Is the Strength of Shardplate Additive, or Does it Replace Your Own Strength?

[Trusk'our he/him]

Is it like Allomantic pewter, where it multiplies the muscle power of the person wearing it, making any muscle strength you already have be enhanced depending on your own innate strength, or is it just adding the same amount of strength to whomever wears it, no matter their own, natural muscle strength?

Also, does Shardplate actually enhance the muscles of the wearer, or does the plate just move with the motions of the wearer, using its own strength?

[Returned he/him]

It enhances, though I don't think we have enough information to say if the enhancement is relative to the wearer or innate to the Plate itself. There is a quote from WoK about your body having to do the work and Shardplate just enhancing the result:

Quote

He was beginning to feel worn and tired. The Plate didn't do the work for him-- it enhanced his strength, so each strike of the hammer was his own. (WoK, p.417; emphasis mine)

Based on this I think that it's more likely that Shardplate enhanced the strength you've got as opposed to something like the loader in Aliens, which has a defined amount of strength and the operator just works some joysticks. There is of course a limit on how much it can add, since we know that sufficient force, like a long fall or holding up a huge weight, can cause the Plate to crack or break. We also hear a few references to things being impressive even for someone in Plate, which wouldn't be the case if Plate offered a flat benefit to everyone.

That said, we've mostly only seen Plate on trained soldiers, so we don't have a great set of examples to observe to get a really precise answer.

Edited April 18, 2022 by Returned

[CameronUluvara she/her]

Considering that Shardplate is created through Connection with the Radiant, I don’t think it’s possible to say that either moves of their own strength. They move with combined strength.

Since Connection forms Shardplate, the strength of a Shardplate-wearing-Radiant depends upon the strength of their Radiance, because that’s what forms the Connection. And we know that the strength of Radiance is dependent on how broken the soul is (allowing more power in).

So what I’m saying is that it’s most likely that Shardplate neither enhances every Radiant equally, nor dependent on their physical strength, but on their Radiance. 
 

Also pewter doesn’t enhance based on physical strength. There are some long talks in Mistborn about this, some fight scenes based around it.

Edited April 16, 2022 by CameronUluvara