Thought

As a bit of an amusing diversion, I thought people might be interested in sharing their allomanic (or feruchemical, or hemalurgical) pick up lines. Generally speaking, the cheesier, the better. Here are a few to start us off: "Hey, are you made of metal? 'Cause baby, I feel like we're being pulled together." "Hey baby, I'd really like to pierce your coppercloud." "Hey baby, I'm burning atium and I can totally see us getting together." "You want to know why you should always date a coinshot? Because we really know how to push just right." "Hey baby, you know that thugs have the endurance to go all night long."

This discussion seems to be based on the assumption that an an Inquisitor wouldn't just walk around with Atium in his or her stomach, since we are told that digestive juices destroy it after a short period. So allow me to ask: why do we assume that Inquisitors have digestive juices that would be harmful to atium? After all, we know that their physiology has been drastically altered by their spikes.

In such a supposition's favor is the fact that Sazed makes Spook a mistborn, indicating that this basic process is possible for the non-lerasium version of the shard's power. However, we also know that holding the power of the shard gives Sazed insight into its past uses (Vin presumably didn't gain access to this since she didn't use the power herself). He knew, because the shard "remembers," what Rashek did with the power. Yet he heavily implies that Rashek used the beads to gain allomancy, and he flat out states that Rashek had the same degree of power as every other original mistborn. If Rashek had made himself a mistborn with the power of the well, rather than the power of the beads, why did he make himself just as powerful as the beads would have? Also, while 10 is a number of Adonalsium, this would be the only time that we see Preservation do anything related to it. These aren't powerful arguments, certainly, but something that are hopefully worth considering.

Well, since I haven't been lynched yet, I suppose I can/ought to continue? ReaderAt2036 2: Reading With a Vengeance

Why would we ever directly notice? Density is mass divided by volume, but skimming doesn't change volume. However, it is strongly implied that density does change. Remember in WoA when Sazed glides by filling an iron mind? His volume (and surface area, which is somewhat related) doesn't change, but suddenly he doesn't fall as fast. He is reducing his mass, which affects his density, and substantially lowers his terminal velocity. Additionally, since it seems like the question of strength was never definitively answered, I thought I'd mention that storing strength must also store a little mass, thereby setting a precedent. Sazed's muscles shrink when he stores strength. If his mass remains the same, then his density must be increasing. But that must mean that mass is being transferred from one section of his body to another. An oddity, certainly, but the real conundrum comes when he taps strength. He can become quite huge, but if his mass doesn't change, then his density decreases substantially. This would in turn alter his terminal velocity, mimicking skim-gliding. Further, because he is less dense, he would also be injured more easily. None of this definitively says that when Sazed taps or stores strength that he is also affecting the related mass of his muscles and body, but it implies that he is.

I have two main points. The first is that lurchers are better than people give them credit for. The second is that coinshots aren't the end-all, be-all that they seem to often be treated as. Call it steel envy, if you wish. Now, the first thing to consider is that throughout the books, the people who end up flying through the air to their doom the most often are random soldiers, and second coinshots (I believe lurchers are a third, but only because of a single scene in the first book when one falls because he's pulling on a safe that dropped). That strongly argues against Coinshots being better than lurchers are saving themselves from a fall. This is presumably for the very reasons I've mentioned: a coinshot has to be able to place an anchor, while a lurcher can take advantage of any anchor already in the environment. Given that most people live in cities and nearly all tall man-made objects contain metal, the average lurcher is more likely to have an easily accessible anchor than the average coinshot. The coinshot is a little more versatile in that they can carry their own anchors easily, but reaction times are still important. The second thing to consider is that lurchers are primarily defensive (they're the ones to protect other allomancers): saying that coinshots are better at protecting is contrary to the roles we see them have in the books. And finally, there is just so much more in life that pulling is useful for than pushing. Going rock climbing? The coinshot's powers aren't going to be of much use if he falls, while the lurcher only really needs the nuts to pull on and, indeed, could go ropeless. Want to spelunk into the great unknown? There's no guarantee that there will be a suitable surface for the coinshot to drop an anchor to, while the lurcher can hammer some metal into the rocks, jump down a bit, hammer more metal in, jump down, etc. Feel like going bungee jumping? Lurchers don't need bungee cords. Waters skiing or parasailing? Again, the lurcher is just that good. Want a beer but don't want to get up? Just pull it (assuming, of course, that the can is made from one of the allomantically active alloys of aluminum)! Want to use allomantic pickup lines? "Hey, are you made of metal? 'Cause baby, I feel like we're pulled together."

