Ways to hack gold allomancy

[Mr. Misting he/him]

I've been thinking a lot on the nature of gold allomancy, even since the rpg kickstarter when brotherwise has hinted at it's usefulness. Here's a general list of all the cool stuff one could possibly do. 

I believe the nausea effect from burning gold would go away or dimmish, the more practiced you are with it. It makes sense that repeated exposure increases your tolerance. Also, the only three people we've seen burn gold, or talk about having burned it, are Keliser, Vin and Miles, people who all have some loathing for their past self, or for many versions of who they could become. Maybe a well adjusted person, who generally would like most of their shadows, would have a less severe reaction to burning gold. 

Most reasonable:

If you’re a thief, or some profession with a lot of uncertain risk. You want to steal something, and you have full intent of trying. You flip a coin, which decides if you try or you don’t. If you don’t go through with it, wait until when you would have finished the heist and burn gold. Assuming some skill, or luck, summon the gold shadow of the version that attempted the heist, that is either rich, in jail, or killed, in which case they are unsummonable. Write down everything they tried, and that went well. 

Theoretically, you can even do this in much smaller ways. You’re a gambler, about to make a risky move. Flip a coin, and either make the make the move or go to the bathroom. If you go to the bathroom, burn gold, learn the outcome of the move and act accordingly.

If you’re a writer, make a habit of always carrying your recent work on you. Before you write a paper, choose two topics, flip a coin, finish one, burn gold, and read the other paper that the gold shadow should have on their person and copy it. You could also do this with books, though you’d have the keep the shadow summoned for much longer.

Drawbacks: we have to make the assumption that given practice, you gain more control over what shadows you summon. Since most metals, besides copper and duralumin and such, increase in possibility the more skilled you are, the same should be true with such a dynamic power like gold. 

Mostly reasonable:

If you’re a copper F, Gold A. Let’s assume you’re a professor. Skill and general knowledge is the product of memories of practice and study. So, summon a shadow of a version of you who majored in something different. You can look at those memories as easily as your own, because you can think both sets of thoughts at once, even if their "fake". So, dump the entirety of his college experience into a coppermind. Stop burning gold, and then tap all those memories into your mind. They’ll fade eventually, but they should stay as long as you normally remember college, which I assume is pretty long. Or just keep a few copperminds, with different possible professions of gold shadows you’ve met, and tap whichever skills you need.

Zinc F, Gold A. Burn gold and then store mental speed. You should be able to store it twice as fast, or at least a lot faster. It may be flavored differently than normal stored mental speed, because you’re thinking differently than you normally would, but I would think not. The same principle works with storing electrum, and to a lesser extent tin.

Very unreasonable:

Anything F, Gold A. So, when you summon your shadow, they should have metal minds on them, because almost all the time you would keep metal minds on yourself. Since you can feel both bodies and think both thoughts, you’re touching the shadows metalminds, and should be able to tap them since it’s your spiritual identity. Yes, it’s a hallucination, but it’s still investiture, and the shadow should have metalminds, that to your perception, you believe you can tap.  Since you’re never going to run into the problem of limited investiture thanks to preservation, it seems logical you should be able to burn gold, tap out all the metalminds, store it in your own and repeat. Theoretically infinite feruchemucial stores.

Downsides: I can’t think of an issue with this, but it sounds inherently broken and unreasonable. Please tear this apart.

Last question: what does flaring and burning duralumin do with gold do? 

[Through The Living Grub He/Him]

1 hour ago, Mr. Misting said:

Last question: what does flaring and burning duralumin do with gold do? 

Similar thing with Atium I think. You instinctively know what you would have learned while burning it.

[+Lewis Nethur He/Him]

Well...in real life, people described as possessing hearts, minds, or souls with or of golden quality or capability are (historically) typically described as being the kindest, most compassionate, and most wise of all citizens and most commonly get called out for achievements in teaching, Healthcare, and philosophy.

So...in order to hack an Augur's powers, I'd expect that you'd need to think of the problem like trying to hack a school, hospital, or government body. I know that isn't an answer, but hopefully it helps; I'm not totally sure what they can do.

[Steel Speedster ♂]

20 hours ago, Mr. Misting said:

Last question: what does flaring and burning duralumin do with gold do? 

My theory is that you see a vision of the moment that caused the split between you and the alternate self you're viewing. Remember in SH when Kelsier flared malatium as he died? He saw the Lord Ruler as he took the power at the Well of Ascension. Personally, I think that was Brandon trying to show us duralumin's effect on malatium, and if that's true, then gold would do the same thing for you.

Even if that's not true, I'm sure it has something of the sort, where you peer into the SR since atium and electrum both do.

Edited October 1, 2024 by Speeding Steelrunner