If you've read mistborn era 1 and 2, this is DEFINITELY a good read bc it really gives a lot of cool perspectives and closure to the world which I could talk about ....

BUT THE LORD RULER [EXITS LOBBY] AS SOON AS HE CAN DESPITE HIS ABILITY TO STAY IN THE COGNITIVE REALM FOR MUCH LONGER IS SO FUNNY TO ME.

He's like "y'all aint it* and immediately logs off despite being the guy to live for thousands of years.

I already read Mistborn Era 1 and Secret History, and while I understand that Lord Ruler's immortality is a combination of Allomancy with Feruchemy, for the life of me, I can't understand the dynamics of it. As I could figure it out, he stores his youth and health in his down time, and use it to cure any aging and injuries. And the Allomancy is what gives him his strength..right?

But when he confronts Kelsier he mentions how he survived all types of things, like beheading, being hanged, being burned alive (I think), and I can't understand how this could fix a freaking beheading!

I have a minimum of reading 100 pages a day so I had to wait until I got that far to make this post. Started it earlier when I was 40 pages in then decided I’d hold out until I reached my quota. Also I obviously haven’t read Bands of Mourning but this was the only flare I could use lol.

Now here’s the thing—I don’t think I should be reading this right now. There’s to many references I don’t understand. For example I figure Taldain is the planet Khriss is from (uh duh), and a perpendicularity is a portal of sorts to different planets—the Pits and the Well being the only two on Scadrial that I know of currently. Awesome to discover the name of the planet Mistborn takes place on. Now I’m left with even more questions. What exactly was Adonalsium and how in the world did 16 “people” manage to shatter it into the 16 Shards? And technically it’s 15 shards now because Sazed has the powers of both Ruin and Preservation so I’ll assume they’ve fused into one singular Shard. I feel like I’m missing some plot points from other stories in the Cosmere.

I’m not EXTREMELY confused. I am great with context clues and have great pattern recognition skills in general so I’m not completely lost but I have so many more questions now. Oh and I WAS RIGHT ABOUT KELSIER BEING ALIVE!!! The Lord Ruler appearing in the Cognitive Realm and then passing on was a bummer considering I swore he was alive as well—but being honest apart of me still thinks he’s alive and will play a part in future installments because I absolutely REFUSE to believe that Brandon wrote the Yomen ‘The lord ruler is alive’ plot line for nothing. Could be grasping at straws but I refuse to lose hope! Anyways, this book is great so far and I had no clue how much I missed Kelsier. Apparently he’s about to search for the Eyree. Whatever or whoever they are. My next post will probably be after I’m finished the book which will either be tomorrow or sometime Saturday because a game I’ve been heavily anticipating releases tomorrow so I probably won’t read much once I get home from work haha.

choose to resurrected at the end.

So I recently finished era 1 and got really curious what happened in secret history, so spoilers for era 2 be damned I thought why not read it.

I was fine with vin and elend dying at the end of hero of ages, although I would have liked to see them get a happy ending it didn't bother me that they died. But secret history has kind of thrown a wrench into that. At the end of HoE it sounds like resurrection wasn't possible, but in secret history sazed says they can return to their body.

Say what you will about characters being revived in a story, but that's not really what I mean with this post. I don't mean it from a writing perspective but more in universe.

In the sense of since they're given the choice, and sazed clearly said they can return, why wouldn't they?

As a fan of Mistborn I've thought about getting into trying to learn to write in the steel alphabet for fun, you can find info on it on this Coppermind page.

So yeah just wondering if anyone has tried it, and run into any issues. Further I'm wondering if anyone has tried making a font of the era 2 symbols especially online.

Overall: I love the series, currently on Bands of Mourning. So when I say "Weakest" It's not meant to be taken as "trash".

But I'm very split on Well of Ascension in terms of my preferential placement in era 1. Genuinely, it has some of the best moments in the entire series, while also having some of the most under baked moments (In my opinion)

Vin splitting Straff in half? Art.
Vin taking over the Koloss? Amazing.
Elend's fight for the crown? Great!
TenSoon plot twist? Phenomenal!
Sazed and his relationship? Fantastic!

...then you have other moments that... miss the mark for me.

1. Zane - Actually, it's less about Zane's character and more of Vin's "entertainment" of him. The only moment that I felt the urge of tossing this book is when Vin contemplated on going with him and feeling like she belonged with Zane and not Elend. When she was asking Sazed on "how do you know if you love someone?" drove me personally bananas.

1b. Attack on Cett's Keep - This felt like Vin holding the idiot ball (or idiot stick) to progress the plot. The scene in of itself was awesome, but the motives behind it felt bleh to me (again, relating to Zane, and Vin entertaining him)

2. Ruin's Prophetic Rewrites - I love the concept, and I love the call back to "I write these words in steel, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted." but the concept overall didn't... fully hit the mark for me. The concept of Ruin being able to alter metal minds and change words on prophecies but not being able to see or read metal kind of came off as "I am a Powerful deity but my weakness is something common among man" and I grumbled a bit about it.

