Could Steris be key to unraveling the mystery of the Set?

[animalia]

I was just thinking that we know (or at least it has been implied)that Steris has spent a fair bit of time dealing with financial “mysteries” as she puts it. And given that at least half of what the set deals with is related to finance she could play a key role there.

 There is one more thing that she MAY be helpful, but this is WAY more speculative and could MUCH more easily amount to nothing. We have a line in book 1 where Marasai says that she is “quite sure” Steris doesn’t have Allomancy. But we don’t know why she doesn’t know. It’s possible that when she was younger before she tested by however “snapping” works nowadays, Steris reaserched a lot about the metalic arts and the different possible ways they could interact with each other, before moving on when it was realized she had no potential. IF this is true, again a big if, that’s another possible way for her to help solve the mystery.

[Weltall]

I don't think you'd need Steris to have a lot of knowledge of the Metallic Arts to contribute to working out the Set's plans. Most of what they're doing seems to involve research into hemalurgy, which she wouldn't have any information on and which has been revealed to Marasi and Wax through the book Marsh hands over. But her knowledge of finance could be huge, as she could help Wax follow the money and track down its members and their bases of operation. My guess is we'll be seeing the two working together like that in The Lost Metal.

[Jorville he/him]

I love Steris and I definitely hope to see more of her. When it comes to tracking down a mafia type organization her skill set would be super vital. Now that Wax really knows her I think it would follow that he would see how good she could be to help the cause.

[animalia]

Thanks for the replies. Of course not knowing how snapping works now it is also possible she is just ill suited to whatever is done to make people snap.

Not that suddenly developing a skill you haven’t practiced in would be of much practical use but it would be interesting to see how Snapping works now.

[Weltall]

Oh, were you thinking that Steris might wind up having some allomantic power that she doesn't know about, which would come out in the last book? Sorry, couldn't tell that from your post. I mean it's possible but it sounds like the new snapping threshold is extremely low so it doesn't seem too likely that she'd fail to snap or that she'd snap and fail to realize it. Wayne mentions that he knew he was metalborn even though bendalloy isn't exactly easy to come by and isn't something you'd ever be exposed to by accident.

We still might get more info on snapping mechanics in the next book, even if it just comes out as a bit of incidental dialogue. Kind of like how we know there are laws of some sort governing allomancy and especially Rioting/Soothing, because of offhand mentions.

[animalia]

2 hours ago, Weltall said:

Oh, were you thinking that Steris might wind up having some allomantic power that she doesn't know about, which would come out in the last book? Sorry, couldn't tell that from your post. I mean it's possible but it sounds like the new snapping threshold is extremely low so it doesn't seem too likely that she'd fail to snap or that she'd snap and fail to realize it. Wayne mentions that he knew he was metalborn even though bendalloy isn't exactly easy to come by and isn't something you'd ever be exposed to by accident.

We still might get more info on snapping mechanics in the next book, even if it just comes out as a bit of incidental dialogue. Kind of like how we know there are laws of some sort governing allomancy and especially Rioting/Soothing, because of offhand mentions.

 

2 hours ago, Weltall said:

Oh, were you thinking that Steris might wind up having some allomantic power that she doesn't know about, which would come out in the last book? Sorry, couldn't tell that from your post. I mean it's possible but it sounds like the new snapping threshold is extremely low so it doesn't seem too likely that she'd fail to snap or that she'd snap and fail to realize it. Wayne mentions that he knew he was metalborn even though bendalloy isn't exactly easy to come by and isn't something you'd ever be exposed to by accident.

We still might get more info on snapping mechanics in the next book, even if it just comes out as a bit of incidental dialogue. Kind of like how we know there are laws of some sort governing allomancy and especially Rioting/Soothing, because of offhand mentions.

Thanks for the replies. Of course not knowing how snapping works now it is also possible she is just ill suited to whatever is done to make people snap.

