A use for Aluminum

[XJface]

A possible benefit to burning aluminum occurred to me the other day:  removal of toxic heavy metals.  If aluminum can affect metals in general, not just those that are Allomantically useful, then you could use it for that purpose. This could result, for example, in aluminum mistings being preferred for certain types of work where they are likely to be exposed to toxic metals, because they can just swallow and burn a bit of it every now and then to purge themselves.

Maybe in the Mistborn 2+ era they would have lower insurance premiums.

Thoughts?

[Kykeon]

Haha, I really like the way you're thinking! 
Not sure if this theory is plausible, but it is nice. 

[guy]

what happens to the purged metal once it has been burned out by aluminum? because if there is some way to utilize it afterwards, they will likely become smugglers in mistborn 2

[Shadmere]

That seems fairly unlikely, honestly.  At least without a lot of fairly obvious author fiats.  If aluminum took away toxic metals in your body, wouldn't it also take away things like the iron in your blood?

Now that I say that much, I realize that allomancy probably just works on metals you have in your stomach.  Metals in your bloodstream and cellular structure (iron, copper, silver, zinc, etc) would have to be unaffected, or you'd suffer a pretty bad case of Critical Existence Failure.  Iron is needed for for the blood to work, and copper and zinc are needed for a variety of other chemical reactions.

I guess it's possible that humans on Scadrial have a significantly different makeup. 

[Stormblessed]

Those metals in your blood would be too diluted to be affected. Those in your stomach are just sitting there in hugeish lumps (relative to the metal in the rest of your body). That's why its easy to target and remove them.

[Omelethead]

Those metals in your blood would be too diluted to be affected. Those in your stomach are just sitting there in hugeish lumps (relative to the metal in the rest of your body). That's why its easy to target and remove them.

But then that wouldn't help much if an Aluminum misting were working with toxic metals. The metals wouldn't be in lumps in their stomach, they'd be on their skin and then their blood.

Maybe aluminum just targets metals that are allomantic alloys. So iron or other trace metals in your bloodstream wouldn't be in allomantic form, and wouldn't be affected.

Course, hazardous metals in a workplace would be fairly unlikely to be in allomantic alloys, so that doesn't help much either.

[Stormblessed]

Yes I agree there. But maybe in the future people will invent allomancy science to target specific metals in the bloodstream. Same magic system, just a different and more advanced application. Like fabriels and stormlight-magic.

However, purely speculation and highly unlikely to occur.

[Morsker]

Someone asked Brandon about aluminum savants once, and apparently he laughed at it. This might be something an aluminum savant could learn though!

[Morderkaine]

Aluminum/Duralumin Gnats could also get a lot of good use out of burning their metals if they are also Feruchemic Mistings, depending of course on what the Feruchemical uses of Aluminum and Duralumin are.

[Fireborn]

Aluminum/Duralumin Gnats could also get a lot of good use out of burning their metals if they are also Feruchemic Mistings, depending of course on what the Feruchemical uses of Aluminum and Duralumin are.

But do we know that if you're both an Allomantic and Feruchemical Misting that the metal you use is automatically the same for both?  I don't think so, but it's a possibility.

[Morderkaine]

Aluminum/Duralumin Gnats could also get a lot of good use out of burning their metals if they are also Feruchemic Mistings, depending of course on what the Feruchemical uses of Aluminum and Duralumin are.

But do we know that if you're both an Allomantic and Feruchemical Misting that the metal you use is automatically the same for both?  I don't think so, but it's a possibility.

Yes, it is possible to be an Allomantic misting of one metal and a Feruchemical misting of another. I meant to say that it was assuming an single-metal dual-magic misting.

[Fireborn]

Okay, that makes sense, just clearing that up.

[guy]

i thought all of the feruchemists were gone, and even if they werent, all feruchemists can use all metals, i dont think there are feruchemist mistings

[douglas]

Shortly after Hero of Ages was released, Brandon revealed in a Q&A thread (which is apparently no longer stickied) here that, while pretty much all actual feruchemists were killed by the Steel Inquisitors in Hero of Ages, feruchemy remained in the Terris bloodlines.  The death of all those feruchemists plus interbreeding with other peoples diluted the feruchemical heritage to the point where the abilities split and started producing feruchemical mistings.  Thus, by the time of the planned sequel trilogy several hundred years later, single-metal users would be common for both magic systems, and occasionally someone would have both allomantic and feruchemical ability, each with one metal.  If the metals happen to be the same, then that person would be able to pull off The Lord Ruler's trick with that particular metal.

[Stormblessed]

RIP Feruchemy (of the pure kind)

May we hope to see you again.