Theory. Allomancy is all about enhancing your natural spiritweb.

[Nepene]

I was having a discussion with Phantom elsewhere, and it occurred to me that most allomantic abilities could be explained as an enhancement, expansion and a tweak of natural abilities. It had been my assumption that allomancy magically gave you random when I first got the book, like making metals move and making people super strong. It seemed as random to me as giving someone the power to throw fire out of their hands or to throw thunderbolts. But maybe the powers aren't random. Maybe lerasium just twists a node of someone's spirit web into something greater.

 

Anyway, here's my idea of how this could work.

 

Iron and steel. All humans may naturally have a connection to the focus of their world, metal in this case, and allomancy just enhances this. If a mistborn was on another world they would presumably push the focus of that world- e.g. on Roshar you could push gemstones or body parts.

 

Pewter and tin. Enhances your physical body and your senses.

 

Zinc and brass. Breeze talks about how his allomancy is just an extention of normal manipulation. Perhaps emotional allomancy is just an enhancement outwards of your spiritual connection.

 

“The difference between Soothers and regular people is that we are aware
of what we’re doing. We also have a slight...advantage. But, is it really that much more ‘powerful’ than having a
charismatic personality or a ?ne set of teeth? I think not.”

 

Bronze and copper. Bronze works by letting you feel ripples in the sounds of creation. This may just be your natural life sense, like what awakeners have, turned up to eleven, with the frequency changed, as you would change the frequency on a radio, to focus on investiture.

 

Copper works by stopping ripples in the sounds of creation. Maybe this works by expanding your natural investiture resistance, like your resistance to having metals in your body pushes, and expanding it out to the environment so it is more resistance to outside influences. As evidence for this, in the mistborn rpg there is a stunt, iron will, for copper, that boosts your spiritual resistance when you use copper.

 

Gold and electrum work by enhancing your view of your past (which, as the Emperor's Soul explained, everyone has a lot of in their cognitive identity) and your foresight about the future, your danger sense.

 

Bendalloy and Cadmium work by enhancing your personal sense of time. We've likely all had days when a day seemed to go too slow or too fast. The allomancy takes this natural trait and expands it outwards.

 

The enhancement metals work by altering your natural ability to tap and burn metals.

 

There's not much evidence for this theory, except for with soothing, but I will be looking out for any evidence to refute or deny it in the future.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

I'm really not sure how the external enhancement metals would factor into this.  You've got a dodge with god metals, since they're weird and different, but I'm not sure what natural ability nicrosil is going to enhance.

 

 

Aluminum is always pretty problematic as well, just because it's so weird.  I'm also not really sure about the cadmium/bendalloy justifications, either.  If it was a personal temporal thing, instead of everyone around you, it would make more sense

[Nepene]

I'm really not sure how the external enhancement metals would factor into this.  You've got a dodge with god metals, since they're weird and different, but I'm not sure what natural ability nicrosil is going to enhance.

 

 

Aluminum is always pretty problematic as well, just because it's so weird.  I'm also not really sure about the cadmium/bendalloy justifications, either.  If it was a personal temporal thing, instead of everyone around you, it would make more sense

The external enhancement metals would be twisting your natural ability to burn metals and extending it to other people.

 

Or it could be a completely new ability.

 

With this theory, one of the enhancements that you have is turning natural traits into area of effect abilities. So copper becomes an area of effect spiritual investiture resistance boost instead of a purely internal spiritual resistance trait. The cadmium bendalloy justifications fit in that.

 

This theory is a very poorly supported theory in evidence, but it's something that could be asked of Brandon. He does like to talk about how he makes magic systems.

[Voidus]

My problem is with Bendalloy and Cadmium, perception of time and experience of time are quite different, perceiving a day to be slower or faster doesn't actually enable you to move faster or slower within that time, wheras the temporal metals do, could just say that's an example of the twisting I suppose but then it gets to the point where the justification is meaningless because we could twist any natural occurence into pretty much anything else if we tried hard enough, the body's temperature regulation into fireballs or electrical impulses into lightning bolts to use your examples.

[Nepene]

My problem is with Bendalloy and Cadmium, perception of time and experience of time are quite different, perceiving a day to be slower or faster doesn't actually enable you to move faster or slower within that time, wheras the temporal metals do, could just say that's an example of the twisting I suppose but then it gets to the point where the justification is meaningless because we could twist any natural occurence into pretty much anything else if we tried hard enough, the body's temperature regulation into fireballs or electrical impulses into lightning bolts to use your examples.

 

Perception does actually affect whether Bendalloy and Cadmium effect you, such as with Brandon's example of the train- whether the train views itself as in or out of the bubble affects whether it changes speed when it goes through. Perception and reality may have some overlap in the Cosmere.

 

With the body's temperature regulation, feruchemy allows you to control that.

 

With electrical impulses, zinc feru probably allows you to change that.

 

Under this theory, powers would be limited. You couldn't have any power that directly summoned a fire ball because that's not a function of the body. You can have a power that overcharges the body's temperature regulation.

Edited May 7, 2013 by Nepene

[Voidus]

But that perception isn't your time perception, Miles was still affected by the Cadmium bubble even though he didn't perceive himself to be in slow time, it's more a matter of whether he perceived himself within the area of effect.

[Nepene]

But that perception isn't your time perception, Miles was still affected by the Cadmium bubble even though he didn't perceive himself to be in slow time, it's more a matter of whether he perceived himself within the area of effect.

We don't know whether your perception of time causes your time speed. We know that one aspect of experiencing time, where you perceive yourself to be, is cognitively controlled, other aspects could easily also be cognitively controlled.

 

Some natural things, like metals in your body, can't easily be pushed on, some other things, like emotions, can be pushed on. Time perception may well be an easy to push thing.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

We don't know whether your perception of time causes your time speed.

 

Counterpoint: Zinc feruchemy.

[Nepene]

Counterpoint: Zinc feruchemy.

 

You perceive your thoughts as going quickly and the world as going slowly.

Where's the counterpoint?

[Phantom Monstrosity]

You perceive your thoughts as going quickly and the world as going slowly.

Where's the counterpoint?

 

You drastically alter your perception of time.

 

 

There are no external effects.

[Nepene]

You drastically alter your perception of time.

 

 

There are no external effects.

 

Yes, the theory for how allomancy works here suggests that some internal traits are magnified outwards. I wouldn't expect external effects.

 

You changing your perception of time isn't going to change how the air perceives time.