why compound is dangerous

[Alumínio he/him]

exactly what the title shows, why being a twinborn is dangerous, I know the risks of composition and becoming a savant in something, but meelan said that all twinborns are dangerous and shouldn't exist

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

30 minutes ago, Alumínio said:

exactly what the title shows, why being a twinborn is dangerous, I know the risks of composition and becoming a savant in something, but meelan said that all twinborns are dangerous and shouldn't exist

Firstly is that thanks to the Lord Ruler, a Full Compounder, ruling the world for a thousand years and being effectively immortal has left some people (Mostly the Kandra and Terris) feeling like it would be best if Commpounders didn't exist just so that no really powerful Compounders, like a Steel Compounder, gets ideas and decides that they want to be the next Lord Ruler.

Secondly is that Compounding itself seems to be a dangerous process, the more you do it the more you become dependent on it and can't stop doing it.

Mile Hundredlives kept tapping health from his goldminds even when he wasn't hurt. He was a Feruchemical Savant, I'm pretty sure if he ever stopped tapping his surplus of health, his body wouldn't be able to heal properly on its own due to it becoming dependent on the Compounding, which could lead to him becoming very sick and die.

[Treamayne]

2 hours ago, Alumínio said:

I know the risks of composition and becoming a savant in something, but meelan said that all twinborns are dangerous and shouldn't exist

Can you give us this reference? The only one I can find was Wax in AoL (Ch 13):

Spoiler

A Pewterarm, or even a lesser Bloodmaker like Wayne, could be killed with a direct shot to the head. Miles could heal so quickly even that wouldn’t kill him. He was said to keep the healing running constantly. From what Waxillium knew of Compounding, it could be very dangerous to stop once you’d started.

And that was more speculation than declaration of fact or opinion.

Unless you mean the conversation in BoM that was more about the Unkeyed Metalminds (Ch 3):

Spoiler

“We need to stay ahead of those who might use this for ill purposes,” VenDell said. “We need to experiment and determine how these Identity-free metalminds would work.”

“Doing so will be dangerous,” Wax said. “Mixing the powers is incredibly dangerous.”

“Says the Twinborn,” MeLaan said.

“I’m safe,” Wax said, glancing at her. “My powers don’t compound—they’re from different metals.”

“They may not compound,” VenDell said, “but they’re still fascinating, Lord Waxillium. Any mixing of Allomancy and Feruchemy has unanticipated effects.”

Which is also not a MeLaan quote. . .

[Trusk'our he/him]

4 hours ago, Alumínio said:

exactly what the title shows, why being a twinborn is dangerous, I know the risks of composition and becoming a savant in something, but meelan said that all twinborns are dangerous and shouldn't exist

I think that this is mostly a cultural perception from TLR's influence. 

Some Compounding is certainly quite dangerous, but only a few types I'd think.

Iron could let you squish metallic structures easily, but it's riskier than a Crasher's abilities. 

Pewter is powerful too, but even if they could figure out and Compound raw Allomantic strength instead of muscle power it's really not world shaking. 

Tin would make you more sensitive, but equally susceptible to overestimation.

Bronze just lets you stay awake indefinitely. 

Copper isn't really known, but it's probably just another memory hack.

Brass would let to heat things up a lot, but a simple gun is already way more dangerous in most situations. 

Zinc could let you figure things out very quickly, but it doesn't seem to inherently boost intelligence. Plus, the more you tap the more it strains your body's resources (like calories).

Electrum's determination could be interesting, but probably not extraordinarily dangerous. 

Bendalloy lets you stop eating or drinking in exchange to ingesting a very expensive metal. 

Cadmium just lets you go without air.

Aluminum probably straight up doesn't work for Compounding. 

Steel, gold, and probably chromium could be quite dangerous, but I think they're the only seriously risky Compounders, at least directly. 

Nicrosil and duralumin might have some dangerous potential too, but I think it's more theoretical in nature. It depends on whether they can gather enough Cosmerlogical information to develop further uses for their Investiture. 

Edited December 18, 2024 by Trusk'our

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

On 12/17/2024 at 2:50 PM, Alumínio said:

exactly what the title shows, why being a twinborn is dangerous, I know the risks of composition and becoming a savant in something, but meelan said that all twinborns are dangerous and shouldn't exist

I agree quite a bit with what Trusk'our said, and we also have to understand that there are some unknow qualities to using multiple powers. This is called a Resonance and I don't know much about it but I have heard it could be very dangerous (See: Surges of Roshar)