Feruchemical Connection

[Caevita he/him]

So, (I think) Bands of Mourning told us that storing Identity  Connection lets you speak the language of the country you are currently in.  You're not from anywhere, so the world auto-corrects you to the land you are currently walking/flying around in.

This raises two questions in my mind.

1. If Identity is stored in an unkeyed metalmind, couldn't an Identity Connection Ferring then (now, bear with me) store their own identity into one metalmind while tapping an unkeyed metalmind into which Allik had stored his own Identity in order to speak Allik's language?  I know Marasi's attempt didn't work, but she was trying to simply store her own Identity Connection, which left her country of origin auto-corrected to the exact same thing it always was.

2. Would tapping Identity Connection allow for use of the Metallic Arts off-world?  Backing up for a moment, while the various Shards and planets do have different magic systems, their power sources are- on some level- compatible, as evidenced by the art of Compounding. So, if you're really, really sure that you're from Scadrial, would the resident Shard's power be "fooled" the same way that you can "fool" the power behind Allomancy into fueling your Feruchemy?

EDIT:  Okay, so first off, it is apparently Connection, not Identity, which I was thinking of.  Thank you for the correction, and my question has been fixed in that regard.  But you have also challenged a second assumption of mine.  Pagerunner and Belzedar, you said that it was actually tapping Connection, not storing it, which let Allik and his people speak the language of Elendel's inhabitants.  1. Is this what you meant, or a simple mistyping?  2. If it was, what does storing Connection do?  Would it be possible, say, for Marasi to forget her own language if she had tried storing, instead of tapping, that unkeyed Connection metalmind?

Edited February 11, 2017 by Caevita

[Pagerunner he/him]

Connection, not Identity, is what allows you to speak languages. You tap a blank form of Connection, and it 'latches' onto whatever region you're in at the moment.

Connection to a region is often essential to Initiation into the magic, but is not necessarily the only thing required. (Not everyone from Sel becomes an Elantrian.) Trying to 'hack' your way into a magic system using Connection can be difficult, because messing with Connection doesn't automatically create Investiture. Shai, from Emperor's Soul, could Forge herself so her past includes a visit to Roshar and actions according to a Radiant order, but she wouldn't be able to Forge her way into creating a spren to bond, since manipulating Connection is unable to create Investiture. (I've speculated elsewhere that Forging works entirely through Connection, but if that interpretation isn't 100% correct, the point I'm trying to get at still stands, that you can't use magic to create another Shard's Investiture.)

[Khyrindor he/him]

1 minute ago, Caevita said:

So, (I think) Bands of Mourning told us that storing Identity  lets you speak the language of the country you are currently in.  You're not from anywhere, so the world auto-corrects you to the land you are currently walking/flying around in.

This raises two questions in my mind.

1. If Identity is stored in an unkeyed metalmind, couldn't an Identity Ferring then (now, bear with me) store their own identity into one metalmind while tapping an unkeyed metalmind into which Allik had stored his own Identity in order to speak Allik's language?  I know Marasi's attempt didn't work, but she was trying to simply store her own Identity, which left her country of origin auto-corrected to the exact same thing it always was.

2. Would tapping Identity allow for use of the Metallic Arts off-world?  Backing up for a moment, while the various Shards and planets do have different magic systems, their power sources are- on some level- compatible, as evidenced by the art of Compounding. So, if you're really, really sure that you're from Scadrial, would the resident Shard's power be "fooled" the same way that you can "fool" the power behind Allomancy into fueling your Feruchemy?

I'm a bit fuzzy on the details of this myself, but for your second question, it's generally assumed that you can use allomancy independent of your location. Magic, in it's "usual" form, would be able to do this, but what we see are a lot of exceptions.

For example, on Sel, you can only use the magic in given locations, because the massive build ups of the Dor are all in the Cognitive Realm, which is location dependent. If you're an Elantrian, and travel elsewhere in the cosmere, you would lose your powers until you returned to Elantris. 

If you were a Surgebinder, and attempted to travel off world, you would need to take your spren, which is difficult, but possible according to WoB.

Allomancers and Awakeners would be able to use their magic wherever, because there is nothing tying it to location, does that make sense? What I'm trying to say is, an allomancer wouldn't need to use identity to be able to use allomancy off world. 

Identity would be more for, for example, making yourself a viable candidate for magic systems with require you to be born in a certain place, like on Sel. It's theoretically possible for you to tap identity etc, and be chosen by the Dor to become an Elantrian (though one should note that whatever Hoid tried to become an Elantrian didn't work).

Anyway, hope that made sense. 

[Yezrien]

1) The connection medallions don't store connection to a specific place, but just general connectedness. When you tap it, it connects you to whatever land you happen to be in. If it's the land that you're from, this makes no difference because it's a connection you already have. But if you're in a foreign land, you "become from" there, and spontaneously understand the language.

And for all we know, identity could work the same way. You don't store your own specific identity, but a generic identity resource -- the strength of your identity. You'd lose your ability to encode metalminds (and Breaths, and other identity-interactions), but you wouldn't necessarily stop being you. It's like... identity is a rubber stamp. You can lose your ink, making the stamp powerless, but you can't lose the stamp. (Just a theory, but I think it's supported by the way Brandon answers identity-related questions.)

2) There a couple different answers to this question. First of all, feruchemy doesn't rely on any external power source -- just on the investiture within a feruchemist's own body. So as long as you have the feruchemy sDNA, you should be able to use feruchemy anywhere in the cosmere. Hemalurgy's not as clear, but in AU, Khriss speculates that hemalurgy can be performed by anyone, anywhere. It might not require connection to scadrial, or scadrian identity. Considering the cosmere-wide importance of metal, hemalurgy might just be universal.

The concept of interchangeable power sources is perfectly sound, since apparently Vasher is using stormlight in place of Breath. But in terms of using allomancy on worlds other than Scadrial... I think you have it backwards. You'd have to convince the local investiture that you're not from Scadrial. Allomancers draw from Preservation because they're connected to it. For an allomancer to use stormlight, they might need a connection to Roshar instead.

But that probably won't be necessary:

Quote

INTERVIEW: Jan 19th, 2015

Figment Chat Q&A - January 19th, 2015

ANDREW

Does Allomancy work the same way when someone has left the planet?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Uhhhhhhhm, generally, Andrew, yes.

Which, to me, suggests that allomancers can draw power from Preservation even across interstellar distances. Probably because the power transfer occurs in the spiritual realm, where distance doesn't really matter.

Edited February 10, 2017 by Belzedar

[DocHoliday he/him]

I'd like to clarify that Alek from BoM was tapping his Connection metal-mind to speak Scardian(?). It is explicitly stated that the Connection has  go to something I.e. the Elendel basin in this case.