Timewaster's Guide Archive
Local Authors => Brandon Sanderson => Topic started by: VegasDev on September 08, 2008, 11:19:40 PM
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I thought it would be interesting to find out what other ethical and nonviolent uses people could find for the magical abilities of Allomancy and Feruchemy (We don't know much about Hemalurgy). For instance, if everyone that survived at the end of book 2 live through the conflict with Ruin and don't just wake up from a dream or the Matrix, how do they transition to a life without need of a knife?
For example, with the Feruchemical ability to alter ones weight, a keeper might take a day job as an Elevator Operator. A Lurcher/Coinshot might find employment in Airport Security (Yes, they discover the ability for mass flight).
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A Lurcher/Coinshot might find employment in Airport Security (Yes, they discover the ability for mass flight).
Or maybe somehow they use it to create flying. ;)
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I think there are a plethora of ways Allomancy and Feruchemy could be used in peaceful applications. I've even thought about it in some depth once or twice myself, but I'm generally attracted to Allomancy, so most of my ideas use Allomantic procedures.
For example, the flight issue. To me, this wouldn't be hard at all with a hang glider. Simply steelpush yourself up into the air, open your kite-like device, and use it and the wind to propell you to your destination. If you lose too much height or need to change direction, simply toss down a few coins and you have renewed momentum. (This could be especially useful for crossing the deserts at the edge of The Final Empire, as the desert heat would provide plenty of updrafts.) It seems a convenient way to travel with minimal steel/iron usage.
Another helpful aspect of Allomancy would be the capability to twirl metal segments. (a la Kell in his Inquisitor battle.) Using this concept and a couple of Allomancers, generating electricity would be relatively simple. Just set up an energy efficient turbine and have a Mistborn come by every morning to duralumin push/pull it into continued production each day.
Medical science could be vastly improved as well, as with an Inquisitor's vision (A learnable ability by any lurcher/coinshot) doctors could quickly and easily identify any number of problems in patient's bloodstream/mineral levels/etc. Diagnostics would be quick and painless, and the surgeons could "see" exactly what was happening in real time.
Teaching and academics would benefit greatly from a few soothers, in my opinion. A whole class could be brought to an attentive and knowledge-seeking attitude with the help of some brass. Small children would especially benefit from this, I think. On top of that, physics principles such as the Newtonian laws could be taught by example much more efficiently.
Psychology would see an improvement, as gold and malatium burners could identify pivotal moments in a subjects life while emotional Allomancers guided a patient's moods. A few mental diseases could possibly be fixed with some duralumin soothing and rioting.
Atium and electrum would cause some very interesting effects, especially when combined with duralumin. As an example, military tactics would probably rely less on outguessing the opponent and more on deducing what they were doing from their atium and your electrum shadows. Important figures could know ahead of time if someone was attempting to assassinate them, and even the average electrum burner could tell if they were going to trip down the stairs or stub their toe.
With all of these wonderful advances, I think the largest problems would be economic. Metal prices would shoot way up, and the only reliable way I know of to replenish them would be the Well of Ascension. So every thousand or so years, the "Terris" people, (Or whomever controlled the Well.) would have to be able to produce enough metals for the next thousand years in one go. (And probably also create enough of the Mistborn-making metals to ensure society had enough specialists.)
So those are just some of my ideas, but it's getting late and I should go to bed. You guys have any good ideas?
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Hmm, those sound like very good ideas to consider for books 4,5,6.
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I remember having a similar discussion about these things with Brandon a while back. The evolution of the Mistborn world. From the original trilogy to a modern-ish setting (and urban fantasy setting kinda). Then from the modern-ish setting to SF. we discussed all sorts of evolutions. the SF ones were the most thrilling to chat about. this was a LONG time ago. maybe before MB1 was in stores...
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Atium will be used for chess. hax!
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This is an interesting thread.
I think I might have to investigate this further at work tomorrow. :)
For now though, I'll echo most of the sentiments expressed here so far and add a few of my own.
In addition to the rising cost of metals, certain rules would have to be amended in regards to sporting events. Take weight-lifting for example. Pewter would have to fall under "performance enhancing" drugs. ;D Same for a Feruchemist who takes part in marathons and stuff like that. Wouldn't want them looking like they can't run until the final lap and then all of a sudden turn into the Flash and smoke everyone else.
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In addition to the rising cost of metals, certain rules would have to be amended in regards to sporting events. Take weight-lifting for example. Pewter would have to fall under "performance enhancing" drugs. ;D Same for a Feruchemist who takes part in marathons and stuff like that. Wouldn't want them looking like they can't run until the final lap and then all of a sudden turn into the Flash and smoke everyone else.
Boy, that would be hard to police, though! How can you insure that a Feruchemist isn't drawing on stored speed from a metalmind under his skin? The IOC thinks it has it tough now...
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Exactly! I don't think it would even be possible to regulate something like that. :)
Or, if it was possible, it would be EXTREMELY difficult and probably not even worth the effort.
To put it in a democratic voting sense, how would one know if someone wasn't Soothing people to vote a certain way?
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economics always play a important roll in Brandon's novels. when we discussed this, we talked heavily about the evolution of plastic and glass markets as counter measures to metal burning. in addition, a synthetic way to determine whether a person was "burning" was also brought up. We also discussed how it would be extremely interesting to bring the who terrorism aspect into it all. Mistborn are natural terrorists. The ideas for the SF area of it were mind-boggling.
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Just think if there were some loose in our world. Metal detectors would become common place, and governements would most likely employ a variety a seekers at all times to seek out terrorists.