Turning Any Scadrien into an Allomancer

[Trusk'our he/him]

This post was inspired by @JustQuestin2004's thread on turning anyone into a Mistborn. I felt the need to continue their just quest of finding out this answer, at least in some way.

We know that it's possible to make Scadriens Snap, even if they don't have a lot of Innate Investiture and wouldn't Snap normally. That's what the Mists did, after all.

However, it seems that doing this requires there to be more trauma involved, more cracks in the Spiritweb to let Preservation's power rise to the forefront and function as intended.

Additionally, when the Mists Snapped people they raised the level of Innate Investiture in them slightly to aid the process.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/270/#e8025

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Seventy

The Reason for the Mistsickness

So, it finally comes out. I wonder at this numbers plot, as I think many readers will glaze over it and ignore it. I think others will read into it and figure out what it means very quickly, then feel that the reveal here isn't much of a revelation. Hopefully I'll get a majority in the middle who read the clues, don't know what they mean, but are happily surprised when it comes together. That's a difficult line to walk sometimes.

What is going on here is that the mists are awakening the Allomantic potential inside of people. It's very rough on a person for that to come out, and can cause death. Preservation set this all up before he gave his consciousness to imprison Ruin, so it's not a perfect system. It's like a machine left behind by its creator. The catalyst is the return of the power to the Well of Ascension. As soon as that power becomes full, it sets the mists to begin Snapping those who have the potential for Allomancy buried within them.

Many of these people won't be very strong Allomancers. Their abilities were buried too deeply to have come out without the mists' intervention. Others will have a more typical level of power; they might have Snapped earlier, had they gone through enough anguish to bring the power out.

My idea on this is that Allomantic potential is a little like a supersaturated solution. You can suspend a great deal of something like sugar in a liquid when it is hot, then cool it down and the sugar remains suspended. Drop one bit of sugar in there as a catalyst, however, and the rest will fall out as a precipitate.

Allomancy is the same. It's in there, but it takes a reaction—in this case, physical anguish—to trigger it and bring it out. That's because the Allomantic power comes from the extra bit of Preservation inside of humans, that same extra bit that gives us free will. This bit is trapped between the opposing forces of Preservation and Ruin, and to come out and allow it the power to access metals and draw forth energy, it needs to fight its way through the piece of Ruin that is also there inside.

As has been established, Ruin's control over creatures—and, indeed, an Allomancer's control over them—grows weaker when that creature is going through some extreme emotions. (Like the koloss blood frenzy.) This has to do with the relationship between the Cognitive Realm, the Physical Realm, and the Spiritual Realm—of which I don't have time to speak right now.

Suffice it to say that there are people who have Snapped because of intense joy or other emotions. It just doesn't happen as frequently and is more difficult to control.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/270/#e7797

Brandon Sanderson

The Sliding Scale of Allomantic Potential

Noblemen, despite what Spook says in this chapter, are not immune to the mistsickness. The rumor Spook is referencing does have merit, however. You see, since the mists are Snapping people and awakening the Allomantic potential within them, it will affect far fewer noblemen than skaa. Why? Because a lot of the noblemen have already Snapped. They were beaten as children to bring out the powers.

However, that won't stop all of them from being affected by the mistsickness, because the mistsickness is also awakening Allomantic potential that would otherwise be too subtle to be brought out. Pretend there's a sliding scale of Allomantic potential. 100% means you're an Allomancer—in this series, only two people have hit 100%—Vin and Elend. Buried within a lot of people, however, is enough of a touch of Preservation's power to hit, say, 50% on the relative scale of Allomantic power. These people, when beaten and made to pass through something traumatic, awaken to their Allomantic abilities.

There are a lot of people out there, however, with something more like 20% to 30%. These are the people the mists are Snapping—since the mists are, themselves, partially the power of Preservation, they can touch people and increase their Allomantic potential slightly and then bring it to the forefront.

I hypothesize that to Snap any Scadrien you must fulfill these requirements then. I believe that there may be multiple ways to do this.

First off, if you were to use a Hemalurgic spike with a Command specifically meant to crack open the Spiritweb wider, but also meant to increase the person's Innate Investiture (specialized Command on a nicrosil spike charged from a single non Allomancer, probably with a Blanked Identity to make it more compatible with the would be Allomancer). This would create cracks in the Spiritweb large enough to Snap the potential Allomancer and would increase their Investiture enough to make it more viable.

