All the Savants (Just the issues)

[Argenti he/him]

 Ever since I thought about the Iron Amenia Savant, I've just been thinking about the parallels savants have with drugs and dependency. The two good examples of Allomantic savantism we've seen in the text, Tin and Pewter, seem to cause physiological changes in the savant. I'm pretty sure most other metals would not be nearly so dramatic since Tin and Pewter are internal metals that directly affect the body and thus would be the most visible.  Metals change the part of you that they would otherwise work on (Cognitive, Physical, Spiritual, and Time), either deadening (Pushing) or amplifying (pulling) the thing they affect when burned. I'm assuming the internal metals have more dire problems since they directly shape your spirit web instead of affecting it from the outside, as most of the external metals do. I just hope that External savantism has a sort of feedback effect from burning it too much. Otherwise, I have no idea how it works. Additionally, all the savants we see have a dependency on the metal, with them still needing to burn the metal to function normally. I'll also draw on the other metallic arts for inspiration as well as larger cosmere trends. (Spoilers for size) Also like don't question the order of them.
PHYSICAL

Spoiler

TIN

• If someone were able to burn the amount of tin needed to become an Allomantic savant with the metal, any normal light would become too bright for them. However, their other senses would become so attuned that they can feel and hear well enough to compensate for the lack of vision. Since the body grows dependent on metal, a Tineye savant could stop burning tin and gain resistance to pain or other senses. Burning tin for long periods puts a lot of strain on the body and mind. (Stolen from the Coppermind)

PEWTER

• If someone were able to burn the amount of pewter needed to become an Allomantic savant with the metal, they would have enhanced physical abilities, such as being able to heal more quickly, though not as fast as someone tapping health from a goldmind. Thugs often die before becoming savants, as they feel neither pain nor exhaustion to any great extent and, therefore, may ignore wounds that later prove fatal. (Stolen from the Coppermind)

IRON

• Iron is the Pulling metal, and honestly, I can't imagine what it does to a body. The only part of it I can think of doing something to the body is the wear on your spirit web of constantly pulling in the iron lines, possibly messing up other connections. Following that logic, iron savants' spirit webs should more readily accept physical connections, whatever that means. Maybe something to do with how you interact with the fundamental forces? Increasing electromagnetism, gravity, or something?

STEEL 

• Steel is the pushing metal, and paired with iron, it should have the opposite effect of steel, decreasing your interactions with the fundamental forces. (Honestly not sure about Iron and Steel)

MENTAL

Spoiler

COPPER

•  Copper blocks all kinds of investiture, protecting your mind against being influenced, until it gets pierced, at which point it doesn't do much to help. Brandon also said this one isn't very deliberating, so it must have some off effect that is intangible, like bronzes. I imagine a hypersensitivity to invested detection of your cognitive, so seekers, and the beasts from six of dust, secret spren ect.

BRONZE

• Brandon has said that many seekers unknowingly are savants, so it can't be overtly bad. As bronze strengthens your mind's ability to "hear" pulses, I imagine when you're not burning it, you're made deaf by comparison. Now, this literally doesn't do anything to humans since they just... don't need it. Singers though! Oh god, it would suck for them! Can you imagine being unable to hear the rhythms? 

ZINC

• As an external metal, it's much harder to guess what Zinc savants would suffer. Luckly, ZInc has a cut-and-dry effect, increasing emotions. I imagine a feedback effect, with your own emotions getting stronger and more volatile whenever you burn. It's possible Zinc and Brass are switched, with your emotions getting dulled whenever you're not burning, kinda like a drug.

BRASS

• Like with Zinc, Brass is thankfully cut and dry; it's signs mean the feedback loop is mental, so it affects your mind and Pushing, so it deadens. Whenever you're burning, your emotions could be surprised, or whenever you're not burning, they could be volatile, and you need to regulate them. 

ENHANCEMENT 

Spoiler

ALUMINIUM

• I like to imagine aluminum as a sort of spiritual antibiotic, strengthening your "immune system" or repealing foreign investiture and attempts at corruption. Following this line of reasoning, overusing an antibiotic can weaken your immune system, as it begins to need the antibiotic to function right. So in this scenario, if you overused aluminum and became a savant, your spiritual  "Immune system" would be weaker, and you would be vulnerable to many things, like forgery, emotional allomancy, being taken over by a fused, shades touch, bondsmiths messing with you, heat being drawn, and shardic control. Unless, of course, you're burning Aluminium. Nonetheless, it would not be a fun

DURALUMIN

• Duralumin essentially widens the pipeline of investiture that powers magic, making it all go out nearly at once. I imagine that overusing duralumin would add scar tissues to the soul, deadening connections and twisting and ruining your soul. I really have no idea what this would mean since we know so little about the soul. I doubt it would be fun.  

