On the Feruchemy of Aluminum (and a bit of Gold Allomancy)

[skaa]

Of all the base metals, only two have Feruchemical properties that are not yet well understood even by Terrismen as of AoL. These are Nicrosil and Aluminum. I would like to put forth my ideas regarding them.

 

This thread is about aluminum. I already created a thread about nicrosil. You could read that if you want.

 

Here's what the Coppermind Wiki says about aluminum Feruchemy:

 

An aluminum Ferring is known as a Trueself. Aluminum is used to store "spiritual sense of identity." This ability is not fully understood, and is rarely discussed outside of Terris communities.

 

The spoiler tag below contains my original theory ("Skaa's Theory of Aluminum Feruchemy #1"). Most of the replies on this page probably refer to this one.

 

 

I've read the theory that equates Spiritual Identity with simple self-awareness, meaning a Trueself would just be "less self-aware" while storing Identity and "more self-aware" while tapping it. Maybe it's just me, but that seems a bit too straightforward. Surely the Terrismen would have figured that out by now if that was all there is to it.

 

There's also the theory that storing one's Identity allows the user to read other people's metalminds. This does sound a lot cooler, but once this power is discovered, it's even more obvious than the "self-awareness" theory. I mean, what else is there to "fully understand" about it once a Terrisman finds that he could read someone else's metalmind? Why would that ability be rarely spoken of even among Terrismen?

 

I developed my own theory after noticing all the other self-identity-related powers in Cosmere. At first only Sel's Soul Forging came to mind. Then I remembered gold Allomancy on Scadrial. Combining those two powers, I came up with this theory: Aluminum Feruchemy allows the user to store a pivotal decision he made in his past (e.g. a life-changing decision that made him what he is today). Once stored, it would be as if that decision was never made, and the user would obtain a new set of physical characteristics, a new personality, and even new memories, all based on what he would be like in that alternate scenario.

 

This sounds awfully like Soul Forging, but there are important differences. For one, you have less control over what your new "Identity" would be like. All you'd know is that the new "you" diverged from the original you by a single decision in your past. More importantly, unlike Soul Forging (which doesn't last long due to its inherently made-up nature), aluminum Feruchemy transforms you into what you really would have been had you done things differently in the past, and so this alternate Identity can be maintained indefinitely. In a strange way, aluminum identities really are "true selves".

 

Tapping the Aluminummind of course returns the past to normal, reverting the user to his original Identity, without any memory of what happened during storage (unless his alternate Identity used a Coppermind beforehand). Aluminum identities, as well as the original Identity, would be able to use each other's metalminds since they are after all the same person.

 

This power would be very difficult to control or even predict, which would explain why the Terrismen are finding it difficult to even understand. I could imagine a Trueself Terrisman dying as soon as he attempted to store (or more likely, accidentally stores) a past decision that turned out to be crucial to his survival. I'm sure his colleagues would be quite puzzled by that, to say the least.

 

Well, that's too bad. If only there was a way to study what you could have been before using aluminum Feruchemy, eh?

 

Oh wait, we already have that power: gold Allomancy. I think there's more to Augurs than we've seen so far, and that an Augur could actually control what gold shadow he sees other than the default one. If an Augur focuses on a particular moment in his past, I think he would be able to see a gold shadow of what he'd be like had that moment never happened. A gold aluminum Twinborn could harness this ability to know which past decision can be stored safely, and what the effect of storing it might be.

 

(I suppose obtaining copper Feruchemy (via Hemalurgy) would complete the package since that would allow the user to communicate with his alternate Identities.)

 

So, that's my theory. Do you guys think it's too far-fetched? Please comment!

 

Now, presenting Skaa's Theory of Aluminum Feruchemy #2 (which I now espouse):

 

When an aluminum Feruchemist stores and taps "Identity", he is doing exactly what Miles was doing in AoL: creating an "alloy" of himself. An alloy of his Spiritual Identity. The two persons that a gold Allomancer sees are the two extremes of his Identity: his Past Identity (or What He Could Have Been) and his Present Identity (or What He Is Now Becoming), and these are also the two extremes of aluminum Feruchemy.

