What do you call the hard rock genre that deals with forgetfulness?
Yup.
Hey Internet, I’m Steve and welcome to RAFO.
The Lost Metal, the final book in the Wax and Wayne series of Mistborn Era 2, has been
released.
I mean, I assume you already know that, considering you’re watching a video by a guy with a
completely healthy…preoccupation with the cosmere.
And it takes one to know one?
First, spoiler free thoughts.
I was worried going into this book.
Brandon had said in multiple interviews, streams, and q&a’s that “the gloves are off”
for this one in terms of connections to the cosmere as a whole.
I didn’t want him to go too far too fast, to run out of secrets before the end and lose
the mystery.
I was still worried, and frankly, surprised for the middle third of this book.
It felt like too much.
Seemed like there was a major reveal every other chapter, especially when hmm-hmm gets
brought to the hmm-hmm.
I was completely sold for the last third.
While the connections and developments are significant, I don’t think they’re too
much.
Especially while going back through for this video, I’m pleased at how many questions
I still have, and all the different directions society, technology, and magic can go by the
next era.
Now, to dive in.
Of course, Spoilers for all of Mistborn, Elantris, Emperor’s Soul, Warbreaker, Stormlight,
all the things.
The prologue features a story about Allomancer Jak, who at this point has been adventuring
for likely a little over a year.
We know he’s still around 29 years later, when Wayne is 40, so Jak is probably a little
over 50, similar to Wax’s age; during Lost Metal, he’s 49.
And he and Steris have kids!
Maxillium and Tyndwyl.
Love it.
In the Senate chamber, Mi’chelle Yomen is the first to vote against the bill.
Her wedding was the scene of the Vanisher’s abduction of Steris back in Alloy of Law,
and she may very well be a worldhopper, considering Hoid came to specifically congratulate her
on her nuptials.
Wayne and Marasi trudge through sewage to find a Set hideout.
Wayne fires a gun without shaking - apparently he’s getting better at that - and we see
more allomantic grenades in use.
Cadmium man.
It’s good.
Marasi takes out a Cycle - which is the lowest level in Set leadership, below Suit and Sequence.
He’s the first person we see who gets glowing red eyes, and has a Trellium spike.
The last one we saw, from Paalm, was taken by the kandra.
(Side note, the description of trellium - silvery metal with a red cast to it, and dark red
spots similar to rust - is how atium was first described in Brandon’s unpublished first
attempt at the Mistborn story.)
MeLaan is heading offworld, officially to Shadesmar.
It’s no longer just a Rosharan term!
The gang does science, and it gets explodey, while Wax specifically isn’t wearing a mask.
Beforehand, VenDell said that ettmetal can’t be divided, so long as Harmony remains Harmony.
So is the reason why they were able to successfully create teensy bits of atium and lerasium because
Harmony is starting to split?
Trell is Autonomy.
Sazed very clearly says so.
“You were not expecting so straightforward an answer?”
NO!
He gives us a lot of information about Bavadin’s specific Intent: “divide off from the rest
of us, go her own way.”
Also a bit about Connection - the use of a god metal as a spike capital C Connects you
to that shard.
Ranette and her wife go out with Wayne.
See guys, he told us all in chapter 14 that he was dead.
His financial decisions are AMAZING.
I mean, he basically invents professional baseball!
And athletic sponsorships.
Marasi is pushing Reddi to create a special squad specifically for dealing with Metalborn.
Sounds like a setup for Era 3 to me.
The sting happens in Bilming, which is predominantly built in a Taldain architectural style known
as Brutalism, which has implications as to their technology level.
When Death comes to bail them out from Entrone, the constable that pulls a gun is a Seeker.
Is that just a nice allusion to Marsh’s original power, or is it an excuse for someone
else to now know that Wax was burning copper to resist Marsh’s rioting?
Marsh tells them that Autonomy’s followers have hemalurgy.
Which, like, we already knew - duh - but she also has an army.
How much should we be looking for hemalurgy in the wider cosmere?
Has Trell spread the secrets of spiking to other worlds?
The Marewill flower is straight up the ghostbloods symbol.
I noticed that as soon as they released the new hardcover for Secret History, and with
how much that flower was a part of the promotional material for the Lost Metal, we knew the Ghostbloods
were going to be heavily involved.
Moonlight!
When I was first reading her interaction with Marasi in the truck, this was my thought:
“Is this a rosharan?
Epicanthic folds, straight black hair.
Could Shallan have gone off-world after Stormlight WAIT SHE’S SHORT IT’S SHAI!"
If my timeline is correct, we haven’t seen her for at least like 800 years.
Hmm…I really need to do an updated timeline video.
Shai connects us to the Ghostbloods, who are of course a major player in the Stormlight
Secret Societies competition, though the Scadrian branch seem to be a lot less ruthless - ruthmore?
- than their Rosharan counterparts.
There are SO MANY connections to the larger Cosmere once we shack up with the Ghostbloods.
Chapter 39 gives us Identity locks, a new primary system named Bjendal, apparently Nalthians
are trying to use perpendicularites for mass transport, mentions of Roshar and Thaylen
- whose letters interlock, manipulating Connection to understand language, an Awakened lock on
a safe containing purified Dor, and then predictions on what’s going to happen to Scadrian society
once aluminum becomes commonplace.
And then there’s the PEOPLE: we first meet Codenames Are Stupid - who is actually Kaise
- from Sel; her brother is Adien - the Elantrian who knew exactly how many steps it was to
Teod at the end of the book.
She also has a seon - THIS seon - Dao, whose Aon means Stability or Security.
Also a puppy.
