The Almighty Feruchemantic Free-For-All!!!!

[Koloss17]

Alllllrighty folks! It’s time for the ultimate challenge. Of the 16 (17 if you’re feeling funky) Feruchemantic abilities, which one is the best? I’m not talking about anything in particular, just…which one is objectively better than the rest? While teeeechnically they each have their own important and valuable uses, each of which being the best at one specific thing, there has to be one that is better than the rest. 
 

If any of you have been on the Mistborn forum for any amount of substantial time, you would know that my vote is on F-Tin. It’s easy to get metalminds of, it stores a variety of attributes that can be used in a variety of situations, it synergizes awesomely with many other magic systems, and can be useful in just about any situation. I’d you want a full briefing, my F-Tin cult is awaiting new acolytes.

 

What metallic hill are you willing to die on?

Edited May 23, 2023 by Koloss17

[Jn819]

First off, just to clarify, when you say "Feruchemantic" does that just mean "of Feruchemy" (what I've been using "Feruchemical" for) or both Feruchemical and Allomantic?

Having read your other posts, you've convinced me that F-Tin is the most versatile kind of Ferring to be. Were I a worldhopper with a choice I might choose F-Duralumin, but on the other hand, learning new languages the hard way can be kind of fun.

Allomantically, my preference would be steel, I think. A quiz I took the other day said I'd be a Coppercloud, but that's likely because I'm already pretty stable emotionally (resistant to Soothing and Rioting) and apply the concept of Operational Security (OpSec, as the Feds call it apparently, though they seem to suck at it often). In other words, I'm a lot like a Coppercloud already (though ironically not a smoker) so becoming one wouldn't offer me much.

A-Pewter might be nice, and A-Tin for (reverse) compounding, but I really like flight and firearms. A-Steel is just really awesome. In that way I might be a better double for Ann from Tress of the Emerald Sea, especially given what's revealed later. But I just really related to Steris Harms more than any other character I'd read before, so I made her my PFP.

[mip67]

4 minutes ago, Jn819 said:

First off, just to clarify, when you say "Feruchemantic" does that just mean "of Feruchemy" (what I've been using "Feruchemical" for) or both Feruchemical and Allomantic?

I think Koloss17 uses feruchemantic instead of feruchemical when talking about feruchemy, this doesn't include allomancy.

I have already pledged my allegiance to F-tin, but if I had to choose something else, I would go with F-zinc.

[Koloss17]

Just now, mip67 said:

I think Koloss17 uses feruchemantic instead of feruchemical when talking about feruchemy, this doesn't include allomancy.

I have already pledged my allegiance to F-tin, but if I had to choose something else, I would go with F-zinc.

 

7 minutes ago, Jn819 said:

First off, just to clarify, when you say "Feruchemantic" does that just mean "of Feruchemy" (what I've been using "Feruchemical" for) or both Feruchemical and Allomantic?

 

Yeah, honestly I have no clue on the proper wordage when it comes to Feruchemists. Feruchemantic, Feruchemical, Feruchemy, Feruchemancy? No idea.

[mip67]

2 minutes ago, Koloss17 said:

Yeah, honestly I have no clue on the proper wordage when it comes to Feruchemists. Feruchemantic, Feruchemical, Feruchemy, Feruchemancy? No idea.

I think feruchemy and feruchemical are the canonical versions, along with being the most widely used. I could be wrong though.

[Jn819]

4 minutes ago, mip67 said:

I have already pledged my allegiance to F-tin, but if I had to choose something else, I would go with F-zinc.

Definitely another good choice. Have you read Shadow of the Conqueror by Shad Brooks (of Shadiversity)? Minor spoilers:

Spoiler

There is an ability much like F-Zinc in this book, and it's used to great effect.

That book has made me appreciate F-Zinc more than I used to.

3 minutes ago, mip67 said:

I think feruchemy and feruchemical are the canonical versions, along with being the most widely used. I could be wrong though.

That is my impression as well.