After they've Snapped, you can probably remove the spike and recycle it to Snap someone else, which is pretty convenient. It's also possible that the spike's own contents are now programmed to the new Allomancer's power though, which may prevent this, but you would have a new power spike and an independently functioning Allomancer, even though both would have a below average power level.

It's also possible that if you use a Hemalurgic spike to add it their Investiture you won't get the standard of Allomancy, but may instead get a Ruin-fueled version of it, a mixed version, or maybe end up with Feruchemy instead as it is a mix of Ruin and Preservation. Perhaps an Unsealed Nicrosilmind could allow one to increase their base level of Investiture instead of needing a spike, removing this complication, but a trauma inducing spike would likely still be required for the Snapping part.

 

The second idea is that you increase the Scadrien's Connection to Preservation instead of Investiture, then trying to Snap them. This could be achieved either with Hemalurgic duralumin or Feruchemical medallion shenanigans, Connecting you to the Shard of Preservation in the attempt to make a spiritual bridge between you and it so that it can suffuse your Spiriweb more when you try to Snap yourself.

You also may just want to increase both Innate Investiture and Connection to Preservation in the person, though I figured I'd start with the possibilities that require the least work.

 

It also may be possible, based on this new WoB, to at least temporarily access the Metallic Arts by Blanking Identity and tapping massive quantities of Connection to Preservation through medallion technology, though this may not lead to a permanent power manifesting and would require the proper Intent (which requires specific knowledge). It might just let you pull in the Mists, however, and maybe raise your Allomantic potential, though this is highly theoretical and would also probably require a specific Intent.

SA spoilers

Spoiler

Dragonsteel 2023 - Arcanum (coppermind.net)

Questioner

If you were divesting yourself of all Identity, and then tapped a massive amount of Connection and Investiture, would you be able to instantly have access to, say, the Surges on Roshar without oaths?

Brandon Sanderson

So, you wanna get the Surges without oaths? What you're saying is you divest yourself of Identity, you highly Invest yourself... You're still going to need something that's gonna tell that Investiture what to be and how to manifest in yourself. And so if it's the right Intent then maybe, right? 'Cause you can have both Identity and Intent on Investiture and you can unkey it to one or the other or both. And so that might be... But the thing is, you're still gonna have to know... This is a step toward getting what you want, but there's still gotta be something that tells it... "You're holding a massive amount of Investiture, what do I do with this? Do I teleport you across the Cosmere to another planet? What do I do with it?" And you're gonna have to have something to give structure to that Investiture. You're missing a step.

 

[alder24]

21 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

We know that it's possible to make Scadriens Snap, even if they don't have a lot of Innate Investiture and wouldn't Snap normally. That's what the Mists did, after all.

However, it seems that doing this requires there to be more trauma involved, more cracks in the Spiritweb to let Preservation's power rise to the forefront and function as intended.

Additionally, when the Mists Snapped people they raised the level of Innate Investiture in them slightly to aid the process.

  Reveal hidden contents

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/270/#e8025

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Seventy

The Reason for the Mistsickness

So, it finally comes out. I wonder at this numbers plot, as I think many readers will glaze over it and ignore it. I think others will read into it and figure out what it means very quickly, then feel that the reveal here isn't much of a revelation. Hopefully I'll get a majority in the middle who read the clues, don't know what they mean, but are happily surprised when it comes together. That's a difficult line to walk sometimes.

What is going on here is that the mists are awakening the Allomantic potential inside of people. It's very rough on a person for that to come out, and can cause death. Preservation set this all up before he gave his consciousness to imprison Ruin, so it's not a perfect system. It's like a machine left behind by its creator. The catalyst is the return of the power to the Well of Ascension. As soon as that power becomes full, it sets the mists to begin Snapping those who have the potential for Allomancy buried within them.

Many of these people won't be very strong Allomancers. Their abilities were buried too deeply to have come out without the mists' intervention. Others will have a more typical level of power; they might have Snapped earlier, had they gone through enough anguish to bring the power out.

My idea on this is that Allomantic potential is a little like a supersaturated solution. You can suspend a great deal of something like sugar in a liquid when it is hot, then cool it down and the sugar remains suspended. Drop one bit of sugar in there as a catalyst, however, and the rest will fall out as a precipitate.

Allomancy is the same. It's in there, but it takes a reaction—in this case, physical anguish—to trigger it and bring it out. That's because the Allomantic power comes from the extra bit of Preservation inside of humans, that same extra bit that gives us free will. This bit is trapped between the opposing forces of Preservation and Ruin, and to come out and allow it the power to access metals and draw forth energy, it needs to fight its way through the piece of Ruin that is also there inside.

