Southern Scadrial's Technology

[Sirce Luckwielder]

We have heard that the people on the southern continent of Scadrial have found some ways to use the metals of the Metalic Arts in a technological way. Machines that (likely) work in the same ways as the Metalic Arts. I was wondering what machines and such we can think of that the Southern Scadrians can use. Perhaps there are some cool combinations that will make amazing things.

Here are some of my ideas:

Binoculars made out of Allomantic tin.

Jackhammers made out of Allomantic pewter.

Smoke detectors made out of Allomantic tin or Feruchemical tin.

Food despensers made of Feruchemical bendalloy.

Mass drivers made out of Allomantic steel and Allomantic iron.

What ideas do the masses have?

EDIT: I found some quotes.

NEPENE

You've said you want to write a book set in the southern continent. I did enjoy The Emperor's Soul a lot, so I am curious about you writing that future book. How do they use magic differently, and why should we be excited about reading a book set there?

BRANDON SANDERSON

The southern continent is where people have discovered how to harness the metallurgic arts in a more mechanical method. (I've hinted several places that this is possible. I've been holding off doing it until we go here.)

CHAOS2651

About the southern continent, would it be possible for other Scadrians to discover this method of using the Metallic Arts, or is it unique to the southern Scadrians?

BRANDON SANDERSON

It is technology-based rather than genetics based.

Edited March 4, 2015 by Sirce Luckwielder

[Kobold King]

Superpowered suits of armor made from pewter, analogous to the Shardplate of Roshar? Mistplate, perhaps?

[Redbird]

Allomantic steel for railguns.

 

Edit: Turns out that is basically the same thing as a mass driver, just as a weapon and with greater acceleration.

Edited March 4, 2015 by Redbird

[Sirce Luckwielder]

Feruchemical brass as a stove or refrigerator.

Scale using Feruchemical iron.

Super fast trains using Allomantic steel and Feruchemical steel.

[natc]

Superpowered suits of armor made from pewter, analogous to the Shardplate of Roshar? Mistplate, perhaps?

Behold, the fabled (literal) Iron Man!

[skaa]

Allomantic Cadmium

• Store food for long periods of time without having to refrigerate/freeze them or add preservatives. Buy fresh fruit in the summer and eat/sell them (still fresh) in winter.
• Maximum security prisons can use Cadmium technology to hold highly dangerous inmates in stasis when needed.

Allomantic Bendalloy

• Fast "slow cooking". Make perfectly-cooked meals sous-vide in minutes! Serve slow-cooked items in fast food restaurants! Burn your food beyond recognition and disappoint your loved ones using fancy space-time magic! (Just kidding.)
• Specialized Bendalloy rooms can be used as a walk-in closet. The perfect solution for your significant other who takes forever to get dressed. (Again, just kidding.) Other uses of a Bendalloy room is left as an exercise for the reader.

Superpowered suits of armor made from pewter, analogous to the Shardplate of Roshar? Mistplate, perhaps?

I have a feeling Pewter armor would be more like Half-Shards than the more Invested Shardplate. An actual Mistplate should be made from condensed Mist. Imagine a Lerasium armor.

Edited March 5, 2015 by skaa

[Unhinged]

Behold, the fabled (literal) Iron Man!

 

Now we just need to find an awakener with enough breaths to give the suit Jarvis's personality and it will be complete.

[Sirce Luckwielder]

I have a feeling Pewter armor would be more like Half-Shards than the more Invested Shardplate. An actual Mistplate should be made from condensed Mist. Imagine a Lerasium armor.

This could be pretty cool. I don't think there would be enough Lerasium to make even a gauntlet. If it was to be like full Shardplate, I think it would combine a lot of different metals, bendalloy to increase speed, tin as the faceplate, pewter for most of it, iron and steel for the joints. Then, where the spheres would be in normal Shardplate you have some version of condensed mist to power the armor.

