Question About Aluminum Gnats

[Pinnacle]

If an aluminum gnat were to swallow both aluminum and a select few different metals, would all the metals be burned away, or just the aluminum? Do you have to be mistborn for the other metals to burn away too?

[Frustration]

The Aluminum would probably burn away all the metals, so long as they were viable

[Truthwatcher Artifabrian]

I don’t remember where, but I’m pretty sure there’s a wob that says that they are good against things like lashings. That implies that it burns away everything, not just what you have powers for.

[+Oltux72]

10 hours ago, Frustration said:

The Aluminum would probably burn away all the metals, so long as they were viable

But they aren't viable in a Misting. You cannot just touch some metal and make it vanish, nor do piercings dissolve. It affects those pieces of metal a capable individual has designated as fuel for allomancy.

[Aspiring Writer]

4 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

But they aren't viable in a Misting. You cannot just touch some metal and make it vanish, nor do piercings dissolve. It affects those pieces of metal a capable individual has designated as fuel for allomancy.

I think that's because aluminium erases itself, making it so the effect only lasts a second or so, and that's not enough to do more than erase the flakes they swallow. Same problem goes for the leecher, who would need to hang on to burn away a ferrings metalminds for a good while

[mathiau]

1 hour ago, Aspiring Writer said:

I think that's because aluminium erases itself, making it so the effect only lasts a second or so, and that's not enough to do more than erase the flakes they swallow. Same problem goes for the leecher, who would need to hang on to burn away a ferrings metalminds for a good while

Duralumin is not affected by itself why would aluminium be?

[Frustration]

9 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

But they aren't viable in a Misting. You cannot just touch some metal and make it vanish, nor do piercings dissolve. It affects those pieces of metal a capable individual has designated as fuel for allomancy.

Wether or not the misting can use them has no basis on viability, mercury is not a viable metal, Tin is, who the person is has no bearing on that.

[HSuperLee]

5 hours ago, Aspiring Writer said:

I think that's because aluminium erases itself, making it so the effect only lasts a second or so, and that's not enough to do more than erase the flakes they swallow. Same problem goes for the leecher, who would need to hang on to burn away a ferrings metalminds for a good while

Coppermind suggests that burning aluminum doesn't affect aluminum, with a reference to chapter 36 of Final Empire. Unfortunately, I can't check, so someone else would need to confirm it. In my opinion though, if the allomantic effect of aluminum affected aluminum I'd have a lot of realmatic questions (granted, I still have a lot of questions as to how aluminum is allomantically viable in the first place) so it makes sense to me that it doesn't instantly erase itself.

[therunner]

6 hours ago, Aspiring Writer said:

I think that's because aluminium erases itself, making it so the effect only lasts a second or so, and that's not enough to do more than erase the flakes they swallow. Same problem goes for the leecher, who would need to hang on to burn away a ferrings metalminds for a good while

1 hour ago, HSuperLee said:

Coppermind suggests that burning aluminum doesn't affect aluminum, with a reference to chapter 36 of Final Empire. Unfortunately, I can't check, so someone else would need to confirm it. In my opinion though, if the allomantic effect of aluminum affected aluminum I'd have a lot of realmatic questions (granted, I still have a lot of questions as to how aluminum is allomantically viable in the first place) so it makes sense to me that it doesn't instantly erase itself.

@HSuperLee you are correct, aluminum does not affect aluminum. I checked Final Empire, and when Vin burns Aluminun the line is

"Immediately, all of her other metal reserves vanished." M:TFA, Ch. 36, pg. 597

this seems to be quite clear and implies her aluminum reserve remained.

21 hours ago, Pinnacle said:

If an aluminum gnat were to swallow both aluminum and a select few different metals, would all the metals be burned away, or just the aluminum? Do you have to be mistborn for the other metals to burn away too?

I would assume it would burn away any allomantically viable metals they can use (outside of aluminum), so if they had for example A-Tin spike, it would burn away Tin but leave Pewter for example. Of course, it is possible it would simply burn away all allomantically viable metals.

If it did burn away all allomantically viable metals, it would in effect make it possible to test if metal is viable without need to try and burn the metal itself.

[+Oltux72]

1 hour ago, Frustration said:

Wether or not the misting can use them has no basis on viability, mercury is not a viable metal, Tin is, who the person is has no bearing on that.

If that were true, you could leech muggles. Can you?

[Frustration]

Just now, Oltux72 said:

If that were true, you could leech muggles. Can you?

I'm not entirly sure what you are asking

If you mean can you leech metal in non-allomancers stomachs the answer is yes I'd say you could.

[mathiau]

2 minutes ago, therunner said:

@HSuperLee you are correct, aluminum does not affect aluminum. I checked Final Empire, and when Vin burns Aluminun the line is

"Immediately, all of her other metal reserves vanished." M:TFA, Ch. 36, pg. 597

this seems to be quite clear and implies her aluminum reserve remained.

There's also the fact Duralumin doesn't affect itself

Quote

I would assume it would burn away any allomantically viable metals they can use (outside of aluminum), so if they had for example A-Tin spike, it would burn away Tin but leave Pewter for example. Of course, it is possible it would simply burn away all allomantically viable metals.

If it did burn away all allomantically viable metals, it would in effect make it possible to test if metal is viable without need to try and burn the metal itself.

But then why is Shade corruption cleansed? It's not like it's viable to any magic system

[Frustration]

2 minutes ago, mathiau said:

There's also the fact Duralumin doesn't affect itself

But then why is Shade corruption cleansed? It's not like it's viable to any magic system

Shades are adding investiture though, which is not what say cobalt would be adding

[therunner]

1 minute ago, mathiau said:

There's also the fact Duralumin doesn't affect itself

But then why is Shade corruption cleansed? It's not like it's viable to any magic system

Since A-aluminum seems to work by negating/removing kinetic investiture in physical/cognitive/spiritual self, and Withering has been described as akin to hostile/cancerous Forging, aluminum would remove this investiture.

Since Metalborn can 'feel' the metal reserves even when not burning them, there is already some link between metalborn and user, and it is possible that aluminum uses this link to remove metals.

[+Oltux72]

11 minutes ago, Frustration said:

I'm not entirly sure what you are asking

If you mean can you leech metal in non-allomancers stomachs the answer is yes I'd say you could.

Leeching does not attack metal. It attacks Investiture in certain forms (the gun incident). Why does it attack metals? Because the allomancer changes the metal merely by ingesting it. Metal has three states: flaring, burning, reserve. An allomancer can tell what kind of metal and how much has been ingested.

If that were any different, why can't a Leecher annihilate metal outside a body?

[mathiau]

1 minute ago, therunner said:

Withering has been described as akin to hostile/cancerous Forging

It has?

Quote

Since Metalborn can 'feel' the metal reserves even when not burning them, there is already some link between metalborn and user, and it is possible that aluminum uses this link to remove metals.

Ok, that makes sense. I guess we neither have proof that they would disappear nor proof that they wouldn't, do we?

[therunner]

1 hour ago, mathiau said:

It has?

Yep, in this WoB (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/76/#e6374). The wording 'cancerous Forging' is fans, but Brandon seems to passively agree with it.

1 hour ago, mathiau said:

Ok, that makes sense. I guess we neither have proof that they would disappear nor proof that they wouldn't, do we?

Yeah, we do not have such proof yet. I think Brandon plans to go into the more 'spiritual' (feruchemically speaking) metals in Era 3, so we have at least 5-6 years before we have more firm data. Unless Lost Metal pleasantly surprises us.