Trusk'our

As I've been filling out my personal list of NPCs and things to put in a Mistborn RPG campaign, I've thought on some novel uses of the Metallic Arts. So, what if you had a Pulser that tried to live through passive income alone, spending most of their time in a Slowness bubble? They could reasonably fill an entire room with self-sustaining batteries, books, food, and a bathroom. Assuming they can't keep burning when asleep, they simply stop for that part of their daily life. I guess I'm just wondering, how realistic is this as a character's lifestyle? How quickly does cadmium burn, how expensive is it, and how much time could you skip to rack in the benefits of investing or owning a small, largely self-sufficient business? Thoughts?

The Savantism caused by using Fabrial Soulcasting causes a spiritual, cognitive, and physical change to the Savant. But what if they regularly use multiple essences, such as with a multi-essence Soulcaster or just swapping between multiple? Would they overwrite the previous changes, or would they amalgamate into something new and unique? What about Allomantic Savants? If a Mistborn or Hemalurgist overused multiple powers, would they get new, weird side-effects, kind of like a Resonance?

Or aluminum ones.

Yeah, copper's a real outlier. Though I think brass, Bendalloy, and Cadmium must be similar cause it wouldn't make a lot of sense to store being less hungry, thirsty, oxygen deprived, or heated, then snap back after storing. I feel like these all store discrete things as well. True, you'd need multiple donors at once working round the clock, perhaps a dozen or two, but I don't think this would actually be that hard. If you take a minimum amount of Atium for each donor, just enough to make an electrum-alloyed ring or something (plus aluminum or Identity blanking), then have a young Sliverist store 50 years of youth for 8 or so hours as they sleep. The storage space doesn't have to be big here, since it is expected to be regularly given to Marsh then swapped to a new donor, so maybe a day or three's worth of youthfulness would be acceptable (Sazed's rings in WoA were filled heavily for several days, yet they still weren't full. I suspect Atiumminds would be similar). There's also his Savantism to take into account. I don't know that it would completely offset the amount needed to keep a four-hundred-ish guy alive, but it makes the process way more efficient than it would be for a non-Savant. You could still supplement this with Compounding, at least until you have the infrastructure and a few extra Atiumminds Invested ahead of time.

I know, my wondering is more what if they could do the drumbeat + Investiture trick that they did with Lifespren and crops with the Spren they've bonded to create a new effect. I'm sure it depends on whether that Investiture is fundamentally "taken up" when slotted into their Gemheart and provides a Form or whether it can also function like a power (though as you brought up Stormform is an example of both, so I don't think it's impossible). Mostly, I suppose that question is what's really bothering me on a broader Cosmere scale. Cosmere spoilers:

In RoW, Rlain teaches the humans of Urithiru how to use Lifespren to grow crops with the right drumbeat and Stormlight. I wonder then, could Singers learn to harness Rhythms and Investiture to make the Lesser Spren they've bonded to create a type of smaller scale Surgebinding? Perhaps they'd need more of a unique relationship with the Spren they chose to bond, maybe naming and taming it like Navani's scholars did in WaT, allowing for more communication and stronger Connections.

Why would there lifespan be reduced at all? It's a temporary reduction, so if a 20 year old stores 50 years worth of youth for an hour, they'd bounce right back after that hour. They just spend a little more time being older. That is an excellent point. Marsh would probably have to get a whole operation going, but I still think it would be useful.

Dumad, the pseudo Mistborn Hemalurgist in TLM was fully capable of tracking Waxillium when he stored weight in his Ironmind. It's difficult to do, but not impossible- given Dumad's use, I think it just takes a master of Allomantic bronze, maybe using the right Intent. Though, Steel Inquisitors couldn't do it and they really wanted to, so maybe it requires some Realmatic knowledge or something else (note that this second WoB is like 4 years after the first and is paraphrased, and both are quite a bit before TLM. He might have changed his mind on how Seeking Feruchemy works).

Hello! Which of the three Metallic Arts is your favorite? What are you excited to see from in each come Era 3?

My opinion is that, if TLR was acting in a realistic manner and Lift was not given narrative invulnerability he would win the majority of the time hands down. There are certainly ways Lift and Nightblood could win, especially if Lift has plenty of time to train and Nightblood shares the other Surges with her. Nightblood can one-shot if it touches TLR and can grant powerful abilities like Elsecalling and Soulcasting. Lift can heal injures and replenish her Investiture with a relatively cheap resource. But I think Rashek's Steelrunning, Steelpushing, precognition, heightened senses, experience, and overt brutality give him a serious leg up in most any lethal situation. It really matters what both parties do in the specific situation we're deciding to throw them in, but I'd be comfortable handing the win to Rashek.