 

Except unlike Miles, the Feruchemist has fine-tuned control over his "alloy-making" because those two extremes lie on opposite ends of a Spiritual Identity spectrum that a Feruchemist can move through via storing or tapping Spiritual Identity. But it is still the same basic thing as the "self-alloying" done by Miles.

 

In the case of gold Allomancy, this is why both Miles and Vin felt "weak" after burning gold: they were messing with their Spiritual Identity, and they apparently weren't very good at it. This change in Spiritual Identity is also what causes the increase or decrease in susceptibility to emotional Allomancy while tapping or storing Aluminumminds.

 

I'm aware that this isn't exactly how the MAG rules go, but I'm betting on the possibility that Brandon deliberately used a slightly non-canonical set of rules in this case to make the gameplay less weird (I mean, compared to what Miles was doing).

 

Edit: Note that this is just one connection between Aluminum and Gold that I've discovered. Another can be found here.

Edited October 3, 2013 by skaa

[Voidus]

I think the same problem I had with the Nicrosil theory, feruchemy doesn't usually cause permanent changes like that and it seems like it would only be useful in an oddly specific combination of abilities.

[skaa]

Thanks for the comment, Voidus!

 

I think the same problem I had with the Nicrosil theory, feruchemy doesn't usually cause permanent changes like that

 

We'll just have to agree to disagree about that, I'm afraid, unless Brandon explicitly says that memory storage is the only Feruchemy that causes permanent change.

 

it seems like it would only be useful in an oddly specific combination of abilities.

 

The existence of Allomantic Gnats kind of refutes the argument that all Metallic Arts have to be useful even on their own. Heck, aluminum Allomancy is counterproductive even for a Mistborn. I could think of other examples:

• Gold Allomancy has always been regarded as almost completely useless in the books.
• Oracles are probably useless now since there are no longer any Atium users to fight (though I could think of a use for electrum shadows coupled with zinc Feruchemy in rare life-or-death situtations).
• Tapping physical speed (steel Feruchemy) would probably be too dangerous to the user without first tapping mental speed (zinc Feruchemy).

 

Anyway, Voidus, may I ask what your thoughts on aluminum Feruchemy are?

Edited May 12, 2013 by skaa

[Voidus]

The existence of Allomantic Gnats kind of refutes the argument that all Metallic Arts have to be useful even on their own. Heck, aluminum Allomancy is counterproductive even for a Mistborn. I could think of other examples:

• Gold Allomancy has always been regarded as almost completely useless in the books.
• Oracles are now probably useless since there are no longer any Atium users to fight against (though I could think of a use for electrum shadows coupled with zinc Feruchemy in rare life-or-death situtations).
• Tapping physical speed (steel Feruchemy) would probably be too dangerous to the user without first tapping mental speed (zinc Feruchemy).

 

• I actually have a few points about gnats as well, it has been somewhat implied that some of them aren't as useless as we may think, Aluminum for example might be able to destroy toxins in the body, rather than just metals, or protect from investiture, or all manner of other helpful traits. Duralumin while possibly not useful by itself is useful with any other allomantic ability, and extraordinarily useful at that. Gold allomancy is kind of regarded as useless but as we've seen with Cadmium sometimes people's perceptions are off, miles makes use of gold allomancy quite well. Oracles would still be useful even without Zinc feruchemy, mental speed would only be as helpful to an oracle as it would be to anyone else, it would just seem more helpful because they already have increased reaction time, and Zinc would just make it even more so. On feruchemical speed I'm not sure what you're trying to say, feruchemical Steel is freuqently used without Zinc and they get along fine, Sazed mentions depleting his speed a few times but doesn't mention anything about his Zincminds. Feruchemy generally protects you against it's own harmful effects so I imagine reaction time is increased with Speed as well to a certain extent.

  As for what I think Aluminum does feruchemically I'd have to say I'm not entirely sure but pretty much just your awareness of your identity, someone tapping Identity would be relatively uncertain about all of their actions, while someone tapping it would be very firm in their resolve, etc. there have also been some implications that storing enough identity might enable you to tap someone else's metalminds. Although IIRC Brandon has also said compounding Aluminum would pretty much do nothing so I'm not that certain about my ideas on how it'd work, then again maybe I'm just a truesef accidentally storing

[skaa]

Oh, cadmium Allomancy! Another power that seems to be useful only in rare, specific, occasions. Kind of like my theory of aluminum Feruchemy and gold Allomancy, eh?

