Becoming a feruchemist

[Zmaray he/him]

Like how Lerasium can turn someone into a mistborn, how would one become a feruchemist?

[The Sovereign]

As of now, we don't know a way to bestow Feruchemy outside of genetics and Hemalurgy.

[Weltall]

As far as we know, the only 'normal' way to become a feruchemist is to inherit the sDNA for it. You could approximate it via hemalurgy if you don't mind resembling a pincushion and have the means to get all the spikes. Feruchemy in more limited form can also be granted with the Southern Scadrian's medallions and the Bands of Mourning can give you the full set of powers but both of those are temporary.

Edited May 17, 2017 by Weltall

[Scriptorian he/him]

Do we have WoB on whether Forgery can Initiate people into other systems? If it can, I bet it would be pretty easy for a Terrisperson to rewrite their history  to have stronger feruchmical genes. Heck, post-Era 1, any scadrian could probably be Forged to have a Terris ancestor and make themselves a Ferring. The stamp would have to be applied every day, but still that's pretty useful. You could have different stamps for different feruchmical powers. 

Of course, I feel like there was some reason Forgery couldn't Intiate people without additional "hacking" so this could be entirely moot  

Edit: to clarify, a Forger actually has to have sDNA from MaiPon, which makes it rather unlikely the Forger could do this on themselves. But it is possible to make a soulstamp for another person. At least if said Forger is Wan ShaiLu. 

Edited May 17, 2017 by Scriptorian

[Weltall]

Brandon has said that Forgery could be used to 'fake' Initiation into other systems but it would generally require so much Investiture that it's not at all practical.

"Well… there are certain things that you just can’t fake without enough energy that it becomes impractical"

"So doing that sort of thing, like rewriting herself even to be an Allomancer, or something like this.... This is possible, but, in order to gain the Investiture she wants to have, she will have to input that much in Investiture, which her current magic system is not capable of doing."

He mentions in the second WoB that less ridiculously impractical applications like 'Earn a Shardblade the normal way, give it up and then make a Soulstamp where you still have the Shardblade' would be much easier to accomplish. Elsewhere he specifically points out that Surgebinding is a system you can't cheat your way into because the spren half of the Nahel Bond has to choose you, though that was specifically in the context of trying to do crazy things with gold shadows. He said that other systems would be much easier to 'fake' like getting Breath.

EDIT: As for using Forgery on yourself, I suspect that the kind of alteration required to get an effect like 'change who my parents were' to give yourself sDNA you don't already have would be considered far too implausible to ever work because doing so would necessarily require that the you who is creating the Soulstamp, well, not exist. Or you might cause the universe to divide by zero.

Edited May 17, 2017 by Weltall

[The Sovereign]

To add to what @Weltall said, here is a WoB about Forging a Shadeblade; 

 

Quote

 

INTERVIEW: Feb 17th, 2016

Calamity-Seattle

RANI

Any kind of Investiture to make a Shardblade?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Not any but there are multiple methods. Some work better than others.

RANI

Can you Forge a Shardblade?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Um… *sighs* To Forge a Shardblade, meaning make a regular sword through Forgery into a shardblade, would require so much Investiture it’s like asking if we can make lead into gold using a particle accelerator. Yes but it's horribly, horribly, horribly inefficient.

TAGS

investiture, shardblade, forgery,

 

From this we can likely infer that using enough Investiture you could forge most things but calling it impractical or inefficient is a huge understatement.

[kenod]

Wasn't there also something about using Forging on mistings and ferrings to change the type of metal they could use?

[The One Who Connects he/him]

32 minutes ago, kenod said:

Wasn't there also something about using Forging on Mistings and Ferrings to change the type of metal they could use?

I remember an entry about TLR giving Shai 100 days to turn a Iron Hemalurgic Spike into a Steel one, and it basically boiled down to she could do it, but TLR would need to provide a boost of Investiture for it to work.

I don't remember one about changing someone's metal type, but I would imagine that it'd be fairly similar

[Lord Bookwyrm he/him]

On ‎17‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 5:21 PM, Gudbrand said:

Like how Lerasium can turn someone into a mistborn, how would one become a feruchemist?

