Misting and Ferring Outcome Bias

[The Grumpy Elantrian he/him]

Apologies for the weird title, but I am unsure how to word what I want to say more succinctly. 

Essentially, is there any bias as to which type of misting (if you have allomantic lines) or ferring (if you have feruchemical lines) you become, or is it simply chance? 

Do individuals have stronger connections to certain metals or perhaps the powers they provide? To elaborate, would someone who would have naturally grown up to be charismatic have a stronger conmection to zinc or brass allomancy? Or do they simply become charismatic because of their powers? (Chicken/egg scenario here)

I could see how an existing bias may be the case as there doesn't seem to be equal amounts of each type of misting/ferring. There are for example, fewer duralumin ferrings and gold mistings than there are other kinds. Presumably, an equal chance would result in equal amounts of each variant over a great enough sample size, so the entire world's population should see relatively even divisions.

Anyway, hopefully some of you can provide clarification. 

[Isilel]

9 hours ago, Mistborn Radiant said:

Do individuals have stronger connections to certain metals or perhaps the powers they provide?

 

I would have loved it if one's characteristics as a person affected which metal abilities one manifested, but this WoB:

 

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

 

seems to suggest that this is not the case, alas. A quick search didn't turn up anything about Ferrings, though, so there is still a slim hope there.

[Scion of the Mists]

I don't think we've ever heard one way or another.  I've definitely thought about this, as it seems intuitive.  However, the descendants of the Era 1 characters don't seem to share the same abilities (e.g. Wax has Steelpushing; Breeze had Soothing). 

The ratios are definitely different for the different metals though - it's not just even chance.  

 

Edited October 23, 2018 by Scion of the Mists

[+Lewis Nethur He/Him]

Pretty certain we have quotes from Wax in SoS that claim steel is disproportionately common in allomancers and disproportionately rare in ferrings, but I'm not aware of any in-world speculation regarding the cause for that split.

Considering that the distribution is different for either magic system, we can at least rule out that it isn't based on atomic number or rarity of the metal/additives and is more likely a purely an issue of people's natural sDNA or Connection at birth/conception.  I see two possibilities:

1. The powers are assigned to potential magic users based on a weighted distribution, ie: 1% get gold, 10% get copper, 16% get steel, ect. This would allow for fluctuations in the apparent generation to generation ratios of powers due to the rarity of the metallic arts manifesting in the general population, but overall would be a stable split.

2. Some powers could require a more powerful Connection to Harmony at birth, ie: allomantic steel could theoretically require less innate Connection (Investiture?) To manifest as a usable power than allomantic gold. This would mean that there might be just as many people with the potential for gold allomancy in their spirit web as steel allomancy, but fewer of then can manifest the power because the threshold to do so is higher for some reason. This would open the possibility of Harmony forcibly snapping them in a pinch, like Preservation did in the first trilogy.

[HSuperLee]

1 minute ago, hwiles said:

Pretty certain we have quotes from Wax in SoS that claim steel is disproportionately common in allomancers and disproportionately rare in ferrings, but I'm not aware of any in-world speculation regarding the cause for that split.

Considering that the distribution is different for either magic system, we can at least rule out that it isn't based on atomic number or rarity of the metal/additives and is more likely a purely an issue of people's natural sDNA or Connection at birth/conception.  I see two possibilities:

1. The powers are assigned to potential magic users based on a weighted distribution, ie: 1% get gold, 10% get copper, 16% get steel, ect. This would allow for fluctuations in the apparent generation to generation ratios of powers due to the rarity of the metallic arts manifesting in the general population, but overall would be a stable split.

2. Some powers could require a more powerful Connection to Harmony at birth, ie: allomantic steel could theoretically require less innate Connection (Investiture?) To manifest as a usable power than allomantic gold. This would mean that there might be just as many people with the potential for gold allomancy in their spirit web as steel allomancy, but fewer of then can manifest the power because the threshold to do so is higher for some reason. This would open the possibility of Harmony forcibly snapping them in a pinch, like Preservation did in the first trilogy.

I would say it's probably the second. With more investiture consuming (which I am not connecting to metal burn rates) abilities requiring more to make them snap. This could connect back to what Snaderson has said about more powerful allomancer taking more trauma to snap in era 1. Unfortunately, because we know so little about snapping in era 2, we can't really build on this theory much.

[Bigmikey357 he/him]

It could also be that the number of ferrings and mistings are equally proportional across a given population but because some abilities are more useful than others it's more difficult to determine some of the more obscure or less powerful metals. Aluminum does nothing allomantically so one could be an aluminum misting and go their entire life without knowing. A gold misting could have been born poor and thus never discovered their power. But steelpushers are quite valuable regardless of era. There's a good chance that if you can burn steel you'll figure it out.

[+Lewis Nethur He/Him]

20 hours ago, HSuperLee said:

I would say it's probably the second. With more investiture consuming (which I am not connecting to metal burn rates) abilities requiring more to make them snap. This could connect back to what Snaderson has said about more powerful allomancer taking more trauma to snap in era 1. Unfortunately, because we know so little about snapping in era 2, we can't really build on this theory much.

Forgot to add, another important consequence of the second option would be that, as the metallic arts are diluted and spread throughout the general population, the rare powers will gradually become even rarer unless steps are taken in world to breed and recombine family lines that branched from Spook and the Terris survivors. The Terris and Set actually might already be doing this...

[Rossamund]

Do we know if misting/Ferring type is heritable? Because if so then the fact that some allomantic powers such as steel being more useful might result in people possessing them having more children. Which would naturally producer more of them over time. We don't have good data, but this would explain why we've seen two gold feruchemists (Miles and Wayne), since this power is probably the most beneficial in terms of surviving.

[Calderis he/him]

1 minute ago, Rossamund Rhapadocera said:

Do we know if misting/Ferring type is heritable? Because if so then the fact that some allomantic powers such as steel being more useful might result in people possessing them having more children. Which would naturally producer more of them over time. We don't have good data, but this would explain why we've seen two gold feruchemists (Miles and Wayne), since this power is probably the most beneficial in terms of surviving.

There is no evidence to suggest that misting/Ferring type is tied to what you parents were, no. 

[HSuperLee]

11 minutes ago, Calderis said:

There is no evidence to suggest that misting/Ferring type is tied to what you parents were, no. 

In fact, we've seen evidence against type being tied to your parents. Off the top of my head, Straff begot a Mistborn and multiple pewterarms, and I believe he referenced other allomancer children, while he was a tineye. In addition, Kelsier was a Mistborn while his brother was a seeker.

[Scion of the Mists]

11 minutes ago, HSuperLee said:

In fact, we've seen evidence against type being tied to your parents. Off the top of my head, Straff begot a Mistborn and multiple pewterarms, and I believe he referenced other allomancer children, while he was a tineye. In addition, Kelsier was a Mistborn while his brother was a seeker.

Also Breeze/Wax.  There are a lot of descendants of characters from Era 1 running around.  I feel like if there was a correlation it would have been noticed.  

[DocHoliday he/him]

On 10/24/2018 at 3:44 PM, Scion of the Mists said:

Also Breeze/Wax.  There are a lot of descendants of characters from Era 1 running around.  I feel like if there was a correlation it would have been noticed.  

Per AoL they know  exactly  who everyone (Noble born at least) is, how they're related, whatever allowmancy\feruchemy they have. The Set is using this info for nefarious purposes.