Mist storage

[Dancer]

Hi guys new here, this may have already been answered but can the mists be stored in metal similar to how stormlight is stored in gemstones.

[Steel Inquisitive he/him]

It's never been done before but that doesn't mean it can't be done. The mists are just free flowing investiture so I guess it could be done with some work. Whether there's any advantage/reason to is a whole another question.

[Karger he/him]

Mist could conceivably be stored in a gemstone.  It does not naturally store itself in metals.

Orem Signing (March 16, 2019)
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OrangeJedi

Can you capture Preservation’s mist in a sphere?

Brandon Sanderson

This is plausible.

Edited August 11, 2019 by Karger

[Dancer]

So if you did store it in metal and you burned it would you get a feruchemical ability or a boosted allomantic ability. 

[Steel Inquisitive he/him]

I don't think it would do anything feruchemicaly as feruchemy is a mix of ruin and Preservation. I could see it boosting alomancy though as that's purely of Preservation. (Actually I'm picturing what Vin did to be rather similar.)

[Dancer]

But wouldn't the investiture be shaped by the metal therefore giving a feruchemical ability 

[Steel Inquisitive he/him]

I don't think so, but keep in mind that I'm spit balling. My reasoning is that in alomancy the investiture is flowing through the metal from Preservation to you, while in feruchemy the investiture is coming from the user themselves.

[Dancer]

True but in allomancy the metal is just acting as a gateway. In Feruchemy the metal is literally storing investiture. I would assume that this would mean that if you were to store the mists in metal it would take on Feruchemical attributes.  

[Steel Inquisitive he/him]

Hmmm... I hadn't thought of it from that angle. I think you would have problems with it not being keyed to your identity... But then again there are unkeyed metalminds... But I think I'm staying with my original opinion as feruchemy relies on investiture from people's spirit webs while alomancy is just power flowing through metal.

[Dancer]

I see your point but I would say that if my theory is true i don't think that the metal would be keyed to anyone's identity. After all its simply free investiture that was captured. 

[Steel Inquisitive he/him]

I see what your saying, but I think Preservation's investiture would most naturally fuel Preservation's magic system.

I'm willing to have my mind changed!

[Dancer]

Like wise. It's all just speculation at this point and I doubt Brandon will be forthcoming in answering this question.  

[Bigmikey357 he/him]

I mean, nicrosil metalmind. Now what you get when you tap that metalmind is likely to be a different story.

[cometaryorbit]

Probably Sazed would have to do something to allow a Feruchemist to draw on the Mists, and then that person would have to Feruchemically store it in a metalmind.

I don't know if Nicrosil would work though -- it seems to store the Innate Investiture of powers. (Though who knows, we haven't seen a Twinborn with that power yet, maybe if you have a source of 'external' Kinetic Investiture like Allomancy you could store that too? If so, then a nicrosilmind could probably store mist.)

I'm not sure how much use it would actually be, though. The mists are kind of "raw" Investiture, but putting them in a metal would probably constrain them to a single effect/power based on the structure of that metal, on the "key to power" principle the Metallic Arts use. It might be a way to recharge nicrosil metalminds without actually de-powering yourself... but once the Southern unsealed metalmind technology becomes understood, you could probably just do that by giving an unsealed nicrosilmind to a Nicroburst Misting and having them Compound.

If Nicrosil didn't work, it might require a godmetal or godmetal alloy of some sort, which might not be usable by modern Ferrings.