Broken Metalminds?

[Adamir he/him]

Note: This has probably been posted before. If so, could I ask for a link?

 

Just a thought, but what happens if a Feruchemist's Metalmind is snapped in half? Or, if its melted down and reforged into two different objects? My idea of how a Feruchemist's charge works is by imbuing the Cognitive aspect of an object - meaning that they would be storing in a full metal table instead of a small piece, because the table views itself as one object. If that object were to be broken into two, with a Feruchemical charge imbued in the original, what would happen?

 

If we take the concept further, what if a Feruchemist stores in a metal piece inside an otherwise non-metal object (such as a nail in a table)? The nail and table view themselves as one thing; so if they were to be separated, would the Feruchemical charge split between them?

Edited May 28, 2015 by Adamir

[Red Ferring he/him]

I don't have a WoB but he's answered this. The charge is split proportionally between the pieces of the original. So if a metal mind is broken exactly in half, then each half gets 50% of the stored attribute. And they're still usable.

Also, the nail in the table would be the only part that works as a metalmind because while we've learned that the cognitive realm effects things, feruchemy can still only store in metal.

[ccstat he/him]

source

If someone broke a coppermind, could the feruchemist still access a fragment of the information in it from a chunk of the coppermind, or would he require that the whole thing be reformed to access any of its storage?

BRANDON SANDERSON

The information would be fragmented.

I don't know whether it is the cognitive or physical aspect that matters, but we do know that the metallic arts only work with metal. Even if it is cognitive, it shouldn't be hard for the Feruchemist to think about the nail in the table as a separate entity. I suspect that if the restriction is cognitive a skilled feruchemist could concentrate really hard and store an attribute in just part of an all-metal table.

[Guest]

So long as the Metalmind remains pure (ie: Steelmind isn't alloyed with a Coppermind, or the Steel isn't purified to make Iron), the Charge is effectively invincible. It'll split if broken, remain if melted down, and even survive if mixed with more of its own metal.