Cocoa

You know, the idea that there might be 12 different aethers gives me an idea. Because aside from Night and Illuminous, all of the aethers we know of map pretty well to one of the ten essences: Amberite: Lucentia (or maybe Talus, but it seems more like a crystal than stone) Verdant: Pulp Bestarin: Sinew Ferrous: Foil Aether of Wind (which I've only heard hearsay of on the forums here): Zephyr So if we take in the ten essences and tack on dark and light, that gives us a total of twelve themes. And we've already seen there's some overlap in mechanics between different magic systems, like the metal cages used in making fabrials correlating to allomantic metals. Not entirely sure I'm onto something, but I do like the idea.

Morgan Freeman as Odium. We already know he can pull off playing a divinity, and both his bearing and his voice would lend themselves well to the whole 'authoritative but kindly grandfather' front Odium puts up, and I think he could still pull off playing Odium as he shows more and more of his true colors.

Ah, true enough.

Just finished (at way too late an hour hehe) my copy last night, so I thought I'd get in on the fun. The magic: As others have noted, it's kind of a shame that we didn't learn more about the Bestarin and Ferrous aethers. Bestarin can heal by grafting on animal parts, Ferrous can turn into Corpates and communicate with the people inside Corpates, and that's it. We don't even know what the aethers look like. Though, one misconception that seems to happen when people talk about Corpates is thinking they're only the vehicles, when in-text it seems more that the people-turned-into-metal-pillars are Corpates, which are then used for buildings, vehicles, light, heating, etc. Amberite and Verdant are pretty clear-cut. Proto-shardblade and plate for Amberite, spider-man for Verdant. I do think it's a shame we didn't get more exploration of the aethers being alive through D'Naa's Verdant, but maybe that's something that would have played a role in a hypothetical sequel. I will say that, not accounting for any changes between prime aethers and canon aethers, I'm very much looking forward to the Sounthern Scadrians and Rosharans getting their hands on Ferrous aethers, since they've shown the most inclination towards using Investiture mechanically. While everyone talks about Illuminous being a lot weaker than Night, I'm not entirely convinced. Even without the shadow projection, it's much more flexible when it comes to transporting things, and as we saw with the falling livestock and the betrayal of the Amberite and Bestarin refugees, Illuminous + gravity can be a pretty devastating weapon. I also wonder whether they have some sort of inverse of Night's projection ability, which could account for their being able to hear Despair in their dreams. The peoples/worldbuilding: I admittedly didn't terribly mind the planet-of-the-hats style kingdoms, and I disagree they were entirely flat, as well. Tarrinon was a fun supporting character, and I liked that Nahan actually got exploration and character development, when in a less well-handled story she could've very well been a one-dimensional seductress whose only purpose is to stir up drama between Raeth and D'Naa. I think part of my being fine with them might be me projecting other similar but more fleshed-out people from Brandon's later writing onto them, though. The Shorriken as Azish and a little Terris, the Khur and Kavir as counterparts of the Idrians in different ways, the Aedin as more noble Alethi, etc. I think I would've liked to see them more fleshed-out in hypothetical later aether books, but as-is, I don't mind them. I think the one exception to that is the Shentis. Now, I want to very clearly preface this by saying that I don't hold this against Brandon at all, and I strongly dislike accusing authors of bigotry without evidence of malicious intent or beliefs because of superficial (and often coincidental) parallels between elements of a fantasy world and real-world stereotypes. That said, the realization that Shentis really are a minority group who spirit away (admittedly outcast) children and purposely infect them with a body-fluid-transmitted virus to make more of themselves was a rather uncomfortable one. Especially since you could have a distinct caste within Aedin society focused on providing a home for those without bloodlines without many of those elements. I would've liked to see more of the Gol. Their story, of living weapons corrupted by an entirely different evil god to be appreciators of art, is an interesting one. I can picture them maybe joining the final battle against the Forgotten too, fighting against a foe that they need feel no empathy for to protect a culture that has created so many great works of art. The ending: As others have said, pretty much everything past the final proper battle with the Forgotten felt rushed. It didn't feel like the Vo-Dari were built up enough to make a satisfying big bad, which is kind of ironic considering Raeth himself was a Dari. I liked the "big bads were actually the quiet helpful people right under your nose the entire time" twist better in Warbreaker, perhaps because the Pahn Khal felt like they had more of a genuine horse in the race than "our god told us to commit a tripple-genocide to save the world." I was honestly kind of surprised that Darro didn't bond a Bestarin aether after losing his arm. It felt like it would have been thematically fitting, challenging everybody's notions of how aethers work, creating a parallel between him and Raeth since they'd both be double-aether users for a time, and elevating the remaining Bestarins since the prince is now one of them. Speaking of Bestarins, rip Taenen. Saw your death coming miles away but you were still cool. I saw Darro and Nahan getting together at the end coming from a long ways away too, if not the exact method. I figured that either Raeth would reveal his ruse but be crowned emperor anyway, and would then pick Nahan for Darro, or would be convinced to maintain the ruse and then pick Nahan for Darro anyway as politicking, since even though he'd have revealed her as a liar he could probably protect her from stoning as an Aedin princess. I can see the argument that it would've been better to loop her in on Darro's scheme, though as he himself pointed out, 'hey, it's better than being stoned.' The bit with Alean was both uncomfortable and unsatisfying. She had already basically date-raped Darro for information, and what wound up happening to her doesn't feel worse than what she herself did, but that doesn't really make it right. And so the way it's sort of played off as comedy or poetic justice just falls flat and even has the inverse effect. I think a more satisfying end would be if Laene's treasonous conspiracy with the 'shadow creature' (ineffective though it was, since the only thing I can think of he really accomplished was swinging the martial autonomy vote) were somehow exposed, thus destroying his and Alean's credibility. And then maybe at that point she would have overreacted and revealed her affair with Hern, which would see her labeled either a liar or as a cheater in the bridal offering competition, either way not someone to be trusted, and so that's how that plot thread could be resolved. I was actually kind of disappointed that the Khur didn't secede from the empire. I feel like it would be the natural course of action for them after everything that happened, and could've been a good thematic moment for "doing your duty in important regardless of whether you succeed" and driving home that Raeth ultimately couldn't please everyone even if he did everything 'right.' It could've also been a bittersweet moment too, as the Khur secession could've spurred the other nations to reaffirm and strengthen their loyalty. I did at least like the implication that the court is fully aware of how much crem is being slung around, they just don't care. They've got their emperor. Random musings: I'm not entirely opposed to the romance and war plotlines being set side-by-side on principle. I recognize that my opinions on this aren't universal, but I didn't especially dislike when Brandon did similar things with Shallan and Adolin in SA, Vin and Elend in Mistborn, and Siri and Susebron in Warbreaker. In this book the two definitely could have used polishing to work better together, but I didn't hate it. Assuming AoN ever gets rewritten (and it would need a pretty hefty rewrite at this point, given all the elements that have been cannibalized for other Cosmere works) instead of just pulling the aethers themselves into canon, I feel like the Valor shard will be involved somehow. It just feels right for a story where a major element is doing your duty (even when it wasn't supposed to be your duty) in the face of impossible odds. It's a small thing, but I do wonder whether Tea was a source of inspiration for AoL Steris. The two just strike me as very similar. One thing I think the book did really well was the politicking from the Raeth-as-Hern angle. I liked how he managed to win over so many of Hern's enemies while at the same time trying to pull off the balancing act of acting enough like Hern not to arouse suspicion. I also liked how for all of his flaws, we do see that Hern had at least one redeeming quality: he fought alongside his men instead of just being an armchair general.

