted October 19, 2016 Posted October 19, 2016 38 minutes ago, cometaryorbit said: Feruchemy in itself wouldn't undermine it at all - Feruchemy was known at the beginning of TLR's reign. Public knowledge of Compounding would make it harder for TLR to claim his immortality as divine... but how much does that really matter? TLR is publicly known to be an Allomancer, after all. Anyway, TLR's power isn't fundamentally based on religious faith in him. The Skaa are forbidden to worship him, and Elend says even the Nobles don't bother with it much. TLR's power is based, fundamentally, on the fact that he's unkillable, controls the Koloss and Inquisitors, and is capable of crushing any rebellion personally if he finds it worth bothering with. Feruchemy was known yes, but it wasn't general knowledge. As we saw from Alendi's journal, feruchemy was practially unknown outside of the Terris, In addition, the immediate removal of feruchemists who likely held the main knowledge of feruchemy along with the surpression of the Terris prevented it from reaching the outside. As such, no one existed who could identify him as a feruchemist, and therefore explain away the basis of most of his abilities through compounding and other magics which can be accessible to common people. It would appear that not even the current feruchemist had an idea of it either, or at least Sazed wasn't aware of them. Since they weren't even considering the possibility, they couldn't even consider a possibility of how he achieved his long life. The lack of a theory is fairly supported by the idea that Sazed figured it out in days once it was confirmed he was a feruchemist, while no one else came up with the idea over the millennium. Therefore, overall, the lack of knowledge of feruchemy was important, and if feruchemy were general knowledge, it would've undermined him, as I expand on next. While you're correct that a lot of people didn't worship him, that doesn't mean most people didn't believe, or at some level, accept the story that he was a piece of a god, and it was from that that his incredible powers were based. Even Dockson and the others believed that the possibility that defeat of him was impossible because of his unexplainable powers, therefore attributing them to godhood. If it were explained that all the powers he had were possible through means available to more regular people, then his mystic would disappear. While he would still hold the power, people would be far more likely to rebel knowing they're against a regular person with extreme powers versus someone taken to be a god. Therefore, the religion is actually important, and lends additional power to him.
cometaryorbit Posted October 19, 2016 Posted October 19, 2016 27 minutes ago, Spoolofwhool said: Feruchemy was known yes, but it wasn't general knowledge. As we saw from Alendi's journal, feruchemy was practially unknown outside of the Terris, In addition, the immediate removal of feruchemists who likely held the main knowledge of feruchemy along with the surpression of the Terris prevented it from reaching the outside. As such, no one existed who could identify him as a feruchemist, and therefore explain away the basis of most of his abilities through compounding and other magics which can be accessible to common people. It would appear that not even the current feruchemist had an idea of it either, or at least Sazed wasn't aware of them. The lack of a theory is fairly supported by the idea that Sazed figured it out in days once it was confirmed he was a feruchemist, while no one else came up with the idea over the millennium. Therefore, overall, the lack of knowledge of feruchemy was important, and if feruchemy were general knowledge, it would've undermined him, as I expand on next. Surely the non-Feruchemist Terris, who avoided the mistwraith transformation, knew what Feruchemy was. And IIRC the Terris suppression didn't reach the severity we see until quite late in the Empire's history. The knowledge would have been largely localized to Terris, but not nonexistent. It wasn't figured out because TLR's powers don't look like Feruchemical ones. He lives for centuries, which definitely isn't a Feruchemical power; his healing is far beyond what any Feruchemist could manage; otherwise, the powers he primarily displays are really strong Allomancy. (And it probably would be hard to distinguish use of Feruchemical steel, as long as he didn't hit really absurd speeds, from what TLR could do with his extremely powerful Allomantic pewter.) Sazed figured it out quickly, yes -- after the fact. Once TLR's bracers had been removed and that killed him, it was clear his powers were Feruchemical in nature. 35 minutes ago, Spoolofwhool said: While you're correct that a lot of people didn't worship him, that doesn't mean most people didn't believe, or at some level, accept the story that he was a piece of a god, and it was from that that his incredible powers were based. Even Dockson and the others believed that the possibility that defeat of him was impossible because of his unexplainable powers, therefore attributing them to godhood. If it were explained that all the powers he had were possible through means available to more regular people, then his mystic would disappear. While he would still hold the power, people would be far more likely to rebel knowing they're against a regular person with extreme powers versus someone taken to be a god. Therefore, the religion is actually important, and lends additional power to him. Oh, I agree that most people believed on at least some level, for lack of other explanations. I just question whether that actually was important in maintaining his rule. As for his mystique disappearing... maybe, but I think you may be projecting our essentially mechanistic understanding of Cosmere magic onto the inhabitants of the Final Empire. Allomancy itself is presented as something quasi-divine, a gift of TLR to those he favored; the Ministry refers to "blaspheming against Allomancy". The Terris Worldbringers seem to have seen their power as a sacred charge. I'm not sure that knowledge that his power differed from Mistborn or Feruchemists only in degree (enormously) and not in fundamental type would change very much. He would still be seen as effectively a god, if not as part of (capital G) God.
Savanorn he/him Posted October 19, 2016 Posted October 19, 2016 (edited) 20 hours ago, Spoolofwhool said: Which idea? Pardon, but I don't know how to link. Maybe like this? Edited October 19, 2016 by Savanorn I figured out how to do it!
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