Aluminum

[Ishar]

So earlier I saw a thread about why Aluminum might be immune to investiture. This thread theory used the basis that Aluminum was Adonalsium's god metal, and it makes other investiture more balanced. This made me start thinking if it is possible that the reason Aluminum is immune to investiture is along the opposite side of the spectrum. What if Aluminum can't be affected by Investiture because it only exist in the Physical Realm. In the Cosmere everything exists in 3 realms, physical, spiritual, and cognitive (I am not going to go into detail of realmatic theory, you can probably find it on the wiki if you don't already no what it is) If aluminum only exists in the Physical realm it would mean that it can't be edited by any investiture, yet it would probably still be able to be burned as an allomantic metal. Not existing in the Cognitive or Spiritual realm immediately make it impossible to forge because Forgery changes the object in both of those realms, and without them, it would be no different than just stamping an object. Oathbringer Spoilers:

 Soulcasting would also be unable to be performed on something that doesn't exist in the Physical realm because Soulcasting is performed by entering the Cognitive realm and convincing the object to change.

Those 2 things are the easiest to explain why they would work with this theory. I had a little bit more trouble with Aons because their context with realmatics is a little unclear. Aons probably couldnt directly alter Aluminum because they would probably be altering items similar to the way soulcasting works. I couldn't find enough information as to how BioChromatic Breath works when awakening an object to draw any conclusions, but I think it is safe to assume that it has something to do with at least one of the other realms. As to why things like Nightblood and Shardblades can't cut aluminum, I can't find a good conclusion since so little is known about them, the best thing I can guess at actually involves another portion to this theory that I haven't even brought up yet. What if aluminum is the one thing in the Cosmere that isn't made of investiture? This would make it so that Nightblood cannot cut it (Nightblood consumes investiture), and probably shardblades as well. Also, shardblades supposedly cut out people's souls, which involves realmatics, which would make them incapable of cutting aluminum. As to why it can't be pushed/pulled on by allomancers, I can only assume that steelpushing/ironpulling involves at least one of the other two realms. Before I finish and let you tear holes in my theory, don't say that if aluminum isn't investiture than how did Adonalsium create it, I would like to point out that we don't know that Adonalsium created the Cosmere from nothing. Parts of this theory assume that Aluminum was in fact the only thing in the cosmere before adonalsium came along, and it also assumes that Adonalsium created the other 2 realms, but couldn't find a way to put aluminum in them. Alright, I am done now. Start tearing it up.

[Fezzik]

1 hour ago, Ishar said:

What if aluminum is the one thing in the Cosmere that isn't made of investiture?

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/256-oathbringer-london-signing/#e8656

Everything is made of investiture.

[Ishar]

Ok. The part about existing in one realm still works though

[RShara]

You can soulcast things into aluminum, so it has to exist in the CR and SR.

[old man moomba]

I had an idea about something like this. What if the silver on Threnody is really aluminum. If the shades are repelled by the "silver" it's fully possible that it could be aluminum.

[RShara]

7 minutes ago, Dwig Jigdens said:

I had an idea about something like this. What if the silver on Threnody is really aluminum. If the shades are repelled by the "silver" it's fully possible that it could be aluminum.

It's definitely not aluminum.  Aluminum is almost impossible to get in pre-industrial societies and silver is expensive, but not nearly as rare as aluminum. That's actually one of the reasons why Brandon has to use aluminum in some places, and silver in others.

Quote

Questioner

In Mistborn, silver doesn’t play a role. But then in Shadows for Silence, silver does play a role...

Brandon Sanderson

It does. I still wanted silver to be part of the Cosmere.

Questioner

But we’ll never see it in Scadrial?

Brandon Sanderson

It does not, as they understand currently, interact with Allomancy, with the three Metallurgic Arts. Silver does have a Cosmere role.

source

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Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

What's the deal with silver? Why does it not fit cleanly into the Allomantic metals, why is aluminum a special one and not silver. Why is it silver powder and not aluminum powder on Threnody?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

Do you want the in-world answer or the writerly answer?

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

The in-world answer.

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

The in-world answer is that people are not sure yet.

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

Well...that's not the in-world answer. That's the in world answer from Khriss, right? What about the in-world answer from...

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

That's the in-world answer--they're not sure yet. 

The writerly answer is that we started with silver in place of tin. And by the time i swapped it out, aluminum was already its thing. If I had to do it over again, I might make silver aluminum, but I wanted what aluminum does to be rare, and silver isn't. So I might not have. I love what aluminum does because it's super-rare pre-industrial, but you hit industrial and it's everywhere.

So it allowed me to do, when we get to modern era, to have real checks on Allomancy as Allomancy gets more powerful.

source

Quote

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Sixty - Part One

Silver, the Useless Metal

I've annotated about this before, but I figured I'd mention it again. As you probably know, in book one, tin was originally silver. I swapped it out for various reasons.

However, that left silver having no Allomantic powers. That feels strange to a lot of people because of how common and useful it is in our modern culture. Such an obvious metal doing nothing seems wrong to readers.

I toyed with using it in place of aluminum at the end of book one, but I realized that wouldn't work. It was too common, so if it had any Allomantic powers, people would know about them for certain. Only a metal that was very hard to find—like aluminum—would be believable as a new metal that most people hadn't heard of.

So silver is Allomantically inert. Just one of the quirks of the magic system.

source

 

[ZenBossanova]

I have wondered if Aluminum is a Universal Investiture sink, at least for certain shards. In other words, it isn't so much inert, as it is the ground plug for the cosmic Investiture circuit, to compare investiture with electricity. 

[Raffaine]

Woah ... this is an interesting one. But I'm having trouble with some of the premisses here. Where does it mention that Shardblades can't cut aluminum? Or that it does not have a Cognitive Realm manifestation (I don't understand the Spirtiual Realm too well to comment on that)?

 

[Ishar]

The theory is that it doesn't have a cognitive realm manifestation. Currently there is no evidence of that. I am not 100% sure where it mentions that shardblades cant cut aluminum, I think there was a WoB somewhere about that, but they can't because they cut using investiture, which means they can't cut aluminum any better than a normal sword can. Of course, living shards can change shape, so in theory, with a living shard you could just make it much sharper so it could cut aluminum. The point is though that shardblades can't cut it using magic like everything else.