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Local Authors => Brandon Sanderson => Topic started by: Chaos on March 27, 2008, 02:09:43 AM

Title: Gemmel
Post by: Chaos on March 27, 2008, 02:09:43 AM
I reread MB1 again, and one striking question comes to mind: what happened to Gemmel, Kelsier's Mistborn mentor?

Gemmel is never characterized, never given a backstory. The only time he appears is in Kelsier's remembrances of his training.

I thought this was very interesting. I believe this Gemmel is going to be an important character in the third book. It's possible that Gemmel is dead, but his fate is never even loosely inferred by Kelsier. Since Kelsier says that he got his legends about the Eleventh metal from the north (hence telling us Kelsier went north in his two years before MB1's events after he left the Pits of Hathsin), it could be that Gemmel lived up north and gave Kelsier those legends.

And since the north is very far away, this is why we don't see him in any of the books. Yet, at least.

Thoughts?
Title: Re: Gemmel
Post by: Peter Ahlstrom on March 27, 2008, 02:35:07 AM
Kelsier (and maybe OreSeur?) seem to be the only ones who knew Gemmel, and since both of them are dead...

Brandon has said he might revisit Gemmel and the story of how Kelsier found the 11th metal in some kind of prequel, possibly like the Hope of Elantris short story that's available on Amazon.
Title: Re: Gemmel
Post by: Chaos on March 27, 2008, 04:07:20 AM
Yeah, THAT totally didn't tell me that my theory was right.

So, Gemmel's not in MB3?
Title: Re: Gemmel
Post by: Kelsier on March 27, 2008, 04:37:34 AM
I doubt it. However, that would be interesting.
Title: Re: Gemmel
Post by: EUOL on March 27, 2008, 08:04:13 AM
Gemmel (named, by the way, as an homage to the fantasy novelist) will make an appearance in the aforementioned prequel short story.  Right now, that will probably be first published in the official Mistborn RPG, since that deal looks like it's going to go through.  The story will cover Kelsier's Snapping, his escape from the pits, his training with Gemmel, and his discovery of the eleventh metal.  Theoretically.  It's one of those projects I'm not allowed (by myself) to work on until AMoL is done.   
Title: Re: Gemmel
Post by: Chaos on March 27, 2008, 04:49:52 PM
There's a Mistborn RPG deal potentially coming through fruition!? That's awesome!

But yes, stay on task and write AMoL :P.
Title: Re: Gemmel
Post by: laddr on March 27, 2008, 09:31:24 PM
Wow that is amazing news, cant wait!
Title: Re: Gemmel
Post by: Comatose on March 27, 2008, 10:09:18 PM
WAit a minute, didn't Kelsier say Gemmel was insane, did her perhaps, hear voices????
Title: Re: Gemmel
Post by: Comatose on March 28, 2008, 01:01:29 AM
Oh, and does that mean there will be a mistborn video game??? Who's making it?
Title: Re: Gemmel
Post by: VegasDev on March 28, 2008, 06:17:40 PM
I had discussed this and other questions in this thread. (http://www.timewastersguide.com/forum/index.php?topic=5627.0)

Here is an excerpt from one of my posts.

Quote from:
He escaped from a prison that held allomancers, so they must have some precautions in place to make it difficult for one man burning trace metals to escape. Sometime after escaping, he took Gemmel as a master to train him to use his allomantic abilities, which despite the fact that he possibly killed 'many men' using said abilities, still needed to be pushed off the wall. And Vin who had years of self training, appeared to be a quick learner by Kelsier's estimation, even though Kelsier himself would have had hours.


Here is Brandon's response (took him long enough :evilgrin:)

Quote from:
This is a very interesting discussion; thanks for posting it VegasDev.  The silence, however, was simply because I was watching to see what people said before giving any answers.

And, I still can't give many without spoilers.  Let me say this: Kelsier had help, both realizing that he had snapped and finding metals.  The man who trained him in Allomancy was involved in this, and it's all wrapped up in how Kelsier discovered the Eleventh Metal in the first place. 

I MAY write this story someday.  If I do, it will make its way onto my website, perhaps after being sold as an Amazon Short for a while, kind of like I did with the ELANTRIS short.  There's not much more info in Book Three about this, unfortunately--just a couple of oblique references.  If you can remember until next October, the poke me after you've read MISTBORN 3, I'll give a more complete explanation.
Title: Re: Gemmel
Post by: Comatose on March 28, 2008, 10:50:23 PM
I also wondered about how Kelsier was able to do so much damage without metals, Oh, why can't october come sooner!
Title: Re: Gemmel
Post by: Chaos on March 29, 2008, 03:55:50 PM
I really need to read all these old topics.

Well, if other posts didn't already destroy my crazy "kandra giving Kelsier the Eleventh Metal" theory, then this certainly did it. :P
Title: Re: Gemmel
Post by: Comatose on March 30, 2008, 01:11:16 AM
Thanks Veges Dev, I read that other thread, and It has some interesting theories on it, it was a good read, thanks for the link!