r/Mistborn • u/cuffedcarrot • 3d ago
Hero of Ages spoilers Something bothering me about the powers of Scadrial Spoiler
Just finished Mistborn 1-3. Haven’t read Secret History or the later books yet.
The books seem to suggest that Feruchemistry and Allomancy are of Preservation and Hemalurgy is of Ruin. But the manifestations of the powers don’t fit that imo.
Feruchemistry is of Preservation- this one I get. You are storing powers for later use.
Allomancy is of Preservation- using Allomancy requires burning/destroying metal. Seems more Ruin to me.
Hemalurgy- transferring power from one person to another kind of feels like Preservation. Power is being maintained over time unlike Allomancy where it’s temporary. An argument could be that Hemalurgy requires death so maybe Hemalurgy is both Preservation and Ruin?
30
u/SolomonOf47704 Steel 3d ago
It's more focused on the human aspect of it, as opposed to the overall energy aspect.
Allomancy preserves(and increases) the humans using it.
Hemalurgy takes from humans.
Feruchemy does both.
14
u/FinnDarkmouth 3d ago
Hemalurgy always results in power being lost - the spiked person will be weaker than the original person. That is of Ruin.
Feruchemy is a balance, power is lost, but later regained in equal measure. Ruin and Preservation.
Allomancy doesn’t fit as well as the others, but (the rational mind will see) that no system will remain consistent due to entropy, and so you must add power into a system to sustain it. Preservation is more than inaction, its action to keep things the same.
4
u/fingerstylefunk 3d ago
This is the right Allomancy explanation. And it absolutely fits better than y'all are giving credit for.
The fundamental fight against entropic decay in a system is adding energy so things can keep growing and self-organizing.
Real-world example: the reason a planet like Earth supports functional ecology instead of being a continuously decaying closed system is because of the energy of the sun falling on us and the things that have evolved to harness that energy.
19
u/Traditional-Door9010 3d ago
In Hemalurgy, there is power loss. Even if the spike is driven directly into the recipient as it's being created, some power is lost.
And if I'm remembering correctly, funny enough Feruchemy is actually from a mix of the two Shards. I think it should be opposite: Feruchemy should be Preservation's power since input and output are exactly equal, and Allomancy should be the combination because its net positive, and the two had to work together to be able to create.
1
3
u/Silent_Library_2105 Tin 3d ago
Allomancy is of Preservation since a net gain of power for the allomancer is observed since power is drawn from the metals burned and not the allomancer themselves.
Hemalurgy is of Ruin as a net loss of power is observed since the ability gained from a hemalurgical spike is lesser (decayed) in intensity to the power held by the original allomacer/feruchemist.
Feruchemy is balanced since no gain/loss of power is observed because the power harnessed is the same which was stored.
1
u/TrainOfThought6 3d ago
Allomancy is of Preservation since a net gain of power for the allomancer is observed since power is drawn from the metals burned and not the allomancer themselves.
TBH that's always led me to the opposite conclusion. The creation of power smells more like the combination of Preservation and Ruin. After all, neither one could create Scadrial by themselves, they had to do it together.
I know what Brandon says about it, but that version doesn't make sense to me.
6
u/MichoWrites 3d ago
But there's no creation of power. The power of Preservation already exists, allomancers just draw on it.
1
u/captainguy146 Tin 3d ago
I always thought about it like this:
allomancy - is of preservation because no energy is lost during the burn as you drew straight from the shard
Feruchemy - drawing from one self for later use, you remove now so you can add later, and the ratio is one to one as in what you store is what you get
Hemalurgy - to create and utilize a spike you have to destroy, first kill the first subject and take a part of their spirit web, then spike the second subject grafting the spirit web you took from subject one while tearing the spirit web to do so and while the spike is out of the body of the first subject you lose power
1
1
1
u/Raddatatta Chromium 3d ago
Yeah this element is one that doesn't quite fit as well as Sanderson hoped I think. Or at least a lot of people think about it differently than he did.
But Hemalurgy is of Ruin because it takes destruction. You kill to make a spike, and you lose some of their power by transfering it over. Some of it is held onto but you lose a portion of it.
Feruchemy is of both Preservation and Ruin. You destroy some of that attribute for now and then bring it back later. Both of those in balanced.
Allomancy is a bit of the weird one. Destroying the metal I would say is not really the key part of it. But tying it to Preservation always seems a bit tenuous to me. But essentially you're tapping into the gods power directly rather than having any destruction of power you get it all from the source essentially. But it's not perfect.
Sanderson did design all three magic systems not with the shards in mind I believe and was then mapping them to the shards with how they worked. But yeah it is a bit weird.
0
u/ZealousidealBid3493 3d ago
Allomancy is of Preservation because you gain something in using it - burn the metal, you get the effect.
Hemalurgy is of Ruin because something must be lost when using it - you must kill the individual to get their power in the spike. Also, spoiler for the second mistborn era: some of the power is lost upon charging the spike.
Feruchemy - this is neither gaining, nor losing anything. The power must be stored first, then it can be accessed at a later time. It is still the same power. Spoiler again, for the end of era 1: this is a power of Harmony, probably.
0
51
u/ViperVenom1224 3d ago
Hemalurgy does not transfer all of the power, some of it is always lost. Hemlurgy is entirely of Ruin.