Timewaster's Guide Archive

Ugh.  Spook.  Don't laugh.

Overly sensitive.  Shy.  Other people find it difficult to understand me when I speak (but that's because I mumble everything, not because talk like this I do).  And I think I'd enjoy being a Thug about as much as Spook did.  Y'know, tearing doors off their hinges and stuff.  Oh and I stare into space a bunch.  And, uh, I kind of hear other people's conversations without trying, which can be embarrassing for both of us.

On the other hand, I didn't have an abusive, stupid, selfish father and I don't have any nicknames.  Um, and I never even had the courage to give a lady a handkerchief.  And I'd probably just die on the spot if someone jabbed me in the shoulder, particularly if a piece of steel broke off.  And I'll never be a main character, not even in the final chapters.

Well, whatever.  Lestibournes is still the character I relate to most.

Oh, and now that HoA is out it's obvious that Ook is Yomen because he saw the future book before everyone else.  Just thought I'd mention it since it hasn't been brought up again until just now.

Yeah I think that's what she called the weird book about the kid that's magically forced to hop planets until he finds his own...

I liked Howl's Moving Castle and the Chrestomanci series a lot better, myself...  And of course the Miyazaki version of Howl's Moving Castle is pure awesome, but mainly because of how good Diana Wynne Jones was.  "Castle in the Air" was almost as good, but I doubt we'll see an anime version of that because the title is way too close to that of another Miyazaki film, which is inspired by (but not based on) Gulliver's Travels.

But that's assuming you're right.  I'm not gonna claim credit on this because I actually forgot I'd even read a book by that name until you mentioned DWJ.

Oh, I know there's nothing that states that there was each kind of Misting. But there's also no evidence against thinking that....This also makes me wonder if there were Mistings in that group that were Mistings of maybe Nicrosil, or Chromium, or maybe the true External Temporal metals, but we just didn't know it--nor was it mentioned in the book--because the metals weren't discovered.

Hypothetical situation here. I'm thinking it's Chromium that's the external pairing to Duralumin. If I'm wrong, correct me. I wonder what would've happened if, at the exact moment when Vin was trying to take over Marsh, and burning Duralumin, a Chromium misting burned their metal, thus enhancing Vin's soothing. Would it have enhanced her Duralumin? So she'd in essence have a double Duralumin push? Would this have made it possible to control Marsh? What if this happened in the next trilogy, when Marsh isn't under Ruin's control, and if there WAS a Mistborn there.....Or maybe a Soother with a Hemalurgic Duralumin spike? Makes me wonder...

I know you recently said that Brandon said that this wouldn't work, but I got to wondering how much control a Chromium misting would actually have over his/her power.  I mean, if it just Enhanced indiscriminately, it wouldn't have given Vin that extra Push anyway, since I'm betting Marsh was burning Copper to block her Allomancy.  Thus Marsh would receive enhanced protection equal to Vin's enhanced control.

Also, although we've only seen one example and it's not very likely that a single case generalizes so easily, I find it probable that atium alloys change the "target" of the base metal.  As malatium has the effect of Gold, but can be used on someone else, an atium-brass alloy might allow a Misting to Soothe himself!  Similarly Pewter and Tin could strengthen and increase the sensitivity in someone else, respectively.  Copper wouldn't seem all that different, except that it would have the side-effect of shielding others from emotional Allomancy (by the way, it might do more -- such as further increase the difficulty of Pulling metals from someone else's body, but since nobody other than Vin has ever done that anyway and the Lord Ruler didn't like to burn Copper, who knows...).  Atium-iron and -steel alloys would be particularly interesting.  Would they allow the user to Pull a metal towards another person's center of gravity?

Of course this is all speculation and extrapolation from just one case, but it would make for some interesting additional powers, no?

...On the other hand, there's the seemingly-random distribution of effects in Feruchemy and Hemalurgy (I can't find any pattern as the metals are currently -- incorrectly, it seems -- organized).  What sort of effects do Atium and Lerasium alloys have in these two forms of magic?

If the Lord Ruler knew of Chromium and Nicrosil, then he would have said so in one of his storage caches, just as he did with electrum.

Unless he really really really REALLY didn't want anyone to know.

It may be possible for Chromium and Nicrosil to affect Feruchemy as well, just like an Allomancer/Feruchemist hybrid can burn Gold, Atium, etc. for a geometrically increased amount of Health, Youth, etc.  That is, Chromium would inhibit not only Allomancy but also Feruchemical powers, making an Inquisitor basically powerless.  If it turns out that Chromium diminishes the power of Hemalurgy as well, it may be fatal to Inquisitors, Kandra, and Koloss.  And if that is the case, it should be obvious why the Lord Ruler wanted to hide that pair...

Atium is, in a way, sort of in between "enhancement" and "temporal".  Remember that it doesn't only allow the user to see the future; it also drastically improves the cognitive speed of the user, granting instant intuitive aptitude while it's being used.  This is, I think, what makes it "divine".  Unlike the other "temporal" metals (if, indeed, atium is truly in a category and that category is temporal), it has two distinct effects at the same time.  Electrum is not divine; it merely produces a bunch of images of possible movements the user might make.  It also does not appear to increase one's ability to think quickly.

Oh, and don't underestimate Aluminum's power, either.  It actually has several uses; for one thing, Elend didn't necessarily need Duralumin to destroy all the atium.  He could have used aluminum just as easily (though Duralumin was undoubtedly the better choice).  Also, recall that some metals and alloys can hurt you if they're not meant to be burned (we haven't actually seen any examples of Mistings or Mistborn burning the wrong alloy and getting killed, but Kelsier said so so it must be true, right?  Right?  >_>).  Anyway what I'm trying to get at is that aluminum may serve as an "emergency brake", so to speak -- that is, you could clean out any "bad" metals by burning aluminum.  And then there's the application it was used for in the books: forcing someone to burn it.

