Ones Above further proof theory

[HavoKinetic]

Feels like the kind of thing that would have been said before, but I didn't see anything on it: the member of the Ones Above who dies to leave all of the Homeislanders access to some tech... He chokes to death. Could he be a cadmium ferring? Seems like a pretty easy death to fake when you can avoid breathing for a good long while. I don't think it's mentioned what they do with the body, but if they return it to the Ones Above, or send it out to sea or something, they wouldn't even have to hold the charade for long. Might even be dual-cadmium twinborn to compound and to speed up time outside his bubble (relatively) to hold out longer.

Thoughts?

[Jondesu]

4 hours ago, HavoKinetic said:

Feels like the kind of thing that would have been said before, but I didn't see anything on it: the member of the Ones Above who dies to leave all of the Homeislanders access to some tech... He chokes to death. Could he be a cadmium ferring? Seems like a pretty easy death to fake when you can avoid breathing for a good long while. I don't think it's mentioned what they do with the body, but if they return it to the Ones Above, or send it out to sea or something, they wouldn't even have to hold the charade for long. Might even be dual-cadmium twinborn to compound and to speed up time outside his bubble (relatively) to hold out longer.

Thoughts?

I think it's fairly likely that that person didn't actually die, but whether it was Chromium Feruchemy, or they were a Kandra, or any number of several other possibilities, it's tough to say.  And we can't rule out that sometimes people are dedicated enough to an important cause to actually kill themselves trying to achieve it.  I personally don't think that's likely in that case, but it is possible.

[Weltall]

Yeah, speculation has been that if the Ones Above are from Scadrial (by far the most obvious candidates for the role) then the one who 'died' was likely a kandra and/or a feruchemist. But that's not the only possibility, merely the most likely.

And welcome to the Shard!

[Yata]

9 hours ago, Weltall said:

Yeah, speculation has been that if the Ones Above are from Scadrial (by far the most obvious candidates for the role) then the one who 'died' was likely a kandra and/or a feruchemist. But that's not the only possibility, merely the most likely.

And welcome to the Shard!

The only thing aganist Kandra as "dead man" is about Harmony's politics...but centuries as passed (maybe thousand of years) it's possible the Scadrial's politics is changed

[Sarevok]

A Cadmium ferring is unlikely, since that would put up a speedbubble (or lack-of-speed-bubble?) that would involve everyone in the room. But some other kind of invested person could probably pull it of. Maybe a full feruchemist filling and/or draining the right metalminds at a time could simulate death enough to fool people with what seems to be medieval to renaissance level of medical knowledge. Alternately, an elantrian could probably enchant themselves or someone else to appear dead.

A danger could of course be the natives removing the metalminds (incase of the feruchemist) or possibly trying to give the "dead" person a burial. (or whatever homeislanders do with dead people, if they burn them, I doubt many feruchemists have enough healing stored up to survive for long).

[Yata]

27 minutes ago, Sarevok said:

A Cadmium ferring is unlikely, since that would put up a speedbubble (or lack-of-speed-bubble?) that would involve everyone in the room. But some other kind of invested person could probably pull it of. Maybe a full feruchemist filling and/or draining the right metalminds at a time could simulate death enough to fool people with what seems to be medieval to renaissance level of medical knowledge. Alternately, an elantrian could probably enchant themselves or someone else to appear dead.

A danger could of course be the natives removing the metalminds (incase of the feruchemist) or possibly trying to give the "dead" person a burial. (or whatever homeislanders do with dead people, if they burn them, I doubt many feruchemists have enough healing stored up to survive for long).

Those are indeed risks, but probably you may overcome that with Emotional Allomancy to point them in the right path of action.

I admit that the main candidates remain Scadrial's people but I am not yet sure of it.

[HavoKinetic]

I'm leaning more towards Cadmium ferring (Gasper, storing/tapping breath) than Cadmium misting (Pulser, slow bubbles). I just always find myself trying to think of how twinborns with the same metal might be able to make the "lesser" power useful because of the combo. Gasper seems more useful and more likely here, but I imagine plenty of the metallic arts could fake death to a lower tech society.

Though we don't know how much the Ones Above know about the planet. Now I have a short story in my head where the Homeislanders give a Gasper a floating burial at sea, he waits until they're far enough away to call for a pickup, but didn't account for the mindsense of one of the sea monsters... If Sanderson wrote Jaws...

[Weltall]

7 hours ago, Sarevok said:

A danger could of course be the natives removing the metalminds (incase of the feruchemist) or possibly trying to give the "dead" person a burial. (or whatever homeislanders do with dead people, if they burn them, I doubt many feruchemists have enough healing stored up to survive for long).

For a feruchemist, they could ensure that's not an issue by swallowing a metalmind (uncomfortable perhaps but we've seen both Sazed and Miles do it) or given that they have FTL by this point and should probably have really good medical technology, implanting one somewhere under the skin where it can't be seen or removed, maybe with some kind of membrane around it that doesn't interfere with feruchemy but does prevent metal poisoning.

Burial's a bit trickier. Obviously in this circumstance they could assume the locals would leave the body alone because they'd want to show proof to the other Ones Above that there wasn't any foul play at work, let them examine it for themselves and see it was natural causes etc. Probably a small amount of fear at what the others might do if they thought they'd murdered the person as well. Otherwise yeah, that would present challenges.

3 hours ago, HavoKinetic said:

Now I have a short story in my head where the Homeislanders give a Gasper a floating burial at sea, he waits until they're far enough away to call for a pickup, but didn't account for the mindsense of one of the sea monsters... If Sanderson wrote Jaws...

You're gonna need a bigger metalmind. xD