New View on Allomantic Pewter

[Trusk'our]

I found this quote last night and it changed the way I look at Allomantic pewter;

Quote

FanX 2022 - Arcanum (coppermind.net)

Questioner (paraphrased)

. . .

2. Is there more going on behind the scenes when an Allomancer burns pewter? I suspect that the process triggers a "mind over matter" state, where the user's desires are made manifest, albeit in a limited way. If so, can a pewter burner alter their Physical appearance, similar to a Returned (provided they knew they could and had access to enough pewter)?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

. . .

2a. That is a valid theory. On the right track. 

2b. Possible in theory

(I removed the mild Warbreaker and SA spoilers inside) So, this means that a Pewterarm can control more about what their Allomancy does? I always thought of A-pewter being a more passive metal, where you could train to use the effects, but you couldn't control it as you do steel and iron. This also would explain some of the fundamental differences between the Blessing of Potency and Allomantic pewter; Potency really is just a static boost to your Spiritual Aspect's natural physical abilities, but because of that it's narrower in its scope. Allomantic pewter has more potential, including some sort of mind-over-matter.

What else do you think A-pewter could be used for?

[The Sibling]

That's interesting, although I really didn't think that this was the way that pewter works. i guess it makes sense though. This makes me wonder what pewter savantism is like.

[Kendelian]

Compelling theory, but how does pewter enhance healing

[Trusk'our]

5 hours ago, Kendelian said:

Compelling theory, but how does pewter enhance healing

I'm not sure I understand the question. Could you please elaborate?

[Voidmaker]

19 hours ago, Kendelian said:

Compelling theory, but how does pewter enhance healing

A-Pewter's healing is just a general healing buff, as it buffs all of your other physical defenses. It increases your natural regeneration slightly and natural regeneration speed slightly, not by much, and it makes it easier to sustain injuries while burning (giving you time to heal them before you die). So, yes, it is theoretically an Invested healing method, but it's not a particularly good one (F-Gold is much, much, much better) but it can do what is described above, apparently.

[Trusk'our]

On 9/12/2023 at 3:56 PM, Kendelian said:

Compelling theory, but how does pewter enhance healing

 

On 9/13/2023 at 11:05 AM, Voidwatcher said:

A-Pewter's healing is just a general healing buff, as it buffs all of your other physical defenses. It increases your natural regeneration slightly and natural regeneration speed slightly, not by much, and it makes it easier to sustain injuries while burning (giving you time to heal them before you die). So, yes, it is theoretically an Invested healing method, but it's not a particularly good one (F-Gold is much, much, much better) but it can do what is described above, apparently.

Sorry it took me so long to respond- I'm not sure how I forgot to.

I hypothesize that A-pewter's healing actually works under the exact same mechanism as F-gold, it's just that it's much, much smaller in terms of Investiture. The reason you get scars even with it? The healing either takes too long and thus the injuries get incorporated into your Cognitive Aspect, thus making them scar as normal, or because the Investiture granted by A-pewter is just too small to boost from a seemingly natural healing method to a more miraculous one.

This makes me think that a Pewterarm that had the correct mindset might be able to recover and regenerate completely even from very old physical injures (such as regrowing lost fingers, arms, nasty scars, or a blinded eye), though it would be difficult to maintain the correct mindset during the whole process of healing. It now makes me think of a fantasy-style monk, sitting in seclusion, trying to perfect their mind to gain greater control over their body.

I don't think that A-pewter could heal spiritual injuries though (such as being Hemalurgically spiked), as, well, WoR spoilers;

Spoiler

We saw in WoR that Kaladin needed a surge of healing (with lots of Investiture) to repair the damage done to his arm by a Shardblade. A-pewter doesn't give large surges of health- that's F-gold's purview- it just gives a small passive amount, which would never be enough to repair such damage. Unless they were powered by Purified Dor or some similar source of power, that is.

