[BoM Spoilers] Medallions. How?

[Torrieltar]

Inspired by reading through this thread.

 

So, the question came up: How is it possible for a non-Feruchemist to tap an unkeyed nicrosilmind? We saw what happened with an unkeyed goldmind - only Wayne, a Bloodmaker, was able to tap it. It should logically follow that only a Soulbearer can tap a nicrosilmind.

 

Except that apparently isn't the case. Furthermore, a nicrosilmind seems to be the only one that breaks the rules. If there was a way to tap an ironmind without being a Ferring, surely the nicrosil would have been unnecessary in making the weight medallions that Wax and co. use on the flying ship.

 

So, how is it possible?

 

We get a small hint from Brandon.

 

Q. What's going on with nicrosil feruchemy? Wax can't tap a blank goldmind, because he's not a gold ferring, but he can tap a blank nicrosilmind even though he's not a nicrosil ferring.

A. There's a way to hack the magic system so that it thinks you have the ability to use that metalmind. The southern Scadrians know how to do this. It will be revealed later.

 

It's obviously significant that whatever hack the Southern Scadrians use to allow non-Feruchemists to access a nicrosilmind ONLY works for the metal that stores Investiture. Possibly related to the innate Investiture that all Scadrians have?

 

Wild theory time!

 

Here's that hack I propose - the Southern Scadrians created unkeyed metalminds in such a way that they leak a tiny amount of Investiture when in contact with Invested beings. We already have precedence for leaking Investiture all over the place with Hemalurgic spikes and Stormlight leaking from gems and surgebinders. Now that I think about it, we also saw Wax and Marasi leaking Investiture they'd taken in from the Bands of Mourning in the form of mist. The best example is of course Nightblood, our favorite metal object that leaks Investiture. Investiture tends to leak in the Cosmere, so it wouldn't be hard to do.

 

Maybe, in order to achieve this effect they made them intentionally imperfectly, maybe the nicrosilmind was made from a hemalurgic spike to take advantage of the end-negative nature of that magic system, or maybe they used some other method entirely. It doesn't really matter.

 

Point is, if a metalmind is leaking small amounts of Investiture, it's not a huge leap to theorize that a small amount of this Investiture would temporarily 'stick' to someone with innate Investiture. Using a water analogy, it's like putting your hand over a boiling pot of water. Most of the steam will pass by, but a little bit of it will condense and stick to your hand, which will be wet for a little while until the water evaporates again. This makes sense, since we already know that Investiture tends to pool as part of its cycle through the world - that's where shardpools come from. We've also seen that the mists are attracted to Allomancers, swirling around them.

 

Now, let's say you're holding a nicrosilmind which leaks a very small bit of Investiture, some of which naturally 'sticks' to your spiritweb. This is where the hack for tricking the magic system comes into play. When you try to access the nicrosilmind, the magic system 'notices' that you have some Investiture which allows the tapping of (unkeyed) nicrosilminds. It's not really your Investiture, but it's sticking to your spiritweb temporarily, so it's close enough that the magic system doesn't really distinguish. Sort of like a far weaker and less permanent version of what a hemalurgic spike does in stapling a piece of someone's soul to yours.

 

It would be tenuous and there wouldn't be very much of it, so you probably wouldn't be able to tap the nicrosilmind very effectively or efficiently. At first. You then tap the nicrosilmind at a very small rate, which would give you a slightly stronger ability to tap it.

 

This would take you through a rapid positive feedback loop, gaining the ability to tap more and more of the stored Investiture, until you're a full-blown Soulbearer, along with whatever other abilities were stored in that nicrosilmind. Problem solved!

 

This would also neatly explain why the hack the Southern Scadrians use can trick the magic system into letting you use an unkeyed nicrosilmind, but not any other type, making nicrosil absolutely necessary in the creation of medallions.

 

This means that, in theory, almost anyone in the Cosmere with some form of innate Investiture should be able to tap an unkeyed nicrosilmind. Which fits perfectly with a WoB I got that said a Rosharan could tap a Scadrian medallion in most circumstances.

 

Thoughts?

Edited April 13, 2016 by Evenstrom

[mattig89ch]

My experience with this universe is from alloy of law and on.  So I don't have as clear an understanding of these magical powers as most of the folks around here.  But I don't really see why this couldn't work.  Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't.  But it all makes as much sense as anything to me.

[Rasarr]

This is a solid theory (and well-explained one!). I can absolutely see it being correct.

 

I wonder, in this case, it'd be possible to create more "leaking" metalminds. Going by your theory, the advantage of nicrosil is that the more you tap it the more you can tap it, so other "leaking" metalmind would probably work, but be "tappable" (totally a word) at a very slow pace... From other observations: Drabs wouldn't be able to tap medallions*. Would Rosharan gem fill with Stormlight if you put it near nicrosil medallion? Could Radiant get investiture from such medallion?

 

Anyway, I like the theory, and it looks good to me.

 

*As a way to test the waters, someone could ask Brandon whether Drabs could use SoScad medallions. Or was it asked already?

[Torrieltar]

This is a solid theory (and well-explained one!). I can absolutely see it being correct.

 

I wonder, in this case, it'd be possible to create more "leaking" metalminds. Going by your theory, the advantage of nicrosil is that the more you tap it the more you can tap it, so other "leaking" metalmind would probably work, but be "tappable" (totally a word) at a very slow pace... From other observations: Drabs wouldn't be able to tap medallions*. Would Rosharan gem fill with Stormlight if you put it near nicrosil medallion? Could Radiant get investiture from such medallion?

 

Anyway, I like the theory, and it looks good to me.

 

*As a way to test the waters, someone could ask Brandon whether Drabs could use SoScad medallions. Or was it asked already?

 

Thanks!

 

As for other types of leaking metalminds, the way I see it a little bit of the Investiture might stick to you, but you would still have no way to actually access it. It's just kind of... there, until it disappears of its own accord. Sort of like anyone other than Vin trying to use the mists. It's there, on you and around you, just inaccessible. Technically, the leaking Investiture from the nicrosilmind is equally inaccessible, it's just a way to trick the magic system into believing that you have the ability to access what's in the metalmind.

 

With gems on Roshar, I'm pretty sure they leak faster than a SoScad medallion, but I'd guess that a theoretical perfectly cut gem on Roshar could absorb leaking Investiture like that. We've already seen that gems can be used for capturing spren for making fabrials, and this wouldn't be all that different. That does make me wonder what other methods there are of gathering loose Investiture in the Cosmere.

 

Do you mean, could a Radiant use it like they use Stormlight? I'd say it's analogous to using what's leaking from a Hemalurgic spike as Stormlight. The leak is a very small one, so it's probably not very useful. Beyond that, it's hard to say. Brandon's always given super vague answers on converting Investiture to fit other magic systems in the Cosmere, usually saying something along the lines of "All Investiture can be used for every magic system, but it requires a hack, and some of those are easier than others." My gut tells me that this would be one of the harder hacks to do, as compared to using Breaths or the mists as Stormlight, but not impossible.

 

I would be very curious to hear Brandon's answer to whether or not Drabs can use unkeyed metalminds.