How to augment your Mistborn powers without Leraslium

[Dancer]

I remember seeing a WoB ages ago saying that Allomancers can burn piercings on there body the only reason they don't is because they don't think they can (good old perception). This got me thinking would the Allomancer perceive their piercings as one whole reservoir of power of desecrate units of each piercing?  If the latter then this could potentially be a way of augmenting their power output. 

When an Allomancer burns their metals they a doorway into the Spiritual Realm. Normally it doesn't matter how much metal they consume the burn rate is always the same. This is due to the metaphorical door being the same each time and the only thing that changes if the amount of time the door stays open. What I propose if that this is not a hard and fast rule but is in fact a perception limitation. If an Allomancer can perceive each individual metal as a discrete unit of power instead of lumped together as one then they should theoretically be able of open up a door for each metal the drastically increasing the amount of power flowing through them at one time. This would also have the drawback of drastically depleting ones reserves very quickly.  

Note; All the metal in this theory is of the same kind. 

[Treamayne]

2 hours ago, Dancer said:

I remember seeing a WoB ages ago saying that Allomancers can burn piercings on there body the only reason they don't is because they don't think they can (good old perception). This got me thinking would the Allomancer perceive their piercings as one whole reservoir of power of desecrate units of each piercing?  If the latter then this could potentially be a way of augmenting their power output. 

You are correct in that we do not have full information on this yet... however, based on the information we do have, this is unlikely. When an allomancer like Vin burns a metal, the investiture does not spread from their gut. The metals "'brun"' to establish the conduit there (and why they used the term burn in the first place) but the Kinetic Investiture is saturating their whole body (e. g. burning pewter vin does not have to wait for it to reach her arms and legs from her core; she simply burns pewter and her whole body is suffused). So, mot likely, there is one conduit to the SR. Burning a metal is the key to open that conduit (one piercing or many) and flaring increases the aperature allowing more/faster flow. I think, if it worked as you thought that it would have been discovered long ago, because "sensing reserves" would have felt very differnt should an allomancer have been able to open 5+ "conduits" simultaneously. WoBs:

Spoiler

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Josh

When non-god metals are burned Allomantically, what happens to the metals? Are they crushed into tiny specks? Do they disappear?

Brandon Sanderson

The metals become a key conduit through which the power is delivered. So they are actually sort of vaporized, and the atomic code is a key by which the power is drawn in.

West Jordan signing (Aug. 4, 2011)

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Questioner

If an Allomancer ate a Forged metal, what happens?

Brandon Sanderson

If an Allomancer eats a Forged metal, there is going to be some Investiture in that Forged metal, but it's not going to be keyed the right way, so it'd be like eating a metalmind... If you're asking if the metal was Forged into a different type of metal, the Forgery will take and it will believe and... that's going to get really weird. I have not considered that. That's a "let me think about it." My instincts say that it's going to work like the metal it's become long enough to burn for a few minutes, and then that's going to break the Forgery, and it's going to snap out of it and become the other [original] metal. That’s my instinct, but I’ll have to think about it further. [...] It's going to be really hard to burn a metal that's Invested like that. The magics don't mix real well.

Kurkistan

Eh, you can burn metalminds.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, you can, but it’s from the same "magic set", right? So...

Shadows of Self Chicago signing (Oct. 12, 2015)

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tay95

A theme throughout a lot of the Cosmere novels is that form, of one sort or another (patterns, aons, etc.) has a crucial role to play in unlocking or using Investiture.

As a chemist, I'm curious about the role of form in Allomancy and Feruchemy. Does the underlying molecular or crystalline structure of the metal or alloy play a roll? Different processes, doping ratios, and metal mixtures result in different molecular packing, lattices, and ultimately structure. It seems like that kind of very defined, orderly matrix would be right in line with other forms of unlocking Investiture.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes! I've actually mentioned to people before that the chemistry of the various metals acts, for Allomancy, in the same way that the Aons work for AonDor. It's more a key than it is a source of power itself.

Worldbuilders AMA (Dec. 4, 2015)

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Questioner

Can Leechers leech on other types of Investiture across the cosmere? And how do people power their powers on worlds?

Brandon Sanderson

So, Scadrians can use metal from other worlds. The metal is considered a facilitator, a key for reaching the Spiritual Realm, and distance doesn't matter for the Spiritual Realm. All of the Allomantic powers, Leechers in particular, they do have an influence with the other magic systems. Even as simple as a Shardblade would be very difficult, near impossible to push or pull, because of the level of Investiture it has. Copperclouds have some interesting ramifications, as well as Seekers have interesting ramifications, and Leechers would work on other magic systems as well. It is a little tricky how it interfaces sometimes, but it'll generally do what you're expecting it to do.

FanX 2021 (Sept. 18, 2021)

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Kaymyth (paraphrased)

I asked the question about chromium vs a Compounder with both Invested and un-Invested metals in both their stomach and piercings.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

What it boils down to is this:

1) Yes, the piercings will get burned off.

2) The non-Invested metals go before the Invested ones. He said that because Invested metals are harder to affect, it takes a little extra time and effort to get them to burn off. So a Leecher trying to clean out a Compounder would have to get a good grip and hang on for a few seconds.

3) Chromium burns about as quickly as duralumin, so if you're trying to burn off a lot of metals, it is possible to run out of chromium before your target is clean. This would probably only be an issue when dealing with larger pieces (like jewelry) rather than your standard metal-flakes-in-the-stomach deal.

