Mistborn Through Genetic Modification

[Koldun he/him]

Since there will be a Mistborn trilogy set in Scadrial's far future, I had the idea that perhaps, eventually, they will discover how to alter one's DNA to code for Allomancy and Feruchemy. Perhaps there will be a breed of super-soldiers born with the abilities of Full Feruchemists and Mistborn, but having received those abilities through a method less messy than Hemalurgy. I don't know Brandon's stances on genetic modification, so I can't be sure that this will happen, but it is something I think is possible.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Koldun

[MPHRD]

While Allomancy and Feruchemy are hereditary they are not linked to physical DNA, instead to ones "Spiritual DNA". See http://coppermind.net/wiki/Spiritweb Which means this type of genetic modification would most likely not work. 

[soyperson]

2 hours ago, Koldun said:

Since there will be a Mistborn trilogy set in Scadrial's far future, I had the idea that perhaps, eventually, they will discover how to alter one's DNA to code for Allomancy and Feruchemy. Perhaps there will be a breed of super-soldiers born with the abilities of Full Feruchemists and Mistborn, but having received those abilities through a method less messy than Hemalurgy. I don't know Brandon's stances on genetic modification, so I can't be sure that this will happen, but it is something I think is possible.

As @MPHRD said, DNA and sDNA are distinct things. You're thinking of gene splicing as a "less messy" alternative to Hemalurgy, but Hemalurgy is  gene splicing for sDNA.

[Oversleep]

30 minutes ago, bleeder said:

As @MPHRD said, DNA and sDNA are distinct things. You're thinking of gene splicing as a "less messy" alternative to Hemalurgy, but Hemalurgy is  gene splicing for sDNA.

No, Hemalurgy is more of transplantation than gene splicing... kind of. It's like in the middle between transplantation and making chimeras from FMA. But not true gene splicing.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Oversleep

[soyperson]

2 minutes ago, Oversleep said:

No, Hemalurgy is more of transplantation than gene splicing... kind of. It's like in the middle between transplantation and making chimeras from FMA. But not true gene splicing.

Never seen FMA. 

I guess I misunderstood, transplantation may be a better term for it. Perhaps in future eras Hemalurgy will become more of a medical procedure or a technology than a magic. Hemalurgy is too imprecise to be like gene splicing, I suppose.

[Spoolofwhool]

9 minutes ago, bleeder said:

Never seen FMA. 

I guess I misunderstood, transplantation may be a better term for it. Perhaps in future eras Hemalurgy will become more of a medical procedure or a technology than a magic. Hemalurgy is too imprecise to be like gene splicing, I suppose.

I think there's also a WoB that heredity for hemalurgically-added traits is a lot more unlikely than for regular traits as well. This points to the transplantation over splicing.

[mistyknight]

4 hours ago, Koldun said:

Since there will be a Mistborn trilogy set in Scadrial's far future, I had the idea that perhaps, eventually, they will discover how to alter one's DNA to code for Allomancy and Feruchemy. Perhaps there will be a breed of super-soldiers born with the abilities of Full Feruchemists and Mistborn, but having received those abilities through a method less messy than Hemalurgy. I don't know Brandon's stances on genetic modification, so I can't be sure that this will happen, but it is something I think is possible.

To carry on the series Brandon will have to do something like that, given the fact that feruchemists and allomancers would have basically just died out by then

[King Cole he/him]

7 minutes ago, mistyknight said:

To carry on the series Brandon will have to do something like that, given the fact that feruchemists and allomancers would have basically just died out by then

Yeah, the gene pool would have degraded even further so there has to be a new wave of allomancers/feruchemists or some other method of reintroducing allomancy/feruchemy into the bloodline

[mistyknight]

4 minutes ago, King Cole said:

Yeah, the gene pool would have degraded even further so there has to be a new wave of allomancers/feruchemists or some other method of reintroducing allomancy/feruchemy into the bloodline

That sounded a lot more clever that want I said

[King Cole he/him]

7 minutes ago, mistyknight said:

That sounded a lot more clever that want I said

Lol

[Oversleep]

15 minutes ago, mistyknight said:

To carry on the series Brandon will have to do something like that, given the fact that feruchemists and allomancers would have basically just died out by then

9 minutes ago, King Cole said:

Yeah, the gene pool would have degraded even further so there has to be a new wave of allomancers/feruchemists or some other method of reintroducing allomancy/feruchemy into the bloodline

Not true. By now we're hitting saturation point and the genes won't weaken further.

[King Cole he/him]

3 minutes ago, Oversleep said:

Not true. By now we're hitting saturation point and the genes won't weaken further.

But the scarcity of ferrings and mistings will increase as the bloodline is spread

[Oversleep]

8 minutes ago, King Cole said:

But the scarcity of ferrings and mistings will increase as the bloodline is spread

Actually I'd argue that Metalborn have reproductional advantage over common people...

Anyway, I made a topic tracking population and bloodlines of Metalborn through Scadrial history that may be of interest to people in this thread:

Edited May 3, 2017 by Oversleep

[Farnsworth]

I wonder if Harmony will create more Lerasium just to make things more interesting. Maybe if they need to fight some outside influence?

[+Extesian he/him]

36 minutes ago, Figberts said:

I wonder if Harmony will create more Lerasium just to make things more interesting. Maybe if they need to fight some outside influence?

I'd see the problem with this that Harmony is struggling to act with competing Intents. I imagine doing that would be extremely hard (though only based on that fact, I've seen no more evidence on how that problem manifests).