Nicrosil's use

[Tea Leaf]

So if my friend, let's call him Mr. Guy, is burning nicrosil and using it to enhance my duralumin which is enhancing my pewter, how would this affect my pewter?

How does Nicrosil affect other Nicrosil burners, could you chain a whole bunch of mistings to know your whole future burning electrum?

How about Nicrosil + compounders? What happens if Mr. Guy uses Nicrosil on a compounder, would it add allomancy on, make the compounding stronger, or be like when one feruchemist is trying to tap another's metalmind?

Edited February 16, 2023 by The last Fae in the Woods

[alder24]

It probably wouldn't do anything. What duralumin does is it releases all energy from metals you are burning at once. So if you have pewter for 10 min of burn, burning it with duralumin would release all of that in a single moment. Adding nicrosil to it, it would only cause you to burn all your duralumin in the same moment, pewter already released all of its energy so nothing would be added to it. Nicrosil works in the same way as duralumin, but it only targets someone else's metals.

Spoiler

Questioner

What happens if you burn duralumin while Compounding?

Brandon Sanderson

Duralumin while Compounding. So, what duralumin does is it burns out of all of your metal in one burst. So it doesn't necessarily gain you power, it makes it all happen at the same time. The same thing would happen.

Questioner

Could you turn into a baby?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, you could totally turn into a baby. That is within the power of using that, doing <health wrong>, yeah you could totally... You'd be really dangerous.

Questioner

But it wouldn't really do much?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh it would have explosive... it does things really fast. That's what it does. Yes you could achieve very powerful sudden effects through that. It'd be scary. Controlling it can be dangerous, regardless of which metal you use.

Arcanum Unbounded Seattle signing (Dec. 1, 2016)

 

[IlstrawberrySeed]

1. We don't know. I personally believe that it burns it at an incredibly quickly, but not instantaneous, rate, and therfore the faster the N/D burns, the faster the target burns. This seems supported by Cadmiums effects and how un-invested non-burning metals go first.

2. I believe it also adds a little power, so someone being twice necroburst would get a little less than one being thrice necroburst, but there isn't any evidence for it, just headcannon. In theory, a single necroburst with enough electrum can do it, though this is also a method if the above is true.

3. Same as Durilium, they compound faster, no allomantic charge is gained beyond what would happen if you necroburst them after the invested part was gone.

[IlstrawberrySeed]

6 hours ago, alder24 said:

It probably wouldn't do anything. What duralumin does is it releases all energy from metals you are burning at once. So if you have pewter for 10 min of burn, burning it with duralumin would release all of that in a single moment. Adding nicrosil to it, it would only cause you to burn all your duralumin in the same moment, pewter already released all of its energy so nothing would be added to it. Nicrosil works in the same way as duralumin, but it only targets someone else's metals.

  Hide contents

Questioner

What happens if you burn duralumin while Compounding?

Brandon Sanderson

Duralumin while Compounding. So, what duralumin does is it burns out of all of your metal in one burst. So it doesn't necessarily gain you power, it makes it all happen at the same time. The same thing would happen.

Questioner

Could you turn into a baby?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, you could totally turn into a baby. That is within the power of using that, doing <health wrong>, yeah you could totally... You'd be really dangerous.

Questioner

But it wouldn't really do much?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh it would have explosive... it does things really fast. That's what it does. Yes you could achieve very powerful sudden effects through that. It'd be scary. Controlling it can be dangerous, regardless of which metal you use.

Arcanum Unbounded Seattle signing (Dec. 1, 2016)

 

Didn't know this, but "one burst" isn't necessarily instantaneous. I see my headcannon was wrong, but there is no evidence that the burst is instantaneous, and even evidence that it isn't. Also, if it were instantaneous, speed of burn doesn't matter, which isn't cohesive, it would be an outlier. It wouldn't even fit with it's pure.

[alder24]

2 minutes ago, IlstrawberrySeed said:

I see my headcannon was wrong, but there is no evidence that the burst is instantaneous, and even evidence that it isn't.

There is literally a WoB in my post which says, I quote "it makes it all happen at the same time". What other evidence do you need?

[IlstrawberrySeed]

Just now, alder24 said:

There is literally a WoB in my post which says, I quote "it makes it all happen at the same time". What other evidence do you need?

At the same time != instantaneous. Runners start a race at the same time, but some have slightly faster reaction, and therefore quicker/sooner start times. This is Brandon using english, not picking his words carefully for a novel. At the same time means it cannot just stop - someone burning durilium cannot stop burning durilium before the other metals are gone, and perhaps if one had enough metals (likely through being a kandra with enough mass) one could run out of durilium, and either the burst would stop. or the burst would continue. but that hasn't happened, so we don't know.

[alder24]

4 minutes ago, IlstrawberrySeed said:

At the same time != instantaneous.

From the Coppermind, sourced by AoL Ars Arcanum: 

Quote

An Allomancer burning duralumin instantly uses up any metals being burned simultaneously, releasing an enormous burst of power from those metals

Is instantly close enough to instantaneous for you? Because this is canon. Books prove that as well.

[IlstrawberrySeed]

Just now, alder24 said:

From the Coppermind, sourced by AoL Ars Arcanum: 

Is instantly close enough to instantaneous for you? Because this is canon. Books prove that as well.

Fair enough. Though books don't seem instantaneous - Vin has time to see and push on specific things when burning durilium first, etc. All in all, I'd believe Kris is wrong because of time mesurement and observation, but we have to go with instantaneous until shown otherwise.