Will Scadrial be destroyed?
We're also talking about feruchemy and poop, because of course we are
Note: I’ll be discussing spoilers for Wind & Truth and The Lost Metal, and will be discussing lore drops in Isles of the Emberdark. You have been warned, so don’t get sassy with me in the comments. The Weekly WoB is spoiler free.
Okay, so I know this topic is going to give a lot of you anxiety, because that’s what it has done for me. We love Scadrial, the world Mistborn takes place in. But a few things haven’t fully felt right about how Scadrians are acting in the space age.
That’s because they’re colonizers. Which we should all be terrified about. It’s a reason why I don’t think Harmony is making it out of Ghostbloods. Harmony wouldn’t want people leaving the planet in order to conquer others, right? That sounds very Discord coded.
But, what if Scadrians are colonizing other planets because they don’t have a world to go home to? They’re really close to nuclear technology by the end of The Lost Metal. They’ll definitely have it at the beginning of Ghostbloods. I can see the northerners and Malwish unintentionally destroying Scadrial in the fight to destroy each other.
A few people have pointed out that Isles of the Emberdark mentions a Malwish city. We don’t know where it is. We don’t know if that’s a fake projection. And, looking at how colonization works, there’s a chance the “Scadrial” being shown is a planet Scadrians have taken over and renamed.
A passage in the beginning of The Lost Metal sparked this theory. Marasi is removing a Trellium spike from a member of The Set when he lets off this very Death Rattle-sounding warning:
“The ash comes again. The world will fall to it. You will get what you deserve, and all will wither beneath a cloud of blackness and a blanket of burned bodies made ask. Your end, your end comes. Either in ash, or at the hands of the men of gold and red. Gold and —”
That sure sounds like a nuke. We know that investiture has destroyed a planet before — the surges destroyed Ashyn from The Stormlight Archive.
My final point is about the structure of the Mistborn books. For some historical context, Mistborn was originally supposed to be three trilogies. Then, Wax & Wayne happened, and Brandon got the idea for a cyberpunk series (which will be the fourth era). However, he still sees it as three main eras — the original trilogy, Ghostbloods, and the fifth series.
He has also said the Cosmere series will narratively end with that final Mistborn trilogy, although he may write more books outside of the main story. What if each of those Mistborn books ended in an apocalypse? That could make the stakes of the final trilogy even bigger. This time, it might not be Scadrial that’s at risk, but the entire Cosmere.
Your Weekly Word of Brandon: Can feruchemy store poop?
Feruchemy giveth, and feruchemy taketh.
During a Reddit AMA in 2015, Brandon took an inquiry from one of my favorite categories of Words of Brandon — questions meant to victimize Mr. Sanderson. In this case, it had to do with how feruchemy works. Since there’s a metal that stores calories, there should be the opposite, right?
The technical term the questioner used was “need to eliminate waste.” But, guys, it’s poop. It’s totally poop. It always comes back to poop.
Brandon didn’t give this a RAFO. He gave it a “Not yet.” Which we really need to unpack at some point, because the man willingly answers a lot of questions about poop. I’ve previously highlighted the WoB where he said Lift barely poops. So, yeah…
Bendalloy saves “energy,” for the record. It’s opposite is electrum, which stores determination. Seems pretty suspicious, Brandon.
Honestly, I’d love to be a ferring who can store the need to “eliminate waste.” I always have to pee on planes. And I kind of intentionally dehydrated myself during Nexus because A) I left my water bottle in my car at the airport B) There weren’t any bottles of water you could buy there C) I was worried I’d have to choose between keeping my seat for a good panel and having to pee.
Prove Me Right Prove Me Wrong: Scadrial will be destroyed
Prove it right:
For sure. Ruin and Preservation = Discord. A third shard will balance
Spiked guy might have had a death rattle? Those haven’t always come true. But how did he get 1?
It was created by shards, so maybe their influence makes the world atrophy
Literally the domain of a shard called Ruin
Scadrial has already been Lord Ruler’d and catacendred. It’s only a matter of time.
In the future Cosmere, we’ve mainly only seen the Malwish from Scadrial.
Scadrial is a part of an invested civil was with 2 other shards breathing down its neck…
Lwk I think you clocked it imma say yes
There is insinuation that Harmony IS going to be separated. That could easily destroy a planet.
There’s tons of talk about destroying planets, and we have Ruin as the god of Scadrial
If Hoid gets to decide, yes
I think the Malwish empire blow it up with the investiture cannon from Emberdark
They have the hallmarks of a civilization that doesn’t gaf about their planet
They were 100 years late to develop radio, something pushed them to go to space
It was destroyed before Mistborn, and in tHoA, so why not a third time?
What else are the “metal fields” of Scadrial?
When the timelock ends Retribution and Harmony/Discord clash on Scadrial, destroying it
Prove it wrong:
I think Scadrial will become nearly uninhabitable, but not completely destroyed. I’m talking dystopian industrial smog and unbreathable air. They will be looking to leave the planet not only for power and commerce but for living conditions. The only people left on Scadrial will be peasant industrial workers and all the cities will be chilling on Nalthis relaxing on the back of the slave labor
It was created by shards. Maybe they’ll survive like Roshar did post Adonalsium.
Literally the domain of a shard called Preservation
It won’t be destroyed, but it will get worse again. Then better. This is life. Scadrial will be warm again.
They refer to Scadrial and people on Scadrial in present tense in Isles of the Emberdark, so not [exploding emoji]
Scadrians, especially Malwish, wouldn’t stop using that as justification for their imperialism.
Scadrial has the dual shard of Harmony protecting it. Roshar will be destroyed by Retribution
We’ve only seen the Malwish in space, where are the northern Scadrians? Malwish are exiled.
They need somewhere to launch their ships from
Scadrial stands! (Obligatory 40k reference)
They make soooo many hats, they can’t fail!
I feel like someone talks abt Scadrial in Emberdark, so it at least lasts that long