The Allomantic Metalhead

@ElephantEarwax Okay, you get a bucket of halloween candy all to yourself, but there are needles in the candy.

I ask the nightwatcher to please grant me epic powers, full allomantic and feruchemical abilities, forgery (the ability to use soul stamps), ability to sugebind all 10 of the surges, ability to convert sugar (and sugar substitutes) to stormlight as soon as it gets to my stomach, and the ability to use occulator lenses.

Thank you for considering my request.

11 hours ago, Kalinovsky said:

NIghtwatcher, please give me the capacity to save my marks from destruction. I need them to apply for uni...

Okay, but everything else is utterly obliterated beyond repair.

Nightwatcher, please grant me the ability to understand all spoken and written languages.

On 9/25/2017 at 7:13 PM, Nathrangking said:

I call upon the powers of the Nightwatcher to fulfill my boon. I wish for my tv to have every premium channel for free.

Granted. You may now see only in black-and-white negative infrared.

"I ask the Nightwatcher for the boon of full mistborn allomantic abilities and use of feruchemical chromium, so as to do household chores more easily and actually go for a Pathfinder campaign without my character getting killed every other level."

@Agent34 Probably. I'd think that a world ruled by Incarceration would be a hellhole either way though.

@Agent34 Yeah, but I mean cultural excess, like the kind that slowly builds up over time and leads to the collapse of civilizations.

Incarceration sounds like a cool combination shard, i wonder what a world under the control of Incarceration would be like.

I'll start off by apologizing for being inactive for so long, I just kind of got distracted then forgot about this site for awhile. This site is awesome, though.

WARNING: THE REST OF THIS POST HAS UNMARKED SPOILERS, so take care.

We all (except the peepers who ignored my warning) witnessed (inside our heads, not literally witnessed) the awesome moment when Sazed took on the shards of Ruin and Preservation, thus becoming Harmony. This is what inspired me to ask the community these questions: what hypothetical shard combination would you find interesting? What would the combined shard be called, and what would he/she/it be like? Someone's probably asked this question before, but I would like to see you guys' opinions without doing a complicated search. Although this is not a competition, I would appreciate it if people limited their shard combinations to a maximum of three different shards pushed together. I also would like to point out that this is in no way canonical, and we can do all sorts of crazy stuff without asking how the listed shards would combine.

Here's my contribution:

Ruin + Cultivation = Decadence (discuss)

@DroughtBringer Hi

Someone has probably done this before, but I figured I'd create a list of all the (non-godmetal) metals that can be used for Allomancy/Feruchemy and their uses. Not all of us can store all that information in their heads (I think the ones that can use Copperminds)!

Metal - Allomantic Use - Feruchemical Use

Steel - Pushes on nearby metals - Stores physical speed

Iron - Pulls on nearby metals - Stores physical weight

Pewter - Increases physical abilities - Stores physical strength

Tin - Increases senses - Stores senses

Zinc - Enflames (riots) emotions - Stores mental speed

Brass - Dampens (soothes) emotions - Stores warmth

Copper - Hides allomantic pulses (and protects user's emotions from allomantic meddling) - Stores memories

Bronze - Can hear allomantic pulses - Stores wakefulness

Duralumin - Enhances current metal burned - Stores spiritual connection

Aluminum - Wipes internal allomantic reserves (may also heal the withering inflicted by a Threnodite shade) - Stores identity

Nicrosil - Enhances burn of target - Stores investiture

Chromium - Wipes internal allomantic reserves of target - Stores luck

Gold - Reveals past self (or possible past selves) of the person burning it - Stores health

Electrum - Reveals possible futures of the person burning it (also counters atium) - Stores determination

Cadmium - Slows down time in a bubble around the allomancer - Stores breath (the air kind, not the investiture kind)

Bendalloy - Speeds up time in a bubble around the allomancer - Stores energy

Allomantic Metal Classifications:

External Physical Metals: Steel, Iron

Internal Physical Metals: Pewter, Tin

External Mental Metals: Zinc, Brass

Internal Mental Metals: Copper, Bronze

External Enhancement Metals: Nicrosil, Chromium

Internal Enhancement Metals: Duralumin, Aluminum

External Temporal Metals: Cadmium, Bendalloy

Internal Temporal Metals: Gold, Electrum

Pushing Metals: Alloys (Steel, Pewter, Brass, Bronze, Nicrosil, Duralumin, Bendalloy, Electrum)

Pulling Metals: Non-Alloys (Iron, Tin, Zinc, Copper, Chromium, Aluminum, Cadmium, Gold)

Feruchemical Metal Classifications:

Physical Metals: Steel, Iron, Pewter, Tin

Cognitive Metals: Zinc, Brass, Copper, Bronze

Spiritual Metals: Duralumin, Aluminum, Nicrosil, Chromium

Hybrid Metals: Gold, Electrum, Cadmium, Bendalloy

For more detailed explanations of how these things work, refer to either the Coppermind Wiki or a Mistborn Novel (Bands of Mourning has a handy explanation at the back)

@bleeder Yes I would.