Not that suddenly developing a skill you haven’t practiced in would be of much practical use but it would be interesting to see how Snapping works now. 

I like to speculate. I don’t think it’s very likely but if snapping is now more emotionally based than physical, that COULD potentially explain things, the closest we’ve seen Steris come to getting angry is when Wayne antagonized her. 

 

 

I could get into my personal experiences as someone with Asperger’s but I think for the purpose of this discussion it might be best to quote something I heard said by Tony Atwood, one of the pioneers on autism and Asperger’s. He described it as a “buffer against negative emotions” and that when those emotions come they aren’t in between. They’re like a volcano that explodes. * The point I am wondering is this (unlikely though it is, it’s fun to speculate) could that same barrier against negative emotion also provide a MINOR resistance against emotional allomancy, that combined with most people with Asperger’s not always being provoked by the same kind of stuff that prokokes most people (or so I’ve heard, A description I read about people on the Syndrome that hits close to home for me is, provoke them intentionally and you’ll rarely get the reaction you’ll expect, but many of them have well hidden berserk buttons that can be unintentionally set off.) could be the kind of stuff that gives off a false negative. At the same time I realize that this is MOST LIKELY my wishful thinking.

 

Regardless of wether or not she could learn allomancy, I would to see someone trigger whatever potential berserk button Steris may have (I hope she has one) simply for what we can learn about her that way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

*That is something I can relate to. I have often described my anger as like a Summer Storm it comes quickly when triggered but doesn’t last to long. I wouldn’t be mad at the end of the day, but my parents when I fought with them would still be upset the next day.

[animalia]

Anyways I have derailed my own thread long enough. Back to the finance? 

[Fatikis he/him]

13 hours ago, animalia said:

Anyways I have derailed my own thread long enough. Back to the finance? 

It could for sure be important. It seems obvious that Edwarn making money gambling at the track was actually money coming in from elsewhere. Probably money laundering. I believe if you find where Edwarn was getting this money from you'd be able to track some of his dealings.

On a side note: As someone with what used to be diagnosed as Asperger's. I just shrug off not only emotional trauma but physical pain. If someone manages to make me angry I go full overboard and can barely control my rage. I find it plausible that Steris hasn't hit her snapping point. Also positive emotion has much more of a snapping effect on me than negative. I wonder if you could snap based on strong positive emotion. If so Steris may snap at a point she fully realizes that Wax loves her.

That being said I think she is going to be an Atium or Harmonium misting.

[animalia]

1 hour ago, Fatikis said:

It could for sure be important. It seems obvious that Edwarn making money gambling at the track was actually money coming in from elsewhere. Probably money laundering. I believe if you find where Edwarn was getting this money from you'd be able to track some of his dealings.

On a side note: As someone with what used to be diagnosed as Asperger's. I just shrug off not only emotional trauma but physical pain. If someone manages to make me angry I go full overboard and can barely control my rage. I find it plausible that Steris hasn't hit her snapping point. Also positive emotion has much more of a snapping effect on me than negative. I wonder if you could snap based on strong positive emotion. If so Steris may snap at a point she fully realizes that Wax loves her.

That being said I think she is going to be an Atium or Harmonium misting.

Or if there becomes a NEW metalic art based on Harmoninum I could see that as well. But as for a way that combines finances and allomancy how about tracking ways money could be moved around in order to aquire large supplies of metal.

 

EVERYTHING PAST THIS POINT IS ME RAMBLING

On another note I am not surprised that Wayne comes close to getting Steris to snap, she does seem to have genuinely fallen in love with Wax and Wayne kept trying to get her to call of her relationship which WOULD push her buttons. On the other hand this is tempered by the fact that she is aware of what Wayne is trying to do and this helps her real it in somewhat.