Catch a fall, yes, but presumably they aren't falling onto a metal surface. Stopping a bullet is nothing more than pushing in time, but to stop a fall from a wall, they'd need to get a bit of metal out, position it under them, and then push. Given that most walls are what, less than a storey tall, that gives us a 10 foot fall to work with, which translates into 1/3 of a second. I dare you to get something out of your pocket that fast. As for a tree, there is more time, so perhaps I was too hasty there. However, while there is more time, there are also more distracters. Getting an anchor out, positioning it, pushing on it, all while being buffeted around by tree branches as you make your descent? Seems tricky enough. And, of course, one would hope the misting has enough sense to push against the trunk of the tree, rather than the ground, else they'll just make the problem worse by crashing into the branches they already passed. So I may have been too hasty here, but I am still dubious.

I noticed that Chaos was asking for people to rate other people's first lines, but it doesn't seem like there's been much rating going on. Hopefully I won’t offend, but I thought I'd go ahead and take up the gauntlet. However, I suppose I should give my creds, first. Or, more exactly, establish that I have none. I'll try to be helpful, but I can't promise that anything I'll say will be valid. And certainly, it won’t be all praise and flowers. I'll put everything under spoiler tags, so you can easily ignore the claptrap I'm about to spout if you don't care what some random guy with no verifiable experience has to say about your preciouses. First, Chaos Next, FeatherWriter Now it is time for Something from Silus Coltbug... Coltbug... Beuller-I-mean-Coltbug... And now the Leinton season is upon us... You all called me mad, but I'll show you! Or, at least, I'll talk about Mad Scientist To return to FeatherWriter: As for Frostbourne It's 2046, time for ReaderAt Now, in case people are feeling a tad violent towards me, I figure I'd go ahead and offer up one of my first lines for public ridicule. I cut it a bit ago, but it is fairly representative. Feel free to take your revenge!

That's clever, Ulysses. I could definitely see Sanderson going in that direction. Use my own proposed laws of atium alloys, I came up with a few possible combinations. Only for the Temporal and Mental mentals, though: the laws breakdown when applied to the physical and enhancement metals. For example, under this framework, would tin have 3 variations? (physical external pushing, mental internal pushing, temporal internal pushing). Or does atium always make things external, as Sanderson sort of implied, so that either mental or temporal is always added (and with malatium we just happen to see the repetitive mental attribute added)?

I'm in the middle of re-reading HoA, and actually it seems somewhat likely that Hoid (or someone) should have between 5 and 6 Lerasium beads, at the least. The book mentions that there were 9 original mistborn/allomancers made so by lerasium. Now, if we were to assume that this excluded TLR, then that means that there were at least 12 beads in the cavern (9 kings + 1 Lord Ruler + 1 Elend + 1 other). That is a very curious number, given that Preservation did so much in multiples of 16. Alternately, if Sazed counted the Lord Ruler among those first 9 allomancers, then 11 is even stranger (at least 12 is even). There were also a number of pottery shards in the well. Assuming that the Lord Ruler broke them when he created the other allomancers, and that he did so while still at the well (rather than taking the discs with him) why were they never cleaned up in the intervening 1024 years? Rashek generally seemed like someone who liked to keep things in order. Unless, of course, the broken pottery wasn't left there by the Lord Ruler. This is all quite speculative, but I thought I'd share nonetheless.

Exile, it is simply fun to take examples literally. One of the great things about allomancy is that it is explained enough that we can figure out how the interactions would really work. Though, to note, a pewterarm would be more likely to survive falling out of a tree or off a wall than a coinshot. There just isn't enough time to react, so you better hope you can absorb the damage.

Although my name might seem obvious, it is "actually" pronounced hu-ginn, or "hew-ginn," if you will." Some people's names have silent letters, mine has silent words. That said, it is quite interesting to see how people pronounce their names.

