I like your thoughts Reaves, especially about the mists being burned, but I think that maybe that's how the mistborn of old were so powerful, they drew upon the mists, but the modern mistborn's power is too diluted to do this any more, except for Vni, she is a special case.
One Question: How long have the inquisitors been established for. Di the lord ruler start creatin them at the beginning of his reign, or did Mistbonr serve him just fine, until they started becoming corrupt, and he need more loyal servants, who are more powerful than the diluted mistborn.
I'm not usre if thsi hemalurgy has been thought up yet, I remeber it from somewhere, but anyway, what if hemalurgy is jsut the passing on of abilities, and each metal contains a different ability. For example: Bronze passes on the ability of a seeker to pierce copper clouds, perhaps a steel spike allows a normal person to become mistborn, and iron lets them see lines extra clearly, and maybe some other metals transfer other attributes like strength or healing, sort of like hemalrugy or something like that. And this is the key point: allomatic abilites and other talents are passed by genetics or by BLOOD. That's what the sacrifice is for, it passes one person's genetic talents on to another person. The only probem with this theory is where does the lord ruler get all thes mistings tro sacrifice, that's the problem I have with it too, so here's the anser: Kar says he feels different kinds of pain with different emotions right? Well that got me thinking, what if something similiar happens with hemaluryg. What if certain personality traits or genetic traits in the people who are sacrificed affect the power that is given: like stubborn people when sacrificed over a pewter spike give strength, or nosy people give a bronze spike the power to pierce copper clouds. It could also be gentic, like color of hair, or eyes. The one problem I still have is that Vin's sisters was sacrificed for Vin's earring, and she was just a a baby, so she wouldn't have developed many personality traits yet, maybe it's genetic traits then. Or maybe it's a certain emotion at the time of the sacrifice, and that's why inquisitors are hard to make, you have to make each sacrifice feel a particular emotion at the moment of their death, even with soothers anbd rioters, how difficult would it be to make someone feel extremely hapy or excited right before they are killed? And perhaps the more pure the emotion, the more powerful the power transfered into the spike. There are still many loos thread, and it's very confusing, but I thought I'd post it anyway, so I could get your guys's thoughts on it, and that maybe it might get someone moving on a new train of thought.