Making the Bands of Mourning is actually pretty simple

[LiquidBlue]

So not to be too dramatic, but I think that the Bands of Mourning are pretty simple to explain, and don't require any deeper knowledge than has already been revealed. The bands of mourning are just a single-power medallion with a bunch of metalminds layered together. As a single power medallion you avoid having to figure out how to make a crazy many-multiple-power medallion function.

The single power granted by the Bands? Feruchemical Nicrosil. It then has nicrosilminds attached filled with the other feruchemical and allomantic abilities (or, I suspect, just 2 nicrosilminds one filled with "Feruchemy" and the other with "Allomancy"), and whatever other metalminds you want to have available for the feruchemical powers.

PS: This might not be a novel theory, or maybe the bands of Mourning aren't as mysterious as my first impression made me believe.

[Calderis]

Agreed. The issue is one person having all of those abilities to store. 

I think Kel has 3 spikes personally. One for his body (by whichever theory you subscribe to). One for Feruchemical Nicrosil, and one for Feruchemical Aluminum. 

With those three powers he could gain everything needed to make the bands himself, and still be below the threshold for control. 

Edited July 24, 2018 by Calderis

[LiquidBlue]

Yeah, I can see how he could make the Bands with just those three powers. But then he doesn't even need those two additional spikes either assuming he has a Feruchemical nicrosil medallion and a friendly feruchemist (and a friendly mistborn to share the allomantic abilities).

Laying aside how medallions are created. He would only need a Feruchemical nicrosil medallion. The friendly feruchemist makes unkeyed nicrosil metalminds for all of the feruchemical abilities. Then either Kelsier uses his own ability to burn Nicrosil and the Feruchemical nicrosil medallion to compound the nicrosil charges to whatever level is necessary and continues to do so to maintain the levels he needs.

Or, if Kelsier somehow returned without his own mistborn powers, he gives the Feruchemical nicrosil medallion and the the metalminds filled with feruchemical ability to a friendly mistborn, who can do the nicrosil compounding, and make nicrosil minds filled with the allomatic powers.

At this point, Keliser basically has the bands of mourning. He just needs to layer metalminds onto the Feruchemical nicrosil medallion, and fill them with feruchemical and allomantic abilites.

I wonder if Kelsier did have a friendly Feruchemist helping, or if he had to rely on old inquistor spikes. I think that it must have been a Feruchemist since I don't see why Ruin would make any Feruchemical nicrosil or Feruchemical aluminum spikes. (Okay maybe Feruchemical nicrosil, if he wanted an Inquisitor to have the ability increase their feruchemical or allomantic strength at crucial moments, but I think that the inquistors would have trouble finding Nicrosil to make metalminds from.)

[Oversleep]

The Spearhead isn't that different from a normal medallion. Save the fact it was made by somebody with access to all the powers and grants some or all of them. But it's just a medallion, one that comes with very vast storages.

[goody153]

Yeah i agree with this theory. 

I really dislike the concept of nicrosil hacking the system tbh. It makes fullborn very accessible(which has been the most broken set of powers you can in cosmere so far) i know there are still difficulties such as where to get nicrosil feruchemy/allomancy and probably skill needed for it's usage (considering none of the southerners made a medallion on the same amount of abilities the bands had) but still being a fullborn was what made Rashek(or Marsh as well to some extent) special and in the hands of the right people is it really hard?

And it's weird to think IF Sazed was consciously(assuming he was) diluting the chances of producing mistborn/feruchemist/fullborn to allow such thing as nicrosil to be known. (ok this one i'm not entirely sure if Sazed really did go that direction to remove chances of new crazies popping out from being a fullborn)

[MountainKing]

59 minutes ago, goody153 said:

Yeah i agree with this theory. 

I really dislike the concept of nicrosil hacking the system tbh. It makes fullborn very accessible(which has been the most broken set of powers you can in cosmere so far) i know there are still difficulties such as where to get nicrosil feruchemy/allomancy and probably skill needed for it's usage (considering none of the southerners made a medallion on the same amount of abilities the bands had) but still being a fullborn was what made Rashek(or Marsh as well to some extent) special and in the hands of the right people is it really hard?

And it's weird to think IF Sazed was consciously(assuming he was) diluting the chances of producing mistborn/feruchemist/fullborn to allow such thing as nicrosil to be known. (ok this one i'm not entirely sure if Sazed really did go that direction to remove chances of new crazies popping out from being a fullborn)

Sazed has, by reducing the snapping threshold, its most liking someone well pass the snapping threshold for a misting, while not reaching the mistborn snapping threshold, meaning unless something horrible or something truly amazing happened to someone during their early childhood, no one can become a mistborn.

[Calderis]

28 minutes ago, MountainKing said:

Sazed has, by reducing the snapping threshold, its most liking someone well pass the snapping threshold for a misting, while not reaching the mistborn snapping threshold, meaning unless something horrible or something truly amazing happened to someone during their early childhood, no one can become a mistborn.

The threshold for snapping has nothing to do with the amount of power, other than in some rumors in Era 1 that we know of because of annotations concerning Kelsier. 

The power that you have is determined at birth, purely by genetics. You're either a Mistborn, and snap as one, or your a misting. The level of difficulty in snapping does not change that. 

