The Hero of Ages (Mistborn, #3)

by Brandon Sanderson

Yes, there are sixteen metals. I find it highly unlikely that the Lord Ruler did not know of them all. Indeed, the fact that he spoke of several on the plaques in the storage caches meant that he knew at least of those. I must assume that he did not tell humankind of them earlier for a reason. Perhaps he held them back to give him a secret edge, much as he held back the single nugget of Preservation’s body that made men into Mistborn. Or perhaps he decided that humankind had enough power in the ten metals they already understood. Some things we shall never know. Part of me still finds what he did regrettable. During the thousand-year reign of the Lord Ruler, how many people were born, Snapped, lived, and died never knowing that they were Mistings, simply because their metals were unknown? Of course, this did give us a slight advantage at the end. Ruin had a lot of trouble giving duralumin to his Inquisitors, since they’d need an Allomancer who could burn it to kill before they could use it. And since none of the duralumin Mistings in the world knew about their power, they didn’t burn it and reveal themselves to Ruin. That left most Inquisitors without the power of duralumin, save in a few important cases—such as Marsh—where they got it from a Mistborn. This was usually considered a waste, for if a Mistborn was killed with Hemalurgy, only one of their sixteen powers could be drawn out and the rest would be lost. Ruin deemed it much better to try to subvert them and gain acc...