Halyo_Alex

Will be interesting to see if Harmony tries to change that somehow.

Which of course begs the question would they work together if they encountered one another?

Actually, we can theorize in a few directions. To be fair, you're correct that we don't KNOW the purposes, but we can logically infer what they would do based on previous facts (which is what I love most about Brandon's magic systems. You can relatively safely predict what new things will do based on previous evidence and mechanisms). Anyway, we know Malatium flips the internal/external axis of Gold, and we know all atium alloys have mental and/or temporal effects (even the alloys of stuff like Iron or Aluminum, which is kinda nutty). So, in theory, Electrum and Atium would flip Electrum's internal-ness to external, showing you possible futures of everyone around you. Hey wait, that just sounds like Atium again, right? Well I think there's a key difference. Electrum shows you MANY possible futures of yourself, so this alloy would do that with other people (and also not objects? unlike normal Atium). In that sense it would be nearly useless, just automatically having the same effect as 2 atium burners fighting each other; a multitude of Electrum-Atium shadows from you and, in this case, literally everyone else (possibly within a certain radius). Basically a waste of atium and gold and silver. Now it might have applications in Feruchemy or Hemalurgy that redeem it and make it worth forging this alloy, but for an Allomancer, it seems basically useless even for Utility and not Combat situations.

It's also possible that it stores something that Sazed couldn't store, like... I dunno, "fertility". That'd be pretty tough for him to store, afaik.

Well technically Shardplate DOES resemble life in shape/form. It's very human shaped, just... not in the typical sense. But yeah the other points do pretty much mean it wouldn't work, and it's sort of pointless anyway.

Wow, complete with a diagram too. Awesome! Yeah, that really does make sense. Cool.

No big, mind-blowing (or head-scratching) theory from me this time, just some genuine curiosity. It's explained during SA that cut gemstones hold stormlight better. And at first glance, with gut feelings, that makes sense. Of course putting effort into making the gem smooth and well-shaped would make it hold stormlight better. But why? Is it because it reduces the number of facets that stormlight could "emerge" through, as if each facet can only support a certain flow rate? If that's the case, why aren't all stormlight-holding gems cut as triangular prisms (the shape of a d4)? That would limit the number of facets to 4, obviously, but we don't see that. Is it then a function of the surface area of each facet? In that case, all gems ought to be polished into a spherical shape (much like the name "spheres" would imply, for their currency). That would make numerous small facets, which would bottleneck the stormlight flowing out, if that were the case. I think the real answer is that it's both, to an extent. The number of facets and their surface area. In that way, it would take skill and precision to cut the right amount of facets in the right shape in a gem to find the optimal balance; and that balance, when struck perfectly, is what a Perfect Gemstone is. In fact, perhaps the relative angle between the various facets is another factor. In that sense, other shapes with the same number and size of facets would still hold stormlight differently. So there may be an ideal shape, with specifically sized facets in a specific number that lead to no stormlight leaking at all. It may, indeed, require the skill and power of a Radiant to properly shape a gemstone into that shape with enough precision to truly strike that perfect balance and make a perfect gemstone. So what do you guys think? Am I just crazy?

Which also means Stonewards would get it, since they're on the other side of Bondsmiths (sharing Tension instead of Adhesion). So that'll be sweet.

Well if ceasing a Tin burn with savantism makes your senses feel dull and weak, maybe ceasing a bronze burn with savantism makes you feel like you're in a mild coppercloud, or something. Possibly alongside what you're describing.

That seems awfully dismissive. We know that solid investiture is metallic [Mistborn] so why couldn't shardplate be Stormlight condensed down to solid form like that? The spren can already become solid investiture (shardblade) even without Stormlight (though they are MADE of investiture, so... kinda circumvents that), so enough pure Stormlight should be able to be woven into solid, metallic investiture too, right?

Okay, fair. Especially since he did it with the Well and not other methods. See, that's what I thought the killer to this theory would be, but then I realized; would Kelsier even know that it could be done? Intent is probably super important for this to work. If he didn't know that he could, he probably just couldn't. It isn't something that'll just happen like how just burning tin enhances your senses. It requires conscious effort to push the power around like that. I dunno.

Ok yes, but still, it would mean he would be burning through loads of Brass constantly to smother the emotions of the people surrounding him. That alone seems suspicious, if nothing else. Suspiciously inconvenient for someone who wants to appear as godlike at all hours as TLR.