 

I think we kind of agree now. A Metallic Art doesn't have to be useful in most normal situations. That was my main counter-argument to your complaint about usefulness.

 

I believe I already mentioned my argument against the self-awareness and tapping-other-metalminds theories. They just don't explain the strange reaction of Terrismen towards aluminum. It has to be something more mysterious. I guess that's why I like my pseudo-Soul Forging theory.

 

Also, my theory would explain Brandon's comment about aluminum Compounding. You don't compound Identity for the same reason that you don't compound Memory; compounding is simply pointless for such things.

[Windrunner]

Actually, he RAFO'd what compounding memory would do, saying it was a plot point for a future book. So not necessarily pointless.

[Voidus]

Compounding memory would actually do something it was in the same quote about aluminum not being useful when compounded. I think the Terris confusion over Aluminum would be more likely because they hadn't discovered the whole being able to tap other people's metalminds thing yet and other than that it might be of questionable usefulness, I actually think that your theory would be less mysterious, sure without also being an augur they wouldn't be able to know the specific outcomes in advance butit's a pretty obvious effect, not much mystery to it.

[skaa]

Compounding memory would actually do something it was in the same quote about aluminum not being useful when compounded.

Ooh, that's pretty cool. What does compounding memory do? Does it make the memory clearer or something? Anyway, that's still beside the point that storing a past decision can't really be compounded, so attempting to do so does nothing.

I actually think that your theory would be less mysterious, sure without also being an augur they wouldn't be able to know the specific outcomes in advance butit's a pretty obvious effect, not much mystery to it.

Not really. Remember that full Feruchemists are rare as of AoL, so aluminum research would most likely rely on Trueselves, and this will make things more complicated. Here are some things that make it difficult to study aluminum Feruchemy:

• Let me describe what the best-case scenario would be for an individual Trueself that tries to perform aluminum Feruchemy to determine what it does. Step 1: Meditate and search for thoughts, traits, anything that could be stored in your Aluminummind. Step 2: Find yourself in some other location, hours after you started your experiment, without knowing how you got there, and with your Aluminummind still empty. Step 3: Go "This post has been reported for attempting to skirt the rules?!"
• Here's a bad scenario: Step 1: Do Step 1 as above. Step 2: Find yourself about to be arrested or killed or in some other compromising situation due to a stupid thing "you" did that you have absolutely no memory of doing (coz you're just a Trueself and therefore can't use Copperminds). Step 3: Vow to never research about aluminum Feruchemy ever again.
• Here's a worse scenario: Step 1: (Same) Step 2: The original you never sees the light of day again, since the alternate you had no knowledge of your Trueself nature and sold your Aluminummind for a quick buck. I believe this scenario is going to be very common until knowledge of aluminum Feruchemy becomes widespread.
• Here's the worst-case scenario: Step 2: Your alternate Identity died five years ago.

None of those would result in a better understanding of aluminum Feruchemy. Now of course the above scenarios all assume that the Trueself is working on his own, but even if he was part of a research team, there are still scenarios that will not lead to any progress at all:

• You stored an inconsequential decision, leading to an alternate Identity that is virtually identical to your original Identity. The research team concludes that aluminum Feruchemy has no effects.
• Your alternate Identity is quite different from you, but he panics after finding himself somewhere he did not expect, and refuses to cooperate with your research team. The research team concludes that aluminum Feruchemy does something to the brain that makes a person unstable, and is probably too dangerous to use.
• Your alternate Identity is a dangerous criminal and kills one of your fellow researchers. The research team concludes that aluminum Feruchemy is definitely too dangerous to use. You or your alternate Identity gets charged with murder and executed.
• Upon attempting aluminum Feruchemy, you die. Your fellow researchers are charged with murder, and most of them get the death penalty.

So you see, I don't think my version of aluminum Feruchemy is going to be very obvious to Terrismen at all. Edited May 12, 2013 by skaa

[Voidus]

You're assuming that you wouldn't have any memory either way, there's a magic system in another cosmere book quite similar to how you describe Identity and memory remains afterwards.