To share a personal story I also have OCD and certain trigger words in the past would often cause me to lick my glasses. Bully’s would love to get a rise out of me by calling out the trigger words in a crowded hallway (where I couldn’t see who did it, and therefore didn’t know who to blame) and make me lick. Eventually I felt I would NOT give them the satisfaction of knowing they got a rise out of me so I managed to hold down my OCD reaction until I was in the bathroom and they couldn’t see it. And with time having to deal with the bulling made the extent ti which the trigger words bother me go down. I still don’t like to mention them. But I can here it a time of two in casual conversation and be ok.

And this was with my actual OCD triggers (unlike my ADD I am pretty sure this was not a misdiagnosis but something I had in addition to the Asperger’s Syndrome given the compulsive licking I have)

 

So with an actual normal provocation that hits the buttons I can easily see the anger being tempored somewhat by the knowledge that it is being done deliberately done with the attempt to get a rise out of someone.

 

Of course that could easily be me just pasting my own experiences in her place again. Which is also a common thing for people with Asperger’s Syndrome. And one thing I have learned is that while “treat others like you would want to be treated” is a great place to start, it doesn’t work 100% of the time because not everyone wants to be treated exactly like how you want to be treated. That being said, it’s still better to hold to it as your baseline and adjust as need be, then to try and disregard it all together.

 

[Gisaku75]

Maybe Steris is an Aluminum or Duralumin Gnat, and finally we'll find out that one of these two metals are not really useless on its own !!

Edited May 15, 2018 by Gisaku75

[Weltall]

Well, we have multiple WoB that F-Aluminum could in theory be used to cleanse the body of other forms of Investiture (for example it would be better than F-Gold to cure Shade withering on Threnody) so it's not completely useless on its own, it's just extremely situational. A-Duralumin now... pretty sure that one's completely useless unless you have some power it can operate on. But a Duralumin Gnat might become a lot more important once allomancy-granting medallions become more common in northern Scadrial. Who's laughing now when they can do things nobody else can? xD

Edited May 15, 2018 by Weltall

[Bigmikey357 he/him]

Spoiler

On ‎5‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 1:32 PM, Weltall said:

Well, we have multiple WoB that F-Aluminum could in theory be used to cleanse the body of other forms of Investiture (for example it would be better than F-Gold to cure Shade withering on Threnody) so it's not completely useless on its own, it's just extremely situational. A-Duralumin now... pretty sure that one's completely useless unless you have some power it can operate on. But a Duralumin Gnat might become a lot more important once allomancy-granting medallions become more common in northern Scadrial. Who's laughing now when they can do things nobody else can? xD

 

So a duraluminum gnat gets a new name. Amplifier.

 

Speaking of duraluminum, does it specify how much of it you need to burn to get an effect? Like, if you only burn one metal flake would it have the same amp effect as an entire vial full?

[Weltall]

FYI, double-posting is frowned upon, unless you're bumping an old topic for a good reason. Next time just edit your previous post to add new material.

With duralumin, the metal burns independently so how much of it you have shouldn't affect the power of the burst so much as how long it lasts/how much of your metal reserve it will actually consume. If you have a huge amount of some Metal A you're burning and only a tiny bit of duralumin, you'll probably consume some of Metal A and get all that power in one burst, but you'll have some left over. We've just never seen (IIRC) any situation where someone is trying to do this or has a sufficiently lopsided ratio of duralumin/other metal for this to be a factor.

Edited June 5, 2018 by Weltall

[Calderis he/him]

39 minutes ago, Bigmikey357 said:

Speaking of duraluminum, does it specify how much of it you need to burn to get an effect? Like, if you only burn one metal flake would it have the same amp effect as an entire vial full?

For Duralumin, it burns at a set rate and does not amplify itself. 

So as long as you have enough to burn for the instant it takes to enhance another metal, it doesn't matter how much you used. 

Every time Vin burnt another metal in tandem with duralumin, she needed to replenish the metal that was used up, but she still had her duralumin, and anything she wasn't burning. 

[Bigmikey357 he/him]

Asked and answered. Thank you.