Marsh now has a steady, albeit fairly slim supply of Atium. This is nice and all, but is there a way to increase his efficiency with it so he doesn't just burn it all up as quickly as he gets it? I wonder, could you make a bunch of smaller Unsealed Atiumminds that could be filled by willing donors, then given to Marsh who would store the attributes in his Atium spike? Then no actual Atium is expended and it can be repourposed if needed, perhaps for other types of Atium alloy Metalminds.

Moash has what appears to be of exotic Hemalurgic spikes through his eyes, granting him Investiture-sight. However, every instance of Hemalurgy we've seen creates cracks in the Spiritweb, allowing other things to wriggle in if they want. So, would Moash's spikes make him more vulnerable to certain things? If so, what stuff on Roshar might be able to exploit these cracks to their advantage- and his detriment? If the spikes have to have some Connection to Ruin based off their nature (even if they do use non-Ruinous pieces of Investiture to function, as I suspect), could Harmony ever take a look at Moash in the potential conflict between him and Retribution and whisper thoughts into his head? There are other weird factors at play, such as distance and his Connection to another Shard (so at best it would probably just be little nudges), but still, might be possible.

I mean, as interesting as the positive feedback loop is, I really don't think it's strictly that powerful. I mean, Allomantic nicrosil isn't all that useful on its own, presumably even if greatly enhanced, and any benefit it offers others probably isn't too different from a normal Nicroburst. I really, really doubt this would work. Ascension requires an utterly ridiculous amount of power to achieve. Even if the feedback loop of a Nicrosil Compounder could reach such levels without the dropping levels of efficiency the higher the attribute goes, there would be practical limitations too, like the amount of Nicrosil they could get ahold of or store Investiture in. Basically, I'm thinking they'd have a path to become highly saturated with Investiture, maybe even become a Cognitive Shadow on their own with enough time, but their actual danger is far more restricted.

I've thought before on double nicrosil's interactions, and definitely the most interesting would be that by Compounding their Allomancy they could create a positive feedback loop- since the strength of one's Allomancy determines the power they squeeze out of their metals, Compounding your nicrosil and not storing all of it away should greatly increase your total Investiture output (assuming that's how Feruchemical nicrosil works). I have a thread here that explores this idea a bit more:

I've come up with some proposals for the mechanics behind the nature of Savantism in the past. I have another proposal that I think has some merit, and if true could really change how Savantism is viewed and how it can be utilized. My latest hypothesis is that when a person uses an Invested Art, the Investiture must flow through their soul- their Spiritweb- in order to pick up on the user's Intent and echo it. However, if the Spiritweb becomes too strained, cracks will form, as is normal. However, with Investiture flowing through the structure, it can now seep into those cracks, binding to the Spiritweb and forming a kind of growth. A callous on the spiritual aspect. This unnatural growth of Investiture on the Spiritweb I think could be like Nomad's Dawnsliverism- Investiture that enhances in the right places, but restricts in others (could also be compared to a Koloss's spikes- it isn't purely beneficial, as the additional Investiture recontextualizes much of the rest of the Spiritweb, which can have negative effects elsewhere, such as a Tineye Savant having very dull senses when not burning tin). If it is a growth of Investiture on the Spiritweb (instead of Connections being rewritten, Identity/Rhythms being altered, or just a deeper "bonding" of the practitioner's power), then it should be spikable, similar to Nomad being able to siphon off his. It also means you should be able to use Savants as a way of generating Investiture that can charge Hemalurgic spikes, maybe even lead to new kind of constructs or generate Innate Investiture that can be spiked without needing to permanently damage the donor. Now, I want to address the biggest contending piece of evidence: the WoB that says Savantism just isn't transferrable via Hemalurgy. I will freely admit that this does put a damper on this idea of mine, but I do think it's possible Brandon will have changed his mind about how Savantism may work now that ten years have past and that he's written the Sunlit man (with a Savant-like thing going on there, at least to my own perspective). I'll also say while I like this idea, this being the 4th hypothesis of mine on the topic is definitely making me more open minded to it just being wrong or only being partially true.

Can the typical Radiant use Lifelight? Lift herself cannot substitute Stormlight for her Lifelight, so it's possible the reverse is true for others.

