Terken

[Jakkobz]

In White Sand, we've seen a strange thing - terken. It obviously not Aluminum, but it makes the same- countering Investiture.

So what is that? Maybe, terken somehow depends on Autonomy? Or it works only against Sand Mastery?

Sorry for non-perfect English.

Edited June 20, 2018 by Jakkobz

[Weltall]

Yeah, there's no biological equivalent on Earth but since we already know of aluminum which acts like terken and we also know that it goes by other names on some worlds (it's the metal called ralkalest on Sel) the most parsimonious explanation is that there's aluminum in the carapace which gives it its anti-Sand Mastery properties, instead of being some new material that just happens to act in exactly the same way. There's also the obviously artificial nature of the Taldain System to consider, so the fact that aluminum shouldn't naturally be a part of a creature's carapace can be explained with 'Adonalsiumdidit'. Or possibly Autonomy.

Edited June 20, 2018 by Weltall

[+Extesian]

We don't know much about terken, other than Ryu shouting warnings about it each time he releases a fireball.(Streetfighter 2 spoilers)

[king of nowhere]

It could easily be justified by it being a colloid of aluminium nanoparticles in an organic matrix.

Aluminium blocks investiture only in metallic form. And aluminium is a common element, but due to its reactivity it is never, or almost never, found in metallic form. If ioonic aluminium could block investiture, then most common rock would, depending on the required aluminium concentration.

On the other hand, biochemistry could easily reduce aluminium to metallic form if evolution pushed it that way. And aluminium is abundant in sand - I mean, sand is mostly silicon oxyde, but only because silicon oxyde is the most common rock. Aluminium oxyde is also very common, and any sand should contain at least a few % of it. So, living creatures could easily develop a way to use aluminium.

However, an aluminium foil would not mix well with organics. And most important, it would not dissolve in water. But both issues could easily be solved by havin fine aluminium dust encased in a mucus-like substance.

Aluminium dust would not present structural problems to living creatures. It can be spread out eeasily. Aluminium dust is also much more reactive than bulk aluminium because of increased surface, but it can easily be fixed by coating the aluminium dust in a protective layer. Either by natural passivation (coating the grains with naturally inert aluminium oxyde) or by the action of specific proteins binding on its surface, the aluminium grains can be made unreactive and generally non-problematic to the living creature, while still being metallic aluminium.

This aluminium dust could then be secreted within a sebaceous substance. Think of like how human skin is lubricated by a thin layer of fat that protects it from water. Put the aforementioned aluminium dust in it, and it could become terken. Or the aluminium dust could just be encased in a shell. Anyway, if you dissolve the organic matrix in water, the aluminum dust is released, still protected by whatever passivation mechanism was protecting it before. Spray that solution on a person, and you have a person coated in fine aluminium dust. This doesn't last forever, as either the aluminium will eventually get oxydized, or it will be washed away.

Of course, it could also be something unrelated and specific to sand mastery. But it could work with aluminium.

[Calderis]

Considering the completely alien nature of their physiology, I would not be surprised if a major component of terken carapace is Aluminium. 

[Ethan_sedai]

I think it isn't aluminum, because:

I'm pretty sure that on Scadrial, in order to get an alloy that is completely resistant to allomancy, it still has to be a large amount of aluminum, and, as far as I can tell, still needs to be an alloy.

the terken dissolves in water, which means it is an ionic compound, and therefore no longer an alloy, and because it is an ionic compound, a large amount of the compound would be something that isn't aluminum, and would probably mess up the resistance to investiture. 

in addition, from what I've learned about soluble compounds in chemistry, and online,(I mostly used wikipedia, so I could be wrong.) any soluble ionic compound that includes aluminum would be at least a little toxic, which, depending on the anatomy of a terken, might not matter, but would be at least irritating, so whoever got shot with a piece of terken arrow, would be in much more pain than it looked like they were in. 

so, it is probably something that only works on sand mastery.

As to how it works, it could be either a chemical reaction, or an Investiture reaction, that does something to the microorganisms that make sand mastery possible. 

I might be completely wrong about everything except for it being an ionic compound, though.

Edited June 27, 2018 by ethan sedai

[Wandering Investor]

1 hour ago, ethan sedai said:

it still has to be a large amount of aluminum, and, as far as I can tell, still needs to be an alloy.

Aluminum doesn't need a lot to be effect in certain circumstances, people on scadrial have thin aluminium sheets in their hats, cancels emotional allomancy. Also, straight aluminum works the best. Alloys are used because aluminum by itself is weak, makes for poor guns and bullets.  

 

[Ethan_sedai]

On 6/21/2018 at 7:31 PM, Wandering Investor said:

Aluminum doesn't need a lot to be effect in certain circumstances, people on scadrial have thin aluminium sheets in their hats, cancels emotional allomancy. Also, straight aluminum works the best. Alloys are used because aluminum by itself is weak, makes for poor guns and bullets.  

 

 I suppose that it being aluminum is still a possibility, but because it is a soluble ionic compound, it must be at most only 32% aluminum by mass,  and the compound that gives us that ratio, Aluminum Fluoride, is toxic, and that percentage of aluminum is only for a pure sample of Aluminum Fluoride. in order for the compound to not be toxic to the level of killing whoever gets shot with a terken arrow, the percentage of aluminum goes down even further. 

Also RUBIES and SAPPHIRES are Insoluble Ionic compounds that are 52% Aluminum, and they still hold stormlight just like any other Gemstone that doesn't contain Aluminum. (I can't believe I forgot to mention that before...)

So, I think that it would be more plausible for Terken to cause a reaction through the lichen, and it isn't that hard to do so, because one Sand Master can mess with another's Sand Mastery just by hitting their ribbons in the right spot.

[Calderis]

16 minutes ago, ethan sedai said:

So, I think that it would be more plausible for Terken to cause a reaction through the lichen, and it isn't that hard to do so, because one Sand Master can mess with another's Sand Mastery just by hitting their ribbons in the right spot.

That reaction though, is caused by investiture interference. The same could be done with the innate investiture of a person by shoving your hand into the stream. 

For that to be the way terken armor functions it would need to still be alive or be invested, and be hitting the stream somewhere other than the tip.

[Wandering Investor]

After further consideration, I thought of another point against aluminum and for something else to be going on. Aluminum cancels investiture, but that's all it would do. That's why Brandon acts kinda weird when asked if aluminum will stop a shardblade. It will stop the super cutting ability, but that doesn't mean it will stop the large piece of metal smashing through it. Similarly, aluminum could cause the sand ribbons to fail, but that doesn't mean it will stop the high-speed sand racing towards the target with a presumably large amount of energy. One of the assassin's take a sand ribbon directly, fired from Kenton who has some powerful and fast ribbons, and the sands harmlessly splits off. To me this indicates a mechanic unique to sand mastery, and not the effects of aluminum. Otherwise the sand would likely still have the kinetic energy to deal damage to a human, and maybe even the sandlings if fired correctly.