Twinsoul is straight up from Aether of Night - or at least hisx magic system is - utilizing
pink aether to create spectacles, form knives and pens on his fingers, make the 3d map of
the city, and eventually grow a mech suit.
Dude.
Aethers apparently pre-date the Shattering, and maybe Adonalsium itself.
They also may somehow enable those Connection tricks to understand languages too, though
I’m not sure how on that one.
Given that this is the first time we’ve canonically seen aether in use, I’ll get
to work on a video about them too.
Thought it might need to be after January for… reasons.
Shai’s got a few soulstamps - a couple universal ones that work on any object, which is new
- and then her Essence Mark, which turns her into an Elantrian.
Immediately after she does so, she draws a map of the Elendel Basin with a strange rune
in the center.
And now we’ve seen Selish magic hacked.
Some…how…
She gets away with a burned book containing notes on how to create metalborn out of hemalurgically
compounded spikes.
They get chased by different chimeras than chased Wax in Shadows of Self.
Kelsier is still in contact with the Southern Continent and is on his way up via airship
during everything.
He implies that he can steelpush, but his chat with Sazed at the end almost explicitly
indicates that he doesn’t have allomancy.
But if he doesn’t have allomancy, how did he create the Bands?
Also, Hoid is just absolutely everywhere in this.
He’s apparently been working as Wax’s coachman for years - he's referred to as Wax's
new coachman in Shadows of Self, joins the sting in Bilming (where he acknowledges Shai
- I guess they might be on better terms now?) and gets a pet rat thanks to a Wayne trade,
and then is in the right place to pick up Wax after his first fight with the Set’s
suped-up coinshot.
And then, of course, rescuing Wax from Elendel Bay after Wayne does his thing.
The mayor’s mansion in Bilming is called the Silver House.
I wonder if that’s significant.
Something is up with the Bands.
Apparently drained, they get taken back into Malwish custody.
That’ll probably be important later.
Also, hi again TenSoon.
Another random side note:
Tensoon is confirmed to be a wolf looking dog,
not a, like, irish wolfhound.
Marasi makes it to the artificial perpendicularity and sees the Trell’s army: thousands of
inhuman soldiers with golden skin and glowing red eyes.
Living statues.
With rifles of an advanced design.
WHO ARE THEY?!?
Are they actually living statues?
Awakened, Kalad’s Phantoms style?
Nightblood style?
Or has Autonomy somehow figured out how to spike non-living things?
Or, given her original planet of investment, are these some extension of Taldain Darksider
technology?
The 8 Ghostblood agents who go to help Steris may have powers from offworld, including potentially
at least one Skybreaker.
“Is this all legal?”
Telsin turns grey when Autonomy leaves her.
That’s…significant.
And yeah, Wayne is the God Damn Hero.
Crafts the perfect speed bubble and freezes time for God himself.
Which has interesting implications.
Epilogues.
Riddled with connections.
Marasi meets Kelsier face to face and dumps him.
Dlavil - the bloodthirsty Southern Scadrian from Silverlight - has a sister running amok
on Roshar.
Maybe it’s Silverlight that makes people less ruthmore?
Kelsier estimates building height by “sixteens” of feet.
Which makes sense - the chapter numbers in the Steel alphabet are base sixteen.
It seems he only has the one spike “pinning his soul to his bones.”
The kandra have found a way to create atium, and Sazed has become a SIGNIFICANTLY better
liar.
Kel doesn’t even catch it.
He casually drops the name of another planet - Mythos - and pushes for interplanetary travel
and technological advancement.
MeLaan is going through Shadesmar with a Sho Del - one of the three sapient species on
Yolen, the original cosmere planet, besides humans and dragons.
And they come across a group of hundreds of people in strange outfits and odd red hair.
The most common theory I’ve seen - is it a bunch of horneaters?
Or listeners?
Marasi’s eventually going to be governor.
I assume in Era 3 we’ll hear of the impressive political advancement by one Governor Colms.
Or maybe Neverfar?
Marsh is feeling better: the “treatment” is working.
Question mark?
He claims to be using emotional allomancy to walk around unnoticed, Wax doesn’t buy
it.
Speaking of Wax, he still has his duralumin spike.
It’s incredible to me that this book has taken hemalurgy - which was previously exclusively
gruesome and evil - and turned it into something more plausible, even laudable in some.
I love that Marsh intervened to get Vin’s statue accurate.
Khriss’ essay “On Spikes and Compounding” is FASCINATING and really just needs to be
read.
She interviewed Marsh, the image of Ironeyes as Death is apparently spreading through the
Cosmere, and apparently you can’t Compound via hemalurgy in Era 2 - something that I’m
sure will get figured out in the future, for good or ill.
Oh, and the actual “Lost Metal?”
Well, turns out it could be either Atium or Lerasium, considering Wax managed to make
tiny bits of both.
While we’re here, I recently found a connection for Mistborn to Threnody and Roshar: Brandon
isn’t known for his retcons.
In fact, he’s done so few - the additions to Elantris and Kaladin sparing Szeth in Words
of Radiance, that I assumed there were no others.
Well I was WRONG!
In my - uh - this edition of Hero of Ages, Vin goes and meets Slowswift - who is an homage
to JRR Tolkien himself.
He talks to her about stories “Longtales, some call them - whispering of mistwraiths,
sprites, and brollins and such.”
Nothing too suspicious.
Sprites are a generic term, and Brandon has confirmed that brollins are just a local myth.
But in the 10th Anniversary edition - this one - he says “mistwraiths, shades, spren,
and brollins.”
Slowswift seems to be cosmere aware.
I mean, it’s freaking Tolkien, of course he is!
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