Difference between revisions of "Allomancy"

A person needs to be born with the hereditary Allomantic ability to get Allomancy. This is not a recessive or dominant gene and it doesn't work according to physical genetics.{{wob ref|12576}} This instead works according to spiritual genetics, which behave differently from physical genetics. 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 inflicted by an intense beating at a young age. It was possible for Allomancers to Snap from other intense emotions, like joy, but this was much more uncommon.{{annotationwob ref|mb3|chapter=708025}} It was said that the more powerful the Allomancer, the more intense the trauma had to be to Snap.{{cite}} However, after the [[Final Ascension]], [[Harmony]] changed the way Snapping operated, but it is unknown how it was altered.{{wob ref|6888}}

There are sixteen basic 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 unalloyed metal is classified as a "Pulling" ability, whereas each alloy is classified as a "Pushing" ability.{{annotationwob ref|mb1|chapter=38-12478}} 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. Burning an impure alloy may cause sickness,{{book ref|mb1|7}} while metals that are not Allomantically viable cannot be burned after being ingested.{{wob ref|13503}}

Metal is not the source of Allomancy's power.{{annotationwob ref|mb3|chapter=387708}} Rather, metal is what is called a [[focus]]--a necessary component to a manifestation of [[Investiture]] (magic system), but not the source of the power itself. 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, hence the metal "focuses" Preservation's power to the user. Each metal is the only way a mortal can access Preservation and the power of creation.{{wob ref|6072}} Afterwards, the metal is vaporized.{{wob ref|10097}} This is only true for the base sixteen Allomantic metals. The god metals (lerasium, atium, their alloys and other Shard's metal) are actually Investiture condensed into a solid form. Burning atium draws power from Ruin, not Preservation.{{epigraph ref|mb3|78}}

Allomancy was present in the original version of Mistborn (now known as [[Mistborn Prime]]). In that version, Allomancy only had Mistborn and no Mistings.{{annotationwob ref|mb1|chapter=3|link=annotation-mistborn-chapter-three2287}} 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.{{annotationwob ref|mb1|chapter=232391}} 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.