Timewaster's Guide Archive

Insomnia pays off! Discuss the new chapter here. I'll edit this post once with what I've got afterward.

And Jakobus, agreed. Elend pwns.

I am, unfortunately, the Hero of Ages.

The chapter headings are done by a Hero of Ages. I'd assume this means Rashek as was guessed before.

Black ash fell lightly from the sky, as it did most days lately.

Ashfalls (And the ashmounts.) are getting more regular, perhaps?

"I need your solders and I need your city."

Why would Elend need the city? Is it perhaps Statlin City? (Perhaps the city was renamed?)

General thoughts:

I think Vin must be stronger than Elend, otherwise he'd just Super-Soothe the Koloss into his bidding with Duralumin. Unless maybe they ran out of it, but I think they have the resources to find more. Either that or that's just another quirky thing only Vin can do.  It seems Elend has gotten pretty proficient with most metals, as I'm sure he used Iron, Steel, Pewter, Zinc, and Brass in that chapter.

I wonder why Vin didn't go to Vetitan as well. Something must be keeping her elsewhere if Elend himself had to come, especially if she's the only one who can control koloss. Perhaps they're both out, saving as many cities as they can, just in different directions.

Quote

He then added that the "bumps" (the part of each chapter in italics at the beginning of them) are written by a character who "knows everything."  Thus, they go in depth into some of the more finer details of what is speculated in these threads.  Such as how allomancy works or (these were exact examples) "Why everyone in the world doesn't have black lung disease" and "why the world got hotter instead of cooler in the nuclear winter scenario" (ie all the ash blocking out the sun).   He seemed to imply that the bumps contained information about the series and world that were written in a scientific or almost encyclopedic way.

Perhaps the bumps are written by Preservation in order to tell the heroes about Ruin.  Preservation could do this in the same way that Ruin alters texts.  Preservation would be a being who would talk about the earth in a way that is "scientific" or "encyclopedic," as a scientist speaks of specimens.  I'm assuming of course, that the heroees discover the text that contains the bumps, as has happened in the other two books.

Personally, I still think the chapter headings will be written by The Lord Ruler. After a thousand years of study, not to mention holding the power of the Well of Ascension, I'd bet he knows pretty much everything. I also think that this could be what's in Statlin City. Perhaps the Lord Ruler is not as cruel and arrogant as we all seem to think, and he did plan for what would happen should he die. He left a huge storage of canned food in the basement of his castle for the people of his city, and marked the place on a map where he left a detailed description of everything. Sort of like a, "I remade the world, here's what I did." kind of book. Or maybe more of an autobiography. Don't know why he wouldn't keep it in Luthadel though. . . Perhaps Statlin City stands on what used to be his hometown or something.

Well, there's the fact that the mist spirit, which opposes Ruin, uses Allomancy. A lot.

Okay, responses to the comments of my post . . .

[The other Worldbringers] couldn't see how my studies, which focused on nature instead of religion, benefited the people of the fourteen lands

That's where the fourteen lands bit comes from. It was apparently one of the names of the world pre-Ascension.

As for the mist spirit/blackish fog issue, what I was trying to say there is that while Vin's mist spirit is made of mist, Alendi's was made of a blackish substance, possibly this same black fog we find below Kredik Shaw. This is why I supported the connection between the two, and on top of that Vin feels right in that fog, the same way she felt right going to the Well and giving up the power. I think this shows that Ruin has at least marginal control over her emotions right then. Alendi says he felt a calming sense of peace right before he went to the Well also.

The reason I still think it would have been Ruin who tore Sazed's manuscripts is because of the fact that I don't think he had a whole lot of power to affect the world when the original tearings were done. Ruin was sitting there in the Well, he knew Sazed and Tindwyl were getting close to that part of the manuscript, and if they saw it enough to commit it to regular memory, he was doomed. So he exerts himself and just destroys that sentence, and makes them rewrite all of the manuscripts with his new change. This way, he only has to do some minor destruction and alter a metalmind instead of focusing his efforts on changing the words of each individual page and making the handwriting fit and putting on ink smudges and all that fun stuff he can do later, when he has more power.

