User:Oudeis/Hemalurgy Chart

The Basic Metals

	Quadrant 1		Quadrant 2		Quadrant 3		Quadrant 4
	Metal 1	Metal 2	Metal 1	Metal 2	Metal 1	Metal 2	Metal 1	Metal 2
Alloy	Pewter	Steel	Bronze	Brass	Duralumin	Nicrosil	Electrum	Bendalloy
Base	Tin	Iron	Copper	Zinc	Aluminum	Chromium	Gold	Cadmium

The Metals in Allomancy

	Quadrant 1		Quadrant 2		Quadrant 3		Quadrant 4
	Metal 1	Metal 2	Metal 1	Metal 2	Metal 1	Metal 2	Metal 1	Metal 2
Alloy	Might	Push On Metal	Sense Allomancy	Dampen Emotions	Boost Own Burn	Burst Others' Burn	See Own Future	Speed Bubble
Base	Senses	Pull On Metal	Occlude Allomancy, Resist Emotional Allomancy	Enflame Emotions	Eliminate Own Reserves	Eliminate Others' Reserves	See Own Alternate Selves	Time Bubble

The Metals in Feruchemy

	Quadrant 1		Quadrant 2		Quadrant 3		Quadrant 4
	Metal 1	Metal 2	Metal 1	Metal 2	Metal 1	Metal 2	Metal 1	Metal 2
Alloy	Might	Speed	Wakefulness	Warmth	Connection	Investiture	Determination	Metabolic Energy, Hydration
Base	Senses	Weight	Memories	Mental Speed	Identity	Luck	Health	Breath

The Metals in Hemalurgy

	Quadrant 1		Quadrant 2		Quadrant 3		Quadrant 4
	Metal 1	Metal 2	Metal 1	Metal 2	Metal 1	Metal 2	Metal 1	Metal 2
Alloy	Q1 Feruchemy	Q1 Allomancy	Q2 Allomancy	Q2 Feruchemy	Q3 Feruchemy	??	??	??
Base	Senses	Might	Intelligence	Emotional Stability	Q3 Allomancy	??	Q4 Feruchemy	??

There's some raw data. I'll get back to it, but let's look at some obvious things first.

Allomancy, sorted by metal group

Metal 1	Metal 2
Might	Push Metal
Senses	Pull Metal
Sense Allomancy	Sooth Emotions
Hide Allomancy, protection from Brass/Zinc	Riot Emotions
Boost Own Metals	Burst Others' Metals
Eliminate Own Reserves	Eliminate Others Reserves
See Own Future	Speed Bubble
See Own Alternate Selves	Time Bubble

Let's start easy. Separating out the allomantic metals into Metal 1 of each Quadrant, and Metal 2. Is there any commonality among all the metals in group 1?

Of course there is; this is explained to us in the book. Metal 1 is the Internal Metals. Metal 2 is the External Metals. Everything based on a Metal 1 affects something within the allomancer, everything based on a Metal 2 changes something outside. This is not, however, always obvious. There are apparent outliers. I'm looking at you, bronze-and-copper. Bronze lets you sense allomancy, the same way steel lets you sense metal. Yet one is internal, and one is external. We only know from its classificiation that steel is changing something about the world, while bronze is changing something inside of you; like a Skimmer ferring, weighing enough to crash through a floor, you make an internal change and let the change indirectly affect the world around you.

I'm establishing this now because there might be some apparent discrepancies as we go forward. We might have to accept that it's possible that an ability might seem to behave as though it belongs in one group, when in fact we can tell from its grouping that it might actually be in another group.

Copper/bendalloy. Each of them creates an effect centered on the allomancer. Yet one is internal, one is external. The difference? Well, for one, copper has an additional effect that only affects the allomancer himself; resistance to emotional manipulation. There doesn't seem to be a similar ancillary effect for bendalloy. Also, the power remains centered on the Smoker. A Slider sets up his power to the limit of his ability, but then it is set; he cannot leave the field he is maintaining, but it doesn't travel with him.

Next. Alloy and base metal.

