Deus Ex Biotica

Honestly, almost any novel is better as a TV series than a movie. I think 13 episodes could do Final Empire justice, while 20-24 would open space for more heist stuff, and development of Breeze, Ham, Clubs, and Dox.

Endowment switching people a lot makes a lot of sense to me, too, though I had never considered it prior to this Thread.

The Jekyll/Hyde thing was basically what I had in mind, too. "Hyde" wouldn't need a huge range of emotional Allomancy - his plans would mostly work if he just Soothed everything - that's still enough to make people docile and uncomprehending (in a fight, he might Soothe everything except Fear, instead). Explicitly, mental speed is not altered at all by Steel - that needs a different Metalmind. So, yes, you'd have to be careful, but the potential is still frightening. The more this thread goes on, the more convinced I am I would have to make a Pewterburner with Brassminds if I played in an Alloy Of Law-era RPG. That, or a Nicrburster with Steelminds, for maximum mess up the enemy/bolter your allies flexibility. -- Deus Ex Biotica

Well, maybe not any Compounder. Things like Weight and Heat are not, in and of themselves, advantages in large quantities, and ones like Electrum might border on disadvantageous. I'm still trying to figure out what an Aluminum Compounder would even mean. On the other hand, even something as mild-seeming as a Bronze Compounder would be amazingly cool: you are always perfectly alert without any sleep, and can detect any Allomancy around you. It doesn't exactly shout "Ninja Dinosaur," but it is not to be underestimated. -- Deus Ex Biotica P.S. Also, I only just now realized that my Zinc/Electrum idea, if correct, would just be an absurdly circuitous lead-in for your username.

What I've seen on these 'boards indicates that the second trilogy starts, at least, with Misting cops tracking down a Mistborn Serial Killer. So, by all means, run a Scadrial War II game yourself! ... although, regarding Captain Allomantica, I must caution you: there is only one method in the Metallic Arts I know of which could take a small asthmatic (who probably is Gnat, or has Copperminds, or something) and, by means of a short but painful and deeply secret procedure, turn them into a war-changing Super Soldier, and it is not known for a track record of creating heroes. -- Deus Ex Biotica

Technically speaking, the book never says "good" luck, so you would probably have less noticeably bizarre luck while filling, and totally incomprehensible co-incidences while tapping. As for the outcome of a coin toss where the Ferring called one side, but nothing rides on the outcome, that depends on whether "luck" is about bringing you benefits, or your desires becoming real. Which, actually, means it would be a pretty deep metaphysical experiment, if we had access to such Ferrings in real life. I guess that's what Terris is busy doing while their all isolationism-ey. -- Deus Ex Biotica

And, if combined with Soothing as per my example, it's a sociopath Ninja who can Soothe away people's desire to run away after they murder the guy standing next to you. They might be able to cut up three or four people in a public place before anyone reacted, then walk away casually, and nobody would recall what they looked like (this combo is certainly one that screamed "major villain!" at me from the start. Double Tin is also amazing, with a range from 10x Spook to less sensitive than a normal human, handled separately for each sense. The Guns thread talked about such a person being a sniper, and that's scary, but they'd also be incredible at general stealth, close combat (by feeling the air move), reading people like a living lie detector... and they could do all of it while not showing up to Seekers, since they could stop burning and just tap their Tinminds for full effectiveness. Scary stuff. I assumed he was just using regular Coppermind, but he might have been Compounding, too. Wow. Burning Pewter while using Brassminds might be a slicker combination than I thought... And, with Steel, you can keep moving super fast in the bubble, to avoid getting sniped by any spare enemies out there. That's very elegant - bravo! * This one isn't elegant, but I suppose it might as well be mentioned: A Thug who is also a Bloodmaker has some huge advantages over a normal Gold Ferring. If they lie sick in bed to build up their reserves, but leave Pewter burning, they can add more health than normal, and all the rest of the time they're not in combat, they can keep on filling up their Goldminds at a low level (say, 10% of their health at all times) without suffering the way Wayne does, since they'll just burn Pewter and fill the Metalmind with the extra health they get from that. And, in battle, they don't have to heal wounds fully, just enough to keep on fighting, letting them take the time completely heal them more slowly (and thus, with less energy lost) afterwards. Ich Ben Ein Uberthug! (I suppose that a Thug who stores Speed or Strength gets similar benefits.) * Speaking of storing Speed, am I the only one who thinks that a Steel Compounder would be even scarier than Miles? They would be really, absurdly fast, probably to the point of near-invisibility, and they'd have all the tricks a normal Coinshot does. Brrr. * Back in the "would this even work" category, I wonder if Zinc Misting/Electrum Ferring could tap reserves of built-up "emotionality" to make their Rioting stronger. I know that neither Breeze nor Allrianne really imply that feeling powerful emotions enhance emotional Allomancy, but then again, neither of them have felt emotions ten times stronger than a normal human should be capable of. It's something of a stretch, but I really like the synergy it implies. -- Deus Ex Biotica