@Zathoth I haven't listened to X Factor (except for Man on the Edge), and Empire of The Clouds is good, but too long for most of my listening sessions.

I actually like most of the songs on Jugulator, though I don't like Brain Dead and Decapitate is mediocre at best (though the morbid humor at about the middle of the song ("You've lost your head sir ...well you will tomorrow) is amusing).

As for your twinborn abilities, that's really cool, although I still like Bendalloy/Chromium.

@bleeder Either Soulstamps or Allomancy/Feruchemy... Surgebinding is also really cool... about the "party", It's okay, I like my sleep, too.

@KnightRadiant Thanks!

@Bugsy6912 I haven't read very many, but my family has an audible account, and I've listened to most of them (I'm being extra careful not to misspell any names) I think my favorite was either one of the boks from the original Mistborn Trilogy, Sixth of Dusk, or Words of Radiance (I'm bad at deciding). My favorite non-Cosmere Sanderson novel is one of the Reckoners books (again, it's hard to decide).

@Zathoth I liked the Book of Souls. Was better than Virtual XI (though I will admit I thought some of the songs from Virtual XI were pretty good), but not as good as some of their early works (Killers, Number of the Beast, Powerslave, etc.,) The Great Unknown is my favorite song from the album (though If Eternity Should Fail and Speed of Light were also awesome). I think you got me about right, though I like most kinds of metal and rock (I even liked Judas Priest's album Jugulator, though I thought it sounded ABSOLUTELY nothing like classic Judas Priest). As for the kind of twinborn I am I'd probably be a Chromium Feruchemist and a Benadalloy Allomancer (though being a thug or a tineye would also be pretty cool).

Hi guys, I'm glad I found this place with all you fellow Sanderfans. It is awesome here. I hope you guys like weird theories, (sometimes) obscure music references, strange attempts at humor, odd questions, and totally random Cosmere/Reckoners/Alcatraz/Other Sanderson Novels stuff, because this is probably 99% of what i'm going to be posting! Enjoy!

41 minutes ago, Mirdrim said:

I believe there was note of it in AU, talking about it's importance.  Brandon has said that it's capable of translating symbols from one magic system to another, and that with it, using Sel's magic system off-world would be significantly less daunting.

The moon scepter was presumably swapped by Hoid when he betrayed Shai. It is most definitely not just a symbol of authority.

Thanks! Was unaware of that!

1 hour ago, Argent said:

It's not a bad guess at a hack, but I don't think it would work (even disregarding how impractical it is). There is some deeper stuff going on with Sel, so it's not just the lay of the land that shapes the magic there. For example:

Arcanum Unbounded Sel preface spoilers:

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So, the Dor is the mixed investiture of Devotion and Dominion, locked in the Cognitive Realm, right? They are, in a way, kind of like a superspren (almost a Shard, really) in there, and so the shape of the Sel's Shadesmar affects how the Dor is expressed in the Physical Realm (or, alternatively, the Physical Realm affects how Sel's Shadesmar appears, and that in turn influences the Dor differently in different regions). So it's not that the Dor looks at the picture you've drawn, then looks at a map of the local region, and if the two match well enough you get magic; the Dor specifically keyed to Sel and its geography because that's where the investiture of Devotion and Dominion is.

In addition to this, Connection and Identity are also probably a factor. All of which makes me even more curios about how the Moon Scepter works...

That Makes a lot of sense. I suppose we'll just have to wait to find out (if we do at all)...

As for the Moon Scepter, I may be totally ignorant about something Brandon Sanderson said (sometimes I don't pay much attention), but I always just thought it was just a symbol of authority...

1 hour ago, Pagerunner said:

Welcome to the forums, and what a great question to start out with! The answer gets pretty deep into realmatics, so buckle up, 'cause this is gonna get messy. Metals themselves don't produce Investiture; they are keys to Investiture, which comes from a Shard. We do know that metals from another world are useable for Allomancy; if you're watching very carefully, you just might see it in Stormlight. Metal is an additional cost, like water is in White Sand or color is Warbreaker. The magic doesn't come from water (probably), it doesn't come from color. The magic is all drawn from the Shard behind that magic system.

