Aluminum and Gold: The Harmonious Metals

[skaa]

I think we'd all agree that Atium and Lerasium are both awesome metals. Having enormous powers (Atium spikes can steal any attribute; Lerasium-burning grants Mistborn Investiture), both obviously deserve their reputation as God Metals.

But when it comes to pure mystery, I don't think anything can beat the metals aluminum and gold. The Allomantic effects of these two metals have been called "weird" and "strange" by many people, and even their Feruchemical traits are treated with wonder.

I have already theorized about the relationship between Gold Allomancy and Aluminum Feruchemy before. To summarize, I linked Gold Allomancy and Aluminum Feruchemy by associating the Temporal shadows of Gold with the concept of Spiritual Identity. I would like theorize further about these two metals, and perhaps figure out what makes them so special.


Part I: Aluminum Allomancy

Quote
He'd left an aluminum bullet in its place... Ironically, the person who found it would probably throw it away, never realizing its value.

- Epilogue, The Alloy of Law

So, what's up with this frustrating, seemingly diabolical metal, aluminum? If you look at all the other Enhancement metals (duralumin, chromium, and nicrosil), aluminum is the only Enhancement metal that seems detrimental to the user burning it. Aluminum Allomancy prevents end-positive power by erasing the user's metal stores so that they cannot be burned, while leaving the user himself unchanged. If you think about it, even chromium has some use to the person burning it, since he can use it to disable enemies.

But I think there's another way to look at Aluminum Allomancy. If you think about it, burning aluminum removes something foreign from a user (his metal stores) from his body, returning him to his "normal" state, the state in which his Identity views itself.

Aluminum Allomancy creates Spiritual harmony by removing outside Investiture.

Talking about harmony reminds one of Harmony the god (a.k.a. Sazed), doesn't it? We'll talk about Harmony in the last part of this post, but it's important to note that the restorative aspect of Aluminum Allomancy makes it the Allomantic power nearest to the intent of balance and harmony.

The intent of Aluminum Allomancy is balance. It is not an anti-Preservation power, though that's what it looks like on the surface. In fact, I bet there are other beneficial uses for it. For example, burning Aluminum might render a Hemalurgist's spikes inert. (Edit: Apparently burning Aluminum would be "good" for a Hemalurgist. Perhaps it heals the spiritual wounds caused by Hemalurgy without removing the charge itself, allowing the Hemalurgist to use spikes on himself safely. Nonetheless, this actually proves my point that Aluminum Allomancy isn't anti-Preservation.)


Part II: Gold Feruchemy

Quote
Miles couldn't be killed, and his men knew it. He'd once put a shotgun to his own head in front of them to prove it.

-Chapter 15, The Alloy of Law

Most Feruchemical abilities follow a straightforward rule: The user can only tap what he stored. This is what makes Feruchemy end-neutral, a power based on balance and harmony. I believe Gold Feruchemy takes this one step further.

 

Health is a complex attribute that has many forms: lack of wounds, protection from disease, normality of bodily functions, etc. But instead of storing each type of health separately (like how Feruchemy of other complex attributes like Memory or Senses work), Gold Feruchemy stores a general and abstract concept of Health based on the Feruchemist's conception of his ideal self. Gold Feruchemy treats the tapping of its attribute as a restoration of this ideal, rather than a mere retrieval of what was stored in the metalmind. After all, healing is only healing if it returns the person to what he believes is his "correct" state of being. When a person believes he is not well, an imbalance occurs between his body and his conception of himself. This is the imbalance that Gold Feruchemy fixes.

Gold Feruchemy restores balance by aligning one's Physical aspect with his Cognitive Identity.

Because of this, I speculate that any physical change, whether negative or positive, even those brought about by Physical Feruchemy can be reverted by Gold Feruchemy. (Lesson: don't tap Pewter and Gold at the same time!)


Part III: Harmony

Quote
I must be careful in playing favorites, the voice inside his mind replied. It upsets the balance.

