Cosmeric Copper and Bronze

[Oudeis]

Over at the Mistborn forum we're discussing Copper and Bronze, but a few things are starting to get more Cosmeric, so I thought I'd move that portion of the discussion here. If you want to discuss allomantic implications of copper or bronze, or discuss why people on Scadrial wouldn't be aware of the uses, I would recommend you see what's been written over there. I intend this thread to be a place for discussion of applications of the metals across the wider cosmere.

 

First, let me say that everything I say is rampant speculation. I know I have not one shred of evidence to support that it's true, I just think I can make a case that it is plausible, that it fits the tenor of the cosmere.

 

A very quick primer on how I think bronze/copper works (if you disagree or want to discuss it farther, I will one again direct you to the Mistborn thread). When you burn iron, all that happens is you see blue lines. People rapidly learned that there are ways to interact with these lines, and ironpulls became a thing. In short, I think that Seekers are able to interact with bronzepulses, it just isn't as obvious as Iron's "focus on the glowy lines", hence why no one knows how to do it. I also think that when you burn copper, you send out an interference signal. The default setting is one broadband field, which is useful for some things but not specific enough to be strong; many other signals just cut right through it. I believe if a Smoker knew what he were doing, he'd be able to send out copperpulses, not just one enormous coppercloud, and calibrate them to counter specific investiture. In fact, I  believe that's where the pairing comes in. I think if a Mistborn with bronze were able to sense, for example, a Nahel bond, and hear the exact pulses it puts out, he'd then be able to use copper to send out a signal to counter that exact frequency. It would throw up some interference, and it would be like that time when Syl had to fly very far from Kaladin; they both lost a little bit of what they get out of the Bond, but once the interference was over they were back to normal.

 

As for Bronze itself, one of the greatest advantages of crossing the cosmere is finding a world where no one knows how your magic works. Vin was kept in a prison specifically designed to hold a mistborn; no allomantic metal parts. If she were thrown into jail on Sel, she could just scrape some iron or steel off something metal and bob's your uncle. Imagine crossing the cosmere, and knowing the person you're fighting is Invested, and perhaps using Bronze so well, you even get at least some idea of what that person does. An Awakener visits Roshar and no one thinks to take away his shirt, which happens to have a thousand Breaths in it, but a Seeker might be able to tell, hey wait, that shirt is major Invested. Throw him in jail without it.

 

Anyway, that's my basic idea.

[Kurkistan]

As I said on the other thread, an interesting idea.

You could stand to give a little love to the other Cosmereical Allomantic copper thread to back up/clarify/differentiate your claims about its mechanism, though.

Edited November 5, 2013 by Kurkistan