Allomancy, sorted by purity

Alloy	Base
Might	Senses
Push Metal	Pull Metal
Sense Allomancy	Hide Allomancy, protection from Brass/Zinc
Sooth Emotions	Riot Emotions
Boost Own Metals	Eliminate Own Reserves
Burst Others' Metals	Eliminate Others Reserves
See Own Future	See Own Alternate Selves
Speed Bubble	Time Bubble

This one, I feel, is a lot less obvious. However, we have it on relatively good authority that every Alloy Pushes, and every Base Pulls, even if that's not necessarily apparent. In fact, steel/iron and brass/zinc (two external metals, hrm) are the only really obvious ones. The other six pairings, less so. Before you read Alloy of Law, if someone had asked you, "If you want to make time go faster, would you push on it, or pull on it?" I suspect you would not get a consensus.

Well, those were the only two easy ones, and already it's filled with things that would not have been apparent at first glance. I am accepting donations to fund a research project whereby I find a thousand people who have not read these books, show them these two lists, and ask them to extrapolate what makes Column A different from Column B.

Feruchemy, why not let's.

Feruchemy, sorted by metal group

Metal 1	Metal 2
Might	Speed
Senses	Weight
Wakefulness	Warmth
Memories	Mental speed
Connection	Investiture
Identity	Luck
Determination	Food
Health	Breath

What can be said of Group 1, that is distinct from Group 2? While all feruchemy is internal, some of it can draw from an external power source. Breath, food, warmth. The MAG suggests Investiture. Could that be it? What of speed, weight, mental speed, and luck? We know absolutely nothing about luck, so I'm willing to set it aside for the moment. Weight. Well, we know it isn't quite weight, and we know it isn't quite mass. If a Skimmer were on Roshar, there would be less gravity pulling on him, so presumably he could store less weight. Can we say that weight, or maybe gravity, is an externally powerable thing, then? A human body does produce warmth but can also be heated. Speed is somewhat trickier. I don't believe if you jumped off a cliff, you could store speed to fall any slower. Still, that and mental speed appear to be the only two outliers.

I worry that I'm trying to force the allomantic system on feruchemy, but at first glance I think there's room for my speculation. Perhaps Group 2 Metals are ones that can be powered externally, and steel and zinc fit this pattern in a way no more obvious than copper and bronze being internal. While the traits of steel and zinc share a commonality (a type of speed), one is an alloy, one is a base, and they are in different quadrants.

Regardless, that's as much speculation as I think I can get away with, so I'm moving on.

Feruchemy, sorted by purity

Alloy	Base
Might	Senses
Speed	Weight
Wakefulness	Memories
Warmth	Mental speed
Connection	Identity
Investiture	Luck
Determination	Health
Food	Breath

So. What do we see here?

Hrm. At first blush I'm thinking... active versus passive? Does this bear scrutiny? Strength and speed are things you must act upon. Senses and weight. Your weight just affects the world around you. It can provide leverage for pushing things, but the actual push comes from strength (or allomancy). And senses passively acquire information.

Wakefulness and warmth... are... not the best examples. To be awake, as opposed to asleep, is to be more active than not, by definition. Warmth? Erm... motion makes you warmer? That feels like a stretch. Memories and speed-of-thought both happen within your head; cognitively, they do require action and agency on your part, but they don't require this action to be physical.

Connection and Investiture. We know little about either. Simply making yourself a more trustworthy person does nothing if you don't actively engage in people. Tapping a ton of connection while sitting alone in your room not interacting with anyone will have as much effect as tapping a ton of strength without using your muscles to do anything. As for Investiture... I'd rather not touch this, as we have nothing but the most base speculation as to what Investiture does.

Identity? We're unclear on what this does, but we have a hint that it can be used to affect your own metalminds. So, passive, maybe? Or active, because at least one use of it requires you to use it with other feruchemy? Sources unclear; try again later.

Luck. Who knows. Luck strikes me as a thing that happens to you, not a thing you do. We don't know what luck actually means feruchemically, but for now I'm confident that it at least doesn't definitely disprove my idea.

Determination. Eep. I feel like this breaks the pattern. Determination makes you want to be more active... but it, itself, is non-active. And food. I guess burning calories is used to power motor functions? So... there's that.

Health. Seems pretty passive. It gets supercharged when you draw out a ton to heal a big wound, but under normal conditions your health just kind of ticks along, at a rate you don't control, constantly.

Breath. Eep. You have to breath, whether you're active or not. Being more active makes you have to breath more. It tends to happen in the back of your mind.

So... maybe that's it? A thing that's a choice to do, versus a thing that happens automatically.

