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Let's tackle that topic. Unfortunately we lack WoBs about it (or my theoryland search-fu is weaker than I thought) but we can still discuss about it. Feel free to throw WoBs at me. SOURCES There are four main sources of the differences in Allomantic strength: Inherent difference: some Allomancers are born stronger and some are born weaker (and some rebuild themselves during their Ascension...) . I believe the difference is in the amount of the Innate Investiture. Hemalurgy: after charging a spike with the ability of someone else, it adds up to the strength of the Allomancer. That ability remains tied to the spike and spikes hold Investiture, so they steal and add up the Innate Investiture. Nicrosil Feruchemy: it's possible to store Innate Investiture in nicrosil and upon drawing from that storage the Allomantic strength is increased. This obviously changes the amount of Innate Investiture. Savantism: it widens the cracks in the Spiritweb, allowing more power to flow in. Here I am not so sure it changes the amount of the Innate Investiture. WoB: I believe that the amount of the Innate Investiture is directly proportional to the strength of the Connection to Preservation. MECHANISM Now, we are not really sure how does Allomantic Strength work. The main theory is that it allows the Allomancer to burn metal quicker - the normal burning rate is higher than the average and the flaring burning rate is higher than average flaring burning rate. It also assumes that the Investiture density of the metal is fixed - no matter who burns it, the same amount of the metal will produce the same amount of the Investiture. The other theory is that stronger Allomancers get more Investiture from the fixed amount of metal. So here the Investiture density is tied to Allomancer and is directly proportional to the Allomantic strength of the burner. I could see how the amount of the Innate Investiture you have changes the normal burn rate and flaring burn rate but it seems that's not what is happening with savantism. Savantism cracks the soul more "allowing more Investiture to flow in". So it would mean that the burn rate remains the same but more Investiture flows in. I don't like that conclusion but it seems logical. Soo... thoughts, WoBs, counter-evidence?