Ok, so, bit of explanation up front about the long-winded topic tile. My first ever post on the forums was a Reverse Compounding theory (based on the WoB of there being "a way to enhance allomancy using feruchemy" (see following spoiler for the wob). In it, I went over how Compounding F-Nicrosil charged with an allomantic power would likely result in being able to become vastly stronger with that metal, which I still believe is true. I do NOT, however, still believe that to be "real" Reverse Compounding. It does involve using Feruchemy to enhance Allomancy, as per the Wob, but I think there's a second possibility, one that isn't limited to Nicrosil Compounding. (Y'know what, from henceforth, I will use C-Nicrosil/gold/etc to denote Compounded metals. It's just quicker and more concise.) This second possibility is that a Compounder can store the Allomantic effect of their metal inside a Metalmind, charging it up with the allomantic power instead of the usual feruchemical attribute. There's a certain symmetrical simplicity to that which makes me think I'm on the right track. Now the main benefit here is that you can keep burning the metal and charging up the metalmind with it, and after you're done, you have a feruchemically-stored supply of Allomantic power. So now you can make use of Feruchemy's greatest feature and tap a HUGE amount of allomantic power out in a short burst, almost like a Duralumin burn. The obvious example would be Steel, wherein you can Push with potentially hundreds of times the normal force you can muster, possibly launching a coin at railgun-level speeds, or fling yourself high into the sky with one leap. Another advantage this has over A-Duralumin burns is that the exact amount of power you muster can be fine-tuned, meaning you can also be more subtle with, let's say Steel again, and easily hover using ground anchors without needing as much practice in managing your allomantic steel burn rate/power. Now the first argument I could see against this is "well if that's how it works, why haven't we seen it yet" and, well, I think the answer is kind of obvious. In the case of Miles, doing this was pointless. He doesn't need finesse or brute force with A-Gold, he needs F-Gold charge en-masse. It's also possible that it's just too tricky of a balancing act to do BOTH at once, and so he just focused on doing normal C-Gold since Reverse C-Gold is just as useless as unmodified A-Gold. The other part of the answer is, well, we HAVE. The Lord Ruler could soothe in a HUGE radius, with soul-crushing potency. He may have known about Nicrosil, and so may have used normal C-Nicrosil to boost up his potency in A-Brass, but I feel like something's missing there. Surely if he was constantly burning brass to do that, he would have to be constantly chugging Brass flakes or poking brass spikes (not hemalurgic ones) into himself to burn, which seems crude and clumsy. Surely he of all people would learn how to Reverse Compound, and that's how he Soothes in such a radius at such power at seemingly all hours of every day. He's using RC-Brass and tapping it constantly. In fact, he could actually still be consuming brass metal to Soothe with, but that Brass could be supercharged with Allomantic brass power, making it even more powerful when burned. At the very least, that would significantly reduce the interval at which he would need to burn Brass, which would make things a lot less obnoxious. Just fill a brass ring with A-Brass, and Reverse Compound it, then store it in a full-sized Brassmind. I dunno, I feel like this lines up really nicely, and the poetic symmetry of it literally being the reverse of normal Compounding makes it even more plausible to me. What do you think, though? Where did i slip up in my logic?

Maybe it "fixes' your spiritweb so perfectly when you hit savantism that it immunizes you to certain effects at their lower strengths. Like, your whole body acts like Aluminum realmatically, immune to investiture effects like being Lashed, or whatever.

Yes, it was. He was lifting stuff that was so heavy it was actively breaking his body to do so, but the stormlight was constantly repairing his injuries. He was basically doing the "mother lifts car off of trapped child" thing, but had stormlight to compensate for pushing himself so far beyond normal limits.

VERY minor nitpick but this is false. stormlight gives enhanced stamina and reflexes/balance (like allomantic pewter but without the strength/speed). Plate gives enhanced strength, speed, and does stuff like blocking Stormform lightning from view automatically.

Yup. You might have to die while storing Identity though... But yeah, using the end-positivity of allomancy to make a net gain of power.

Well if it works anything like Compounding feruchemy, it'd "trick" the incoming allomantic power into becoming the same thing as the hemalurgic charge. Right?

Well in the case of the hemalurgic + feruchemically charged spike, yes, the hemalurgy is keyed from someone else, and the feruchemy is yours. BUT. Taken from the Coppermind page of Hemalurgy, under Other Uses, Allomancy and Feruchemy: So you sort of semi-inherit the donor's Identity, enough to trick their old metalminds into being accessible by you. So that does mean that if they blanked their Identity, their hemalurgic spike would lack their Identity and the charge would be Unkeyed, meaning... could you burn the spike and get "tenfold" the power or whatever the actual amount is, like compounding Feruchemical charge?

So yes, it looks like Identity is the obstructing factor to this. Given how he equates burning an Identity'd spike to a normal, keyed metalmind, it seems that a spike made by killing someone who is actively storing their Identity would be an Unkeyed Spike and could be burned allomantically, or perhaps tapped feruchemically. Whatever that does. also worth noting is i believe he is referring to the fact that metal can hold both a hemalurgic and feruchemical charge simultaneously, not that Feruchemy can tap the hemalurgic charge from a spike. I don't want people glossing over that and misinterpreting it (as i have before, and embarrassed myself thoroughly).

Addendum: Oh crap I just realized it could be possible to use Nicrosil compounding to create endless Unkeyed nicrosilminds containing any metalborn power, which means people only need to temporarily access an F Nicrosil Medallion to take the power out, meaning everyone can have an array of metalborn powers of their choosing. ...makes me think that probably WILL NOT be how Nicrosil compounding works. ...We'll see.

Well, maybe the Medallions are limited, but I really don't see why this wouldn't work for a person just gradually gathering up metalborn powers.

...Actually yeah I used to be a lightweaver...

...Ok, I can't. I swear to everything I've seen it, I can visualize the text on the Arcanum website word for word, but I couldn't find it under any Wobs listed with rashek in them. Is Ruin screwing with me?

It's been WoB'd that a normal spiritweb doesn't have enough room for alll 32... Whatever that means. You can't naturally get a Fullborn like TLR, he had to tweak himself with the Well to get that to work.