Mojonero

One theme of the Cosmere is that Shards, while holding enough power to put planets together, are bound by rules in such a way that lesser feats are forbidden. A Shard cannot simply speak into a person's mind. Ruin, a Shard that embodies decay, cannot simply make Scadrial wilt in a blink, even with no mind controlling Preservation. Preservation cannot simply stop fueling an allomancer. No Shard can stop gravity. The list goes on. They can do these things if they follow the appropiate constraints, however. Ruin can introduce thoughts into someone, but only if there is an opening through an hemalurgic spike or a broken mind. He could have destroyed Scadrial if part of its power had not been sequestered into atium. Preservation can't prevent an allomancer from drawing power from metal, but it can stop the mists from fueling someone tainted by Ruin. Gravity, as other natural laws, cannot be removed even by a Shard, but they can actively expend power in order to work against gravity so that the net effect is zero. While I can't come up with better examples for this premise, we have book references and wobs relating to the rules Shards must follow. From the Almighty in Way of Kings: From the Stormfather in Oathbringer: And this Wob clarifying that Shards are still bound by the natural laws: With this in mind, my question is: can Shards project themselves in the Physical Realm on demand, or do certain constraints need to be met? I tried to think about the moments when a Shard has shown themselves in the PR, and that I can recall they have always followed these rules: The location they project themselves into has to be particularly Invested/Connected with their own power. When they are projecting themselves, every individual has the same view of the projection. That is, they can't show a different view of themselves to different individuals at the same time. If both A and B can see C, they both see the same thing. IF they choose not to be seen by everyone, they can be seen only by individuals they have a Connection to, but they can't selectively not show themselves to a subset of those. The third rule is not a hard one. If it is followed, I believe the projection is less tangible than otherwise - it becomes just a vision, with no direct power over the PR at all. All of this is perhaps biased because the examples I draw are from Stormlight and Mistborn, in which all Shards are in different states of being bound/restrained, but it seems to me this would be a rational limitation on the way Shards can expose themselves in the PR. From Era 1, the projections we have seen are of Ruin and Preservation. Because of the nature of the planet, both P&R immediately comply with (1). Ruin has only shown himself to people with hemalurgic spikes in them (3). As seen in Chapter 58 of HoA, both Quellion and Spook see Ruin as Kelsier, and both have the same experience of him (2): Similarly, when Leras shows himself as the mistspirit, both Elend and Vin see the same thing as it slashes Elend. I think Leras' apparitions are a case of a general projection not satisfying (3): anyone at all could have seen it, that is why the mistspirit itself can affect the PR directly (draw in the ash, stab Elend), like a (lowercase) avatar. From Era 2, in Chapter 7 of Shadows of Self, Harmony can only be seen by Wax once he puts his hemalurgic earring in (3), not before, not after. No other observer so I can't say anything about (2). In Stormlight, we see a Shard in the Physical when Dalinar visits the Old Magic. I think Cultivation's body in the Valley is much like the mistspirit, fully physical not satisfying rule (3). It still happens in the Valley of all places, Cultivation's domain so to speak, satisfying (1), and with no other observer besides the Nightwatcher so I can't say anything about (2). In any case, no rules are explicitly broken. Then, we have Odium projecting himself at Thaylenah. He only shows himself under the Everstorm, because of rule (1). Venli, Amaram, Dalinar and the Fused all see the Odium say/do the same things (2). But not everyone sees Odium here, only those with some Connection to him (3), as neither Szeth nor Navani can see him. The Fused see him because they are of him, Dalinar because Odium has been influencing him through the Thrill for decades, Amaram because he made a pact with him. Finally, the other appareance of a Shard that I can think of is the Sand God in WS3, which happens over sand invested by Autonomy (1), and nothing else can be said about the rest of the rules. I would like to see additional thoughts to this idea, because I have not looked much into the particular examples and am wondering if there is an instance where these rules are not met. Particularly because I assume Avatars would be bound by them as well, so this could potentially help rule out certain people being Avatars if they don't meet this criterion.

