Hypothetical Infinite Investiture

[Blanthos]

I'm not sure if this actually works the way I think it does, but basically, you need to be a nicrosil compounder and either a Lightweaver or an Elsecaller (so you can soulcast. Then, what you do is you breath in some Stormlight, store it in a nicrosilmind, compound it, and use that Investiture to soulcast things into nicrosil, which you can then compound, and use the resulting Investiture to soulcast more things into nicrosil, and so on. 

[alder24]

34 minutes ago, Blanthos said:

I'm not sure if this actually works the way I think it does, but basically, you need to be a nicrosil compounder and either a Lightweaver or an Elsecaller (so you can soulcast. Then, what you do is you breath in some Stormlight, store it in a nicrosilmind, compound it, and use that Investiture to soulcast things into nicrosil, which you can then compound, and use the resulting Investiture to soulcast more things into nicrosil, and so on. 

Welcome to the Shard.

As far as we know a Nicrosilmind stores not raw investiture like Stormlight or Mists, but the ability to use investiture - Surgebinding, Allomancy, Feruchemy and other Invested Arts. Powers not fuel. We see Nicrosilminds being used like that in Era 2, where they provide Feruchemical abilities to use metalminds, but metalminds have to be filled with normal attributes. This won't work.

[Blanthos]

figured there would be some reason it wouldn't work, although it raises the question then of how compounding nicrosil would work

 

[alder24]

4 minutes ago, Blanthos said:

figured there would be some reason it wouldn't work, although it raises the question then of how compounding nicrosil would work

In medallions, the nicrosil portion works like a coppermind - you fully store it there once, and you fully tap it back, with nothing being used up over time. But we know medallions are different and one WoB claims nicrosil portion of medallions is more restrictive than normal Feruchemical nicrosil. Because of that I suspect that a normal nicrosilmind used by a Feruchemist would work like most other powers (just like storing mass in iron) - you store 50% of your Allomantic strength in a nicrosilmind for an hour, you can tap it back for an hour to be at 150% strength, or tap with diminishing returns to get more for a shorter time. In case of Allomancy you could get to Lerasium Mistborn power or Rashek's levels, maybe even stronger if it is possible. You can make duralumin powered steelpushes without duralumin, by just burning your steel while tapping a lot of nicrosil. For me this makes a lot of sense and provides a lot of exciting possibilities.

But unfortunately, we don't know much about applications of F-nicrosil, this is something that Brandon wants to explore in the future so we have to wait. 

Spoiler

Pagerunner

When you tap the nicrosil portion of a medallion, will it run out over time? Or is it like a coppermind, where something discrete is taken, used, and returned?

Brandon Sanderson

Good question! Like a coppermind.

General Signed Books 2018 (Oct. 15, 2018)

 

Spoiler

Calderis

Does the nicrosil portion of the medallions function identitically to how a Soulbearer Ferring would use Nicrosil? 

Brandon Sanderson

Not exactly. The medallion is a little more restrictive, for one thing.

Skyward Pre-Release AMA (Oct. 31, 2018)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

What happens if there was a Feruchemist who was an Elantrian? Could they store Elantrian abilities into a nicrosil metalmind?

Brandon Sanderson

I'm RAFOing most of the stuff, but that one's a RAFO just because I am leaving nicrosil Feruchemy far away until I get there... I'm basically RAFOing everything about Investiture and Connection metalminds and things like that...

Skyward Seattle signing (Nov. 10, 2018)