Alloyed Investiture

[Trusk'our he/him]

In Surgebinding we see that two powers in one vessel begin to change one another. Bondsmiths and Windrunners both share Adhesion, Lightweavers and Truthwatchers share Illumination, but they are manifested in different ways.

Not only that, but the two powers can be used in concert to create a new effect, such as Illumination and Transformation Substantiating Lightweavings, Adhesion and Gravitation creating a reverse Lashing, etc.

This isn't limited to natural powers either, as Szeth is fully capable of using a Reverse Lashing with Jezrien's Honorblade.

So, what if you combine two or three powers in an Unsealed Metalmind? Could you not only change how the powers manifest, but perhaps combine them to generate an entirely new (but closely related) ability?

For example, let's say you have an Unsealed Metalmind that bears both Feruchemical zinc and copper- the power to quicken your thoughts and to save memories by putting them in a Coppermind. Maybe together they could better process retrieved memories, or perhaps create multiple strings of thought simultaneously?

Later you add Allomantic zinc to the Metalmind's repertoire. Perhaps this adds a slight enthusiasm during the process, all together making learning and general cognitive augmentation far more powerful than with any of the individual powers on their own.

I doubt every power combination will lead to something new, as Wayne doesn't seem to have a hybrid power like how Wax's steel bubble might be considered one, but it would still be very interesting to see the Metallic Arts develop new powers by essentially alloying Investiture.

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

1 hour ago, Trusk'our said:

In Surgebinding we see that two powers in one vessel begin to change one another. Bondsmiths and Windrunners both share Adhesion, Lightweavers and Truthwatchers share Illumination, but they are manifested in different ways.

Not only that, but the two powers can be used in concert to create a new effect, such as Illumination and Transformation Substantiating Lightweavings, Adhesion and Gravitation creating a reverse Lashing, etc.

This isn't limited to natural powers either, as Szeth is fully capable of using a Reverse Lashing with Jezrien's Honorblade.

So, what if you combine two or three powers in an Unsealed Metalmind? Could you not only change how the powers manifest, but perhaps combine them to generate an entirely new (but closely related) ability?

For example, let's say you have an Unsealed Metalmind that bears both Feruchemical zinc and copper- the power to quicken your thoughts and to save memories by putting them in a Coppermind. Maybe together they could better process retrieved memories, or perhaps create multiple strings of thought simultaneously?

Later you add Allomantic zinc to the Metalmind's repertoire. Perhaps this adds a slight enthusiasm during the process, all together making learning and general cognitive augmentation far more powerful than with any of the individual powers on their own.

I doubt every power combination will lead to something new, as Wayne doesn't seem to have a hybrid power like how Wax's steel bubble might be considered one, but it would still be very interesting to see the Metallic Arts develop new powers by essentially alloying Investiture.

I feel like Wayne probably did, just we don't know it. Also, there's a WoB that says if you combine too many powers, there's no Resonance. This is why Mistborn, with 16 powers, get nothing.

[Trusk'our he/him]

42 minutes ago, KaladinsSenseOfHumorSpren said:

I feel like Wayne probably did, just we don't know it. 

I mean, he certainly would have a Resonance (probably his outrageous Fortune/luck), I just don't know that he'd have a hybrid power like some Radiants have.

43 minutes ago, KaladinsSenseOfHumorSpren said:

Also, there's a WoB that says if you combine too many powers, there's no Resonance. This is why Mistborn, with 16 powers, get nothing.

This is true, but you can squeeze in a few extra without it being an issue and can get new Resonances from it.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/431-san-diego-comic-conhome-2020/#e14007

Questioner

If a Radiant uses an Honorblade or binds a second spren, could they get new abilities/resonances by having access to Surges that aren't usually combined?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, they could. Indeed.

Really, it just struck me recently that the hybrid powers are what are especially interesting for artificial Metallic Arts, since there are so many ways to mix and match powers.

[Jult]

15 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Really, it just struck me recently that the hybrid powers are what are especially interesting for artificial Metallic Arts, since there are so many ways to mix and match powers.

There are almost too many ways to mix and match. Brandon has confirmed before that resonances can even exist between power sets from different planets. So, by my understanding, unsealed metalminds in the hands of a Radiant should also create new combinations. Or Honorblades in the hands of Ferrings and Mistings. The number of potential combinations gets so high that it's almost sad to know we'll only ever see a small percentage of them.

[Nitpicking]

How could even an unsealed metalmind be simultaneously made of two metals, in a Metallic Art where alloys are considered their own metal?

[Trusk'our he/him]

58 minutes ago, Nitpicking said:

How could even an unsealed metalmind be simultaneously made of two metals, in a Metallic Art where alloys are considered their own metal?

I mean, there are Unsealed Metalminds with two powers in BoM already, and Allik mentions the existence of some with three.

6 hours ago, Jult said:

There are almost too many ways to mix and match. Brandon has confirmed before that resonances can even exist between power sets from different planets. So, by my understanding, unsealed metalminds in the hands of a Radiant should also create new combinations. Or Honorblades in the hands of Ferrings and Mistings. The number of potential combinations gets so high that it's almost sad to know we'll only ever see a small percentage of them.

Yup. Really, a more helpful thing here would be a kind of formula for determining Resonance effects, even if it's loose.

Then people could dive in all they wanted for years to come.

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

6 hours ago, Jult said:

There are almost too many ways to mix and match. Brandon has confirmed before that resonances can even exist between power sets from different planets. So, by my understanding, unsealed metalminds in the hands of a Radiant should also create new combinations. Or Honorblades in the hands of Ferrings and Mistings. The number of potential combinations gets so high that it's almost sad to know we'll only ever see a small percentage of them.

We already will only see a small percentage of Allomantically-viable metals, as we have the base 16, 16 god metals, 65535 possible shard combinations each with their own god metals, alloy these god metals with the base metals and each other... You get several million metals.

[Nitpicking]

4 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

I mean, there are Unsealed Metalminds with two powers in BoM already, and Allik mentions the existence of some with three.

I need to reread Bands.

[Trusk'our he/him]

6 minutes ago, Nitpicking said:

I need to reread Bands.

I need to re-read all of Mistborn. It's been too long, really 

[Jult]

17 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Yup. Really, a more helpful thing here would be a kind of formula for determining Resonance effects, even if it's loose.

Then people could dive in all they wanted for years to come.

That would be awesome! It would give us the ability to play around with unexplored combinations in the Cosmere RPG.

Brandon has suggested before that most of the magic systems imitate some inherent Cosmere mechanics that haven't been fully explored. Maybe if we learned more about these underlying mechanics, we'd be able to map Resonances a bit more.