The Comprehensive Hemalurgy Thread

[Phaz]

I'm not sure where else to put this as it somewhat pertains to all of these threads, but I think it will fit here.

I just got back from the signing Brandon did in Denver today and I asked him about these threads.  I think people might find the following information interesting (hence why I'm posting it).

He was asked if he read these threads.  He said he did at first, but since has stopped visiting them.  When he was reading them, he had to strongly resist the urge to post corrections to things that people would find out later.  However, once the book is out (and people have a chance to read it), he plans on stopping by and adding where necessary.

I think all of that is pretty well assumed by many.  However, the next part is interesting.

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.

Other interesting things to note, is that he said in the next week or so, he will put up the first chapter of the book on his site, doing more after.  In the end, there will be 4 chapters, which will give you one from each of the viewpoints (except one I believe he said).

Finally, he had 3 copies of Hero of Ages complete with cover art and text.  It was pretty amazing being that close to all the answers.

[Miyabi]

"Why everyone in the world doesn't have black lung disease"

Darn that ultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis!!!

Ha ha.

Sorry I couldn't resist.

[Andrew the Great]

1 - He says they arose with the mists, but the mists were around before TLR took control, assuming they were the Deepness.

2 - I didn't say Feruchemy wasn't around, I'm just saying that there were signs of Hemalurgy.

3 - I don't believe that the Worldbringers would have wanted to create Hemalurgy.  It seems like too malicious for something they would have wanted to create.

4 - OK I just looked over that, yes the first time we see the mists react was Kell, but we hear MORE about it when they talk about the Inquisitors or Vin when she fights TLR.  Most of us speculate that her earring coming out actually gives her access to Hemalurgy, why? I dunno, but that seems very plausible.

5 - But my previous argument of them being talked more of reacting to the mists and Vin being able to burn them through allegedly using Hemalurgy makes me think that it is more deeply connected to the mists, making it seem more of the older of the three.

1 - We really have no idea that allomancy and the mists were created at the same time. From what we know, Allomancy COULD have been created when the mists arose, The mists COULD have arisen when the Lord Ruler came to power, the mist COULD have arisen at an earlier time, Allomancy might have already exists. Basically, we don't know.

2 - The only things we have to suggest that hemalurgy was around would be the bump that mentions the piercings of the hero, and the fact that Alendi was able to conquer the Terris population with no other available magic (Alendi was not a Feruchemist)

3 - Not the Worldbringers - a previous hero of ages. Besides, we don't really have anything to suggest that the hero of ages can make a magic system, except for the lord ruler - and he's never lied before, right? I would guess that all three systems have been there forever, and allomancy just died out for a while until the lord ruler came to power.

4 - I'd say we hear about the mist reacting to hemalurgy and allomancy about equally. And who, exactly, is "most of us?" I've heard theories that burning the mist was through hemalurgy before, but never once one that Vin's lack of an earring is what allows her to use hemalurgy. That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I think the reason we remember it more when hemalurgy is mentioned though, is that it isn't what normally happens.

5 - All of the magic systems are related to the mists on a foundational level. And, as previously mentioned, it seems no newer than any of the others.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

[Qarlin]

The deepness could just be something within the mists, and not exactly the mists themselves. The Mists, even as the deepness, arose before TLR, thus allomancy easily could have existed before him, since they arose with the mists. And we don't see the mists in the daytime, possibly because they are so thin, like an indistinct haze, and the ashmounts obscure vision already, so we don't notice.

Then there's the note in the annotations that the world is kind of frozen in time (MB1, prologue part 2, thanks again Czanos), and now with TLR dead, time is beginning to unfreeze, and everything that was stopped before is now threatening to destroy the world.

[Comatose]

2 - We saw that there were hints of Hemalurgy before TLR took control.
    -Alendi's many piercings.

Actually, it just says "piercings of the hero."  This could mean only two (we know it is plural though).  Two can hardly be counted as many.

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.

