Speculating on Era 3

[ftl]

I think by era 3, natural magic is gonna be diluted even further, but technological magic is going to be enhanced.

Between eras 1 and 2, we lost Mistborn - the sDNA was diluted, so now there's just ferrings and mistings. I think the same will continue to happen, as mistings and ferrings become even rarer, to the point where we barely have any twinborn, maybe none.

On the other hand, technological uses are going to skyrocket. We're seeing the start of this, with the medallions, but it's going to extend from there - there's going to be ways of obtaining powers that someone wasn't born with, and of having machines and devices use the powers.

[Kingsdaughter613 she/her]

On 8/31/2020 at 6:19 AM, Oltux72 said:

There are multiple kinds of elite. In this case power shifts from the genetic elite to the elite with money.

My issue with calling people with money the elite is that it makes it sound like they didn’t earn it. Most wealthy people worked hard to become wealthy, and it isn’t right to denigrate that just because they had the good fortune to become successful. (Yes, I know a lot of first generation millionaires. You’d never guess because more than half live in walk ups and they don’t flaunt it.)

[ftl]

12 hours ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

Most wealthy people worked hard to become wealthy,

[citation needed]

Strong disagree IRL, but that's not a discussion for this board.

*Definitely* not true in Mistborn Era 1, where the only way to become nobility was to inherit it. Still mostly untrue in Era 2, where they remark that most of the leadership is descended from the nobility even though technically that's not a requirement; that's why it was a big deal that Aradel was the first non-noble Governor. As far as I can tell, most of the characters in Era 2 who are wealthy inherited a pretty good start on that wealth.

[Truthless of Shinovar he/him]

On 9/1/2020 at 9:37 PM, ftl said:

I think by era 3, natural magic is gonna be diluted even further, but technological magic is going to be enhanced.

Between eras 1 and 2, we lost Mistborn - the sDNA was diluted, so now there's just ferrings and mistings. I think the same will continue to happen, as mistings and ferrings become even rarer, to the point where we barely have any twinborn, maybe none.

On the other hand, technological uses are going to skyrocket. We're seeing the start of this, with the medallions, but it's going to extend from there - there's going to be ways of obtaining powers that someone wasn't born with, and of having machines and devices use the powers.

IIRC correctly, I think there’s a WoB that says that the power has pretty much diluted as much as it’s gonna, and that what we see in Era 2 is the weakest we’ll ever see allomancy and feruchemy. I can’t check right now, but I’ll see if I can find it later.

[+Oltux72 he/him]

21 hours ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

My issue with calling people with money the elite is that it makes it sound like they didn’t earn it. Most wealthy people worked hard to become wealthy, and it isn’t right to denigrate that just because they had the good fortune to become successful. (Yes, I know a lot of first generation millionaires. You’d never guess because more than half live in walk ups and they don’t flaunt it.)

Well, that need not be true on Scadrial. Scadrial is practising some kind of industrial aristocracy with the rich making the laws that suit them. There is a way to make new titles, but basically houses that were already wealthy under the Final Empire (Tekiel) still running things indicates a lower level of social mobility.

[Kingsdaughter613 she/her]

6 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

Well, that need not be true on Scadrial. Scadrial is practising some kind of industrial aristocracy with the rich making the laws that suit them. There is a way to make new titles, but basically houses that were already wealthy under the Final Empire (Tekiel) still running things indicates a lower level of social mobility.

Then we should specify ‘on Scadrial.’ Otherwise it’s an indictment of the real world people as well.

 

13 hours ago, ftl said:

[citation needed]

Strong disagree IRL, but that's not a discussion for this board.

*Definitely* not true in Mistborn Era 1, where the only way to become nobility was to inherit it. Still mostly untrue in Era 2, where they remark that most of the leadership is descended from the nobility even though technically that's not a requirement; that's why it was a big deal that Aradel was the first non-noble Governor. As far as I can tell, most of the characters in Era 2 who are wealthy inherited a pretty good start on that wealth.

Everyone wealthy I know is descended from Holocaust survivors who built themselves up from less than nothing within three generations. No family, major trauma, often with badly interrupted education and major physical and psychological issues as a result of, I don’t know, going through Hell on Earth? You really want to imply they don’t deserve what they earned?

[Koloss17 She/They]

8 hours ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

Then we should specify ‘on Scadrial.’ Otherwise it’s an indictment of the real world people as well.

 

Everyone wealthy I know is descended from Holocaust survivors who built themselves up from less than nothing within three generations. No family, major trauma, often with badly interrupted education and major physical and psychological issues as a result of, I don’t know, going through Hell on Earth? You really want to imply they don’t deserve what they earned?

Y’know, I love getting into arguments, But I think the shard mods don’t. There was a thread where the mods had to break up some arguements that were dragging on too long and got a tad off topic. Is there a place in the shard where you can argue with people? Cuz that would be nice.