[alder24]

1 hour ago, Koloss17 said:

Alllllrighty folks! It’s time for the ultimate challenge. Of the 16 (17 if you’re feeling funky) Feruchemantic abilities, which one is the best? I’m not talking about anything in particular, just…which one is objectively better than the rest? While teeeechnically they each have their own important and valuable uses, each of which being the best at one specific thing, there has to be one that is better than the rest. 
 

If any of you have been on the Mistborn forum for any amount of substantial time, you would know that my vote is on F-Tin. It’s easy to get metalminds of, it stores a variety of attributes that can be used in a variety of situations, it synergizes awesomely with many other magic systems, and can be useful in just about any situation. I’d you want a full briefing, my F-Tin cult is awaiting new acolytes.

 

What metallic hill are you willing to die on?

Another F-tin thread? You spoil us  

Objectively speaking, if you were a Ferring and were living a daily, almost regular life, there are few metals which would be useful, of course that's all dependent on your activities, hobbies and daily life. Let's talk about applications of all metals but alone, without any other invested arts at your disposal:

1. Iron (weight) - it's a perfect choice for rock climbers, with reduced weight you can climb easier and reach the peak of every mountain. You can also fall from any height without any worry of injuring yourself. Additionally you can store it all the time, whatever you do, becoming lighter, which would be helpful in walking as less energy is required to move muscles. When tapping you can stand heavily on the ground and become unmovable. You can also break through floors, doors and walls, or even collapse whole buildings when needed. In combat you can fall on your opponent and trap them under your weight.
2. Steel (speed) - there is soo much to steel it's hard to write everything down. You can be faster at every activity you perform. Traveling any distance is now faster, especially on bikes. This metal is perfect for people who are always late and always complain that the day is too short. The downside of steel is it's storing, it's hard to collect a large amount of speed. In combat you have a huge advantage, as just by being two or three times faster you'll be uncatchable, and could strike faster than they can react. It's a great and deadly combination. Useful in all aspects of your life.
3. Tin (senses) - you cover it well several times already, I don't think I need to add anything.
4. Pewter (strength) - this is also very useful in your daily life. You can carry and lift heavy objects - perfect for any physical labor. It also gives you more endurance, because with stronger muscles you can run faster and longer, climb higher and so on. Any sportsman would appreciate extra strength. In combat you can strike stronger. You also aren't that restricted in storing as with speed, because there are many moments in your daily life when strength isn't needed.
5. Zinc (mental speed) - thinking faster whenever you need is great. Increase in your mental processing speed is underappreciated. It changes your life! All people would benefit if they could just think more. It has applications not only when solving complex mathematical problems, but also during conversations (did you even have a "I should have told them this instead" moment?). Everyday work is better when you can think like 4 people at once, solving problems before anyone could ever notice them. Every problem you will face will be easier to solve, every new topic to learn will be simple to understand, an extremely useful tool for scientists or just people who like or need to think a lot. In combat it gives you an edge, useful for analyzing your opponent's moves, postures and surroundings and almost "predicting" their next move. You can calculate the trajectory of thrown objects in your mind, or the trajectory of a weapon strikes. Thinking faster during combat is very deadly.
6. Brass (warmth) - you're cold - tap brass, you're hot - store in brass. No longer will temperature be an issue to you. No cold feet, no cold nights, no hot summers. You have control. You can't be burned by fire, you can't get frostbites from the cold. You can drink your hot beverage as soon as water boils. And you can share your ideal temperature with a simple hug! When camping you can ignite fire with a single touch, and suffer not from weather conditions. You can become an ice cream machine by just freezing the water in the cup you're holding, or heating up the air around you on winter days for others to enjoy. In combat you can heat up your body and burn your opponent with every touch, be untouchable, burn the ropes which bind you. That's one of Feruchemical abilities (if not the only one) that can be very easily shared with others, with just a simple touch or others being in close proximity to you. 