You are right that the golden shape is paint and not a plate, my mistake. One thing to note, though, is that there are multiple golden patterns on the ceilings of the Brunstell, not just the one. The lack of Duralumin has been brought up, and is possibly key to the way the primer cubes and/or the weight changing machinery work. I don't think medallions are different with respect to regular metalminds in the way the shallow bond works. Why can a feruchemist store part of their investiture in a piece of metal? First, they have innate Investiture allowing them to do so, but most importantly they have to be in contact with a valid recipient of that kind of investiture in order for them to make use of their ability. I believe a feruchemist can only store into a piece of metal because they form a shallow bond with the metalmind, creating a conduit between both spiritwebs and allowing the transfer of investiture between the two. In that sense, medallions don't work any different from regular feruchemy. Which was my reasoning for the inversion of the investiture source/destination roles with medallions. Real feruchemists can form a touch-bond with metal because feruchemists have that ability. Someone who is not a feruchemist doesn't have the ability to form that kind of bond, so I believe medallions are different in that the Nicrosil is the one with the ability to form touch-bonds with people. Once the bond is made, the person is granted the ability to form bonds with iron/duralumin/brass/etc. With this I reconcile the fact that everyone can use medallions, even if they don't have "the seeds of the Metallic Arts" or Connection to Scadrian Shards, even those with lower levels of innate investiture like drabs - because the bond is initiated by the nicrosil, not the person. Not every person has the potential to be a feruchemist, but every piece of nicrosil has to the potential to be a metalmind. Though I am sure you knew about this already, I quote this last wob for further reference:

It could be, but I think it's rather suspect that it would be mentioned as a lightweight metal without being explicitly named. Both aluminum and duralumin are widely known, so if it was one of those two the Set would have identified them. It could simply be that they are being careful and not conducting any kind of destructive test to determine the actual metal, or maybe the Set does know what metal it is but Irich simply doesn't care enough to remember anything beyond it being light. Personally I don't think it makes sense for it to be a non-standard metal, so to speak, so I'm inclined to think this is Irich not paying attention to detail. On ettmetal 'externalizing' allomancy, I am banking on the assumption that it does externalize all metallic arts. We can't tell if it does anything to cadmium/steel, but at the very least it's not 'internalizing' those, so it's not just switching between internal/external. Very interesting observation. I never even considered the possibility of anything other that iron feruchemy, but indeed the phrasing conveniently leaves out what kind of power Fed is using. It could very well involve Connection, as F-Duralumin is supposed to be required to create a medallion. Perhaps this is part of the missing steps in the weight changing machinery. I hadn't seen the topic you linked Pagerunner, thanks for bringing it up. I don't think this is something we can assume. The Malwish Wylg does not infact use the weight changing trick. I think the machinery is not used because it is clearly not needed; much like a regular lifeboat does not have a turbine despite the main ship having one. Moreover, I don't think the Brunstell could lift off the ground on steel allomancy alone even if all crewmembers were reducing their weight, the ship itself should be too heavy for any reasonable steel push. Another reason I believe the system is known to the Malwish is that the Set knew what to do with the Hunter ship immediately, there was no research involved. Though it is true that they had interrogated the crew beforehand, coupling this with the weight of a three story tall ship makes me doubt the Malwish don't have access to the weight changing technology. I know some people hold this stance, but I think it's far too convenient that actively tapping nicrosil is not once mentioned in the book. The initial moment Marasi uses the metalmind for the first time, there is only one inner source of power she notices, the iron piece of the medallion she is in contact with, she doesn't feel the charge of the nicrosil. The nicrosil provides the power to use feruchemy, that is a given. I don't think the user draws that power out, I think it is forced upon by the nicrosil. In that wob you quoted I don't think Brandon is speaking about 'tapping investiture' as 'tapping in the feruchemical use of the word tap investiture', since he completes the sentence as 'drawing out a blank metalmind' instead of 'tapping out of a blank metalmind'. You tap investiture, as in your soul gets access to investiture. There is no conscious decision to tap investiture, much like there is no conscious decision to 'tap' the Surges once you hold an Honorblade, or you don't 'accept' your power once you are spiked with it - the power is forced upon your soul, whether you want it or not. I do agree the initial priming of the nicrosil cannot uniquely justify its work, medallions don't run out but the effect of priming cubes do. There is definitely something else going on. I disagree that this implies the impetus