Are the Mists more of Ruin than Preservation in era 2

[Yeti on a settee]

Hi I don't know if this has been discussed before, but do you think that the mist are now the excess ruinous intent in era 2? A WoB implies Harmony is doing something with his "spare" Ruin so to speak (new to using the forums so im not sure how to link this WoB). So could the mists now be this excess ruinous investure rather than preservation?

The reason I thought this is at end of Alloy of law, Wax burns some of the mists, while wearing the spiked earing.

However, in era 1, a spike stops Vin using the mists, which were of preservation.

So my question is, was Wax able to use some of this mists as a consequence they are now more of Ruin, which is in line with Wax "being of Ruin", or did he have access just as a consequence of Harmony's attention (implying the mists are still of preservation or just Harmonys combined intents in general).

P.s I know there are theories that the spare ruin is related to a potential daughter-product of an ettmetal reaction, but what if this excess is the mists, or that a mix of both ?

 

[HotAsDaySide]

I think the mists in Era 2 are nothing super invested anymore. Sazed needs all the power of Preservation to keep Ruin's power in check so it wouldn't make sense to put Preservation's power back into the mists, as was the case in Era 1. The mists could then be of Ruin but that doesn't seem too logical: there's nothing destructive in the mists; in fact, Era 2 mists don't do much to begin with. If the mists were more of Ruin, they would be much more similar to the Deepness but that's not the case. Instead the mists are just an occasional misty night without any (canon) powers.

There's also the thing that the Era 1 mists were Preservation's pure power without (much of) a consciousness directing it. In Era 2, Harmony has strict control over both shards so he'd probably put the excess power to a use instead of having it floating around freely. When Wax had access to them wass probably more due to Harmony's special attention through the spiked earring than anything else.

[Calderis]

The Mists are both in Era 2.

Quote

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Seventeen

The Mists Form

In writing this book, I had to nail down a few worldbuilding issues I'd been contemplating even before the first trilogy ended. What would happen to the mists, for instance, once Sazed took over and became Harmony?

The mists, obviously, are a big part of the series. It didn't make sense—either narratively or worldbuilding-wise—to lose them completely. However, they'd been created as an effect of Preservation trying to use his essence to fight against Ruin's destruction of the world. So . . . wouldn't they go away?

I decided that Sazed would still send them. They're part of the nature of the world now. To acknowledge what had happened, they wouldn't come every night any longer. But they would come. They were changed in that they are no longer simply the raw power of Preservation; they're now a part of Harmony—so they no longer pull away from Hemalurgy in the same way as they used to. They still have the odd effect of being able to power Allomancy. (And Feruchemy as well—if one knows how to do it.)

The mists are, in part, the raw power of creation. And when one is favored of Harmony, the mists have a greater effect than they might otherwise have. We'll see more of this later.

source

 

[Yeti on a settee]

Ah great. That quote answers my questions. Thanks!

So definitly Preservation and Ruin in the mist. This means that the mists could contain an additional amount of Ruin to balance Harmony.

To the first reply, I actually used to think Harmony used the slight extra Ruin to allow him a bit more freedom to act, as long as it was, well Ruininess. To enact change. But this worries me because it mean that Harmony very slowly will destroy the world even of it takes a long time or he doesnt realize he's doing it. A slow entropic death.

So I like the idea that the mists, or something is being used to channel his excess ruin to prevent himself from slowly prodding the world to ruin.

[Weltall]

1 hour ago, Yeti on a settee said:

To the first reply, I actually used to think Harmony used the slight extra Ruin to allow him a bit more freedom to act, as long as it was, well Ruininess. To enact change. But this worries me because it mean that Harmony very slowly will destroy the world even of it takes a long time or he doesnt realize he's doing it. A slow entropic death.

Given that everything is subject to entropy anyways and the timeframes an immortal Shard can deal in, Sazed could be a little more Ruin than Preservation without this becoming a problem on anything less than a geologic time scale.