7. Copper (memory) - most knows well what can be done with it. Anything you read, see or hear can be stored. Any knowledge you gain can be never forgotten. Very useful. Except in modern days we have access to the interned with a tap of our finger, almost all knowledge is there to find. But with copper you can forget anything you want and experienced you favorite movie for the first time again (despite watching it for the 37th time). Every person that easily forgets stuff can just store it and be always sure of their shopping list. It's very useful in daily life. In combat there is almost no applications. You can however prepare to combat, for example by learning how to counter a sword of your opponent from books you stored in your copperminds. If you have enough time to prepare, you can use copperminds to learn new combat skills.
8. Bronze (wakefulness) - the only attribute you can store when sleeping. It's useful if you have to combat tiredness, spend the night working, or you just want to fall asleep as soon as you go to bed. In combat there are almost no applications, it could help you a bit to be less tired, and keep your attention when you are on guard duty.
9. Chromium (Fortune) - magical Fortune, giving you a gut feeling of what to do. There is little information about it, but it can be a very powerful tool. Even in everyday life it can help you decide, helping you get the best outcome possible. In fighting it might provide an instinctive ability to "feel" your opponent's moves.However it’s worth noting that because of the lack of information about chromium, this is based on speculations - it can be a really powerful tool, or just change nothing in your daily life, because you would need to tap too much Fortune to make a difference. 
10. Nicrosil (ability to use investiture) - It's an interesting ability but on its own, you can only store your own ability of F-nicrosil (wouldn't that make you unable to tap it back, as you now lack the ability to tap nicrosil at all? And not, medallions aren't the same as nicrosilminds of Ferring). At best you could avoid being sensed by a Lifesense by storing in nicrosil (WoB). Unless you're hoarding different abilities from across Cosmere, then you could do some fun stuff with them. In combat there is no direct application of nicrosil.
11. Aluminum (Identity) - another metal which we know almost nothing about. What does storing Identity do? On its own it has far less applications, with other invested abilities you can do some interesting things, likely. Like with Chromium and Nicrosil, we have to wait a bit longer to understand what Aluminum does. 
12. Duralumin (Connection) - this is a fun one. We know something about it. You can speak in languages of people in a foreign nation you're in. Very useful tool for travelers. You can walk around town and be sure nobody will notice you if you store your connections (this includes sneaking into a secure and restricted place). You can make others notice you. You can make friends and form connections easier, or make this one irritating telemarketer forgets you in no time. You're not only connected to places and people, but also to time and fate - everything is connected, that gives you a multitude of possibilities, we barely understand now. In combat you could theoretically tap so much connection that your opponent would consider you as your friend and wouldn't want to fight you - then go have fun together and everybody would win.
13. Cadmium (breath) - useful for both mountain climbing and deep water diving. You don't have to carry any oxygen tank with you. You're immune to toxic gasses like CO. In combat you can't be suffocated or put into sleep with narcotics.
14. Bendalloy (energy) - do you love eating? This is metal for you. Eat all you want and never gain weight. No physical activity will be that exhausting with a constant supply of energy in your metalmind. Drink all you want and store it for later to extinguish your thirst. I wonder if you could store alcohol in it as well? Very useful in everyday life. In combat you can tap it to replenish your energy which would help you to be as fresh and energetic as at the beginning of the fight, fighting against your exhaustion.
15. Gold (health) - no illness will ever torment you if you don't want to be ill. No wound would make you suffer, no injury would prevent you from being active. Storing is a pain, literally, but tapping grants so many benefits, and saves your life during accidents. In combat you are temporally unkillable, you can heal almost any injury, fall from any distance - as long as you have enough health and are touching your goldminds.
16. Electrum (determination) - and at last we have the best attribute, determination, just kidding. Electrum will certainly help you be determined and keep working, partially avoid depression or fall into a manic state. When storing you will be depressed, which isn't good. In combat nothing much, just being very determined to fight, which doesn't give you that much. 