I definitely think once we hit space-age Cosmere that we'll start seeing computers and the like used to directly enhance Selish magic. Another possibility I've thought of is using graphic design software and laser etching on crystal to get ultra-precise soulstamps.

The way I figure, there are three probable allomantic effects of burning pure atium. Before I get into this, I should note that most of these rely on the idea that Ruin and Preservation are polar opposites in terms of Intent. High-level perception of the spiritual realm, allowing for foresight and possibly enhanced hindsight. As Harrycrapper noted above, that could potentially explain how the Terris originally got the Prophecies, since Preservation has a difficult time changing things and speaking to people. This option works best with the (now possibly outdated) WoB that atium alloys have temporal effects, but it does strike me as somewhat strange when thinking about Shardic Intent, since Ruin doesn't seem all that great at seeing the future (compared to Preservation at least). Burning atium kills you outright, either as a result of corrupting your spiritweb or just destroying it. This outcome meshes best with the idea that atium inverts the metals it alloys with in some way. Burning atium destroys your Connections to any invested arts, kind of like a super-aluminum burn. This idea follows from four things we already know: Ruin is Presevation's opposite, atium works very efficiently with hemalurgy, lerasium works very inefficiently with hemalurgy, and lerasium invests someone and creates allomantic Connections when burned. So with that in mind, atium behaving like lerasium's direct opposite and sabotaging allomancy when burned feels thematically appropriate. As for feruchemical properties, I haven't got the foggiest idea. So far out of atium, lerasium, "hathsinium," malatium, trellium, raysium, tanavastium, and the honor/cultivation alloys of sprenblades, we only know the feruchemical properties of hathsinium, so not terribly much to go on there.

