Backup plan (Mistborn spoilers)

[CragN8R]

So as I reread The Hero of Ages I was struck with an odd though concerning The Lord Ruler and Ruin. TLR knew that Ruin would try something to get at the well and was on the lookout for such plans. The idea of the Skaa rebels actually succeeding in killing him never crossed his mind. So I thought, what kind of plan did?

The fact that Vin was the person the Inquisitors were looking for seems a little to convenient, especially when you consider how mush effect Ruin had on her life. My idea was that the Inquisitor hunt for Vin was something of a front to keep her alive in Kredek Shaw where she could possibly get to TLR. But Ruin isn't something that just lets a plan like this go to waste. What if the Inquisitors running the church was Ruins backup plan if Vin failed. TLR thought that he could control the Inquisitors, so he really had no need to fear them. Ruin could have used their control of the church as a tool for inciting more rebellion, perhaps a full noble revolt due to being forced to put up with the much more deadly Inquisitor rather than the obligators.

Thoughts

[Ari54]

I was under the impression that Ruin would need to be freed to exercise significant amounts of control even on people he arranged to have spiked.

[CragN8R]

While it's true that Ruin needed to be free to exert any actual control over creatures like the Koloss or the Inquisitors, he was still able to move things along fairly well without just body jacking someone.

Remember he manipulated Vin into freeing him, manipulated Vin's mother into spiking and played Zane fairly well with his "You are insane" God voice. Ruin could certainly effect people without being freed, it was just more of a subtle game.

It would make sense that he would be slowly pushing the Inquisitors to take more control of the church since in the final empire the church is basically government. Additionally, Inquisitors have a much larger number of Hemalurgic spikes than anything else, so it's possible that Ruin could speak to them more or grant greater influence. I'm not entirely sure what Ruin would have done with control of the church, it just seems like he was kind of betting on the long shot with Vin killing TLR and then releasing the Well's energy. It makes sense that he would have a back up plan to use Vin even if she died

[happyman]

While it's true that Ruin needed to be free to exert any actual control over creatures like the Koloss or the Inquisitors, he was still able to move things along fairly well without just body jacking someone.

Remember he manipulated Vin into freeing him, manipulated Vin's mother into spiking and played Zane fairly well with his "You are insane" God voice. Ruin could certainly effect people without being freed, it was just more of a subtle game.

It would make sense that he would be slowly pushing the Inquisitors to take more control of the church since in the final empire the church is basically government. Additionally, Inquisitors have a much larger number of Hemalurgic spikes than anything else, so it's possible that Ruin could speak to them more or grant greater influence. I'm not entirely sure what Ruin would have done with control of the church, it just seems like he was kind of betting on the long shot with Vin killing TLR and then releasing the Well's energy. It makes sense that he would have a back up plan to use Vin even if she died

It's hard to say whether he was playing the long shot.  His powers and mind were far above normal humans, and he could probably see into the future.  Only Preservations influence could stop him, I suspect, once he identified the proper chain of events.

[Rem]

I wonder how much the Inquisitors -really- were under the Lord Ruler's control. There was a line in Mistborn: Final Empire about how the Inquisitors had been trying for many years to supersede the Church of Orthodoxy and its Obligators. Even going so far as to tempt the mortal Obligators into disobeying the Lord Ruler's laws.

[socom-delta]

At the very end of  the first book, the Inquisitors got the control they wanted. The Lord Ruler gave them ultimate control over the Steel Ministry.

[CabbyHat]

I wonder how much the Inquisitors -really- were under the Lord Ruler's control. There was a line in Mistborn: Final Empire about how the Inquisitors had been trying for many years to supersede the Church of Orthodoxy and its Obligators. Even going so far as to tempt the mortal Obligators into disobeying the Lord Ruler's laws.

I rather thought that TLR didn't much care about the politics and rivalries that went on underneath him, as long as it didn't challenge his rule. I suppose that after however long he'd been ruling, he'd start to care more about continuity on a larger scale as opposed to worrying about any one faction staying in power. It wasn't as though the Inquisitors or anyone else could come to challenge him, after all. (From his point of view, anyway.)

[Rem]

I think the Lord Ruler was more careful a person than that. He wasn't fearless, he made sure no-one could challenge him. Even if this meant getting rid of all those who had Feruchemy, like he did, lest it combined with Allomancy - making someone who had his powers. Furthermore, he gave his creations - Kandra, Koloss and Inquisitors - weaknesses (Also, he never let Inquisitors reach their full potential by limiting the number of spikes they had).

The Lord Ruler was a pretty careful person. Of course, a lot of his creations had been influenced by Ruin, if I recall, inadvertently making him Ruin army.

I like to think the Lord Ruler was, at some point, aware that leaving his Church, and much control of his empire's economy, to beings that Ruin could influence was unwise. However, maybe by the time the first book came around, his conviction was slowly being whittled away, which was why he let the Inquisitors have their way after Vin was found to be the child of the head obligator.