[skaa]

You're assuming that you wouldn't have any memory either way, there's a magic system in another cosmere book quite similar to how you describe Identity and memory remains afterwards.

 

You're right. I guess that is one of my big assumptions. I based my theory partially on Soul Forging, but I did say from the start that there would be differences.

 

Oh well, that's my theory. I'm starting to imagine what it would be like once aluminum Feruchemy is completely understood. I can already see some interesting uses. Maybe I'll write a fanfic about it one of these days.

Edited May 12, 2013 by skaa

[Isomere]

I very much enjoy the ideas in this thread. I just made a fun (but probably inaccurate) connection between storing Identity and Mirrors of the Wheel. 

 

WOT stuff

So in WoT there is this crazy bunch of parallel worlds called the Mirrors of the Wheel. Every time a decision comes up, you chose one of the options, but at that moment in time you also take the other option. BOTH choices get realized but they split off into cloned universes. This creates lots of universes which combine to form the Multi-verse or somesuch nonsense, which you can kinda visualize by placing a couple mirrors up to reflect back into each other forever.

 

 

Now, playing with your ideas here, if you went back and changed a single decision in the formation of your Identity, there would already be a YOU in a different mirror who originally made that choice. Wouldn't you effectively make your Identity EXACTLY the same as the guy on the other Mirror? I'm thinking of several interesting possibilities with this, each one more far-fetched than the previous. Is it possible to go to a different mirror? Can you get back? Does balance somehow need to be maintained, so for every identity storing, the two clones just swap mirrors? What happens if you swap with a dead guy, does he come back to life in your world? or in His world? Will you both just stay dead forever? AHHHHHH.

 

Odds are Brandon has no mirrors in the Cosmere, but given the numerous other hints at Quantum Physics, I wouldn't put it completely out of the realm of speculation.  (the concept of mirrored universes came from probability waveform equations, go check out the Schrodinger's Cat argument for more details)

 

[Phantom Monstrosity]

I developed my own theory after noticing all the other self-identity-related powers in Cosmere. At first only Sel's Soul Forging came to mind. Then I remembered gold Allomancy on Scadrial. Combining those two powers, I came up with this theory: Aluminum Feruchemy allows the user to store a pivotal decision he made in his past (e.g. a life-changing decision that made him what he is today). Once stored, it would be as if that decision was never made, and the user would obtain a new set of physical characteristics, a new personality, and even new memories, all based on what he would be like in that alternate scenario.

I don't really see how this works as something that you can store.

I mean, let's say I had the choice of joining the Peace Corps or going to college. If I went to college and stored 'going to college', presumably I'd be an alternate self who went to the peace corps, right? But then if alternate guy stores 'joined the peace corps' I'd be back where I started.

[skaa]

I don't really see how this works as something that you can store.

I mean, let's say I had the choice of joining the Peace Corps or going to college. If I went to college and stored 'going to college', presumably I'd be an alternate self who went to the peace corps, right? But then if alternate guy stores 'joined the peace corps' I'd be back where I started.

 

Not necessarily. Let's call the original you "Phantom Primus" and your Peace Corps-joining alternate Identity "Phantom Secundus". If Phantom Secundus tries to store his decision to join the Peace Corps, there are two possibilities:

 

(1) If you had more viable choices back then other than just college or Peace Corps, Phantom Tertius would be someone who made another choice. Perhaps he started a business. Or maybe he also went to college, but took a different degree. It would have to be a choice that you seriously considered at that time, though.

 

(2) If college or Peace Corps really was your only choice, then Phantom Secundus would find that he couldn't store his Peace Corps decision in a Nicrosilmind at all. It just wouldn't work, because the only other Identity that made a different decision was already stored. Now, if Secundus ever notices that one of his Nicrosilminds already contained something, he'd realize that he isn't the prime Identity and, via deduction, that Phantom Primus didn't go to the Peace Corps. In which case, if Secundus just thought for a bit, he'd wonder "Why did Primus want an Identity that joined the Peace Corps?" At that point, he could start looking for clues as to what his mission is, perhaps by checking his Copperminds (assuming that you are a full Feruchemist) or looking for  instructions that Primus left behind.

 

 

.

.