[Oudeis]

((NOTE: I realize there's discrepancy in the book about the rate of time dilation. For purposes of this post, I'm assuming Wax was right when he spoke of an 8x time dilation. If other ratios are more accurate, I don't believe it substantively affects the outcome of my suggestion, just changes the rate at which things are good/bad. Please just mentally substitute the numbers I use with numbers that more closely match your idea of time dilation.))

 

Not sure cadmium prisons are the way to go. In real life, we have a prison overpopulation problem. Sometimes, non-violent offenders are let out early simply because we need the room.

 

In cadmium prisons, either they're in jail for their own subjective sentence, which means people would leave prison almost never, and if someone actually did manage to finish a 5 year sentence, 40 years would have passed for them. Their children would have grown, their significant others would have moved on and forgotten them, they'd likely have few skills that would let them work anything but the most menial of jobs in a possibly completely different global marketplace.

 

Or, they're in prison for an objective sentence. So if someone has an eight-year sentence, they're out after one year. Prison terms would be a fraction as harsh as they actually are; some of the problems from the last example would still crop up, just not as bad. And prison would be far less of a deterrent, since you know you're just gonna be in there for a short stay.

 

I'd say a bendalloy prison would make a much better option. Get someone in jail, let them serve their fifteen year term, but we only have to use up the room for them for two years. They'll come out a lot older, but at least their family will still remember them. More punishment to the actual criminal, less punishment to their kin. Less of a problem for prison overcrowding. There's the fact that we'd have to feed them 8x as much per objective day. But, that's as much food as we'd have to feed them, ever, so the cost isn't increased, just concentrated. There are prison work programs, yes? So prisoners would also be stamping license plates, building tables, what have you as fast as they eat, possibly defraying the cost of feeding them. (Though there might be an impact on the economy when prison goods are manufactured 8x as fast). And think what we'd save on total construction costs, let alone staffing of the fewer, smaller prisons we'd have. And it's not like they can dig their way to freedom; once they leave the room, they aren't going superfast anymore.

Edited March 6, 2015 by Oudeis

[Sirce Luckwielder]

The above raises some interesting questions.  If someone were to live for fifteen years in a bendalloy prison, and then come back into real time after two years, what would the effects be?  We know that savants change after continued burning.  Would people using Southern Scadrian technology change too?  They would have spent so much of their life in compressed time that they may not be able to function now that their bodies have adjusted to their new time. I'm not saying that this would be bad, we are talking about criminals here, but what about in the space age? Instead of using cryo freezing or something for the long journeys, they may use cadmium while traveling to keep the pilots and passengers alive.  These people will probably not be criminals, they will probably be scientists, explorers, cartographers, and soldiers.  Do they deserve to undergo these affects?

[kinxer]

The above raises some interesting questions.  If someone were to live for fifteen years in a bendalloy prison, and then come back into real time after two years, what would the effects be?  We know that savants change after continued burning.  Would people using Southern Scadrian technology change too?  They would have spent so much of their life in compressed time that they may not be able to function now that their bodies have adjusted to their new time. I'm not saying that this would be bad, we are talking about criminals here, but what about in the space age? Instead of using cryo freezing or something for the long journeys, they may use cadmium while traveling to keep the pilots and passengers alive.  These people will probably not be criminals, they will probably be scientists, explorers, cartographers, and soldiers.  Do they deserve to undergo these affects?

The savant point is interesting, but I'd like to point out that it's still an ethical concern with criminals. After all, any justice system makes mistakes sometimes, and people who are criminals don't have to remain criminals. I have no doubt much ink has been used in such discussions by people who are Invested (heh) in it than I, however.

 

Anyway, savants... It could be possible, but I think Savanthood comes from aptitude with an Allomantic metal as opposed to its effects. That is, of course, a slippery distinction, but there are no mentions (that I know of) of Feruchemical iron Savants (or even Allomantic bendalloy savants). Or, y'know, I could be completely wrong.

