Windborne Sword Posted June 15, 2013 Report Share Posted June 15, 2013 (edited) I was thinking about this last night and knowing that 16 is a big arc number when it comes to the Cosmere and BS, I got to thinking about whether the alloys count towards that number. My reasoning is that it does not; because Shards influence the world and that because alloys are man made things, we have only seen 8 of 16 metals used on Scadrial for the Metallic Arts. Of course if BS has said otherwise I'm totally willing to give up this notion of mine Edited June 15, 2013 by Windborne Sword Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Monstrosity Posted June 15, 2013 Report Share Posted June 15, 2013 http://www.brandonsanderson.com/annotation/301/mistborn-3-Chapter-Thirty-Six If the number sixteen seems obvious to you, please don’t blame the characters for not figuring it out. Remember, for a thousand years they’ve had it reinforced over and over again to them that there are only ten Allomantic metals. Sure, you’ve got the handy illustration in the back of the book showing you all sixteen in a circle, but the characters don’t have the benefit of being able to read the novel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isomere Posted June 16, 2013 Report Share Posted June 16, 2013 I like your theory. Some interesting supportive facts: Each chapter heading in the mistborn series has an allomantic symbol, and there are some that don't have a metal assigned to them. There is foreshadowing at the end of Alloy of law that other metals exist (newspaper article, Miles' last words). What we do know is that each book so far has changed the tables of the metals, so if you are going by patterns we should continue to get more knowledge and add more stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaaaaaade Posted June 16, 2013 Report Share Posted June 16, 2013 You're right in that Scadrial hasn't discovered all the possible elements, just as we haven't yet in modern-day earth. However I wouldn't count on any of them being Allomantic. It doesn't matter if the alloys are 'man-made', all the metals require some amount of human intervention (mining, extracting from ore, purifying). Think of how aluminium is so hard to create using the technology in AoL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Monstrosity Posted June 16, 2013 Report Share Posted June 16, 2013 Well, Brandon said 'all sixteen'. God metals are obviously a seperate thing, but we already know that those are planned to show up later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isomere Posted June 16, 2013 Report Share Posted June 16, 2013 His theory as I read supposes that there are a total of 16 pure metals in Allomancy and we have only seen 8 if them. These would be separate from the 16 God Metals. I like the theory but don't see a good way to test it right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Monstrosity Posted June 16, 2013 Report Share Posted June 16, 2013 His theory as I read supposes that there are a total of 16 pure metals in Allomancy and we have only seen 8 if them. These would be separate from the 16 God Metals. I like the theory but don't see a good way to test it right now. Eh, Brandon said all sixteen were in the circle on the chart. And I don't really see any need or narrative benefit for there to be more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windborne Sword Posted June 16, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2013 What I meant was that we've only seen 8 of the metals so far counting iron, copper, zinc, aluminum, tin, cadmium, gold, and chromium. The other 8 that we know are the alloys of these metals and therefore don't count towards the number 16. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chromium Compounder Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 What I meant was that we've only seen 8 of the metals so far counting iron, copper, zinc, aluminum, tin, cadmium, gold, and chromium. The other 8 that we know are the alloys of these metals and therefore don't count towards the number 16. So you're saying there should be 16 pure metals and 16 alloys, instead of 8 and 8 like we have now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windrunner Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 Personally, I strongly strongly disagree. From an outside standpoint, Brandon can't add more basic metals. The Metallic Arts are complicated enough as is, we don't need another eight pure metals and their alloys. Don't even get me started on atium, lerasium, and whatever other god metal alloys are possible. I don't see why the metals being man-made would effect how they were counted. It's not like dyes mixed by humans in Warbreaker don't count as colors. It's a good thought, but kind of impractical. Brandon's released the final table, as Phantom said, and there's no room for any changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windborne Sword Posted June 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 So you're saying there should be 16 pure metals and 16 alloys, instead of 8 and 8 like we have now. Correct. Personally, I strongly strongly disagree. From an outside standpoint, Brandon can't add more basic metals. The Metallic Arts are complicated enough as is, we don't need another eight pure metals and their alloys. Don't even get me started on atium, lerasium, and whatever other god metal alloys are possible. I don't see why the metals being man-made would effect how they were counted. It's not like dyes mixed by humans in Warbreaker don't count as colors. It's a good thought, but kind of impractical. Brandon's released the final table, as Phantom said, and there's no room for any changes. There is truth to that statement, and I kind of agree, but at the same time I wouldn't be surprised to see 16 more metals pop up by the time we're done with the last book in the third trilogy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chromium Compounder Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 I like the idea, but I don't think there will be 16 more metals (unless you count alloys of the god metals). I do believe there will be more for us to learn about the metallic arts, but not new pure metals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Monstrosity Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 "showing you all sixteen" ALL sixteen. As in, there aren't any more normal metals, because there are sixteen, and these sixteen are all of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isomere Posted June 30, 2013 Report Share Posted June 30, 2013 Brandon's released the final table, as Phantom said, and there's no room for any changes. Beware of falling into the "we know all there is to know" trap. The "final table" changed with a non-trilogy related short story. So far the table of Allomantic Metals has changed with every book written and I expect it to continue to be modified as the people of Scadrial expand their knowledge of the metallic arts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Monstrosity Posted June 30, 2013 Report Share Posted June 30, 2013 (edited) Beware of falling into the "we know all there is to know" trap. The "final table" changed with a non-trilogy related short story. So far the table of Allomantic Metals has changed with every book written and I expect it to continue to be modified as the people of Scadrial expand their knowledge of the metallic arts. Which one? Is it in the dangerous women book? We already knew about malatium, so the eleventh metal can't be the one you're referring to, and Brandon already acknowledged the existence of god metal alloys... and as is, exploring the 31 unknown effects from the god metals (plus any double god metal alloy effects) is MORE than enough for seven more books Edited June 30, 2013 by Phantom Monstrosity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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