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Edit: Okay, having been acquainted with the MAG rules RE:aluminum Feruchemy, I might have to do a major revision of my theory. While I'm not convinced that the MAG rules really are all there is to it, they did come from Brandon, so we might as well assume that it's at least close to the real canon.

 

Here's a theory that still links aluminum Feruchemy and gold Allomancy as well as the MAG rules. Let's call it Skaa's Theory of Aluminum Feruchemy #2:

 

When an aluminum Feruchemist stores and taps "Identity", he is doing exactly what Miles was doing in AoL: creating an "alloy" of himself. The two persons that a gold Allomancer sees are the two extremes of his Identity, and these are also the two extremes of aluminum Feruchemy.

 

Except unlike Miles, the Feruchemist has fine-tuned control over his "alloy-making" because those two extremes lie on opposite ends of an Identity spectrum that a Feruchemist can move through via storing or tapping Identity. Also, when a Feruchemist uses aluminum, there is an actual change in his Spiritual Identity. In the case of gold Allomancy, this is why Miles and Vin felt "weak" after burning gold. This change in Spiritual Identity is what causes the increase or decrease in susceptibility to emotional Allomancy while moving through the Identity spectrum.

 

I'm aware that this isn't exactly how the MAG rules go, but I'm betting on the possibility that Brandon deliberately used a slightly non-canonical set of rules in this case to make the gameplay less weird (I mean, compared to what Miles was doing).

 

I still kind of like my first theory more, but this will have to do for now.

Edited May 14, 2013 by skaa

[Elend_Rahl]

What if, when a feruchemist is storing Aluminum, he is storing his sense of self. When a feruchemist stores an attribute, he or she puts a sort of stamp of themselves on it, like keying a lock to their personalitiy. So if a Feruchemists stored aluminum and, say pewter, that pewtermind wouldn't have his identity stamp on it, allowing any feruchemist to tap it. And if he stored aluminum and attempted to tap another feruchemist's metalmind he would be able to "ghost" under their idnetity stamp. It would be keyed to, lets say, Feruchemist B's personality while you, the feruchemist storing aluminum, would have no identity for it to read, and would so get around the identity stamp, I think.

[Two McMillion]

I sort of thought "sense of self" would be something like "force of identity/personality". So while you're storing it, you sort of fall off people's radar, but if you're tapping it people tend to be more drawn to you. Maybe TLR was compounding Aluminum, and that's why his personality seemed so godlike.

 

Mainly I think this because most of the other Allomancy/Feruchemy we know of is really simple, when you get down to it (one of the strengths of the magic system IMO), and I don't really see this being an exception.

[Kadrok]

I sort of thought "sense of self" would be something like "force of identity/personality". So while you're storing it, you sort of fall off people's radar, but if you're tapping it people tend to be more drawn to you. Maybe TLR was compounding Aluminum, and that's why his personality seemed so godlike.

You're thinking of Duralumin (connection to others). While storing it, you kind of become less noticeable and feel disconnected from you. When you tap it you reinforce or alter your personality... you can use it, for example, to wipe your personality to a clean slate, and Brandon has said that proper manipulation of Feru-Aluminum can let you access other people's metalminds.

Mainly I think this because most of the other Allomancy/Feruchemy we know of is really simple, when you get down to it (one of the strengths of the magic system IMO), and I don't really see this being an exception.

I don't think the other Feruchemy/Allomancy we know of is simple. Why does Feru-Copper store differently to others in that you don't regain the memories after you've finished storing (but your muscles/weight/health/whatever returns to what it was before?). How does Allo-Gold really work... which is to say, how on Scadrial does a shadow of another possible version of yourself have memories of things you couldn't possibly know if it doesn't exist in an alternate universe? And if it does exist in an alternate universe, that raises a whole bunch of complex (and certainly not simple) questions. How is storing connection to others (Duralumin) simple?

 

Please don't read this aggressively, but I am seeing a very complex system with many unanswered questions beyond what we know of the basic mechanics.

[Elend_Rahl]

i agree with Kadrok. Feruchemy is far from simple, because it stores attributes that are hard to quantify, such as connection to others (duralumin) and invetitutre (nicrosil). With hard to quantify attributes being store we aren't sure as to what tricks feruchemists and twinborn will be able to pull off.