[Sirce Luckwielder]

Anyway, savants... It could be possible, but I think Savanthood comes from aptitude with an Allomantic metal as opposed to its effects. That is, of course, a slippery distinction, but there are no mentions (that I know of) of Feruchemical iron Savants (or even Allomantic bendalloy savants). Or, y'know, I could be completely wrong.

With the odd nature of Feruchemy, I don't think it would be easy to have savants. After 1000 years of Allomancers while Feruchemy was obscure there were only a few savants. Spook was one, Zane another, Kelsier also mentions that there were some others when he is talking to Vin. If there were a Feruchemist Savant, I think it would likely be from storing, since extended tapping would be much harder to do. Maybe Wax, since he is almost always storing a little bit of weight.

Based on the body's nature ability to adapt to situations, I think that this could come from the effects rather than the burning. Yes, using Investiture probably has effects, but people will adapt as well. Think about when you go into a room and there is an annoyingly loud clock that ticks. After a couple minutes, you won't notice it anymore, as you have adapted to the environment and your body and mind realizes that the sound should be ignored. Or, how when you enter a cold pool from being in a warm hot tun, it feels incredibly frigid. But as time goes on, your bosy adapts and you grow accustomed to the cold water. Due to these examples, I don't think we can discount the effects of these machines not changing people who regularly use them.

[Redbird]

Actually, I think Zane had a pewter spike, granting him stronger allomantic Steel.

[Voidus]

The above raises some interesting questions.  If someone were to live for fifteen years in a bendalloy prison, and then come back into real time after two years, what would the effects be?  We know that savants change after continued burning.  Would people using Southern Scadrian technology change too?  They would have spent so much of their life in compressed time that they may not be able to function now that their bodies have adjusted to their new time. I'm not saying that this would be bad, we are talking about criminals here, but what about in the space age? Instead of using cryo freezing or something for the long journeys, they may use cadmium while traveling to keep the pilots and passengers alive.  These people will probably not be criminals, they will probably be scientists, explorers, cartographers, and soldiers.  Do they deserve to undergo these affects?

Savantism seems to be most damaging with the physical metals, tin and pewter are explicitly mentioned and I do somewhat agree that the internal metals should be more damaging too. Bendalloy/Cadmium are both external non-physical metals so I don't imagine the effects would be as bad even for Mistings/Mistborn using it, let alone simply those who undergo it's effects.

 

Actually, I think Zane had a pewter spike, granting him stronger allomantic Steel.

 

He does indeed, but I do believe he's still technically a Savant, although I think Kelsier very nearly is as well, we know that he's at the upper end of what's possible and managed better control with Iron and Steel than even the Inquisitors.

Edited March 6, 2015 by Voidus

[Sirce Luckwielder]

He does indeed, but I do believe he's still technically a Savant, although I think Kelsier very nearly is as well, we know that he's at the upper end of what's possible and managed better control with Iron and Steel than even the Inquisitors.

I knew about the spike, but I figured with how powerful he was with both iron and steel, that he needed to be a savant. Savanthood would also help explain more of the cracks in his sanity.

[the Gleeman]

Back to the thread at hand... What about a zinc\brass-lined hat for chronic depression? I don't quite know the psychology well enough to know which would be better, but this could be a major medical find.

[kinxer]

Back to the thread at hand... What about a zinc\brass-lined hat for chronic depression? I don't quite know the psychology well enough to know which would be better, but this could be a major medical find.

Actually, this would allow some "fun" with underground/hidden mass-soothing stations along the lines of those TLR had with even less upkeep. Hooray for oppressive governments!

 

Or, y'know, you could use copper to create areas where soothing doesn't work. In fact, that's probably something we'll see, since it would be invaluable.

[natc]

Or just mechanical copperclouds in general. (Off on a tangent, but I always did wonder if life sense can pierce copperclouds).

They'll have invent something that constantly gives off allomantic pulses and hide them everywhere so that they can find clouds where the pulses cut off.

[kinxer]

Or just mechanical copperclouds in general. (Off on a tangent, but I always did wonder if life sense can pierce copperclouds).