-Chapter 18, The Alloy of Law

And so we have two metals that fix imbalances in a person's body, mind, and spirit. In other words, they restore harmony in the person. Ever since I learned that Sazed obtained the Shards of Preservation and Ruin, I've always wondered when the God Metal Sazedium will appear. But now I doubt it will ever happen, simply because he has chosen Harmony as his Intent.

We've been told that while most matter contain both Ruin and Preservation, atium is fully Ruin. I suppose we could assume that lerasium is fully Preservation. I think this symbolizes the conflict between Ati and Leras. There is no harmony between those Shard holders, and so the existence of separate god metals are necessary.

I believe Sazed is perfectly content with metals that have both Preservation and Ruin in them, especially the two that symbolize harmony so very well: one in Preservation's Enhancement quadrant, the other in Ruin's Temporal quadrant. Aluminum and gold are not Harmony's god metals. They are just the harmonious metals, bringing balance to Scadrial's metalborn from the very beginning, long before Sazed was born, from the time when Preservation and Ruin still worked in harmony with each other.


Edit: Just to be sure I cover all the bases, the spiritual and physical changes done by Aluminum Allomancy and Gold Feruchemy are still subject to the power of the Cognitive Realm. The way a person sees himself affects the way those powers work. This shows how Aluminum Allomancy and Gold Feruchemy can be linked to Aluminum Feruchemy and Gold Allomancy: A person's concept of his Identity also affects the way his physical and spiritual aspects can be balanced.

Edit: Re-worded stuff to make them sound less crazy or idiotic.

Edit: We have WoB that "harmonium" is a thing. I believe my thoughts on aluminum and gold's relation to Harmony can still be salvaged, though. I shall create a separate thread about it.

Edited March 7, 2015 by skaa

[Kurkistan]

Though I don't have the time to comment on the rest of the theory, I'm fairly sure you're wrong about Gold Feruchemy. It works the same way as the vast majority of Healing works in the Cosmere: "healing back to the form of yourself; that you know yourself as, as the world knows you as." That's a straight Cognitive aspect if I've ever seen one. If Miles shot off his foot, waited a year until he and everyone around him was completely used to it, then tried to Heal it back, it wouldn't work.

[skaa]

Though I don't have the time to comment on the rest of the theory, I'm fairly sure you're wrong about Gold Feruchemy. It works the same way as the vast majority of Healing works in the Cosmere: "healing back to the form of yourself; that you know yourself as, as the world knows you as." That's a straight Cognitive aspect if I've ever seen one. If Miles shot off his foot, waited a year until he and everyone around him was completely used to it, then tried to Heal it back, it wouldn't work.

Yes, it very well might have a Cognitive aspect to it. I said that Gold Feruchemy removes physical changes. I didn't say what it would consider as a baseline. It is possible that once the Cognitive aspect dictates that an old scar is part of the balance, Gold Feruchemy will no longer remove it. Edited May 21, 2013 by skaa

[Windrunner]

I disagree that Aluminum is end neutral. If burned enough it has the ability to remove cleanse the spiritual aspect or something along those lines. That power is coming from somewhere.

[skaa]

I disagree that Aluminum is end neutral. If burned enough it has the ability to remove cleanse the spiritual aspect or something along those lines. That power is coming from somewhere.

 

Ah. I suppose you also don't see Gold Feruchemy as end-neutral, since it has the ability to cleanse the physical aspect and that power is coming from somewhere.

 

Would you say that, either way, Aluminum Allomancy and Gold Feruchemy restore lost balance/harmony?

 

Edit: Sorry about that little bit of idiocy I just showed, Windrunner. Obviously, Aluminum Allomancy gets its power from Preservation. It's something I didn't realize while writing the post. Still, the final effect feels end-neutral to the user since he didn't gain anything out of having his metal stores just vanish.

Edited May 22, 2013 by skaa

[Kurkistan]

First of all, I wouldn't exactly call Gold Feruchemy "cleansing". It's more akin to restoration than anything else, if you insist on a one-word descriptor.

