How Medallions Work

[Stormrunner1730]

This is my first actual post here.  I'm sure there's already a topic on this, but can someone please explain exactly how medallions work?  In other words, what makes it possible for a medallion to allow a non-Mistborn/Misting to use Allomancy?  I'm mostly trying to understand the Identity piece of this.

[Calderis]

Just now, Stormrunner1730 said:

This is my first actual post here.  I'm sure there's already a topic on this, but can someone please explain exactly how medallions work?  In other words, what makes it possible for a medallion to allow a non-Mistborn/Misting to use Allomancy?  I'm mostly trying to understand the Identity piece of this.

Well we've only seen one "medallion" capable of granting Allomancy. We understand how they work (mostly)... But how they're made is a question. 

Medallions work by having a piece of nicrosil with an ability, be it allomantic or feruchemical, stored within. 

Nicrosil Feruchemy stores investiture. So someone who has, through natural or unnatural means, both nicrosil Feruchemy, and another power, can store their ability to use that power in nicrosil. 

How that power is available to someone without nicrosil Feruchemy themselves... That parts still being debated. 

[AnonymousFan]

They use aluminum feruchemy to take away their identity from the metalmind. When the metalmind has no identity. Anyone can tap it.

***One thing about feruchemy is that anyone can tap a metal mind, but you need a feuruchemist to fill them. (I think)

 

So now we have an identity free metal mind that anyone can tap. Now this is where they use the other metals:

1. Nicrosil stores investiture like @Calderis said. Investiture is magic, in simple terms. When Using a nicrosil bracer, feruchemists can store the ability to become a feruchemist/ferring or allomancer. While they use the stored identity they have the ability of an allomancer of feruchemist for a short time until it runs out.

2. Another example from BOM is the brass/aluminum medallions. Tapping Aluminum to remove connection and tapping brass to store warmth. Since there is no identity this means anyone can TAP it, so even a non-feruchemist can use this. But they can't fill it.

3. Third example I can think of. Duralumin stores connection, same as brass. Anyone can use it, giving the person a connection to the land. (A connection to the natural investiture of that land?)

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong

Edited August 10, 2017 by AnonymousFan

[Calderis]

22 minutes ago, AnonymousFan said:

***One thing about feruchemy is that anyone can tap a metal mind, but you need a feuruchemist to fill them. (I think)

This is wrong. 

An identity free metalmind still requires the ability. The identity free gold mind in BoM was usable by Wayne, and not Wax. 

There's more to the medallions than just removal of identity and a power. That's the part we don't know yet. 

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2. Another example from BOM is the brass/aluminum medallions. Tapping Aluminum to remove connection and tapping brass to store warmth. Since there is no identity this means anyone can TAP it, so even a non-feruchemist can use this. But they can't fill it.

All medallions have nicrosil for the associated power. These ones have aluminum for identity as well, and brass for heat. 

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3. Third example I can think of. Duralumin stores connection, same as brass. Anyone can use it, giving the person a connection to the land. (A connection to the natural investiture of that land?)

Duralumin does store connection, but as stated above, brass does not. 

Edited August 10, 2017 by Calderis

[AnonymousFan]

5 minutes ago, Calderis said:

This is wrong. 

An identity free metalmind still requires the ability. The identity free gold mind in BoM was usable by Wayne, and not Wax. 

There's more to the medallions than just removal of identity and a power. That's the part we don't know yet. 

All medallions have nicrosil for the associated power. These ones have aluminum for identity as well, and brass for heat. 

Duralumin does store connection, but as stated above, brass does not. 

Ok, you are probably right and I'm sure you have much more knowledge than me with this type of stuff. But how did Wax use the mythical bracers of TLR if he isn't a feruchemist. The only thing that explains this is the bracers were removed of identity so that anybody could use it. Feruchemist or not. I thought that was explained in the book.

[Calderis]

1 minute ago, AnonymousFan said:

Ok, you are probably right and I'm sure you have much more knowledge than me with this type of stuff. But how did Wax use the mythical bracers of TLR if he isn't a feruchemist. The only thing that explains this is the bracers were removed of identity so that anybody could use it. Feruchemist or not. I thought that was explained in the book.

That's part of it. But only part. Removing identity alone makes it so that anyone with the ability to use that power can access it, not just the person who stored it. The part that allows a non-feruchemist to use an ability is more complicated and we don't have an answer there yet. 

If identity alone were the issue then anyone could tap an unkeyed metalmind and that would be it, but the goldmind shows differently. 

