jjreeder he/him Posted June 30, 2019 Report Share Posted June 30, 2019 During my recent reading of all the Mistborn books, I noticed (first in Era 1) the number sixteen show up multiple times, both in The Hero of Ages and the other installments. I kind of forgot about it until I read Shadows of Self, where I noticed the carriage that Wax had been trying to find was number '16'. There were probably others as well, though I didn't catch any more. What is the significance of the number '16', and did I miss any other mentions of it in the books (the sixteen Shards perhaps)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karger he/him Posted June 30, 2019 Report Share Posted June 30, 2019 10 minutes ago, jjreeder said: During my recent reading of all the Mistborn books, I noticed (first in Era 1) the number sixteen show up multiple times, both in The Hero of Ages and the other installments. I kind of forgot about it until I read Shadows of Self, where I noticed the carriage that Wax had been trying to find was number '16'. There were probably others as well, though I didn't catch any more. What is the significance of the number '16', and did I miss any other mentions of it in the books (the sixteen Shards perhaps)? Their are 16 shards and 16 is an extremely important number in the cosmere(to the point where 17th shard is like black swan as in something that can't exist). It is also a planetary number 16 on scadrail. Most planets have them(like Roshar uses 10 for example). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RShara she/her Posted June 30, 2019 Report Share Posted June 30, 2019 Quote wicktacular At the end of the first Mistborn trilogy it's really significant that 1/16th of the soldiers who got really sick are now atium Mistings. Brandon Sanderson Yes. wicktacular But we know that there's more than sixteen metals. Wh-- Brandon Sanderson Yes. Sixteen that he-- when Preservation set that all up. He, number one, was not all there. But he was trying to create sixteen as a symbol to say, "Hey, catch this. I've given you a clue-- uh-- help." And so it was devised specifically for that. "*inaudible* Something's going on here." wicktacular So were there-- were 1/16th of the rest of them just *inaudible* just not significant? wicktacular Did he bump one of the other types then to make it sixteen? Brandon Sanderson Yeah. Brandon Sanderson No, no, they would have been Mistings of other types as well. wicktacular Okay. Do you have in your head *inaudible*? Brandon Sanderson Chromium. wicktacular Chromium? Brandon Sanderson Yes, that's right. It would probably have been one of the metals that was difficult to get at that level of technology. It would have been chromium - chromium would be hard gather at that time. Actually, no, it would have been aluminum. *about a minute later, while signing someone else's book* Hold on, there's a caveat to that last answer. Let me finish signing this and expand on that. *pause* So, it would still have been aluminum, but not for the reason your thinking. It would have been aluminum, but there's an asterisk next to that answer. wicktacular Okay. Interesting. Brandon Sanderson Hard to get chromium. wicktacular I've been thinking about-- Brandon Sanderson Oh no! He bumped aluminum. Yeah, he bumped aluminum. Sorry I had to-- I changed my mind. wicktacular Oh! Brandon Sanderson *a moment later* Okay, Chad? I have a <qualification> for you. I'll do this and then we'll... *a moment later* So... wicktacular On the sixteen or the *inaudible*... Brandon Sanderson The sixteen. So the answer is "yes," but it's not something-- it's not what you're thinking it is. wicktacular Okay. Brandon Sanderson Alright, there's an asterisk on it, okay? There's an asterisk on it, it's not what you're thinking. Uh, you're making-- you're making assumptions. Arcanum Unbounded Hoboken signing (Dec. 3, 2016) Quote Brandon Sanderson The Number Sixteen I worry that having Vin make this connection is one of the more forced events in the book. She'd just finished telling everyone that she wasn't a scholar, and now she discovers a pattern of numbers hidden in the statistics of how people fall sick? My original intention for this was to have her be in a mind-set where she was looking for natural rules—because of her earlier discussion of Ruin and his rules—which then allowed her to see this pattern. Rereading it, I'm not 100% pleased with it, but it's too late to make a change. I'd probably rewrite it so that Noorden or Elend make the connection, then let Vin connect that to what she's been thinking about. That would have been a much more natural progression. Note that here, Vin misunderstands what these numbers mean. She's looking for rules that bind Ruin. What she finds is not that, but instead a clue left by Preservation. Numbers are understandable to people regardless of language, and so Preservation decided to leave some clues for people to discover that would hopefully lead them to follow the plans he'd set in motion. In my prewriting, I'd intended there to be more hard facts to be discovered in the workings of the universe—numbers hidden in mathematical statistics that said rational things, like the boiling point of water or the like. All as a means of Preservation hinting to humankind that there was a plan for them. In the end, this didn't work out. I decided it would be overly complicated and that it would just be too technical to work in this particular novel. The only remnant of that plot arc became the number sixteen that Preservation embedded into the way the mistsickness works, intending it to give a clue about what the mists are doing to people. "You now are Allomancers!" is what this was supposed to scream. Unfortunately, the Lord Ruler's obfuscation of Allomancy—and the number of metals in it—left this clue to fall flat. The Hero of Ages Annotations (Sept. 3, 2009) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Oltux72 he/him Posted June 30, 2019 Report Share Posted June 30, 2019 9 hours ago, jjreeder said: During my recent reading of all the Mistborn books, I noticed (first in Era 1) the number sixteen show up multiple times, both in The Hero of Ages and the other installments. I kind of forgot about it until I read Shadows of Self, where I noticed the carriage that Wax had been trying to find was number '16'. There were probably others as well, though I didn't catch any more. What is the significance of the number '16', and did I miss any other mentions of it in the books (the sixteen Shards perhaps)? 16 is a power of 2. If you start with polar opposites, you will need to arrive at a power of 2. (pushing/pulling - internal/external) At the quadrants it is not so obvious, but you could come up with opposites) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wandering Investor Posted June 30, 2019 Report Share Posted June 30, 2019 Different magic systems like to be attached to certain concepts, although we don't know all the rules. One of those rules are numbers, another example being color. The magic system on Roshar for instance likes to repeat the number 10 alot. Braize is 9 centric. And all the powers on Scadrial are 16 based. So different planets, or maybe just different areas, of the cosmere will sometimes have a certain number built into the magic systems, don't know why. That's why there are 16 metals that interact with the magic systems. Another example was the ratio of people that got sick with the mist, although that also seemed to be something Preservation put in place, or at least encouraged, in order to show that there was something supernatural going on. As for Wayne and the coach, that'd just be a coincidence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wander89 he/him Posted June 30, 2019 Report Share Posted June 30, 2019 Ah, young Padawan. Welcome to the Cosmere! There's generally a magic number on each system on the Cosmere and it so happens that Scadrial has 16. @Wandering Investor has explained some of the others pretty well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts