Speculation about era three and four metallic arts rarity

[Hoidlovesbacon]

In era two there are no mistborn and full feruchemists and much less powerful mistings/ferrings. I am guessing in era 3 and 4 even mistings/ferrings will be rare and twinborn might even be nonexistent. Does anyone have any ideas about how Brandon Sanderson will be able to keep the powers going?

[Karger he/him]

11 minutes ago, Hoidlovesbacon said:

In era two there are no mistborn and full feruchemists and much less powerful mistings/ferrings. I am guessing in era 3 and 4 even mistings/ferrings will be rare and twinborn might even be nonexistent. Does anyone have any ideas about how Brandon Sanderson will be able to keep the powers going?

Dilution has maximized in era two.  Also they will be able to subsidize with mechanical versions of everything.

[Dancer]

Plus if Harmony wanted he could just make some Lerasium to create more Mistborn. Or change the Spiritwebs of all the Ferrings around to become full Feruchemist. It really all depends on whether Harmony wants more metalborn or not. 

[Raphaborn]

Even without Harmony's direct intervention, the Set and the Terrismen are doing breeding work so that any bloodline (s) most likely to acquire Alomancy and Ferukemia respectively. Eventually this dilution will reach its peak, but it will still be possible to find some metalborn, which will be complemented by the medallions.
And probably until Era 4 we will follow a return from Lerasium, even if it is with the Scadrians discovering a way to distill them from the White Mists. So I doubt this is a problem.

[Karger he/him]

Additionally basic Darwinism indicates that people with metallic arts are more likely to breed then people without them.

[+Oltux72 he/him]

7 hours ago, Hoidlovesbacon said:

In era two there are no mistborn and full feruchemists and much less powerful mistings/ferrings. I am guessing in era 3 and 4 even mistings/ferrings will be rare and twinborn might even be nonexistent. Does anyone have any ideas about how Brandon Sanderson will be able to keep the powers going?

The dilution happened due to a full mixing. But Scadrial is restratifying again. Nobles and the rich will breed with each other, concentrating the metallic arts.

4 hours ago, Karger said:

Additionally basic Darwinism indicates that people with metallic arts are more likely to breed then people without them.

Especially if they get linked positively with social status.

[Frustration]

6 hours ago, Karger said:

Additionally basic Darwinism indicates that people with metallic arts are more likely to breed then people without them.

That depends the metalborn we see are in far more danger than the regular folk.

10 hours ago, Hoidlovesbacon said:

In era two there are no mistborn and full feruchemists and much less powerful mistings/ferrings. I am guessing in era 3 and 4 even mistings/ferrings will be rare and twinborn might even be nonexistent. Does anyone have any ideas about how Brandon Sanderson will be able to keep the powers going?

I don't see why it is still called 'Mistborn' if there are none they'll be back

[Quantus he/him]

As @Karger mentioned, the dilution has reached it's maximum, but specifically on the norther continent, so establishing contact with the Southern Continent bloodlines may well have an effect.  They will be finding mechanical ways around the dilution issues too.  People are getting weaker, but by the same virtue Ferrings are theoretically becoming more common since there will be less and less Terris isolation.  There's also the possibility that increased availability of Medallions will cause a resurgence since use  of investiture warps the spiritweb (ie Savant mechanics) that might sort of re-seed some bloodlines that use/overuse medallions.  The biggest wildcard to my mind is how much Hemalurgy is going to play a role, which I think is going to be more of a cultural question than anything.  

 

 

Quote

 

Questioner

In Mistborn, as the Eras are going on, the powers get diluted because of people passing down the bloodlines. Once we reach the Third and Fourth Era, the powers are going to be--won't they be a lot weaker, and not very useful?

Brandon Sanderson

They will become weaker, but there's a maximum level of dilution... There's a maximum level that you can reach pretty quickly, if you're only counting the northern continent. Because of the limited number of progenitors.

So, Era 3 we're not going to have a problem. And they're also trying to figure out ways around this.

Legion Release Party (Sept. 19, 2018)

 

 

[Karger he/him]

3 hours ago, Frustration said:

That depends the metalborn we see are in far more danger than the regular folk.

Well yeah because that is the plot but think about how many normies we see killed by comparison.

[NameIess]

49 minutes ago, Karger said:

Well yeah because that is the plot but think about how many normies we see killed by comparison.