Andrew, your theory about all the spikes being connected makes sense, but there are a few small holes. First off, why is the linchpin spike the only one that kills when it is removed? Second off, what actually determines a "connection" between two of the spikes? I like the idea, but it has wrinkles.

And I like the idea of the mist spirit only being visible while it's using Allomancy. But if that's true, I think the mist spirit has some access to some really wacked out metals. Vin doesn't recognize the pulses coming from it as any metal she knows, so it must be burning something she doesn't know the pulse for. I guess it could be Aluminum or Duralumin, or it could be something weird like burning the mists or the Allomancy-giving metal.

Okay, I read through a good chunk of Well of Ascension today, and thought I'd make some points.

First one's a rather small point, I think . . .

Only one way to win a knife fight against a guy with a sword . . . Elend thought, gripping his knife. The thought, oddly, hadn't come from one of his trainers, or even from Vin. He wasn't sure where it came from, but he trusted it.

Preservation, Ruin, or Elend's near death instincts?

The Rabzeen and the Anamnesor were both mythological figures vaguely familiar to Sazed--But they were only two among hosts. Until the discovery of the rubbing, there had been no way to connect their names to the Hero of Ages.

Apparently Terris wasn't the only one of the fourteen lands which had prophecies about the Hero of Ages. Terris was probably just the place that had the most accurate/manipulated prophecies because of their close proximity to the Well of Ascension.

[. . .] Sazed had four copies of the transcription. All were missing the same exact chunk.
[Tindwyl held up a sheet] one that had only half the transcription on it, ending near the middle of the page. A hole had been torn directly in the middle of the page. [. . .]
"How is this possible?" Tindwyl whispered. "How could someone know so much of our work--so much of us?"
"And yet," Sazed asked, "how can they know so little of our abilities? I have the entire transcription stored in my metamind. I can remember it right now."

So. Sazed and Tindwyl have several copies of the manuscript, they've been in the room with them the whole time, (probably) and the tears are all exactly the same. It's pretty obvious to me that the removal of these pieces of paper was done by one of the two entities, but which one? Preservation might have done it to lead Sazed and Tindwyl to second guess that line, to pay more attention to it, or maybe to have to go back and read Kwaan's plate again. Ruin could have done it so they had to tap into their metalminds and retrieve the quote. Keep in mind, they never found those pieces of paper which went missing initially. Sazed only found the corner of the page which had been ripped after he rewrote it from his metalmind.
This leads me to believe it was Ruin's doing. By destroying that sentence, Sazed had to tap his metalmind, where Ruin could change what he wished. I don't have any idea why it was torn later on, perhaps Preservation tore it and left the piece where Sazed would find it for some reason.

[. . .] While the Lord Ruler ruled, society could not progress. He kept a stabilizing hand on the empire, but it was an oppressive hand as well.  Fashion stayed remarkably unchanged for a thousand years, the noblemen always trying to fit the Lord Ruler's ideals. Architecture and science did not progress, for the Lord Ruler frowned on change and invention.

Evidence for The Lord Ruler and Preservation being connected somehow.

"It's the mist spirit," Vin said, walking by and dumping an armload of wood beside the firepit. "It's chasing us."

Now why would the mist spirit chase these three? What would Preservation stand to gain by following Vin, Elend, or Spook? You'd think that it would be more focused on preventing anyone from finding the Well of Ascension within Luthadel, so why does it follow them? Is it just because Ruin seems to have taken such an interest in Vin?

Yet [the mists] did. They farther they'd gotten from Luthadel, the longer the mists lingered in the mornings.

If the daytime mists are part of the Deepness, and that's part of Ruin, then this could be taken as proof that Preservation had the strongest force in Luthadel, on top the Well of Ascension. Even more proof of the Lord Ruler/Preservation connection?