You decide to move, to open a door, to pick up an envelope. There are some instincts to clutch and suck, but for the most part things requiring strength require choice. Same with motion. Does one choose to remain awake? You don't really choose to be warm. You can feel compelled to engage people or not, but you still choose to talk to them. Investiture requires Intent, so that requires choice. Maybe Intent is a better word. Determination might require intent. It's not like you can be determined in a vacuum; you must be determined to be SOMETHING. And food. One breathes constantly without thinking about it, but you have to make the choice to get food and put it into your mouth.

I just covered how breath happens instinctively. Health ticks along out of your direct control. Luck isn't something you choose to have or not. Identity? Can you decide who you are, or is it just who you are? Mental speed. Hrm. This one seems pretty heavily to require intent. Paired with warmth, which seems to be the opposite. Interesting...

Memories. You do search through your memories, so that seems to be a matter of intent. Your weight is a thing, which can change, obviously, but not just by will, through an indirect means. And your senses. They exist passively, but you can focus on one or the other...

Kay, at first blush, I'm gonna go with Intent. It seems to hold mostly true across the chart. And Intent is a properly Sandersonian word. Q2 seems totally backwards for all four metals, but whatever. Maybe it's just not apparent, like copper for allomancy.

What I learned from this: Find the pair with the most in common. The most obvious place to determine the difference between alloys and bases for allomancy was iron and steel; they did almost identical things, and the one difference was the one difference for the whole chart. For metal groups, aluminum and chromium perform the same action, and show us the difference between internal and external. Food and Breath were lowest on this chart, but had the most in common. I should have started there. Going forward, my watchword will be to find the pair most similar, discover their difference, and see if it applies to the rest of the traits.

So. That's feruchemy. When next I return and do more edits, I'll look into hemalurgy. Everything up until now has been practice for the unassailable cliffs, hidden in the shadows of ignorance, that is hemalurgy.

First the charts, those these will be of limited use.

Hemalurgy, sorted by metal group

Metal 1	Metal 2
Q1 Feruchemy	Q1 Allomancy
Senses	Might
Q2 Allomancy	Q2 Feruchemy
Intelligence	Stability
Q3 Feruchemy	??
Q3 Allomancy	??
??	??
Q4 Feruchemy	??

And by purity.

Hemalurgy, sorted by purity

Alloy	Base
Q1 Feruchemy	Senses
Q1 Allomancy	Might
Q2 Allomancy	Intelligence
Q2 Feruchemy	Emotional Stability
Q3 Feruchemy	Q3 Allomancy
??	??
??	Q4 Feruchemy
??	??

I, personally, can find nothing much in the above pattern. The gaps don't help, but across quadrants it's difficult to detect a pattern.

However, we have one other obvious way to sort these traits. Allomantic and Feruchemical imbues might all be part of a group. Let's sort, starting with feruchemy, for which we have more complete information.

Feruchemical Imbues in Hemalurgy

Quadrant	Purity	Group
1	A	1
2	A	2
3	A	1
4	B	1

The only pattern I see here is the single outlier; that is, "one of these things is not like the others." The idea that for each trait, three will share a commonality, but one will be different.

That in mind, let's look at allomancy.

Allomantic Imbues in Hemalurgy

Quadrant	Purity	Group
1	A	2
2	A	1
3	B	1
4	??	??

With 25% of our information gone, far more difficult to see a pattern. Let's test my theory from above. If we assume there will be only one outlier for each trait. That means we'd assume the final metal was A1; Electrum. As it happens, we don't know what Electrum does hemalurgically, so this is not yet impossible.

Now. What about the traits? This is trickier, since we've got four already, and there are four "empty spaces" in the hemalurgy chart (if we assume one space will eventually be filled with Q4 allomancy). So. Do we assume these four are a group, and the other four are a separate group? Are they combined to one larger group of eight? Are there eight traits divided so that there's one member of the group per quadrant? That I know of, we have no way to determine.

At this point I should probably stop speculating, since anything from this point on is the sheerest of conjecture with the flimsiest of basis. That caveat aside, listen now to my mad ramblings.

Let's follow the pattern we've seen already. There's one feruchemical imbue per quadrant. +/-1, there seems to be one allomantic imbue per quadrant. So let's assume the four things we don't know of are also human traits, and let's further assume they are split into two groups, with each group having one member per quadrant.

The traits which can be hemalurgically stolen.