EDIT:  This is continued from the Ruin and Preservation thread:
...  Thebit about the lynch pin spike is interesteing, as is the bit about the inquisitors ability to stay alive.
What if the sacrifices have nothing to do with power at all, what if the purpose of the sacrifices IS to keep the inquisitors alive, or the blood activates the hemalurgy.  Perhaps the life force of the victim is captured in the spike, and transferred to the inquisitor?
There is a hole of course, Vin's mother used a sacrifice for Vin's earring, and she didn't need it to stay alive.  Perhaps passing the life along is an added benefit, and the main purpose is just to activate the hemalurgy.  Or maybe hemalurgy is meant to kill people, but the blood sacrifice weakens it, so it leaves them living with amazing powers.  We know Zane cuts himself, and his blood weakens God's voice in his head, so perhaps blood weakens hemalurgy, and the blood sacrifices are used so that the hemalurgy doesn't kill the person.
Still has holes, just some thoughts I thought while reading.

[Czanos]

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.

[Andrew the Great]

I'm inclined to agree with you, Czanos.

[Miyabi]

I think I vaguely said this once before, but I don't remember which thread.  Maybe I just thought it.

"Maybe TLR really wasn't trying to do bad, maybe he was doing good in the only way he could see it happening."

So I definitely agree with you. . . except on it being his hometown.  I think that he might have taken pieces of the old world and placed them here so he had something that felt like home. . . but not the actual city itself.

[Czanos]

I remember you saying you thought it was Rashek who would write the headings, but not for the same reasons, miyabi.

And the reason I said hometown is because The Lord Ruler would need a reason to not keep his findings near him, and I figured he's kind of obsessed with the past and heritage sometimes, he might want to kind of leave a memento of himself in the place where he grew up. And I'm not saying Statlin City is the city where he grew up, just that when The Lord Ruler remade the world and took it over, he built a city where his hometown used to be, and placed this record there. After all, the Well of Ascension was in Terris, and that's where Rashek grew up. It makes sense that his hometown wouldn't be all that far away from the Well, especially as he got hired as a guide to the Hero of Ages, so I figured he knew the area pretty well.

[Miyabi]

I remember you saying you thought it was Rashek who would write the headings, but not for the same reasons, miyabi.

No, I didn't say anything about the headings that I remember.  It was something about TLR not really being a bad guy, just misunderstood.  That his intentions really were good, but he went about it in not the best way.

[Andrew the Great]

The headings being from Rashek was actually initially chaos' idea, IIRC

[JCHancey]

This is kind of off topic but why not?
What I'm trying to put into words is how Rashek transformed the early kind of Hemalurgy into the bloody mess that we know as Inquisitors? If Allomancy didn't exisist before, then what exactly did Hemalurgy do? Also, as Kandra and Koloss have proved, TLR liked things he could control, so why not the Inquisitors? Well I guess I put it all into words, but there's just soooo much more in my head! Tiredness fails. Hemalurgy was somehow turned into a brutal weapon when allomancy came around, so what was it used for before?

[Miyabi]

This is kind of off topic but why not?
What I'm trying to put into words is how Rashek transformed the early kind of Hemalurgy into the bloody mess that we know as Inquisitors? If Allomancy didn't exisist before, then what exactly did Hemalurgy do? Also, as Kandra and Koloss have proved, TLR liked things he could control, so why not the Inquisitors? Well I guess I put it all into words, but there's just soooo much more in my head! Tiredness fails. Hemalurgy was somehow turned into a brutal weapon when allomancy came around, so what was it used for before?

We don't really know what it was like before.  For all we know it could have been just as brutal, just maybe not normally used to the same extreme as it is currently.

I would assume that Hemalurgy did the same things that it does now, why would it change?

Well he wouldn't be able to control the Hemalurgists because he didn't create them, he just found a new way to use Hemalurgy to create Inquisitors.

[Reaves]

Okay, lets face it; the piercings of the hero probably have something to do with hemalurgy. And if it was just as bloody back then you would think someone, Qwaan at the least, would have mentioned something about Alendi's sadistic and extreme cruelty. Also if you are of the persuasion that you need Keepers to make a hemalurgist the Terrispeople would not have supported him.

[Miyabi]

Just because he had the Hemalurgic piercings doesn't mean it was as violent then.  MAYBE the more violent the sacrifice and the more it does to the actual Hemalurgist, the more powerful it is.