I think it's a technical quibble. I think there's probably some physical limit as to how fast feruchemists can tap an attribute, but if so it's such a high ceiling that you'll almost never hit it. If there's a trick to boosting feruchemy, it'd just push that never-touch-it ceiling even higher. It'd only ever really be useful when tapping the full stores of something like the bands of mourning. Or my mostly-baseless speculation is wrong, the only physical limit on feruchemy at all is the speed-of-Intent you need to activate it, and duralumin burning really does have no use for a twinborn aside from resonance. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Either way, I disagree with Raphaborn that a-Duralumin has synergy with all sorts of Feruchemy. We haven't seen anyone use the two together in canon yet, and even if my speculation is correct it's such a niche interaction I wouldn't really call it 'synergy.'

Definitely f-Duralumin in my opinion, for the reasons you mentioned.

Depends on what burning duralumin does to tapping a metalmind. Personally, I'm convinced there should be some way to use it to boost feruchemy, even if it just amps up your draw rate, but by default it just boosts other metals you're burning, and we've never seen anyone use it differently up to this point.

I certainly agree with that in theory, but in practice you run up against one of the major limits of allomancy: you have to consume metal. Bendalloy in particular is an expensive and, so far as I can tell, fast-burning metal. In effect, you're trading off one logistical issue for another. You can buy time to store your feruchemical attribute in the most literal sense possible, but you have to spend time making money to buy more metal to make more time. I think there's a reason Wayne just spends time in bed storing up goldmind health instead of using his bendalloy to do it, even though he has easier access to bendalloy than most sliders on account of Wax's wealth.

I think that depends in part on whether or not bronze-detection counts as a 'sense' or not. I do agree they mesh well for a lookout/tracker regardless, though.

256, correct, since so far as we know there's no more godmetal mistings. If we disregard non-compounding combos where the allomantic ability is duralumin or aluminum (though I'm not entirely convinced burning duralumin while tapping wouldn't do something, and those twinborn would still have resonances) then the number drops to 226. If you stick to one allomantic metal at a time and ask "what feruchemical abilities would mesh well with this ability?" (or vice-versa), then it becomes a lot more manageable to figure out combos.