 

[alder24]

2 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

I hypothesize that A-pewter's healing actually works under the exact same mechanism as F-gold, it's just that it's much, much smaller in terms of Investiture. The reason you get scars even with it? The healing either takes too long and thus the injuries get incorporated into your Cognitive Aspect, thus making them scar as normal, or because the Investiture granted by A-pewter is just too small to boost from a seemingly natural healing method to a more miraculous one.

This makes me think that a Pewterarm that had the correct mindset might be able to recover and regenerate completely even from very old physical injures (such as regrowing lost fingers, arms, nasty scars, or a blinded eye), though it would be difficult to maintain the correct mindset during the whole process of healing. It now makes me think of a fantasy-style monk, sitting in seclusion, trying to perfect their mind to gain greater control over their body.

I don't think that A-pewter could heal spiritual injuries though (such as being Hemalurgically spiked), as, well, WoR spoilers;

While the perception might matter with A-pewter, as in every form of healing, I also highly doubt it can heal spiritual damage, as you need a certain amount of investiture to make a patch on your soul - A-pewter simply cannot provide that. Not with Lerasium, not with the Bands, not with Rashek's power. 

I've once compared how A-pewter healed VIn and Eland in TFE and WoA respectively - they were both lethally wounded in the same general area, they both took 2 weeks to wake up from the coma and further months to fully recover, and that was while also getting professional medical care of a Keeper (not mentioned in Eland's case but let's be real, Sazed would not abandon his friend with a deadly wound in his guts, not to mention all medical care he would get from regular doctors as the Emperor ). To add more, Eland was the stronger Mistborn than Vin, getting few times more investiture per metal than her, but still there was almost no difference in the healing speed.

Yes, with the proper mindset you might be able to fully recover without scars, but you would need to be especially gifted (or just crazy) to keep that mindset through all those months of suffering. That's a bit impractical. If you want to alter your appearance with A-pewter you would need mind-boggling amounts of it to be constantly burned by you - possible in theory, in practice not really. Just get a spike with F-gold.

Edited October 14, 2023 by alder24

[Trusk'our]

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

While the perception might matter with A-pewter, as in every form of healing, I also highly doubt it can heal spiritual damage, as you need a certain amount of investiture to make a patch on your soul - A-pewter simply cannot provide that. Not with Lerasium, not with the Bands, not with Rashek's power. 

Not even with Purified Dor levels?

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

I've once compared how A-pewter healed VIn and Eland in TFE and WoA respectively - they were both lethally wounded in the same general area, they both took 2 weeks to wake up from the coma and further months to fully recover, and that was while also getting professional medical care of a Keeper (not mentioned in Eland's case but let's be real, Sazed would not abandon his friend with a deadly wound in his guts, not to mention all medical care he would get from regular doctors as the Emperor ). To add more, Eland was the stronger Mistborn than Vin, getting few times more investiture per metal than her, but still there was almost no difference in the healing speed.

Good points- A-pewter healing is like a slow dripping from a semi-leaky pipe compared to F-gold that is more like a cup that slowly fills up and can be drunk all at once.

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

Yes, with the proper mindset you might be able to fully recover without scars, but you would need to be especially gifted (or just crazy) to keep that mindset through all those months of suffering. That's a bit impractical. If you want to alter your appearance with A-pewter you would need mind-boggling amounts of it to be constantly burned by you - possible in theory, in practice not really. Just get a spike with F-gold.

Oh, it would be a horribly inefficient way to heal from those types of injuries, I just think that it may be possible to do so. Most people (even Mistings) aren't going to be willing or able to grant themselves F-gold Hemalurgy, but having the option for healing from such wounds available could be useful to them (though unlikely to occur- the mindset requirement would be very difficult to achieve or even know about).

I also think that it would be really interesting to see a Pewterarm character use a more mind-over-matter approach or scholarly approach to their Investiture, especially considering the fact that most Pewterarms don't look into their power beyond the obvious (and easy) thuggish aspects.

A pewter Misting who was a true master over the tiny aspects of their mind and power and had uncovered its secrets would be fascinating to read about indeed.

Edited October 14, 2023 by Trusk'our

[alder24]

48 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

Not even with Purified Dor levels?

Unlikely - it was said it's on the level of Bands or Rashek's power.