Quadrant	Trait	Purity	Group
1	Senses	B	1
	Might	B	2
2	Intelligence	B	1
	Emotional Stability	B	2
3	??	??	2
	??	??	2
4	??	??	??
	??	??	??

You may notice I've assigned Metal Group 2 to both Quadrant 3 traits, even though we don't know which metals steal trait, or which traits. However, I'm applying sudoku rules here. We know both metals in Group 1 steal metallic imbues. I've already admitted it's an assumption that the other two will steal traits, but if they do, they must be metal group 2.

So. Which trait is in which set? Remember, I'm assuming the eight traits will break down into two sets of four, one trait per quadrant, following the "one of these is not like the other" rule.

Let's try something out. We know Senses are B1. Let's go ahead and pair it with Intelligence. B1 again. We don't know if it'll be paired with the A or B from Q3, but we know it'll be a 2. So we've got:

BB?? 112?

If the rules are being followed, the final item will have to be Group 1. We know that 1B steals feruchemy, so that makes it 1A, Electrum. Also, B has to be the rule, not the single outlier, cuz there's already two of them, so the third metal is B2, Chromium.

BBBA 1121

Seems pretty simple. What does this leave us with? Might paired with stability, and a metal from the third quadrant in metal group 2.

BB?? 222? Meaning this time, the outlier is 1, not 2, and we already have 3x 2's. So the last one has to be one... but there's only a single 1 for the two to share. They can't both have electrum. So I've successfully managed to prove that one of the two possible combinations is, in fact, impossible.

So let's test the other way.

Senses with Emotional Stability, and assuming the third quadrant is metal group 2.

BB?? 122?

Here the outlier on Group is 1, so the final one must be 2. In the fourth quadrant, we've got two to choose from, A or B.

BB?? 1222

Of the question marks, one will be A, and one will be B. They're both free in both quadrants, so things seem fine here. I'm calling this Set X.

Let's check on the other pair. Might with Intelligence.

BB?? 212?

Again, B is the rule, as is 2. We already have our metal group outlier, so we plug in the 2 for Quadrant 4... but both 2's are free.

BB?? 2122

So we're in roughly the same boat. Everything fits. I'm calling this Set Y. If we pair Tin with Zinc, it will be completed by either Nicrosil and Cadmium, or Chromium and Bendalloy. The same is true for Iron and Copper.

It's worth noting that above, I came to the conclusion that it would fit the pattern if Electrum stole Q4 allomantic imbues; the only metal avoided in our scenario.

So. The outliers for Allomancy were in Quadrants 1 and 3. The Outliers for Feruchemy were in quadrants 2 and 4. From this, I'm actually going to suppose an inversion is true for the traits, as inverting expected patterns seems to be a pattern in hemalurgy.

So let's assume that rather than being evenly spaced, the outliers clump. We know the outlier for Set X (with Tin and Zinc) in metal group is in Quadrant 1. So let's assume the purity outlier is Quadrant 4.

BBBA 1222

This leaves us with Set Y, with its outliers in Quadrants 2 and 3.

BBAB 2122

So that's my idea. Set X of hemalurgically stealable traits is Tin, Zinc, Chromium, and Bendalloy, while Set Y is Iron, Copper, Nicrosil and Cadmium.

Now. What do they steal?

Hemalurgically stealable traits

Quadrant	Set X	Set Y
1	Senses	Might
2	Stability	Intelligence
3	??	??
4	??	??

What do we see? Well, there's "one of these things is not like the others" again. Of those four, three of them are feruchemically storeable traits; moreover, they're traits to be found in that quadrant.

So, will the same hold true? Will one of the Set Y metals steal something that cannot be stored feruchemically? That'll be harder to determine. Let's look at the likely things for Set X, which presumably defaults to stealing traits which can be stored feruchemically, meaning Stability is our outlier.

The Q3 Feruchemical Traits: Connection. Identity. Investiture. Luck.

In our model, one or two of these will prove to be stealable by either Nicrosil or Chromium. I've put Chromium in Set X.

The Q1 traits were Might and Senses. Senses are taken by the metal used to store them, feruchemically. Might is not. In Q2... Mental power is stored in zinc... but stolen by copper, and zinc steals another trait. I do not yet see a pattern. Each quadrant has one overlap of "metal stores a trait" and "metal steals a trait," but only one time is it the same metal.