And yet it was real. She could feel it, and she could see it--see it as it looked up, meeting her gaze with invisible eyes.
Hateful eyes.
It raised an insubstantial arm, and Vin saw something flash. She reacted immediately, whipping out a dagger, bursting into the tent and swinging. Her blow met something tangible in the mist spirit's hand. A metallic sound rang in the calm air, and Vin felt a powerful, numbing chill in her arm. The hairs across her entire body prickled.

Okay, first off, why did the mist spirit attack Elend? Just to try and get at Vin? Why does it seem to hate her? Perhaps this is because it knows Vin is going to go the Well of Ascension, and it is angry at her for leaving Luthadel. Or perhaps it doesn't like married people. Something is up there. And for reference, another similar event happens on page 121, and during that episode Vin feels a pain moving from her ear to her head.

No. She knew the Lord Ruler had built the Inquisitors with a weakness: Remove a particular spike from their back, and they'd die. He had also built the kandra with a weakness. The koloss had to have a weakness, too. [. . .]
Cousins indeed. The Lord Ruler had built the koloss with a weakness--the same weakness as the kandra. He had given himself a way to keep them in check.

Okay, based off of this, I pull out a few assumptions. First off, The Lord Ruler probably created koloss and kandra with the power from the Well of Ascension. The fact that they're so similar in their weakness, and the fact that The Lord Ruler was the only Allomancer with enough power to control them (Without duralumin of course.) makes this pretty obvious to me. However, what's up with The Lord Ruler and Hemalurgy/Inquistors? If he made them with the power from the Well, I'd think he would have made them with the same weakness. Instead, they have a totally different (Hemalurgic?) weakness. But on the flop side, why do Inquisitor's have the weakness at all? Zane survives just fine with only one spike, and it's not the linchpin spike. It also went right through his heart. There's always another secret.

"It's what I would do," Vin said. "If I knew the power would return, if I wanted to preserve it. I'd hide the Well. [. . .]"

More The Lord Ruler/Preservation stuff.

I'm going mad, [Elend] thought, hands beginning to shake. The mist figure stopped a few feet in front of him and then raised its right arm and pointed.
North. Away from Luthadel.

Why would the mist spirit want Elend to go north? As far as we know, there's nothing important up there. Maybe to draw Vin away from the Well? But then why does it seem to hate her? Is there maybe another reason the mist spirit appeared to Elend? And why not do it while Lestibournes was around? (Also, it appears something, maybe the mist spirit, made a noise right before this happened.) And then right after that, there's . . . .

The thing pointed again. Elend cocked his head. It certainly didn't seem threatening. In fact, he felt an unnatural feeling of peace coming from it.
Allomancy? he thought. It's Pulling on my emotions!

The mist spirit has Allomancy, it would appear. Or at least, it can Pull on Elend's emotions. (Or possibly Soothe them.) On top of that there's that whole bronze pulse deal. It makes it pretty clear to me that the mist spirit is connected to Allomancy somehow. The mist spirit also does similar things in it's appearance to Sazed at the end of the book. Page 561 for the curious.

"We didn't," she said firmly, standing, looking south. Focusing, she could feel the thumpings, washing across her. Pulling her.

The Well of Ascension is a Pulling metal? Just a thought.

"Well, I've seen [the mist spirit] again," Vin said, "It's like a ghost, formed from the patterns in mist. I see it all the time, watching me, following me. And I hear those rhythms in my head--majestic, powerful thumpings, like Allomantic pulses. Only, I don't need bronze anymore to hear them.

Don't need bronze anymore eh? But, don't dismiss Allomancy entirely.

I have to find the Well, [Vin] thought with determination, burning bronze, the thumpings--which she'd been ignoring during the battle--becoming loud to her ears.

It appears that bronze still makes the thumpings more prominent. And let's go way back to the roots here, with . . .

