ChickenBonanza

Aluminum is treated weird and sometimes more influential than it should be, in my mind.

Like, aluminum is Investiture-inert. It itself is unaffected by Invested functions. Can’t be Soulcasted from, can’t be Lashed, can’t be pushed, can’t be disintegrated/spiritual-super-cut by Shardblade, blocks Cognitive Allomancy and other related effects, mess with Fabrials.

Those effects all pertain to aluminum itself. Investiture attempting to get a grasp on aluminum cannot. However, would still be susceptible to, say, being pushed as a result of being hit by a Lashed object, and would not disrupt that Lashing by contact.

Or, at least, it should not.

There are Words which describe the presence of aluminum in wounds preventing magically enhanced healing, like gold Feruchemy. I feel that this is not strictly the purview of aluminum.

Yes, the presence of aluminum in an Invested system would disrupt goings-on, but it is noted that pewter would function more-or-less normally in such a circumstance, but not healing?

If Investiture can still act correctly within an aluminum-contaminated body, such that healing would still operate in wounds not containing aluminum, then it would be by proximity to aluminum that Invested healing would falter, would it not? Otherwise the body would heal and push the aluminum out. However, it does not very much limit the power of pewter, so why different standards?

Similarly, creating dead zones in Bendalloy/Cadmium bubbles leans more towards disruptions than simple inertness. Burning aluminum with Allomancy is odd too. Is the disintegration of aluminum through burning not, in its way, Investiture working upon it?

Another Word worries me. That aluminum doesn’t always completely inhibit different magics. Makes understanding it well harder.

Anyway, those examples of aluminum encroach, I feel, on the functions of a different metal. Silver. Silver is based on disruption, interfering with Investiture around it in a way that is not ‘blocking,’ like with forms of Investiture sense. It’s like… Silver is external, Aluminum internal.

Granted, Speed Bubbles could make sense, if one sees their function as slowing/speeding every individual inside, instead of warping spacetime directly, but I do not think that is the case. Actually, it works either way. Aluminum’s presence and effect on space counteracts it. But that’s all not important.

There is a question of whether things like aluminumminds and filled Hemalurgic aluminum exist, or whether a Feruchemist utilizing aluminum cannot actually store Identity. Instead Feruchemists would use aluminum as a key for their Feruchemy to begin the Identity storing process, wherein the filling of aluminum fails.

Hemalurgic aluminum would work similarly. Aluminum would act as a key such that Ruin’s power knows to remove a power, whereupon it could not place that power in the aluminum if it wanted to. Resulting in removal.

On the binding of pure-Investiture beings to planetary bodies. WAT stuff below.

Beings of pure Investiture, such as Spren or Cognitive Shadows, often find themselves ‘stuck’ on planets. This can happen for a variety of reasons, by my reckoning.

First, in Wind and Truth, the contract which bound the Shards to the Rosharan system also applies to beings of their component energies, such as the Spren. This agreement prevented all movement from the system, such that a Radiant wishing to leave would break their bond to their spren in the process of doing so.

However, the breaking of this pact would not allow for spren to leave freely inherently. Why? Because their Shards would still be Invested in the Rosharan system. The source of their Invested form tied spiritually to a physical area.

However, Investiture beings with physical bodies, like Returned or the Heralds (debatable on Heralds. They have physical bodies, but derived completely from Investiture. I’d lean towards yes, but perhaps not. Their existence being hinged entirely to Honor’s transformation of them mighty affect this) would be able to leave freely, as their Investiture is tied a physical medium, free to move. Kelsier’s difficulty in leaving Scadrial causes issues with this interpretation, of such an issue still exists while is soul is spiked into a physical body.

Without the Shard which comprised their essence Invested on a planet, pure-Investiture beings face no restrictions. This would apply to Spren at the end of Wind and Truth, as well as the Seons and Skaze. (Devotion and Dominion are no longer Invested on Sel, if they ever were. Their infinite essence has been shoved into Sel’s Cognitive Realm.)

Saw a posts. Relates to my understanding of Metallic Arts.

Y’know how Ruin and Preservation see Metal as bright lights? And that other Shards don’t seem to have this limitation? (Kelsier as a Shadow also sees Metal as light, for reasons I am uncertain on, possibly relating to being comprised of/made by those Shards.)

Anyway. The thought being that Ruin and Preservation see metal as light because they power Hemalurgy and Allomancy. Instead of metal, they see a gateway between realms, of a sorts. A medium by which their powers can flow through the Spiritual Realm and enact changes in the Physical. It’s not an active thing, specifically, buts it’s how the powers as infinite entities see metal and thus how the Vessels see metal.

Another note. Y’know how the metals of Allomancy are keys to what powers an Allomancer draws from Preservation? The same happens for Hemalurgy. Use steel, and Ruin’s power knows to rip off Physical Allomantic powers. Use iron, steal physical strength. Use aluminum, and Ruin knows to destroy.

Note: given the language on the Hemalurgy Chart, Aluminum would still only remove a single power, just as all other metals would only steal a single power. All depends on the bindpoint you hit.

Note 2: Or maybe not. It’s a comparison between “Steals ______ powers” for most of the mundane, “Steal any power” for Atium, and “Removes all powers” for Aluminum. I would say Aluminum still only removes a single power, as the Mundane metals are worded as if they would steal all powers of a category, but only steal one power within that category.

Savantism, how do I see it?

Constant input of power damages the soul, and increases the strength of the ability causing that input of power. Like working a muscle so much that it negatively impacts those around it. Or the roots of a tree growing through concrete, consequently cracking it with that growth (and to a greater extent than that growth).

Yes, cracks in the soul allow for Investiture to more easily enter, we see that in Nahel Bonds and Snapping, but I do not think spiritual damage is what causes a power’s increased strength inherently.