 

Second, yes, the power does come from somewhere: the Feruchemist. That's why it's end-neutral (it neither introduces nor removes Investiture from the world). The power comes from Preservation for Aluminum Allomancy, though, so it is end-positive because power is being introduced into the world, at least so far as the local scale goes.

 

I don't think talk of "balance/harmony" is very helpful, to be honest. Both powers both do a bang-up job of restoring you to some measure of "default"; I suppose you could call that balance. But you go on to do some odd thing this word, so I'm going to say "no" and insist that Gold Feruchemy and Allomantic Aluminum be described more fully as "taking you back to a 'normal' state".

 

Also, Vin almost certainly burned Aluminum again as a test between TFE and WoA, and she wears her earring constantly, so it probably doesn't kill spikes. Yes, Ruin could have influenced her to not be wearing it during these tests, but, all things being equal, we should lean towards the simpler scenario, especially given Ruin's relative weakness so far as suggestions go and lack of access to Vin's thoughts/intentions moment by moment.

Edited May 22, 2013 by Kurkistan

[Kurkistan]

Fair enough; I suppose I misjudged the importance of your terminology.

I still think you're wrong, btw. As it so happens, both are of the habit or returning you to some default state, but I don't think there is any deeper meaning behind this coincidence. Also, as a more general point, I don't think "Harmony" is so balanced as you suggest. Yes, Sazed says he need to maintain "the balance" when answers Epicurus' riddle, but we see that his actions tend toward the good.

It seems, then, that we ought to understand Harmony (the shard) as productive while preserving human agency, rather than simply brute balance. Gold and Aluminum return you to a "balanced" state and so enable you to be more productive (EDIT: or harmful), while Harmony (and thus harmony) is a tad more actively positive, setting up opportunity for success rather than just correcting for failure.

Edited May 22, 2013 by Kurkistan

[skaa]

Fair enough; I suppose I misjudged the importance of your terminology.

 

Heh, I hid that post because I felt it might look too angry. Oh well.

 

 

It seems, then, that we ought to understand Harmony (the shard) as productive while preserving human agency, rather than simply brute balance. Gold and Aluminum return you to a "balanced" state and so enable you to be more productive, while Harmony (and thus harmony) is a tad more actively positive, setting up opportunity for success rather than just correcting for failure.

 

Reading Sazed's lines in AoL, I don't think his human way of thinking has been changed much by the Shards yet. I don't know what will happen in a thousand years, though. I'm not sure I want to see Sazed losing his humanity completely and becoming in favor of "brute force Harmony", but I fear something like that might happen.

[Kurkistan]

As a rule, I find that hiding posts is unnecessary. Yours was a tad on the defensive side, but I've seen worse , and you were still civil. If you really find that you've posted an irredeamable monstrosity, or want to substantially rework the wording of a post, then you're best off just leaving a big fat "EDIT" in there and either explaining yourself after rewriting the post entirely or just saying "I deleted the content of this post because I wrote it in a fit of Realmatically-induced rage and now don't agree with any of it's parts".

 

I'm not so afraid of "brute force Harmony". By the very meaning of the word and combination of Shards that comprise it, Harmony is productive, and will be shaped by Sazed's own personality and predilictions, to some extent. Allowing and encouraging natural human development towards the good sounds more harmonious than forcing unnatural and discordant changes on a whim.

Edited May 22, 2013 by Kurkistan

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Reading Sazed's lines in AoL, I don't think his human way of thinking has been changed much by the Shards yet. I don't know what will happen in a thousand years, though. I'm not sure I want to see Sazed losing his humanity completely and becoming in favor of "brute force Harmony", but I fear something like that might happen.

Fortunately, he's got a long time to get any changes happening.

 Q: Will Sazed eventually go mad trying to hold two Shard's power at the same time (being pushed to two different Purposes simultaneously for millennia)? Why hasn't anyone else tried this trick before in the Cosmere?

ANSWER: No.  Since they're so opposite they work together to create a whole.  However, after a LONG time it would change him as a person.

