Power-Blocking Fabrials

[Saodar]

I was doing some digging around on the Coppermind and I had an idea.

We know already that metals used to make fabrials often have similar effects as the same metal's use in Allomancy. For example, iron in a fabrial housing makes an attractor, while steel makes a repellent.

We see the Fused making use of a fabrial that blocks Radiant powers, and Urithiru has defenses that block Fused powers. What if these fabrials are using chromium housings? Chromium is used in Allomancy to wipe out someone else's metal reserves, but there's also this little tidbit:

Quote

A Leecher could prevent a Shardbearer from summoning their blade, and can prevent a weapon using Investiture from working.

These effects can be seen:

Spoiler

When the tower defenses are turned against the Radiants. Shardblades can't be summoned, and Radiant spren can't be summoned as weapons

 

All this being said, I can't actually remember if the metal in the fabrial used by the Fused was identified or not. So I might be entirely wrong.

Not sure if I need to spoiler tag things, but I did just in case...

Edited December 2, 2020 by Saodar
Added a little more reasoning

[NysemePtem]

It's worth remembering that old fabrials weren't made by trapping spren in gemstones. They were made by spren manifesting as metal in the physical realm, using gems as a power source (and in the case of soulcasters, control). So the power blocking fabrial is an innate part of the Sibling, and apparently also a way for a voidspren (or corrupted radiant spren) to manifest.