Downsides of Compounding

[Elsecaller_17.5]

I want to gather a list of metals that it would be dangerous to stop compounding once you started, because everything would catch up. Atium would be the clear example because of the instant super aging. Gold we know is another from Wax, I imagine because the body’s own immune system is out of practice. I could see the same thing happening with bendalloy and bronze as with atium. Any others that seem like a really bad idea to stop once you start?

[StanLemon]

I think all would be dangerous to stop but particular ones are probably these.

Steel, Tin, Pewter, Zinc, Bronze, Brass, Gold, Cadmium, and Bendalloy

I could see a person's body becoming very dependent on these

Edited July 8, 2019 by StanLemon

[Quantus]

Tin is problematic to overuse and stop when it's purely the allomantic version of sensory increase, I would not be surprised if there was a similar situation when over-using the feruchemical version (even if feruchemical effects don't lead to savantism).

[RShara]

IIRC, didn't Miles end up not being able to feel pain at all, and described what sounded to me like being strung out when he wasn't tapping? Like, he was getting a high from the gold healing, and when he wasn't tapping it, he just didn't feel as good as when he was.

Edited July 8, 2019 by RShara

[Karger]

Don't compound because compounding is bad.

[Kaymyth]

I believe there will be a significant difference between becoming a Compounding savant and what I personally like to refer to as Compounding drag. This is potentially a thing per:

Quote

Kaymyth

We know that compounding, if you do it too much, it has permanent effects on a person.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah.

Kaymyth

Compounding for extending stretches, can it have some sort of effect similar to pewter drag, depending on the metal?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. I could say, I would say yes to that.

JordanCon 2018 (April 22, 2018)

Compounding drag would be somewhat similar in concept to pewter drag (and obviously pewter Compounding would be pewter drag squared). You'd have to run yourself hard on your metal for a fairly significant period of time and different metals will have different results. Compounding steel for a while could possibly lead to feeling like you're made of molasses afterwards; zinc might leave you feeling dazed and like you're having trouble thinking/following things going on around you. My speculation would be that tapping (not continuing to Compound) a metalmind for a while might help you ease off of the effects afterwards. But it'd be exceedingly minor compared to savantism.

A Compounding savant will as be wholly dependent on burning their metal as a regular Allomantic savant would be. This is the level that I'd say that Miles had reached; he Compounded gold all the dang time and thus experienced all of the weird side effects thereof. A savant cannot function normally without a burn of their metal going on constantly.

[Ixthos]

@Kaymyth I think the main drag from pewter squared would be wind resistance, what with the increase in mass ;-) I wonder if it is possible to tap so much pewter that one's body can't actually move ...

 

Electrum stores determination, so if one becomes dependent on it one would lose their motivation.

Edited July 9, 2019 by Ixthos
Forgot an apostrophe

[Quantus]

5 hours ago, Ixthos said:

@Kaymyth I think the main drag from pewter squared would be wind resistance, what with the increase in mass ;-) I wonder if it is possible to tap so much pewter that one's body can't actually move ...

 

Electrum stores determination, so if one becomes dependent on it one would lose their motivation.

For the most part I doubt it.  The increased mass is described as some sort of higgs' boson quantum hoodoo, but so far has always shown him retaining the ability to move and survive the increased mass (as opposed to being crushed under his own body weight like a beached whale).   That being said, they could very well get bogged down in sand or water, and eventually reach a point where every step breaks the ground and it's like walking on eggshells.  

 

As far as combo's with a potential downside, I could really see somebody blasting Electum Determination to the point where it became a drug with a wicked depression hangover. Ditto Mental Speed and Wakefulness.  I have no idea what it would look/feel like to walk around as your actual TrueSelf (ie superblasting Identity) and then coming down from it, but it sounds like it might leave you feeling a bit Lost.  I could see somebody overusing Bendalloy might eventually loose the ability (or at least appetite) for normal food & water

[Ixthos]

@Quantus You are thinking of Iron, which stores weight. I am talking about pewter, which bulks up the muscle ;-)

[Quantus]

6 minutes ago, Ixthos said:

@Quantus You are thinking of Iron, which stores weight. I am talking about pewter, which bulks up the muscle ;-)

So I was and so you were.  Oops. 

[Ethan_sedai]

...now I can see the schools in Era 3 having assemblies to tell the kids not to compound, along with the ones that tell kids not to do drugs and stuff. 

And then there will be guys in alleys saying “hey kid, want a compounding medallion?”

Edited July 17, 2019 by Ethan_Sedai

[First Witness]

I think all compounding is going to have a drag and accelerate Feruchemical Savantisim.  Compounding Savantisim should be,  at the very least,  similar to Feruchemical Savantisim. 

 

My super desire is to know twinborn resonances

[Scion of the Mists]

On 7/16/2019 at 9:38 PM, First Witness said:

I think all compounding is going to have a drag and accelerate Feruchemical Savantisim.  Compounding Savantisim should be,  at the very least,  similar to Feruchemical Savantisim. 

 

Feruchemical savants are unlikely to be a thing:

Quote

Kurkistan

Is there such a thing as a Feruchemical savant?

Brandon Sanderson

I did not write Feruchemical savants into the original outline. Whether or not I will do them- it’s highly unlikely because it’s not there and Mistborn is getting trickier and trickier in that regard. But I didn’t write them in, so… that’s a “probably not”.

Calamity Chicago signing (Feb. 22, 2016)

[Quantus]

7 minutes ago, Scion of the Mists said:

 

Feruchemical savants are unlikely to be a thing:

I agree, though it makes me a little sad since it sounds like it's mostly a Doylistic choice, but I cannot figure out any in-world reason why Allomancy would create savants but Compounded Feruchemcy would not.  I can understand why normal feruchemy wouldnt do it, because the raw quantities of Investiture are lower and more naturally limited, but the whole point of Compounding is that you are getting Allomantic quantities that are just converted to Feruchemical flavors. 

[First Witness]

I mean...They -ought- to exist.  He said Savantisim was simply from large amounts of investiture moving through your spiritweb over time.  SO, yeah...I don't see why they -can't- exist, just that they may not. 

[Elsecaller_17.5]

Sazed described compounding as creating a new allomantic metal that only you can burn. Thus a compounding savant would be an allomantic savant, not a feruchemical.