Silver

[PinkPlasma Bridgeman]

So, I think most of us have known for a while now that the allomantic metals actually effect all kinds of investiture. we see it constantly in books outside of mistborn. nightbloods sheath is made of aluminum, fabrials use the allomantic metals to get specific effects, and its used in all three of the metalic arts. we also know that Nightblood is actually made of an allomantic metal, although idk if we know which one it is. we also see iron and steel used in ToTES. but there has been one thing that has been bothering me for a long time now. and its silver. silver isn't an allomantic metal. but it effects investiture anyway. it seems to destroy it in some way, or absorb it, or send it back to the spiritual realm??? its awfully similar to aluminum in the way that it is used as a sort of investiture insulation, but it tends to get rid of investiture more, sometimes in an area around it. is it possibly changing the enviroment around it to make investiture more diffucult to remain in the physical realm? would it work the same in other realms? its just bizzare, and I feel like ive missed something important. does anyone know more about silver? do we have WOBs maybe? or just any ideas on what it actually is doing?

[Jofwu Most Ancient]

FYI, I'm moving this to the "New Cosmere Releases" forum, on account of the Tress reference.

[Brgst13 Ferring]

Silver has three known effects: it can repel/reverse effects of a shade attack, it can shatter a Luhel bond, and it can anchor a traveler through a Cognitive anomaly.  We also have a suggestion in the Coppermind that it could kill spren permanently.  What do these all have in common?  They all involve a Cognitive entity in the Physical Realm or the other way around.  Shades are Cognitive Shadows attacking people in the Physical Realm.  The Luhel bond is a Physical exchange with a Cognitive entity.  The chain is used for a Physical entity moving in the Cognitive Realm.  My theory is that silver prevents the Investiture from Cognitive entities from affecting the Physical.  This explains all the uses of silver we know.  Shades cannot cross Physical silver without interacting with it which would block their Investiture.  The Investiture damage from Shades can be reversed because the investiture has to corrupt the Physical body.  The effect on the Luhel bond would be obvious.  Spren, being in the Physical Realm, would be very susceptible to silver since they are entirely Investiture in a Cognitive entity.  The Investiture from the anomaly can't affect the Physical traveler.

[Lightspen of the Glass Sea Darkeyes]

I saw a WoB somewhere that Brandon Sanderson thought that Pewter was an alloy of Silver for a while, and in the original draft of Mistborn, silver enhanced senses instead of tin. He realized his error and replaced silver with tin, but the effect was that silver didn't have an allomantic effect, which he didn't intend. I kind of agree with him that Silvereye sounds cooler than Tineye.

[PinkPlasma Bridgeman]

On 3/14/2023 at 1:23 PM, Jofwu said:

FYI, I'm moving this to the "New Cosmere Releases" forum, on account of the Tress reference.

thank you, I forgot abt that channel

[Cinnamon Cryptic]

On 16/3/2023 at 3:28 AM, Lightspen of the Glass Sea said:

I saw a WoB somewhere that Brandon Sanderson thought that Pewter was an alloy of Silver for a while, and in the original draft of Mistborn, silver enhanced senses instead of tin. He realized his error and replaced silver with tin, but the effect was that silver didn't have an allomantic effect, which he didn't intend. I kind of agree with him that Silvereye sounds cooler than Tineye.

Here are some relevant WoBs I’m not sure of they’re the one you mentioned because I remember seeing one where he said he still really wanted to do stuff with Silver in the Cosmere which is why he included it.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/142/#e2604

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/61/#e1277

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/188/#e3923

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/141/#e2391

 

@PinkPlasma

all the WoBs I found asking about silver’s investiture blocking etc were all RAFOed or given vaguely worded answers like this one:

Spoiler

icanbanter

We know aluminium blocks Investiture. Does silver block anti-Investiture?

Brandon Sanderson

So, silver has its own weird mechanics that I'm slowly exploring in the cosmere. That's not an answer to your question, I'm sorry.

