Standardizing a measurement of investiture.

[Calderis he/him]

1 hour ago, Belzedar said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but feruchemy doesn't have power variations like allomancy does. You can either store weight, or you can't. There are no "strong skimmers" and "weak skimmers." The only limit factor that determines how much weight you can store is how much weight you have. And, of course, how much iron you have, because there is a size-based limit.

As far as I'm aware, this is not a natural occurrence. It has come up specifically in the past due to nature of Hemalurgy. 

Hemalurgic Decay is universal, and that Decay manifests as a loss in storing efficiency. 

http://theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=1153#24

Quote

KURKISTAN

How exactly does hemalurgic decay work for Feruchemy? Is it like a leaky tube or something, or…?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Yeah… yeah. (Here misunderstanding and thinking that the question’s about the power of the Feruchemy itself, not storing/tapping metalminds)

KURKISTAN

So they try to store 10 units of health and only 9 gets through, or…?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Hemalurgic decay meaning someone who has been spiked is less powerful? That Hemalurgic decay] or the Hemalurgic decay when a Hemalurgic spike is left outside of blood?

KURKISTAN

Less powerful. So like the Inquisitors are less powerful Feruchemists so they had to spend longer storing: so _why_ did they have to spend longer storing?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Yeah they lose a little bit, it’s a leaky… You’re there, exactly. It just doesn’t quite… it’s not as efficient: it’s [an] efficiency thing.

 

[Oversleep]

4 hours ago, Calderis said:

As far as I'm aware, this is not a natural occurrence. It has come up specifically in the past due to nature of Hemalurgy. 

Hemalurgic Decay is universal, and that Decay manifests as a loss in storing efficiency. 

Yes, that's the WoB I'm going off. Of course, with Feruchemical nicrosil around we have to ask what it means to be stronger Feruchemist too.

[Yezrien]

Huh. I stand corrected.

[Fezzik]

We could call the unit of investiture a Khriss, and the fundamental particle, (like an electron or graviton) an investon.

[Steeldancer he/him]

32 minutes ago, john203 said:

We could call the unit of investiture a Khriss, and the fundamental particle, (like an electron or graviton) an investon.

I like those names. I like them a lot.

[Confused]

I measure Investiture in "gob" units, as in "gobs of Investiture." They come in small, medium and large sizes...

You only measure what you imagine.

Edited September 17, 2017 by Confused

[Emerald101 he/him]

Some of you have seen this, I think, but I'll drop it here anyway. At the Arcanum Unbounded signing I asked  Brandon about what the units of investiture would be (maybe something Khriss would use). He responded (without canonizing the in-world name) that it would be based around the breath. I think this would work at as being something like one Khriss, defined as 1/100 the amount of investiture required to reach the first heightening, or alternatively the minimum amount of investiture required to sustain a Returned for a week. Maybe the breath per week requirement of Returned could be used as a means of measuring other systems' investiture in terms of breath? Assuming they all require the same amount of investiture.

[redbishop]

5 hours ago, Emerald101 said:

Maybe the breath per week requirement of Returned could be used as a means of measuring other systems' investiture in terms of breath? Assuming they all require the same amount of investiture.

Or perhaps we could unsheathe a certain sword, and see how much Investiture is consumed per second.  As a related but likely not-exactly-equal unit, I propose a "Wail" alongside a Breath.  We could find practitioners of various systems to pull the blade, and see how much of their chosen power must be consumed at a hopefully steady or predictably changing rate.  The rest is a trivial exercise of unit analysis, and can be left to the student.