 

That took longer than expected. Based on that I don't think you can objectively say which metal is the best for everybody, as different people do different stuff and would appreciate different metals. That being said, there are few that have a wide application in daily life: steel, pewter, zinc, brass, duralumin, bendalloy and gold are the most useful and versatile. Which one is the best? Hard to say. In Cosmere Connection is an extremely important attribute, binding you to everything and everyone, you could achieve greatness as a F-duralumin Ferring. Personally I think F-zinc can improve every aspect of your life, mind is a very powerful tool on its own, sharpening it will make it even better.

 

19 minutes ago, mip67 said:

I have already pledged my allegiance to F-tin, but if I had to choose something else, I would go with F-zinc.

Oh, I like you! You're smart!  

16 minutes ago, Koloss17 said:

Yeah, honestly I have no clue on the proper wordage when it comes to Feruchemists. Feruchemantic, Feruchemical, Feruchemy, Feruchemancy? No idea.

Feruchemical? I'm not a native english speaker but that's what seems right to me. Feruchemist is for a person who has Feruchemy.

[Underwater_Worldhopper]

I'm so happy someone asked about Feruchemancy, It always bugged me but I didn't want to nitpick. I was considering asking it on this thread, actually, before k saw the second post, so that was a pleasant surprise.

As for the best Feruchemical Metal, I'd say the best for me is probably Zinc, Pewter or Steel. I don't get sick or injured enough for Gold to be immediately useful to me, and the rest are pretty situational. Brass is one of my favourites though. Mental speed, bulk, heat and speed are the ones I could use most effectively 

[Spearguy]

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

Electrum (determination) - and at last we have the best attribute, determination, just kidding. Electrum will certainly help you be determined and keep working, partially avoid depression or fall into a manic state. When storing you will be depressed, which isn't good. In combat nothing much, just being very determined to fight, which doesn't give you that much. 

Why does everyone keep dissing Electrum, if you think about it someone who is determined to win at any cost is more dangerous than someone with super strength. For one thing it will keep you in the fight for longer, most of the time people fall unconscious due to shock not as much actual damage, there is even a direct example of this in the cosmere in the form of dalinar taking several arrows and still fighting (though some of this is the thrill). Second the human body is much stronger than anyone gives it credit for, most of the time someone's physical limit is based more on how much strain their muscles can take rather than ability to exert force with said muscles, with enough will someone can more or less override your body's attempt to stop. 

[alder24]

3 minutes ago, Spearguy said:

Why does everyone keep dissing Electrum, if you think about it someone who is determined to win at any cost is more dangerous than someone with super strength.

You have a point, it will keep you focused at the task longer, and make you more inventive to complete that task. However all your attributes are still the same as in normal humans. It's useful if you know about an incoming fight and can prepare for it.

5 minutes ago, Spearguy said:

For one thing it will keep you in the fight for longer, most of the time people fall unconscious due to shock not as much actual damage, there is even a direct example of this in the cosmere in the form of dalinar taking several arrows and still fighting (though some of this is the thrill).

That's not because of determination, that's an adrenaline rush. Can determination provide you with adrenaline? No idea, but I doubt it can achieve as good effects as the Thrill. However one can make an argument that F-electrum involves manipulating adrenaline, in that case it would become quite useful, because adrenaline affects your whole body not just your mind. After all, storing determination causes depression.

8 minutes ago, Spearguy said:

Second the human body is much stronger than anyone gives it credit for, most of the time someone's physical limit is based more on how much strain their muscles can take rather than ability to exert force with said muscles, with enough will someone can more or less override your body's attempt to stop. 

Yeah, no, I'm getting punched in the face, I'm on the floor losing my consciousness, no matter the amount of determination I have. Steel, pewter, gold would directly prevent me from getting hit or sustaining injuries, even iron would do that. Determination won't help when you lack physique, nor will it stop your bones from breaking. Determination can help you build physique and that's what it's good for, but that's a time consuming process.

[Koloss17]

Honestly my biggest problem with F-Zinc is that it is a nightmare to store. Knowing you can think faster, and you’re thinking at the speed of mud? That would be infuriating as all damnation. 

I mean tapping it is great, but is it worth storing it?

