Kadrok

What would be their motive? Honestly I just got the impression he was old and dying in a very mundane way, and seeking a non-mundane solution to his problem, rather than that he'd been afflicted magically.

I think that would kill him, honestly. Unless you're suggesting he was so weak because they were draining him, in which case why would he be wishing for a miracle and not for the Set to stop draining him? Regarding getting others to do the storing, my impression was that the Set had used Hemalurgy to produce people with both Aluminum Feruchemy and Gold Feruchemy (catch a Bloodmaker, grant them Aluminum Feruchemy; catch a Trueself, grant them Gold Feruchemy; grant someone both Gold and Aluminum) and had them just storing unkeyed Gold. Basically a Feruchemical Sweatshop. And the great (read: terrible) thing about Hemalurgy is that if the Sweatshop Feruchemists refuse to obey, you can just kill them and replace them with more accommodating slaves.

Well is the Cosmere the equivalent of "Universe" or "Milky Way Galaxy"? Like, is the Cosmere the Dwarf Galaxy or all of existence?

These should answer or expand some of the questions raised here: Epigraph 9 of the Hero of Ages: The beads were already there when Rashek took the power. Part of Epigraph 78 explaining what the pits actually are and how they came about: Also there are small wells under the Pits of Hathsin: Yep. It's the part of his power that was trapped. Hero of Ages Epigraph 14:

Technically we have: Vin burned Duralumin for ages trying to figure out what it did before she finally burned it with something else.

It may interest you to know, then, that the MAG lists Breeze as a Brass Savant (page 513). It's a "take with a little salt" source, but I thought you'd want to know.

It's both, or at least that was my impression. I think of it like Tin. You do store specific types of investiture, just as you store specific senses, as different pools. But there is a quantity of that ability... like stored Sight you can tap a lot of it to have a greater effect. At least, that's what I'm supposing. What gave you that impression? And when you talk of running out of juice, are you talking about running out of the stored heat, or the stored ability to tap that heat (Firesoul investiture)? EDIT: Also, how long has there been a bracket in front of the title? I only just noticed it and already it's driving me mad.

Many thanks, I've fixed it.

So I don't know if anyone else has already mentioned this, but I think the biggest (or at least most widely applicable) implication of how Nicrosil Feruchemy appears to work concerns Twinborn with Nicrosil as their Feruchemical metal, rather than all that fiddly Fullborn stuff. Nicrosil Feruchemy appears to let you store your powers the way any other non-Copper attribute could be stored: your ability is diminished in the short term while you're storing, but returns once you're not storing. The reason I would suggest that it doesn't work like Copper is that otherwise it wouldn't make sense that the Southerners can produce useful tools like the medallions in any decent quantity; if they had to permanently burn out spiked Soulbearers to make finite medallion charge you'd think they'd just use Hemalurgy and be done with it - more direct, and permanent. So, Nicrosil works like non-Copper Feruchemy with no permanent loss one storing is ceased. We also know that if you mess around with Identity as well you can make it so anyone can tap your stored power and use it. But I'm far more interested in what you could do without Identity shenanigans, because given what we know and what we have seen, there is no reason to think Nicrosil Feruchemy doesn't work the way any other (non-Copper) Feruchemy works, allowing you to store something (in this case your powers) and then tap them to temporarily enhance yourself later. This means that a Coinshot/Soulbearer Twinborn could store their ability to use Steel Allomancy, becoming a weaker Coinshot while they were storing, but gaining the ability to temporarily become a stronger Coinshot later. If you stored enough, who knows... maybe you could do what the Lord Ruler did and push on glass! This phenomenally changes the balance of power, because it makes Twinborn with Nicrosil as their Feruchemy potential Allomantic powerhouses (but for just their metal, obviously)! Tap your Seeking and hear the thrum of Harmony's power! Tap your Oracle powers and see your future in greater detail or see further into your future! The temporary ability to enhance your powers puts me in mind of Duralumin or Nicrosil Feruchemy Allomancy... only way better! (I apologise if someone has already posted this, I do try to look over the other recent posts to make sure I'm not being redundant)

Hah! Genius!

In other news, we're communicating with the reanimated corpse of Feather?

Shock is a possible explanation I considered, but given the over-reliance on powers, as you suggest, wouldn't we expect his reaction to be to use some of his powers in some manner to solve this unexpected defeat? I mean, if I were a nigh-unstoppable wizard with a millennia of being effectively carried by my powers under my belt (not that I'm not), I don't think my reaction to having the artifact that keeps me alive knocked out of my grasp (after any initial freezing up) would be to "rush" and "step". Surely we would expect him to reach out with his powers in some way, rather than act as if he hasn't any powers at all. The key for me is not that the Lord Ruler doesn't act, it's that the Lord Ruler acts in a way that seems to suggest he's forgotten he has powers.