Perhaps a progression? The first quadrant has, "Metal steals what same metal can store," and then "Metal steals what another metal can store." The second quadrant has, "Metal steals what another metal can store," and then "metal steals what no metal can store." Maybe Quadrant Three would have "Metal steals what no metal can store" (that does not narrow it down) and then ... something even less likely? And then the fourth quadrant would have the even less likely thing, and then something entirely unrelated. This is getting out of hand.

Another thought. Zinc steals something related to emotion, which has a correlation to Zinc's allomantic use. So... Iron steals a trait related to pewter in both allomancy and feruchemy. Tin steals a trait associated with itself in both allomancy and feruchemy. Copper steals something associated with zinc, in feruchemy, and zinc steals something associated with zinc in allomancy.

So in Set X, tin and zinc are both associated with their allomantic trait. Chromium leeches someone else's metals. So... maybe Investiture? Maybe reserves? That seems unlikely, but someone somewhere has a WoB, I think, that any storeable feruchemical trait can be stolen. From the wording, I suspect Mr. Sanderson thought the question was "the ability to store any feruchemical trait" but if true, it means you can steal things like "body heat" and "metabolic energy." So what would a metabolic spike grant you? Would you 24/7 get an intake of metabolic energy? If you don't move enough, will you get enormously fat? Or is it a one-time lump sum, the spike is stuck in and suddenly there's 10,000 extra calories in your system, and when they burn off, that's it? We know that iron spikes grant power eternally, so I'm tempted to say the first.

So then... let's say a Coinshot has a reserve of steel in his stomach. Perhaps a chromium spike steals that reserve, and replicates it permanently? So if a different Coinshot received that spike, he'd be able to burn a certain amount forever? I wonder how, if at all, this would affect duralumin/nicrosil... This is making so little sense, I should probably just stop. But, whatever, maybe someone will read my insane ramblings and find a kernel of something in it worth considering.

Bendalloy. Allomantically, that's time. So... maybe with a spike, you live your life slightly faster? That sounds terrible. Good news, you get a good night's sleep in four hours. Bad news, pretty much the rest of it. You wake up in the middle of the night, then get exhausted in early afternoon. You die when your friends are all middle-aged. You have trouble understanding people, and they you. Train rides seem to take forever. Literally any time you're waiting on someone seems to take forever. Man I hope I never get a bendalloy spike, if this is what it does.

Set Y. Iron takes the feruchemical trait of the metal in its quadrant entirely opposite; other metal group, alloy as opposed to base. Copper takes the trait of the other metal, same purity. So... perhaps the remaining metals takes the trait of the other aspects of the pattern? Same metal, then same group, different purity?

Nicrosil and Cadmium. So, the feruchemical traits of either chromium and cadmium, or nicrosil and bendalloy. So spikes for either luck and breath, or investiture and metabolic energy.

One final thought to add. What if I've got the second half of the Sets mis-paired? So then it would be nicrosil and cadmium for allomantic traits, and chromium/bendalloy for feruchemical.

Set X, due to the nature of allomancy, turns out is pretty much teh same. Cadmium is still time, nicrosil is still reserves. Hrm. But zinc doesn't just give you emotions, it gives you the power to adjust your own emotions; Soothing/Rioting yourself, for example. Maybe an allomancer with a nicrosil spike has greater control over how much he burns? Brighter flares are nice, but one of the drawbacks of allomancy is how difficult it is to burn dimly. Soothers, for example, are inherently wasteful. They best use a subtle touch, but must burn at the normal rate. What if you could stretch out your brass by burning it lightly for hours, since you're only going to be using a fraction of your available power, anyway?

It might be nice to be able to adjust your own perception of time. A little cheating, like basically using feruchemical zinc, but having the Blessing of Potency is like having allomantic pewter. Imagine if you could choose to have time seem to slow down a bit for you, give you an extra moment to react to something, even if your body is still slow... or, conversely, to let a train ride simply slip past you and feel like you haven't wasted time. Not as powerful as bendalloy/cadmium, allomantically, but useful in different ways.

Chromium and Bendalloy. Again, one metal will be spot on, the other will be the same group, but a different purity. And... I see that's still exactly the same as the examples above. So, I guess just read that again if you'd like.

Okay. And I think I'm done now. I waved bye-bye to legitimate analysis long, long ago, and now I think I'm finally even out of things to speculate on. If I get really, really bored, I might come back and start guessing more.