YouTube Spoiler Stream 4 (June 16, 2022)

Or this one:

Spoiler

Questioner

What's the deal with silver? Why does it not fit cleanly into the Allomantic metals, why is aluminum a special one and not silver. Why is it silver powder and not aluminum powder on Threnody? These kinds of questions.

Brandon Sanderson

Do you want the in-world answer... or the writerly answer?

Questioner

Well really I want the in-world answer.

Brandon Sanderson

...The in-world answer is that people are not sure yet.

Questioner

Well, that's not the in-world answer. That's the in world answer from Khriss, right? What about the in-world answer from--

Brandon Sanderson

That's the in-world answer--they're not sure yet...

The writerly answer is that we started with silver in place of tin. And by the time I swapped it out, aluminum was already its thing. If I had to do it over again, I might make silver aluminum, but I wanted what aluminum does to be rare, and silver isn't. So I might not have. I love what aluminum does because it's super-rare pre-industrial, but you hit industrial and it's everywhere.

So it allowed me to do, when we get to modern era, to have real checks on Allomancy as Allomancy gets more powerful.

Emerald City Comic Con 2018 (March 1, 2018)

All the other relevant ones were RAFOed ;-;

Edited March 17 by Cinnamon

[drunkenbotanist Grand]

Aluminum insulates investiture and silver insulates the realms?

 

Or is aluminum hostile to "kinetic" investiture and silver hostile to "non kinetic"

 

^not the first time these have been speculated on before

Edited March 18 by drunkenbotanist

[Xiahida Pahn Kahl]

On 3/18/2023 at 6:48 PM, drunkenbotanist said:

Aluminum insulates investiture and silver insulates the realms?

I think it works like this I would be unsure how it connects to the Emerald Sea? Would the aluminum block the silver's attack on spores?

[Rorzikel Gyorn]

On 3/14/2023 at 10:19 PM, Brgst13 said:

The Luhel bond is a Physical exchange with a Cognitive entity.

I don't think we actually know that Aethers are Cognitive entities. They certainly don't seem to need a Nahel bond to anchor them and water on its own without any human input can cause it to grow.

[Xiahida Pahn Kahl]

I have a possible idea. What if silver blocks Connection! It blocks the spores from the Aethers and maybe Nightblood from its user while in a SILVER sheath. Also, I think Sanderson said the sheath was not originally part of Nightblood so silver's powers is why the sheath is silver. Any other ideas about this?

[alder24 Elantrian]

10 minutes ago, Xiahida said:

I have a possible idea. What if silver blocks Connection! It blocks the spores from the Aethers and maybe Nightblood from its user while in a SILVER sheath. Also, I think Sanderson said the sheath was not originally part of Nightblood so silver's powers is why the sheath is silver. Any other ideas about this?

Nightblood's sheath is aluminum.

Spoiler

Questioner

What metal is Nightblood's sheath made out of?

Brandon Sanderson

Nightblood's sheath is aluminum.

Oathbringer release party (Nov. 13, 2017)

Silver blocking connection doesn't explain Threnody. There, silver is used to stop Shades, hurt them and stop the effects of Shades encounter with your body. And because withering is described as a kind of cancerous Forging, taking over your soul, silver stopping it seems to "kill off" investiture, which causes this effect.

Spoiler

Kurkistan

If you're on Threnody and you get withered by a shade, are you better off burning Allomantic aluminum, or tapping Feruchemical gold?

*laughter*

[clarification on the question]

Brandon Sanderson

They would both work pretty well. I would say if you burned aluminum, that would kind of have the effect that you are wanting it to have, which is the effect-- negating and sucking out, so that's probably safer. But the gold would work, too.

Kurkistan

So would it be fair to describe withering as a kind of cancerous Forging-

Brandon Sanderson

Sure.

Kurkistan

That just kind of slowly takes over your soul?

Brandon Sanderson

Sure.

Shadows of Self Chicago signing (Oct. 12, 2015)

Aluminum seems to stop connections as well as shield from other forms of Investiture - like in OB in Kholinar room with aluminum walls prevents spanreeds from connecting to each other.