CHROMIUM 

• While it seems like basically just external Aluminum, it doesn't just remove foreign investiture like aluminum does; it sucks it out, probably leaving residue in your spirit web; unlike aluminum, Brandon has compared it to Larkins and Nightblood before, so it's not just being obliterated. I think the residue left in the spirit web could either A: add conflicting essences to your spirit web, so you have identity containment or some kind of corrupted investiture, OR B: slowly increase your innate investiture, shaping your soul in some way that follows who you've been draining. With it being a mostly preservation Investiture, you'd probably feel stagnant and unwilling to change. Could see this swap with Nicrosil

NICROSIL

• With Nicrosil, you forcefully speed up the investment flow that powers the metals. The key difference between this and Duralumin is that it doesn't affect your spirit web outside of the backlash from messing with others' Spiritwebs. I imagine overusing Nicrosil would leave you with tons of invalid Connections, just flaling about. This would probably make it harder for other valid Connections to form, as your spirit web is already almost full. Could see this swap with chromium.

 

TEMPORAL (This the one I'm most unsure of)

Spoiler

GOLD 

• Allomantic Gold is an oft-forgotten, very esoteric power. On the surface, it's not very useful; however, if you look closely, it's still useless, but it does have many realmatic consequences for its users. Ignoring the crippling mental and emotional issues one might have from spending so long studying what could have been,  a gold savant would have an issue using their imagination or no longer dreaming. (I don't like this one)

ELECTRUM

• Electrum, on the other hand, is more simple. It pushes you into the future, letting you take glimpses of it yourself. Presumably, this grants a Connection to your own future, possibly making you heal to your future state instead of your current state, or god forbid, it blinds you to the present, and you're stuck seeing the future. (Again, I'm displeased with this one)

CADMIUM

• Unlike previous categories, the external metals are more straightforward here than the internal ones. Cadmium, for example, would pretty clearly slow down or speed up your body, mind, and reflexes. I can't decide which one.

BENDALLOY

•  As above.

 

[Dofurion]

Oh, just recently I also wrote a post about it, although more on the meta-narrative side.

4 hours ago, Argenti said:

ENHANCEMENT 

  Hide contents

ALUMINIUM

• I like to imagine aluminum as a sort of spiritual antibiotic, strengthening your "immune system" or repealing foreign investiture and attempts at corruption. Following this line of reasoning, overusing an antibiotic can weaken your immune system, as it begins to need the antibiotic to function right. So in this scenario, if you overused aluminum and became a savant, your spiritual  "Immune system" would be weaker, and you would be vulnerable to many things, like forgery, emotional allomancy, being taken over by a fused, shades touch, bondsmiths messing with you, heat being drawn, and shardic control. Unless, of course, you're burning Aluminium. Nonetheless, it would not be a fun

DURALUMIN

• Duralumin essentially widens the pipeline of investiture that powers magic, making it all go out nearly at once. I imagine that overusing duralumin would add scar tissues to the soul, deadening connections and twisting and ruining your soul. I really have no idea what this would mean since we know so little about the soul. I doubt it would be fun.  

 

For my part, I consider that the effects of duralumin and aluminum should be the other way around.

4 hours ago, Argenti said:

TEMPORAL (This the one I'm most unsure of)

  Hide contents

GOLD 

• Allomantic Gold is an oft-forgotten, very esoteric power. On the surface, it's not very useful; however, if you look closely, it's still useless, but it does have many realmatic consequences for its users. Ignoring the crippling mental and emotional issues one might have from spending so long studying what could have been,  a gold savant would have an issue using their imagination or no longer dreaming. (I don't like this one)

What if over time they end up assimilating part of those memories as their own? Something like mental blackouts but in reverse

Edited March 22 by Dofurion

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

I'm thinking that a Pewter Savant, when they aren't burning pewter, suffer from constant fatigue, due to adjusting to augmented strength and endurance, as well as chronic nausea, from the augmented balance. In fact, chances would be that their body is just worse in every respect just like with Tin Savants. It's sounds pretty hellish, and interesting. Since they'd always be looking for more pewter.

