Theory: Why Allomancy is either one power or all sixteen

[cometaryorbit]

Every Scadrian, being of Preservation and Ruin, has some tiny theoretical latent potential ("seeds") in the Metallic Arts:

Quote

Interview: Oct, 2008

Hero of Ages Q&A - TWG (Verbatim)

Comatose (18 October 2008)

So here's my last question. If there ARE people on the other side of the world, did Vin kill them all by placing the sun on their side, or do they have they're own Ruin/Preservation battle going on over there as well? Do they also have allomancy feruchemy and hemalurgy?

Brandon Sanderson (20 October 2008)

No, they're not dead. Yes, Rashek was aware of them. In fact, he placed them there as a reserve. I knew he wanted a 'control' group of people in case his changes to genetics ended with the race being in serious trouble. All I'll say is that he found a way other than changing them genetically to help them survive in the world he created. And since they were created by Ruin and Preservation, they have the seeds of the Three Metallic Arts in them—though without anyone among them having burned Lerasium, Allomancers would have been very rare in their population and full Mistborn unheard of.

But for most people, this is never enough to actually manifest (except possibly if the Mists get involved).

For those whose potential is strong enough, though, Snapping is possible. I'd suggest that every Scadrian specifically has some degree of Allomantic potential in each metal. Usually, when someone Snaps, damage to their soul creates a "crack" allowing the power of Preservation to flow through - turning the latent potential into an actual ability.

Thus, probably, a person has (by random chance - there are Allomantic bloodlines, but there don't seem to be specific lines of Coinshots or Thugs or Soothers) one metal's potential just slightly stronger than the others. At the moment of Snapping, that "point in the spiritweb" hits its critical threshold and activates first - and all the power flows through it, so none of the other metals' points activate. It's like pouring water into a cup with a hole in the bottom, so it flows out as quickly as in.

In very rare cases, though, there's just so much Preservation coming through that that first point can't use it up, can't keep up with the inflow. In that case it's like using a garden hose to fill a cup with a pinhole in the bottom - the water can't get out fast enough, and just sloshes around. Then all the metals' points are pushed past the critical threshold, and they all activate practically simultaneously - and the person becomes a full Mistborn.

(Savantism, then, is the widening of that "pinhole" by pushing too much water - Preservation power/Investiture - through it.)

Originally, it seems that Feruchemy always came with the full set of metals. This makes sense, since Feruchemy doesn't draw on an external source of power and doesn't involve a Snapping event. But in Era 2, the spiritual DNA has mixed, and the Feruchemy access mechanism has gotten "stuck to" and largely overridden by the Allomancy one, creating Ferrings.

[SpeakoftheDeval]

I'm not sure this quite explains why you cant have two. If you had just enough water coming into your cup that the first couldn't handle it, why wouldn't one more open up?

[Yata he/him]

Actually Allomancy (and I think Feruchemy) manifests itself as a signle power-Metal. The Mistborn are an overloading of the Allomancy with infusion of direct Spiritual overwriting made by Lerasium.

It has to notice that is possible to be a double Misting with some ways for example Hemalurgy or thanks to Lerasium's alloys

[cometaryorbit]

On 12/28/2016 at 7:29 AM, MadhavDeval said:

I'm not sure this quite explains why you cant have two. If you had just enough water coming into your cup that the first couldn't handle it, why wouldn't one more open up?

I think because the 'critical thresholds' are very close together (which would make sense, since particular powers don't seem to run in families, though Allomancy in general does).

Someone might have a minuscule bit more potential in one Allomantic metal than the others, so if they Snap and the power-quantity is small, it can all flow through that "conduit". But if there's even a bit of "buildup" of power, everything Snaps open at once.

And maybe a natural double-Misting or triple-Misting isn't inherently impossible, just so unlikely as to never happen in practice.

[cometaryorbit]

On 12/28/2016 at 7:38 AM, Yata said:

Actually Allomancy (and I think Feruchemy) manifests itself as a signle power-Metal. The Mistborn are an overloading of the Allomancy with infusion of direct Spiritual overwriting made by Lerasium.

It has to notice that is possible to be a double Misting with some ways for example Hemalurgy or thanks to Lerasium's alloys

Well, before Lerasium there were only Mistings like Alendi, sure. But I don't think that means it's the more "natural" form - it's just a matter of the amount of power available. Probably, more specifically, the amount of Connection to Preservation, thus amount of power drawn through the connection.

Lerasium is just a way to edit your Spiritweb, making your Connection high enough to become Mistborn rather than Misting, which doesn't happen by inheritance/birth unless you have Lerasium-powered ancestors. (And not the only way - apparently Rashek rewrote his Spiritweb with the Well's power rather than a Lerasium bead.)

I thought a Lerasium alloy still couldn't give you two powers? So if Breeze ate Lerasium-Steel he'd become a Coinshot but stop being a Soother? But that might just be MAG information, don't know if there's a 100% canon source...

Hemalurgy can do whatever, sure, but I'm talking about natural Snapping in this theory. (And I'm counting Lerasium as basically 'natural' here as it's still within Preservation's magic system. Hemalurgy is using another magic system to break/change the rules, just as Compounding is.)

