Is Feruchemy's DNA stronger than Allomancy's?

[King Cole he/him]

When re-reading the original Mistborn trilogy, I noticed something odd. Over the 1000 some years that the Lord Ruler had control over the Final empire, the Keepers still had the full range of Feruchemical powers.

Then it was all or nothing, while for Allomancers, Mistings appeared within a few generations.

Not only that, but Feruchemists have existed since way before the Final Empire and only in the second trilogy have ferrings existed.

Is there a real reason for this?

[yurisses]

Around Nov 11th, 2011, Brandon Sanderson said:

Wetlandernw

Why do the Twinborn in Alloy of Law have only one feruchemical power, when all previous feruchemists, in spite of breeding programs, could use all the metals? (from travyl) Or were Ferrings always part of the system and we just didn't meet them in Mistborn? (my addition)

Brandon Sanderson
The Ferrings are a new development since Mistborn, as the Feruchemists have been interbreeding with the Allomancers. Basically, the Allomancy genes interfere with the Feruchemistry genes, breaking it down and creating the limitations we see in Alloy of Law. (His response to this was really fun—he found it a very perceptive question, and enjoyed talking about it. I wish I'd had my recorder handy so I could give you the full transcript instead of the boiled-down version.)
(source)

 

Here's a relevant WoB!

Unfortunately I failed to find the one I am thinking of so take that with a grain of salt but I remember Brandon suggesting he originally hadn't planned for Twinborn but got very lucky thinking of it for Wax & Wayne as it turned out more awesome than what he'd outlined. So it could be part of the explanation. Even if it was I think Brandon's worked out a really solid explanation anyway.

Edited May 3, 2017 by yurisses

[Weltall]

It probably has a lot to do with how the Terris population is small and genetically (both DNA and attendant sDNA) more isolated from the rest of the world. As a result, you have lots of people with Feruchemy having children with other people who also have Feruchemy. Whereas for Allomancy we know that Mistings existed before Rashek's Ascension but they were rare and Mistborns were unknown. Mistborns only appear because a very small number of people in a much larger population received lerasium and by default they were having kids with people without Allomancy. As a result, the 'Allomancer sDNA' got diluted a lot faster than it could have in the Terris people. Brandon mentions Terris' isolation here in response to a question about why only Terris has Feruchemy, which touches on some of the above speculation.

As to why the default state of Feruchemy is 'all or nothing' while for Allomancy it's 'one metal' with Mistborn requiring literal divine intervention... dunno.

[Samaldin he/him]

I think that´s mostly because the Terris bloodline was more pure/condensed. I´m not sure about the time before the Final Empire, but if Rasheks oppinions were common among his people i wouldn´t be surprised if mixed children were a rarity. After the Final Empire the bloodline got more spread, which within a few 100 years lead to ferrings.But it´s really weird that only Terrispeople had Feruchemy when theoretically all of scadrial could have had it (like with allomancy), maybe because they lived near the well?

[King Cole he/him]

18 hours ago, yurisses said:

 

Here's a relevant WoB!

Unfortunately I failed to find the one I am thinking of so take that with a grain of salt but I remember Brandon suggesting he originally hadn't planned for Twinborn but got very lucky thinking of it for Wax & Wayne as it turned out more awesome than what he'd outlined. So it could be part of the explanation. Even if it was I think Brandon's worked out a really solid explanation anyway.

Thanks! This was really helpful

[yurisses]

@King ColeFound the WoB I was looking for. Thanks @Pagerunner for helping me find it!

 

Question

(Paraphrased) How did you design a magic system to fit multiple time periods?

Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn’s a bit of a special case, since I’d planned it all from the beginning. So I was able to plan things and hold them back,knowing that I could use them later. That part of the whole idea behind not having all of the metals get discovered in the first books, and holding back this idea of Twinborn and things like this… though that was a little bit of a happy accident. I was mostly going to focus on Savants.
(source)