Musings on Feruchemical Bronze

[Trusk'our he/him]

Feruchemical bronze has to be one of the least utilized powers of the Metallic Arts (at least to me). So I decided to dedicate a little more time to it.

One thing I've wondered about is whether you could use Feruchemical bronze to store certain sections of sleep. For example, could you store only time spent in REM sleep so as to make it need to last longer and therefore have more dreams?

Another thing I've realized after reading this WoB; F-bonze isn't necessarily good just because you can sleep longer at one time to need less sleep later, but because you can choose exactly when you fall asleep (or, theoretically, maybe even when you wake up). Having worked part time as a night guard before, I can honestly say that it's quite rough on the body; half the week your sleep schedule is the same as everyone else's, the other half you're staying up till 8 AM and sleeping till dinner time- which didn't really work well for me, as my circadian rhythm takes about 5 days to truly reset, so I was always sleepy no matter what I did. But F-bronze would negate any such hassle even without needing to store a whole bunch of restfulness for later.

This could also be useful to make yourself get the most out of your sleep when going on a road trip (NOT in the driver's seat), flying on a plane, or sleeping on an otherwise uncomfortable piece of ground when camping.

Since F-bronze can also store the effects of caffeine, you could change your mind after taking too much and store it so that you calm down. 

This line of thought also made me wonder if you could Tap it to shrug off the effects of a knockout drug and get the drop on your assailant. Perhaps if you released a gas that made people fall asleep you could shrug off the effects and take out your opponents while they were unconscious.

According to Psychology Today, napping has various physical and mental benefits, ranging from an improved mood to better memorization to more energy and focus. So Tapping 15 minutes or so of wakefulness every once and a while doing other projects could probably let you benefit from these perks.

Any other ideas on how to utilize F-bronze?

[Ianastor01]

I think the further we go trough the eras, the more we'll know what some powers actually do, since I see scientists saying things like "F-pewter doesn't store strength, it stores muscle density" or things like that.

What I'm trying to say is that maybe, if you can store the effect of caffeine, maybe what F-bronze really does is store your heart rate, maybe the way your body rests or goes into action, and with That maybe you could be able to tap in a specific way to enter the "Zone", like, enter a state of super consciousness similar to what F-zinc could do.

[Trusk'our he/him]

19 minutes ago, Ianastor01 said:

I think the further we go trough the eras, the more we'll know what some powers actually do, since I see scientists saying things like "F-pewter doesn't store strength, it stores muscle density" or things like that.

What I'm trying to say is that maybe, if you can store the effect of caffeine, maybe what F-bronze really does is store your heart rate, maybe the way your body rests or goes into action, and with That maybe you could be able to tap in a specific way to enter the "Zone", like, enter a state of super consciousness similar to what F-zinc could do.

Interesting. This does make sense, and honestly would be really awesome to see.

Warbreaker spoilers:

Spoiler

This makes me think of Awakening; the clearer the image you have set in your mind, the more complex things you can make the magic do. Having a clearer image in mind when performing Allomancy or Feruchemy might lead to new uses of the powers, some that don't feel intuitive, but are technically achieved through similar means.

An example of this might be figuring out how F-electrum alters one's brain chemistry and the process could perhaps be extrapolated on to allow a Pinnacle Ferring to Store or Tap different emotional states or Intents.

 

[Green Hoodie Mistborn he/him]

4 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Any other ideas on how to utilize F-bronze?

I know the Space Era will have FTL in some way, shape, or form. 

BUT, does that negate the need for some sort of (very common) sci-fi stasis sleep? You have to travel at many multiples the speed of light to make real space travel possible. What if their FTL is only 3 or 4x? It'd still take months to travel places right? 

Unsealed F-Bronze medallion systems could help with that in some way. Some of the crew sleep, storing wakefulness, and when the medallion or metalmind is full, the awake crew swap empty ones out to keep the crew asleep and use the stored wakefulness to stay awake, crewing the ship? 

[Trusk'our he/him]

44 minutes ago, Green Hoodie Mistborn said:

Unsealed F-Bronze medallion systems could help with that in some way. Some of the crew sleep, storing wakefulness, and when the medallion or metalmind is full, the awake crew swap empty ones out to keep the crew asleep and use the stored wakefulness to stay awake, crewing the ship? 

Oooo, also maybe you could store with F-steel simultaneously, as it should slow down the body's need for air, food, and water. And of course, you get some free physical speed too, which is useful.

[Green Hoodie Mistborn he/him]

16 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Oooo, also maybe you could store with F-steel simultaneously, as it should slow down the body's need for air, food, and water. And of course, you get some free physical speed too, which is useful.

Haha, I like this game

Have the awake crew constantly eating to fill up F-Bendalloy minds and swap them IN so the sleeping crew has the food and nutrients they need to sustain even at lower metabolic rates. 

[aetherbound he/him]

Might as well have the sleeping crew filling tin, zinc, iron, pewter, and maybe brass. All of those could plausibly help them hibernate more effectively.

My real question is, what happens when they develop savantism from storing/tapping these attributes for so long?

[Green Hoodie Mistborn he/him]

I hope we find out something intereting!

though we've seen it already (Miles), and WoB says that the only real way to become a Feruchemy Savant would be to compound the Feruchemy attribute which I doubt you can do while asleep

But maybe unsealed medallions can help push the limits on that and we can see some F-savants!

 

 

[Quantus he/him]

I generally picture everyone with a little metal Startrek-style badge medallion (or spike) that Connects them to a bunch of shared Metalmind pools that everyone is using.  But I think by the Space era they'll be able to convert one Metalmind's Investiture to another and Compound quite a bit so that a true 1:1 of each trait it no longer required.  Imagine a shared life support system that uses Compounders to fill it and grants everyone aboard Oxygen, Nutrition, Hydration, Wakefulness, "Determination" (ie: carefully dosed mania for their duties), as well as the typical suite of mental and physical augmentation, healing, etc. just o make them generally better at them (either a universal package or task-specific specializations).    

 

Edit: also heat.  And by that point they can survive it the vacuum of space which makes spaceship design a whole lot easier.  They could literally swoop in on (metal) pirate ships with open decks, no pressure or atmosphere, etc required.

Edited January 25, 2024 by Quantus