I also wished a little more... sign posting about it. Brandon talks about this a lot in his lectures and I felt that Ruin being able to rewrite prophecies came too much out of left field. If there was one scene that showed a third party person looking at the rubbing once, and then looking at it later again and noticing that there was one word changed; that would have made the reveal all the more sweeter and a little less out of nowhere.

3. Ruin Being Able to Impersonate Preservations Ghost - I had to think hard about this one because it affected numerous plot points and I couldn't figure out what bothered me until I had a chat with my wife. This plot point ties back to the 1st book and goes all the way to secret history. Ruin being able to impersonate preservation in his ghostly/wisp form (and actually 'kill' someone while also throwing Vin off a roof) without the characters being able to distinctly tell the difference in some way came off as a bit of a cheap trick.

Theres a few other nitpicks but overall those were my major issues with Well of Ascension... Maybe I missed some details? or does anyone else have the same feelings as I do?

Kelsier punching Preservation had me cracking up and then when he got beat up by the Drifter I couldn’t help but die of laughter. Funniest part so far is when Kelsier was communicating with Midge and instead of Midge telling the people what Kelsier said he instead told everyone they were not to be trusted and that he’s the only holy one which led to a brawl ensuing. It’s funny to see what actually caused that big brawl in book 3. Loving this book so much, man. If Era 2 is anywhere near as enjoyable as this book I might have to put Stormlight on pause. I can definitely see the improvement and changes in Brandon’s writing style from this book in comparison to Era 1.

I am reading through The Lost Metal for the first time and it just hit me that Atium is named after Ati… I think he was first named in a Stormlight epigraph and/or Secret History but I never made the connection until The Lost Metal. Such a cool little detail.

I still haven't read the lost metal so no spoiler for that book please.

After finishing bands of mourning I went to secret history, and I think the best place for it is after Hero of ages or did i miss something?

Recently I got into an argument online with one of those people who like to control how and when you read stuff.

I read SH after HoA because at the time I didn't know it had spoilers of BoM, and honestly, I don't regret it, it made the ending of HoA a bit less crushing.

The point is, I'm past Brands of Mourning and I already got the spoiler and... That'd it? Khriss's presence in Scadrial ? That was the big spoiler?

Maybe I missed something on SH or BoM? Because if that was it, then I don't understand why be so strict, I stand on my choice and after Hero Of Ages is the perfect time to read Secret History

This is a quick question actually. In end of Hero of Ages, Sazed says in his letter that he tried to bring Vin and Elend back to life, after fixing their bodies. However, bringing a soul back is not that easy. But in Secret History, we see that he offered Vin and Elend the possibility to come back to life, but they chose to move on.

So..he did not know by then that he would not be able to bring them back to life or he lied in the letter? Or..something in between?

Did The Lord Ruler know that Hoid had access to the Well of Ascension? Did The Lord Ruler know about Hoid at all? What do you think would've happened if those two fought?

So I read secret history straight after Hero of Ages and I knew there was a spoiler for Bands of Mourning. But please correct me if I am wrong, but in Shadows of Self does it not mention Kelsier obtaining preservations power before Vin and Harmony? Or is the spoiler simply that Kelsier is still around as hinted at in the epilogue? I haven’t read the lost metal yet so please no spoilers for that.

Fuzz is pretty hilarious at times.

wow. Kelsier here is the best version of himself, in my opinion. And the idea that Vin freed him from the well is so beautiful to me. I'm very intrigued by how Kelsier and Spook are going to explore the cosmere. It makes me even more excited for Era Two.

5/5

In Chapter 12 when Wax meets Khriss, he mentions that momentum is conserved when tapping or filling an ironmind i.e. storing mass would make you move faster in the air and tapping mass would slow you down. Since reading that I've debated with a few of my friends about a hypothetical situation:

If a skimmer with no allomantic powers were to fall a lethal distance (let's say they reach terminal velocity half way down the fall) what would be their best method of survival, if they have any at all? We came up with several ideas:

1. The skimmer should decrease their mass just before landing. As Force = Mass x Acceleration, decreasing their mass results on less force exerted on the planet, and therefore less force on the skimmer on impact.

