Mistborn- A Collection of Theories and Speculations

Compounding (Cont.)

This chapter is a continuation of my previous chapter, entitled "Compounding". I recommend that you read that chapter before continuing on so that you will be able to understand it with better clarity.

In my last chapter, I talked about the different ideas set forth in a post on the 17th Shard forums regarding different possible types of compounding. I will quickly recap the 6 types theorized about:
1. Allomancy powering Feruchemy (AlloFeru)
2. Feruchemy powering Allomancy (FeruAllo)
3. Allomancy powering Hemalurgy (AlloHema)
4. Feruchemy powering Hemalurgy (FeruHema)
5. Hemalurgy powering Feruchemy (HemaFeru)
6. Hemalurgy powering Allomancy (HemaAllo)
There is a lot of confusion regarding how these interactions between the metallic arts operate. I will cover my opinion on the systems, but feel free to comment if you think I missed something, or if you want to share your opinions or thoughts.

First, we have Allomancy powering Feruchemy, or AlloFeru compounding. This type of compounding has been directly proven by the novel, and was used by the Lord Ruler in the first Mistborn novel as well as Miles Hundredlives from the Alloy of Law novel to gain feruchemical power 10x that of the amount stored inside a metalmind by burning it allomantically. I am going over this one because there are debates on how it works. Some people argue that allomancy is merely magnifying the feruchemical effect, but I don't think this is the case. I believe that the feruchemical charge is a filter for the power typically gained while burning a metal. So burning a metalmind gives you the same amount of power usually gained from allomantically burning a metal, but in the form of feruchemical power. Also, you only gain the feruchemical effect while burning a metalmind, none of the allomantic effects, so the feruchemical charge in essence creates a new allomantic metal that gives a feruchemical attribute. For example, if I stored 10... let's just say "charges" for lack of an actual unit... in 100 grams of steel, then each gram of steel would have 0.1 charge in it. If steel burns allomantically at a rate of 1 gram per second, then burning this metalmind should give you feruchemical power at a rate of 0.1 charge per second, but because of the end-positive nature of allomancy, the ability is multiplied by ten, giving a rate of 1 charge per second. Thus for the total 100g and 100 seconds, 100 charges are produced instead of the original 10 charges.

Next, Feruchemy powering Allomancy, or FeruAllo compounding, seems the most likely other than AlloFeru compounding. The original idea behind FeruAllo compounding is that you can burn an allomantic metal, then somehow store the allomantic ability in a metalmind instead of using it instantly. This would be beneficial so that the allomantic power could be tapped at much higher rates than possible with normal allomancy for greater power. The difficulty with this theory is that there is no known way to store allomantic power. The first theory presented on the forum argued that because AlloFeru compounding only required that a metalborn be a misting and a ferring in the same metal, the same should be true for FeruAllo compounding. They believe that a metal can store two things: both its feruchemical and allomantic powers. I do not personally support this theory because I feel that AlloFeru compounding works because of the mechanics of Allomancy and Feruchemy. In Allomancy, one can burn a specific metal and the power of Preservation gives them an ability, they are not burning a specific trait or ability, while in Feruchemy they are storing a trait, not a specific metal. So, AlloFeru compounding works because an allomancer can burn the metal independent of what feruchemical traits are attached to that metal, but FeruAllo compounding does not work this way because a feruchemist can only store the specific trait, they cannot store the allomantic abilities that can come from burning that metal. The second theory was that allomantic abilities could be burned and stored by a feruchemist in a nicrosilmind because nicrosil stores investiture, or power. This seemed the most likely to me at first, but when Sanderson released The Bands of Mourning, nicrosil was used to store the investitures of Allomancy or Feruchemy, or the ability to perform these metallic arts.  Investiture does not store the actual power that is released during Allomancy or Feruchemy, though it could still be possible (feruchemical lerasium?).  This is what led to my theory, which was not presented on the forums. In the book, the nicrosilminds are blanked so that anyone could use them, but in theory the original purpose would have been for a feruchemist to store the ability to perform Feruchemy in a certain metal so that the nicrosilmind could later be tapped to be more powerful in that metal (to be able to store in other metalminds at higher rates, presumably). So, because allomantic abilities can be stored in a nicrosilmind, as shown in the novel, one could use this method to boost their Allomancy as long as they were at least a ferring in nicrosil and a misting in another metal. Feruchemical nicrosil is very interesting, so I will most likely give it its own chapter in the future.