Additionally the weight medallions they used in flight are used to store weight, meaning they've actually been granted Feruchemy, not just the ability to use the stored attributes. 

[Weltall]

47 minutes ago, AnonymousFan said:

Ok, you are probably right and I'm sure you have much more knowledge than me with this type of stuff. But how did Wax use the mythical bracers of TLR if he isn't a feruchemist.

Whatever method is used to create the Bands and the medallions (and we don't know what it is yet but The Lost Metal is going to go into this) grants the ability to use the various Allomantic and/or Feruchemical powers associated with them.

Oh, and to split hairs, the Bands were believed to be Rashek's bracers but in actuallity they were created by someone else entirely. Take a look at the very last scene again...

[AnonymousFan]

55 minutes ago, Calderis said:

That's part of it. But only part. Removing identity alone makes it so that anyone with the ability to use that power can access it, not just the person who stored it. The part that allows a non-feruchemist to use an ability is more complicated and we don't have an answer there yet. 

If identity alone were the issue then anyone could tap an unkeyed metalmind and that would be it, but the goldmind shows differently. 

Additionally the weight medallions they used in flight are used to store weight, meaning they've actually been granted Feruchemy, not just the ability to use the stored attributes. 

Good point... I wonder if it somehow works similar to how every person has the ability to burn lerasium, maybe every person has the feuruchemical ability to access the metal that is involved in investute. Nicrosil

[Stormrunner1730]

Thanks for the clarification!  So the basics that I've gathered are that...

1. Nicrosil is needed to store the type of Investiture wanted in the medallion.

2. Another medal is needed in the medallion for the ability (allomatic or feruchemical) to be stored.

3. It is still unclear what the conditions are for someone who does not innately have the ability to access it.

[Toaster Retribution]

1 hour ago, Stormrunner1730 said:

Thanks for the clarification!  So the basics that I've gathered are that...

1. Nicrosil is needed to store the type of Investiture wanted in the medallion.

2. Another medal is needed in the medallion for the ability (allomatic or feruchemical) to be stored.

3. It is still unclear what the conditions are for someone who does not innately have the ability to access it.

If I understood the posts here correctly, you also need aluminum to remove connection from the bracelet. I might be wrong though, as I'm bad at understanding this kind of stuff. 

@Calderis am I wrong?

Edited August 11, 2017 by Toaster Retribution

[Calderis]

30 minutes ago, Toaster Retribution said:

If I understood the posts here correctly, you also need aluminum to remove connection from the bra celet. I might be wrong though, as I'm bad at understanding this kind of stuff. 

@Calderis am I wrong?

You're right. 

You need nicrosil to store the ability to use whatever power is going to be accessed. 

You Need the metal for the associated feruchemical power in order to store/tap. 

And you need aluminum to store identity so that the power isn't keyed to whoever is storing. 

Edited August 11, 2017 by Calderis

[Hafrigado]

@Toaster Retribution you're actually wrong because aluminum stores Identity and it doesn't need to not have Connection to be able to be used by other people. But, I'm guessing you just got Identity and Connection confused. Otherwise you're right.

[+hwiles]

There's a little caveat that people often forget:  Alik laughingly suggests that creating multi-power medallions, like the Bands of Mourning, would be almost trivially easy for a fullborn.  This implies that the thing that makes medallion-manufacturing difficult probably has something to do with the fact that there are no full feruchemists/mistborns on Scadrial.

On 8/11/2017 at 8:22 AM, Stormrunner1730 said:

...

It is still unclear what the conditions are for someone who does not innately have the ability to access it.

Basically, yes.  It has to do with "tricking" the magic system into thinking that whoever is holding the medallion possesses the ability to use the power stored within it using a mysterious tool/artifact/thing called an "excisor."

Some people subscribe to the belief that hemalurgy is involved, citing the similarity between the maximum number of powers a medallion can hold (3) and the maximum number of spikes a person can use before Harmony can completely control them (and presumably stop them from adding more spikes).  Other people think the medallions work by temporarily manipulating a person's Connection to Harmony, as this appears to be how Lerasium works, and is how natural access allomancy and feruchemy works (this theory has some pretty obvious holes, but is still often cited).  Still others propose that the medallions are created by manipulating the Investiture stored in metalminds using more mundane technological means, such as breaking, melting, and recombining metalminds created by people who were storing, in addition to the power to be added to the medallion, their Identity and/or Connection.

Please note, none of these processes are confirmed to be viable (they're all RAFO'd), they're just fan-theories for the moment.