[alder24]

4 minutes ago, Koloss17 said:

Honestly my biggest problem with F-Zinc is that it is a nightmare to store. Knowing you can think faster, and you’re thinking at the speed of mud? That would be infuriating as all damnation. 

I mean tapping it is great, but is it worth storing it?

Yes, there are many moments in your daily life when you just don't need to think that much, you can store a little, not to the level of mud-speed. You have problems with overthinking simple problems - store it. Sometimes when you're having intrusive thoughts, just store zinc and silence them. Something annoys you - store zinc and you'll think about it less. Plus storing zinc would help you relax and preserve energy. There are still benefits to storing zinc. 

[Koloss17]

23 minutes ago, alder24 said:

Yes, there are many moments in your daily life when you just don't need to think that much, you can store a little, not to the level of mud-speed. You have problems with overthinking simple problems - store it. Sometimes when you're having intrusive thoughts, just store zinc and silence them. Something annoys you - store zinc and you'll think about it less. Plus storing zinc would help you relax and preserve energy. There are still benefits to storing zinc. 

I…don’t think that’s how it works. You would still think those thoughts, just slower. I would honestly just feel more anxious, because I can’t catch up with the information I need to take in.

[alder24]

5 minutes ago, Koloss17 said:

I…don’t think that’s how it works. You would still think those thoughts, just slower. I would honestly just feel more anxious, because I can’t catch up with the information I need to take in.

You will think slower. But when you have more information to process through, more thoughts on your mind, thinking slower would make you "filter" thoughts, and you might be able to focus just on the important one (still slower). Just like when you're very tired, you're thinking just less, about fewer stuff. It won't be as direct as I described it.

[Koloss17]

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

You will think slower. But when you have more information to process through, more thoughts on your mind, thinking slower would make you "filter" thoughts, and you might be able to focus just on the important one (still slower). Just like when you're very tired, you're thinking just less, about fewer stuff. It won't be as direct as I described it.

Actually, I need some specific examples here. I think there’s theoretical merits, I just haven’t thought about it yet. What chill activity would be the prime time for you to be storing mental speed?

[mip67]

59 minutes ago, Koloss17 said:

Actually, I need some specific examples here. I think there’s theoretical merits, I just haven’t thought about it yet. What chill activity would be the prime time for you to be storing mental speed?

Really depends on how thinking faster or slower works. Would thinking slower mean you think, see, and do other mental things half as fast (or something like that)? In that case, I can see storing when bored or waiting as a viable option.

[alder24]

30 minutes ago, Koloss17 said:

Actually, I need some specific examples here. I think there’s theoretical merits, I just haven’t thought about it yet. What chill activity would be the prime time for you to be storing mental speed?

Keep in mind you don't need to store extreme amounts of mental speed Sazed was storing. You can adjust the amount of stored attributes depending on your needs and situation. That's why it's hard to say what activity can be used for storing. Watching some chill movie or taking a stroll, just store a bit, watching some stupid movie that makes me want to scream "that's not how it works" - store a lot here. Sitting and relaxing, or while traveling as a passenger, when shopping, when making and eating food, or when waiting for something or being bored, laying in bed and watching stuff on your phone (a lot of watching on this list), when doing some mindless, repetitive work. Even normally, when you have some troublesome thoughts while doing some work, just store a bit of mental speed, your brain will have a harder time dividing attention between working and thinking, forcing you to focus on the task at hand, pushing away your thoughts.

Like with processors in computers - the more processors you have, the more computing power you have, you can do more tasks at the same time. When you start to take away some processors, your time needed to do all tasks extends. But some of those tasks are not needed, useless, you can stop them and focus on doing meaningful tasks within the same time while having only half the amount of processors.

3 minutes ago, mip67 said:

Really depends on how thinking faster or slower works. Would thinking slower mean you think, see, and do other mental things half as fast (or something like that)? In that case, I can see storing when bored or waiting as a viable option.

Yes, when storing zinc your time to process information from eyes, ears etc, increases. But you don't need to store that much for it to be a problem, like Sazed was doing in WoA. It really depends on what you're doing. You can store like 20% of your mental speed, acting more or less like when you're tired, still able to do many tasks with almost the same efficiency as normally.