They'll have invent something that constantly gives off allomantic pulses and hide them everywhere so that they can find clouds where the pulses cut off.

Do Seekers sense other Seekers' Bronzepulses? If so, finding Copperclouds with Bronzepulse triangulation sounds pretty awesome.

[Sirce Luckwielder]

Another question is if the machine actually uses up the metal when it is in use. Having a Cadmium airline to make long flights feel short would be great, but Cadmium is expensive. If just the machine needs to be made out of the metal and then it is electrically charged or something, that would be nearly as costly as having machines burn the metals themselves. If the machines burn the metals, it will make controlling metal extremely lucrative. It would also make a much larger gap between the poor and the rich. Sounds like the breeding ground for a dystopia.

[Haradion Drogon]

I am thinking, that we will be seeing Scardrial's version of the "Fabrial", but powered on allomancy, and feruchemically charged pieces of metal, rather than stormlight.

[Lord Tavash Shar]

I'm wondering if we will see Feruchemy at all or if it will just be Allomantic Fabriel. After all Feruchemy is all internal to internal and does not draw on preservation or Ruin. Rather its a balanced excess of both in some ones soul web. 
If these fabriel are only pulling from preservation there could be no Feruchemical ones. 
Like wise if they balance some how by having to pierce there users body and storing/tapping charges without Personal Identity then its Posible there are no Allomantic Fabriel.

We really just do not have enough information to postulate anything more than that they are a thing that exists. How ever it brings up an interesting question. Do all major magic systems have a means of being tapped without having the SDNA for them?

*Edited for Clarity*

Edited March 7, 2015 by Lord Tavash Shar

[Sirce Luckwielder]

I'm wondering if we will see Feruchemy at all or if it will just be Allomamtic Fabriel. After all Feruchemy is all internal to internal and does not draw on preservation or Ruin. Rather its a balanced excess of both in some ones soul web. 

While these machines may only work with Allomancy, I doubt it for a couple of reasons. First, these machines will give the Scadrians access to Faster than Light travel, I don't know where the Word of Brandon is though. I think that to achieve this, people will need Feruchemy. It seems too valuable and too good of a magic system to be discarded. Secondly, you are right, Feruchemy is internal. The machine is what will be storing the attribute, with the flick of a switch or however it happens. The train will be storing its own speed. The food dispenser will be storing the nutrients inside of it, etcetera. I am pretty sure that is how this works, but we can't know until the book actually comes out.

We really just do not have enough information to postulate that they are a thing that exists.

I would like to redirect you to the Words of Brandon on this thread's opening post. Based on the things that he has said, we know that the Southern Scadrians have this ability. I may just not be understanding what you're saying. If so, I am sorry.

[Kurkistan]

While these machines may only work with Allomancy, I doubt it for a couple of reasons. First, these machines will give the Scadrians access to Faster than Light travel, I don't know where the Word of Brandon is though. I think that to achieve this, people will need Feruchemy. It seems too valuable and too good of a magic system to be discarded. Secondly, you are right, Feruchemy is internal. The machine is what will be storing the attribute, with the flick of a switch or however it happens. The train will be storing its own speed. The food dispenser will be storing the nutrients inside of it, etcetera. I am pretty sure that is how this works, but we can't know until the book actually comes out.\

 

It's unclear if Feruchemy will be required for the FTL, as Brandon has taken to calling it "Allomantic FTL" as of late.

 

Also, while we've had some strong hints that this "mechallomancy" will be involved in FTL/space travel, it hasn't been confirmed outright.

 

Various WoBs about this in the FTL section of this post.

[Sirce Luckwielder]

It's unclear if Feruchemy will be required for the FTL, as Brandon has taken to calling it "Allomantic FTL" as of late.

I was figuring that things like Feruchemical bendalloy, iron, steel, and others could help with FTL. My other point was that Feruchemy seems to be too useful and awesome to let it just become obsolete. I refer to the time-honored Sanderson's Zeroeth Law: "ere on the side of awesome."