Allomancy

Allomancy
by Isaac Stewart
Related to	Preservation
Prerequisites	Genetic ability, Snapping
Type	End-Positive
World of Origin	Scadrial
Universe	Cosmere

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“Allomancy is brutal, raw, and powerful ”

—Khriss in "On the Three Metallic Arts"

Allomancy is the most widely used form of Investiture on Scadrial, and is locally known as one of the three Metallic Arts. People who have one or more Allomantic abilities are called Allomancers with each Allomantic power being paired with a type of metal, which must be ingested and "burned" to activate.

Mechanics

“Allomancy, obviously, is of Preservation. The rational mind will see this. For, in the case of Allomancy, net power is gained. It is provided by an external source--Preservation's own body. ”

—Harmony on Allomancy

by Manuel Castañón

Vin pushing on coins with the Allomantic power of steel

Allomancy is an End-Positive magic system, which draws on the power of Preservation, channeled through a metal when it is burned. This differs to how Feruchemy works, as Allomancy is not being powered by the body of the Allomancer, but instead by an external force. Like the other Metallic Arts, Allomancy as a magic system formed through the natural interactions between the two Shards that inhabit Scadrial, Preservation and Ruin, and the planet itself, instead of being created by a specific Shard. This magic system, however, is generally tailored and fuelled by Preservation, although specific cases will involve an Allomancer drawing upon Ruin's essence instead. Like other forms of Investiture, Allomancy does not necessarily reflect the intent of the Shard which it is associated with.

Allomantic metals are the focus, but not the source, of Allomancy's power. When an Allomancer burns a metal, that metal's specific molecular structure acts as a conduit to Preservation, and then the Allomancer is granted an ability corresponding to the metal, allowing the metal to "focus" Preservation's power to the user. Each metal is the only way a mortal can access Preservation and the power of creation, after which it is vaporized. However, this is only true for the base sixteen Allomantic metals and not God Metals or their alloys.

Allomancers feel a reserve of power in their stomach when they have ingested a metal they can burn. The metals are usually ingested by drinking specifically prepared metal vials, which contain metal flakes suspended in an alcohol solution or other such liquid, e.g. cod oil. While swallowing metal is the most common way of getting metal into the body, other ways such as injecting or snorting will also work. When using their powers, many Allomancers describe a warm feeling in the stomach, hence the term "burning metal". An Allomancer can also burn their metals at an accelerated rate, which is called "flaring." Flaring grants more power, but the reserve of metals depletes much faster, too. Allomancers can burn metals from any planet in the cosmere. This is due to the presence of Preservation in the Spiritual Realm.

Allomancers can suffer side-effects from leaving metal in their bodies for too long, and they normally burn their remaining ingested metals before sleeping to avoid this. Despite this, due to their physiology, Allomancers are generally immune to metal poisoning. They are not immune to metal allergies, however.

Advanced Allomancy can be combined with Feruchemy to gain faster-than-light travel. It is possible to use Allomancy in the Cognitive Realm.

Burning metals containing BioChromatic Breath has no effect on the Allomancy, although if the Breath belongs to the Allomancer it will be regained. If an Allomancer burns an Invested metal which is Allomantically inert, it will not have any special effect apart from possibly killing the Allomancer. Allomancers will still feel a reserve of power in their stomach from badly mixed alloys, and burning them will make them sick, giving them a blinding headache.

Gaining Allomantic Abilities

Allomancy is a spiritually hereditary trait, that does not follow the same principles of dominant and recessive physical genetics. Scadrians with mixed skaa-noble heritage generally must have a noble in the previous five generations in order to be born an Allomancer. The ability lays dormant until an Allomancer undergoes Snapping, which will activate their Allomantic abilities. The abilities can be used instinctually, including while unconscious, once awakened if the user is to ingest the correct type of metal, though training is required to use these powers well. Snapping does not affect the chances of having an Allomancer child. Twins are more likely to have the same metal, especially if they are identical instead of fraternal.

It is possible to gain Allomancy through the use of Hemalurgic spikes where the spiritual DNA associated with Allomancy is transferred from one soul to another. If an Allomancer attempts to burn a Hemalurgic spike, the Allomancer's spiritual DNA will be spliced to that of the person's contained in the spike. The consequences of this are as of yet unknown.

Additionally, consuming a bead of lerasium will hardcode Allomancy into a person's spiritweb and grant them Allomantic abilities. The size of the bead that is consumed is proportional to the strength of their Allomancy.

Snapping

In the Final Empire, children of confirmed noble bloodlines often undergo a planned beating as a test to see if they Snap, as Snapping commonly occurs when a Misting or Mistborn undergoes heavy stress and pain, often in a near-death situation, causing them to trigger latent Allomantic abilities.

According to Realmatic Theory, this creates a crack on the soul which the power can fit into. There are some similarities on this to other magic systems, such as the Knights Radiant all being "broken" as indicated by Syl.

