Author Topic: Allomancy: full powers of metals (spoilers)  (Read 4129 times)

ulysses sword

  • Level 2
  • **
  • Posts: 29
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Allomancy: full powers of metals (spoilers)
« on: July 27, 2011, 04:29:03 AM »
The allomantic powers seem to have both primary and secondary, supporting powers.  I'm trying to put together all of them here, to get a better understanding of the magic system.  Here''s what I have so far: 

Iron: Pulls metals, also allows you to see them
Steel: Pushes metals, also allows you to see them, gives skill in itself? (Zane?)
Tin: Enhances senses, also allows you to see through the mists clearer, and better at interpreting them (eg. telling locations by heartbeat, lip reading)
Pewter: Enhances strength, also speed, endurance, toughness, healing, drug resistance, and coordination.  Inability to feel pain or fatigue.
Zinc: Heighten emotions of others
Brass: Dampen emotions of others
Copper: Hide Allomancy, also immunity to Zinc and Brass
Bronze: Find Allomancy, also where, and what kind, and amount of reserves remaining.
Gold: see alternate version of self (different choices)
Electrum: ? also counteracts Atium.
Atium: see the future, also understand what to do about it.

I didn't find enough information about any of the others to give a good idea.  So, what should I add, and what shouldn't be here?
« Last Edit: July 27, 2011, 06:13:50 AM by ulysses sword »

Morderkaine

  • Level 3
  • ***
  • Posts: 49
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: Allomancy: full powers of metals (spoilers)
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2011, 04:39:45 AM »
The reason Zane was so skilled/powerful with steel is because he was hemalurgically spiked.

Also check out the Table of Allomantic Metals released a couple years ago. It has the complete allomantic effects of all sixteen regular metals plus the two God Metals, as known in-world, a few centuries after the events of HoA. (ie. around the time of the second trilogy)
« Last Edit: July 27, 2011, 04:53:12 AM by Morderkaine »

whynaut

  • Level 1
  • *
  • Posts: 7
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: Allomancy: full powers of metals (spoilers)
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2011, 05:10:48 AM »
on't forget that Iron and Steel also allow you to "see" metals as a blue line of energy.  Usually this is used to locate metals you are pushing or pulling, but Inquisitors use it to see by detecting the trace amounts of metals found in all things.

ulysses sword

  • Level 2
  • **
  • Posts: 29
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: Allomancy: full powers of metals (spoilers)
« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2011, 06:29:48 AM »
The reason Zane was so skilled/powerful with steel is because he was hemalurgically spiked.

Also check out the Table of Allomantic Metals released a couple years ago. It has the complete allomantic effects of all sixteen regular metals plus the two God Metals, as known in-world, a few centuries after the events of HoA. (ie. around the time of the second trilogy)

Zane being more skilled at steelpushing is the reason that I put skill as a secondary power of Steel.  The difficulty of turning while hovering wasn't the amount of strength available, it was the precision required.  I saw this as a unique ability of Zane's because he had twice the Steel ability of anyone else (except for Inquisitors).  It would also help explain how Marsh became adept at it with so little time for practice. EDIT: another question, why do Inquisitors see out of their "eyes", instead of out of the middle of their chests?

The Table of Allomantic Metals is a good starting point, but it gives very incomplete descriptions of the metals' powers.  For example, the description of Copper does not mention that it blocks Soothing and Rioting, Pewter does not mention fatigue or coordination, and Tin does not mention seeing through Mist (to use only the most strongly supported examples).
« Last Edit: July 27, 2011, 09:49:52 PM by ulysses sword »

happyman

  • Level 17
  • *
  • Posts: 828
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: Allomancy: full powers of metals (spoilers)
« Reply #4 on: July 29, 2011, 07:16:48 PM »
EDIT: another question, why do Inquisitors see out of their "eyes", instead of out of the middle of their chests?

Regular Allomancers "see" the lines as coming out of the center of their chest, but they "see" them with their eyes.  Inquisitors were human once; they probably perceive it the same way.