[alder24]

Pewter Savants don't feel pain when burning pewter, that's why they die so often before becoming Savants, tin Savants feel everything too much when burning tin, but almost nothing when they don't. I propose pewter Savants would be extremely sensitive to touch and pain when they don't burn pewter - the opposite of tin Savants.

[Argenti he/him]

26 minutes ago, alder24 said:

Pewter Savants don't feel pain when burning pewter, that's why they die so often before becoming Savants, tin Savants feel everything too much when burning tin, but almost nothing when they don't. I propose pewter Savants would be extremely sensitive to touch and pain when they don't burn pewter - the opposite of tin Savants.

I thought Tin savants were sensitive to it, they just got used to it and started to ignore it all. It has been A while since I read about Spook though.

[alder24]

27 minutes ago, Argenti said:

I thought Tin savants were sensitive to it, they just got used to it and started to ignore it all. It has been A while since I read about Spook though.

When burning they are extra sensitive, but without tin they are numb and everything is dull to them. It was so bad that Spook wasn't able to even feel his body burning. HoA ch 19:

Quote

Yet, everything else felt muddy. He couldn't quite manage to think. He blinked, groaning quietly. What was wrong with him? His spectacles and cloth were gone. That should have left him free to see, but everything was so dark.
He was out of tin.
There was nothing burning in his stomach. The familiar flame, a comforting candle within, was no longer there. It had been his companion for over a year, always there. He'd feared what he was doing, but had never let it die. And now it was gone.
That was why everything seemed so dull. Was this really how other people lived? How he used to live? He could barely see—the sharp, rich detail he'd grown accustomed to was gone. The vibrant colors and crisp lines. Instead, everything was bland and vague.
His ears felt clogged. His nose . . . he couldn't smell the boards beneath him, couldn't tell the species of wood by scent. He couldn't smell the bodies that had passed. He couldn't feel the thumpings of people moving about in other rooms.
[...]
His arms were so numb they felt like weights tied to his shoulders. He'd been flaring tin so long that normal senses just didn't seem to work for him anymore.

HoA ch 59:

Quote

The mists tickled his cheeks. In the cacophony, Spook had let his tin dim, relieving him of sensation, leaving him feeling blissfully numb. It was better that way.
[...]
Spook approached the flames. His breathing grew forced, and his skin grew hot. The fire was bright—consuming. He dashed right for it. Then, at the moment when the pain became too great, he extinguished his tin.
And became numb.
It happened just as it had before, when he had been trapped in the building without any metals. Flaring tin for so long had expanded his senses, but now that he wasn't burning it at all, those same senses became dull. His entire body grew deadened, lacking feeling or sensation.
He burst through the doorway into the building, flames raining around him.
His body burned. But, he couldn't feel the flames, and the pain could not drive him back. The fire was bright enough that even his weakened eyes could still see. He dashed forward, ignoring fire, heat, and smoke.

Edited March 23 by alder24

[Argenti he/him]

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

When burning they are extra sensitive, but without tin they are numb and everything is dull to them. It was so bad that Spook wasn't able to even feel his body burning. HoA ch 19:

HoA ch 59:

Oohh! Well it seems I got some of them backwards! Does make it seem like the drug dependcy to maintain normal function makes alot of sense. 

Thoughts on the other groups? I'm particularly proud of bronze.

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

44 minutes ago, Argenti said:

Oohh! Well it seems I got some of them backwards! Does make it seem like the drug dependcy to maintain normal function makes alot of sense. 

Thoughts on the other groups? I'm particularly proud of bronze.

I find your idea of an Aluminum Savant both interesting and plausible. A lowered 'immune system' to foreign Investiture. It could even be explained as your 'Self-Leeching' becoming so interconnected with your soul that you're literally leeching away pieces of your own soul, leaving holes in it like with Hemalurgy, except without any powers to gain from it.

On 3/22/2024 at 11:10 PM, Argenti said:

I like to imagine aluminum as a sort of spiritual antibiotic, strengthening your "immune system" or repealing foreign investiture and attempts at corruption. Following this line of reasoning, overusing an antibiotic can weaken your immune system, as it begins to need the antibiotic to function right. So in this scenario, if you overused aluminum and became a savant, your spiritual  "Immune system" would be weaker, and you would be vulnerable to many things, like forgery, emotional allomancy, being taken over by a fused, shades touch, bondsmiths messing with you, heat being drawn, and shardic control. Unless, of course, you're burning Aluminium. Nonetheless, it would not be a fun

 

[Dofurion]

1 hour ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

It could even be explained as your 'Self-Leeching' becoming so interconnected with your soul that you're literally leeching away pieces of your own soul, leaving holes in it like with Hemalurgy, except without any powers to gain from it.