It was possible for Allomancers to Snap from intense positive emotion, but this is much less common. It is also possible to Snap from false emotions, caused by Soothing and Rioting. It was said that the more powerful the Allomancer, the more intense the trauma had to be to Snap.

After the Final Ascension, Harmony changed the way Snapping operated, but it is unknown how it was altered. After an Allomancer has Snapped, they will have access to their full power, and do not have to build to reach their full potential such as with Surgebinding.

Mist Sickness

In the run up to the Catacendre, however, the mists cause sickness in people, triggering their own Snapping; this process is started by Preservation, but is manipulated by Ruin into killing people, thus raising superstitions about the mists being dangerous.

The length a person has "mist sickness" relates to their Allomantic powers and abilities. The most powerful atium mistings are sick for the longest time.

During the time the mists are Snapping people in The Hero of Ages, they also raise the Allomantic potential of the people they Snap so that exactly 16% are Snapped. The number is a hint left by Preservation for humans to understand.

Savantism

Allomancers who flare their metal intensely for extended periods of time may be physiologically altered by the constant influx of Allomantic power. These people are known as Allomantic savants. These people experience heightened ability with, and heightened dependence upon, whatever metal they are burning in such a manner. Under most circumstances, this was considered irreversibly damaging.

Types of Allomancers

“Never try to burn a metal that isn't one of the ten. I warned you that impure metals and alloys can make you sick. Well, if you try to burn a metal that isn't Allomantically sound at all, it could be deadly. ”

—Kelsier to Vin

Allomancers are categorized based on if they can burn a single metal, Misting, or if they can burn all metals, Mistborn, with Hemalurgy being the only known way to access a combination powers that falls outside of this categorizations structure. Each type of Misting was given a particular name depending on their ability, such as Lurcher, Coinshot, or Soother. An Allomancer's lineage does not usually play a factor in which kind of Misting they are.

Throughout the ages, the strength of an Allomancer has slowly decreased, weakening a bit with each generation. This dilution of power eventually caps and cannot decrease any further; there was no apparent power dilution between Era 1 and Era 2, and it was confirmed that the dilution has completely capped by Era 3. People who use lerasium can gain the strength of ancient, powerful Allomancers.

Twinborn and Compounders

After the Final Empire, Terris and those of noble descent began to interbreed, so it became possible for their descendants to have one Allomantic ability and one Feruchemical ability. People with such powers were called Twinborn. Like Mistings, Twinborn were each given a name depending on their specific combination of abilities. The interaction between the two abilities creates a new, secondary effect, known as a Resonance.

A Compounder is a special type of Twinborn--a person who uses the same metal for both their Allomantic and Feruchemical abilities. A Compounder can Allomantically burn their Feruchemically charged metalmind, gaining a massive burst of the stored Feruchemical attribute. Compounders were considered immensely powerful. Though the term "Compounding" first appeared in Scadrian vocabulary after the Final Empire, perhaps the most famous Compounder was the Lord Ruler himself--by constantly Compounding atium, pewter, and gold, he was eternally young, supernaturally strong, and basically unkillable.

Allomantic Metals

The following is the modern Table of Allomantic Metals, from some point after the Catacendre.

Table of Allomantic Metals
PHYSICAL	Pushing	Pulling		Pulling	Pushing	MENTAL
External	Steel (Coinshot) Pushes on Nearby Metals	Iron (Lurcher) Pulls on Nearby Metals		Zinc (Rioter) Enflames (riots) Emotions	Brass (Soother) Dampens (soothes) Emotions	External
Internal	Pewter (Thug) Increases Physical Abilities	Tin (Tineye) Increases Senses		Copper (Smoker) Hide Allomantic Pulses	Bronze (Seeker) Can Hear Allomantic Pulses	Internal
Internal	Duralumin (Duralumin Gnat) Enhances Current Metal Burned	Aluminum (Aluminum Gnat) Wipes Internal Allomantic Reserves	Gold (Augur) Reveals Your Past Self	Electrum (Oracle) Reveals Your Future	Internal
External	Nicrosil (Nicroburst) Enhances Allomantic Burn of Target	Chromium (Leecher) Wipes Allomantic Reserves of Target	Cadmium (Pulser) Slows Down Time	Bendalloy (Slider) Speeds Up Time	External
ENHANCEMENT	Pushing	Pulling	Pulling	Pushing	TEMPORAL

“There are two metals for every power. One Pushes, one Pulls--the second is usually an alloy of the first. For emotions--the external mental powers--you Pull with zinc and Push with brass. You just used pewter to Push your body. That's one of the internal physical powers. ”

—Kelsier to Vin.