I use the word "see" in quotes because I believe that it is really an extra sense unique to Scadriel, not related to the twenty-odd ones we normally use in the real world.  That Inquisitors "see" using them is more an analogy than anything else, or perhaps force of habit from when they didn't have their metal-sense.
Nature hates being reified.

ulysses sword

  • Level 2
  • **
  • Posts: 29
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: Allomancy: full powers of metals (spoilers)
« Reply #5 on: July 29, 2011, 08:34:42 PM »
Regular Allomancers "see" the lines as coming out of the center of their chest, but they "see" them with their eyes.  Inquisitors were human once; they probably perceive it the same way.

So the blue lines always come out of your chest, and you perceive them from the perspective of where your eyes are?  That would actually fit quite well.  (Now I want someone who was born blind to Snap into a Lurcher or a Coinshot, so they don't have preconceptions)

Some more powers that I found/remembered:

Brass/Zinc: control Hemalurgic creations
Bronze (with Duralumin): Know exactly what is being done with Allomancy. (Vin hearing Breeze Soothing Elend)

and some more questions:

Electrum: can you use it to find out your capabilities?  For example, if you run at a gap between two buildings while burning Electrum, would you see all of your shadows fall into the alley if the gap was too wide for you to jump?  This would allow you to stop running in time.  If it could be used this way, then it could be useful for seeing where you will land with a steel jump.

Brass/Zinc: can they be used to control only Hemalurgic creations (Inquisitors, Koloss, and Kandra), or anyone with a spike?  It would definitely be more difficult the fewer spikes are in someone/something, but is it possible?

happyman

  • Level 17
  • *
  • Posts: 828
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: Allomancy: full powers of metals (spoilers)
« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2011, 10:33:02 PM »
Electrum: can you use it to find out your capabilities?  For example, if you run at a gap between two buildings while burning Electrum, would you see all of your shadows fall into the alley if the gap was too wide for you to jump?  This would allow you to stop running in time.  If it could be used this way, then it could be useful for seeing where you will land with a steel jump.

I like this idea.  I would say, though, that this probably has the caveat that it can only tell you what you are capable of if you are likely to consider the idea in the first place.  That is, if it involves you using Allomancy in a way you don't know about and which you aren't likely to discover in a few seconds, you won't see it, even if it is possible.
Nature hates being reified.

ulysses sword

  • Level 2
  • **
  • Posts: 29
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: Allomancy: full powers of metals (spoilers)
« Reply #7 on: July 30, 2011, 04:02:11 AM »
Atium: Corrects for its own effects, except against Atium, Electrum, and conscious thought. (how Vin defeated Zane)

If it didn't do this, it would not be nearly as powerful as it is portrayed.  Dodging by inches only works if they don't change their swing to hit again, as a second or two is plenty of time for a subconscious correction.

happyman

  • Level 17
  • *
  • Posts: 828
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: Allomancy: full powers of metals (spoilers)
« Reply #8 on: August 01, 2011, 02:38:22 PM »
Atium: Corrects for its own effects, except against Atium, Electrum, and conscious thought. (how Vin defeated Zane)

If it didn't do this, it would not be nearly as powerful as it is portrayed.  Dodging by inches only works if they don't change their swing to hit again, as a second or two is plenty of time for a subconscious correction.

Remember that Atium is explicitly stated to enhance the mind to use the extra information.  Presumably recognizing which, out of all the shadows, will actually miss you after all the corrections is part of your ability to process the information from the Atium shadows.

Incidentally, the fact that Atium did things in two different quadrants should have been a hint that it was special from the first introduction.  Not that I realized that.  Just didn't know enough yet, I guess.
Nature hates being reified.

ulysses sword

  • Level 2
  • **
  • Posts: 29
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: Allomancy: full powers of metals (spoilers)
« Reply #9 on: August 05, 2011, 06:45:43 AM »
Iron and Steel lines are obstructed by wood (p132, FE paperback).  I had always assumed that it was purely a function of distance and size, but I guess not.

Sir_Read-a-Lot

  • Level 2
  • **
  • Posts: 30
  • Fell Points: 0
  • This isn't just any text - This is Personal!
    • View Profile
Re: Allomancy: full powers of metals (spoilers)
« Reply #10 on: August 06, 2011, 12:04:17 AM »
Iron and Steel lines are obstructed by wood (p132, FE paperback).  I had always assumed that it was purely a function of distance and size, but I guess not.

I think I always imagined it like magnetism.
“Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.”  - Alice in Wonderland