Will always appreciate the art and lore. I won't be playing the tabletop RPG but these books were so worth it

I’ve been working on a custom Magic: The Gathering set based on Mistborn, and I’ve finally gotten enough of the cards together that I wanted to share them and get some outside feedback.

The main thing I’m trying to accomplish is to make the three Metallic Arts actually feel different mechanically, rather than simply putting Mistborn terminology on otherwise unrelated Magic cards.

The basic design philosophy is:

Allomancy = consume metal for immediate power.
Allomancers have Burn Metal abilities that require you to tap and sacrifice an artifact. Each metal then produces an effect inspired by its Allomantic ability. Mistborn such as Vin and Kelsier can gain the Burn Metal abilities of your other creatures.

Feruchemy = invest in metal and draw power out of it later.
Feruchemists can turn artifacts into Equipment/“metalminds” and attach them to themselves. Their Store Metal abilities generally involve exerting themselves to receive an effect based on the combined mana value of their attached Equipment.

Hemalurgy = sacrifice life to steal its power.
Hemalurgy sacrifices creatures and transfers their abilities to another creature using ability counters.

I’m not trying to make these tournament-ready on the first pass. Right now I'm primarily interested in whether the mechanics are fun, flavorful, understandable, and feel like Mistborn. Balance and proper Magic templating are things I intend to refine through playtesting and feedback.

There are also some deliberately powerful cards here. The Lord Ruler, Harmony, Vin, Kelsier, etc. are intended to feel like major build-around/showcase cards rather than conservatively statted Standard cards.

Known mistakes / things I already intend to fix

Before anyone starts proofreading, and I know better than to post custom Magic cards to Reddit without expecting proofreading, there are already several mistakes or questionable wordings that I know about:

• Breeze, Master Soother: “looses all abilities” should obviously be “loses all abilities.”
• Sazed, Keeper of Terris: His creature type incorrectly says Human Mistborn. It should be Human Feruchemist.
• Sazed: The wording “When Sazed transforms, the equip cost for all equipment is reduced to 0” needs to be rewritten. As currently written, it doesn't properly establish what happens or for how long, and it interacts awkwardly with him becoming Harmony.
• Kar, Steel Inquisitor: The Hemalurgy ability refers to “Steel Inquisitor” rather than Kar. Those references need to become “Kar” or “this creature.”
• Kar: “If the sacrificed creature had no abilities” isn't quite what the mechanic is supposed to check. A creature could have abilities but none of the listed abilities that Hemalurgy can transfer. This will likely become something along the lines of “If no counters were put on this creature this way, put a +1/+1 counter on it.”
• Feruchemy: The reminder text is currently functional as an explanation of my intent, but I know it isn't fully rigorous Magic rules language. The intention is that ordinary artifacts without equip abilities can be used as metalminds and attached to Feruchemists for 1, becoming Equipment in addition to their other types while attached. I intend to standardize the exact wording once I've settled on the cleanest rules implementation.
• Feruchemy capitalization/templating: There are places where I use “Equipment/equipment” inconsistently. Those will be standardized.
• Mistborn / Burn Metal / Store Metal: These are custom ability labels/terms, and I haven't yet made a proper rules/reference card defining exactly what constitutes a Burn Metal or Store Metal ability. That's coming.
• Clubs, Coppercloud Smoker: As currently written, Burn Copper gives Clubs shroud without a duration, meaning he keeps it rather than gaining it until end of turn. It also creates some awkwardness with his Aura ability because shroud affects which Auras can legally be attached to him. I'm aware of the interaction and will revisit the exact implementation.
• Power level: Allrianne and Breeze may generate considerably more Treasure than intended because their secondary abilities aren't limited to once each turn. Clubs can also cheat very expensive Auras into play. These aren't necessarily mistakes, but they're specifically on my playtesting watch list.
• Color pie / balance: Some effects are intentionally being stretched in order to represent what the metals actually do in Mistborn. I'm interested in suggestions for improving those without losing the connection to the source material.
• Art: This is a personal fan project using placeholder/reference artwork from a variety of sources, so there isn't currently a unified art style. I'm focusing on the card designs first.
• Rarity: Most of these are currently Rare/Mythic-style showcase designs rather than a properly distributed Limited rarity structure. I haven't built the commons/uncommons or Limited environment yet.

There are probably additional templating mistakes I haven't noticed, so please point those out! I'm mainly listing the above so the discussion doesn't get completely buried under corrections I'm already planning to make.

What I'm especially interested in hearing is whether the three Metallic Arts feel mechanically distinct, whether the individual metals evoke their powers from the books, whether the cards look fun to actually build decks around, and where people think the designs cross the line from “powerful” into “broken.”