For more information, see the individual pages for each metal.

by Hunter Bonyun

Vin as Preservation fuelling Elend's Allomancy

There are sixteen basic Allomantic metals. The metals come in pairs: one metal is a periodic element, while the other is the alloy of that base metal. These pairs have complementary effects. Iron Pulls on nearby metals, while its alloy, steel, Pushes on metals. Similarly, each elemental metal is classified as a "Pulling" ability, whereas each alloy is classified as a "Pushing" ability. The purity of the metal corresponds to its effectiveness and alloys require precise compound percentages for maximum power. Burning an impure alloy may cause sickness, while metals that are not Allomantically viable cannot be burned after being ingested.

In addition to Pulling and Pushing classifications, there are external and internal metals. External powers influence things outside an Allomancer's body, while internal powers influence the Allomancer. This naturally divides the sixteen Allomantic metals into four groups of four metals each: physical, mental, temporal, and enhancement powers. Each quadrant has a metal and alloy pair of an external power, and another pair of internal powers.

The Allomantic effects of metals are most similar to the effects of fabrials on Roshar. Steel and Iron also have corresponding effects in how they affect Aether, whether other allomantic metals also have effects or not is currently unknown.

God Metals

God Metals do not fit in the modern Allomantic Table, and Scadrians appear to only know of the metals that correspond to the Scadrian Shards; lerasium, atium, and harmonium, the last of which could only be burned theoretically, as it explodes upon contact with liquids. Unlike the standard Allomantic metals, which are regular metal elements and compounds, God Metals are a condensed, solid form of pure Investiture. Alloys of God Metals can lead to additional abilities.

God Metals
Metal	Shard	Effect
Atium	Ruin	Reveals other's future
Pure Atium	Ruin	Gives an expanded vision of the future
Malatium	Ruin	See into another person's past
Atium Alloys	Ruin	Various expanded mental and temporal effects
Lerasium	Preservation	Turns one into a Mistborn or increases one's Allomantic power
Lerasium Alloys	Preservation	Creation of Mistings, various expanded physical and enhancement effects
Harmonium	Harmony	Unknown
Trellium	Autonomy	Unknown
Raysium	Odium	Unknown

History

At some point, Preservation altered Allomancy to insert Ruin's God Metal, atium, instead of one of the other metals in order to execute his plan to defeat Ruin using atium Mistings. The Shard's plan eventually came to fruition during the Battle of Hathsin when Elend's army consumed a large proportion of the existing atium, preventing Ruin from accessing his full power.

Prior to the Ascension of the Lord Ruler, Allomancy was rarely found among the general population. The Lord Ruler's Ascension, and his subsequent distribution of the lerasium beads, increased the strength of the Allomantic spiritual DNA in the Final Empire, which had long lasting effects through the subsequent generations. Rashek, and his Steel Ministry, also suppressed knowledge of several of the Allomantic metals, so that only the four physical, four mental, gold, and atium, were known of by the general populace. Malatium became known through legend as The Eleventh Metal, a rumor that may have been started by Ruin to help facilitate the downfall of the Lord Ruler. Prior to its destruction, atium and malatium were incorrectly classified as temporal metals instead of God Metals by The Lord Ruler and his government.

Following the Final Ascension, Harmony altered Snapping to act differently. The Allomantic Table also changed at this time to remove Ruin's metals, with advances in technology also making cadmium, bendalloy, chromium, and nicrosil more available.

Notable Allomancers

For more information, see :Category:Allomancers.

• Vin
• Elend Venture
• Kelsier
• Marsh
• Waxillium Ladrian
• Hoid
• Spook
• Rashek
• Edgard Ladrian
• Ham
• Wayne
• Marasi Colms
• Clubs
• Allrianne Cett
• Miles Dagouter
• Gemmel
• Zane
• Straff Venture
• Ranette
• Demoux
• Jak

Development

Allomancy was present in the original version of Mistborn (now known as Mistborn Prime). In that version, Allomancy only had Mistborn and no Mistings. Mistborn Prime was never published, and Brandon later repurposed its good ideas into Mistborn: The Final Empire. To give this new Mistborn book a heist novel feel, Brandon added Mistings, so that he could have a team of specialists with their own unique strengths.

The metals themselves changed over time. Brandon had been misled by employees of a hobby shop in his childhood that pewter was an alloy of silver, so in the original draft of Mistborn, silver and pewter were paired, and he named silver Mistings Silvereyes. When he realized the factual error, he was forced to change it to tin and Tineye. Brandon always thought Silvereye sounded much "slicker" than Tineye. And so silver just happened to not have any Allomantic effect in the final form of Allomancy.

After the original trilogy and Brandon's reveal that atium and malatium did not belong on the true Table of Allomantic Metals, Brandon chose the true external temporal metal to be cadmium, as it was particularly dangerous and hard to acquire, so it made sense that only Scadrians with the technology after the Final Ascension could discover it. Brandon originally had cadmium's alloy named cerrobend, but that name happened to be trademarked, so Brandon was forced to change it to the generic word, bendalloy. The error was present on an early version of the Table of Allomantic Metals.

External links

• Mistborn Adventure Game (Crafty Games)
• Allomantic Metals Poster

Notes

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