comes from the user, as there is no thought about 'untapping' the nicrosil. The wearer has no say in when the nicrosil store is tapped, they can't modulate how much of it they tap at a time (though this is maybe moot because the discrete charge is indivisible), and they never think they have to put it back into the nicrosil when they stop using it. But the fact is that the charge does remain in the nicrosil. If the user did tap and later on store the charge, it would be stained with their Identity and medallions would not be shareable, which is not the case. In this I agree with Calderis' theory, and I address this is doable in the OP: the Bands are not a 32-power-medallion, but a single power one, that of F-Nicrosil, allowing the user to consciously tap unkeyed nicrosil storages for each of the powers. I believe this to be the case because contrary to each use of the medallions we see, when we see Marasi tap the Bands she taps 'everything', which leaves room for what exacly is going on. When Wax uses the Bands, he mentions that their Investiture storages were running out, which would not be the case if they worked like the nicrosil portion of the medallions. To quote: The three power threshold on hemalurgy is what makes me think a three power limit is present. My view is that the human soul can only hold up to three powers of the same frequency, so to speak. To hold more powers, you can add different frequencies (i.e. adding powers from different magic systems), effectively multiplexing your soul on frequency; or you can warp your soul so that it can hold more. This is why hemalurgy can work around the three power limit, and why precisely four spikes leaves you open for external control: the holes each spike leave in your soul leave room for both extra powers over the natural limit and for external control. If this power limit exists in the way I say, to be compatible with this view it would mean that Kandra can only use single power medallions, because their spike threshold is two. That it comes to mind, we see MeLaan use the weightlessness medallion, nothing more. And because I think it's not completely clear, I don't think this power limit exists for any magic system, I think this limit applies specifically to powers given by mechanical means. I think there is a very important distintion between mechanical and embedded(?) powers: mechicanlly granted powers don't permanently invest or replace part of the soul. Burning lerasium gives at the very least 16 powers, but this is not a mechanical method, it Invests the soul enough for it to hold the powers. The limit on externally granted power exists precisely because those are too shallow to be numerous enough, is how I envision it. This definitely weakens my point, but in using the quote about Soulcasters as evidence towards this limit I am making the perhaps invalid assumption that spiritually, each Soulcasting mode is a different power. I think this is the case because Transformation has special requirements among the Surges in that they need particular gemstones to produce a particular effect, and, I concede this second point is unfair, because Brandon said originally each Order had the power to Soulcast into their own essence.

Because a pandemic of some sort has left me unoccupied recently, I'm writing up this highly speculative theory about the creation of medallions. Long text is long, so there is a point you can skip to if you don't care about the justification behind some of the spectulation. This topic has seen a lot of research, the most reasonable being, in my opinion, Calderis' theory: One thing that makes me doubt this is the method employed by the Southerners is that Allik speaks about multiple power medallions as if they are an accumulative work: There is much we don't know about the topic, and it seems Brandon won't tell us much until he finally unveils the answer in TLM, so we have to make due with what he have. What I propose is one way a medallion could be made, which is most likely not the way they currently make them. I will work on the assumption that this WoB is correct: Which coincidentally allows me to speak about something that doesn't feel right about Calderis' theory: it is straightforward. Yet there have been multiple ocassions where Brandon has been asked about the creation of medallions, and his reply is, like in this instance, that he would have to check his notes, or ask Peter, and the answer apparently needs a flowchart: That being said, this is what I got. I address the fact that the nicrosil portion is never tapped, and the fact that no hemalurgy should be required if Brandon was not mistaken in the first WoB. As a summary, the idea relies on priming cubes to accumulate multiple powers into a single nicrosil storage, and then to use priming machinery like the one on BoM's airship to create the auto-tapping nicrosil ring. There are multiple points I can't explain, but I think there is some merit to this thought process, and perhaps someone else will be able to build something stronger from this theory. Let's begin with small assumptions, namely about the way priming cubes behave under the effects of Allomancy and Feruchemy. We have seen priming cubes used with A-Steel, A-Cadmium and A-Chromium. In all cases the observed effect is that the output of the allomancer's burn is reproduced by the cube, with some harmonium burned away, as if the cube was metal burning inside the allomancer. From Irich's PoV we know there is a method of operation that allows some mechanism to