Putting aside resonances (since we only know a little about them for surgebinders, and even less for metalborn) and compounding for a moment, what are some of the best Twinborn combos you can think of? Not simply "oh wow, these are both great powers," but pairs of powers that especially compliment each other? Here's what I've got so far: a-Tin and f-Electrum could work well if electrum let you stubborn through the worst effects of sensory overload. a-Pewter and either f-Steel or f-Gold are quite broken in terms of raw combat power. You could also use a-Pewter and f-Tin to become a bootleg Survivor of the Flames. One other thing I'd be curious about is whether tapping wakefullness or breath would let you push yourself for longer without causing a pewter drag. a-Pewter and f-Iron is an interesting one. Since Ham commented in Era 1 about Vin's pewter power being condensed because of her small frame, I think it must be additive rather than multiplicative. That means that as you tap lots of mass, your pewter strength is gonna seem less and less relevant instead of compounding with the multiplied strength you get from tapping. And if you burn pewter in combat and store mass, you'll probably just send yourself flying whenever you try hitting something. So all in all, this combo would probably be best for mobility. Something I actually think would be really cool to see is a pewter/iron twinborn ballerina. You get the strength, stamina, and grace of pewter (see: Vin and Elend's dance in HoA) plus the ability to work in incredible leaps thanks to storing your weight. a-Iron and f-Gold would pair well provided you're willing to spend a lot of time storing up health. Ironpull on bullets to yank them away from your squishy friends, ironpull on large structures with decreased consequences if you crash, etc. We've got ample canon evidence for why Crashers are such a powerful combo. Steel/pewter twinborn like Forch can also do this to a lesser extent I think, since the added or lost muscle mass has some effect on your steelpushing. Whether you can do some of the more limited tricks as a steel/bendalloy twinborn depends on if it works like in the MAG, where tapping lots of calories at once causes you to pack on weight. Either a-Zinc or a-Brass would pair quite well with f-Duralumin and f-Zinc (even ignoring compounding in Zinc's case) for a social person. a-Bronze works best for lookouts and trackers, so to that end I think it would synergize best with f-Tin. f-Zinc might also be good, if it gave you more subjective time to sort through the information you're receiving and maybe pick out a particular metal being burned. f-Speed would, I think, be pretty invaluable for a nicroburst or leecher. In close quarters with an allomancer, acting fast might save your life. And on the flip side, a-Chromium and a-Nicrosil are nice compliments for a brawler who mostly relies on f-Pewter. a-Gold and f-Aluminum could be either very good together or very, very bad, depending on how exactly Identity and gold shadows work. If tapping identity make you more resilient in the face of a gold shadow, great. If identity makes the differences between you and the shadow more pronounced, then you can at least store it and maybe suffer less side-effects that way. But if tapping it makes the differences worse and storing it makes you liable to lose yourself in the shadow, you're kind of hosed. f-Electrum, at least, should hopefully let you burn gold without too many side effects. One unorthodox combo that I'm still very convinced would yield interesting results is a-Electrum (or possibly even gold) and f-Chromium. (Word of Brandon and Stormlight spoilers) a-Bendalloy pairs best with close-combat feruchemical metals: steel pewter, and gold. You throw one up around you and a single opponent, beat the snot out of him, drop it and move onto the next guy. I'd say of these it pairs best with f-Steel, since that's the one I can best imagine someone tossing up a bubble for, standing perfectly still and dumping as much investiture as they possibly can into their metalminds, and then using that investiture when the bubble drops. With f-Zinc, of course, you also get the doubled effect of being in a speed bubble while you tap your accuity, which really just makes you think ludicrously fast.