[skaa]

Ooh! It's nice that my old Feruchemy threads are being revisited. I noticed there were some formatting problems in the thread-starting post, so I went and fixed that. Sorry if that caused any confusion.

 

I've already heard the theory that you can store all your Identity in an Aluminummind (achieving a complete lack of Identity) and then gain access to another person's metalminds. My objection about that theory is that if metalminds use their owner's Identity as a "key" to unlock their contents, how would a lack of Identity possibly equate to that key? Why should a metalmind allow someone access just because he doesn't have any discernible Identity?

 

One theoretical way to tap another person's metalminds using Aluminum Feruchemy is if a Feruchemist can store another person's Identity by touching that person while activating an Aluminummind. Then once you have his Identity, obviously you could now tap his metalminds. I don't have any evidence that this "Identity theft" thing is possible, though.

Edited September 27, 2013 by skaa

[Elend_Rahl]

Storing your identity to zero wouldn't make the key to another's metalmind, rather it would make you like air ghosting through a keyhole to their metal mind. There wouldn't be enough identity left to read you as going through the door, letting you slip around the need for a key.

[skaa]

Storing your identity to zero wouldn't make the key to another's metalmind, rather it would make you like air ghosting through a keyhole to their metal mind. There wouldn't be enough identity left to read you as going through the door, letting you slip around the need for a key.

I can see that as a possible way to read the memories stored in a Coppermind, the way a ghost can pass through walls and see what's inside. That would be very useful. But in order to actually take a stored attribute like, say, Strength, I imagine you will have to convince the metalmind that you are its owner. At least, that's my theory about it.

Edited September 30, 2013 by skaa

[Elend_Rahl]

There's been two possibilities about getting thrpough peoples metalminds, one fro twinborns who can burn malatium and the aluminum to zero thing. In AoL though, the malatium one would be impossible. A twinborn would only have access to the aluminummind and malatium, so they couldn't steal a metalmind anyway, as the can only store and tap aluminumminds. And could only burn malatium. In the worl oof AoL the luminum to 0 theory to 0 is also unlikely as there are no feruchemists ali9ve. It is, however, more likey for a full feruchemists then for a full feruchemist-misting mixture.

[Sirscott13]

Hey everyone I love the ideas bouncing around here! If I could add to the conversation I would be more than happy to hear feedback

 

First off, I always thought of aluminum as a pure metal. It cant be affected by steel or iron, protects from zinc and brass, and wipes away the metals in your body. I also think aluminum might wipe toxins and poisons digested, but I do not think I would tell someone that if I discovered how to do it, and I would most certainly not want to test it, so it is probably unknown. 

 

Having said that, I think being pure spiritually means having a sense of peace, and knowing just where you fit in the Universe. I do not know if any of you are religious, but have you ever felt so sure of yourself, being who you are and having that profound sense of spiritual enlightenment? That is what I always thought you could store. Lets say a Buddhist monk or a Priest stores their sense of spiritual identity, which would already be really high, they would then become less assure of themselves and less clear about who they were and what their purpose was in life. Then on a dark day where they are questioning their faith and life, they tap that reserve of identity and find revelation and spiritual peace. Finding their "true self" and knowing where they belong and who they are. Make sense?

 

I love the complex ideas for combat, and usefulness, but I always pictured aluminum as the pure metal while duralumin was the enhancement metal. Aluminum allows you to find purity spiritually which does not involve fighting but rather faith and enlightenment. Like Duralumin allows you to store something similar but instead of your identity, your sense of inner self, you store your connection to other people, making you more sure of yourself in relation with them. Push and pull. Connection with others verses faith in yourself. 

 

 

Second of all I want to speculate on the fact that gold shows the past, but more along of what you could of changed in the past leading to the present. Not necessarily seeing into another dimension, but looking back at a fork in the road in time. Seeing how things could have happened. Electrum shows your future, but more along the lines of what you might do at the present fork in the road. showing you slightly what you could do. It would make sense that gold would show something more profound, because the past is easier to interpret, while the future is an uncertainty and why you cannot see as far into the future with electrum as you can in the past with gold. Make sense?

 

Thanks guys