[Yata he/him]

12 hours ago, cometaryorbit said:

Well, before Lerasium there were only Mistings like Alendi, sure. But I don't think that means it's the more "natural" form - it's just a matter of the amount of power available. Probably, more specifically, the amount of Connection to Preservation, thus amount of power drawn through the connection.

Well before Lerasium there are only Misting and also those Misting needed an extra force to Snap into Allomancers (the Mist).

You may take the pre-Lerasium's popolation and compare with the Ska's popolation (pure ska, not someone with a bis bis bis grandparent among the nobles). They are both in a "natural state" and they need the Mistsnap to gain their abilities.

12 hours ago, cometaryorbit said:

I thought a Lerasium alloy still couldn't give you two powers? So if Breeze ate Lerasium-Steel he'd become a Coinshot but stop being a Soother? But that might just be MAG information, don't know if there's a 100% canon source...

He would become a Brass and Steel Misting:

Quote

THE_ARCHDUKE

Could you become a double misting if you took two lerasium/metal alloy beads (I think the example was iron and steel) at the same time?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Yes.

The problem here, that there is not a "natural way to become allomancer" pre-Lerasium bead the Snapping into Allomancer was possible with the Mist (in the end gassous Lerasium) in TFE thank to direct infusion of Lerasium in 9 guys/lady.

I proposed the Overloading in the regard of Mistborn also because they seems to work outside of the right parameters...For example their Allomancy may hurt them, a problem no Misting is exposed.

Edited December 31, 2016 by Yata

[cometaryorbit]

1 hour ago, Yata said:

Well before Lerasium there are only Misting and also those Misting needed an extra force to Snap into Allomancers (the Mist).
You may take the pre-Lerasium's popolation and compare with the Ska's popolation (pure ska, not someone with a bis bis bis grandparent among the nobles). They are both in a "natural state" and they need the Mistsnap to gain their abilities.

I don't think we definitely know that... it's said that "Allomancy came with the Mists" yes, but it might just have been really really rare before. The Southern Scadrians seem to have had some allomancers in their population, and there's a WoB saying that without lerasium-burning ancestors Mistings would be very rare ... but not totally absent.

I don't know if the Skaa are totally the same thing since TLR messed with their genes. Anyway nobody would know if one or two fluke allomancers popped up... they'd just be assumed to have noble blood somewhere in their ancestry.

Quote

He would become a Breeze and Steel Misting:

Oh, I never saw that WoB. Interesting... so it is possible without Hemalurgy.

[Yata he/him]

2 hours ago, cometaryorbit said:

I don't think we definitely know that... it's said that "Allomancy came with the Mists" yes, but it might just have been really really rare before. The Southern Scadrians seem to have had some allomancers in their population, and there's a WoB saying that without lerasium-burning ancestors Mistings would be very rare ... but not totally absent.

Yes, not absent because the Mist snapped them. The Mist snapping happened from the Preservation's sacrifice to the Final Ascension (or the Allomancer ratio in the Basin would be very very highter).
Notice also that now the Snapping works differently because Harmony find the previous one horrible....so probably now it's easier to reach the treeshold without traumatic experiences

[cometaryorbit]

8 hours ago, Yata said:

Yes, not absent because the Mist snapped them. The Mist snapping happened from the Preservation's sacrifice to the Final Ascension (or the Allomancer ratio in the Basin would be very very highter).

But not continuously throughout that time - only when the Well refilled. Mist snapping happened in Alendi's time and after TLR's death, but not during the Lord Ruler's reign in between.

But Mist snapping hasn't happened in over three centuries - so if that were the only source there would be no Mistings in the South in Wax's time rather than very few.

Quote

Notice also that now the Snapping works differently because Harmony find the previous one horrible....so probably now it's easier to reach the treeshold without traumatic experiences

True. That may well be the reason... but it does seem that at least now Mistings can 'just pop up'.

[Yata he/him]

20 hours ago, cometaryorbit said:

But not continuously throughout that time - only when the Well refilled. Mist snapping happened in Alendi's time and after TLR's death, but not during the Lord Ruler's reign in between.

But Mist snapping hasn't happened in over three centuries - so if that were the only source there would be no Mistings in the South in Wax's time rather than very few.

Why did you said the Mist snapped people only when the Well is full ? The Mist as far as we know Snapped people always...Simply almost all the popolation avoid the Mist during TFE and you can't discover it. Also a lot of people were already "broken" when they enter in the Mist so someone may Snap withou a real explicit effect. The only reason they discovered the "Mistsickness" in WoA is because Ruin empowered the Mist to make them last also during the day...so a lot of people had to expose themself to them

[Spoolofwhool]

On 31/12/2016 at 4:04 PM, cometaryorbit said:

But not continuously throughout that time - only when the Well refilled. Mist snapping happened in Alendi's time and after TLR's death, but not during the Lord Ruler's reign in between.

Mist snapping didn't occur during TLR's time because Preservation did bother with it, because he thought there was no need since TLR was going to take the Well again. It only started again after his death because Preservation was in damage control mode.