Written in Steel - Spoilers

[Chaos]

OK, assuming Ruin couldn't change the words written in steel, what interest do the Inquisitors have in preserving it?  I wouldn't have thought of them as wishing to safeguard the true history of Alendi, Rashek, and Kwaan over the past millennium.

That is something I've been wondering too. Undoubtedly, that will be a major plot point in Mistborn3.

Ookla brings up a good point, though not the same one as his micro/macro theory. Ruin does not have infinite power in MB2, but it has a lot of it. It is horrifying to think how powerful it is after being freed.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Think of hypnosis. It's (supposedly) easy to get people to do the kinds of things they would be willing to do anyway. It's harder to get people to do things that go against their nature. The inquisitors wanted more power anyway, so influencing them to make their power play wouldn't have been hard. But getting them to go melt down a metal plate they don't care about at all and no one has thought about in centuries?

OK, assuming Ruin couldn't change the words written in steel, what interest do the Inquisitors have in preserving it?  I wouldn't have thought of them as wishing to safeguard the true history of Alendi, Rashek, and Kwaan over the past millennium.

What other metal plate have we seen, and who put it there?

[Vintage]

Wasn't there a metal map in TLR's cache ? I don't have my MB1 with me.

[Vambram]

Yeah, Vintage, I am pretty sure that there was a metal map in TLR's cache.

[AvalonDreamer]

Yes, there was, it had a city circled on it (can't recall name...). I can only guess that something equally important as the original slab lay in that location.

[darxbane]

It was Statlin City, and most of us believe that is where the Atium cache is.  As for the Kwaan plate, I would think TLR would require his special servants are reminded of what really occurred.  He is trying to prevent history from repeating itself, and I am sure there is or was some part of him that wanted to honor Kwaan for figuring out the truth.

[Vintage]

Somehow, I wonder why TLR would need a metal map to remind himself where he's hiding his own atium. I doubt that very much. But it has to be important enough... If the Well of Ascension had Ruin, could it be its adversarie's center location ? Preservation ? What do we know for sure about Statlin ?

[AvalonDreamer]

That it existed at some time?

[darxbane]

The city may have some other significance, but since the Atium has not been found yet, it's as good a place as any to assume that it is there.  It's possible that TLR was afraid he may eventually forget things.  He would not trust to use metalminds, nor would he write anything down on paper for the same reason.  Maybe he originally feared his own thoughts could be manipulated, so he etched them in steel to be sure he wouldn't forget.  In any case, it's one of the only ways to get a dead man to talk, so it is convenient for EUOL to put it there as an "oh by the way" clue.

[Vintage]

Unless the map was not drawn by TLR, of course. Could it not be Kwaan's doing again ? I did wonder quite a bit of time if TLR could not be, in fact, Kwaan. Does Brandon confirms this positively in his annotations ? Because the so-called Rashek never confirmed it was he, and it would then be logical that Kwaan would have left the writings in steel in the cavern, would have kept remembrance of Rashek's possession and also of Alendi's book.

If it interests anyone, I made a comparative table between the actual writing in steel and what Sazed had translated with its different subsequent alteration i.e. the Holy First Witness - just for study purposes though, hey ?

[darxbane]

Brandon does confirm that TLR is, in fact, Rashek. 

[SarahG]

In my opinion, that would be way TOO much of a twist, for the major twist from MB1 to turn out to be false.  Authors can only throw in so many surprises before their readers start feeling manipulated and betrayed.

[Comatose]

And Vin sees a packman when whe uses malatium, Kwaan was a holy man, and TLR responded to the name "Rashek.  It was definatly him.

I think there's something important about Statlin City.  At first I thought that that was where the atium was, but the lord ruler carved it into steel, meaning he didn't want Ruin to influence it.  It seems that the cache was kind of a place jsut in case he was de3feated, there was food left to feed the people in cans, and the map.  It seems oddly compassionate of him, but it could be true, couldn't it?

[AvalonDreamer]

Is it possible that Preservation had some effect on him as well? One would think that Preservation would want him to stockpile food and keep the knowledge on the map whole.

[Comatose]

I don't see why presrvation would care abou the cans or the map.  Because of the nature of presrvation, I think presrvation would be very reluctant to intervene in the world as Ruin does because it would hate change, and be interefering it would be cahnging htings, I think Preservation only intervenes when absolutely necessary to counter Ruin.