As has been established, Ruin's control over creatures—and, indeed, an Allomancer's control over them—grows weaker when that creature is going through some extreme emotions. (Like the koloss blood frenzy.) This has to do with the relationship between the Cognitive Realm, the Physical Realm, and the Spiritual Realm—of which I don't have time to speak right now.

Suffice it to say that there are people who have Snapped because of intense joy or other emotions. It just doesn't happen as frequently and is more difficult to control.

  Reveal hidden contents

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/270/#e7797

Brandon Sanderson

The Sliding Scale of Allomantic Potential

Noblemen, despite what Spook says in this chapter, are not immune to the mistsickness. The rumor Spook is referencing does have merit, however. You see, since the mists are Snapping people and awakening the Allomantic potential within them, it will affect far fewer noblemen than skaa. Why? Because a lot of the noblemen have already Snapped. They were beaten as children to bring out the powers.

However, that won't stop all of them from being affected by the mistsickness, because the mistsickness is also awakening Allomantic potential that would otherwise be too subtle to be brought out. Pretend there's a sliding scale of Allomantic potential. 100% means you're an Allomancer—in this series, only two people have hit 100%—Vin and Elend. Buried within a lot of people, however, is enough of a touch of Preservation's power to hit, say, 50% on the relative scale of Allomantic power. These people, when beaten and made to pass through something traumatic, awaken to their Allomantic abilities.

There are a lot of people out there, however, with something more like 20% to 30%. These are the people the mists are Snapping—since the mists are, themselves, partially the power of Preservation, they can touch people and increase their Allomantic potential slightly and then bring it to the forefront.

I hypothesize that to Snap any Scadrien you must fulfill these requirements then. I believe that there may be multiple ways to do this.

First off, if you were to use a Hemalurgic spike with a Command specifically meant to crack open the Spiritweb wider, but also meant to increase the person's Innate Investiture (specialized Command on a nicrosil spike charged from a single non Allomancer, probably with a Blanked Identity to make it more compatible with the would be Allomancer). This would create cracks in the Spiritweb large enough to Snap the potential Allomancer and would increase their Investiture enough to make it more viable.

After they've Snapped, you can probably remove the spike and recycle it to Snap someone else, which is pretty convenient. It's also possible that the spike's own contents are now programmed to the new Allomancer's power though, which may prevent this, but you would have a new power spike and an independently functioning Allomancer, even though both would have a below average power level.

It's also possible that if you use a Hemalurgic spike to add it their Investiture you won't get the standard of Allomancy, but may instead get a Ruin-fueled version of it, a mixed version, or maybe end up with Feruchemy instead as it is a mix of Ruin and Preservation. Perhaps an Unsealed Nicrosilmind could allow one to increase their base level of Investiture instead of needing a spike, removing this complication, but a trauma inducing spike would likely still be required for the Snapping part.

Sure let's kill a significant portion of Scadrian population and torture the remaining one. What can go wrong?   

Few issues.

The Mists were investing people during Snapping. You would likely need this nicrosil spike to contain more than 1 innate investiture charge in it, which would complicate the matter a little bit. 

Secondly, even with this spike in them, those spike-snapped Misting would be of low power. If you remove the spike after snapping, they might either lose power entirely or functionally lose their power (as it would be vestigial, super weak). That's not very useful. Spikes need to remain in people to make this useful at all.

Spoiler

Herowannabe

So Elend, at the end of Mistborn [Era 1], is going around finding Allomancers the mist had Snapped. How come he didn't find any other Mistborn? Or did he and we just didn't know about it?

Brandon Sanderson

What you have to remember is the mists were looking for a way specifically to deliver information to him, that "I am alive and doing something" but they were also kind of crazy. And so the idea was to make him notice the number 16 so that he would know that there was a plan and that something was prepared for him. Does that make sense?

Herowannabe

Why didn't the mist throw in some Mistborn in that sixteen too?

Brandon Sanderson

Then you would have 17. Or you would have like--  It was the number that was important to what the mists were doing. Plus it is much harder to make someone who wasn't originally-- Like remember what's going on is these are people it is Snapping intentionally who did not-- Like it's Investing them so-- It's either awakening a very little remnant in them or taking people who had-- They wouldn't have been able to be Mistings, if the mists hadn't intervened. Making someone a Mistborn takes way more power.

