Do Ko!oss have a religion?

[shadowwisp]

Do we know if modern day Koloss follow any sort of religion? After reading Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania, I thinking maybe a rough version of Surviorism? 

If I had to pick a religion, that would seem to be one that would resonate the most with Koloss. 

On a side note: Bands of Mourning and Allomancer Jak and Pits of Eltania spoilers

Spoiler

Anyone else think that the Survivor's Treasure is proof of "meddling" by Kelsier? Having a challenge like that does seem very Kelsier like. Not to mention it would be pretty easy for him to collect Koloss spikes. I wonder if he has had any other influence on the Koloss. 

 

Of course, it could just be Harmony "meddling" and using Kelsier name. 

 

[Kingsdaughter613 she/her]

Or the two working together.

[A Budgie she/her]

I'm not sure, but reading it it mentions that the Koloss have 'gods.'
I can't find the exact point at which it says that, though. Although, given the writing style of this particular story, it's quite possible Jak was being mellodramatic.

[Spoolofwhool]

Personally, I'm skeptical of most of Jak's story. I wouldn't consider anything in it to be an accurate telling of Scadrial.

Edited December 25, 2016 by Spoolofwhool

[Kaymyth she/her]

On 12/25/2016 at 3:02 AM, Spoolofwhool said:

Personally, I'm skeptical of most of Jak's story. I wouldn't consider anything in it to be an accurate telling of Scadrial.

Well, given that Brandon's postscript note for the story in Arcanum Unbounded flat-out states that his purpose in writing the story was to give us more information about modern-day koloss, some of the information must be accurate.  The trick is in sifting the truth from the adventure-laden hyperbole.

I generally consider the details of how koloss reproduce and pass on their spikes to be solid information.  The cultural tidbits may be a bit more uncertain, but I think that it's mostly true.

[Spoolofwhool]

1 minute ago, Kaymyth said:

Well, given that Brandon's postscript note for the story in Arcanum Unbounded flat-out states that his purpose in writing the story was to give us more information about modern-day koloss, some of the information must be accurate.  The trick is in sifting the truth from the adventure-laden hyperbole.

I generally consider the details of how koloss reproduce and pass on their spikes to be solid information.  The cultural tidbits may be a bit more uncertain, but I think that it's mostly true.

Good point. The cultural things, sure I believe, as well as how they use spikes to recreate full-koloss. His involvement and his help, I'm more skeptical on.

[Kaymyth she/her]

Just now, Spoolofwhool said:

Good point. The cultural things, sure I believe, as well as how they use spikes to recreate full-koloss. His involvement and his help, I'm more skeptical on.

Hee.  I've said this before around the board, I think, but I generally view Jak as a sort of Buffalo Bill-type figure.  The following is completely my own headcanon, and may or may not have any actual bearing on Brandon's actual intent:

Jak is, at heart, a showman.  He runs around and he does stuff, but he makes bank on embellishing the heck out of his doings and publishing those stories in both the broadsheets and with Handerwym's annotated collections.  He covers multiple angles there; the broadsheets for the people who are gullible and believe the adventures, the collections for the more sophisticated folk who know he's full of ash and get a kick out of the humor mocking him. 

In public, he's always in character.  If you were to meet the man, he would immediately fall into his character persona and proceed to dazzle and/or annoy you.  Because to Jak, there are two kinds of people in the world:  those who know who he is, and those who haven't discovered him yet.  Either way, it serves him to feed into his story persona and ultimately sell more stories.  But he's very self-aware; he knows he's completely full of dren, and he truly enjoys playing the part.  And all the while, he's watching and waiting for the next hook to turn into a story.

[+robardin he/him]

Yeah, Jak is a hype machine. For example, he makes dramatic statements about how those koloss would regret it if they triggered in him "the fury of an Allomancer enraged", but he's a freaking Tineye, what's he gonna do, stare them to death?

OK, snarky comment aside, does being a Tineye make one a more accurate marksman? I don't see why it would, unless paired with the "power and grace" of pewter (as when Spook was briefly a two-powered Allomancer courtesy of a hemalurgic spike). You could see farther and more sharply, but that wouldn't improve the fine motor skill needed to make use of the range. Though if you were made of the right stuff to become a sharpshooter in the first place, being a Tineye sure would help.

[Kaymyth she/her]

2 hours ago, robardin said:

Yeah, Jak is a hype machine. For example, he makes dramatic statements about how those koloss would regret it if they triggered in him "the fury of an Allomancer enraged", but he's a freaking Tineye, what's he gonna do, stare them to death?

OK, snarky comment aside, does being a Tineye make one a more accurate marksman? I don't see why it would, unless paired with the "power and grace" of pewter (as when Spook was briefly a two-powered Allomancer courtesy of a hemalurgic spike). You could see farther and more sharply, but that wouldn't improve the fine motor skill needed to make use of the range. Though if you were made of the right stuff to become a sharpshooter in the first place, being a Tineye sure would help.

He's going to lick their tin-laced walls until they come tumbling down!

I'd say it probably does help quite a bit, and I'd further posit that the limitations are imposed more by the accuracy of the weapon itself rather than physical abilities that could be enhanced by pewter.  It's not going to do you a whole lot of good with a revolver, but put a Tineye with a high-accuracy rifle into a sniper position, and somebody's going to have a bad day.

[+robardin he/him]

49 minutes ago, Kaymyth said:

I'd further posit that the limitations are imposed more by the accuracy of the weapon itself rather than physical abilities that could be enhanced by pewter.  It's not going to do you a whole lot of good with a revolver, but put a Tineye with a high-accuracy rifle into a sniper position, and somebody's going to have a bad day.

I could see how being a Tineye would be of great utility to a sharpshooter, but not how being a Tineye would make it easier to become a good sharpshooter, if you get what I mean. Otherwise anybody with a good telescopic sight could be a sniper, which is clearly not the case.

Though it could well be that a Tineye would be more highly motivated to develop sharpshooting as a skill that ideally complements their Allomantic advantage, that's entering the realm of discussing how much of being a good shooter is talent vs. practice. After all, I could push my basketball shooting skills to their max and still never play in the NBA.

[Kaymyth she/her]

1 minute ago, robardin said:

I could see how being a Tineye would be of great utility to a sharpshooter, but not how being a Tineye would make it easier to become a good sharpshooter, if you get what I mean. Otherwise anybody with a good telescopic sight could be a sniper, which is clearly not the case.

Though it could well be that a Tineye would be more highly motivated to develop sharpshooting as a skill that ideally complements their Allomantic advantage, that's entering the realm of discussing how much of being a good shooter is talent vs. practice. After all, I could push my basketball shooting skills to their max and still never play in the NBA.

That's true.  The character of mine that I'm thinking about when discussing this is a Roughsgirl who grew up keeping an eye on the cattle by sitting up in trees and taking potshots at lions and hyenas.  So you're quite right; her Allomancy is a thing that is useful in enhancing her skills, rather than it being the source of her skill.

[Julio]

On 12/27/2016 at 1:29 PM, Kaymyth said:

He's going to lick their tin-laced walls until they come tumbling down!

No, no, he's going to turn invisible, like he did while he was licking the wall... 

 

[gembargon1683]

I don't know if Ko!oss have a religion (it totally does look better spelled like that), but Brandon has said that this story gives some hints as to what Kelsier was doing after the rebirth of Scadrial.