But the numbers of metalborn are much lower. Are a thousand normal people killed for every metalborn?

[Karger he/him]

Just now, Nameless said:

But the numbers of metalborn are much lower. Are a thousand normal people killed for every metalborn?

That is a fair point but I don't think that Wax has representative experiences.  Seven explosions and all that.

[NameIess]

Just now, Karger said:

That is a fair point but I don't think that Wax has representative experiences.  Seven explosions and all that.

The metalborn also have a tendency to kill each other off.

[Karger he/him]

4 minutes ago, Nameless said:

The metalborn also have a tendency to kill each other off.

Feruchemists don't.  Neither do smokers, seekers, tineyes, nicrobursts, augures, soothers...

[NameIess]

1 minute ago, Karger said:

Feruchemists don't.  Neither do smokers, seekers, tineyes, nicrobursts, augures, soothers...

That's mostly because the vast majority of feruchemists are born and raised in a pacifistic and insular society. Once they start to spread out, there will probably be far more violence among them. Soothers and rioters probably won't have as good of a chance of breeding unless they misuse their powers, as people will be afraid that they are misusing their powers. tineyes do combat as well, Rannette gave Wax some anti-tineye rounds. Nicrobursts will either be practically useless or involved in a team of mistings without any powers that protect them. All of the useless mistings don't really have that much of an advantage over normal people.

[Karger he/him]

28 minutes ago, Nameless said:

Nicrobursts will either be practically useless or involved in a team of mistings without any powers that protect them. All of the useless mistings don't really have that much of an advantage over normal people

But they do.  Especially in noble societies.

28 minutes ago, Nameless said:

Soothers and rioters probably won't have as good of a chance of breeding unless they misuse their powers, as people will be afraid that they are misusing their powers

One only if they know two I think plenty of people would prefer soothers or rioters and they will have greater financial security by having powers.

[NameIess]

1 hour ago, Karger said:

But they do.  Especially in noble societies.

Actually, I think mistings like Cadmium and Duraluminum are considered an embarrassment. Look at Marasi. Her father made her hide her powers, and it wouldn't make any sense to hide them simply because she was illegitimate. I would have made more sense for him to take a distant cousin in if she was a allomancer, so her powers being considered shameful was the only reason to hide them.

[Karger he/him]

2 hours ago, Nameless said:

Her father made her hide her powers, and it wouldn't make any sense to hide them simply because she was illegitimate

Marasi's father wanted her to keep her powers hidden because he did not want her upstaging Steris not because her powers were actually embarrassing.  Marasi just has a complex about them.

[NameIess]

Just now, Karger said:

Marasi's father wanted her to keep her powers hidden because he did not want her upstaging Steris not because her powers were actually embarrassing.  Marasi just has a complex about them.

Still, I wouldn't see any real advantage to being a duraluminum misting. Some non-combat mistings might have an advantage, but other than political power or looking cool, there's no real advantage to a lot of them.

[Karger he/him]

2 minutes ago, Nameless said:

Still, I wouldn't see any real advantage to being a duraluminum misting. Some non-combat mistings might have an advantage, but other than political power or looking cool, there's no real advantage to a lot of them.

There is an advantage in being able to settle down and raise a family to enough of them that they should reproduce a bit more then your average person.

[NameIess]

Just now, Karger said:

There is an advantage in being able to settle down and raise a family to enough of them that they should reproduce a bit more then your average person.

Yeah, but it's not that significant, especially considering that the average person probably has only a little less allomantic potential than the average misting, unless they are descended directly from Spook.

[Karger he/him]

1 hour ago, Nameless said:

Yeah, but it's not that significant, especially considering that the average person probably has only a little less allomantic potential than the average misting, unless they are descended directly from Spook

In three or four generations that tends to build up.

[+Oltux72 he/him]

1 hour ago, Nameless said:

Still, I wouldn't see any real advantage to being a duraluminum misting. Some non-combat mistings might have an advantage, but other than political power or looking cool, there's no real advantage to a lot of them.

You make more magical babies. Hence you are marriage material for the rich and powerful.

1 hour ago, Nameless said:

Yeah, but it's not that significant, especially considering that the average person probably has only a little less allomantic potential than the average misting, unless they are descended directly from Spook.

Exactly. And who makes up a large part of the nobility, who will always have food and doctors?