Allomancy is powered by Preservation. Elantrians are powered by the Dor, a mixture of two other Shards. To gain access to a magic system, you usually need to graft a piece of that Shard's Investiture onto your soul. (Initiation is the technical term for it; in Allomancy, that takes the form of Snapping). Whenever you use that magic system, you're drawing energy from a Shard. It turns out, actually, that the Dor is the exception in this case, that it's very difficult to power when you travel off-world. We learn why in the essay for the Selish system in Arcanum Unbounded. I'll put it in spoilers below, in case you haven't read it yet.

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Devotion and Dominion, the two Shards that comprise the Dor, have the bulk of their power in the Cognitive Realm, a.k.a. Shadesmar, which is a sort-of-reflection of the Physical Realm. Most Shards have the bulk of their power in the Spiritual Realm, something we've only seen glimpses of so far.

So, why does that make Elantrian magic weaker? Because the Spiritual Realm is not a reflection of the Physical; it's not locations and maps. It's Connections between people and things and places, and their Identities. So, how far away you are from a Shard in the Physical Realm doesn't matter in the Spiritual Realm; once you've grafted a piece of that Shard's Investiture onto your soul, you have direct access to it through the Spiritual Realm, no matter where you are in the cosmere, and you can draw on that Shard's energy. (As a side note, time also doesn't matter in the Spiritual Realm; that's one way magic users can the future, by peering into the Spiritual Realm and seeing Connections that haven't been 'made.')

But the Dor isn't in the Spiritual Realm. It's in the Cognitive Realm. Elantrians are drawing energy from one specific piece of the Dor, the piece near Arelon (the part of the land that Aons reflect). When they go farther away from Arelon, they incur more and more 'transmission losses' trying to pull that Investiture through the Cognitive Realm to get it wherever they are.

So, if a Mistborn goes to Sel and burns a metal from Sel, they are consuming a piece of Selish matter to activate their Spiritual Connection to Preservation, letting them draw on Preservation's energy to power their Allomancy in a specific way. (Ultimately, this energy will return to Preservation; Shards will never run out of power from people using their magics.)

It is also possible to power a magic system using pure Investiture, if you can find Investiture in a physical form. (It takes many forms across all three Realms.) Burning atium draws directly on Ruin's power, since it's a physical piece of Ruin's Investiture. Drawing on the mists pulls directly from Preservation, and lets you apply that energy to whatever Allomancy you want. Stormlight appears to be a similar phenomenon; it's the Shard's power embodied physically, and it gets stored in gemstones until a Surgebinder can use it. But it's a wild card; the Investiture can be used in any number of ways, as opposed to the Investiture gained when a Mistborn burns steel, which can only provide energy in one specific form (Pushing).

It is theoretically possible to 'hack' a magic system to be powered by another Shard's power, especially when you have access to a physical form of Investiture. This has happened to an extent with a certain character on Roshar, who consumes Stormlight instead of Breath (but hasn't figured out how to Awaken with Stormlight). Sand Masters, from the graphic novel, might be able to recharge their sand by exposing it to Stormlight or Mists instead of sunlight on Taldain. (One theory is that the sunlight itself is Invested, and carrying energy from Taldain's Shard.) But that isn't the usual way of powering a magic system, which involves a direct path to the Shard in the Spiritual Realm.

How you get that path in the first place varies by magic system. For Allomancy and Feruchemy, there's a genetic component (with an additional Snapping required for Allomancy). For Surgebinders, it looks like if you behave certain ways and say certain Oaths, you bond a spren (which is a piece of a Shard). Awakeners can be anyone; all you need is to collect enough pieces of the Shard Endowment (and we've seen a certain Stormlight character with perfect pitch, who probably has some Breaths). For the most part, you need to be from a specific world to meet those requirements to gain that magic. Hemalurgy is a big exception, and one that the author of the Ars Arcanum has commented on; anyone, anywhere, can use Hemalurgy to steal any magic. All you need to do is know how.

So, I hope this answers some questions (and, honestly, I hope it raises a bunch more for you). Don't quite take everything I said as gospel truth; the big picture is confirmed (Shards can power their magic anywhere in the cosmere), but some of the specifics are debatable (like whether water for Sand Mastery is the exact same as color for Awakening, or the specific forms of Investiture that are required for Initiation). But hopefully this gives you a good springboard into the deep end of realmatics, to take the plunge and look with a close eye at passages in Brandon's books to puzzle out how all this fits together in the underlying theory.

Wow, that's a lot of stuff. It is my personal theory, true or not, that one way to "hack" Selish magic systems is to change the geography components of the runes to match the geography of the current nation you are in. I don't know if this is accurate, but it sounds kind of probable.