For a moment, she thought she felt something. Something
very strange—a slow pulsing, like a distant drum, unlike any
Allomantic rhythm she’d felt before. But it wasn’t coming
from Kelsier. It was distant . . . far away. She focused harder,
trying to pick out the direction it was coming from.

That one sure struck me as odd.
So what's up with the Allomancy link here? And if bronze lets Vin hear the pulsings, why can she later hear them without it? This is one of my favorites, and I'm pretty much clueless here. So, moving on . . .

"Kill him," God said. "He's really not that important."

God (Ruin) obviously knows quite a lot about Zane's surroundings. He occasionally says all these little random things about people, things that lead me to believe his senses are very acute.

Vin shook her head. This felt right.

The smoke didn't choke her, as she expected. There was something oddly welcoming about it.

What's with all this rightness? And speaking of that smoke . . .

It had ended here, at a second, slightly smaller cavern that was clogged with a thick, dark smoke. It didn't seep out of the cavern, as it should have, but billowed and churned upon itself.

It isn't a shadow
This dark thing that follows me, the thing that only I can see--it's isn't really a shadow. It is blackish and translucent, but it doesn't have a shadowlike solid outline. It's insubstantial--wispy and formless. Like it's made out of black fog.
Or mist, perhaps.

See a resemblance there? This leads credence to my theory that that blackish smoke is what the Deepness had become right before The Lord Ruler ascended. It's dark and most people would find it terrifying and formless, and it's blackness might make them not associate it with something as simple as mist.

Okay, I think that's all for now. Maybe I'll post a few things in the Hemalurgy thread, but I don't have a whole lot there. Anyways, what are your guys thoughts on this stuff? Ruin and Preservation are complicated, that's for sure.

Having escaped death at the climax of The Well of Ascension only by becoming a Mistborn himself, Emperor Elend Venture hopes to find clues left behind by the Lord Ruler that will allow him to save the world. Vin is consumed with guilt at having been tricked into releasing the mystic force known as Ruin from the Well. Ruin wants to end the world, and its near omniscience and ability to warp reality make stopping it seem impossible. She can’t even discuss it with Elend lest Ruin learn their plans!

"You know why I thought you'd save me?" he tried to whisper to her, though he somehow knew that his lips weren't properly forming the words. [. . . ]

"Of course I didn't tell you to kill her," God said.

From these two quotes, I'm pretty sure Ruin can "hear," but not read minds. Hemalurgists are tricky . . . . Zane was speaking those words, but they were unintelligible. Either Ruin pieced together what Zane was trying to say because he's cool like that, or Ruin could read Zane's mind. Elend and Vin could have to keep silent for fear of Ruin overhearing their conversation, or because he could read Vin's mind. If Ruin can see into Hemalurgist's minds though, I would assume that he could only do so to a relative extent as to how much Hemalurgy the person possessed. So he knows basically everything about Inquisitors, knows at least enough about Zane to tell when he's near someone, and knows enough about Vin to make her and Elend not want to risk talking about their plans.

Andrew, I think Ookla was talking about Comatose's post in the Reen's Obsidian thread, where Coma said he wasn't reading anymore of Ookla's posts.

And who says the two forces are of equal power at any given moment? Perhaps Preservation is just tired or something. (I only say tired because it seems odd to me that Alendi, Rashek, and Vin all have a line similar to, "I am so very tired." somewhere in the books, not because I'm convinced a force like Preservation could even be tired.)

Perhaps as was mentioned before, the state of the world determines which of the two powers is stronger at the moment. If there's more chaos, Ruin is stronger, more stability, Preservation.

Or perhaps It's just a matter of the forces using up their power. (Burning it away, perhaps?) Preservation seems to have been active for at least a thousand years, trying to keep the world from progressing, while Ruin was just freed from his prison. Perhaps Ruin with his newly acquired power from the Well of Ascension is just simply stronger than Preservation at the moment.