Mattiam

tl;dr There is a fourth "power" in the Mistborn universe and it is used to create metals rather than burn them away. This could make for a fun mystery in the Wax and Wayne series. While listening to The Legendarium podcast (Mistborn series), a few things caught my ear and seemingly dropped some pieces into place. In the original trilogy, I always wondered why no one was really worried about metals being used up; much like how fossil fuels are a finite resource. They're slowly burning away metals in exchange for some result; pushing and pulling on metals for example. Even at a slow rate of burn, over the period of hundreds (and seeminly thousands) of years and with more and more uses for these metals poping up (metalminds that anyone can use) it would make sense that eventually those metal resources will quite literally burn away. Someone on the Legendarium podcast mentioned how when they were at a Sanderson event, someone ran up to him and said how the elements in his series seem to take on a "Base 4" aspect; 16 shards, 16 metals, etc.. He then said something along the lines of "so, shouldn't there be a fourth 'power' in Mistborn?". This got me to thinking about how Sanderson likes things to have balance. There usually seems to be some kind of push to every pull and vice versa. I liked to think about the "powers" in mistborn as a kind of balanced equation. Allomancy on one side, Hemalurgy on the other, and Feruchemy in the middle; balancing the teeter-totter. Allomancy being of Preservation, Hemalurgy being of Ruin and Feruchemy being a kind of...harmony...between the two. When you think about how Allomancy and Hemalurgy work, they aren't really opposites. Allomancy "burns" metals to produce some kind of outcome, where Hemalurgy "steals" the ability to "burn" metals (or use Feruchemy). It hardly seems like a balanced equation. What would be the Yang to Allomancy's Ying? Perhaps, instead of destroying a metal to produce an outcome, an "outcome" can be used to create a metal. This would lend Hemalurgy and Feruchemy to be more opposites. In both, you get a type of neutral result. Feruchemy is easiest to see this, as when you give to your metalmind you can then take it back. Hemalurgy is more of an evening as far as the ability to use the powers; instead of Guy A having Allomancy, Guy B now has it. Granted, Guy A typically dies to produce that result, so maybe there is a net loss there, but not where it comes to the powers themselves. I often wondered why Sanderson used the term "burn" to indicate that an Allomancer's power switch is flipped to the "on" position. What if it is more than just a term for destroying the metal and more of a term for changing the metal into a different form. Think of how wood burns. The chemical reaction converts the wood, outputting heat, and giving you some kind of result. How can we then re-make this tree? That's easy, grow a new one. Would it make sense that instead of "burning" metal one could "grow" metal in much the same way? In the Wax and Wayne movels, Sanderson introduces something new: large hunks of metal running down the street at incredible speeds: automobiles. Automobiles driving down small streets designed for horses and people to walk down at slower speeds. Automobiles that will most likley be running into these people quite a lot more. Imagine a man walking across the street, when he notices a car barreling towards him. No time to jump out of the way. No time to do much more than raise his hands in the hopes of stopping this car from ending his life. Suddenly there is a huge puff of dust and the car suddently stops as if all it's kinetic energy has been sucked away. Where did all this dust come from? Wait, that's not dust, it's steel powder that just appeared from nowhere. You may be wondering: where have all these "growers" been so far? Haven't people been shot at, stabbed, crushed under buildings, etc.? Well, before the Lord Ruler's downfall, the Terrace people were mostly gone. They had very few numbers and there was no sign that any Twin Born could or would exist. Who was this thanks to? The Lord Ruler. That evil man converted the Terrace people into Mist Wraiths. He nearly destroyed the entire world, that awful, awful man. But, why did he make a lot of these changes? Was it only in preperation for him to fix his mistakes or did he have a larger vision? Perhaps he had a glimpse of the larger Cosmere? What if these "growers" were also transformed? I never really questioned how Atium was created. It was inside geodes in the pits of Hathsin, but why? Did the Lord Ruler know that a "grower" may be able to convert time into Atium? What would happen if even one "grower" was left alive when and if Ruin escaped? What if the Lord Ruler removed the "growers" from the playing board and created a kind of artificial "grower" in the form of the geodes to harvest "time", convert it to Atium, and then hide the metal where Ruin couldn't get to it? What happened to all the geodes after Sazed took the reigns? Can you not have the geodes while "growers" walk the earth? Were the living "growers" somehow converted into these geodes? The idea of having someone who can create metals using some kind of other "force" works very well in the Mistborn universe. It balances out the descruction of metals with the creation of them and it allows for some more fun interactions. I