be primed so that it makes something else ligher, and the priming involves a ferring: I believe it would be consistent to expect that storing into an iron metalmind while holding the primer cube would cause it to work as if it was iron being stored into by a feruchemist. This would have the effect of funneling weight from nearby people, though apparently it can be worked to funnel weight from its environment as well (airship becoming lighter). Of course we don't really know how the ship gets lighter, and it would be a valid criticism of this text. It would be somewhat reasonable that the cube could funnel feruchemical attributes from people, as it could be doing so by preventing investiture from flowing from the Spiritual Realm to the Physical making the attribute stop being manifested (i.e. weight being removed), the excess being stored in the ettmetal as any other feruchemical store or getting shunted back to the SR. But what would it mean to prime the cube by tapping an attribute? In particular, the important question is what effect should that have on inanimate objects. When the cube replicates allomancy, it gets burned, presumably to fuel the allomancy. When it draws attributes, it is just behaving as a metalmind, storing a charge, (though I don't think the charge would actually be stored, it just gets siphoned into oblivion, like some people think happens when you store into aluminum). If it were primed by tapping a charge, the cube would have to provide the excess investiture like it does with allomancy. This is problematic, as either you would need to store before being able to tap, or the investiture that makes up the ettmetal would have to fuel the effect. I don't think it makes sense for the ettmetal to fuel the feruchemy by decreasing its investiture level (i.e. desaturating itself) or something like that. If the ettmetal fuels the feruchemical output, I think it would have to work like it does with allomancy, burning itself to provide the effect, as if it was a metalmind being compounded. These are the assumptions I am working on, and I concede they are wildly speculative, but under these premises this is how I envision the origin of the Bands of Mourning: IF LAZY, SKIP HERE! We will require a ferring and misting of each type along with some strategic twinborns, some ettmetal, and no spiky things. Arbitrary Unkeyed Metalminds. The first step is to be able to produce an unkeyed metalmind. An aluminum ferring stores Identity while holding a primer cube. The cube responds by drawing Identity from anyone close by. Any feruchemical charge stored while the cube is working will be clear of Identity, free to be used by any ferring of that metal. Adding Powers to Nicrosil. The second step is to create an unkeyed nicrosil metalmind, with a storage of F-Nicrosil. This can be done by a nicrosil ferring storing their ability under the influence of the Identity-clearing grenade. The resulting metalmind allows any twinborn with access to A-Nicrosil to store their feruchemical ability into a nicrosil metalmind, which can easily be cleared of Identity with the same procedure. The twinborn burns the nicrosil metalmind, compounding the charge that gives them access to F-Nicrosil, allowing them to store their feruchemical power into a nicrosil metalmind. Notice that at this point we can create a sealed version of the Bands of Mourning that can only be used by nicrosil metalborn: To add an Allomantic power, we need a twinborn with that power and F-Nicrosil. The individual stores their allomantic ability while being identity-cleared, resulting in a net power addition to the master nicrosil metalmind. To add a Feruchemical power, we need a twinborn with that power and A-Nicrosil. The individual burns an unkeyed nicrosil metalmind that has been filled with the ability to use F-Nicrosil. During the burn, the charge gets compounded and the twinborn becomes a nicrosil ferring for the duration of the burn, allowing them to store their feruchemical ability into the master nicrosil metalmind. The limit to the amount of powers that can be added is the availability of suitable twinborn and ettmetal. If this was no issue, once all allomantic and feruchemical powers had been stored, the master nicrosil metalmind could be burned by a A-Nicrosil misting while priming the cube producing a Fullborn grenade, though it's effects would by necessity be temporary: A powerless person could perhaps store all powers while under the effects of the grenade, but once its effects decayed they would no longer have access to F-nicrosil. So this method of granting powers is short-lived, and can only be initiated by a nicrosil ferring, and does not qualify as a mechanical mean of accessing Invested Arts like medallions or honorblades do. The next section provides even more outrageous speculation in order to provide a solution to this problem From the excerp I quoted from BoM, it would seem an airship can be primed into being made lighter. While there is a perhaps deceivingly obvious implication, there are a couple extra details that we can infer from this fact. Objects, not only people, can store feruchemical atributes, or at the very least they can see their flow of investiture altered in such a way that the physical manifestation of those attributes are dimishised. The duration of the decrease in the attribute needn't be the same as the duration of the priming. Otherwise the ship would not be viable, because you would need to prime its weight for as long as the expected duration of the