Silver, the Useless Metal

I’ve annotated about this before, but I figured I’d mention it again. As you probably know, in book one, tin was originally silver. I swapped it out for various reasons.

However, that left silver having no Allomantic powers. That feels strange to a lot of people because of how common and useful it is in our modern culture. Such an obvious metal doing nothing seems wrong to readers.

I toyed with using it in place of aluminum at the end of book one, but I realized that wouldn’t work. It was too common, so if it had any Allomantic powers, people would know about them for certain. Only a metal that was very hard to find—like aluminum—would be believable as a new metal that most people hadn’t heard of.

So silver is Allomantically inert. Just one of the quirks of the magic system.

Vin’s Guards Are Hazekillers

I’ve managed to work hazekillers into all three books. That amuses me, since I put them in the first Kelsier fight scene back in book one out of the blue, on a whim. I wanted something that would be harder for him to fight than regular soldiers, but weaker than Allomancers. I never ended up using them again in book one, since they weren’t a very good foe for someone as powerful as a Mistborn.

But people never forgot about them. My readers kept mentioning them, and how much they liked the word—even though I find it kind of awkward. Alpha readers kept asking, “Why doesn’t Cett have any hazekillers?” and the like. So, I felt I needed to use them some more, and they made it into this book as well.

Vin Attacks Anyway

Vin without Allomancy is still quite a formidable threat. I established this back in book one, and thought I’d reinforce it here. She’s scrappy, quick, and very skilled. Even a group of prepared guards was surprised by her, and she fought quite exquisitely, considering how outmatched she was.

The other great thing about Vin is her resourcefulness. A childhood on the streets with Reen taught her to use everything she has, and to improvise what she doesn’t have. Give her a cot and some gruel, and she’ll come out of it with a weapon, a means of escaping her manacles, and a darn good way to distract a bunch of guards.