Author Topic: Problem: Smokers.  (Read 5354 times)

happyman

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Re: Problem: Smokers.
« Reply #15 on: July 06, 2010, 02:12:56 PM »
ah, that makes more sense. If they've got the resources, I'm sure they'd figure out a way to find them.

Thing is, I think we're neglecting the concept of snapping. Even for mistings, they've got to snap somewhow. houses like the House Venture would beat their children to make them snap, then test them with all sorts of metals. Allomancers were so valuable that they'd go to great lengths to find them.

Presumably, most of the Seers they found were Nobles.  Because the nobility didn't *know* that Seers existed, they wouldn't test their kids for the skill---other metals were much cheaper.  Thus the typical seer probably was found by (a) being beaten nearly to death as a kid, snapping, but not knowing it and (b) having the Inquisitors pull one of the raids described above, and instinctively burning Atium.

I would also note that TLR had access to as much Atium as he needed any time he felt he needed it.  Its scarcity was somewhat artificial, for good reason.   But for little things like finding Seers, I see no difficulty whatsoever in picking up  a bit extra for the ministry.
Nature hates being reified.

Obsessiforge

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Re: Problem: Smokers.
« Reply #16 on: July 12, 2010, 07:19:38 PM »
I just found this annotation for Hero of Ages, which answer the question of how Yomen found out he was a seer:

Quote
Yomen Is a Seer

That raises the question of how Yomen discovered that he was a Seer. He mentions that atium was too valuable to waste on testing for atium Mistings. That's true, but incomplete. The Lord Ruler did test his obligators for the power, particularly the high-ranking ones. Those he found were told of their power and used as an extra level of security. There weren't many, but there were some—and they tended to rise very quickly in the ranks (like Yomen) and be given important positions. Yomen's power with atium made him a valuable secret weapon, and when in a position of power, he could use his ability to quell rebels or perform feats of wonder to keep the people in line.[/quote

So...there's that...

Also, I realized I've been spelling his name Yeoman...which is actually the last name of the guy he was named after. My bad.

nikita kolesnik

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Re: Problem: Smokers.
« Reply #17 on: August 23, 2010, 08:22:35 AM »
How could they possibly be detected? You couldn't burn bronze to see if they were burning metals. They wouldn't even know they were using copper,  so how could you possibly find out if you are a coppercloud?


Or they could always just apply for the ministry and tell them, if you're asking how smokers are detected to join the ministry. If you mean the smokers that join theiving crews, I assume they just know what they are by discovering the warm sensation in their stomach after consuming trace metals.