Aluminum and steelsight

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

I'm not talking about normal steel sight but more of what the inquisitors and Wax saw with the bands.  

I feel like aluminum would stick out like a sore thumb not because it can be seen (we know it cant) but because everything else can be seen.  

I feel like aluminum and any other shard metal normally unable to be seen by steel sight would stick out the same way a train blots out the landscape behind it.  

You would see everything in 360 degrees but any aluminum weapon would show itself due to stopping your ability to see whatever it behind it.  Like pulling the curtains on a window.   

 

A side question I have is the differences between true inquisitor and bands level steel sight and the spiritual sight you gain when burning temporal metals like atium and gold or electrum?   Would they provide the same sort of vision and seeing?  Which one do you think is more valuable and closer to something like the byakugon in Naruto?  

[Frustration]

You can't see carbon or other elements either.

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

2 hours ago, Frustration said:

You can't see carbon or other elements either.

When Marsh talks about his steel sight being better than normal sight he describes seeing even trace metals.   No inquisitor ever ran into a tree or anything.  I assume steel sight would take some adjustments but you would still see a 3D image of everything around you based on the trace minerals and be able to judge what was what based on the density of the images.  

With aluminum or glass perhaps you would still see it, not by its existence but by the fact that it would completely blot out the image of everything it passed in front of as it passed in front of it.  

Perhaps future sight and the spiritual realm that it portrays would do more for a blind person in a 360 degree view and it is very likely the same way with aluminum in that that blade moving around wouldn't be visible but it would not allow you to see through it at what is behind it anymore.   

I assume that shards have a different mechanism in what they can and can't be seen by and if a spiritual shadow is not possible with them they would still be a thing directly in the way of viewing other spiritual shadows.   

[alder24]

Inquisitor is far less powerful than what Bands provide. Hemalurgy is net negative, and some power is always lost. Classical FE inquisitors had 9-11 spikes, 5 out of steel to steal 4 Physical Allomantic powers and 4 out of bronze for Mental Allomantic powers. They would be always less powerful than a Mistborn unless they were a Mistborn befere.

And just because something can't be seen, doesn't mean that it is not visible or recognisable by our senses. Blackness is just lack of light. We technically can't see black as there is no black light. Our brain interprets this as a black color - it fills nothing with information. The same way aluminum would work for any steelsight - they would know it is there and what it is as their brain interprets lack of lines as aluminum. Godmetals however are still visible with lines. Why not? Only aluminum has this property. It is still metal, and that's what they see.

Traces amounts of metals are everywhere (maybe even in aluminum) so they see everything, and recognise it for what it is (and Tin somehow works). Inquisitor can't see atoms, but I think Wax with Bands was able to see to that level. Bands are very powerful. If Bands provide atium/gold/electrum, it would be stronger than what Inquisitor has.

Blind person can still use Atium but they would have to be savants to see shadows

Spoiler

Herowannabe

I recently picked up the Mistborn Adventure game and am loving it. I made a character who is a blind Mistborn because hey, I thought it would make for some interesting possibilities. As I understand Allomancy, he can hear/sense well enough to get around with Tin, plus even though he's blind he can still "see" steel lines (like the inquisitors), and I assume Atium would work the same way- that is, he could still "see" Atium shadows. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Brandon Sanderson

No, you're right. That works. He'd have to burn metals a LOT though. It might warp him a little.

/r/fantasy AMA 2013 (April 15, 2013)

 

[StanLemon]

The sensitivity of Inquisitor sight is great enough that they can see the trace iron in a person's blood even though lines to metal are normally not visible to Allomancers. Brandon has also said that some metalloids can be Pushed/Pulled, if this includes Silicon then that would vastly open up what would be visible as Silicon is very very abundant. 

What Wax saw with the Bands though, that was on a whole different level as he was seeing the very Axi themselves and their relationship with Investiture. At those levels I'd assume you would have complete awareness of what is happening around you with aluminum and highly Invested items the only things that look opaque.

