Mistfallen
| Mistfallen | |
|---|---|
| World of Origin | Scadrial |
| Universe | Cosmere |
The mistfallen were a group of Seers, or atium mistings during the last stages of the New Empire on Scadrial.
As Ruin gained control and attempted to destroy all life on Scadrial, Preservation's plan to thwart him was triggered.[1] The Mists, which are manifestation of his power, lashed out at seemingly random individuals, raising people's Allomantic potential and snapping them with the side effect of falling ill for a short time. Due to Ruin's intervention, the mists became more violent, killing the weaker ones in the process. Noorden, Elend's scribe, discovers that exactly 16 percent of any group of people that fall to the mists become sick, whether they be villagers, soldiers, etc.[2] Sixteen matched the known number of allomantic metals -- the exact percentage was a clue from Preservation that those who were struck were snapped into mistings. Preservation chose to leave the clue this way so that even Ruin cannot alter it.
Some of the soldiers "attacked" by the mists in Elend's army were sick for 16 days[3][4] rather than a few days. They were also exactly 1/16th of those who were struck. Others in the army consider them to be cursed because they took longer to recover. Multiple fights break out between them and the mistfallen, a name they presumably took upon themselves. Even General Demoux is attacked by a soldier, Bilg, causing the soldier's execution. Elend finally decides to separate them from the main army, sending them away on the pretext of helping out the apparently dire situation in Luthadel.[5]
Later, when Elend meets the mistfallen company in the Pits of Hathsin, where the wealth of atium is hidden away from Ruin, he realizes that they were sick longer because they are the most powerful type of misting: atium mistings. Such mistings were not known to exist until Elend learned of Aradan Yomen's example. Demoux and his men fought the attacking Koloss with atium Allomancy in order to buy Elend time and burn away Ruin's body.[4]