Such a construct could also be interesting to splice into the general population, since their offspring- like Koloss-blooded- would probably have some edge over natural humans with little to no downsides. Mix in enough over time and now everyone in future generations can enjoy heightened strength, intellect, and health (okay, in reality pretty hard to do and very costly, but technically might be possible).

In YatNP, Design tells us that while Investiture responds to everyone's thoughts to a degree, highly Invested people have an even greater influence. This makes me wonder, if an Awakener traveled to Roshar, would their perception and awareness be more "weighted" and potentially override local perception when it comes to influencing Spren? For example, a wealthy Nalthian merchant who's bought their way to the third Heightening decides to hop over to Roshar so they can enjoy viewing the local gigantic macrofauna- while rooting out new trading partners, of course. They travel with a small entourage of about fifty people (all with 1 BEU to their name), mostly servants and guards. The merchant is Idrian and holds firmly to their customs and beliefs (conveniently ignoring their own people's views of Breath transference), while the rest of the group is Hallandren, holding to their own customs. Would any nearby Lesser Spren be pushed to fit the perception of the merchant more than everyone else? There's roughly six times the Investiture there, though only one-fiftieth the minds. Another thought- could this enhanced force of perception Invested people have correlate with Command Breaking? Perhaps a stronger Awakener uses this mechanism to override the imprint left by another. It would also be interesting to know if this mechanism is why Vessel's subconscious views filter their Shard. For example, Sazed may not becable to consciously dilute Hemalurgy's influence, as Khriss believes in TLM Ars Arcanum, but his perception ripples outward through Ruin regardless.

I don't think Honor was ever actually Splintered, just thought to be until WaT. I don't have the book on me, but doesn't Hoid say something along those lines? The power left Tanner, which got him killed by Rayse, but I don't think there was ever an actual description of the Shard being Splintered.

Ah, thank you for the clarification. Not to take over @Nitpicking's job too much, but I believe any static Investiture is going to give you a little access to the SR, where it can act like lightbulb and let more energy through. Furthermore, nearly every system that utilizes Investiture also draws a tiny bit extra from the SR to facilitate transfer and stuff like that, which I think could include Spren of all varieties when they use their Investiture. Spren have been shown to be capable of using their own Investiture. It does often require the aid of a Listener or human, such as when Rlain teaches the humans of Urithiru to grow crops via Stormlight and music, but Syl shows us that she can use Adhesion to prank people independently from Kaladin's channeling of Stormlight. This is pretty limited in most cases, but again I think is worth taking some note of. @Clarkmon22, overall I'm not sure I'd say that each of these categories is necessarily more restricted to their access to their own Investiture than the others, more that the higher up you go the more Investiture you have to throw around and that more Investiture tends to bend the rules of what can normally be done- i.e. Awakening is normally restricted to Investing an organic object to give it a semblance of motion and senses, but get enough Breath and you can begin Awakening inorganic objects, using telepathy to Awaken, or Commanding other Awakened objects. More Investiture doesn't just add raw power, but it seems to have emergent properties. Not only that, but the higher up you go the more of an autonomous mind the being generally has, which is important for using their power. This is actually the main limitation of Vessels in accessing their Shard's virtually infinite power- their mind is simply not as expansive as the power, and therefore cannot direct all of it. However, a Vessel seems to be capable of expanding what Investiture aligned with their Shard they can affect if they ever become aware of it (not sure if that means their total pool of accessible power is increased or if it just shuffles around what they could have used to the new chunk they discovered). I hope that I've been able to help and not just cause more confusion.

What about those bearing Hemalurgic spikes repelling the Mists? The power stolen and stapled isn't entirely the same thing it was in the donor, I believe. There may be changes made to it, such as with Stormlight Warbreaker spoilers: It's just a theory, but I believe there is solid ground for my reasoning.

I'm not sure I follow the diagram. May you please explain it?

Spren have shown that they can change based off of the perception of those around them, especially Lesser Spren. You can even begin to tame them and they'll start developing a more individualized appearance. So, if a Listener bonded a Spren that had been warped by perception, could this change the Listener's form? If the Listener had training, could they alter a Spren they've already bonded to get a Returned-ish kind of shape-shifting? Also, what do we think it would take for a Hemalurgic spike to be skewed by perception? They're already containing bits of functional Spiritweb, though not really alive. Maybe they could act a bit like Spren and respond to perception if they were Awakened a bit?

What? Where did you learn this? I don't recall this ever coming up in the book nor a WoB.