 

There's another quote about it being like trying to get between two planets so the forces cancel out.

[Satsuoni]

For what it is worth, the game states that Hemalurgists can use aluminium:

Burning Aluminum instantly burns (consumes) all other metal stored in the Allomancer’s system. This is only useful for Mistborn and Hemalurgists who can burn both Aluminum and another metal.

Since many of the spikes go straight through vital organs, in a sense, becoming vital organs themselves, negating them somehow would usually kill Hemalurgist on the spot.

My theory of what Aluminium does has been posted elsewhere

Incidentally, the game states that tapping a huge amount of identity would wipe your Identity completely.

 

Also, a small correction: Ruin didn't want to have Atium. It was the power ripped off from him by Preservation and trapped into a physical cycle, making them equal (so the amount of power ripped is equal to the extra amount Invested in humans by Leras)

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Also, a small correction: Ruin didn't want to have Atium. It was the power ripped off from him by Preservation and trapped into a physical cycle, making them equal (so the amount of power ripped is equal to the extra amount Invested in humans by Leras)

Well, technically mists+well+lerasium+people. 

 

 

I vaguely recall something along the lines of preservation wanting atium's power to be useful, but I can't dig it up.  Something that gave a  indication that preservation had a little say in what atium did.

[skaa]

For what it is worth, the game states that Hemalurgists can use aluminium:

Since many of the spikes go straight through vital organs, in a sense, becoming vital organs themselves, negating them somehow would usually kill Hemalurgist on the spot.

 

Aluminum spikes can be used to steal Allomantic Enhancement powers, apparently (stupid Ruin, messing up the balance again...). Did it say if Hemalurgists could actually Allomantically burn Aluminum? If so, my minor speculation on that part would be wrong. Oh well...

 

 

Also, a small correction: Ruin didn't want to have Atium. It was the power ripped off from him by Preservation and trapped into a physical cycle, making them equal (so the amount of power ripped is equal to the extra amount Invested in humans by Leras)

 

Haha! Yeah, that part of my post can be safely ignored (I'll edit it out later). I have this thing that when I write too much (especially in the middle of the night), at some point I start being very... imaginative (or maybe the word is delusional)... with my prose.

 

Thanks for pointing that out!

[Satsuoni]

Aluminum spikes can be used to steal Allomantic Enhancement powers, apparently (stupid Ruin, messing up the balance again...). Did it say if Hemalurgists could actually Allomantically burn Aluminum? If so, my minor speculation on that part would be wrong. Oh well...

It says "useful to", and doesn't mention any side effects, so at a guess, yes, they can burn it safely. Mind you, I am pretty sure the awesome power of Hemalurgy changes what you call "baseline" - after all, gold healing doesn't try to push the spikes out and restore eyes in Inquisitor - the spikes, are , after all integral parts of his body and spiritual makeup.

 

Haha! Yeah, that part of my post can be safely ignored (I'll edit it out later). I have this thing that when I write too much (especially in the middle of the night), at some point I start being very... imaginative (or maybe the word is delusional)... with my prose.

 

Thanks for pointing that out!

Heh, I know that well. Many of my posts are but a lapse of impulse control brought on by exhaustion and stress

 

Note that aluminum Savant can purge him/herself of "unwanted effects of other Investitures", though the process of becoming Savant is unpleasant:

What benefit does an aluminum savant get? Yes, I know this would normally never happen because aluminum burns itself up. Suppose a mad scientist with a willing Mistborn test subject shoved a feeding tube down the Mistborn's throat to pump in a continuous stream of aluminum, replenishing it steadily so there's always a new unburned supply. Add another tube to pump out excess water if necessary. What would he discover? Alternatively, what would Sazed with his Shard-granted knowledge know?

Ha, that IS a little silly of a method. However, on the extreme end of aluminum, I have in the notes the possibility of cleansing the spirit of unwanted effects of other investitures. You'd get really good at this, and maybe even be able to cleanse the body of other impurities.

I thought it might be good to have that reference here.