Qiocosti (CHEE-ōh-kōs-tee) is a minor shardworld with Endowment-aligned investiture. The planet is very tectonically active, resulting in an abundance of mountains, volcanoes, and islands, as well as plenty of fertile soil for plants to grow. The Qiocosti cognitive realm is inhabited by Endowment-aligned splinters of Adonalsium, natively identified as "tsalatin" (singular "tsalatl"). Tsalatin are sapient, though as a general rule not notably intelligent or focused, similar to Nahel spren that have crossed over to the physical realm and are in the early stages of bonding a Radiant. There are five major groupings of tsalatin, though each of these groupings is not so much a 'species' as they are collections of slightly different 'species' with a host of shared traits and some differences. Each grouping of tsalatin is able to affect the world in a specific way, with minor variations on that theme for each of the sub-types within that grouping. Much like shards, tsalatin are bound by any oaths or promises they may make, and also cannot outright lie (but can be intentionally misleading). Fire behaves unusually in the Qiocosti system, faintly strengthening the connection between the three realms (though not remotely close to the effect of a perpendicularity). Its presence allows a small amount of investiture to trickle through to the physical and cognitive realms, but also allows those in the cognitive to more easily interact with the physical and vice-versa. Fire in the physical realm also actively reacts to nearby tsalatin in the cognitive realm by changing color, with the resulting shade determined by which tsalatl is nearby. The closest thing to an invested art on Qiocosti are the traditions of gift-giving between humans and tsalatin. On the side of the tsalatin, they will often use their natural talents to swing the fortunes of humans they have taken a shine to. On the side of the humans, they will often leave offerings of food outside their house, accompanied by a small candle or brazier to act as a beacon and a gateway for a tsalatl or tsalatin. Oftentimes these offerings will go untouched, but if a tsalatl accepts it, they will 'consume' it, after a fashion. Food consumed by a tsalatl will become odorless and tasteless, and will do little to satiate hunger if a human eats it. Consuming food in this way lets the tsalatl experience its taste and texture, as well as a small measure of investiture drawn from the spiritual realm. Tsalatin can also detect the touch of those who prepared the food when they consume it, can use it to track and recognize them, and can teach other tsalatin to recognize them. One very important note is that these exchanges are not transactional, and treating them as such instead of as gifts freely given between friends is a reliable way to ignite the temper of any tsalatl. A human can go for years leaving gifts for tsalatin with no compensation received. Similarly, a tsalatl who takes a shine to a particular human or group of humans or is moved by a plea for aid may use their abilities to grant them a boon without ever receiving a meal. Gifts are not always exchanged directly, so a tsalatin whose favor is won by an old woman might turn around bless that woman's granddaughter, for example. Tsalatin are also not restricted to using their abilities to grant gifts. A human who trespasses and disturbs the area where a tsalatl lives without appropriately placating them may be in for a very rough time. The five major groupings of tsalatin, as well as their associated colors, what flavors they are most drawn to, the season they are most commonly associated with in folklore, and their abilities are as follows: Popochetin turn flames a bright crimson, are associated with early and mid summer, and are drawn to spicy and pungent foods. They are capable of inflaming emotions, similar to a rioter misting. A popochetl boon may come in the form of the recipient receiving a burst of courage when she most needs it, or a target of their affections having their yet-unrealized reciprocation nudged forward. An offended popochetl may push someone to lose his temper at the wrong moment, or even wreak havoc on his personal relationships. Nanaketin turn flames a deep gold, are associated with the monsoon season of late summer and early fall, and are drawn to savory or umami foods. Out of all tsalatin, nanaketin are the most attuned to the physical realm, and can most easily see into it and interact with it. While theoretically any tsalatl can appear in the physical realm as heatless ball of appropriately-colored fire floating in the air, only nanaketin can do so without expending a truly prohibitive amount of energy. Similarly, with a little effort, a nanaketl can make their voice audible to nearly anyone nearby in the physical realm, not just those with cracked spiritwebs or a strong connection to the cognitive realm. As a result, nanaketin are the tsalatin that humans most often directly interact with and befriend, and their boons often take the form of simple companionship or acting as scouts and guides. Qiaqahotin turn flames a teal-blue, are associated with autumn, and are drawn to foods with richness and fattiness, such as those that incorporate a large amount of cream or oil. Their abilities are broad, but all revolve around the manipulation and understanding of language. A pleased qiaqahotl might provide inspiration to an orator or poet, or even go as far as to temporarily bond with a person traveling to a foreign land to act as a translator for them. A human who has offended a qiaqahotl might find themselves, in the worst of cases, suffering from a prolonged episode of aphasia or muteness. Azakatin turn flames a pure white, are associated with winter, and are drawn to sweet and salty foods. Azakatin are capable of manipulating the physical forms of living things. Most commonly they are able to promote or hamper healing or the growth of plants, but that is far from the only ability that can be found among them. The Qiocosti story of the ugly but virtuous fifth daughter, who succeeded in a series of challenges where her elder sisters failed and in return was blessed with otherworldly beauty by an impressed azakatl is, if not strictly based in fact, at the very least a possible story. Totoqitin turn flames green, are associated with spring, and are drawn to sour and bitter foods. Totoqitin are closer to the spiritual realm than other tsalatin, and both their boons and their curses take the form of precognitive dreams and visions. Of all tsalatin, totoqitin are the most capricious.

If I'm not mistaken, W&W takes place between Stormlight Eras 1 and 2 and since the Ghostbloods are already around in Stormlight Era 1... Sorry to be a bubble-burster

I was giving some thought to the mechanics of Breaths, and I've got an idea as to both why (or maybe, 'how') it gives you perfect pitch/color vision/life sense/etc. and why it makes colors more vibrant in a bubble around you. In the past, we've seen the way the realms are set up be compared to the platonic theory of forms, especially when it comes to things like spiritual ideals of things that exist in the cognitive and physical realms. So rather than making colors or tones stronger, I believe bio-chromatic breath pushes both the perception of colors and sounds as well as the nearby physical colors themselves much closer to the ideal forms of those sounds and colors. I believe this is also why people with a lot of breaths hear everything in 'musical' ways and why colors looking stronger to them doesn't come off as garish, the way that it would if the saturation was just being cranked up. They're no longer just seeing the physical colors next to each other, which could clash, but they're seeing ideal colors that are going to look beautiful no matter how you pair them.

