Harmonium Fabrials and Possibilities

[Trusk'our he/him]

I finally got ahold of my personal copies of the Mistborn books again (briefly, at least), and something stuck out to me about Harmonium tech.

In BoM, the Harmonium "grenades" are able to copy the power of an Allomancer briefly, and according to Allik airships' Ettmetal can actually sustain an Allomantic effect by burning itself, such as by replacing Wax's Steelpushing to run its fan. 

In TLM however, Marasi's cubes work a bit differently. Not only do they absorb all of her Investiture, they also hold that charge for a period of time, running out eventually. It seems to act more like a battery than a true replicant the way its described in this book, having a measured amount of Investiture it can hold onto and doll out later.

This feels more like a different ability to me and less just a technological improvement: the original Harmonium cubes functioned as something of an engine, actually becoming both the power and the fuel, but the more modern cubes used by Marasi in TLM act a little more like Metalminds for Allomancy.

Does anyone else feel this is the case, or is it just me trying to extrapolate too much?

In any case, it's made me wonder if the way Harmonium is utilized in technology is by using methods similar to Fabrial construction, creating metal cages to program the Investiture to behave differently.

For example, perhaps a nicrosil cage tells Harmonium to completely siphon off an Allomancer's Investiture to act more as a battery, while another metal tells the Harmonium to expend itself to replicate the power in full for airship engines. 

If this is the way Harmonium is utilized, it could be far more versatile than I previously thought. 

Thoughts?

[Through The Living Grub He/Him]

2 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

This feels more like a different ability to me and less just a technological improvement: the original Harmonium cubes functioned as something of an engine, actually becoming both the power and the fuel, but the more modern cubes used by Marasi in TLM act a little more like Metalminds for Allomancy.

 

They do feel like this, maybe they had a fabrial built into the ship and you input the Harmonium in to fuel it.

[cobaltking360]

I hadn't thought of that but now that you point it out it also seems odd that the malwish would just give away new technology to a foreigner, so i think that you actually really are onto something. like the first time was an improvised device and the second was the real deal

[Wadders]

It might just be that the amount of harmonium needed to fuel it for short bursts is quite low as it is concentrated investure. It might take a while but it will probably need more fuel eventually.

[Trusk'our he/him]

Revisiting this topic, I wondered, what does alloying Harmonium do to its Invested properties?

Alloying Atium and Lerasium alters their effects in the Metallic Arts- Atium/electrum grants a shorter-range future sight that is more sustainable while Lerasium alloys create Mistings instead of Mistborn- so perhaps alloying Harmonium focuses how it interacts with Investiture too.

For example, maybe a nicrosil/Harmonium alloy might function more as a long-term storage of Investiture as seen with Marasi's modern cubes, while something like pewter expends itself as fuel to directly power the Steelpushing in airships. 

This doesn't remove the possibility of using the mundane metals as components in Harmonium Fabrials, it just might lead to more possibilities. 

[Dofurion]

3 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Revisiting this topic, I wondered, what does alloying Harmonium do to its Invested properties?

Alloying Atium and Lerasium alters their effects in the Metallic Arts- Atium/electrum grants a shorter-range future sight that is more sustainable while Lerasium alloys create Mistings instead of Mistborn- so perhaps alloying Harmonium focuses how it interacts with Investiture too.

For example, maybe a nicrosil/Harmonium alloy might function more as a long-term storage of Investiture as seen with Marasi's modern cubes, while something like pewter expends itself as fuel to directly power the Steelpushing in airships. 

This doesn't remove the possibility of using the mundane metals as components in Harmonium Fabrials, it just might lead to more possibilities. 

I know it's a bit off topic but I always thought that if someone managed to burn Ettmetal or its alloy with Lerasium, that person would probably become a Feruchemist.

[Trusk'our he/him]

5 hours ago, Dofurion said:

I know it's a bit off topic but I always thought that if someone managed to burn Ettmetal or its alloy with Lerasium, that person would probably become a Feruchemist.

Possibly. I always thought that an Alloy of Atium and Lerasium would do the trick. Maybe add the basic metals to the mix and you get Ferrings based on the metal type. 

Here's a WoB on the topic, if you're interested: 

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/406-general-reddit-2020/#e14146

Yoitsthew

Would a lerasium/atium alloy create a Feruchemist, rather than an atium misting?? What with the way that it’s an alloy of god metals, and the way that lerasium can be used to acquire other magics? As far as I know there is no lerasium left currently, so this one is also just for my curiosity!!

Brandon Sanderson

You can use the god metals from Scadrial to make a Feruchemist, but I have to RAFO the actual means.

 

Edited October 2, 2024 by Trusk'our