Creating "medallions" without hemalurgy [Bands of Mourning spoilers]

[+robardin he/him]

Allik said that only a few times had he seen a medallion with as many as three powers - never with more. So however they create medallions, it's either (a) not done with medallions (more on this later), or (b) done with some combination of up-to-three power medallions.

So here is the latter mechanism. The Sovereign need only have left the Southerners with these two medallions:

Medallion A: A three-power medallion with nicrosilminds for F-nicrosil, A-nicrosil, and F-aluminum.

Medallion B: A three-power medallion for F-nicrosil, F-aluminum, and A-aluminum.

Along with a supply of non-medallion (loose) nicrosil and aluminum, for compounding.

Holding medallion A, tap the nicrosilmind that grants F- and A-nicrosil - you can now compound nicrosil!

Fill some of the F-nicrosil ability into the loose nicrosil, eat it, and burn it. And now, store as much or more of F-nicrosil than you tapped out back into the nicrosilmind in medallion A, while also charging the F-nicrosil ring in the medallion B.

While doing so, you need to tap the nicrosilmind in medallion A that grants F-aluminum, and store your Identity into a spare aluminumind, so that the F-nicrosil you're "charging" into medallions A and B are unkeyed.

That means medallion A can have an infinite supply of unkeyed F-nicrosil, while using a dwindling supply of F-aluminum. Enter Medallion B, which has the opposite compounding.

Tap its F-nicrosil, F-aluminum and A-aluminum: you are now an aluminum compounder who can store F-aluminum into an aluminummind, burn it, and refill the unkeyed F-aluminum and A-aluminum metalminds in Medallion B, and also the F-aluminum nicrosilmind in Medallion A. You'd use up the unkeyed F-nicrosil store in Medallion B in doing so, but that gets refilled from using Medallion A.

Note that you don't need to be a Metalborn of any kind to do this. Anybody could shuffle between the two medallions to keep them up and running, so long as there were nicrosil and aluminum on hand to fill as metalminds, and then to burn to compound. Heck, since compounding is a 10x yield, you could create even more pairs of A/B medallions!

To create "ability" medallions, you just need a Ferring or Misting of any type, and give them Medallion A, along with some aluminum to drain off Identity. With F-nicrosil and F-aluminum, they can create first an unkeyed "ability" nicrosilmind, like F-brass for a heat medallion, then (if applicable) a matching unkeyed metalind (like a brassmind) filled with unkeyed heat.

 

[+robardin he/him]

Here's another conclusion: whoever has the Bands of Mourning, which grants all the Metallic powers, can compound in any of them, just like TLR did. So you could refill each of the bands ad infinitum, with a supply of that band's metal available. Which includes creating more of them. If you had all the metals on hand, and could keep from getting confused as to which metal you were doing what with (F-zinc and a compounded zincmind would probably help!), you could just go on creating more and more Bands of Mourning.

This seems pretty rusting overpowered. Have I missed something? As compounding is an "end-positive" magic that "draws on the power of Preservation" to fuel it, at what point would a planet full of artifact-assisted Compounders end up drawing all of Preservation's power between them? (Would that mean Harmony "goes Ruin"?)
 

[Spoolofwhool]

Explain how you're storing aluminum feruchemical power into an aluminummind please. Shouldn't that go into the nicrosilmind of A, without a need for B at all?

Edited February 14, 2017 by Spoolofwhool

[Yata he/him]

Indeed A-Alluminium is useless for the whole process, Identity is just something you need to remove...Compound it it's useless for the Medallion tech (also if I had a theory of great amount of Identity usage in another kind of task)

[Pagerunner he/him]

To clarify what the others are saying:

To get an infinite supply of Aluminum Feruchemical ability in your nicrosilmind, you wouldn't compound aluminum, you would still compound nicrosil.

[+robardin he/him]

The way I pictured it, both medallions have three nicrosilminds, storing the ability to use F-nicrosil, F-aluminum, A-aluminum in A, and F-nicrosil, F-aluminum, and A-aluminum in B. There are no aluminumminds in the medallions - just the "loose" aluminum needed to shunt off the Identity, some way to compound the ability to use F-nicrosil in a nicrosilmind, and a way to recharge the nicrosilmind that stores the power of F-aluminum.

But I see the point that Medallion B having A-aluminum for compounding aluminum is beside the point, since what we need to compound is not aluminum but the power of F-aluminum - which is nicrosil based storage.

Still, with a medallion like A that gives compounded Nicrosil, you can create lots of compounded Nicrosil enabling medallions, as long as you can unkey them. Which needs F-aluminum. Which you can store the ability for, with nicrosil, which due to being able to compound nicrosil, you can do not only without a loss, but with a net gain of Investiture. Right? There is something here.

I waas also confusing the fact that you need to store different powers in different nicrosilminds, as with different senses of sight, hearing, etc., in different tinminds, from the generic ability of a Soulbearer to store Investiture. Because if you could compound nicrosil - if you could tap two nicrosilminds, one to become a Soulbearer and the other to become a Nicroburst - you could compound nicrosil, and refill BOTH of those nicrosilminds with Soulbearing-ness and Nicroburst-ness, with enough left over to fill other nicrosilminds with the same.

Which means that's all you really need, right? Medallion A? You can compound nicrosil, so refilling the nicrosilmind you tapped to be a Trueself (which you needed to refill the nicrosilminds for Soulbearing-ness and Nicroburst-ness as unkeyed ones, shunting off Indentity into a loose aluminummind) is simply a matter of switching "flavors" of Investiture to fill the nicrosilmind for Trueself-ness?

I guess it boils down to how compounding Investiture actually works, which maybe is limited when it comes to storing "temporary" abilities versus innate ones. 

[CalaCrisp88]

Can you tap Allomancy? I thought only Feruchemy could be tapped. Allomancy could be spiked though.

[Spoolofwhool]

@robardin

Can you please explain why the power of aluminum allomancy is needed? There is no need to compound identity, it's a waste product, and there's no other reason to burn aluminum unless you want to waste of bunch of metals and metalminds.

23 minutes ago, 8giraffe8 said:

Can you tap Allomancy? I thought only Feruchemy could be tapped. Allomancy could be spiked though.

The Bands of Mourning granted allomantic powers. 

[Pagerunner he/him]

8 minutes ago, Spoolofwhool said:

Can you please explain why the power of aluminum allomancy is needed?

2 hours ago, robardin said:

But I see the point that Medallion B having A-aluminum for compounding aluminum is beside the point, since what we need to compound is not aluminum but the power of F-aluminum - which is nicrosil based storage.

We successfully convinced him that A.Aluminum is not needed.

 

33 minutes ago, 8giraffe8 said:

Can you tap Allomancy? I thought only Feruchemy could be tapped. Allomancy could be spiked though.

Storing and tapping in Nicrosil lets you store and access metalborn powers, but Allomantic and Feruchemical. Tapping Allomancy is like tapping speed or tapping weight; it's all Feruchemy that lets you do the tapping, but you get Allomancy out of it.

[Spoolofwhool]

Just now, Pagerunner said:

We successfully convinced him that A.Aluminum is not needed.

 

Storing and tapping in Nicrosil lets you store and access metalborn powers, but Allomantic and Feruchemical. Tapping Allomancy is like tapping speed or tapping weight; it's all Feruchemy that lets you do the tapping, but you get Allomancy out of it.

Thank you. I misunderstood his reason for repeating that you would have a medallion granting allomantic aluminum.