Kandra with Metal True Bodies

[Quantus]

For what it's worth, with Era 2 being in the early days of practical electricity, radio, etc. any day now they'll discover the basic electrical electrolysis reaction we now use to make beer cans out of a metal that was once more valuable than gold. That doesnt mean the price might not stay artificially elevated due to it's undeniable utility, but it will likely become much more plentiful soon. 

[Mark_Confidant]

On ‎8‎/‎7‎/‎2018 at 11:14 AM, tmnsquirtle said:

I think you may be overestimating the number of compounders in the populace. I imagine for world balance reasons, Brandon makes compounders extremely rare. The Terris people seem to be slightly more cloistered and secluded, making any twinborn very rare. Miles was probably one of (if not the only) natural-born compounder in-world at the time.

In northern Scadrial without any Hemalurgy schenanegans sure. Southern Scadrian medallions are unkeyed Allomancy or Feruchemy Necrosilminds, so at some point relatively close to Bands of Mourning any Misting or Ferring is going to have pretty easy access to compounding in their respective metal. 

 

On ‎8‎/‎7‎/‎2018 at 11:48 AM, Quantus said:

That doesnt mean the price might not stay artificially elevated due to it's undeniable utility, but it will likely become much more plentiful soon. 

My guess is that aluminum ends up being the currency de rigueur in this situation. It's much more useful than gold or silver, but about as common as iron. Poorer people want small denomination coins that are unstealable by coinshots and lurchers, but richer people still see gold as a status symbol. Not to mention there's bonus status in managing to hold onto money that any old misting can snatch. 

[Quantus]

13 hours ago, Mark_Confidant said:

In northern Scadrial without any Hemalurgy schenanegans sure. Southern Scadrian medallions are unkeyed Allomancy or Feruchemy Necrosilminds, so at some point relatively close to Bands of Mourning any Misting or Ferring is going to have pretty easy access to compounding in their respective metal. 

Correct me if Im wrong, but even if they worked out Nicrosil trick on the Bands that let them grant allomancy, you'd still be Burning the medallions to accomplish the compounding Hack, even the Bands couldnt grant you access to that sort of thing permanently, and I strongly doubt the metallic arts are ever going to be so ubiquitous as to make UnSealed medallions disposable. You might me able to work it out with some Ettmetal device to handle the Allomancer side of the equation with normal medallions, but that kind of depends on how exactly Ettmetal is going about and youre still burning medallions. Frankly though, morality aside hemalurgy is by far the easier way to go about artificial Compounding. 

[Calderis]

@Quantus there's no need to burn the medallion itself. The medallions grant Feruchemy. The ring of metal to store in on them is there for convenience. You could store into any metal you want, and than burn it just like a natural born compounder. 

[Quantus]

1 minute ago, Calderis said:

@Quantus there's no need to burn the medallion itself. The medallions grant Feruchemy. The ring of metal to store in on them is there for convenience. You could store into any metal you want, and than burn it just like a natural born compounder. 

D-oh! That's right.  Ok, nevermind.  Im now picturing sweatshop power plants where people sit at Investiture stations all day artificially Compounding up stores and stores of Investiture.  Like in the era2 Last Airbender show where they had the Lightning-benders lined up shooting electricity at a generator system for three shifts a day.

[tmnsquirtle]

22 hours ago, Quantus said:

For what it's worth, with Era 2 being in the early days of practical electricity, radio, etc. any day now they'll discover the basic electrical electrolysis reaction we now use to make beer cans out of a metal that was once more valuable than gold. That doesnt mean the price might not stay artificially elevated due to it's undeniable utility, but it will likely become much more plentiful soon. 

Sounds almost like how gold has value in our world due to it's use in wiring!

[Quantus]

Just now, tmnsquirtle said:

Sounds almost like how gold has value in our world due to it's use in wiring!

pretty much, yes though gold is also actually rare (as compared to Diamonds that are useful but suprisingly common).  Gold is useful in wiring for its high conductivity (3rd behind silver and copper) but the biggest is that it doesnt rust.  That's the same reason that it was so valuable in the old days more or less, it was one of the only metals that didnt literally dissolve over time. 

[Weltall]

On 8/7/2018 at 9:48 AM, Quantus said:

For what it's worth, with Era 2 being in the early days of practical electricity, radio, etc. any day now they'll discover the basic electrical electrolysis reaction we now use to make beer cans out of a metal that was once more valuable than gold. That doesnt mean the price might not stay artificially elevated due to it's undeniable utility, but it will likely become much more plentiful soon. 

This is in fact part of why Brandon wanted aluminum to be the Cosmere-wide Investiture sink. He wanted something that would be extremely rare initially but would become more common as his worlds progressed, making a counter to the increasing spread of magic systems and providing new challenges for his characters.

Quote

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

We'll probably see this happen with Roshar over time as well and we know it's used on Sel as a check on Forgery, with likely applications to the other magic systems as well even if we haven't seen them yet.

And now a thought experiment: We know that Forton's potions in Elantris are Invested and we've seen other liquids with magical properties like the Ire Connection orb. Does this mean that an aluminum can would destroy the Investiture in a liquid placed within it? I could see that becoming a big thing on Sel. Or the advertising on Scadrial... Drink Breeze's Brown Ale, we guarantee it's not Invested with anything strange and you can use the can to prevent Soothing and Rioting when you're done!

Edited August 8, 2018 by Weltall

[Calderis]

56 minutes ago, Weltall said:

Does this mean that an aluminum can would destroy the Investiture in a liquid placed within it?

Or would it trap the investiture inside, allowing the potion to be transported beyond its normal range limitations? Because... 

Quote

The_Carpathian

Can aluminum be used to take liquid from a Shard pool, and will it stay Invested?

Brandon Sanderson

That would work.

source

 

Edited August 8, 2018 by Calderis

[Weltall]

Ahhh, I must have missed that one. Okay, new slogan time: Forton's Finest, Invested beer so good it lasts forever!

[tmnsquirtle]

6 hours ago, Quantus said:

pretty much, yes though gold is also actually rare (as compared to Diamonds that are useful but suprisingly common).  Gold is useful in wiring for its high conductivity (3rd behind silver and copper) but the biggest is that it doesnt rust.  That's the same reason that it was so valuable in the old days more or less, it was one of the only metals that didnt literally dissolve over time. 

I admit that it's an imperfect analogy, since there isn't an effective way of creating gold (like there is with aluminum). 

[Quantus]

1 minute ago, tmnsquirtle said:

I admit that it's an imperfect analogy, since there isn't an effective way of creating gold (like there is with aluminum). 

Oh, Im not criticizing, just taking advantage of the chance to nerd out on electricity for a second.  

[Quantus]

On 8/8/2018 at 2:22 PM, Calderis said:

Or would it trap the investiture inside, allowing the potion to be transported beyond its normal range limitations? Because... 

 

 

Hmm, Is there a finite volume in those shardpools?  I mean, imagine if you actually managed to barrel and remove the shardpool liquid from a Shardworld. Could that work?  Cold you significantly weaken one that way (kinda like that mass-burning of atium?)