Cadmium

[GG0z He/Him]

If you technically stockpiled up enough cadmium to last you for centuries, could you start burning it at around the time of the Wax and Wayne books to the ghostbloods book? Or would something happen.

Is there a negative effect for becoming a cadmium savant?

[PanLin they/he]

On 5/8/2026 at 1:14 AM, GG0z said:

If you technically stockpiled up enough cadmium to last you for centuries, could you start burning it at around the time of the Wax and Wayne books to the ghostbloods book? Or would something happen.

Don't see why not! Although you'd obviously have to make sure you were somewhere extremely safe while the world zips around you. You'd also probably have to pop out of the bubble every now and then to eat, sleep, and do other things necessary to stay alive. Spoilers for Stormlight Archive:

Spoiler

For example, a lot of people (including me) believe Sixteen in Lasting Integrity to be either a Pulser or a Mistborn, burning Cadmium while they're locked in their home.

WoB:

Spoiler

 

Questioner

With a cadmium or bendalloy savant, would they be able to impact the amount of time that they can compress or expand?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Questioner

So they could fit-- Theoretically they could make-- fit more time into the same amount of metal.

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, that's what you're asking. Yeee-- *pauses* So, yes, technically, because... Yes, but mostly what that's going to do is going to influence your strength and how much you can multiply--

Questioner

The size of the bubble?

Brandon Sanderson

The size of the bubble and the amount of time, like when you flare, you are pressing more time into it and a savant is gonna get really good at that. They're gonna get good at changing the bubble and the shape of the bubble, they're gonna get good at some of the other things involving the bubble. It does technically, as you become a savant, does mean you're able to squeeze a little bit more out of your metal, because that's just how it works, but that's not the main effect.

Skyward San Francisco signing (Nov. 8, 2018)

 

On 5/8/2026 at 1:14 AM, GG0z said:

Is there a negative effect for becoming a cadmium savant?

Almost certainly—Sanderson has stated a few times, both in-text and in WoBs, that all savantism carries negative side effects as a sort of narrative deterrent to just burning lots of metals all the time. All allomantic savantism creates a dependency/addiction on that metal, for a start.

As for the specific effects, I don't think we know for sure yet. Cadmium and Bendalloy side-step relativity issues by pulling extra energy directly from the spiritual realm, so there might be something there. Maybe their spiritweb starts to become unstable, or they start to become untethered from the physical realm? WoB:

Spoiler

Questioner

So my quick question: Can you use Identity (I love the speed bubbles!) to anchor speed bubbles to yourself?

Brandon Sanderson

Uh, this is possible. That's less a matter of Identity. What’s gonna happen there, like, the more someone uses the powers, the more familiar and intermingled with their soul the powers become, and they are able to accomplish things that others can't. This would be like a Mistborn learning to hover a coin, right, which they can do, but most think you can't. That's the sort of level we're going with.

Necarion

So a savant could?

Brandon Sanderson

A savant could totally do that. The problem is, things moving in and out of a speed bubble, there's a transference of energy. This is how we keep speed bubbles from irradiating people when light moves through them, right, red shift. And so there's a transfer of energy directly from the Spiritual Realm, which means that moving with a speed bubble, you're gonna run into that, and it's gonna be, it's gonna cause all kinds of problems, but it would be possible.

Arcanum Unbounded San Francisco signing (Nov. 30, 2016)

 

Edited May 11 by PanLin
spoiler-tagged some stormlight content, whoops!

[GG0z He/Him]

I guess you could lock yourself in an aluminum box, and come out randomly to get more food. Only problem is that the currency might change every now and again

Edited May 8 by GG0z

[Joltizard1337 He/Him]

On 5/7/2026 at 6:14 PM, GG0z said:

If you technically stockpiled up enough cadmium to last you for centuries, could you start burning it at around the time of the Wax and Wayne books to the ghostbloods book? Or would something happen.

Is there a negative effect for becoming a cadmium savant?

A pulser could most definitely pass time this way if they had enough cadmium

as for the negative effect of cadmium savantism, I think there's natural consequences from basically time travelling. your money wouldn't be as valuable anymore unless you invest it into the right stuff and then travel. for example, imagine its 2010 and you buy 200 Bitcoin and then go to your house set up a bubble and wait till 2026 you'll now be a millionaire but everyone you know will have changed if they're even still alive. although, it'd be hilarious to meet Khriss, or someone like her, at the ball in New Seran-for example-and then meeting her again in era 3

I think it might be similar to pewter savantism where you're so used to it you don't feel pain anymore. This might manifest, for a pulser, as they observe time weirdly; maybe losing track of time or feeling like things are taking too long all the time. Everyday feels like ten years to them because when they're in a speed bubble it literally is (this is hyperbolic but I bet a savant could compress that much time into a day)

as for the needing a safe space, if anything enters the bubble they're also slowed. unless someone was shooting at you from outside the bubble, which would make the bullet go crazy, you'd be generally safe. if it was high enough calliber it might have enough momentum to just keep going but I don't think we know enough about the momentum shenanigans to confirm that.

[Deception He/Him]

 

On 5/7/2026 at 5:14 PM, GG0z said:

If you technically stockpiled up enough cadmium to last you for centuries, could you start burning it at around the time of the Wax and Wayne books to the ghostbloods book? Or would something happen.

Is there a negative effect for becoming a cadmium savant?

To me at least, the consequences of this seem obvious. I don't know if this is right, but I think that basically:

- A cadmium savant would get so used to using cadnium to skip boring and bad things that they begin to increase the amount of things that they skip, forming tolerance and an addiction, until they barely ever step out of their cadmium bubble for extremely exciting events.

Remember that savantism usually comes with an addiction/reliance on the metal.