While listening to Shardcast this week, there was a moment where the team discussed Compounding and how we've seen characters use compounding in order to increase their feruchemy abilities, but we haven't seen compounding to increase a character's allomancy abilities. This has made me question my understanding of certain events in the whole Mistborn series, so I need someone to fact check me on my thoughts:
After reading BoM, it became clear that nicrosil can store the ability to use innate investiture, such as being able to feruchemically tap bronze (Southern Scadrian medallions), feruchemically tap copper (Wax seeing Kelsier's vision at the end of BoM), allomantically burn iron (Wax dragging the ship back to the ground while tapping the bands), etc. Theoretically, a full mistborn / feruchemist would be able to store their ability to be a mistborn within a nicrosil metalmind. That metalmind could then be burned, causing a huge increase in the amount of mistborn power available which is then stored in another nicrosil metalmind to be drawn on later. By compounding nicrosil, a mistborn would be able to amplify their own abilities to a massive extent. To me, this perfectly explains why the Lord Ruler was such a powerful mistborn. This also explains why Wax had such a powerful experience while tapping the Bands of Mourning. Remember, while Wax was tapping the bands, he was able to Push on the trace minerals in rocks, which is far beyond the abilities of the average mistborn. Wax's experience only makes sense if Wax was tapping more "mistborn juice" at once than a normal mistborn's abilities. Since we know that Kelsier, who made the bands, was an average mistborn, Nicrosil compounding is the only explanation that makes sense to me.
Problems that I've already thought of:
"The Lord Ruler made himself a powerful mistborn as the final act of his Ascension. He had no need of nicrosil compounding" - I believe Sazed says this, but Sanderson has been known to make characters say things that the reader knows to be false, but that the character believes to be true. It makes more sense in universe that the Lord Ruler used Nicrosil compounding in order to become such a powerful mistborn. After all, all of his other miraculous abilities came from compounding.
"But Kelsier could have just stored his mistborn abilities in a nicrosil metalmind over several months, which Wax then tapped over several minutes. Of course he was so much more powerful." - This could also be true, but it doesn't detract from my original thought. If the ability to be a mistborn can be stored over months and then drawn on all at once, it actually adds credence to my theory. Since the ability to be a mistborn can be feruchemicaly stored, the that metal mind can be burned just like any other metal that we've seen compounded.
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Solomonster
While listening to Shardcast this week, there was a moment where the team discussed Compounding and how we've seen characters use compounding in order to increase their feruchemy abilities, but we haven't seen compounding to increase a character's allomancy abilities. This has made me question my understanding of certain events in the whole Mistborn series, so I need someone to fact check me on my thoughts:
After reading BoM, it became clear that nicrosil can store the ability to use innate investiture, such as being able to feruchemically tap bronze (Southern Scadrian medallions), feruchemically tap copper (Wax seeing Kelsier's vision at the end of BoM), allomantically burn iron (Wax dragging the ship back to the ground while tapping the bands), etc. Theoretically, a full mistborn / feruchemist would be able to store their ability to be a mistborn within a nicrosil metalmind. That metalmind could then be burned, causing a huge increase in the amount of mistborn power available which is then stored in another nicrosil metalmind to be drawn on later. By compounding nicrosil, a mistborn would be able to amplify their own abilities to a massive extent. To me, this perfectly explains why the Lord Ruler was such a powerful mistborn. This also explains why Wax had such a powerful experience while tapping the Bands of Mourning. Remember, while Wax was tapping the bands, he was able to Push on the trace minerals in rocks, which is far beyond the abilities of the average mistborn. Wax's experience only makes sense if Wax was tapping more "mistborn juice" at once than a normal mistborn's abilities. Since we know that Kelsier, who made the bands, was an average mistborn, Nicrosil compounding is the only explanation that makes sense to me.
Problems that I've already thought of:
"The Lord Ruler made himself a powerful mistborn as the final act of his Ascension. He had no need of nicrosil compounding" - I believe Sazed says this, but Sanderson has been known to make characters say things that the reader knows to be false, but that the character believes to be true. It makes more sense in universe that the Lord Ruler used Nicrosil compounding in order to become such a powerful mistborn. After all, all of his other miraculous abilities came from compounding.
"But Kelsier could have just stored his mistborn abilities in a nicrosil metalmind over several months, which Wax then tapped over several minutes. Of course he was so much more powerful." - This could also be true, but it doesn't detract from my original thought. If the ability to be a mistborn can be stored over months and then drawn on all at once, it actually adds credence to my theory. Since the ability to be a mistborn can be feruchemicaly stored, the that metal mind can be burned just like any other metal that we've seen compounded.
Let me know what you think,
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