As others have said, the torture did break him, he just never betrayed his oaths. But the thing is, you're right about Taln having inhuman levels of determination and the like, and I think there is in fact a very good reason for that. Remember Zahel/Vasher's conversation with Kaladin in RoW: Emphasis mine. The Heralds are in the same boat as the Returned and the Fused, here. Ship of Theseus questions aside, the process of becoming and existing as a Cognitive Shadow has a tangible effect on behavior. Taln doing something inhuman in holding out on Braize for thousands of years isn't a plot hole or him being 'too perfect.' It's a result of him being, quite literally, inhuman. Now, at the same time, that doesn't completely negate the impact of his actions. There's nothing we've seen to suggest becoming a CS strips you of free will, and the other nine Heralds did eventually give in and break their oaths (even those whose Intents were arguably just as suited to holding out, like Jezrien and Kalak). Holding out the way he did still required incredible amounts of willpower and choosing to go on (at least at first, before his mind broke and maybe it became more ingrained instinct than anything), but him being a CS and therefore more defined by Intent means it wasn't an impossible amount.

So, it's been out for a while now that Brandon's thinking of working in a lot of spy thriller elements into Mistborn Era 3. And in one of the grand old traditions of spy thrillers, I suspect for at least one book we'll see a 'foreign,' technologically advanced antagonist. Now, assuming that the balkanization of the Elendel Basin continues on its current course as of BoM, I suspect many of the outer cities could provide 'foreign spy' antagonists, but are they really all that more technologically advanced than Elendel? Now, on the other hand, we have Southern Scadrians and their mechanical metallic arts. And even if this technology proliferates northward (and it almost certainly will), the South is still the origin of that science, and they have a whole cultural head start on innovating with it. Add onto that thet there's an even greater distance between them and Elendel (both physically and culturally) than any of the outer cities, and I think that's why one of the big Era 3 antagonists will be either a government agent or non-state terrorist/supervillain from the South. Only very tangentially related but I suspect we'll also see a Scotty homage in the form of a Southern Scadrian starship engineer in Era 4.

Ah, wonderful. I hadn't been entirely sure on account of the wording of the WoB, so thank you for clearing that up.

I don't particularly think there's a point where it's okay to make spikes from humans (or other sapient beings). Using spikes already created from a person is a more morally grey thing, and in part depends on whether or not you're creating a demand for more spikes. Now, one thing I think would be okay (probably, depending on what exactly you do to yourself when you staple something onto your spiritweb) is creating and using spikes from animals. I realize we don't have solid canon on whether or not you can create spikes from animals, but WoB is that you can use them on animals and I'm pretty sure there was a sidequest thing in one of the (non-canon, but helpful for giving ideas about what might fill in blank spots in canon) Mistborn Adventure Game supplements about a lady in the final empire who accidentally got spiked in the same kind of way Spook was and then experimented further with hemalurgy by having someone drive spikes through animals. Maybe use anesthesia in the process, so the animal doesn't have to be conscious while being spiked.

Do we know how quickly metalminds burn when compounding? Does the whole metalmind go at once like an enhancement metal, releasing 10x whatever you had stored with it and forcing you to either use or store it away again in the space of a moment? Or is it more like tapping, where you control the rate at which you draw out power, and the burn rate fluctuates based on that? Or is it something else?

If all the 'atium' we've seen so far really is an electrum alloy, then that raises even more questions than just what pure atium does allomantically. We're also up a creek in regards to what pure atium does feruchemically and what 'unrefined' (i.e. electrum alloy) atium steals as a spike, if anything. For feruchemy, I'm at a loss. atilectrum storing youth would at least still seem to fit in the Hybrid metal quadrant, but with feruchemy alloys don't seem to have a direct link to their base metals the way they do in allomancy. And what trait could possibly mix with 'determination' to get 'youth?' At the very least, though, we can deduce that god metals and their alloys have different effects, since according to WoB Sazed experimented with malatium and "didn't get very far," which doesn't strike me as something that would happen if it also stored youth. For hemalurgy, I can at least make a guess. Electrum spikes steal enhancement allomantic powers. We know that a refined atium spike can steal any trait and do so more efficiently than other spikes. We know that lerasium turns someone into an allomancer when burned and its alloys turn people into mistings when burned. Allomancy is to Preservation as hemalurgy is to Ruin. So, taking all that together, I think that atilectrum spikes would still steal enhancement allomantic powers but more efficiently than pure electrum would.

