Jump to content

[Bands Spoilers] Parallels Between Feruchemy and the Shards


followthelight

Recommended Posts

Reading through Allik's explanation of Connection as a Feruchemical power in Bands of Mourning made me consider that Feruchemy is not a system of Preservation or Ruin, but a hint towards the more pure workings of magic in the Cosmere.

 

From the Coppermind "Duralumin stores spiritual connection. Reducing other people's awareness and friendship with them during active storage. Tapping it can help speedily forming trust relationships with others."

 

In Bands of Mourning Allik uses this ability to speak with Wax & co, even though he is from another part of the planet and doesn't speak their language.  Marisi then subsequently tries to use the same trick to speak to Allik in his own native language, but this does not work.  It is then explained that connection is intricately linked with geographical location.  Marisi cannot speak Allik's language because she is being connected to the land that they are in, her own home.

 

This made me think of the location based powers in Elantris.

 

Also, coincidently, there are 16 shards and 16 Feruchemical properties.

 

So my thoughts are, can we create links between these two sets of 16?

 

It seems clear that if Duralumin/Connection = Dominion, then Necrosis/Investiture = Endowment, as the magic system on Nalthis is entirely based on shifting around investiture.

 

I haven't been able to think much past here.  

 

Preservation could brass for the warmth felt when burning metal, or perhaps copper for storing (preserving...) memories?  

 

Cultivation could be gold for health.  

 

Devotion could be electrum for determination as the power is granted to people who are particularly devoted to something.

 

Or perhaps Ruin is copper, as when memories are accessed they degrade, which seems to be the only Feruchemical power which does this?

 

Anyway, interested to hear anyone's thoughts.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As your post has Bands spoilers, I have moved it to the Bands of Mourning spoiler board. All threads and posts discussing anything with Bands content must go in this subforum until 2 weeks after the release of Bands.

 

You can read the Bands spoiler policy here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome! An interesting theory and philosophy of the Shards. 

 

I'm not sure you can find enough correlation to really make it stick, but I like the way you think :)

 

16 Shards and 16 Metals is really I think coincidental, since the sacred number on Roshar is said to be 10 (10 Heralds, 10 Orders, 10 Kingdoms), and likely other Shards/planets have different numbers associated. 

 

Also - while the memory decay is a little weird compared to the rest of the powers, I'm pretty sure it only seems that way. Memories when we hold them in mind, naturally fade. Strength or Speed when tapped, are "used up" while tapping. I think for me the real oddity about Feruchemical copper is that you're storing something that isn't an attribute per se, but a collection of perception about an event or object. 

 

Keep your thoughts coming!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, Sazed never remarks on memory decay as a bizarre phenomenon, not the same way VenDell does for some odder things like how tapping zinc apparently makes you hungry. Memories naturally degrade a bit in one's mind and, depending on the age of the memory, can even be untrustworthy or completely false. We don't run on computer hard drives, you know?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Reading through Allik's explanation of Connection as a Feruchemical power in Bands of Mourning made me consider that Feruchemy is not a system of Preservation or Ruin, but a hint towards the more pure workings of magic in the Cosmere.

 

From the Coppermind "Duralumin stores spiritual connection. Reducing other people's awareness and friendship with them during active storage. Tapping it can help speedily forming trust relationships with others."

 

In Bands of Mourning Allik uses this ability to speak with Wax & co, even though he is from another part of the planet and doesn't speak their language.  Marisi then subsequently tries to use the same trick to speak to Allik in his own native language, but this does not work.  It is then explained that connection is intricately linked with geographical location.  Marisi cannot speak Allik's language because she is being connected to the land that they are in, her own home.

 

This made me think of the location based powers in Elantris.

 

Also, coincidently, there are 16 shards and 16 Feruchemical properties.

 

So my thoughts are, can we create links between these two sets of 16?

 

It seems clear that if Duralumin/Connection = Dominion, then Necrosis/Investiture = Endowment, as the magic system on Nalthis is entirely based on shifting around investiture.

 

I haven't been able to think much past here.  

 

Preservation could brass for the warmth felt when burning metal, or perhaps copper for storing (preserving...) memories?  

 

Cultivation could be gold for health.  

 

Devotion could be electrum for determination as the power is granted to people who are particularly devoted to something.

 

Or perhaps Ruin is copper, as when memories are accessed they degrade, which seems to be the only Feruchemical power which does this?

 

Anyway, interested to hear anyone's thoughts.

I have a very similar theory. Basically that the 16 Shards can be mapped by the 16 Allomantic metals. There are various ideas on how this works, but I like this one.

Devotion could be zinc because it increases emotions (like maybe love) and increases your mind powers, perhaps allowing you to, say, remember all the modifiers you need for a certain complex Aon like a nicroburst.

Man, I'm really burning the midnight bendalloy on these figures of speech.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Chaos locked this topic
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...