Alloy of Law would need some editing to explain the magic system, and would end up giving some odd spoilers to people who saw the movie, and then went back and read the books in order. That said, it has faster, more fight-heavy pacing, fewer characters, villain POVs, and is just generally much shorter and simpler than The Final Empire (let alone the other books from the trilogy). In short, it would actually be possible to convert Alloy Of Law into a movie while keeping it intact, which I just do not think could happen with, frankly, any other Brandon Sanderson book. -- Deus Ex Biotica P.S. Although, I must admit there is absolutely no chance that the movie would let Wax end up with Steris. Ah, well, such is the price we pay.

Thanks a lot for the information, guys - I'm really looking forward to it!

The Mist Sickness was direct intervention from Preservation. I'm reasonably sure he could fudge the rules, at the expense of a small measure of his power.

Yeah, right up until Brandon Sanderson actually said that there were more God Metal alloys than one per other metal, everyone seems to have assumed that. It's still pretty shocking, and makes guessing fairly impossible (though, on the other hand, I suppose it makes it more likely that any given guess would be correct). Here's a question... is it possible to alloy Atium and Lerasium? I know in another Thread, people were joking that would make Sazedium, which creates Feruchemists, but that seems unlikely - the God Metals are named after the people, not the Shards, which makes me think that the person's own nature shapes them, as well as the Shard's. Maybe burning Lerasatium would just cause a giant explosion? -- Deus Ex Biotica

This is a really cool idea, though Neil Gaiman being the sum total of urban fantasy depresses me.

"Deus Ex Biotica" is pronounced crisply, with style and panache. The latter half of "Biotica," in particular, gets a little flare of drama, ideally accompanied with a sweeping gesticulation of the speaker's dominant hand.

True, but they also had 1,000 years of Obligators sealing business arrangements, which makes me wonder if they held onto that system, even in part.

I hope this has not been discussed before - at the least, I did not see it elsewhere. In the Ars Arcanum from Alloy of Law, we get the now-famous breakdown of the Metallic Arts. One thing there really caught my eye above all others - the terminology of "End-Positive," "End-Negative," and "End-Neutral". The fact that the writer bills this as some ongoing terminology of their own, rather than a description unique to Scadrial, made me ponder. Do these terms describe the other arts we've seen so far adequately? Allomancy gets compared directly to AonDor. That seems logical - AonDor is drawing its power from the Dor, and is thus End-Positive. The description implies that the other Investures of Sel might fit under the same category, though I am not so sure. The Drakhor methods appear to require sacrificing multiple lives to attain their power, which seems End-Negative to me. Awakening, meanwhile, seems largely End-Neutral, since it's all about transferring Breaths from one form to another. Nightblood is End-Negative, but only when he's drawn. I was unsure how to classify the Returned: they consume Breaths as they go, but start out by Returning with a huge store of Breath, presumably directly from the Shard. Of all the systems of magic we mostly understand, that one seems to defy the classification to me. Does anyone else have a theory about it? Or any of this? -- Deus Ex Biotica

Even if the person is willing, Hemalurgy seems pretty gruesome to me. You are taking a part of someone's Spiritweb - which might or might not be analogous to their soul - and stapling it onto someone else. That is always going to be a violent act, and a destructive one. Even if the person survives, there is simply less of them to survive than there used to be. That said, one cannot doubt its effectiveness. I would wager it can steal many types of Investure. The most immediate to come into my mind after I read that was using Hemalurgy on Elantrians. They are pretty clearly examples of people who have powers because of the specific way their spiritweb was altered by outside forces. I wonder if someone who gained the powers of a Returned through Hemalurgy could be tuned to not need additional Breaths, though... -- Deus Ex Biotica

Also, de we know how capable of cognition Spren are, really? If people are correct, and they mostly exist in the Cognitive Realm, then maybe their shadows on the Physical are weak and disoriented, because they don't belong here (except for Syl, who is a special case). In their native Realm, they might be much smarter. Alternately, maybe they really are Spiritual entities - the quote does not say that we haven't seen Spiritual entities which case Physical shadows. -- Deus Ex Biotica

I am reasonably certain that if an advantage as strong as Atium were available to everyone, people would have learned this in the intervening 1,000 years.