[Jn819]

5 hours ago, alder24 said:

• Brass (warmth) - you're cold - tap brass, you're hot - store in brass. No longer will temperature be an issue to you. No cold feet, no cold nights, no hot summers. You have control. You can't be burned by fire, you can't get frostbites from the cold. You can drink your hot beverage as soon as water boils. And you can share your ideal temperature with a simple hug! When camping you can ignite fire with a single touch, and suffer not from weather conditions. You can become an ice cream machine by just freezing the water in the cup you're holding, or heating up the air around you on winter days for others to enjoy. In combat you can heat up your body and burn your opponent with every touch, be untouchable, burn the ropes which bind you. That's one of Feruchemical abilities (if not the only one) that can be very easily shared with others, with just a simple touch or others being in close proximity to you. 
• Bronze (wakefulness) - the only attribute you can store when sleeping. It's useful if you have to combat tiredness, spend the night working, or you just want to fall asleep as soon as you go to bed. In combat there are almost no applications, it could help you a bit to be less tired, and keep your attention when you are on guard duty.
• Bendalloy (energy) - do you love eating? This is metal for you. Eat all you want and never gain weight. No physical activity will be that exhausting with a constant supply of energy in your metalmind. Drink all you want and store it for later to extinguish your thirst. I wonder if you could store alcohol in it as well? Very useful in everyday life. In combat you can tap it to replenish your energy which would help you to be as fresh and energetic as at the beginning of the fight, fighting against your exhaustion.

Those might be my favorites (apart from F-Tin of course). Especially Brass. I'm always cold, but love playing with fire. I wonder if you really could like stand in a fire while filling your brassmind without getting burnt? It seems like it should be possible, but it might be too localized or faster than you can store. If it does work that way, it might be perfect for me.

I also have a lot of trouble sleeping, so being able to immediately get to sleep by filling a bronzemind would be great.

And my eating habits are so irregular a Scadrian might already think I have F-Bendalloy lol, it would be great to like go to an all-you-can-eat buffet (which they probably don't have on Scadrial, considering) and just store like a month's worth of calories and not have to worry about it again for a while. Speaking of which, I'm hungry now, I should probably take care of that lol.

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

I am fully fully on the zinc train for this one.  I am rewatching one of my favorite series.  LIMITLESS.  I am not a fan of NZT being a drug and associating what I think is the coolest power out there as a junkie problem....

But straight up if I could only be a ferring zinc.  If I could compound... still zinc.  

 

It definately helps that in the adventure game zinc compounding is closest thing to atium mechanically in the era 2 books.  

Intuitive leaps as well as being able to take in all of the information for an upcoming round and choose which actions you want to occur when is really powerful. 

Even all of that aside, zinc just seems so dang good.  Storing during car rides or plane rides.  I kind of figure the day would fly by with zinc storage.  You would struggle to take anything in but it wouldn't matter so long as those things are not important.  Plane trips?  Boring lectures?  I am happy to store to the max through that crap.  

Edited May 24, 2023 by Tamriel Wolfsbaine

[mip67]

yeah, zinc is really cool.

F-tin is still cool as well though.

[Jn819]

11 hours ago, Jn819 said:

I also have a lot of trouble sleeping, so being able to immediately get to sleep by filling a bronzemind would be great.

It is now almost 6 AM and I've been up since at least 4 because I couldn't fall back asleep. The way I feel right now, I might choose F-Bronze over F-Tin. Apologies for the heresy, Koloss17.

[alder24]

12 hours ago, Jn819 said:

Especially Brass. I'm always cold, but love playing with fire. I wonder if you really could like stand in a fire while filling your brassmind without getting burnt? It seems like it should be possible, but it might be too localized or faster than you can store. If it does work that way, it might be perfect for me.

Yes, that's possible.

Spoiler

Thoughtful Spurts

If tapping heat means your own body gets hotter, does it also mean you become immune to hot temperatures so long as you're tapping it, or should you fill heat and grow colder for that to happen?

