What do we know about "investiture active" metals

[Shadow of Electrum]

Sorry for the odd title, I'm not sure what else to call it. As I'm sure you're all aware, there are specific metals that have effects on investiture, and I don't just mean for the metallic arts. Aluminum has shown up multiple times and seems to have investiture negating powers in each appearance. allomantic metals have uses in Rosharan fabrials, and silver seems to have interactions with investiture despite the fact that it has no allomantic properties. All god metals are investiture active for obvious reasons. My question is just how much do we know about which metals interact with investiture. All metals are condensed power as described in HoA, but I don't know much about it past that. Even though I'm supposed to be up to date in the cosmere for the most part, it feels like there's still so much that I don't know. If you know anything about this, share your thoughts and whatnot, and thank you.

[alder24]

3 hours ago, AvonZapper said:

All metals are condensed power as described in HoA, but I don't know much about it past that.

That's not really true. God Metals are condensed power of a Shard, regular metals aren't. God metals are pure investiture in a physical, solid form. A Mistborn doesn't get power from the metal itself, but the metal is the keyhole for the power coming from SR.

Spoiler

Brandon Sanderson

Atium's Mechanism

Atium is, indeed, different from the other metals. When you burn most Allomantic metals, it opens a conduit through which you can draw upon Preservation's power and use it in very specific ways.

Atium doesn't do that. Atium is, itself, a fuel. When you burn it, the metal itself provides the power. A subtle distinction, I know, but it has to do with where the power is coming from. Most Allomancy is fueled by Preservation, but atium and malatium are fueled by Ruin.

This metal doesn't quite belong on the table where it has been placed.

The Hero of Ages Annotations (April 1, 2010)

 

3 hours ago, AvonZapper said:

Sorry for the odd title, I'm not sure what else to call it. As I'm sure you're all aware, there are specific metals that have effects on investiture, and I don't just mean for the metallic arts. Aluminum has shown up multiple times and seems to have investiture negating powers in each appearance. allomantic metals have uses in Rosharan fabrials, and silver seems to have interactions with investiture despite the fact that it has no allomantic properties. All god metals are investiture active for obvious reasons. My question is just how much do we know about which metals interact with investiture. All metals are condensed power as described in HoA, but I don't know much about it past that. Even though I'm supposed to be up to date in the cosmere for the most part, it feels like there's still so much that I don't know. If you know anything about this, share your thoughts and whatnot, and thank you.

Base 16 metals plus silver have special effects on investiture but why? It's because of spiritual properties of metals that might even predate the Shattering. There is not much information about it in general so you don't really lack anything important. Silver and aluminum are currently the most significant and we'll known metals with those effect in Cosmere, rest are slowly discovered like steel or iron. But you should expect all metals from Metallic Arts to have those effects, plus silver and possibly all god metals too. But God metals are their own category.

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)

 

Spoiler

Argent

It seems there is a special interaction between silver and investiture, in at least certain places in the Cosmere. We've seen how silver interacts with aethers, and we've seen over on Threnody. So that makes silver the second really really special metal to interact with investiture. Is the plan now to have aluminum block investiture, and silver destroy investiture?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, that's the way I'm going with it. To make a distinction between them, that's where we're going.

Argent

But silver is still non-allomantic. No silvereyes.

Brandon Sanderson

No, non-allomantic, yup. No silvereyes. This is my nod towards silvereye-ness, and yeah, there we go.

Argent

So would [silver] be effective against spren, just like [anti-Investiture]?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, you'll have to find out. RAFO!

Footnote: Argent tried. He also horribly mangled his last question, but it got RAFO'd, so that doesn't matter...
Shardcast Interview (July 30, 2023)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

Does silver break Connection or bonds? If silver does have this effect, does it get used in the creation of unkeyed metalminds?

Brandon Sanderson

These are good questions. Silver, as I have it right now, is not capable of that. What silver's doing is is disrupting. It's more like interference. You know how, in White Sand, people can have these columns of sand. If you swiped silver through that, they would fall; but then they would be able to do it again. It's this little nullification for a short time. It's very dangerous to things like shades, and stuff like that. It's more disruptive. If you hit a spren with this, it would be like hitting them with a Shardblade. They're gonna come back together. They're not dead; they're gonna reform eventually, and probably won't take too long. So it's not severing Connection; you're gonna need anti-Investiture to do really destructive stuff. But you can disrupt with some silver. It's specifically bad for Shades for reasons maybe I'll get into someday.

Dragonsteel 2023 (Nov. 21, 2023)

 

[Shadow of Electrum]

Thank you! My comment about all metal being condensed power was something I vaguely remembered being said in a prechapter quote somewhere, and that was reinforced by the fact that shards, or at the very least Ruin, had trouble seeing metal. I'm glad to know I'm not too behind in this respect since I'm trying really hard to build up my understanding of the cosmere. It hasn't evaded me that you in particular seem to be the one who answers a lot of my questions, so I would like to take this time to thank you for that, as well as answering my question this time around.