Mitik is an inhabited Earth-like world which predates the Shattering, but has since been settled by at least one avatar of Autonomy. In place of mitochondria, living organisms native to Mitik have a unique form of specialized symbiotic microbes that inhabit their cells. These microbes are naturally invested and form the cornerstone of the planet's invested arts. Dymation is the primary invested art accessible to the humans of Mitik. Its practitioners are able to convert a single object (or entity) into two identical objects. Upon creation, both of these objects have the same Identity as each other (as well as the pre-division original) and a strong Connection to each other, but as time passes their Identities will diverge and the Connection may weaken somewhat. The practitioners of Dymation recognize four sets of natural laws that govern its use: The Laws of Metabolism: Dymation requires energy, which is drawn from the body of its practitioner. This process leaves the Dymator hungry, and they must replenish their energy by eating. The energy required increases with the mass of the object being duplicated. If a Dymator attempts a duplication without having enough energy in their body, then the working will fail and have no effect (though some energy will still be expended in the attempt). The Laws of Familiarity: Dymation works by 'tricking' a single existence into becoming two identical existences. As such, the practitioner's understanding of the object being duplicated is essential to the process, and an insufficient understanding means the duplication will simply not happen. The most skilled Dymators are those most capable of coming to understand the existences that surround them. Also, while Dymation does not require direct physical contact, it simplifies things quite a bit and physical distance between the practitioner and the target increases the difficulty of the duplication. The Laws of Animation: Using Dymation on a living creature always has a higher energy requirement than duplicating a non-living target of equal mass. Plants cost more to duplicate than inanimate or dead targets. Animals cost more to duplicate than plants. Humans cost more to duplicate than animals. Dymators themselves cost such a prohibitively large amount of energy to duplicate that a normal human body simply cannot meet the requirements. The Laws of Purity: Someone who has sexually reproduced cannot become a Dymator, which is generally simplified down to 'virginity is a requirement for becoming a Dymator.' Using Dymation for the first time renders the user sterile. Some cultures also believe that a person must be 'purified' through physical or emotional pain before becoming a Dymator, but this assumption is hotly contested and far from a universally accepted rule. The Laws of Familiarity are not identical but are quite similar to the requirements of Soulcasting and Forgery, where you must understand a target before you can change it. The Laws of Animation are simply a side effect of the way investiture (in this case, Spiritwebs) resists other investiture, and a Dymator would encounter similar difficulties if they tried duplicating a metalmind or a gem with Stormlight in it. The Laws of Purity (as well as Dymators being so invested that they are difficult to duplicate) are a side-effect of the Initiation process for Dymation, which involves forming a spiritual Bond with the microbes in your cells. Beyond Dymation, there are also several species of animals native to Mitik which use similar principles to reproduce through asexual bio-fission. Some of these animals can also revert their bodies to a less mature developmental state to escape death from old age, since both 'daughter organisms' would be the same age as the original 'parent' organism on creation. There are almost no universal attitudes towards and surrounding Dymation. While it's rarely if ever considered a mundane trait in some places it is considered explicitly holy, while in others it is merely a blessing, while in yet other places it is considered outright blasphemous. In some places only the duplication of human beings is forbidden, while in others it's considered just fine but using Dymation to duplicate goods for sale would be seen as stooping to unbecoming lows. One side effect of its existence, however, is that powers of two are generally counted as highly significant numbers. This is especially true for sets of four, since it's both two times two and two to the second power. A majority of religions on Mitik worship either a set of four major deities or a single major deity with four aspects. Like Scadrial, Mitik uses a base-16 number system. In most places, the two people that result from a Dymator duplicating someone are treated by the law and society as real people with basic and fundamental rights, but the minutiae of how they're treated varies quite a bit beyond that point, especially when it comes to things like inheritance or responsibility for actions taken before the duplication. In at least one nation, certain classes of criminals can submit pleas to have their sentences reduced to the cost of four large meals. In exchange, they allow a Dymator to duplicate them, and one of the duplicates is chosen at random to be enslaved and pressed into service by the government. Accessible aluminum is incredibly rare on Mitik, so this fact is largely unknown, but objects made of aluminum in whole or in part cannot be duplicated using Dymation. Using hemalurgy to become a Dymator would require multiple spikes; one to steal the production of the symbiotic microbes, and one or more duralumin spikes to steal a bond with them. Someone with only a single connection spike could not use energy efficiently enough to duplicate a human. A Dymator with the ability to use bendalloy feruchemy can use a metalmind they are touching to help fuel the duplication, letting them potentially duplicate more heavily invested targets. People with breaths would be harder for a Dymator to duplicate, while a Drab would be easier than a normal human but harder than an animal.

Correct, unsealed it its base state but becomes keyed to a person's identity like a normal metalmind. But the big thing here is, I think someone could use 'blank' pieces of god metal as metalminds without being a feruchemist, once they knew such a thing was possible.