I think that, while releasing Warbreaker slowly and freely to the public was a good idea, it was a bad idea to do so before I had discovered Brandon Sanderson. Things happening when I am not around is never good (except the Spanish Flu). I do agree that, generally, getting a large portion of the reader base to give feedback on every draft would be more hindrance than anything, but doing it once seems like it could gather some really good data.

Actually, I would assume the opposite. I doubt that Final Empire-era Koloss could have bred with humans, but since then they've been re-using spikes over and over again, they've been becoming more and more human (and, presumably, also weaker and less grow-taller-ey), which probably explains how they're interbreeding with humanity. The fact that this interbreeding results in humans who have unusual abilities without any direct interaction with the Metallic Arts raises some entirely new questions, which I am not even certain how to phrase yet. -- Deus Ex Biotica

Something I cannot believe I did not notice sooner: the Alloy of Law maps were made by the "Canton of Cartography". Huh. I wonder if they still have Obligators, with tattoos, and the ability to make things legally binding, and all of that. In either case, it would appear that at least some of the Lord Ruler's bureaucracy (though probably without any religious connotations) was remade after the Founding.

Yeah - right down to being able to mess up enemy magic users (in this case, by Leeching their reserves away). The only difference is, a Chromium Compounder could stop tapping, and Matt only wishes he could do that.

After reading Alloy Of Law, I decided on the spot that it was a perfect setting for an RPG. After doing that, of course I started thinking about different combination of Twinborn abilities, and how they would play out. Some people tell me that I'm a touch overzealous about considering possibilities. I had written down two dozen by the time I realized it was getting to be dawn, and I had things to do in addition to sleep. The purpose of this thread is twofold - first, to discuss cool Twinborn combinations we think would be useful/interesting, and second, to ponder what you might get with some of the more off-beat pairings and Compoundings. * Someone who burns Electrum while making Zincminds would have the mental speed other Allomancers lack, allowing them to actually consider the future shadows around them, seeing which ones are getting injured, which have done what they are trying to do, and so on, and select the path leading to the right shadow. This probably isn't quite as useful as Atium, but it could come close, and even near-Atium is a devastating power. * The combination of being a Brass Misting with Duraluminminds would, frankly, make Breeze jealous. A little stored up Connection can make strangers regard you as a close friend instantly - combined with some subtle Soothing to speed things along, you'd have a manipulation monster capable of making hated enemies love and honor them in minutes... and not even Copperclouds would be immune, since the Feruchemical side still works. If they want to drop off the radar instead, they can just resume filling their Metalminds, and Sooth everyone's awareness of them. Depending on how strong their abilities are, this might even make Seekers have trouble tracking them down, since they would just pay no attention to that one person, no matter what Allomancy they detected. * Using a Brassmind to store up heat would be really nice in real life, but doesn't really scream with larger implications. Still, if the heat can be brought back selectively to the specific parts of the body they were stored from (which does not seem impossible to me, since Copperminds store specific memories, not the general quality of being able to remember things), then a Thug with that power has a couple of nasty options. They might, for example, start burning Pewter, then stick their hand in a fire, and store the heat before it can hurt them badly. Later, in a fight (or while working as a blacksmith), they could burn Pewter again, and tap the Brassmind for their hand being in the middle of a fire, causing a burst of intense heat (they would only have to endure it for an instant, while protected by Pewter, since they could then switch to filling the Metalmind before any burn damage became too severe) around their hand, which might wreak havoc on a foe. * Speaking of Copperminds, what might a Copper Compounder be capable of? I submit to you that, if you Burn a memory, rather than simply recalling it, it can extend not just to sensory input, but to actual motion. So, if you're expecting to, say, have to jump long distances, set up an obstacle course and start running it. Store your best jumps in a Coppermind, eat it, and when the time comes, start burning them. You'll end up with some odd gaps in your memory which can never be filled, but on the plus side, you'll be able to select a jump which you know for a fact will get the job done. Do these sound possible to people? And what devious ideas do you all have? -- Deus Ex Biotica

I just assumed they were racist, actually. That might be thinking too small, given how devious we're lead to believe that they are, but the black uniforms, rhetoric about people born with special powers and "destined" to lead, etc. gave me that feeling. Alternately, it might just be a matter of probability. Trying to breed a single Mistborn after centuries without any would be hard enough. Trying to get a Keeper (I've decided to try this term out, rather than the cumbersome "Full Ferruchemist") on top of that would slow an already uncertain process into outright implausibility. -- Deus ex Biotica

I am reasonably sure that the "alternative way" was Kandra, who can live indefinitely underground. The annotations mention them as a back-up plan at one point. As for the "additional metals," I always assumed it was just lies, but the possibility of someone having stumbled across Sazedium is almost too compelling to pass up. -- Deus Ex Biotica