[Kingsdaughter613 she/her]

2 hours ago, Koloss17 said:

Y’know, I love getting into arguments, But I think the shard mods don’t. There was a thread where the mods had to break up some arguements that were dragging on too long and got a tad off topic. Is there a place in the shard where you can argue with people? Cuz that would be nice.

I’d call it debating. There really should be a place for reasonable debate. We could always PM if we want to continue the discussion.

[Koloss17 She/They]

@Kingsdaughter613 and @ftl we could debate financial states of millionaires and hopefully get interesting perspectives in the PMs if ya guys want.

Edited September 8, 2020 by Koloss17

[Kingsdaughter613 she/her]

12 hours ago, Koloss17 said:

@Kingsdaughter613 and @ftl we could debate financial states of millionaires and hopefully get interesting perspectives in the PMs if ya guys want.

I’m good with that.

[Friendshipspren he/him]

On 8/14/2020 at 2:30 AM, Raphaborn said:

Feruchemically Shardblades.

Wait what's that ????

[Kingsdaughter613 she/her]

On 8/31/2020 at 9:02 AM, HSuperLee said:

But then you'll still have those naturally born with the power, thus circumventing the need to pay for it, and thus they might be seen as even more elite. After all, an bloodmaker would only need to buy the power to burn gold while others would need to buy both allomancy and feruchemy. Plus, if they have "safe" hemalurgy (which I'm personally against, but I understand its probably at some level inevitable because it's too tempting of a hack) a bloodmaker could sell their services. Essentially, you could have a bloodmaker born with nothing raise themself to prosperity by the time they're a teenager. Yes, F-gold is the most obviously useful, but even duralumin gnats would have their powers being sought out to make more medallions. The only power that seems like it wouldn't lead to wealth is A-aluminum, and that's only because we haven't yet found a use for it. 

A-aluminum is a purifier. It’s use won’t be a big deal until the Cosmere really starts overlapping.

[Raven Wilder]

Here's a thought: a Cadmium Misting could use their bubble of slowed-down time as a form of suspended animation. They hole up at a secluded cabin somewhere with plenty of food, water, and several crates worth of cadmium beads. They spend a few months there, constantly burning cadmium, so that when they finally stop and head back into society, its a hundred years later and they get to experience the wonders of a futuristic world.

That could be a handy way to have certain characters (for instance, Marasi) survive from one era to another, without needing to hand out immortality to one and all.

[Weltall]

On 9/6/2020 at 5:10 PM, Ookla the Steampunked said:

IIRC correctly, I think there’s a WoB that says that the power has pretty much diluted as much as it’s gonna, and that what we see in Era 2 is the weakest we’ll ever see allomancy and feruchemy. I can’t check right now, but I’ll see if I can find it later.

Citation provided for future reference:

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)

So yeah, Scadrial's allomantic and feruchemical sDNA is about as dilute as it's going to get and it won't be more extreme in Era 3.

14 hours ago, Raven Wilder said:

Here's a thought: a Cadmium Misting could use their bubble of slowed-down time as a form of suspended animation.

Brandon has confirmed that this is a viable form of 'time travel' into the future. There have been some interesting discussions and thought experiments on the board regarding how nested bubbles could be used to further extend the effect.

[Inkpage13]

I don't think this will be real, but I've wanted to see mistings with both pushing and pulling powers, ie, steel/iron, cadmium/bendaloy...

BTW, it would be called dualborn

Edited April 10, 2025 by Inkpage13

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

What I hope we see is more exploration on Kandra Blessings.

We've seen how normal Iron Spikes work, how they deform humans into Koloss. But we've seen TenSoon describe a Blessing of Potency, made from Iron Spikes, as acting more akin to pewter allomancy.

Why the difference? How are iron Blessings different from a regular iron spike? What would happen if a human was given a Blessing? And of course, what other Blessings are there, because we know that one Kandra from BoM had a pewter blessing. Does that mean that other Hemalurgic metals can steal other attributes as well as powers? If so, what kind? So many questions and I hope we finally get at least some answers to them.

Also, super keen on more info on the elusive 'Deniers of Masks' that have the Malwish nervous, they're said to be dangerous even with all the tech that the Southerners have been shown to have, even with airship bombers and allomantic grenades and feruchemical medallions, to the point that that Allik has said that his people 'could really use the Bands of Mourning to fight them'. Do they use the Metallic Arts? They must if they're considered threatening to an advanced magitech civilization. But in what way? So many implications, even geopolitically, would some people in the Basin eventually try to make contact with them to get a leg up on the Malwish Consortium? Sounds like something an anti-malwish faction would do in a Cold War, 'enemy of my enemy' and all that.

[+robardin he/him]

2 hours ago, Inkpage13 said:

I don't think this will be real, but I've wanted to see mistings with both pushing and pulling powers, ie, steel/iron, cadmium/bendaloy...

BTW, it would be called dualborn

Unless Harmony changes something fundamental about Allomancy, that's mechanically impossible as a naturally occuring thing.