Imagine a Pewterarm. He goes and becomes a Savant. That influx of power warps the soul, making his Pewter burning stronger and more efficient, but damaging other spiritual aspects as a consequence. Most likely to be aspects related to Pewter’s function, as we see in Tin Savantism. Such as balance, sense of pain, and strength.

preface: conjecture.

feruchemical nicrosil is weird. unsealed metalminds have permanently stored powers which are temporarily loaned and returned, unlike the function of other metalminds whose traits die out with use. (The Bands of Mourning do end up drained [funny, that a singular object can be referred to in plurality] but we don’t know how that occurred.)

The only metals which behave similarly are copper and bendalloy. Memories are lost permanently and not regained, calories also. This could be explained by the fact that they are not spiritually-tied traits, able to be restored once done storing, due to the spiritual ideal or some other explanation. (restored is not a good term. return to standard function once Feruchemy stops skimming its work off the top?) Investiture of multiple kinds can interact with memories, like Breath, but whether it’s tied more to Spiritual or Cognitive aspects is unknown. Most likely Cognitive, I’d say.

Bendalloy and calories/water differs from the spiritual-trait norm through the transience of those properties, I’d say. Uncertain how satiation is identified in the spirit, and how it interacts.

for other metals, traits would be taken from the Spiritual aspect/Spiritweb. Hemalurgy functions through the stealing of parts of the Spiritweb, and is able to take traits such as strength, senses, intelligence… memory, so those traits would be spiritually-tied.

It’s uncertain whether memory refers to the ability to remember, or actual memories. If the latter, then memories would be storied in the Spiritweb, in some fashion.

if the latter was the case, why would Feruchemy permanently store memories? It could be that the Spiritual Ideal simply cannot recreate memories, being not permanent and those not tied with the Ideal.

so, nicrosil. If it was to follow the pattern most other metals follow, would diminish the power of an Innate Investiture, which could recover once done storing. When tapping, it would improve the power, temporarily, of that Innate Investiture.

Unsealed Metalminds, however, do not follow this, and are noted to function differently, ‘more restricted,’ than how a natural-born Soulbearer would work.

There’s not answer to be found without guesswork, but the whole point of forums, to be, is to share guesswork. Improve it for later use.

That’d be that Excisors extract an Innate Investiture from a donor, to be placed in an Unsealed Metalmind, wherein it can spiritually connect with others to lend them its power. Would be why creating Medallions with multiple powers is unreliable, due to Identity conflicts. Same with using multiple at once. Nicrosil would facilitate the drawing and returning of that power. (Would the restriction being not lending the abilities of a Soulbearer to the Medallion user, where they can’t create a new metalmind with their own abilities? Uncertain, but I do not believe such a possibility has been mentioned.)

Of course, a Soulbearer Ferring’s power could be to permanently store a trait. (Make Twinborn much weaker, but Compounders stronger.) However, I’d find that option incongruent with the function of the other metals. Why would an Allomantic ability be lost when stored, but strength not?

preface: everything i say here is quite likely to be totally wrong, and most of it is supposition, anyway.

something something the process called ‘Awakening’ that we see in the novel ‘Warbreaker’ is not a true ‘Manifestation of Investiture’ (or MoI) by my reckoning.

first, what do i mean when saying ‘Manifestation of Investiture’? what i mean is ‘a use of Investiture spawned by a Shard Investing a planet.’ that’s not the proper definition, of course, but it’s what i’m working with. why do i say this? first, let me describe the necessary pieces of Awakening, as i understand them.

1. Breath. notable for being an Innate Investiture—not just Raw. this was a pretty big realization. the state Drabs exist in imply that Breath serves a function in the working of the soul. hence, it must be Innate—that detaches easily from the soul when Commanded. (able to be Commanded in such a way, too) this easy detachment could be attributed to the Intent of Endowment. however, they could also be properties specially instilled into them, and not specifically ‘natural.’ (i would classify Breaths, then, as a unique MoI.)

2. Command. combined with Intent to make Breath move into an object and create a pseudo-living construct with a soul. (an Awakened object.) Commands are a general principle used in the directing of Investiture, and not a phenomenon unique to Awakening.

3. Color. Awakening needs color as a fuel source for some godforsaken reason. less color requires more Breath to be expended when Awakening, so it’s probably just for extra raw power. both color’s necessity in Awakening and relation to Breath as a whole casts significant doubt into my interpretations, but that could also be a property of Breath, alone.

properties seen in objects Awakened with Breath, its living state and such, would be derived from the properties of Breath, and not strictly a grander function through a MoI. Breath would achieve this function of life through its properties of Innate Investiture, being pre-configured for creating souls, in a way.

in my mind, the ‘Awakening’ present in Warbreaker is the result of truly universal phenomena arising in conditions designed to suit it perfectly.

Investiture suited to form a soul. a Command for it to follow. an object to inhabit. maybe a little extra fuel for oomph. Awakening.

for example. steal a bit of a Scadrian’s Innate Investiture. remove any special functions like allomancy. just Investiture from a Spiritweb. give it a Command, let it inhabit something, an Awakened object is born.

of course, if Breath’s properties extend beyond what i think they do, this interpretation falters. and, while i find it very like that Warbreaker’s author intended Awakening to be a Nalthis-Breath specialty, that is not how i find it. there are probably words which also kill this understanding, but i’ll reject those realities as they appear to preserve my own fragile worldview.

edit—the crux of understanding is the worm of though burrowing in constant through the brain: however, the other option is this: Breath is a specialized Innate Investiture, like Allomancy or Feruchemy, formatted so it can detach at Command and forms souls on its own real well, as well as draws in color. hesitant to fully embrace either one without further data.

i’m gonna be honest, boys, i ain’t cut out for this life. only scholarship i got is supposition.