sliver and its alloy

[LeondeBowa]

We know from other books that sliver is like aluminium but rather than blocking invested things it destroys them.

I have a theory that if a mistborn tried to burn silver they would be killed, as the pull action would be for the sliver to kill them as they are invested. Which would explain why the metal was not discovered in the first ages and the LR would likely not reveal it as it is too powerful for such a common metal.

I am interested in the idea that there exists an alloy of silver with the equivalent push which would allow a mistborn or misting to kill or destroy invested beings.

WDYT?

[Treamayne]

19 minutes ago, LeondeBowa said:

We know from other books that sliver is like aluminium but rather than blocking invested things it destroys them.

I have a theory that if a mistborn tried to burn silver they would be killed, as the pull action would be for the sliver to kill them as they are invested. Which would explain why the metal was not discovered in the first ages and the LR would likely not reveal it as it is too powerful for such a common metal.

I am interested in the idea that there exists an alloy of silver with the equivalent push which would allow a mistborn or misting to kill or destroy invested beings.

WDYT?

Silver does not have any Allomantic Properties. WoB:

Spoiler

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Sixty - Part One

Silver, the Useless Metal

I've annotated about this before, but I figured I'd mention it again. As you probably know, in book one, tin was originally silver. I swapped it out for various reasons.

However, that left silver having no Allomantic powers. That feels strange to a lot of people because of how common and useful it is in our modern culture. Such an obvious metal doing nothing seems wrong to readers.

I toyed with using it in place of aluminum at the end of book one, but I realized that wouldn't work. It was too common, so if it had any Allomantic powers, people would know about them for certain. Only a metal that was very hard to find—like aluminum—would be believable as a new metal that most people hadn't heard of.

So silver is Allomantically inert. Just one of the quirks of the magic system.

The Hero of Ages Annotations (Feb. 11, 2010)

Silver does interact with other investiture in various ways. 

Spoiler

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.

[Quantus he/him]

1 hour ago, Treamayne said:

Silver does not have any Allomantic Properties. WoB:

  Hide contents

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Sixty - Part One

Silver, the Useless Metal

I've annotated about this before, but I figured I'd mention it again. As you probably know, in book one, tin was originally silver. I swapped it out for various reasons.

However, that left silver having no Allomantic powers. That feels strange to a lot of people because of how common and useful it is in our modern culture. Such an obvious metal doing nothing seems wrong to readers.

I toyed with using it in place of aluminum at the end of book one, but I realized that wouldn't work. It was too common, so if it had any Allomantic powers, people would know about them for certain. Only a metal that was very hard to find—like aluminum—would be believable as a new metal that most people hadn't heard of.

So silver is Allomantically inert. Just one of the quirks of the magic system.

The Hero of Ages Annotations (Feb. 11, 2010)

Silver does interact with other investiture in various ways. 

  Hide contents

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.

 

Yeah, Id have to assume it doesnt act any differently than an incorrect Alloy when burned, or else the Scadrians would have found it unique enough to keep experimenting. 

Though on that note, it might be possible that most incorrect alloys only make you sick, and when they say it can be lethal in the worst case might actually be the case only with Silver-containing Alloys but was just lumped into the same general poison warning and they didnt realize it was unique to Silver-bearing metals.    

 

  

[alder24]

20 hours ago, LeondeBowa said:

We know from other books that sliver is like aluminium but rather than blocking invested things it destroys them.

I have a theory that if a mistborn tried to burn silver they would be killed, as the pull action would be for the sliver to kill them as they are invested. Which would explain why the metal was not discovered in the first ages and the LR would likely not reveal it as it is too powerful for such a common metal.

I am interested in the idea that there exists an alloy of silver with the equivalent push which would allow a mistborn or misting to kill or destroy invested beings.

WDYT?

Silver is not an Allomantically viable metal. In fact it was known and used during the Final Empire times specifically in cells against Allomancers (Vin's cell in Fadrex used silver for metal objects). Even Vin's earring contained silver on its outer layer. Moreover electrum is an alloy of gold and 55% silver and it doesn't kill anybody. 

Silver doesn't destroy investiture (investiture like energy can't be destroyed), it seems like silver disrupts the Connection between investiture and the Spiritual Realm, while aluminum just blocks it. 

HoA ch 54:

Quote

Vin studied him, then raised the cup to take another drink. The motion jangled her manacles, which she eyed in annoyance as they again restricted her movement.
"They're made of silver," Yomen said. "A particularly frustrating metal for Mist-born, or so I am told."
Silver. Useless, unburnable silver. Like lead, it was one of the metals that provided no Allomantic powers at all.
"An unpopular metal indeed . . ." Yomen said, nodding to the side. A servant approached Vin, bearing something on a small platter. Her mother's earring. It was a dull thing, Allomantically, made of bronze with some silver plating. Much of the gilding had worn off years ago, and the brownish bronze showed through, making the earring look to be the cheap bauble it was.
"Which is why," Yomen continued, "I am so curious as to why you would bother with an ornament such as this. I have had it tested. Silver on the outside, bronze on the inside. Why those metals? One useless to Allomancers, the other granting what is considered the weakest of Allomantic powers. Would not an earring of steel or of pewter make more sense?"

 

Spoiler

Questioner

Does silver break Connection or bonds? If silver does have this effect, does it get used in the creation of unkeyed metalminds?

Brandon Sanderson

These are good questions. Silver, as I have it right now, is not capable of that. What silver's doing is is disrupting. It's more like interference. You know how, in White Sand, people can have these columns of sand. If you swiped silver through that, they would fall; but then they would be able to do it again. It's this little nullification for a short time. It's very dangerous to things like shades, and stuff like that. It's more disruptive. If you hit a spren with this, it would be like hitting them with a Shardblade. They're gonna come back together. They're not dead; they're gonna reform eventually, and probably won't take too long. So it's not severing Connection; you're gonna need anti-Investiture to do really destructive stuff. But you can disrupt with some silver. It's specifically bad for Shades for reasons maybe I'll get into someday.

Dragonsteel 2023 (Nov. 21, 2023)