flight, which at any reasonable pace would take hours if not days. Ultimately, this weight-changing airship implies that a being without innate feruchemical powers can be forced to store an attribute. This strikes suspiciously close to giving a person a power they don't have! Sadly I can't see any additional info about the weight changing mechanism to explain it's inner workings. From Irich's chapter the ship appears to have a lattice of some lightweight metal couple with some other set of metal wires, plus a golden plate in the shape of a ship. I do believe these are somehow trying to reinforce the cognitive aspect of the ship, somehow making it more aware. In fact I think the pattern of metals going all over the ship is very similar to the lines of strata on the walls of Urithiru, with the gemstone pilar being replaced by a golden plate. In any case, I don't have any additional ideas on this. Therefore, I will assume that the weight changing machinery can be primed by storing an attribute while holding a priming cube, with some unknown extra steps. So if storing weight causes the cube to expand the effect, forcing its surroundings to store weight, what would tapping imply for other feruchemical uses? This is where the amount of unknowns is too big to form a coherent argument with supporting evidence, and so at this point everything is unsupported and likely invalid. I assume that priming the airship works because something in the weight changing machinery defines the airship as the target, and because the ship is in contact with a decent amount of iron it can store its weight into the iron. Perhaps that same machinery could be made to target a ring of nicrosil filled with an unkeyed charge of F-Nicrosil. If you were to store your ability to use your allomantic/feruchemical power while priming the cube -which is set to target the ring and only the ring- the piece of nicrosil would try to store its investiture into its environment. Now, I accept that this is wishful thinking, but maybe this ring would not be able to store anything because there is no amount of nicrosil metal nearby. The physical/spiritual makeup of the nicrosil is what allows it to be a recipient of that specific kind of charge: of Innate Investiture, the ability to use allomancy/feruchemy. Just like only iron has a structure such that it can hold a charge of weight. But nicrosil is not the only suitable recipient of Innate Investiture that grants access to Metallic Arts: people can hold a lot of the stuff. So, a nicrosil ring is looking for a suitable recipient, its charge having no way out but is under pressure to escape because it has been primed to do so by the effect of the ettmetal. A person touches this nicrosil ring, the charge finds an outlet it can flow into, and the person receives the ability to use allomancy/feruchemy as it was originally stored into the ring. This is the reason we never see anyone tap the nicrosil portion of the medallions: the nicrosil is not working as a metalmind, it is working as an entity with access to f-nicrosil, and the wearer is the metalmind being stored into. Of course this doesn't fully work, as it doesn't explain why there is an apparent limit of three powers to a medallion. I cannot explain the fact that the nicrosil ring never runs out, or that the charge is 'given back' to the medallion once the user stops touching it. I don't believe this is how the Southerners are actually making the medallions, as I believe they do use hemalurgy, which could explain both the three power limit (see Calderis' theory) and the nicrosil charge being 'discrete' like memories in a coppermind. Perhaps replacing the steps that involve storing F-Nicrosil with stealing (Excising ) f-nicrosil would give rise to the medallions we know and love. I do want to add some thoughts about the three power limit: could it be that this is a Cosmere-wide limit to the number of abilities granted by the same mechanical method? Medallions are limited to three powers, as Allik tells us: It doesn't mean there is a hard limit on the number of powers, as it could simply be that the tech level is not quite there but could be reached. If we do operate on the assumption that it is a hard limit, where else have we seen anecdotal recalling of three powers being granted, at most? There is this from Sixth of the Dusk: Same situation, we have an observer telling us about a grand maximum of three powers, but no explicit mention that more is impossible. Finally, there is this from Kaza's Interlude in Oathbringer: Which implies Fabrial Soulcasters have three modes of operation, whatever they might be. The most obvious inference is that each 'mode' is one essence, corresponding to each of the three gemstones each Soulcaster can hold. I believe these quotes add credence towars a Cosmere hard limit of three powers given by the same mechanical means. Of course more than three can be achieved through different systems (three powers from medallions and three from hemalurgy, as we know it can be done as we see Suit use a medallion while having three spikes) or through hacks (granting a single power, that of F-Nicrosil, that allows access to a unkeyed storage of any arbitrary set of powers). But this system-specific limit is reasonable even without an in-world reason, as it would prevent scenarios in Era 4 where everyone can be a Fullborn Radiant of ten surges. Though I acknowledge a major flaw: there are WoBs that mention you could bond 5 Honorblades, but this should not be feasible if this limit exists.