The Comprehensive Hemalurgy Thread

[Andrew the Great]

just a quick side note: Do we know if Marsh is working with the other Inquisitors, or is he going solo?

No. He seems to be going solo, but ruin is likely controlling him as well as the other inquisitors, so in that respect he's working with the other inquisitors.

[Comatose]

At the start of book two, I know he wouldn't tell them, but at the end of book one, when he tries to help Vin beat teh lord ruler and kills all the other inquisitors, i think he's still largely above Ruin's influence, which means he would tell Vin and Elend about the atium spike.  we have no evidence that Ruin is influencing the inquisitors at the end of book one.  As for the Marsh saying the inquisitors don't know, or he doesn't know, I'm pretty sure it's in the  epilogoue of book one, I could have imagined it though, so, I'd better check.

[Andrew the Great]

I don't know...If I had a giant source of wealth inside of me that could be removed, but the removal would kill me, I wouldn't tell anyone about it. Even my closest friends. Even if there are other people with the same amount of wealth inside of them that are already dead, they may remember later, or may decide that what they have isn't quite enough...I would be very hesitant to give out information that my survival may depend on people not knowing.

[Comatose]

But Marsh is (was) a very sacrificing man, he devoted his life to making life better for the skaa, I think he'd share the secret.  He was also feeling outdone by Kelsier, who stole his dream, he'd want to do his part.
He does however, NOT reveal that the inquisitors know nothing of the Atium, sorry, I'm usually more careful when I'm reading, I must have imagined it.

[SarahG]

Anyway, this website says healthy saliva is slightly alkaline, pH 7.4.
http://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/salivaphtest.htm

Well, this website says your website is a hoax.
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Tests/reams.html

But the upshot is, saliva can range from slightly acidic to slightly alkaline, depending in part on what you've just eaten.  Either way, I think we all agree that a metal bead wouldn't dissolve nearly as fast in the mouth as in the stomach, which is the salient point.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

I'm not surprised.

But anyway I believe that allomancy works when you swallow something, not when it dissolves.

[VegasDev]

I just want to know if people with tongue rings are worried about acid eating away their hemalurgic abilities.

[SarahG]

I just want to know if people with tongue rings are worried about acid eating away their hemalurgic abilities.

Hmm, I'm picturing Inquisitors with tongue rings. ... Fascinating!

[Chaos]

The primary reason why I bought the new Mistborn paperbacks was to see if there was a MB3 sample chapter. The new MB1 does.

And it has a very interesting piece of information regarding Allomancy. Basically, the chapter is about Spook and how having Tin on basically a year straight (it appears the time between 2 and 3 is another year). It says... his powers have been enhanced far beyond the powers of a normal Allomancer.

I'm going to quote some multiple paragraphs, but since Brandon says on the MB2 paperback that its posted on his site (it isn't, unless I just can't find it, but I presume Brandon intends to post it), I figure it would be okay:

To Spook, however, they [the mists] were barely an obstruction anymore. He'd always been told not to flare his tin too much; he'd been warned not to become dependent upon it. It would dangerous things to his body, people said. And, the truth was, they were right. He had flared his tin nonstop for a year straight--never letting up, keeping his body in a constant state of super-heightened senses--and it had changed him...

Somehow, by flaring tin for so long, he had permanently enhanced his senses to a point far beyond what other Allomancers could attain.

This explains a ton. First off, it explains one reason why Inquisitors have an incredible power to see with Steel (which, Brandon says in annotation that any Allomancer can learn to do). Obviously, the Inquisitors would constantly be burning steel or iron whenever they are awake. Such would have a permenant effect on the Inquisitors' eyesight, making them much more powerful.

Likewise, with the Lord Ruler and his Soothing, constantly Soothing from Kredik Shaw would change his abilities far beyond the power of a normal Allomancer...

Now, for the Inquisitors, this is just more evidence they actually use Allomancy, not some weird Hemalurgy for their eyesight.

[darxbane]

This is not terribly surprising, although it is nice to know it works with all metals.  We are already aware that pewter dragging gets easier the more you do it.  I am guessing that the consequences of always burning metals was exaggerated to keep people from becoming too powerful.  It could also be that Spook is unknowingly drawing upon the mists to enhance his Tin Burning.

I disagree that this is evidence that Inquisitors burn metals.  It is obvious that the Hemallurgy process gave them Allomantic powers, but we still do not know for sure if they actually ingest and burn metals.

[Czanos]

Well, Kell said in book one when they were talking about pewter dragging something to the effect of "burning metals too long causes parts of your body to bend, and bend them too much and things start to break."

I think this is just evidence of the bending he was talking about, where Spook's senses are getting pulled beyond normal human capacity, and I expect Spook will at least start breaking in book three. (I wouldn't be surprised if he was blind, deaf, and numb by the end of the book.)

Though now my mind starts to wonder what would happen if someone kept atium flared for a year . . . Perpetual future vision?

[VegasDev]

Thanks for the info, I'm gonna have to go pick up the paperback so I can read the rest.

However, I don't want to come back only to see a bunch of theories that the Lord Ruler was actually a good guy to start his rule but by flaring his metals for so long he snapped and began neutering his own race.....

[Comatose]

I'll have to read that, when will it be up do you think?

I like that theory on why the inquisitors are so good at the metals they are, because they use them all the time.  It certainly would be great foreshadowing, and it might explain wh ythey need to rest, but that's jsut for allomantic abilities, we still don't know much about their hemalurgical ones.

[Chaos]

However, I don't want to come back only to see a bunch of theories that the Lord Ruler was actually a good guy to start his rule but by flaring his metals for so long he snapped and began neutering his own race.....

I don't think you would have to worry about that. Your body could snap with Pewter-dragging, but you can't use emotional Allomancy on yourself. Thus, its unlikely that your own mind would snap. The Lord Ruler is just an unavoidable tyrant--no doubt about that one.

[Vintage]

Ah ! I had some nice catching to do ! Fun ! But this time, I cannot add significantly to this thread. Only this quote :

The Inquisitor paused, and she was rewarded by what seemed to be a look of confusion on its twisted face. Then a hundred shadow images shot from his body.

Lord Ruler ! Vin thought. He had atium too.

So, Inquisitors can "use" atium and it seems available upon simple request. Somehow, I just can't imagine an Inquisitor saying to himself  "I will get my atium dose just in case I meet a silly mistborn that will want to fight me today"... Because, really, does atium have any other influence on an Inquisitor other than give him allomantic powers ? And atium being so rare to start with, would Mistborns (or a potential atium misting) really risk to fight an Inquisitor ? I doubt that very much.