It is precisely for this reason that I think the side effects should be exchanged. It is the duralumin that puts "jets" of investiture into the allomante, therefore it would be expected that if someone becomes a duralumin sevant when they are not burning it, they will see an absence of investiture.t is precisely for this reason that I think the side effects should be exchanged. It is the duralumin that puts "jets" of investiture into the allomant.

[Argenti he/him]

1 hour ago, Dofurion said:

It is precisely for this reason that I think the side effects should be exchanged. It is the duralumin that puts "jets" of investiture into the allomante, therefore it would be expected that if someone becomes a duralumin sevant when they are not burning it, they will see an absence of investiture.t is precisely for this reason that I think the side effects should be exchanged. It is the duralumin that puts "jets" of investiture into the allomant.

Well, duralumin doesn't create or destroy investiture, it acts as a catalyst, speeding up the magical reaction. As far as we know, it doesn't purge other magics from your body, it just makes them go out in a burst.

[NameIess]

On 3/22/2024 at 11:10 AM, Argenti said:

TEMPORAL (This the one I'm most unsure of)

  Reveal hidden contents

GOLD 

• Allomantic Gold is an oft-forgotten, very esoteric power. On the surface, it's not very useful; however, if you look closely, it's still useless, but it does have many realmatic consequences for its users. Ignoring the crippling mental and emotional issues one might have from spending so long studying what could have been,  a gold savant would have an issue using their imagination or no longer dreaming. (I don't like this one)

ELECTRUM

• Electrum, on the other hand, is more simple. It pushes you into the future, letting you take glimpses of it yourself. Presumably, this grants a Connection to your own future, possibly making you heal to your future state instead of your current state, or god forbid, it blinds you to the present, and you're stuck seeing the future. (Again, I'm displeased with this one)

CADMIUM

• Unlike previous categories, the external metals are more straightforward here than the internal ones. Cadmium, for example, would pretty clearly slow down or speed up your body, mind, and reflexes. I can't decide which one.

BENDALLOY

•  As above.

 

Wayne was showing signs of being a bendalloy savant without any negative effects that I noticed, and although we admittedly didn’t see much of him, Sixteen in RoW didn’t have any immediately obvious effects, despite presumably burning extremely large amounts of cadmium, so it’s possible that bendalloy and cadmium, similar to bronze, don’t have any negative effects.

Edited March 24 by NameIess

[Dofurion]

1 hour ago, NameIess said:

Wayne was showing signs of being a bendalloy savant without any negative effects that I noticed, and although we admittedly didn’t see much of him, Sixteen in RoW didn’t have any immediately obvious effects, despite presumably burning extremely large amounts of cadmium, so it’s possible that bendalloy and cadmium, similar to bronze, don’t have any negative effects.

Your comment has made me think, external metal savants should be the least affected by the negative parts of said condition. If we look at the negative effects that Spook suffered, they were precisely due to the drastic changes that his body suffered due to the continuous burning.
Although @Argenti compares it to drug abstinence, I see it more as a mutation that is not receiving enough "nutrients" to be able to maintain its normality and that is why being savant of those 2 metals in particular becomes so problematic.

Putting it in a table it should be like this:

Those who are green are all external, the savants who beyond a small plus of power should not have more effects (clear I am in favor of giving light discomfort according to the situation/epoch).
Those who are in yellow are what would seem to have more present negative effects, although circumstantial.
I don't think it is necessary to explain why those who are in red, the really dangerous.

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

4 hours ago, Dofurion said:

Those who are green are all external, the savants who beyond a small plus of power should not have more effects (clear I am in favor of giving light discomfort according to the situation/epoch).
Those who are in yellow are what would seem to have more present negative effects, although circumstantial.
I don't think it is necessary to explain why those who are in red, the really dangerous.

I feel like Gold and Electrum should also be red, since they will probably warp your mind in a permanent way. Gold Savants could suffer from a magically enforced dissociative identity disorder, while Oracles could suffer from being scatterbrained as their mind is pulled into too many directions by the various futures they see. The Spiritual Realm can break minds after all.