The Official Alloy of Law Discussion Thread (spoilers)

[Emeralis00 she/her]

I suggest to the moderators to put a spoilers sign in the title please.

Otherwise we might get only pages of spoiler hidden text

[Chaos he/him]

I suggest to the moderators to put a spoilers sign in the title please.

Otherwise we might get only pages of spoiler hidden text

Good plan. Consider it done.

[Zas678 he/him]

What if welike spoiler tags?

[Chaos he/him]

What if welike spoiler tags?

Well, then you'd be the only one

There's going to be a more clear spoiler policy coming soon here, but for Alloy of Law, you're all doing things excellently. (Basically, for the Book Discussion forums, you won't need spoiler tags except for new books)

[Mad_Scientist he/him]

A little late to the party here regarding the cover discussion, but I thought I'd share my two cents.

I really like the look of the European cover... or I would, if I had no idea what the book was about. I too question whether it really fits the style of the book itself. However, I've come to realize that I should have expected a cover like that, because for some reason, all of the European covers have followed the exact same artstyle.

All the covers except mostly Black and White, with a single* additional color adding some variety. For Elantris, it's green, for Way of Kings, it's red, for all the Mistborn books, it's blue. *Warbreaker is a slight change in that it has a handful of additional colors, purple, red, orange, and blue, rather than a single extra one, but none of them are as apparant as say, the blue in Mistborn, so the cover is still mostly black and white.

They are also all done in a very wispy, ethereal style.

It works for the original Mistborn books maybe, but looks oddly out of place for something like Way of Kings.

I'm sure most of you already knew this about the Eurepean covers, but for me this is new info, and it seems kind of an odd decision to make all of Brandon's different series look so similiar to each other.

Edited July 5, 2011 by Mad_Scientist

[Silus - Shard of Flame he/him]

Maybe it's the Cosmere aspect, have they published Alcatraz in the UK? Then again, that's a different publisher.

[Alliare she/her]

Huh... guys, I'm sure this question is so stupid, but I seem to have a knack for not understanding very simple things.

It's something that bothered me when reading the first six released chapters of Alloy of Law... Why is Aluminum not affected when it comes to pushing and pulling metals?

[darniil he/him]

It probably has something to do with its normal properties; that is, a Mistborn who burns aluminum will also instantly destroy the rest of his/her metal reserves. http://coppermind.17thshard.com/wiki/Aluminum The primary allomantic properties of aluminum were a secret retained by the Lord Ruler, probably for the purpose in which it was used against Vin in the books.

I imagine that there was very little experimentation with unknown metals in the Final Empire, so that's probably why nobody knew about it. (Or, if anyone other than TLR did know about it, they'd want to keep it a secret, too, like he did.) Consequently, the "side-effect" properties of aluminum wouldn't have been known, either. Otherwise, I imagine there would have been a lot more use of aluminum in the Final Empire, perhaps as daggers or knives. (Or clubs.)

[Alliare she/her]

Yes, I know the main properties. And I also know that Aluminum's properties were closely kept by the Lord Ruler. It is not that it doest't appear in the Mitborn trilogy what surprises me, it's the fact itself. I mean, it is a metal, after all. Even if it can destroy another metals by being burned by an Allomancer, it isn't being burned when someone tries to Push or Pull it. And I cannot think of any chemical reason, either (though I'll recognize I haven't done any serious research).

[darniil he/him]

Well, there are non-ferrous metals out there. Maybe this is the allomantic equivalent of being non-ferrous.

Or maybe it was the only way Brandon could make a tinfoil-hat joke, so he ran with it.

Edit: Regarding the allomantic equivalent of being non-ferrous, the term "allomantically inert" was used in those preview chapters, wasn't it?

Edited September 9, 2011 by darniil

[Alliare she/her]

Yes... it is used, you are right (I had to go through all the chapters again, as I read them as soon as they were out, so I didn't remember the specifics).

However... is there is to be such a thing as Allomantic inertness, how come Aluminum is one of the metals Allomancers can burn and use? Seems kinda odd.

I see your point, though, about comparing Allomantic Pushing and Pulling with magnetism.

[Zas678 he/him]

You know what? I have a sneaking suspcion that aluminum is different from all the other metals in that it has no allomantic properites. I suspect that since you can't push on it, and you can push through it, I bet that the inverse is true as well. I bet that Harmony probably could see aluminum.

I don't think that it has any powers, it is just the lack of a power. It has a overwhelming "vortex" of lack of power, so when Vin burns it, it does what it can to make itself balanced, and "grabs" all the power of the other metals. , thus balancing it out, and breaking it down.

