theory Feruchemical Classifications

[Oudeis he/him]

I'm working on trying to predict the gaping holes in the hemalurgy chart. In the process, I'm collating data on the other Metallic Arts to look for commonalities. Working my way up to hemalurgy, I've come up with an idea on how we can divide up the feruchemical traits.

 

TL;DR if you don't want to read this wall of text: But if you reply to this over-simplified summary and my reply is in this OP, I will ignore you. So in short, the classifications I propose for feruchemical metals: Alloys require Intent, Base metals store traits that happen without Intent. The split between Metal Group 1 and Metal Group 2 (what in Allomancy is called the Internal and External metals) is that Group 1 must be powered from inside yourself, while group 2 can be powered from an external source.

 

I'm going to throw out one caveat to start this. Recall that allomantically, copper and bronze are not obviously internal metals. Bronze allows you to sense bronzepulses; this is similar to how the external iron allows you to see ironlines. Copper sets up a cloud around you; this is similar to how the external bendalloy creates a bubble around you. It is mostly from its placement in the group that we know they must be internal, changing something within the person that indirectly causes the external effects. So even if something initially looks like it doesn't fit the category, it might just be that we don't yet fully understand the mechanism.

 

That said, onto my theory.

 

The easier one is Base Metals versus their Alloys, since we know this is always going to be the case. From the charts, we know the four metals in the Allomantic Mental Quadrant are the same as the ones in the Feruchemical Cognitive Quadrant, and we know bronze is always going to be an alloy of copper. Whether the eight "internal metals" and eight "external metals" will all share one feruchemical group is less certain; we have no evidence that they will, apart from the fact that everything else about the allomantic classifications has, in fact, translated.

 

So. Tin, Iron, Copper, Zinc, Aluminum, Chromium, Gold, Cadmium. Feruchemically, they store Senses, Weight, Memories, Mental Speed, Luck, Health, and Breath.

 

Contrast with Pewter, Steel, Bronze, Brass, Duralumin, Nicrosil, Electrum, and Bendalloy, which store Might, Speed, Wakefulness, Warmth, Connection, Investiture, Determination, and Food.

 

Note, all of this is more easily viewed and broken down on all of my charts in the link at the top of this post.

 

What I eventually concluded is intent. Most of the alloys are things you must willfully choose to do. All of the base metals are things which will happen on their own, even if you're unconscious. This isn't exact, but it's the best I could come up with. Anyone who wants to posit another solution, I am all ears. If you're unconscious, you will keep breathing, but you must be awake to hunt/gather food, prepare it, and eat it. Your body will try to repair itself even if you're asleep, but you must be awake to be determined about something. Luck happens to you, but per WoB, Intent is always needed for Investiture. Identity; you're always yourself, even your sleeping self, but if you're not actively engaged with someone you're not building social connections. You weigh the same asleep or awake, but you must make the choice to move to have speed. Your senses passively gather information all the time; you can choose to focus on one or more, but as a whole it's a passive thing. But you must make a choice to exert most of your muscles.

 

The cognitive metals are a big sticking point. They appear to be fully reversed. Recalling memories and cogitating both require acts of will. Warmth... has always been odd. It's either a thing that happens to your body or a thing your body does outside of your conscious control. Wakefulness. You've either had enough sleep or you haven't; coffee can cheat the system but actually feeling rested is a thing that just is about you, it's not like you're sitting at your desk and suddenly exert some muscle and feel more rested than you did a moment ago. Perhaps there's some reason the Cognitive metals break the pattern, or mayb these four fit the pattern in a non-obvious way like copper and bronze. Or, of course, I'm simply wrong.

 

If this sparks any ideas in other people, give me a shout!

 

Group 1 and Group 2. In allomancy, we call these the Internal Metals and the External Metals. For whatever reason, tin, copper, aluminum, gold and their alloys are all one "group" in allomancy. Is this true for feruchemy?

 

Might, senses, wakefulness, memories, connection, identity, determination, and health. What separates them from speed, weight, warmth, mental speed, investiture, luck, food and breath? I propose: Power source.

 

The first eight must be powered from within one's own body. There's no way to artificially increase your own storage limit. You can store as much strength as you have, you can store as much identity as you have. You cannot draw wakefulness from something outside of yourself, nor health.

 

However, you can gorge yourself and store all the excess food. You can sit in a sauna for hours, building up huge reserves of warmth.

 

The sticking points: Physical and mental speed. Neither of them seem like things you can power externally. I would be very surprised if you could leap off a cliff and store your forward motion; the impression I get is that "physical speed" is how quickly you can force your muscles to work. Not sure how they fit into this category.

 

Kay, that's the short version. More charts and more deductions and more information to be found in the chart above.

 

And of course, this all supposes that there even is a split in the metal feruchemically. Just because this exists in allomancy doesn't mean it must be reflected in feruchemy. I fully admit and accept that there might not be any distinction.

[Voidus]

Just to point out that allomantic mental abilities don't map exactly to the feruchemical mental abilities, Brandon said he accidentally mixed up Warmth and Determination, Warmth should be in the second physical feruchemical quadrant (Along with Health, Breath and Nutrition)  and Determination should be in the cognitive (With Memory, Mental Speed and Wakefulness) but the metals got mixed around so now he's just said feurchemical quadrants are different IIRC.

[Oudeis he/him]

The fact that he's cool with the traits being swapped around suggests strongly that there is not, in fact, any pattern to be found.

 

I've read this WoB but when I tried to find it I couldn't; do you happen to have a direct link I can bookmark for future reference?

[Voidus]

 

 

BRANDON SANDERSON (PARAPHRASED)

As it turns out, there is an error in the Feruchemical table when Brandon put it in Mistborn 2. If you look closely, Determination (insert metal) doesn't belong in its group. The group that it is in is obviously more physical powers. Determination was supposed to be a mental metal, and Warmth was supposed to be in that Physical group. He just made a mistake originally. But it turns out that Feruchemy obeys different rules than Allomancy, so Brandon isn't retconning it, but saying that Feruchemy works differently now. Apparently there was going to be a table of Feruchemy at the end of Alloy of Law, but it wasn't ready because Isaac kept thinking like an Allomancer. Feruchemy has its own rules (for example, Brandon confirmed that pewter does steal Feruchemical health, probably because that second group of physical Feruchemical powers are also "physical", so pewter can steal them.) Hemalurgy also obeys different rules.

FOOTNOTE

The metal for determination is electrum

Link