Shardic Promise Reflected in the Metallic Arts

[Bigmikey357 he/him]

Everyone who has read Mistborn knows the story by now.  2 Shards come to build a world, the promise being that what one creates the other gets to destroy.  Only the Shards themselves know why they entered into this agreement but we know the results. 

Magic systems in the Cosmere are born due to the interaction between planetary system and Shardic intents.  Well something happened to the magic system of Scadrial.  Whether it was on purpose or a side effect of a promise between creators,  the Metallic Arts reflect this promise.  Allomancy and Feruchemy are unique among Cosmere magics in that they are passed down genetically.  That would not be a problem if the trait was dominant, but it's a recessive. And with so few people granted the power in the first place the power is diluted fairly quickly,  at least by Shardic timelines. Without the power play between Ruin and Preservation both Allomancy and Feruchemy would have eventually died out among its people.  Sure Leras could have reinfused the system every few centuries,  passed out beads to worthy people,  but Ruin would have likely opposed the move, either directly or by using his agents out with aluminum spikes. 

Basically Ruin wasn't patient enough,  strange for an immortal.  He could have let the magic system die and made it easier for him to claim his biggest prize, the destruction of Scadrial,  without magic users to oppose him. Fortunately for the inhabitants of Scadrial he over reached and got vindicated for his troubles. 

[Ixthos he/him]

The big thing about Mistborn is that the magic systems, being based as you say on the interactions between shards and planets, likely were designed the way they are on purpose - and as Ruin's system is about stealing power and transferring it, and a spike in a body doesn't decay and can be added to by adding more spikes with the same power, it likely was the case that Ruin didn't care if the system diluted, as Ruin probably wanted some agents to emerge from this to use on other worlds, and if they were weaker after a few generations, no problem - just add more spikes.

 

Of course, Ruin thought that Scadrial, likely the latest planet to form in the setting, was like "an old man", so it is possibly that the form of Ruin Ati had tended to focus on more rapid change than the timeless perspective of Preservation - depending on how long ago the bargan was struck Ruin might have only wanted to the planet to survive a few generations. Of course, as Ruin also said to Vin, time meant nothing to him, and so the thousands of years - and the latest thousand when Alendi was thwarted - probably was like having to wait in a line for Ruin - annoying, but he was going to get what he wanted anyway. That does make his anger at loosing the Atium more interesting though, if the power would eventually return to him - probably because by that point all the dead humans would have made Vin his equal again, or possibly even stronger depending on how many people died, so she could keep the fight going indefinitely.

 

Basically, yes, I agree their dynamic is reflected in both the preservation of the system in the families of those who had it, as well as it becoming ruined by spreading out - that part likely is unrelated to Ruin's patience though, especially when Ruin has a method of increasing the power in any individual he wants by the very nature of his system.

[Bigmikey357 he/him]

6 hours ago, Ixthos said:

Basically, yes, I agree their dynamic is reflected in both the preservation of the system in the families of those who had it, as well as it becoming ruined by spreading out - that part likely is unrelated to Ruin's patience though, especially when Ruin has a method of increasing the power in any individual he wants by the very nature of his system.

The way Hemalurgy works, Ruin can make one individual with an limited lifespan powerful by taking at least one person and often several people out of his competitor"s system. The math is in Ruin's favor.  It takes at least 10 people to make a Steel Inquisitor,  5 to make a Koloss, either 2 or 4 to make a Kandra. What I'm saying is it would take time for magic to die on Scadrial but time he had in plenty.  And only a magic user would have had any chance of opposing Ruin.  

[NameIess]

1 hour ago, Bigmikey357 said:

The way Hemalurgy works, Ruin can make one individual with an limited lifespan powerful by taking at least one person and often several people out of his competitor"s system. The math is in Ruin's favor.  It takes at least 10 people to make a Steel Inquisitor,  5 to make a Koloss, either 2 or 4 to make a Kandra. What I'm saying is it would take time for magic to die on Scadrial but time he had in plenty.  And only a magic user would have had any chance of opposing Ruin.  

Allomancy won't ever die out completely, as the southern Scadrians had it, although it was extremely rare. 

[Bigmikey357 he/him]

11 minutes ago, Nameless said:

Allomancy won't ever die out completely, as the southern Scadrians had it, although it was extremely rare. 

The southern Scadrians are working under the auspices of a different Shard.  Medallion technology doesn't develop without Harmonium.  

Look at it like this. 10 beads of Lerasium sustained 1000 years of Allomancers but through genetic dilution their powers were really weak. Another millennium to work on the problem and it would become almost untraceable in human populations.  It may not completely disappear in the Scadrian human genome but you may only get a handful of people with any noticable magic.  At which point it becomes easy for a Shard to identify, subdue or eliminate magic users.  Basically Ruin should have let Rashek take the Well again. 

[NameIess]

18 hours ago, Bigmikey357 said:

The southern Scadrians are working under the auspices of a different Shard.  Medallion technology doesn't develop without Harmonium. 

The south Scadrians still have Allomancy, it is just extremely rare.

18 hours ago, Bigmikey357 said:

Look at it like this. 10 beads of Lerasium sustained 1000 years of Allomancers but through genetic dilution their powers were really weak. Another millennium to work on the problem and it would become almost untraceable in human populations.  It may not completely disappear in the Scadrian human genome but you may only get a handful of people with any noticable magic.  At which point it becomes easy for a Shard to identify, subdue or eliminate magic users.  Basically Ruin should have let Rashek take the Well again. 

Mistborn would go away, but mistings would remain. All Scadrians could be Allomancers, the Lerasium just boosted the chances and power of it. It used to be that non-Lerasium descended Scadrians could only be snapped by the mists, but Harmony has significantly lowered the threshold for snapping, meaning that even if the Lerasium's effects were to run out, there would still be Mistings.

[SwordNimiForPresident the sword/that sword]

The fact that exactly 16% of Scadrians are Mistings makes me think that, despite the genetic aspect, there is something else going on under the hood with initiation to the metallic arts.