[darniil he/him]

However... is there is to be such a thing as Allomantic inertness, how come Aluminum is one of the metals Allomancers can burn and use? Seems kinda odd.

That's probably a RAFO, unfortunately.

Edit:

You know what? I have a sneaking suspcion that aluminum is different from all the other metals in that it has no allomantic properites. I suspect that since you can't push on it, and you can push through it, I bet that the inverse is true as well. I bet that Harmony probably could see aluminum.

I don't think that it has any powers, it is just the lack of a power. It has a overwhelming "vortex" of lack of power, so when Vin burns it, it does what it can to make itself balanced, and "grabs" all the power of the other metals. , thus balancing it out, and breaking it down.

I'm not so sure about the explanation of the "why aluminum destroys allomantic reserves", (it's an interesting thought, but I don't think that's the "physics" of it), but I do find the thought that Harmony could see aluminum to be intriguing.

Edited September 9, 2011 by darniil

[Alliare she/her]

I don't think that it has any powers, it is just the lack of a power. It has a overwhelming "vortex" of lack of power, so when Vin burns it, it does what it can to make itself balanced, and "grabs" all the power of the other metals. , thus balancing it out, and breaking it down.

Hmm... I don't think s, given that Duralumin is its counterpart, an alloy of Aluminum, and it does have a power, the power of concentrating all the reserves of a metal a Mistborn is burning in a single burst. So it wouldn't make sense for Aluminum to not have a power and for Duralumin to have it.

Besides, burning Chromium does the same as burning Aluminum, only that it affects not the burner, but an Allomancer the burner is touching, and I would not say it's a metal with 'lack' of power, especially knowing that nobody has said anything about Chromium being Allomantically inert.

Edited September 9, 2011 by Alliare

[Quantum Toast he/him]

Hmm... I don't think s, given that Duralumin is its counterpart, an alloy of Aluminum, and it does have a power, the power of concentrating all the reserves of a metal a Mistborn is burning in a single burst. So it wouldn't make sense for Aluminum to not have a power and for Duralumin to have it.

Speaking of which, I'm curious about whether there's anything unusual about Pushing or Pulling duralumin. I remember something about "certain alloys" of aluminium being unaffected too, so I guess it could be one of those. But following the "aluminium = anti-magic" logic, duralumin might actually be affected more strongly than other metals...

[Alliare she/her]

Speaking of which, I'm curious about whether there's anything unusual about Pushing or Pulling duralumin. I remember something about "certain alloys" of aluminium being unaffected too, so I guess it could be one of those. But following the "aluminium = anti-magic" logic, duralumin might actually be affected more strongly than other metals...

Yes, they mentioned that certain alloys of Aluminum were inert too. But I think that, if Duralumin were one of them, they would have said so, it being one of the sixteen allomantic metals and all.

Edited September 9, 2011 by Alliare

[darniil he/him]

However, there was mention on the broadsheet that the natives of the "mysterious southern continent" know of metals that the people of Elendel don't.

Which reminds me: Sazed mentioned to Spook, in the book that was left, he tells Spook to have fun trying to find the rest of the metals that nobody knew about. I wonder if Saze modified humanity so that there's less danger in trying to burn non-allomantic (or off-mixture) metals.

[Musicspren he/him]

I suspect that all the Enhancement metals are inert (chromium, nicrosil, aluminum, duralumin). Why do we only know about Aluminum (and, as Alliare mentions, no one mentions duralumin)? Duralumin is effectively useless at the moment until Ferrings figure out how to use it. The mistings will be gnats; it will be a useless power to them. Aluminum is rare (and expensive) enough that people won't be testing it a lot (such as making alloys). However, if certain alloys are not as expensive to make (because they use less aluminum) and remain allomantically inert, they might become prevalent. For all we know, the "aluminum" guns and bullets might actually be duralumin guns and bullets, but when you're being shot at, your main concern is not the exact metal content of the weapons and projectiles. To our knowledge, the people on the main continent don't know about chromium and nicrosil, hence they couldn't know if they are allomantically inert. I suspect that the people on the southern continent (if anything about them in the broadsheet can be believed at all) know of chromium and nicrosil, although it's possible (albeit improbable) that they have atium or lerasium (or alloys of those).

[Inkthinker]

I suspect that the idea of Iron/Steel push/pulling ALL metals is a case of unreliable narration. We get it from watching Allomancers do their thing, and telling each other that's how it works, but that doesn't mean they're 100% infallibly correct. Heck, the only way you'd likely discover that you couldn't push/pull a metal is if you happened to burn Iron/Steel in the presence of said metal, and discovered that you couldn't.

