Aluminum thunderclast

[Lesser spren]

Theoretically how tactically useful would an aluminum or aleast aluminum plated thunderclast be? Could such a thing even be possible?

[Weltall]

1 hour ago, Lesser spren said:

Theoretically how tactically useful would an aluminum or aleast aluminum plated thunderclast be? Could such a thing even be possible?

Assuming you could somehow get enough aluminum to armor a beast that size and have it be thick enough (ie, Nightblood's sheath-level thickness, not just a thin film) then you'd end up with a very large monster that's very resistant to the weapons that were intended to kill them. Aluminum will stop the magical cutting properties of a Shardblade as long as it's thick enough so it would do a pretty good job protecting a thunderclast from attack, as well as from most other forms of Investiture like the Surge of Division. The end result would be that you'd likely need to find a way to chip off enough of the aluminum to expose its body before you could attack it, or find gaps in the plating. I suspect that sufficiently massive objects and Basic Lashings would do the trick at the end of the day, or a lot of extremely brave people with hammers..

Now, aluminum is expensive and rare on all known Cosmere worlds at this time so how you'd get a sufficient quantity of the stuff is an entirely different matter, as is how you'd apply it to a thunderclast in the first place. But if you could, it would be pretty storming dangerous for a while.

Edited July 28, 2021 by Weltall

[NameIess]

2 hours ago, Weltall said:

Assuming you could somehow get enough aluminum to armor a beast that size and have it be thick enough (ie, Nightblood's sheath-level thickness, not just a thin film) then you'd end up with a very large monster that's very resistant to the weapons that were intended to kill them. Aluminum will stop the magical cutting properties of a Shardblade as long as it's thick enough so it would do a pretty good job protecting a thunderclast from attack, as well as from most other forms of Investiture like the Surge of Division. The end result would be that you'd likely need to find a way to chip off enough of the aluminum to expose its body before you could attack it, or find gaps in the plating. I suspect that sufficiently massive objects and Basic Lashings would do the trick at the end of the day, or a lot of extremely brave people with hammers..

Now, aluminum is expensive and rare on all known Cosmere worlds at this time so how you'd get a sufficient quantity of the stuff is an entirely different matter, as is how you'd apply it to a thunderclast in the first place. But if you could, it would be pretty storming dangerous for a while.

This is assuming that coating a thunderclast in aluminum wouldn't kill it or something. coating plate in aluminum would hurt it, so I don't know if thunderclasts would be any better.

[Dunkum]

4 minutes ago, Nameless said:

This is assuming that coating a thunderclast in aluminum wouldn't kill it or something. coating plate in aluminum would hurt it, so I don't know if thunderclasts would be any better.

i'd assume it would be fine, but you'd have to do the coating after it was created, I doubt the spren or whatever could penetrate pre-existing aluminum.

[+Invocation]

4 hours ago, Nameless said:

This is assuming that coating a thunderclast in aluminum wouldn't kill it or something. coating plate in aluminum would hurt it, so I don't know if thunderclasts would be any better.

I don't know that it would kill it. Trap it though... yeah probably that.

[Lesser spren]

15 hours ago, Dunkum said:

i'd assume it would be fine, but you'd have to do the coating after it was created, I doubt the spren or whatever could penetrate pre-existing aluminum.

Do you think a careful soulcasting could work? You can't soulcast aluminum, but you can soulcast something INTO aluminum.

[Quantus]

23 minutes ago, Lesser spren said:

Do you think a careful soulcasting could work? You can't soulcast aluminum, but you can soulcast something INTO aluminum.

This should work, and now that Radiants are back they aren't reliant on finding a Soulcaster capable of Aluminum (or offworld sources, I suppose).

The only catch Im aware of is that Aluminum's ability to disrupt investiture is a bit of a field effect, which may or may not cause issues with how the Thundercast animate their stone bodies.  The armor would also be innately non-magical so gaps are going to be somewhat inevitable, since it cant conform the way plate would, or otherwise have non-standard material properties or movement. 

 

Quote

 

Questioner

Is aluminum shielding from emotional Allomancy strictly line of sight? So, can someone in the basement bypass somebody’s aluminum hat on the first floor

Brandon Sanderson

No, they could not. You just put enough aluminum there and it disrupts.

Questioner

So it disrupts like a field.

Brandon Sanderson

Yep.

Shadows of Self San Francisco signing (Oct. 9, 2015)

 

 

[Dunkum]

8 hours ago, Quantus said:

This should work, and now that Radiants are back they aren't reliant on finding a Soulcaster capable of Aluminum (or offworld sources, I suppose).

The only catch Im aware of is that Aluminum's ability to disrupt investiture is a bit of a field effect, which may or may not cause issues with how the Thundercast animate their stone bodies.  The armor would also be innately non-magical so gaps are going to be somewhat inevitable, since it cant conform the way plate would, or otherwise have non-standard material properties or movement. 

 

 

i'm thinking soulcasting the entire body to alumnium might fail, or at least cause problems, and may also be painful for the spren animating it. i expect tht sulcasting a thin layer around it would work though

[Quantus]

12 hours ago, Dunkum said:

i'm thinking soulcasting the entire body to alumnium might fail, or at least cause problems, and may also be painful for the spren animating it. i expect tht sulcasting a thin layer around it would work though

Oh, I wasn't even sure that would work with the field effect issue, I was thinking traditional (if substantially oversized) plate armor soulcast elsewhere in segments and strapped on. 

Edited July 30, 2021 by Quantus