In fact even having more than one metal for Allomancy is "unnatural": it required some large injection of Connection to Preservation in one's Spiritweb (via either lerasium or Divine Twiddle) to get past that, and then the result was a "Mistborn" (Allomancy for all metals).

It's why we only see "Twinborn" once the "genes for Feruchemy and Allomancy began to mix" -- the natural outcome is to have a Metalborn power for one metal, when Allomancy is involved. While possible, it's "very unlikely" to have a Natural Born 'Fullborn', and I would think even less likely for a Natural Born Mistborn With One Feruchemical Power (or the opposite, Natural Born Feruchemist With One Allomantic Power).

Hemalurgy can "staple" someone else's Allomancy to you, and medallion type unsealed metalminds can temporarily grant you a Metalborn power (powerminds?), but that's external and artificial.

Feruchemists originally all being "full Feruchemists" is a curious thing as yet unexplained (like, how did Feruchemy arise originally, and why only in the Terris, and how did they manage to stay so separate for so long?), but that's more backstory at this point than future development related.

Unless the Village People in Elendel, as I shall refer to them for no reason whatsoever, manage to eugenicize their way back to breeding a natural born Full Feruchemist. Or perhaps in Era 4, "CRISPR type technology for sDNA" will be developed that can splice in genes for Feruchemy while excluding those for Allomancy.

Edited April 10, 2025 by robardin

[Inkpage13]

4 minutes ago, robardin said:

Unless Harmony changes something fundamental about Allomancy, that's mechanically impossible as a naturally occuring thing.

I knew that, I just thought it was a cool idea

[Atlas333]

On 11/30/2020 at 3:46 AM, Raven Wilder said:

Here's a thought: a Cadmium Misting could use their bubble of slowed-down time as a form of suspended animation. They hole up at a secluded cabin somewhere with plenty of food, water, and several crates worth of cadmium beads. They spend a few months there, constantly burning cadmium, so that when they finally stop and head back into society, its a hundred years later and they get to experience the wonders of a futuristic world.

That could be a handy way to have certain characters (for instance, Marasi) survive from one era to another, without needing to hand out immortality to one and all.

It's a pet theory of mine that this is what Spook is doing. I won't believe he's dead until I see a body. 

[+robardin he/him]

21 hours ago, Atlas333 said:

It's a pet theory of mine that this is what Spook is doing. I won't believe he's dead until I see a body. 

Well he'd be leaving behind everyone he knew and loved... Tough choice to make.

We know from Steris' quoting of history that "The Lord Mistborn" built and ruled Elendel for a CENTURY after the Catacendre (when discussing the Outer Rim cities like New Seran resenting Elendel's continued dominance while on the train there with Wax in BoM, that direct rule "was supposed to have ended when the Lord Mistborn stepped down after his century of rule").

And Spook was already 18 years old when Sazed Ascended, right? Yet his rule didn't end with his death. He "stepped down". And then... We don't know!

And frankly it'd be pretty impressive to live to 118 years old, without an atiummind or even a goldmind to Compound for health for maximum longevity. Just a whole lotta pewter burning? Or was he already "time-skimming" a bit with cadmium even then.

I mean, they discovered it after the Catacendre, and Sazed may even have had to restore it to the Allomantic table for Mistings for it to be born, so how many Allomancers for it could there have been right away? Their discovery of new metals to burn could well have been TLM doing lots of taste testing (The Lord Mistborn... Feels like calling him "Spook" in the context of him ruling as Emperor for 100 years is not quite right, LOL).

[Atlas333]

1 hour ago, robardin said:

And Spook was already 18 years old when Sazed Ascended, right? Yet his rule didn't end with his death. He "stepped down". And then... We don't know!

And frankly it'd be pretty impressive to live to 118 years old, without an atiummind or even a goldmind to Compound for health for maximum longevity. Just a whole lotta pewter burning? Or was he already "time-skimming" a bit with cadmium even then.

I mean, they discovered it after the Catacendre, and Sazed may even have had to restore it to the Allomantic table for Mistings for it to be born, so how many Allomancers for it could there have been right away? Their discovery of new metals to burn could well have been TLM doing lots of taste testing (The Lord Mistborn... Feels like calling him "Spook" in the context of him ruling as Emperor for 100 years is not quite right, LOL).

All great points. However, he also had Kelsier whispering in his ear, and they likely experimented with hemalurgy. I'm sure they could find some way to extend his life.

It just always seemed off to me that a tomb/grave for the lord mistborn was never mentioned. If it existed, I'd imagine it would be in Elendel, but there's no mention of it across the entire Era 2 series. Granted, Spook could have just died elsewhere (maybe even off world), but it seems too specific to say that he stepped down instead of died.

[The Great Wyver She/Her]

I really think we need to expand on the compounding part- especially for things like Chromium and Nicrosil. And also a bit more into what the Ghostbloods are doing on Scadrial.

[Born of Mist He/Him]

What I want most is Harmonium grenades!