allomancy with other investiture types

[PinkPlasma she/her]

So I think at this point most people who are knee-deep into the cosmere have noticed that the allomantic metals effect all types of investiture we have seen it interact with. aluminium is the largest example of this, as it apears in almost every book series we have seen in the cosmere now, with the exception of, if im not mistaken, Elantris. but beyond aluminum, I haven't really seen how the other allomantic metals interact with investiture. we got some useful tidbits in ROW with navani, and more usefull tidbits specifically with steel and iron in ToTES. So im making this thread for discussion on possibilites on how the other allomantic metals, like tin, bendalloy, or copper, actually effect other types of investiture. what would happen if I made an aon out of duralumin? would an allomantic steel wall physically repel a shard bearer? stuff like that! :b

[alder24]

The effects of metals in different invested arts aren't the result of Allomancy, it's the opposite, the effects of Allomantic metals are the result of general Cosmere phenomenta or natural law that affects metal giving them spiritual properties. Allomancy is simply another representation of this. So the effects of Aluminum aren't because of the Allomantic properties of Aluminum, but the other way around, Allomantic effect of Aluminum is because of spiritual properties of Aluminum.

Spoiler

Questioner

Quick question on aluminum. Why does it affect other forms of Investiture?

Brandon Sanderson

When I was building the cosmere, I just had to build certain themes into it, and metal was one of those. And the metals have kind of a Spiritual integrity, and Spiritual component, that if I can get into Dragonsteel explaining why, you'll get your kind of origins.

Questioner

And that's why, in Warbreaker, metals are different with Awakening, and stuff.

Brandon Sanderson

And even in Roshar, the cages that you're building for fabrials, once you start to figure out how those metals affect it, you'll be like, "Oh wait, that makes sense!" And these are just across the cosmere.

And if you want an in-world answer, it has to do with stuff in Dragonsteel. But really, the answer is, I was building this and I'm like, "I just want this to be a theme. So I'm just going to give this Spiritual component to metals." So it works in Mistborn, and it works all across everything.

LTUE 2020 (Feb. 15, 2020)

Fabrials are complicated, it's not the type of metal that defines how it works, it's mostly the type of spren trapped in the gem, and type of gem used for fabrial. Metal in fabrials changes things like range, power or direction of the fabrial's effects.

I haven't read ToTES yet, so I can't say anything about it. 

[Argenti he/him]

On 3/20/2023 at 3:33 PM, alder24 said:

I haven't read ToTES yet, so I can't say anything about it. 

It has some stuff that lines up with the effects of steel and iron

Worldbuilding spoiler ToTES

Spoiler

One such tool is a shield-like object made of iron, which attracts spores.Another is a steel trowel which repels spores. With these one can manipulate how they grow to ones advantage, typically for the purposes of filling holes in the hull of a ship.