ConQuest 46 (May 22, 2015)

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GrimoireHearts

Does Miles burn his goldmind piercings or does he swallow them

Brandon Sanderson

I'd have to grab the notes to be sure--it's been a while since I've dealt with Miles--but as I recall, he's done both.

General Reddit 2017 (July 15, 2017)

 

Hope that helps

[Dancer]

In the first Book Vin couldn't tell the difference between the metals she had just ingested until Kelsier pointed that out to her. At that point the huge reservoir of power she sensed split into 8. This was due to being perception blocked. Just like how people thought that the Honor Blades needed ten heartbeats to summon. Perception plays a huge role in how one interacts with Investiture. Most steel and Iron Allomancers don't know that they can actually see trace metals in everything but they don't because 1.) there not skilled enough and 2.) they don't perceive stone and wood to have metal. 

[Treamayne]

13 hours ago, Dancer said:

In the first Book Vin couldn't tell the difference between the metals she had just ingested until Kelsier pointed that out to her. At that point the huge reservoir of power she sensed split into 8. This was due to being perception blocked. Just like - Stormligth Archive Spoilers:

Spoiler

how people thought that the Honor Blades needed ten heartbeats to summon.

Perception plays a huge role in how one interacts with Investiture. Most steel and Iron Allomancers don't know that they can actually see trace metals in everything but they don't because 1.) there not skilled enough and 2.) they don't perceive stone and wood to have metal. 

This is the Mistborn forum, please make certain all non Mistborn series references are spoiler tagged. If you need help editing a post, please see the Sharder FAQ.

Perception does play a vital role, as does intent. Which is why I said based on current information (paraphrased). I'm not saying your idea is impossible, I am saying we do not have any data yet that supports the idea. Keep in mind that, as an MoI, Allomancy is very low-invested (WoB Below).

We see that Flaring can widen the conduit and puch more investitrue into the allomancer and we saw that Duralumin's effect can max-out that conduit; we have not seen any examples (yet) of more-than-one source of burning metals. We have seen that Miles could not burn both Gold and F-Gold at the same time (he could tap healing while burning Gold for an Oracle vision, but not burn F-charged gold for compounding at the same time).We also know that Chomium Allomancy will hist one metal source at a time (non-invested first). 

So, Brandon could take this either way / a mini-Duralumin technique or just one-source at a time. 

WoB:

Spoiler

Trae Cooper (paraphrased)

Why are Invested objects like metalminds and Hemalurgic spikes able to be Pushed and Pulled on, but Shardblades and Shardplate, which are also invested, are not susceptible to Pushing and Pulling?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

There were a few concepts that he outlined in answering this question.

1.) The ability to Push/Pull an Invested object is predicated to the amount/power of the Investiture.

2.) Further, Invested objects also gain resistance to pulling/pushing based on proximity to soul possibly via the soul. An example given is that a Hemalurgic spike touches the blood of the person, and from there is now part of both the Spiritual Realm and the Physical Realm. This provides what Brandon termed a kind of "soul interference," based on its proximity to the soul.

This further explains why Vin required more than normal power to Push/Pull the metalminds from the Lord Ruler, because of their proximity to his soul, via the Spiritual Realm.

3.) The amount of Investiture is relatively low on Scadrial, whereas worlds like Sel and Roshar are pushing around "high power" according to Brandon. I interpreted this to mean that Hemalurgic spikes and metalminds have low amounts of Investiture compared to Shardplate and Shardblades.

Brandon said that theoretically you can Push/Pull Shardblades and Shardplates but you would need to wield an incredible amount of power. One example he gave that could so such as a thing is that if you were a Mistborn wielding the full power of the Well of Ascension, you could Push/Pull Shardblades/Plate.

DragonCon 2012 (Sept. 4, 2012)

Hope that helps

Edited February 12 by Treamayne
SPAG

[Trusk'our he/him]

5 hours ago, Dancer said:

I remember seeing a WoB ages ago saying that Allomancers can burn piercings on there body the only reason they don't is because they don't think they can (good old perception). This got me thinking would the Allomancer perceive their piercings as one whole reservoir of power of desecrate units of each piercing?  If the latter then this could potentially be a way of augmenting their power output. 

When an Allomancer burns their metals they a doorway into the Spiritual Realm. Normally it doesn't matter how much metal they consume the burn rate is always the same. This is due to the metaphorical door being the same each time and the only thing that changes if the amount of time the door stays open. What I propose if that this is not a hard and fast rule but is in fact a perception limitation. If an Allomancer can perceive each individual metal as a discrete unit of power instead of lumped together as one then they should theoretically be able of open up a door for each metal the drastically increasing the amount of power flowing through them at one time. This would also have the drawback of drastically depleting ones reserves very quickly.  

Note; All the metal in this theory is of the same kind. 

Don't forget that in addition for Flaring and enhancement metals that make an Allomancer temporarily stronger that those with innately more Investiture squeeze more out of their metals. Lerasium (as you bring up in the title), the Well of Ascension, and Savantism can all widen the gates used to Invest the Allomancer.

Plus, we've have seen people swallow larger individual pieces of metal before, such as when Vin and Kelsier needed to Pewterdrag for an extended period of time and ingested entire beads. Those are individual pieces, as are the flakes they normally burn, but there are not individual wells of power they sense nor do they get any boost from stomaching more metal. You could possibly chalk this up to perception again, but I feel like the evidence is stacked pretty hard against this hypothesis. The innate level of Investiture or other enhancing Investiture is the primary thing that determines an Allomancer's potency at burning metals.