Edited May 22, 2013 by Satsuoni

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Also, gold feruchemy can cure shardblade wounds, so it clearly does something beyond the merely physical.

[Satsuoni]

@Phantom: Ruin had his mists too, and mists are more or less under Shard direct control, so they don't count.

[skaa]

Also, gold feruchemy can cure shardblade wounds, so it clearly does something beyond the merely physical.

 

Cool. I've apparently underestimated Gold Feruchemy. May I ask for a link to that info?

 

It's possible that the spiritual healing was just a side effect of having to make the Physical body part function again, so it's still mainly Physical. The Shardblade victim would see his disabled body part as a physical defect, so the Cognitive aspect that dictates the effects of Gold Feruchemy would make it carry out the necessary fix, even if it involves fixing the person's soul.

 

I wonder how much Health you'll need to store in order to fix a severed part of the soul...

[Kurkistan]

^Sure.

Link

Kurkistan:
2) Does a limb that has been "severed" by a Shardblade have any Hemalurgic bindpoints? If the same limb was then cut off more conventionally, would a Bloodmaker ferring be able to grow it back?

Brandon:
2) A severed Shardblade limb needs repair to the soul before it would function again. A Bloodmaker would be able to heal it without needing to grow it back.

 

There's no need to rely on the Physical for everything. I can very easily see a Cognitive aspect "knowing" what it's corresponding body and soul ought to look like, and working on both levels simultaneously. As it so happens, though, we tend to see people's arms chopped off more often then the part's of the their souls attached to their arms, so we don't often see this effect.

Also, I've theorized in the past that the soul isn't really (and I mean really) damaged by a Shardblade severing a limb. Whereas Hemalurgy rips a bloody chunk off, I think Shardblades simply cut the surface.

Edited May 22, 2013 by Kurkistan

[Senor Feesh]

I think this may have been suggested in another thread, though possibly couched in slightly different terms.

One possible interpretation is that the 'soul' of the arm is severed, but still resides in the physical flesh of the arm (a la Hesina's explanation of Spren and rocks) and the healing simply rejoins them rather than regrowing a spiritual segment. Though that feels a bit odd given that we know a human soul stays in one half of a bisected body, I think the fact that the physical body remains intact might allow for it. /speculation.

[skaa]

There's no need to rely on the Physical for everything. I can very easily see a Cognitive aspect "knowing" what it's corresponding body and soul ought to look like, and working on both levels simultaneously.

 

I've already amended my theory earlier today to explicitly state the role of the Cognitive aspect in Gold Feruchemy (and maybe even in Aluminum Allomancy). Check it out!

 

 

Also, I've theorized in the past that the soul isn't really (and I mean really) damaged by a Shardblade severing a limb. Whereas Hemalurgy rips a bloody chunk off, I think Shardblades simply cut the surface.

 

One possible interpretation is that the 'soul' of the arm is severed, but still resides in the physical flesh of the arm (a la Hesina's explanation of Spren and rocks) and the healing simply rejoins them rather than regrowing a spiritual segment.

 

There's a similar idea that I came up with just a few minutes ago. I think that when a Shardblade "cuts" someone's hand, for example, it tricks the Cognitive aspect into believing that the hand has been damaged, so the Cognitive aspect mistakenly severs/retracts the part of the soul in that hand. This would mean that when a Shardblade "slices" a vital body part (say, the spine), the Cognitive aspect is basically fooled into committing suicide. Perhaps that's why death by Shardblade is so freaky-looking: what if that's what a soul suicide looks like?

 

If my idea about Shardblades is correct, that would make Gold Feruchemy's job so much easier. Instead of having to fix the soul, it will just have to do its normal routine, then let the Cognitive aspect do the rest:

1. Request status report from Cognitive aspect. Cognitive aspect reports body part sliced by mysterious magic sword.
2. Search for any changes in the body part. No changes found.
3. Report successful restoration. Cognitive aspect returns soul's connection to body part.
4. Body part becomes usable again.

Edited May 23, 2013 by skaa