Ripheus23 Posted October 18, 2018 Report Share Posted October 18, 2018 (edited) It's been a while since I read MBE2 books and even then, I wasn't paying enough attention, so I missed out on the in-story examples of chromium use (if there were any?), but I was wondering, given the similarity in Allomantic effect, if you could make some kind of alternate scabbard for Nightblood (or a similar sword) out of chromium. I mean sure you could probably make all kinds of scabbards for all kinds of swords out of all the Allomantically viable metals but this one's specific similarity to aluminum makes me wonder what peculiar role it could play. Aluminum's general magical inertia/resistance is presumably not a shared trait, though perhaps chromium shares an analogous trait (the Wikipedia IRL history of the stuff identifies it as a late-discovered element, so arguably few of the societies we've been shown in the Cosmere would have had reason or opportunity to discover it themselves, as such, in which event its utility by hypothetical analogy with aluminum might be widely unknown even if such were otherwise the case). Edited October 18, 2018 by Ripheus23 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jace21 Posted October 18, 2018 Report Share Posted October 18, 2018 To the best of our knowledge, Chromium would be just as effective a scabbard for Nightblood as any other metal, Aluminum and Godmetals excluded. Which is to say not very. Aside from the similarity of Allomantic effects, which have nothing to do with the actual physical properties of the metals, there is nothing odd about Chromium that would suggest if could resist investiture in the same way. While you are right that most Shardworlds probably don't have Chromium, Scadrial certainly does and I am sure they would have noticed if it interacted with allomancy outside of its own effect. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leyrann Posted October 19, 2018 Report Share Posted October 19, 2018 The odd thing about aluminium isn't that it's investiture resistant, but rather that you can actually do things with it with the Metallic Arts. So as said above, chromium probably doesn't do anything. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoolofwhool Posted October 19, 2018 Report Share Posted October 19, 2018 2 hours ago, Leyrann said: The odd thing about aluminium isn't that it's investiture resistant, but rather that you can actually do things with it with the Metallic Arts. So as said above, chromium probably doesn't do anything. I mean, it is odd that it is investiture resistant, and as a result it's then odd that you can do things with it with the Metallic Arts. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tglassy Posted October 19, 2018 Report Share Posted October 19, 2018 I think Nightblood's scabbard isn't just aluminum, it's an Aluminum metal mind heavily invested with someone's identity. The reason I think that is because while I understand that Aluminum acts as a shield and could, by itself, block Nightblood's smoke and keep it from absorbing investiture, I don't see any reason why basic aluminum would keep Nightblood from cutting right through it when struck. But if it were invested... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scion of the Mists Posted October 19, 2018 Report Share Posted October 19, 2018 2 minutes ago, Tglassy said: I think Nightblood's scabbard isn't just aluminum, it's an Aluminum metal mind heavily invested with someone's identity. The reason I think that is because while I understand that Aluminum acts as a shield and could, by itself, block Nightblood's smoke and keep it from absorbing investiture, I don't see any reason why basic aluminum would keep Nightblood from cutting right through it when struck. But if it were invested... A large hunk of aluminum would be enough to stop a standard sword. There was a thread a while back (that I can't find right now) that talks about this. I'm not sure how Investing the aluminum would help. Invested objects gain resistance to Cosmere magics - but aluminum already has that resistance. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoolofwhool Posted October 19, 2018 Report Share Posted October 19, 2018 2 hours ago, Tglassy said: I think Nightblood's scabbard isn't just aluminum, it's an Aluminum metal mind heavily invested with someone's identity. The reason I think that is because while I understand that Aluminum acts as a shield and could, by itself, block Nightblood's smoke and keep it from absorbing investiture, I don't see any reason why basic aluminum would keep Nightblood from cutting right through it when struck. But if it were invested... The aluminum works as a sheath because aluminum, by default, resists investiture-based attempts to change it. As Nightblood is destroying objects by converting them to investiture, aluminum would be able to prevent that, thus restricting its power. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weltall Posted October 19, 2018 Report Share Posted October 19, 2018 7 hours ago, Tglassy said: I don't see any reason why basic aluminum would keep Nightblood from cutting right through it when struck. But if it were invested... As mentioned, for the same reason that aluminum resists being cut by shardblades: Its Investiture-resistant property means that the magical attempt to damage it is completely nullified and as a result you just get a sharp bit of metal striking against another bit of metal. With sufficient thickness, aluminum is sturdy enough to block such strikes, especially when you also factor in the logic behind the why the 'lastclap' works. With both typical shardblades and Nightblood, you have a magical sword that you don't need to swing at full strength, so most people simply aren't going to. Hence, the impact against the scabbard is also likely to be weaker unless the user has trained themselves out of the habit. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightspine Posted October 21, 2018 Report Share Posted October 21, 2018 On 10/19/2018 at 6:51 AM, Tglassy said: I think Nightblood's scabbard isn't just aluminum, it's an Aluminum metal mind heavily invested with someone's identity. The reason I think that is because while I understand that Aluminum acts as a shield and could, by itself, block Nightblood's smoke and keep it from absorbing investiture, I don't see any reason why basic aluminum would keep Nightblood from cutting right through it when struck. But if it were invested... You're assuming that the scabbard is pure aluminum, but we know from MB Era 2 that certain alloys of aluminum resist allomancy, so I bet that these alloys would be capable of blocking Nightblood. These alloys are sturdier than aluminum and would likely allow a thinner scabbard to block a swing from Nightblood. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skybreaker156 Posted October 24, 2018 Report Share Posted October 24, 2018 Alot of this is in nightblood op 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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