There was a lot of discussion going on (especially on pages 6 and 7) about the connections between Elantris and Mistborn.  And I think that's really interesting.  So here's my two cents, whether you want 'em or not:

Far be it from me to claim that either Elantris or Mistborn is formulaic, let alone built from the same formula, but there are some definite patterns in the religious and magical systems in the books.  For instance, the Jindoeese are "soft-spoken and uncombative", calm and level-headed.  Sounds a LOT like the Terris.  Not only that, but the Derethi have a rigid structure like the Obligators and -- to an extent -- the Inquisitors.  And, of course, the Korathi are the most "free" people, which inherently leads to class differences like nobility but also generally content "common" people who speak for themselves and have their own ideas.  Although some of the Skaa were oppressed in the Mistborn trilogy, the Skaa/Nobility were a LOT like the Korathi in that sense.

In a similar way, it seems to me that there are actually three forms of "magic" in Elantris as well.  Though we haven't seen much other than the Dor, it has been shown that the Derethi are able to manipulate bone structure to create creatures that live a long time and have super-strength, and who knows what other powers.  Similarly, the Jindoeese seem to have some sort of speed augmentation power and superior concentration (Blessing of Presence?  Just kidding), though they may also have others.  And, in keeping with the themes present in Mistborn, Aon power is fueled entirely by the Dor, while Bone-Twisting (I dunno what you're going to call it) causes a great deal of pain and undoubtedly requires some kind of sacrifice.  In addition, the fanatical devotion of affected Derethi to their cause seems uncannily similar to the influence of Ruin over those who are pierced by metal (on the other hand, Hrathen kept his sanity in spite of his augmented arm and didn't seem to need to struggle with any voices...)  Meanwhile, if I remember correctly, the Jindoeese martial arts -- ChayShan -- required a period of slow movement that eventually built in speed -- which reminds me of Feruchemy -- just without metals.  These ideas (I refuse to call them "theories" as a reader's ideas cannot be backed up through experimentation -- only by what an author chooses to reveal about his OWN ideas) are probably riddled with holes in their present form, but maybe that's because it's been a year and a half since the last time I read Elantris and we didn't really get to see many examples of Jindo or Shu-Dereth power.

There's also that thing in the Glossary about how many who enter Dakhor are never seen again.  This may be simply because of how secretive Dakhor's warriors are, but it might also be because some of the initiates are used as sacrifices to empower others.

I do wonder, too, whether Domi and Jaddeth are "real" deities in Arelon, or if there's something else going on here.  Is Domi the current "spirit" wielding the power of the Dor, while Jaddeth is master of that creepy thing they do in monasteries?

...Also, a thought on "Lerasium":  Does this imply an alloy called Mallerasium or something similar which does...something?  If that's the case, doesn't that bring the total to 18?  Maybe there are 20!  And since the "temporal" metals show multiple possible alternate realities, perhaps Lerasium and the quartet it fits into has something to do with alternate realities/dimensions/futures/pasts as well.  This is all just off the top of my head, but since Lerasium grants Allomancy (and, apparently, other powers if it's alloyed with other stuff) perhaps Mallerasium permanently inhibits powers.  Meanwhile maybe there's still ANOTHER pair of metals even Sazed doesn't know about (or simply didn't want to tell about) that similarly affects time and space.

And and and...

...Even Warbreaker has two "magic" thingies: the Harmonics and the Hues.  Hmmmm.  Aside from that, I still wonder what the Pahn Kahl actually do believe.  Several characters described that religion as "simple", but there's never an explicit definition of the Pahn Kahl religion.  Then, too, there's ichor-alcohol, which seems to enhance the powers of Breath when used for the creation of a Lifeless, but which (as far as we've seen) is just a special chemical otherwise unconnected to BioChroma.  Is there some other form of magic in the Warbreaker world that we somehow don't know about yet?  Alchemy?

If not, there's still something interesting about the ways BioChroma can be used:
-In creating a Lifeless or similarly imbued artifact (such as Nightblood), power is eventually lost as the Lifeless will eventually "run down" and the Breath cannot be recovered.  This is especially true with Nightblood, since he "eats" Breath.
-In Awakening, power is maintained since it can be recovered in the exact same amount after its job is done.
-In Returning, power is gained since an incredibly powerful Breath is bestowed on an individual who did not have that much before (unless said individual was an extremely rich and powerful Awakener...but such an individual is unlikely to Return, given what we know of the Warbreaker theology).  Although the Returned also consume Breath, they do so at a slow rate and only one such as Vasher would have consumed enough to constitute "loss" of Breath (even if a Returned lived for decades, I think the Breath it was granted from the beginning is still more powerful than the sum Breaths consumed).

This follows the same pattern as the other books.  The only anomaly is Alcatraz (both Talents and Lenses essentially derive something from nothing, and both can be used for either good or ill), but many of us speculate that Alcatraz's magic is unrelated to the "adult" novels.

While the role-switching between the two Idrian siblings was largely well-done, there was a bit too much of Vivenna going "Oh my gosh look how much I changed!" throughout the book.  In several places, it is rather obvious to the reader that she has undergone quite a bit of character development -- without needing to rub it in all the time.

It still isn't very clear why the Siri's father chose to switch them, other than because it turned out better in the end.  Siri's father presumably didn't really know about the situation in the Court of the Gods much better than Vivenna did, so why would he decide Siri was a better choice?  I kept waiting for a flashback or a PoV change to someone in Idris or something that would explain the king's motives, but I must have missed it if it ever came.

I hope I'm not making a terrible fool of myself by overlooking something...