I think people are overlooking a coinshot's limitations: range. But since this is a little long winded, allow me to hide it for those who don't care:

Bendalloy could be nice. Forget taking the energy/water back out: it's a miracle diet! I bet all the supermodels in the Mistborn universe are subsumers. Personally, I'd go with being a Brute. There is a lot that we do in daily life that doesn't require much strength (say, working in a cubicle). But then there are times when you need to move and all those darn boxes get pretty heavy. Copper could be nice, but loosing the memories until you recall them could be a little annoying. Brilliant for tests, of course.

Might I play the devil's advocate? (or should I said, Ruin's advocate?) But pewter isn't morally questionable? I fully expect that if there were public sporting events in the Mistborn universe, pewter would be a banned substance, just like steroids. A pewterarm fighting against normal soldiers is like an adult beating up some little kids. As for tin, that would be my choice after zinc/brass.

I think most people are just saying that it isn't great literature. That isn't a bad thing: novels are often first and foremost entertainment. Thus, if enough people are entertained, and the publishers break even, its a success. The Inheritance cycle is the papery version of a popcorn movie. Fun enough, but easy to forget. For myself, I started reading the series after seeing the movie. It had a baby dragon. That is what I went in for, and it delivered. The acting was about as good as Phantom Menace. The book had baby dragons, that was good enough for me. The last book is currently city on my bookshelf, waiting for me to finish rereading the Mistborn Series (and AoL), and Mockingjay. I've already read about 80 pages of it, and generally the series seems to be suffering under Paolini's attempt to be an epic fantasy writer, rather than his own brand of writer. I think he has a decent amount of talent that he's shoving aside to write how he thinks that legendary fantasy writers wrote. He needs to start listening to Writing Excuses, methinks. That said, I have a special place in my heart for conlangs, so in turn the Inheritance cycle will have a special place in my heart. In a corner, somewhere. It's probably dark, I don't know, I don't go there often.

Didn't the Lord Ruler survive decapitation, though? That couldn't have been a result of compounding age, so it seems like compounding healing would have had to be how he did it.

I like the general idea, but I am curious, Ironeyes, as to what your reasonings for some of the suggestions were. For example, why would atium+iron or atium+steel influence metal temperature? Same for you, Ulysses: why gravitation for those combinations? Sanderson wanted allomancy to feel scientific, so I suspect that we can extract a few guiding principles from what we know that will allow us to better imagine what the alloys would be. First, consider atium in its "pure" form. I'd argue that it is a temporal mental external pulling metal. That is, it shows the future (hence, temporal), it affects your understand of the future (mental), and it shows other people's future (external). Why don't I say it is an internal metal, since it gives the user an understanding of the future? Sanderson implies in his annotations that atium affects others: Also, why do I say it is a pulling metal, when gold, also a pulling metal, shows the past, and electrum, a pushing metal, shows the future (like atium itself does)? Because in the same annotation, Sanderson said that the unalloyed thing is always pulling, while the alloyed is always pushing. Anywho, when we add that to gold, we can see a logical shift in how gold works. Gold, by itself, it a temporal internal pulling metal. Malatium, however, is a temporal external pushing metal. As per Sanderson, the pushing part is apparently inherent in the alloying process. That means, alloying any metal with atium will change it to an pushing metal and it will also change one of the non-atium-metal's attributes. But take a look at it from the atium side: atium is mental, temporal, and external. It looses a trait when it gets melded with a different metal, and it gives that metal one of its traits! Let's then apply the these basic principle to electrum, a temporal internal pushing power. One suggestion is that atium+electrum would be the same as pure atium. Under these guidelines, though, we know that can't be the case: it would seemingly be missing the mental aspect of atium itself! At the very least, this should mean that the user would be able to see other people's future but wouldn't have their mind expanded to comprehend it. We see this with Malatium, actually: Vin see's TLR's past, but she doesn't have her mind expanded to understand it (she has to figure this out on her own). If electrum is the poor man's atium, then atium+electrum is the stupid man's atium. It would result in less useful effect than pure atium: the person could see the future but wouldn't have the mental capacity to react instinctualy. Alternately, however, if atium looses one of its own attributes and adds one of its attributes to the other metal, then it is possible that the combination of atium+electrum would be a mental external pushing metal. Of course, we have no evidence that atium when mixed could produce mental alloys. However, I believe that Sanderson mentioned that more than one alloy per metal might be possible with atium. If he actually said that, and I am not just misremembering, then this might be how those different alloys are possible. Atium+electrum might produce an temporal external metal, or it might produce a mental external metal. Atium+gold, under the same theory, might produce a mental counterpart, too. As a side note, I don't recall if it has been stated explicitly, but this would imply that if atium is an external metal, then lerasium is probably an internal one (which, I think, is fairly obvious in itself).

