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Why Aluminum?


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This has been bothering me for a long time. why is aluminum interact with cosmere magic in the way that it does? I've heard theory's that aluminum is Adonolsium's godmetal. But that doesn't really make sense to me. All other godmetals have been fictional, and are not really even metal, but condensed investiture. Aluminum is a real, physical metal. Does anyone know of any physical properties of aluminum that might make it able to resist/absorb investiture in the way that it does? I thought it might be the sixteenth element on the periodic table, but it is the thirteenth (the sixteenth is sulfur by the way). 

Edited by not an Evil Librarian
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Because that's just the way it be sometimes.

But, really, it's probably because of the relationship of rarity there, where for the first while, when the magic is more of a "mystical" thing, so is aluminum - incredibly rare, incredibly value, incredibly storied. Then, as technology increases and the magic system becomes more of a science, less of a mystical shenanigan thing, aluminum availability grows as they need it to, due to the increasing ability of the people using the magic to pull things that would otherwise be nearly uncounterable in an otherwise balanced world. The nonmagical people will have a better shot of countering stuff like any other form of warfare.

Edited by Invocation
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According to some WOB's that I'm sure others have on tap, it was a writer decision. He first had silver in the role of aluminum but felt that was too cliche. He still plans on silver having a role in the wider Cosmere, not just on Threnody, but as of yet he hasn't written it in.

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1 minute ago, TheGirlWhoLookedUp said:

I’ve always thought it funny that on Scadrial people wear aluminum lined hats to protect them from emotional allomamcy. Seems pretty sci-fi to me.:P

I mean technically Era 4 is going to be a space opera era, so it makes sense that the seeds are planted back in Era 2.

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Brandon also wanted a metal that was pretty rare in pre-industrial societies, but then became common and cheap in the future.  Aluminum has been associated with a number of myths and was very rare, valuable and prized, a couple of centuries ago.

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18 hours ago, Bigmikey357 said:

According to some WOB's that I'm sure others have on tap, it was a writer decision. He first had silver in the role of aluminum but felt that was too cliche. He still plans on silver having a role in the wider Cosmere, not just on Threnody, but as of yet he hasn't written it in.

He had silver in place of tin, because he thought that pewter was an alloy of silver.  He changed it when it was pointed out that pewter is actually an alloy of tin.  

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1 hour ago, Scion of the Mists said:

He had silver in place of tin, because he thought that pewter was an alloy of silver.  He changed it when it was pointed out that pewter is actually an alloy of tin.  

True, though Brandon did loosely connect the two instances of metal-swapping. He originally thought of using silver in the place of aluminum once he realized he needed to replace the former with tin in the Metallic Arts but decided against it because of what @RShara mentioned.

Edited by Weltall
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I just figured because Aluminum a weird element, as it is the first nonreactive metal on the periodic table, and it is also right next to the “staircase” on the periodic table, but it is not a semimetal. I’ve just always thought it was a weird element before Sanderson.

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It has an identity crisis due to half the cosmere calling it A-lu-mi-num and the other half calling it Al-u-mi-ni-um.  The inherent conflict on its perceived Cognitive self results in the dampening effect on magic. :P

One thing I do find interesting though: investiture itself resists or repells the effects of other investiture fueled magic, rather like Aluminum but on a lesser scale.  Maybe aluminum is just incredibly invested but inaccessible investiture left behind by Adonalsium.

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In most traditional faerie stories, iron blocks magic. The next choice for modern authors is usually silver or a made-up metal (celestial bronze, imperial gold, the rider-sword-metal from Eragon). My thought is that Sanderson wanted something new and original (like why stormlight has ten elements instead of four). 

Also of note is that Aluminium is soft (for a metal) and so making effective weapons out of it is difficult. It seems that aluminum was meant to be a passive measure against magic. 

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On 4/20/2019 at 4:12 AM, Ethan_Sedai said:

I just figured because Aluminum a weird element, as it is the first nonreactive metal on the periodic table, and it is also right next to the “staircase” on the periodic table, but it is not a semimetal. I’ve just always thought it was a weird element before Sanderson.

Not really. Aluminium is incredibly reactive. Aluminium, like titanium, got this reputation by forming a tightly bound layer of oxide on itself. If you turn it into powder, it will explode in the air.

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5 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

Not really. Aluminium is incredibly reactive. Aluminium, like titanium, got this reputation by forming a tightly bound layer of oxide on itself. If you turn it into powder, it will explode in the air.

Really? I did not know that...

alrhough I always thought it was kind of weird in its placement, though, and still be a metal. However, as shown before, my grasp of chemistry is limited to just a little more than a high school chemistry course. So you might just want to ignore me here...

Edited by Ethan_Sedai
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On 4/19/2019 at 8:12 PM, Ethan_Sedai said:

I just figured because Aluminum a weird element, as it is the first nonreactive metal on the periodic table, and it is also right next to the “staircase” on the periodic table, but it is not a semimetal. I’ve just always thought it was a weird element before Sanderson.

As @Oltux72 said, aluminum is actually highly reactive. What happens is that it forms a molecules thin oxide layer almost immediately on contact with air, that keeps it from contact with almost anything else, so it seems nonreactive.

Here's what happens when you have a little fun with aluminum. :D

 

Edited by RShara
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Maybe Brandon Sanderson was just walking around his kitchen looking for more metals for the first mistborn. Saw some pewter utensils and was like okay I'll use that, then thinking that it was a alloy of silver made silver what is now tin (later changed it once he realized pewter was an alloy of tin) and then was like "hmmmm, I was gonna have silver be the non-reactive metal but now I guess I need a different metal." So he looked around and saw the aluminum foil. and thought, "that kinda looks silver" and thus aluminum was born as the non-reactive element

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