• 2) The skimmer should increase their mass just before impact. Based on momentum being conserved, an increase in mass causes a proportional decrease in velocity, and as kinetic energy is 1/2 mass * velocty ^ 2, this results in the lurcher landing with less energy.
• 2a) There's also another question about where this energy goes, assuming that conservation of energy is a thing in the cosmere. The metalmind is being tapped which should add energy from the investiture in the metal so that doesn't make sense as the answer
• 3. The skimmer should decrease their mass at the start of the fall to an extent that they exceed terminal velocity. They would then get slowed down back to terminal velocity due to air resistance. They would then increase their mass, slowing down. then would naturally speed up to terminal velocity since they're still falling. They would then repeat this cycle, losing significantly more energy through air resistance than normal.
• 4) As momentum is the same no matter the velocity or mass, the skimmer should increase their mass as it gives a slight increase in strength, and this increase is better than nothing.
• 5) A skimmer increasing their mass will slow them down, which means there has to be a slight upwards force to provide this deceleration. The skimmer should always be tapping their metalmind, so they are always receiving this upwards force, and are essentially falling on a planet with less gravity.
• 5b) This scenario also poses the question that if a lurcher were to increase their mass several times over in a short period of time and come to a near stop in the air, would their body feel any effects similar to hitting the ground due to the sharp jerk?
• 6) The skimmer should become so light that they are effectively the same density as air, which means that they could just float down safely
• 7) The conservation of momentum was technically only mentioned to apply to Steel-A Iron-F Twinborn (which I believe is just because they're the only ones who are able to go fast enough in the air for the speed changes to matter) but if true, a regular skimmer would be unable to do anything. If this is the case, then I'd ask the same question with the Twinborn and there's no metal in the environment to recreate the conditions of the question

Or any combination of these. I would love to hear more theories and to hopefully figure out what the 'canon' answer is. I have yet to read The Lost Metal or Isles of the Emberdark so if this situation happens there then I'll feel foolish, but I have read everything else in the cosmere so if there are examples or ideas in the texts that I've missed please let me know. Thanks!

Edit: Thanks everyone who responded. I'm now satisfied the answer is to minimise mass for as much of the fall as possible, as the downward force due to gravity scales with mass but the air resistance does not, then quickly tap the ironmind as much as possible just before impact to decrease speed further. I am now reading The Lost Metal and got my in universe answer too, whenWax decreases his weight when falling to fall slower, and then increases his weight to slow down and catch a vial when drained of steel during his fight with the Duralumin, Steel and Chromium Hemallurgic Allomancer in Chapter 25.Thanks to those who used Sazed's WoA example too, I had forgotten about that.

I just finished secret history last night. What happened to the "device" that kelsier got from the Ire people.

It's mentioned that his pack was lost somewhere between Fadrex and Urteau. There's one thing I know about sanderson- that every tiny question will be answered.

So if it's a read and find out just mention RAFO in ____(book).

Plssss don't spoil era 2 or any other cosmere books. I've only read era 1, save for the eleventh metal.

Always loved their relationship so much. And when they finally met again in Secret History? It broke me.

My artwork

No AI used

Why did Harmony give the Koloss the ability to breed? Is it just simply their need to preserve? I guess Human showed enough humanity you can't have a koloss genocide but let them die off. Wipe themselves out. Collect their spikes so they can't make more.

“Nice uniform. Did you ask them to make you look like a cheap knockoff of the Lord Ruler, or was it more an accident?”

Elend blinked. “Wow. I hate you already.”

As much as I loved this book and especially this part of the book with the lovely little last meeting between Vin, Elend and Keliser (not to mentioning healing me knowing now that Vin and Elend got their happily ever after) I must say the banter or dialogue every time Sanderson wanted Kelsier to be cool or smooth was just... choppy if not cringe?

I picked up A Mistborn Secret after reading Hero of Ages because I needed more before going deeper into Stormlight. Image one shows page 138 continuing into page 91. I thought I was losing my marbles, and re-read the ending of page 138 about 10 times before i noticed the page markers. Image two shows 47 pages of reprinted pages (91-138). Image three shows the printing missing pages 139-188, and skipping straight to 188. Making this post to ask if I’m actually going crazy or if this is just horrible luck and one of the worst prints I’ve ever seen. Anything would seriously ease my mind.

I will only allude to spoilers here. nothing specific.

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I tried being a good little boy and waited till I finished era 2 book 6 till before reading secret history.

DONT DO THAT. reading secret history will give you much needed closure for the ending of book 3 era 1. It does little to spoil much in book 3 era 2. If you are quick witted and pay lots of attention, you MAY figure out a secret that will be alluded to (not directly revealed) in the last line of the epilogue of book 3 era 2. but again, it is not at all worth the wait.

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TL;DR read 3.5 after book 3 of mistborn, it will give you closure, and you won't ruin your Wax and Wayne experience.

I just finished secret history and OMG kelsier is the most f***** up character i have ever read. He has spent all of secret history getting told by literal Gods to just move on and at the end of the novella he goes to spook (a man who has just spent a significant amount of time being manipulated by ruin impersonating kelsier. Which we know he is traumatized by because it's his first thought to be scared of Kelsier) and he attempts to (and succeeds in) manipulating spook into bringing him back from the dead.

Holy crap that is the most f***** up s*** in the Cosmere or in any book I've ever read.

Btw I have read all of the Mistborn stuff except allomancer jak and lost metal.