Allomancy and Investiture

[Cosmer]

Apologies if this has been asked/discussed...not great at searching through yet! 

What exactly can a Mistborn or Misting even do with investiture? Feels like we've only seen the Mists "power" a mistborn a couple of times, so I am struggling to understand how bringing off-world investiture to Scadrial could impact them?

Said differently...if a Mistborn could figure out a way to use stormlight, what would it even do? Power them without need for metals?

[ChickenBonanza]

The thing about Allomancers is that they use Investiture just like any other Invested Artist, but they can also use metal to draw Preservation’s Investiture from the Spiritual Realm as well. Since free Investiture is not widely available on Scadrial, burning metal is the primary way for them to use their abilities.

The Mists and Stormlight are both quite similar, being the gaseous form of Preservation and Honor respectively. In my view, Scadrians don’t commonly draw in the Mists because they are not ‘free,’ unlike Stormlight brought in by Highstorms. The Mists are a construct meant to Snap Allomancers, and Era 2 Mist is just Harmony keeping them around for nostalgia.

But if a Scadrian were to access a free source of Investiture, they would be able to draw it in to power their abilities, so long as it was keyed properly. (Or unkeyed, most like.)

[Treamayne]

Welcome to the Shard. Please consider an Intro Post to let us know what you have or have-not read (whichever list is shorter). Also, please consider checking out the Sharder FAQ for some useful forum info and tips. 

12 minutes ago, Cosmer said:

not great at searching through yet

The Sharder FAQ has a section on that to help

13 minutes ago, Cosmer said:

What exactly can a Mistborn or Misting even do with investiture? Feels like we've only seen the Mists "power" a mistborn a couple of times, so I am struggling to understand how bringing off-world investiture to Scadrial could impact them?

I will be a bit sparse, since we don't want to spoil things (until we know what is safe to discuss or not), but know that part of this is shown on-screen in Lost Metal. 

Slight Spoilers:

Spoiler

The abilities of a Metal Born are part of the Spiritweb sDNA. When a Metalborn uses their abilities, the metal acts as the filter and matches the ability to what their Spiritweb allows. When that Investiture is Mist - it can power any Allomantic effect their sDNA allows them to acecss.

When that investiture is Unkeyed, it can power any effect their sDNA allows them to shape and use. So, for example, if Ham had been able to access unkeyed Investiture, whoudl would have been able to burn it as Pewter - just as Vin was able to burn Mists as any-metal due to he being Mistborn

Hope that helps

[Cosmer]

Thanks to you both! Yes - I have read all published works and currently way deep in WoBs...

Makes sense too...

[Duxredux he/him]

Let's add in a few more notes from the Coppermind article on Mist. 

Yes, an Allomancer that can draw on the Mists can indeed extend their metal burns, but also their burns become enhanced. An example is Vin Pulling on TLR's bracers with an enhanced Ironpull while drawing on the Mists. I suspect the usual method of utilizing the metal as a catalyst to draw power from Preservation is gated by that catalytic consumption rate - and is generally restricted to safe levels unless constantly flaring and risking Savantism. Chugging Dor or Breathing Mist likely bypass that limitation, possibly at a level dangerous to the practitioner.

Presumably another value that raw unkeyed Investiture provides is more for Feruchemists, considering the nature of Compounding. The whole reason Compounding was useful is that it bypassed the storage limitation and allowed them to directly generate the stored attribute with Preservation's power. By the end of Era 2, the Basin hadn't figured out how to Compound except by a natural Twinborn Compounder like Miles due to Identity contamination from Hemalurgy. I'm sure there would be a couple steps, but it would be distinctly useful to have raw Investiture that could be converted to a resource on an as needed basis. During space age, being able to choose to power FTL or oxygenation is handy.

Another reason includes relatively safe power sources for technology designed to be fueled by raw Investiture. For obvious reasons, Moonlight's stunt of downing a jar of Dor to boost her stamps would have ended very poorly had she tried to eat ettmetal to get the same effect. Stormlight also is much more stable albeit with a shorter shelf life compared to ettmetal.

 

At the end though, the Scadrian group currently pushing for off-world Investiture is the Ghostbloods, who have access to considerably more Invested Arts and technology than the typical Misting. Raw power to fuel Kel's organization will ostensibly help him protect Scadrial from foreign powers and further Scadrial's (his) interests.

[Treamayne]

21 minutes ago, Duxredux said:

Breathing Mist likely bypass that limitation, possibly at a level dangerous to the practitioner.

Confirmed Dangerous. WoB:

Spoiler

Kaimipono

Allomancy is fueled by Preservation's body? How exactly does that work? And how does that interact with Atium—it's fueled by both gods' bodies?

Brandon Sanderson

The powers of Ruin and Preservation are Shards of Adonalsium, pieces of the power of creation itself. Allomancy, Hemalurgy, Feruchemy are manifestations of this power in mortal form, the ability to touch the powers of creation and use them. These metallic powers are how people's physical forms interpret the use of the Shard, though it's not the only possible way they could be interpreted or used. It's what the genetics and Realmatic interactions of Scadrial allow for, and has to do with the Spiritual, the Cognitive, and the Physical Realms.

Condensed 'essence' of these godly powers can act as super-fuel for Allomancy, Feruchemy, or really any of the powers. The form of that super fuel is important. In liquid form it's most potent, in gas form it's able to fuel Allomancy as if working as a metal. In physical form it is rigid and does one specific thing. In the case of atium, it allows sight into the future. In the case of concentrated Preservation, it gives one a permanent connection to the mists and the powers of creation. (I.e., it makes them an Allomancer.)

So when a person is burning metals, they aren't using Preservation's body as a fuel so to speak—though they are tapping into the powers of creation just slightly. When Vin burns the mists, however, she'd doing just that—using the essence of Preservation, the Shard of Adonalsium itself—to fuel Allomancy. Doing this, however, rips 'troughs' through her body. It's like forcing far too much pressure through a very small, fragile hose. That much power eventually vaporizes the corporeal host, which is acting as the block and forcing the power into a single type of conduit (Allomancy) and frees it to be more expansive.

Hero of Ages Q&A - Time Waster's Guide (Oct. 15, 2008)

So, if she had not Ascended, she would likely have been consumed by the power.