Feruchemical Use of Nicrosil Explained!

[thekingofpillowland]

I don't know about any of you guys, but I always thought that the fact that so little has been said about the effects feruchemical powers of nicrosil was intriguing, combined with the fact that it mentions the word "investiture", which I saw as a goldmine of hidden fun.

So I was reading through the rulebook for the Mistborn Adventure Game, and I came to the section where it talks about nicrosil, and to my surprise, it had a whole bunch of information on it, that you can't find anywhere else. Presumably to make it usable in-game, so I suddenly had a brainwave and wrote a crap-ton about the potential powers of feruchemical nicrosil on the actual wiki page, but most of it is speculation, so in case of its potential erase, here is what I wrote:

Although the feruchemical uses and effects of nicrosil have not been canonically explained outside of the appendices in the books, the rulebook for the mistborn adventure game states that nicrosil can be used to convert stored feruchemical attributes into a generic form of investiture that can then be drawn upon to augment any feruchemical attribute. For example, if a feruchemist has stored up a lot of warmth but suddenly finds himself in need of some extra health, he can convert some of his excess warmth into generic investiture (which is shifted into his nicrosilmind), and can then draw upon the investiture as if it were health stored in a goldmind. The limitation being that he needs to have access to all three feruchemical abilities and their respective metals, this means that a simple nicrosil ferring is incapable of performing such a feat.

However, the rulebook also states that any power gained from an external source, such as an allomantic duralumin or nicrosil boost, or even power gained from the well of ascension or the mists could be stored in a nicrosilmind for later use. This means that a feruchemists who travelled to other worlds could gain access to extra investiture. For example, feruchemist on Roshar could potentially store the investiture provided by highstorms in the same way that Returned can consume it in lieu of breath.

Despite what can be inferred due to previously established rules on investiture, (such as all investiture being considered fundamentally identical) due to a lack of evidence, it can only be speculated that investiture stored in a nicrosilmind could be used to fuel other magic systems. For example, a twinborn using his feruchemically-stored investiture to power his allomantic ability, instead of having to burn a metal. Or even the reverse: a twinborn burning his metal, but storing the power in his nicrosilmind for later use, instead of gaining the immediate effect.

---

Now I know it is a lot to guess at, and we dont know how much we can trust what the tabletop game has to say about nicrosil, but I honestly think that this really fits with what we know about investiture throughout the cosmere. Anyway, if you guys have anything to add, or discuss, I'd love to hear it!

Edited June 23, 2015 by thekingofpillowland

[Titan Arum]

All I'd like to add is that you have to be careful adding things to the wiki and that the MAG is NOT canon. The MAG does things differently in some cases so that it'll work in-game or to explain unknown attributes, like feruchemical nicrosil. 

 

I actually think it's irresponsible to be changing the wiki on pure speculation and what the MAG contains. If we don't have a WOB or source directly from the book, it shouldn't be in the wiki (and honestly, sometimes even WOB is contradictory).

[Oudeis]

The official word on the MAG, per Mr. Sanderson, is that the history, society and such aspects of it are "canon until they're not," but that all the mechanics and everything about the metals are simply non-canon, whether they've yet been directly contradicted or not.

 

As an interesting example, the MAG came up with the idea that you could use a bendalloymind to store hydration, and Mr. Sanderson, upon hearing it, liked the idea so much that he adapted it into his story. This, as well as the way many better-known powers work in the book as opposed to the MAG, underscores that the people who came up with the rules did so independently and with an eye towards fair and balanced gameplay. I concur with Titan's assessment; rules from the MAG should be left out of the Coppermind, as we would leave out someone's speculative theory without WoB. It'll just confuse newbies who read it, not knowing that the MAG isn't canon.

[Moogle]

The MAG has been wrong on a number of things before (or at least has had incomplete knowledge - for example, it claims atium's use in Hemalurgy is to steal Temporal metals when in fact atium can steal anything) so I'd avoid trusting it too much, particularly on a metal Brandon has repeatedly RAFO'd.

 

If we're getting into speculation territory, the name 'Soulbearer' seems a bit more suggestive than what the MAG thinks, much more in line with how Breath works.

[Ookla the Absent]

The MAG has been wrong on a number of things before (or at least has had incomplete knowledge - for example, it claims atium's use in Hemalurgy is to steal Temporal metals when in fact atium can steal anything).

On that note, I kinda freaked about ten minutes ago (before I saw this thread) when I glanced at the HoA table in the back and it said that Atium does take only temp. metals.

I guess this was back when it was assumed that Atium was temporal, and that there were only 2 more metals (WoB says it was intentionally ambiguous and meant two base metals, rather than a metal and it's alloy).