I was after a source for how aging affects Allomancy. Because our disagreement centers on whether the Lord Ruler's powerlessness in this section is due to aging or some other effect (such as the loss of his bracers) this section doesn't function as a source for that in a meaningful way. Does that make sense? I don't mean this aggressively, so please don't take me as trying to shut you down, I'm just trying to clarify what I was asking for. Regarding the section on him being Middle Aged, we both know that he ages beyond Middle Age, but my point was that he demonstrates the powerlessness of interest to me while he is still physically Middle Aged, or before it... if extreme age is a factor in the efficacy of his powers, it shouldn't be a factor in the period of time before he actually does age. Note that he is seemingly able to move normally during this period (unlike later when, as you have noted, his age causes his body to pretty much collapse) so we would expect that his powers would work normally. My point is that they don't seem to, and I am wondering why (hence the speculations in this thread).

We're only told he's become middle aged after his Allomancy abruptly stops and he makes attempts at the bracers. Mortal attempts. Can we get a source on that? What indication have we had that Allomancy becomes harder as you age?

Put the text in these, and remove all the "s. ["spoiler"]["/spoiler"] EDIT: I see the post I was responding to here was deleted. Probably because it had BoM spoilers from the Amazon fiasco. I'm not crazy!

This is another good explanation. I'm personally quite attached to the notion that one could tap a Nicrosilmind to fuel Allomancy, though we've had a frustrating array of RAFOs or silence on the matter. And if he was only using his bands as metalminds, and not any of his other jewelry... if they were Multiminds bringing together Atium, Nicrosil (powering his Allomancy), Copper (since his use of Copper is confirmed), Gold and some other key metals it would certainly explain the available evidence. In terms of it being a plot hole, that to me (and you by the sound of it) screams subtle intentional clue that not all is as we've been told by in world explanations (as Brandon is fond of doing). The other possibility, that his powers somehow became imbued in his bracers, relates to the Bands of Mourning spoiler chapters. Three, was it? The myth that in the Alloy of Law era the Bands are reputed to grant one the Lord Ruler's powers through fudging with Nicrosil and Aluminium and so forth. Whether this was the case, and whether it was intentional or not intrigues me, and it would explain why he wore so much metal jewelry but didn't tap any of it once he'd lost his bracers.

Sorry, I should clarify. I agree that he had full Feruchemical and Mistborn powers (I don't think there's any question about that); what I am supposing is that somehow, either through some intentional manipulation of the magic system (for some unknown purpose) or by some unintentional quirk of the magic system, his ability to use his powers came to depend on his bracers.

For my copy that is page 630 of The Final Empire. It's interesting that his strength leaves him in a manner similar to Sazed. He's still only middle-aged at this point, so it's unlikely to be due to aging. It seems to me to suggests that his Feruchemy is giving out. That accounts for how he's still holding Marsh after his Push cuts off. Perhaps, like his old age hitting him, it takes a while for his body to adjust to his loss of Feruchemical Pewter.

The more I reread the Lord Ruler's death, the more I can't wait for 'Bands of Mourning'. Because it doesn't add up. It's as if the Lord Ruler lost all his powers when he lost his bracers. His push against Vin stops as soon as the bracers come off, as if he can no longer burn Steel, and he goes for the bracers the the way a mortal would. Even assuming he hadn't stored anything in his other jewelry, explaining why he didn't tap Steel and run to the bracers, and even assuming the bracers were too invested for him to pull them to himself (but not for Vin to push them), he could still have used Pewter to move more quickly and steadily than he is described in his last moments. Keep in mind that his body was only Middle Aged by the time Vin pushes the bracers off the edge, so his advancing age wasn't necessarily to blame. But for a guy who's been using his powers for 1000 years he basically acts like a muggle at the end. I don't think I can claim credit for thinking of this though. We've been discussing things over at Steel Ministry, and I have a feeling someone else suggested this first. I'm also not sure if it hasn't already been floated here. Nevertheless, this is something I can't get out of my mind. Thoughts? Link to a preexisting thread talking about this?

That's the dream! But not before I learn stage magic so I can appear to you all from a cloud of sinister smoke. Honestly, after our history on Steel Ministry I'd feel I was letting you all down if I didn't have some kind of creepy entrance.

Lol. Start the fly Kadrok to America Kickstarter.

To be honest I quite like the Alienage analogy.

Hah! Hero got a mention. Cool! Get along to that it should be fun. Sadly he couldn't be convinced to hold it in Brisbane instead, so I can't come, but you Americans should definitely get in on that. I hope the game goes well.