Difference between revisions of "Allomancy"
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==Basics and Types of Allomancers== |
==Basics and Types of Allomancers== |
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When a person is born with the hereditary Allomantic ability, they cannot burn metals until the Allomantic ability is awakened in them. The process of Allomancy being activated within a person is called [[Snapping]]. In the [[Final Empire]] era of Scadrial, Snapping required immense trauma. This was usually achieved in that age with an intense beating. It was possible for Allomancers to Snap from other intense emotion, like joy, but this was much more uncommon.{{cite}} It was said that the more powerful the Allomancer, the more intense the trauma had to be to Snap. However, after the [[Final Ascension]], [[Harmony]] changed the way Snapping operated, but it is unknown how it was altered.{{cite}} |
When a person is born with the hereditary Allomantic ability, they cannot burn metals until the Allomantic ability is awakened in them. The process of Allomancy being activated within a person is called [[Snapping]]. In the [[Final Empire]] era of Scadrial, Snapping required immense trauma. This was usually achieved in that age with an intense beating. It was possible for Allomancers to Snap from other intense emotion, like joy, but this was much more uncommon.{{cite}} It was said that the more powerful the Allomancer, the more intense the trauma had to be to Snap. However, after the [[Final Ascension]], [[Harmony]] changed the way Snapping operated, but it is unknown how it was altered.{{cite}} |
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==Allomantic Metals== |
==Allomantic Metals== |
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{{quote|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]].{{ref|b|mb1|c|7}}}} |
{{quote|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]].{{ref|b|mb1|c|7}}}} |
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Revision as of 04:12, 24 March 2013
| Allomancy | |
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| Related to | Preservation |
| Type | End-Positive |
| World of Origin | Scadrial |
“Allomancy is brutal, raw, and powerful.”
—From "On the Three Metallic Arts"Cite error: Invalid<ref>tag; refs with no name must have content
Allomancy is one of the three prime manifestations of Investiture on Scadrial.Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content Scadrians call it one of the three Metallic Arts. It is the most widespread of the Metallic Arts in the present day. People who have one or more Allomantic abilities are called Allomancers. Allomancy has many widespread effects, such as enhancing and dampening emotions, Pushing and Pulling on metals, and even temporal effects. Each Allomantic power has its own metal, which must be ingested and "burned" to activate.
Though Allomancy is hereditary, once Allomantic powers are awakened in a person, it is instinctual. All an Allomancer requires to use their power is enough of the correct metal.
Basics and Types of Allomancers
When a person is born with the hereditary Allomantic ability, they cannot burn metals until the Allomantic ability is awakened in them. The process of Allomancy being activated within a person is called Snapping. In the Final Empire era of Scadrial, Snapping required immense trauma. This was usually achieved in that age with an intense beating. It was possible for Allomancers to Snap from other intense emotion, like joy, but this was much more uncommon.[citation needed] It was said that the more powerful the Allomancer, the more intense the trauma had to be to Snap. However, after the Final Ascension, Harmony changed the way Snapping operated, but it is unknown how it was altered.[citation needed]
Once an Allomancer has Snapped, they will 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 in an alcohol solution. It is completely instinctual for an Allomancer to activate and burn their metal and gain its ability; it does not require training to do it (however, there is much training in using their metals properly). It is so instinctual that in some circumstances, an Allomancer can even burn metals while unconscious. An Allomancer can also burn their metals at an accelerated rate, which is called "flaring" metals. Flaring grants more power, but the reserve of metals depletes much faster, too.
An Allomancer will either be able to burn a single metal--who are called Mistings--or they will be able to burn every metal--the Mistborn. There is no natural way for a person to have, say, exactly two powers. It is either one or all of them. Each type of Misting was given a particular name depending on their ability, such as Lurcher, Coinshot, or Soother.
Savants
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.
Twinborn and Compounders
After the Final Empire, Allomancy began mixing with Feruchemy. People who had one Allomantic ability and one Feruchemical ability were called Twinborn. Like Mistings, Twinborn were each given a name depending on their specific combination of abilities.
A special type of Twinborn is a Compounder--a Twinborn who has the same metal for both their Allomantic and Feruchemical abilities. A Compounder can Allomantically burn their Feruchemically charged metalmind, and in the process the Compounder gains a massive burst of the stored Feruchemical attribute. Compounders were considered immensely powerful. Though the term "Compounding" appeared in Scadrian lexicon after the Final Empire, perhaps the most famous Compounder was the Lord Ruler himself--Compounding was one reason he was so strong.
Allomantic Metals
“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.”
There are sixteen base Allomantic metals (though, despite being called "Allomantic" metals, these same metals are shared in all three Metallic Arts). The metals come in pairs: one metal is a pure metal, and it is paired with an alloy (a mixture) of that base metal. These pairs have complementary effects. Iron Pulls on nearby metals, while steel (an alloy of iron) Pushes on metals. Similarly, each base metal is classified as a "Pulling" ability, whereas each alloy is classified as a "Pushing" ability. The purity of the metals is important. The more pure a metal, the more effective they are. Alloys require precise metal percentages for maximum power. If an Allomancer burns a metal or an alloy that is impure, they can get sick, and even more severe effects happen if an Allomancer attempts to burn a metal that is not one of the sixteen.Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content
“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.”
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. For example, the external physical powers are iron and steel, while the internal physical powers are tin--which enhances the Allomancer's senses--and pewter--which enhances the Allomancer's physical attributes.
There are also two "God Metals", lerasium and atium, which do not fit in the modern Table of Allomantic Metals. Atium was famously classified as a temporal metal during the Final Empire era by the Steel Ministry, but this was shown to be flawed. The God Metals are essences of the two Shards on Scadrial, Preservation and Ruin, and can be used to craft sixteen more alloys per God MetalCite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content. They are effectively a thing of legend during the time after the Final Empire.
Abilities
The following is the modern Table of Allomantic Metals, from some point after the Final Ascension.
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During most of the Final Empire, the Table looked very different, as it was commonly assumed that there were ten total metals (the four physical and four mental metals, with gold and atium known as the "high metals"), as the Lord Ruler and Steel Ministry obfuscated how many metals there actually were. The Ministry had known of more metals, but even they made mistakes classifying metals: originally they classified atium and one of its alloys, malatium (the so-called "Eleventh Metal"), as external temporal metals. It was only after the Final Ascension that advances in technology made cadmium, bendalloy, chromium, and nicrosil more available.
External links
Notes