I'd propose that what he said and what he did are actually fairly well in line with each other. Keep in mind that most kandra need a body to digest in order to mimic the muscles and flesh and, particularly, the specific features. TenSoon was unusually skillful in that he didn't need one. Indeed, his captors assumed that he had digested the original body of the bones they had given him, because he looked very human. The implication is that they were expecting a fairly non-humanish appearance. When Sanderson said that the Kandra weren't going to "use" human bodies anymore, he may have meant that they weren't going to digest them. It might even have meant that they weren't going to use human bones anymore. But, what about the artificial, humanoid-but-not-human frames that we see in HoA? A kandra using one of those would appear humanoid, and most wouldn't have the experience needed to appear like a real person. They'd, presumably, appear somewhat indistinct. Faceless, you might say.

Rioter. Maybe a soother. Being a pewterarm might be nice for the agility and balance, but in the modern world there are few actual uses. Tineye? I'm used to having bad eyesight, so I get by. Smokers? Pfft. Seekers? Meh. Influencing other people, though?! Totally. Please forgive me while I practice my villain laugh now. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha ... Ha ha... HAAAAA! I've hired a vocal coach, really working on the.... HA

I'm a fairly big JaWHOva's Witness, so I'm nearly always watching a new episode, or rewatching old episodes, or tracking down fan-made episodes, or going door-to-door telling people the good new about The Doctor, our Time Lord and Savior (who died to save mankind and then came back to life, then died, then came back to life, then died, then... well, you get the pattern). Beyond that, Castle, Big Bang Theory, and How I Met Your Mother tend to come up a lot, though other random shows occasionally make their appearance (Jane Eyre, X-Files, Buffy, Smallville, etc). Battle Star Galactica will probably be watched in the near future.

Sanderson has said that the only atium left in the world is what Marsh is using to stay alive (compounding age). From the HoA Q&A: Why would Sazed keep Atium out of the world? Who knows, but it might actually be the reverse. That is, he isn't keeping it from the world but rather not giving it. When he became Harmony, the WoA was destroyed/reabsorbed, along with all accessible aspects of Preservation and Ruin (which excludes metal, such as the mysterious missing bead or beads of lerasium, and Marsh's atium). The well was made from Preservation and trapped Ruin. Since part of ruin's power was atium, it is safe to assume that the well kept atium's power from automatically reverting to Ruin. Rather, it seems likely that it was the cause of the Pits. No well, no power being diverted to the Pits, so no "naturally" growing atium. Sazed would have to intentionally create Atium, now, if he wanted people to have it. Regarding Sazed's eventual "corruption" by the shards he holds, something to consider is that the intent of a shard might not corrupt in proportion to its power. Even if most of Ruin's power were locked away, someone holding the shard might be corrupted just as fast as if the shard were at full power. Might not, of course, but the nature of the shards and the influence of their intent is vague. Likewise, it might be that Harmony is now the most powerful Shard in existence, overshadowing Odium. However, again, since we don't know much about the nature of the shards, we don't know how much power each started out with in comparison to the others.

Ah, sorry about that. I was positive Hoid had been confirmed as being the one who had the beads, but I can't find where I had read it, so I must have misremembered speculation for Sandersonation.

It depends on what you call "magic." Essentially, a lot of science fiction uses magic. As Arthur C Clarke said, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Faster than light travel, energy weapons, transporters, homunculi (I mean, robots), etc are all rather magical in the regard. Do you mean a story without any non-historical element like that? If so, then yes, though books along those lines tend to do a bit better if labeled as historical fiction, but there is no reason that the historical setting has to be, say, Rome, rather than the empire and world you create.

Well...