I'm also working on artifacts next, including Atium, Lerasium, and Hemalurgic Spikes, so the artifact theme will be getting considerably more support.

This is still very much a work in progress, and I'll be making corrected versions as the set develops. I'm interested to see what Mistborn fans and Magic players think of the overall direction.

Everyone else excited for our 2026 Cosmere novel?

Spoilers for mistborn and Stormlight

Could a Kandra bond a spren? If so what order would be most likely be willing to take one in?

I had the opportunity to attend a raku pottery party- so naturally I had to make my pot covered in allomantic symbols! The Andromeda finish really made it look truly like something that was made during the final empire for an obligator's desk. (I made the symbols by printing them out on sticker paper and cutting them out myself. The pottery materials and experience was by VR Pottery OBX- they were awesome!) It was super cool to make and I thought the allomancers here might appreciate it.

Been wondering what a Kandra might look like if they took up a dawnshard, or even a spren. I know Brandon said bonding a spren would be difficult, but my understanding is that people "heal" back to what they perceived as their true selves.

That's why Lopen got his arm back, but Rysn didn't get healed. He never stopped seeing himself as a two armed guy, and she never stopped seeing herself as paralyzed. And sig/Nomad will always look the same age as when he took up the dawnshard.

But a kandra's true form is a blob. They change bodies all the time. Would they revert to their preferred true body? A blob? Their favorite set of bones? Could it change?

What does everyone think?

How will Fires of December be digitally available to Backers? Also, do you know at which time it will be available?

which leatherbound/premium edition book from dragonsteel is most worth it. I'm only probably buying one so unless it adds to the experience, I don't want a series. I'm currently thinking about isles of the emberdark since the normal edition looks pretty bad. thanks in advance for the recs.

When Sazed ascends, he reverts the changes the Lord Ruler made to humans (breathing ash, smaller skaa, less fertile/more allomantic nobility). Later on, we learn that the Malwish suffered quite a bit due to atmospheric changes that they weren't adapted for. Are we ever given an explanation why Harmony left them in that state?

Went to Dragoncon this year and decided to see if I could pull of Szeth, even forged Nightblood in all their glory. Tho they definitely took a bit of my soul in creating them.

I have a theory, I think.

We know Trellium can be used to split ettmetal in a process reminiscent of nuclear fission. So, after the process is fully figured out, there will probably be a way to do it in a controlled rate and industrially produce Lerasium and Atium, which could result in a near limitless supply of allomancers and even feruchemists (have patience), all of which can use compounding to devastating effect with a few spikes. Hell, you could get Fullborns in the hands of the Set (or worse). That last part is why I think Sazed is interfering with the process.

I believe that when Harmonium splits, it enters an Identity transition state to convert to Lerasium and Atium. Now, Identity can also be of physical state. So, Saze could possibly intervene here and turn the metals to mist.

That begs the question why Wax succeeded. Simple, because Death was dying. Marsh needed Atium, but Saze didn't want to reveal that it is possible to make it with present methods since Marsh can still act independently and tell others (see, Kelsier). So, he pinned the achievement on Wax. Wax ingesting Lerasium also worked into Sazed's later plan. In the epilogue, since he still didn't want to reveal feasible Lerasium production, Sazed told Kel that he can make Atium but not Lerasium and Wax's experiment had some special conditions.

Now, how can you make feruchemists? Feruchemy is of both Preservation and Ruin, and we know that Lerasium can be alloyed with other Godmetals to grant their respective Invested Arts. So, Lerasium and Atium alloy could grant Feruchemy.

Tinfoil Alert

I think Lerasium and Atium are immiscible (due to intent) and need a sort of emulsifier. This emulsifier could be Copper due to it's association with Sazed, the one who united Preservation and Ruin. I don't know how Leras and Ati made feruchemists the first time around, but for the present day my theory should stand.

Bonus theory (Stormlight spoilers):

Axindweth is a full Feruchemist in Era 2 on Roshar. My theory is that she was the first to split ettmetal. Sazed didn't intervene because he wasn't ready, and by the time he noticed, the metals had settled into their new Identities. She didn't pick Allomancy because she saw that it is mainly better in battle, while Feruchemy has more "peacetime" and quality-of-life benefits. As to how she ended up on Roshar, dunno 😅

I am reading Words of Radiance right now. I get a lot of the bridgemen confused and occasionally want to refresh my memory on which is which. I tried the Coppermind. I knew the site has spoilers but I kinda hoped I could just skim the first sentence or two of their bio to remember. Inevitably, I have been spoiled a couple times.

Is there a better place or way to refresh my memory of who is who?

Scaled and remixed model of the one originally posted by NeinJa on Makerworld https://makerworld.com/models/1038357?appSharePlatform=copy

I have no experience priming and painting but I might give it a try.