Quote

PrncRny (paraphrased)

How and when is the type of Misting you become determined? Can you tell what type of Misting you are before you Snap?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It's determined at birth. The cosmere by combining 3 aspects of self. Your physical self, mental self, and spiritual self. The spiritual self is tied to the Investiture of the world that you come from. When an Allomancer snaps, a piece of their soul is broken and some of that power leaks into them, giving them their abilities.

source

Quote

Questioner

When a Misting snaps, is the metal that they're going to be able to burn predetermined? Or is it determined when they snap?

Brandon Sanderson

It is part of their Spiritual DNA.

source

 

Edited July 25, 2018 by Calderis

[jefftucker0525]

Just want to say I've seen a WoB that says exactly what @MountainKing says, that the threshold for Snapping is what causes mistborn. It directly contradicts that one by @Calderis but idk which is more recent...

[Scion of the Mists]

On 7/24/2018 at 10:59 PM, MountainKing said:

Sazed has, by reducing the snapping threshold, its most liking someone well pass the snapping threshold for a misting, while not reaching the mistborn snapping threshold, meaning unless something horrible or something truly amazing happened to someone during their early childhood, no one can become a mistborn.

On 7/25/2018 at 2:29 AM, jefftucker0525 said:

Just want to say I've seen a WoB that says exactly what @MountainKing says, that the threshold for Snapping is what causes mistborn. It directly contradicts that one by @Calderis but idk which is more recent...

 

Is this the one you're referring to?  If so, it seems to me that Brandon is saying that the Mists were actually actively Investing them to turn them into Mistings, not just Snapping them normally.  So his comment that "Making someone a Mistborn takes way more power" doesn't refer to the normal Snapping process, but rather to direct Investiture infusion.  

Quote

Herowannabe

So Elend, at the end of Mistborn [Era 1], is going around finding Allomancers the mist had Snapped. How come he didn't find any other Mistborn? Or did he and we just didn't know about it?

Brandon Sanderson

What you have to remember is the mists were looking for a way specifically to deliver information to him, that "I am alive and doing something" but they were also kind of crazy. And so the idea was to make him notice the number 16 so that he would know that there was a plan and that something was prepared for him. Does that make sense?

Herowannabe

Why didn't the mist throw in some Mistborn in that sixteen too?

Brandon Sanderson

Then you would have 17. Or you would have like--  It was the number that was important to what the mists were doing. Plus it is much harder to make someone who wasn't originally-- Like remember what's going on is these are people it is Snapping intentionally who did not-- Like it's Investing them so-- It's either awakening a very little remnant in them or taking people who had-- They wouldn't have been able to be Mistings, if the mists hadn't intervened. Making someone a Mistborn takes way more power.

source

[Calderis]

The only other one I can think of is an in world belief that we have no idea if it's even true, and only even comes up in the annotations concerning Kelsier. And even then, it speaks of preexisting power making snapping more difficult, not the snapping itself making someone Mistborn. 

Quote

Brandon Sanderson

Kelsier's Snapping

Why didn't Kelsier Snap before he went to the Pits? I don't have an answer for you, not even in spoilers. He did live a hard life and it is odd that he wouldn't have Snapped until that moment when he saw his wife beaten to death.

They say that the more powerful a person is, the more trauma it takes to get them to Snap and the more dangerous that Snapping is.

source

There's so much weirdness surrounding Kelsier and the pits though that who knows. 

[jefftucker0525]

It's neither of those. If I remember right it was saying that everyone has the potential to be Mistborn but the snapping threshold is so high and the bloodlines too diluted, atleast in the current era, that it's virtually impossible to become Mistborn 

[Calderis]

5 minutes ago, jefftucker0525 said:

It's neither of those. If I remember right it was saying that everyone has the potential to be Mistborn but the snapping threshold is so high and the bloodlines too diluted, atleast in the current era, that it's virtually impossible to become Mistborn 

I'm sorry but that's not how it works. 

Without the introduction of lerasium into the population there would never have been Mistborn. 

Quote

Comatose

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

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.

source

As that says the southerners without lerasium have the seeds of Allomancy, but mistings would be exceptionally rare, and Mistborn unheard of. 

There's no inherent potential to be Mistborn. It's directly related to the strength of connection to Preservation inherited in the sDNA.

[jefftucker0525]

1 minute ago, Calderis said:

I'm sorry but that's not how it works. 

Without the introduction of lerasium into the population there would never have been Mistborn. 

As that says the southerners without lerasium have the seeds of Allomancy, but mistings would be exceptionally rare, and Mistborn unheard of. 

There's no inherent potential to be Mistborn. It's directly related to the strength of connection to Preservation inherited in the sDNA.

Exactly. Any period post Lord Ruler, Mistborn and Misting r determined by bloodlines  (or sDNA if u wanna be all technical) noble houses had more Mistborn because their bloodlines were more pure and all that jazz. That's exactly how it works. Or i guess i should've said anyone with Scadrian sDNA

[Calderis]

As that WoB shows, not anyone. The southerners have no increased potential beyond what has always existed on Scadrial, and the only ones in the north are those with ties to the original noble bloodlines. While those without any boost at all in the north are rare, it is genetic and so that strength would vary.