[cometaryorbit]

On 12/29/2022 at 6:14 PM, alder24 said:

Inquisitor is far less powerful than what Bands provide. Hemalurgy is net negative, and some power is always lost. Classical FE inquisitors had 9-11 spikes, 5 out of steel to steal 4 Physical Allomantic powers and 4 out of bronze for Mental Allomantic powers. They would be always less powerful than a Mistborn unless they were a Mistborn befere.

True (though 5 spikes mean one Physical power is doubled.. could be steel or iron). I don't think Inquisitor trace-metal sight is a matter of power per se. From the WoA annotations, any Coinshot/Lurcher/Mistborn can learn to see this way - the PoV characters other than Marsh just don't know it's possible.

There's a line somewhere (in AoL I think) that Ranette can identify metals by burning iron, so even short of full trace-metal sight, I think there's more to the blue lines of iron/steel than Vin or Wax got out of them. (But then, both Vin and Wax focused on fighting... as a gunsmith, Ranette would be more interested in specific metal properties.)

I think Inquisitors kind of get it hacked in, so they can see quickly after being turned into Inquisitors rather than taking possibly years to learn to see again ... but I don't know that their sight is fundamentally better/more powerful than what a normal Allomancer could learn in theory.

Edited January 1, 2023 by cometaryorbit

[Argenti he/him]

On 12/29/2022 at 7:14 PM, alder24 said:

Blind person can still use Atium but they would have to be savants to see shadows

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Herowannabe

I recently picked up the Mistborn Adventure game and am loving it. I made a character who is a blind Mistborn because hey, I thought it would make for some interesting possibilities. As I understand Allomancy, he can hear/sense well enough to get around with Tin, plus even though he's blind he can still "see" steel lines (like the inquisitors), and I assume Atium would work the same way- that is, he could still "see" Atium shadows. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Brandon Sanderson

No, you're right. That works. He'd have to burn metals a LOT though. It might warp him a little.

/r/fantasy AMA 2013 (April 15, 2013)

It's worth noting here that he wouldn't need to be a savant to see shadows; I think what Brandon means here is that he would burn Atium a ton (to see) and that would turn him into a savant.

 

On 12/29/2022 at 4:01 PM, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

A side question I have is the differences between true inquisitor and bands level steel sight and the spiritual sight you gain when burning temporal metals like atium and gold or electrum?   Would they provide the same sort of vision and seeing?  Which one do you think is more valuable and closer to something like the byakugon in Naruto?  

I believe we know Steel sight is "The Sight of Gods" and that's how Shards see (of course much stronger than anything an allomancer can do), Atium, Gold, and Electrum feels more like Fortune being manipulated rather than Connection (?) for Steel sight.

[alder24]

2 minutes ago, Argenti said:

It's worth noting here that he wouldn't need to be a savant to see shadows; I think what Brandon means here is that he would burn Atium a ton (to see) and that would turn him into a savant.

That was 4 months ago. Almost to the day.

The WoB specifically said "He'd have to burn metals a LOT though. It might warp him a little." - that's savantism or at least on the very edge of savantism. A blind person has to burn a lot of Atium to learn how to percive Atium shadows before he would be able to see them. And you become a savant by burning a lot of metal, this warps you soul. You said the same thing that I said but longer  

[Argenti he/him]

Just now, alder24 said:

That was 4 months ago. Almost to the day.

 

 I made my account last year but never looked at it... Now I get to see all these discussions from months ago. (This time at least I contributed to the discussion)

1 minute ago, alder24 said:

And you become a savant by burning a lot of metal, this warps you soul. You said the same thing that I said but longer  

I thought you meant that he would need to be a savant to see the shadows; I couldn't resist correcting it. 

[alder24]

Just now, Argenti said:

 I made my account last year but never looked at it... Now I get to see all these discussions from months ago. (This time at least I contributed to the discussion)

Nah, I don't care that much, I just found dates to be funny.

 

[Argenti he/him]

Just now, alder24 said:

Nah, I don't care that much, I just found dates to be funny.

 

Frustration is going to be very frustrated with me. Any minute now they'll pop up...

[i’m in the details]

The missile knows where it is because it knows where it isn’t vibes.