Hey, this is my first post, but I’ve hung around the forums for a while. I thought for a while about how other forms of Compounding -other ones than Allomantically powering Feruchemy- and I came up with a few ideas that made a lot of sense to me - I also created it, so it might sound completely ludicrous to someone else - and I decided to make this theory about them. I apologize for the length of this post in advance.
So I worked off of 5 basic conjectures. I will explain them more fully and their implications later, but here they are:
Each Metallic Art has specific benefits and disadvantages to using it.
Compounding doesn’t change the output of the magic, only the form in which it comes. Compounding gains Both the disadvantages and the benefits of the transit magic system. Compounding is done by beginning one magic system, then, before completing it, beginning a second system, then utilizing the Investiture. Both magic systems must be able to be used by the initiator and the utilizer of the power (who are the same person until you add Hemalurgy in to it).
First: Each Metallic Art has specific benefits and disadvantages to using it. This is kind of obvious, but is important later on, so I thought I’d point out the specific qualities that distinguish them.
Allomancy - Benefits: Allomancy is end-positive. You gain power in the process.
- Disadvantages: Allomancy consumes the metal uses.
Feruchemy - Benefits: Feruchemy allows you to store an attribute until you need it. You can also tap it at a much higher rate than you stored it.
- Disadvantages: You can only tap as much as you store.
Hemalurgy - Benefits: Hemalurgy can steal attributes, or in other words, grant something to you that you didn’t have originally.
- Disadvantages: Being end-negative, Hemalurgy has a lot of these. You have to spike someone; you have to stab yourself; you lose power due to Hemalurgic decay; you have to know the bind points or its useless.
Second: Compounding does not change the power output, only the form. In other words, if you begin with Feruchemy, you will end with Feruchemical power, though it might be in a different form (Allomantic, Hemalurgic). This is basically saying, “If you store Speed and burn your metalmind, you’re still going to be getting Speed out of it, not Steelpushing. However, it will be released in a burst of power, as you are working with Allomancy.”
Third: Compounding gains Both the disadvantages and the benefits of the transit magic system. Transit here refers to the second one you do, the one you are compounding with. This explains why you would Compound. Allomantically powering Feruchemy (the kind in Alloy of Law) gains the benefit of Allomancy (a boost in power) and its disadvantage (the metalmind is consumed in the process). The reverse, Feruchemically powering Allomancy, would come out in Allomantic powers, but you would be able to store it and then tap it much faster than normal, so you would be able to boost your Allomancy without duralumin.
Fourth: Compounding is done by beginning one magic system, then, before completing it, beginning a second system, then utilizing the Investiture. So, in Alloy of Law compounding, they begin Feruchemy, storing an attribute, but before “completing” it by tapping the power, they begin Allomancy by burning the metalmind, then utilize the power automatically because it is Allomancy. Feruchemically powering Allomancy would be begun by Allomantically burning a metal, and then storing the power in a metalmind. They could then tap it to utilize the stored coppercloud or whatever.
Fifth and Finally: Both magic systems must be able to be used by the initiator and the utilizer of the power (who are the same person until you add Hemalurgy in to it). So the Compounders in Alloy of Law must be both a misting and a ferring in their metal. The same is true for Feruchemically powering Allomancy.
So here are the six kinds of Compounding and how they should work according to the above ideas.
1. Allomantically powering Feruchemy -> Store attribute, burn metalmind, gain powers!
- Gains Benefits of Extra Investiture
- Also consumes metalmind
- Must be a Twinborn for the same metal.
2. Feruchemically powering Allomancy -> Burn metal, somehow store power in a metalmind, tap to use.
- You can tap without the need to burn a metal. You can also tap it at an increased rate, so you don’t need duralumin.
- However, you do have to burn all this metal sometime. You don’t get free power.
- Must be Twinborn for the same metal
3. Allomantically powering Hemalurgy -> Spike someone, burn spike, gain power!
- Major Boost in Hemalurgic quality stolen
- Consumes Spike so you can’t have the ability forever, just until it runs out. Now you have to go spike someone else.
- Must be Misting of metal Spike is made of
4. Feruchemically powering Hemalurgy -> Spike someone, store power from spike, tap from metalmind to use.
- You can tap it without the need to have a spike in yourself. (I’m not sure if you have to stab the spike in yourself and gain the power first, or if you can store it from the spike itself.)
- You might (IDK) be able to tap without running out, but you might only have a limited amount of power in a Spike you can store. If you do have to stab yourself, then if the spike is in somewhere vital, removing or even possibly by storing away the energy might kill you (You have a big hole stabbed in you by a chunk of metal without Shardic power to keep you alive).
- You have to be a ferring of the spike metal.
5. Hemalurgically powering Feruchemy -> Store attribute in metalmind, stab someone with your metalmind (you might want to use a pointy one) and they can tap it (?) for the attribute.
- Someone else can use the attribute you stored. So your good Bloodmaker buddy is slowly dying, and you (a Bloodmaker) store some health by being miserable for a while, stab him with the metalmind, and then he taps it, healing from what seemed certain death.
- You need to both be the same kind of Ferring.
- You don’t get anything out of the time you spent weak or sick or blind.You also have to know bind points for this, which are probably pretty obscure.
6. Hemalurgically powering Allomancy -> You burn a metal, somehow storing it in a spike, then give it to someone else, who then gets the Allomantic power for however long you burnt the metal.
- Someone else can not burn metal and have a massive amount of power in one spike.
- You have to spike people, know bindpoints, lose power, etc.
- I think you both have to be the same Misting.