could imagine Wax sitting down with someone who can "grow" steel. Wax would consume a known amount of steel and then push a coin at the "grower". When the steel is all burned away, they could see how much steel the "grower" produced. Maybe a steel "grower" could weave metal threads into their clothes, which they can constantly be "feeding" on for when a non-metal item comes flying at them. "Growers" could possibly manipulate their powers in certain ways, much like how Wax is able to push constantly all around him to deflect bullets. Maybe these "growers" could create statues and works of art? Maybe they could advance the species technologically by being able to create tiny lines of copper on thin wafers. Maybe they can work in conjunction with Allomancers to create a type of generator which is powered by Allomancy and "Growing"? A little story I envisioned when all these bits kind of came together: Wax and Wayne walk into a bank. There are people milling around while coughing and looking disheveled; dust everywhere. The police chief thanks Wax for coming to investigate the robbery. It looks like it was the work of an Allomancer; potentially a twin born. The chief begins to tell the story of how the robber walked into the bank... <flashback> The robber walks past the line of waiting people and heads right to the teller. A security guard steps out in front of the robber. "Excuse me sir, you'll have to wait like everyone else", with a smile on his face. He raises his arm and holds out his hand in the universal sign of "stop". The man continues to walk forward. The guard steps forward and attempts a quick push to the robber chest, but is stopped. Hard. "That was like pushing a brick wall", the guard thinks while dropping his hand. The robber and the guard look at each other for a few seconds, terror growing in the guard's eyes. "A thug?", the guard thinks. <flashforward> "Then the guy grabs the woman next to him and does that whole 'This is a stickup!' routine.", the bank manager explains. "Great, so he got the money and then what?" "That's where it gets kind of weird." <flashback> The robber walks to the front door, with his hostage leading the way. When he gets to the front door he looks out at the scene. "damnation." There are a number of police already outside the bank. "Someone must have snuch out and got help. damnation. Well, this just got a whole lot more complicated." He heads to the door and yells out "Don't come any closer or I'll start shooting!" One of the police men, gun drawn and pointed at the robber shoots. <flashforward> "He must have missed if the hostage is still alive", said Wax as he motions to the shaking woman talking to one of the detectives. "That's just it, he didn't. The shot woud have probably killed one of them, but instead of hitting either of them it just exploded!" "Exploded? Don't you mean it diverted to the side? Maybe rocoched off a wall?" "No! Just in front of the hostage the bullet exploded, puff of smoke and all! The robber took the opportunity to duck back into the bank. What's even more crazy is he didn't even try to negotiate. He made everyone lay on the floor, then took off for the roof. The second he was up those stairs we all ran for the door." "Ahh, so his backup escape route was to use Allomancy to push his way to safety from the roof. Is that how he got away?" "Well, not exactly. I had just got outside the door, with my hands raised when..." <flashback> The robber got to the roof and looked over the edge. "The front and rear are covered, but tht side street looks like a good escape." He walks to the edge of the roof, positions himself in line with a parked car and jumps. <flashforward> "So, he pushed off the far?", asked Wax "No! He fell flat on it!", replied the bank manager; his eyebrows both shooting up while slapping his hands together in a single clap. "His arms and legs were out to the side and he just fell right onto that car. That's when the smoke bomb went off. There was this huge explosion of smoke everywhere! You couldn't see an inch in front of your face. When that cleared, there was no sign of him." Wax thanked the bank manager and walked out to the street. "So, a coinshot decides to rob a bank. He stored up some strength to push people around and got his dandies off with some fancy exploding smoke bombs. Sounds pretty standard to me!", said Wayne. "Something doesn't add up here Wayne. If he was a coins shot, why not just fly to safety from the roof?", Wax replied as he stepped up to a parked car. "Officer, where is the car the bank robber jumped onto?", Wax asked the officer standing next to the car. "This is it, sir." "That can't be. There is no damage!" "Sir, that's what's so confusing. So far, four people have confirmed that this is the car. You can even see the piles of residue left from smoke bomb he uses all around the car, but there's no damage." "Wayne, if he pushed on this car to stop himself from falling, there would be some kind of bend in the roof of this car." Wax went down on one knee. He poked a finger into the powder on the ground, held it up to the lgiht and looked at it briefly, then dabbed a bit on his tounge. "Yuck! What'd you go and do that for Wax? Eating dirt. That's a new low." "Wayne, that's not dirt." Wax begins to steel push in a bubble around him. "It's steel dust." A giant circle of the dust flies away from Wax.