Firefight release party (Jan. 5, 2015)

 

When searching for this WoB, I've found those ones:

Spoiler

PrncRny (paraphrased)

How and when is the type of Misting you become determined? Can you tell what type of Misting you are before you Snap?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It's determined at birth. The cosmere by combining 3 aspects of self. Your physical self, mental self, and spiritual self. The spiritual self is tied to the Investiture of the world that you come from. When an Allomancer snaps, a piece of their soul is broken and some of that power leaks into them, giving them their abilities.

Idaho Falls signing 2014 (Nov. 29, 2014)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

When a Misting snaps, is the metal that they're going to be able to burn predetermined? Or is it determined when they snap?

Brandon Sanderson

It is part of their Spiritual DNA.

Arcanum Unbounded release party (Nov. 22, 2016)

Which explains in a bit technical way why Set was unable to grant permanent powers with their spikes. They essentially squeezed all that innate investiture from 20-30 people into one spike, each piece of a soul was coded to a different power. The spike simply went nuts not knowing what to do, it may give one power which was dominant among all pieces, but eventually the interference of others shuts off the power for good.

If you're able to read spirit webs and Connections, then you can choose people whose innate investiture is already coded to give the same power, let say A-steel, make a spike and give it to a person which also is coded with A-steel. It should work now, even with conflicting identities as all of the spike charge is coded to one power, the spike knows what to do.

Eventually blanking identity also blanks assigned power (if this information is stored in identity). Either way I see new possibilities of using Hemalurgy to make Metalborn- if you can read spirit webs.

[Trusk'our he/him]

13 minutes ago, alder24 said:

Sure let's kill a significant portion of Scadrian population and torture the remaining one. What can go wrong?   

Okay, perhaps you have a point 

14 minutes ago, alder24 said:

The Mists were investing people during Snapping. You would likely need this nicrosil spike to contain more than 1 innate investiture charge in it, which would complicate the matter a little bit. 

Secondly, even with this spike in them, those spike-snapped Misting would be of low power. If you remove the spike after snapping, they might either lose power entirely or functionally lose their power (as it would be vestigial, super weak). That's not very useful. Spikes need to remain in people to make this useful at all.

I was imagining doing this very thing, making weaker Metalborn from normal people, but I see your point; the remaining power they have may be so weak that it's effectively nonfunctional even if it technically exists. I think that it depends on other factors however, such as how much of an Investiture difference there actually is between a muggle Scadrien and the standard Allomancer, so I wouldn't completely rule this out as a viable option until we have more information.

 

18 minutes ago, alder24 said:

When searching for this WoB, I've found those ones:

  Hide contents

PrncRny (paraphrased)

How and when is the type of Misting you become determined? Can you tell what type of Misting you are before you Snap?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It's determined at birth. The cosmere by combining 3 aspects of self. Your physical self, mental self, and spiritual self. The spiritual self is tied to the Investiture of the world that you come from. When an Allomancer snaps, a piece of their soul is broken and some of that power leaks into them, giving them their abilities.

Idaho Falls signing 2014 (Nov. 29, 2014)

  Hide contents

Questioner

When a Misting snaps, is the metal that they're going to be able to burn predetermined? Or is it determined when they snap?

Brandon Sanderson

It is part of their Spiritual DNA.

Arcanum Unbounded release party (Nov. 22, 2016)

Welp, I'm not sure how we managed to miss these for so long considering we had multiple debates over how this works, but I'm glad it's confirmed now. Thank you for finding them.

20 minutes ago, alder24 said:

Which explains in a bit technical way why Set was unable to grant permanent powers with their spikes. They essentially squeezed all that innate investiture from 20-30 people into one spike, each piece of a soul was coded to a different power. The spike simply went nuts not knowing what to do, it may give one power which was dominant among all pieces, but eventually the interference of others shuts off the power for good.

If you're able to read spirit webs and Connections, then you can choose people whose innate investiture is already coded to give the same power, let say A-steel, make a spike and give it to a person which also is coded with A-steel. It should work now, even with conflicting identities as all of the spike charge is coded to one power, the spike knows what to do.

That sounds like a very reasonable theory to me, and a possible way to make non-Allomancer's Investiture into functioning powers, even if you're still limited in who specifically can get that power.

28 minutes ago, alder24 said:

Eventually blanking identity also blanks assigned power (if this information is stored in identity). Either way I see new possibilities of using Hemalurgy to make Metalborn- if you can read spirit webs.

You mean like how we talked about adding Connection to the SR via Hemalurgy might be able to in that one other thread?