Metal in the cosmere

[Cerulean He/him]

So originally, when I was reading mistborn, the first cosmere book I read, I knew that there was a larger universe with shards and stuff (I watched a video about adonalsium and the shattering and all that stuff), I assumed that metals were unique in their properties to scadrial, and  then I started reading Stormlight and realized that metals were crucial to fabrials, also metals such as iron, steel have properties in Tress. Do we have a specific reason that metals have such an effect throughout the cosmere? Metals aren’t inherently invested or anything so why are they so important?

[Treamayne]

56 minutes ago, Cerulean said:

So originally, when I was reading mistborn, the first cosmere book I read, I knew that there was a larger universe with shards and stuff (I watched a video about adonalsium and the shattering and all that stuff), I assumed that metals were unique in their properties to scadrial, and  then I started reading Stormlight and realized that metals were crucial to fabrials, also metals such as iron, steel have properties in Tress. Do we have a specific reason that metals have such an effect throughout the cosmere? Metals aren’t inherently invested or anything so why are they so important?

Yes. Ish.

We know metals (well, specific metals) have Realmatic Properties that are expressed similarly over multiple magic systems (e. g. Iron and Steel push and pull - in Allomancy and Aether Spores and Rosharan Fabrials (attractors, repulsors)). Aluminum (a.k.a. Ralkalest) Blocks investiture (cosmere wide). Silver Destroys Investiture (Tress, Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell), etc.

We know that this is tied, somehow, to the fact that investiture expressed as solid matter in the Physical Realm automatically becomes Metallic (a. k. a. GodMetals - Lerasium, Atium, Shardblades and Plate, etc.)

What we do not know is why, for example, Bronze (seeking, Detection Fabrials) has that specific realmatic property - just as we do not know why, for example, "Blue" (Zephyr Spores, Sapphires for soulcasting) is tied to the essence of Air.

WoBs:

Spoiler

Quote

mail-mi (paraphrased)

Can you tell me something new about godmetals, something that isn't known or isn't widely known?  

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

I can tell you this: the existence of godmetals is one reason why metal is so weird in the cosmere.  

Dragonsteel Mini-Con 2021 (Oct. 23, 2021)

Quote

Dearius

I was just wondering if the metal used to make a fabrial matters like if it's *inaudible* or something?

Brandon Sanderson

*Repeating* Does the metal used to make a fabrial matter?

A little bit. Not as much as things like this do on Scadrial, but there is some influence there. We'll get into those rules eventually.

Idaho Falls signing (July 21, 2018)

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SirWatermelon (paraphrased)

Are spores and fabrials affected by God Metals?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, the severity depends on which God Metal.

Dragonsteel 2023 (Nov. 21, 2023)

Quote

Argent

It seems there is a special interaction between silver and Investiture, in at least certain places in the Cosmere. We've seen how silver interacts with aethers, and we've seen over on Threnody. So that makes silver the second really really special metal to interact with investiture. Is the plan now to have aluminum block investiture, and silver destroy investiture?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, that's the way I'm going with it. To make a distinction between them, that's where we're going.

Argent

But silver is still non-Allomantic. No silvereyes.

Brandon Sanderson

No, non-Allomantic, yup. No silvereyes. This is my nod towards silvereye-ness, and yeah, there we go.

Argent

So would [silver] be effective against spren, just like [anti-Investiture]?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, you'll have to find out. RAFO!

Footnote: Argent tried. He also horribly mangled his last question, but it got RAFO'd, so that doesn't matter...
Shardcast Interview (July 30, 2023)

 

Hope that helps

Edited January 3, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG

[Cerulean He/him]

Thanks! That clears it up.

[alder24]

16 hours ago, Cerulean said:

So originally, when I was reading mistborn, the first cosmere book I read, I knew that there was a larger universe with shards and stuff (I watched a video about adonalsium and the shattering and all that stuff), I assumed that metals were unique in their properties to scadrial, and  then I started reading Stormlight and realized that metals were crucial to fabrials, also metals such as iron, steel have properties in Tress. Do we have a specific reason that metals have such an effect throughout the cosmere? Metals aren’t inherently invested or anything so why are they so important?

Everything in Cosmere exists in three Realms - the Physical, Cognitive and Spiritual Realm. While metals in our universe have "physical" chemical properties, in Cosmere they also have Spiritual properties, that define how they respond to investiture. This is something that likely existed even before the Shattering, so it's not that Allomancy defines steel as pushing investiture away, rather Allomancy borrowed the existing Spiritual properties of steel to make it push metals away. 

Spoiler

Questioner

Quick question on aluminum. Why does it affect other forms of Investiture?

Brandon Sanderson

When I was building the cosmere, I just had to build certain themes into it, and metal was one of those. And the metals have kind of a Spiritual integrity, and Spiritual component, that if I can get into Dragonsteel explaining why, you'll get your kind of origins.

Questioner

And that's why, in Warbreaker, metals are different with Awakening, and stuff.

Brandon Sanderson

And even in Roshar, the cages that you're building for fabrials, once you start to figure out how those metals affect it, you'll be like, "Oh wait, that makes sense!" And these are just across the cosmere.

And if you want an in-world answer, it has to do with stuff in Dragonsteel. But really, the answer is, I was building this and I'm like, "I just want this to be a theme. So I'm just going to give this Spiritual component to metals." So it works in Mistborn, and it works all across everything.

LTUE 2020 (Feb. 15, 2020)