Soulcasting Godmetals: Can It Be Done?

[Unlicensed Hemalurgist]

Pretty much exactly what the title says. We know that experienced Soulcasters can specify the type of the selected Essence the Soulcast material becomes (Jasnah trying to replicate strawberry jam in Way of Kings). If you knew what you were doing, could you Soulcast a material into a piece of a godmetal? Or would that be interfering in something far too intimately connected with the relevant Shard?

Edited August 11, 2018 by Unlicensed Hemalurgist

[I think I am here.]

I wouldn't think so, godmetals are the direct physical 'bodies' of the Shards, so soulcasting a godmetal out of nowhere would be kind of like you were creating that Shardic power yourself.

Imagine it like this: You want to soulcast something into ice (I don't actually think that's an essence, but bear with me here). But ice is water, or rather, just a different form of it. So technically, by soulcasting and creating that ice, you're also technically creating water, and technically creating water vapour as well.

Similarly, creating a Shard's gotmetal would also technically be creating a piece of that Shard's godpool, and also technically be replicating a piece of that Shard's very own power, which I don't think would be possible when we're talking about primitive (in comparison to Shards) technology like fabrials.

Hope this helped .

[Calderis]

That's a definite no. 

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ninch

Could a person Soulcast more atium and lerasium if they had a bead?

Brandon Sanderson

No. Investiture messes things like that up.

source

 

[+Ark1002]

I'm pretty sure I read a WoB about being able to do the opposite. Soulcasting godmetals into something else. Just not possible to do the reverse.

[Unlicensed Hemalurgist]

Well dang. Thanks for the quick responses!

[MountainKing]

I feel like if each avatar of Autonomy each had their own godmetal, with enough investiture(probably has to be autonomy's investiture) you could soulcast one of Autonomy's godmetals into another

[Weltall]

On 8/11/2018 at 9:56 AM, Ark1002 said:

I'm pretty sure I read a WoB about being able to do the opposite. Soulcasting godmetals into something else. Just not possible to do the reverse.

There's one about aluminum where Brandon has said that you can't Soulcast it into other things but you can al least Soulcast other things into aluminum. Maybe that's the one you're thinking of?

On 8/11/2018 at 9:58 PM, MountainKing said:

I feel like if each avatar of Autonomy each had their own godmetal, with enough investiture(probably has to be autonomy's investiture) you could soulcast one of Autonomy's godmetals into another

I suspect that Autonomy's avatars would all produce 'Bavadinium' since they all come from the same individual ultimately, but we do have WoB that a different Vessel for a Shard could produce godmetals with differing properties so it's possible that over time you'd get subtly different metals. Kinda depends on how the avatars work, I imagine.

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Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

If Kelsier created a metal while holding Preservation that it would have acted the same as lerasium, though over time the properties of it might shift.

Footnote: Unspecified question by Ted Herman
source

But I think that even if it was the case that Autonomy's avatars could produce slightly different metals (maybe we could think of them as isotopes?) you couldn't soulcast them into each other for the same reason you can't make more atium or lerasium that way: It's not the flavor of Investiture that's problamatic, it's simply that they're Invested period and that interferes with any attempts to affect them with Investiture.

[MountainKing]

If you had enough you could do it.

[Quantus]

I think a big part of the problem is the energy balance of the thing:  Matter, Energy, and Investiture are all three facets of the same thing.  A typical metal sample has just the normal energy of physical matter, while a godmetal has all that PLUS a massive amount of Investiture Charge because it IS crystallized Investiture.  So even if they appear equivalent, the Godmetal has massively more Stuff crammed into it, it's a more dense material. Investiture works similar to that Volume analogy, so the first barrier to Soulcasting it would be to actually get enough free Investiture to equal the target volume of Godmetal, whihc would pretty much just be another Godmetal or captured fluid from a Shardpool.  

THEN you start getting into the varying nature of Investiture from Shard to Shard, and I dont think we fully understand the mechanisms at play there.  Just because you can get enough Investiture from one shard doesnt mean you'd be able to turn that into any specific Godmetal. If you had enough of Preservation's Shardpool you might be able to make Lerasium specifically, but I doubt you could do so with Stormlight or Breaths. And at some point the quantities involved would run the risk of you just Ascending instead.

[Calderis]

38 minutes ago, MountainKing said:

If you had enough you could do it.

You can say that about anything though. The question is whether or not that's in any way feasible. 

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ChickenBites [PENDING REVIEW]

Can you soulcast aluminum into other materials?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

Aluminum would strongly resist any sort of soulcasting.

Billy Todd [PENDING REVIEW]

Would that resistance be overcome? Could be overcome?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

This is the question. Everything can be, right? Aluminum, in the cosmere, was created. And can be created. So, people ask me this, "Can? Cannot?" Like, with a powerful enough magnet in our world, what can you do? Like, is water magnetic? *stammers* But, could you make water respond to a magnet? Yes! You can make anything if you really try hard enough. It's, like, this idea, that when people are like, "Can you, yes or no?" Well... yes! Would it take the power of six Shards of Adonalsium working together? Maybe! Can you? Yes, you probably can. Like, we're talking about a fantasy universe where almost anything is possible, and the impossibilities are contradictions, it's "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" sort of questions when you get into "can you?"

Now, could you soulcast aluminum using a reasonable amount of energy that an individual could conceivably have in a normal setting and situation? No. If that's what for.

source

At a certain point, the answer is just realistically no.