If you're flying around in the night, and you see hundreds of lines in all directions, are you likely to notice that you're not getting lines to every single piece of rarely-used metal in the environment? Instead, one assumes that since you can affect all the metals that you tend to run into, you can affect "all metal".

But you'd be wrong...

[Ari he/him]

Yes, I know the main properties. And I also know that Aluminum's properties were closely kept by the Lord Ruler. It is not that it doest't appear in the Mitborn trilogy what surprises me, it's the fact itself. I mean, it is a metal, after all. Even if it can destroy another metals by being burned by an Allomancer, it isn't being burned when someone tries to Push or Pull it. And I cannot think of any chemical reason, either (though I'll recognize I haven't done any serious research).

Imagine that all other metals and allomancy powers themselves have a positive allomantic charge. Aluminium would have a negative allomantic charge under this system, and would neutralise any allomantic powers it comes into contact with- hence its immunity to pushing and pulling, and its effect as a shield from emotional allomancy.

Calling it "inert" is an in-world term and could well simply be incorrect- like you, I don't see any reason why an inert metal would act as a shield.

I suspect that all the Enhancement metals are inert (chromium, nicrosil, aluminum, duralumin). Why do we only know about Aluminum (and, as Alliare mentions, no one mentions duralumin)? Duralumin is effectively useless at the moment until Ferrings figure out how to use it. The mistings will be gnats; it will be a useless power to them. Aluminum is rare (and expensive) enough that people won't be testing it a lot (such as making alloys). However, if certain alloys are not as expensive to make (because they use less aluminum) and remain allomantically inert, they might become prevalent. For all we know, the "aluminum" guns and bullets might actually be duralumin guns and bullets, but when you're being shot at, your main concern is not the exact metal content of the weapons and projectiles. To our knowledge, the people on the main continent don't know about chromium and nicrosil, hence they couldn't know if they are allomantically inert. I suspect that the people on the southern continent (if anything about them in the broadsheet can be believed at all) know of chromium and nicrosil, although it's possible (albeit improbable) that they have atium or lerasium (or alloys of those).

Well, Duralumin would be useless until the ferrings discover it... or until and unless another Mistborn pops up, which we know is still possible, thanks to Brandon's comments about the second Mistborn series.

Given how expensive aluminium is in AoL, I doubt they would be experimenting with its alloys very much.

Edited September 11, 2011 by Ari

[darniil he/him]

Imagine that all other metals and allomancy powers themselves have a positive allomantic charge. Aluminium would have a negative allomantic charge under this system, and would neutralise any allomantic powers it comes into contact with- hence its immunity to pushing and pulling, and its effect as a shield from emotional allomancy.

Calling it "inert" is an in-world term and could well simply be incorrect- like you, I don't see any reason why an inert metal would act as a shield.

I like this, particularly the italicized part. It's simple and not overly complex (which [overly complex ideas] is something that's in abundance here). If it were truly inert, it wouldn't be able to be used at all. In all of the Mistborn stories that we have access to right now, aluminum clearly does have a use.

I also like the italicized part because it fits with two other pieces of information: 1) Brandon's desire to give us, the readers, access to things as they're used by the characters in his stories (that is, the chart of allomantic metals isn't the Writer's Chart, but the chart as developed by in-book theorizers, with potential inaccuracies); 2) inkthinker's comment right above yours, Ari.

[TheBobs he/him]

I also think the positive and negative charge analogy makes more sense. You're right, why would an inert metal stop soothing? It would seem that the allomancy wouldn't even 'see' it. But a negatively 'charged' metal . . . . Nice analogy.

Given how expensive aluminium is in AoL, I doubt they would be experimenting with its alloys very much.

I briefly saw Age of Legends instead of Alloy of Law

[cmcnaught]

Thought anyone interested in this topic would love to see the brand new...

ALLOY of LAW OFFICIAL TRAILER!!!!

Seriously, check it out.

[Timiperer]

Guys... The Alloy of Law got leaked at my local bookstore last week and I was lucky enough to get a copy... You are going to love the book! It's amazing! Not going to say much more about it as I dont want to spoil anything... But make sure you also read the Ars Arcanum! It's got some interesting things in the last couple of pages!

[darniil he/him]

Guys... The Alloy of Law got leaked at my local bookstore last week and I was lucky enough to get a copy... You are going to love the book! It's amazing! Not going to say much more about it as I dont want to spoil anything... But make sure you also read the Ars Arcanum! It's got some interesting things in the last couple of pages!

Yeeah, Amazon.co.uk already posted the Ars Arcanum on their website, and we've already spent a while talking about it. >_>