Brandon Sanderson

As everything in Feruchemy, you become immune to the effects of the ability only. Like weight doesn't crush you, but at the same time doesn't have a net gain in strength. Growing colder, however, would be more helpful in this regard.

17th Shard Forum Q&A (Sept. 26, 2012)

 

 

 

[Walter The Moral]

God! So many choices!

I would love to have bronze, seeing as you can fall asleep on command, sleep for as long as you want, and then use that stored sleep whenever you want. You ever needed to pull an all-nighter? They just got a lot easier!

Electrum might also be nice. Building up the motivation to do things can be hard sometimes, so getting a bit of a boost could definitely be helpful. You could probably just store it while watching a TV show something. Something where it would take more work to turn it off than to keep doing it.

Zinc is obviously great, for all the reasons already listed in this forum.

Same goes for tin.

Bendalloy could be very nice, seeing as you could choose when to be full. No more wasting food! Every calorie counts! Then, you could go days without eating.

I don't get hurt too often, so gold might not be the most useful to me.

I love the idea of Feruchemist scholars, like we saw in WOA. Just study with heightened mental awareness, with loads of knowledge at your fingertips, an ability to be as determined as you'd like to finish something, and no need to eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, breathe, put on jumpers to regulate your body temparature, and the ability to write incredibly fast.

[cometaryorbit]

Probably Chromium/Fortune.

Too bad we don't know what it really does.

Duralumin/Connection has some of the same problem, it sounds super powerful but very little detail. Blank Connection lets you speak a foreign country's language, but that's not the normal use of it - medallions are weird. Apparently Marsh uses it to not be noticed?

Of the metals we do know something about, for someone who doesn't spend a lot of time in physically dangerous situations (unlike protagonists), probably either Tin or Zinc.

[Jn819]

17 hours ago, alder24 said:

Yes, that's possible.

  Hide contents

Thoughtful Spurts

If tapping heat means your own body gets hotter, does it also mean you become immune to hot temperatures so long as you're tapping it, or should you fill heat and grow colder for that to happen?

Brandon Sanderson

As everything in Feruchemy, you become immune to the effects of the ability only. Like weight doesn't crush you, but at the same time doesn't have a net gain in strength. Growing colder, however, would be more helpful in this regard.

17th Shard Forum Q&A (Sept. 26, 2012)

 

Sweet! That doesn't make it entirely clear that you could be completely immune to fire or something (I feel like Sazed might have figured that out and used it in HoA? Actually no, he wasn't carrying his metalminds) but you could definitely limit your damage at the very least. It would be great if you could like stand in a fire while storing heat and completely fill several metalminds. And I imagine Intent and skill might help you localize the effects (like it does Steelpushing with specific parts of your body on specific parts of your target), allowing you to do like a TES4 touch-based fire spell without catching your clothes on fire too. Ooh, maybe you could store heat (from one body part) so fast it creates ice! Like the scene in X-Men 2 (I think? It's been a long time) when Ice Man chills Wolverine's beer for him. Lots of possibilities there.

Edit:

12 hours ago, cometaryorbit said:

Duralumin/Connection has some of the same problem, it sounds super powerful but very little detail. Blank Connection lets you speak a foreign country's language, but that's not the normal use of it - medallions are weird. Apparently Marsh uses it to not be noticed?

Happened to reread the end of TLM, minor spoilers:

Spoiler

Another figure approached, this one wearing a long black coat and hat. He stepped up beside them, inspecting the statue through spiked eyes.

"It looks good," Death said.

"How is it," Steris said, "you walk around without drawing attention?"

"Emotional Allomancy," he said absently.

Sounds like no on F-Duralumin being how he manages that.

Then again...

Spoiler

From there, Death withdrew. Wax didn't buy his explanation of using emotional Allomancy to remain hidden. There was something more here.

Although I feel like maybe tapping Connection would help you blend in better? Make you seem like you belong?

Edited May 25, 2023 by Jn819
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