OK, so it might be done by burning an alloy of lerasium and harmonium or lerasium and atium. Here's the reasoning behind this:

For both, lerasium can be burned by anyone, so it's fairly safe to assume that anyone can burn it's alloys as well.

we know that harmonium is a combination of ruin and preservation, but since they are in (roughly) equal amounts, it can't give anything, things can only be stored to use later. This makes it something to do with feruchemy, which is also a combination of preservation and ruin. Lerasium, since it's preservation, must give something, and nothing can be lost, since preservation cannot destroy. So, the lerasium must give you something. (lerasium) gives (harmonium) feruchemy. A lerasium-harmonium alloy (could) make someone a feruchemist, and the different base metals would make you a ferring.

Alternately, you could argue that it wouldn't work, that there is too much preservation in the mix. This leads to the second option, that an alloy of atium and lerasium would make you a feruchemist. The theory works in the same way as that of the harmonium-leraium alloy, just with a more equal ratio of preservation and ruin. Adding a base metal would make you a ferring, as of before.

Both use lerasium, so it's probably safe to assume that anyone which includes everyone can burn it.

[Calderis he/him]

5 minutes ago, Lord Bookworm said:

OK, so it might be done by burning an alloy of lerasium and harmonium or lerasium and atium. Here's the reasoning behind this:

For both, lerasium can be burned by anyone, so it's fairly safe to assume that anyone can burn it's alloys as well.

we know that harmonium is a combination of ruin and preservation, but since they are in (roughly) equal amounts, it can't give anything, things can only be stored to use later. This makes it something to do with feruchemy, which is also a combination of preservation and ruin. Lerasium, since it's preservation, must give something, and nothing can be lost, since preservation cannot destroy. So, the lerasium must give you something. (lerasium) gives (harmonium) feruchemy. A lerasium-harmonium alloy (could) make someone a feruchemist, and the different base metals would make you a ferring.

Alternately, you could argue that it wouldn't work, that there is too much preservation in the mix. This leads to the second option, that an alloy of atium and lerasium would make you a feruchemist. The theory works in the same way as that of the harmonium-leraium alloy, just with a more equal ratio of preservation and ruin. Adding a base metal would make you a ferring, as of before.

Both use lerasium, so it's probably safe to assume that anyone which includes everyone can burn it.

The problems as I see them.

1: you would be using Allomancy to grant Feruchemy. In itself that isn't a problem, but it undermines all of your other assumptions. If you could ingest Harmonium safely it should still power an ability despite the balance with P&R. Atium itself powered an ability, and by the logic presented in your hypothetical, it shouldn't be able to.

2: Contrary to my first point, I do not believe that Allomancy has the in built ability to grant someone initiation into a different power set. Despite being able to be burned by a non-allomancer, burning a metal is still Allomancy. 

[Zmaray he/him]

Sorry Lord Bookworm,

1. Ettmetal is highly reactive and would kill you if ingested in any form.

2. It won't necessarily make you a feruchemist, just as one burning atium does not become a hemalurgist.

[Lord Bookwyrm he/him]

28 minutes ago, Gudbrand said:

Sorry Lord Bookworm,

1. Ettmetal is highly reactive and would kill you if ingested in any form.

2. It won't necessarily make you a feruchemist, just as one burning atium does not become a hemalurgist.

1) Ettmetal is reactive, (probably) because of something to do with having too many or too few electrons. However, because it's in an alloy, it probably won't be as reactive. (screw that I was thinking of compounds)

2) yeah, but hemalurgy isn't genetic, as allomancy and feruchemy are. Because of this similarity, we can say other things are similar, and that means you might be able to burn it with lerasium to become a feruchemist

[The One Who Connects he/him]

On 5/17/2017 at 5:23 PM, kenod said:

Wasn't there also something about using Forging on mistings and ferrings to change the type of metal they could use?

Alright, I found a WoB that is almost this. (emphasis added)

Quote

Lady Radagu

If Shai were to gain a Shardblade, then she gave it up, could she create an Essence Mark that represented the history where she still had the Blade? If she then applied the Essence Mark could she summon the Shardblade or a copy of it?

Brandon Sanderson

So doing that sort of thing, like rewriting herself even to be an Allomancer, or something like this.... This is possible, but in order to gain the Investiture she wants to have, she will have to input that much in Investiture, which her current magic system is not capable of doing. Okay? Alright, so, a rewrite so that I have a Shardblade would require some sort of hacking of her magic system, which is currently impossible to her in her current situation.

[Yata he/him]

A Lerasium-Atium Alloy would simply turn you into a Seer.