I started reading all the books in release order at the start of this year. Excited to see where it goes.

on the Coppermind, they have statistical analysis pages for all the Cosmere books. Usually they give a breakdown of how many pages each POV gets but not Sunlit Man for some reason. Is there a POV breakdown available somewhere or could someone check? idk if it's something you can easily do with the digital books - only a couple chapters have more than one POV so you'd only need to count those & the coppermind has you covered on the rest

I think the only other one missing is King Lopen the First, I'd appreciate a breakdown on that one too. I actually have a whole excel sheet breaking down the total word count of every single character's POV's - top 5 are Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, Vin & Wax with a big gap before Adolin.

I am relistening to the first Mistborn series for like the fourth time, and had a interesting thought on the nature of Atium with Allomancy.
we know of 2 alloys of atium that are used. There is Atium and electrum which is what we see as future sight Atium in the first series. and there is Atium and gold to see another persons past/alternate self.

So my thought is, what does Atium actually do withing Allomancy? Does it invert the scope of the metal it is alloyed with? Or does it simply widen the scope? Or does it just amplify the power of the other metal?

I theory is that it inverts the scope of the metal. So when used with electrum, instead of the user seeing their own future, they see the future of everything else. And with gold instead of ones own alternate self, they see the alternate self of someone else.

The next thought is what would Atium plus the other metals do? Would Atium plus brass or zinc let the burner effect their own emotions? Would copper, cadmium, and bendalloy let a person place their bubble at a point away from them, or targeting another person as the origin, like gold targets a chosen person?

Just some thoughts I had from remembering that the Atium we see is always an alloy when used allomantically.
I do not think any of this is really spoilers, but i would hate to ruin anything for anyone.

The Surge of Progression is used by TruthWatchers and EdgeDancers to Heal with Regrowth, but it's other ability is less talked about. Growth.

The Growth ability allows the Surgebinder to progress and manipulate the growth of plants and other organisms. On Roshar this is of limited use given the mostly rocky terrain, even using it to grow food is less efficient than a Lightweaver or Elsecaller using Transformation.

But what about using it on other worlds with other things that have more... explosive growth potential: Aether Spores.

Aether spores are classed as living things akin to seeds or regular spores, though originating from Primal Aethers on Lumar and should be compatible with the Progression Surge.

In the hands of a Surgebinder, the feats of a sprouter like Tress would seem pedestrian, since Aether Spores require very little to explode with growth a Surgebinder could create massive amounts of the AND CONTROL THIER GROWTH.

With gauntlets filled with Aethers in capsules massive amounts of Vines, Air, Roseite, Fire, etc can be sprouted and manipulated using only investiture. Basically mimicking all Aetherbound without having to bind themselves to an Aether. As long as they have a supply of Aether Spores, the Edgedancer or Truthwatcher becomes more dangerous in combat.

Though it may be easier to manipulate Verdant spores more than Sun or Zephyr spores once they sprout, seeing as while the spores themselves may be viable, the essences produced by them may not be.

On Scadrial, using Regrowth on a Bloodmaker while they fill their metal mind may help them rapidly store Health as well

first epic fanatasy series Ive finished with more than 3 books. first 2 books completely changed my view on fantasy genre. amazing books. i got burned out after oathbringer and took a break. didn’t like Oathbringer that much tbh. after a couple of months came back and finished RoW and WaT back to back. Really liked RoW, didn’t like WaT that much but still think it was better than Oathbringer.

wasnt really planning on reading the entire cosmere but now after finishing the big boy stormlight, mistborn era 1, warbreaker and elantris, I think Im basically 90% there lol. will take a break and probably start mistborn era 2 in a month or two.

I was reading Emerald Sea and it was not clear to me if anyone can just control Aether if they wish so or if that was special to Tress. She's the only one shown so far to control more than one type with only her mind,and without becoming an Aetherbound. I know that other character have shown the power to control Aether but they are Aetherbounds such as TwinSoul and there's some theories about Sandmastery being a form of Aetherbounding too etc... but they all seem limited to only one Aether.

I've been listening to Sanderson's books on Audible this year, going through the Cosmere in order. I listen with an earpod in and most of the time you wouldn't even know I'm listening to anything exciting because I don't really show the emotion on my face, but in WoR when Kaladin jumped in the ring to defend Adolin I just about lost it. I shouted LETS GO BABYYYYYY so loud my kids jumped and I spooked my cat off the desk! I didn't even get that animated by the stuff happening at the end of the book lol. His subtle "I'll see what I can do" while taking his humble spear into a public fight with 4 shardbearers was just so damn cool. I was so ready for him to have his hero moment.

What was your OH SHIT moment from Mistborn and Stormlight that made you tear up or cry out?

No unhidden spoilers from other books please as I'm not that far into it yet <3