Questioner
If you had aluminum or silver, could someone using Gravitation or Adhesion, could they throw that? Or would they be unable to infuse it with Stormlight?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, they would be unable to.
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If you had aluminum or silver, could someone using Gravitation or Adhesion, could they throw that? Or would they be unable to infuse it with Stormlight?
Yes, they would be unable to.
The meteorite metal that they talk about that blocks Shards, is that aluminum?
Uh, so-- yes.
So, I'm intrigued by aluminum, especially the fact that it can only be found by Soulcasting on Roshar. So, how was it discovered in the first place?
...Did I say you can only get it through Soulcasting?
In the Shallan flashbacks, she has the pendant.
Don't take what she says at 100% truth.
It seems there is a special interaction between silver and investiture, in at least certain places in the Cosmere. We've seen how silver interacts with aethers, and we've seen over on Threnody. So that makes silver the second really really special metal to interact with investiture. Is the plan now to have aluminum block investiture, and silver destroy investiture?
Yeah, that's the way I'm going with it. To make a distinction between them, that's where we're going.
But silver is still non-allomantic. No silvereyes.
No, non-allomantic, yup. No silvereyes. This is my nod towards silvereye-ness, and yeah, there we go.
So would [silver] be effective against spren, just like [anti-Investiture]?
Well, you'll have to find out. RAFO!
Could you make a (working) stamp out of aluminium?
RAFO
The guards that are used on the Shardblades, that people are able to work with them safely, are those made of aluminum?
[...] This is an excellent question that is well asked, and people are thinking along the right lines. I haven't answered 100%, but people are thinking the right way.
The specific word "ralkalest," it appears on multiple worlds. Why did you use that instead of just saying "aluminum"?
This is mostly us just being cheeky. I like fantasy names for star metal, and I came up with ralkalest because... I go back and forth sometimes about how much I just want to call something what it is in translation, and how much I want to call... In this case, I decided ralkalest sounds cool, it evokes the feeling of the people in world viewing this metal, where they have this view of it as this mythical, magical sort of thing. And simply calling it "aluminum" doesn't convey that in the same way, the mythology associated with it. So I use both, but it's like there's two different languages, and when I'm using "ralkalest," it's more evoking their view of this metal.
On Sel, Shai says one word, and Raboniel says another word, neither of them are saying aluminum? Neither of them are saying some other word that doesn't exist in English?
Right, they are both saying, ralkalest would be a transliteration of the actual word in world.
But which language, which transliteration?
Oh, which language does ralkalest come from? I think ralkalest is probably original Yolish, but I haven't actually sat down and written that down. But that's what I would say now, that we're looking for kind of a mythological level. And a lot of times if you're gonna get a mythological term that's gonna transfer across worlds, it's gonna go back to what it was called on Yolen, right? Some of the words from Yolen are kind of like the way that we use Old English, or even... Latin's weird in English, so it's not really Latin. Latin and Greek have both been incorporated into scientific terms for things. But ancient terms, maybe more like Hebrew. Sometimes there's just some words that feel mythological. Some Yolish terms, because of that, kind of flow through the cosmere.
So, we know that things can be Soulcast into aluminum. But can aluminum itself be Soulcast into something else?
It resists all forms of Investiture trying to change it to things.
This question concerns Mistborn Era 2. Aluminum at this time is supremely rare and quite expensive, and Wax is seen lamenting his profound lack of aluminum guns and bullets fairly often. However, couldn't he fashion a "Poor Man's Aluminum" of sorts by coating his guns (and potentially bullets) in a thin veneer of iron, then Feruchemically charging it? You've noted that metalminds can still be pushed, but much less than un-Invested metal. This could help him, in the absence of aluminum. So, is there a reason he has not done that?
The layer you would get by just that little coat would be so small that it'd have very little effect. Now, there's a pretty good argument for putting it into bullets. The problem there is: are the alloys that make good bullets going to work very well? Now, granted, aluminum doesn’t make for great bullets either. But any aluminum alloy kind of gets the property of aluminum. Where any iron alloy does not necessarily get the property of being able to allomantically or feruchemically interact with it in the right way. Can you get there? It's an excellent question that I perhaps should explore. I like this idea. But it's harder than you make it out to be. It is a good idea, though; it's a pretty good idea.
If someone had a Hemalurgic spike and they burned aluminum, would the negation of-- am I going to get RAFO'd?
You're asking if it would destroy the Hemalurgic power? Burning aluminum at that point would not destroy the Hemalurgic power. It would pull the Investiture through whatever you're doing. It would blank your power, but it wouldn't destroy you being an Allomancer with the spike...
I actually considered this in building it and that would be too easy a way to remove Inquisitors, particularly if there were dissension between them.
I’m wondering about the idea that you can block emotional Allomancy with an aluminum lined hat.
Yup.
Okay. So I’m wondering how much aluminum is required. So like, an aluminum colander, versus an aluminum headband, versus…
Right. Alright. So, I’ll be honest with you. The idea of a tinfoil hat was so intriguing to me, basically, that I made sure this was part of the magic system. I say it has to be tinfoil, at least. Thicker is probably better, the way these things work. I’ll try not to do spoilers. When Hoid lets somebody use aluminum to block signals, he was going with something that you would be able to bend a little bit by pulling on it, but wouldn’t be able to fold it down. I’d put a bare minimum, if you want to be extra sure, on that, but lining your hat with tinfoil is viable. Particularly in the later eras of Mistborn, when some of the powers are decreasing.
Why don't Mistborn use aluminum vials?
Because they are too rare and expensive, though aluminum utilization is increasing in the AOL era.
Could aluminum act as a sort of shield from other forms of Investiture? As in, could an aluminum Misting lashed to something burn aluminum and dispel the Stormlight?
RAFO.
What metal is Nightblood's sheath made out of?
Nightblood's sheath is aluminum.
Would aluminum give an atium shadow? Like if someone threw an aluminum spear?
The aluminum would not give an atium shadow. Good question.
Is silver in Shadows for Silence similar in any way to aluminum in the rest of the cosmere?
*hesitantly* Yes, but not really. Silver is like silver, and aluminum is like aluminum.
Does aluminum have any specific use in Shadows for Silence?
Yes, you could definitely find a use for it.
Chapter Sixty - Part One
Silver, the Useless Metal
I've annotated about this before, but I figured I'd mention it again. As you probably know, in book one, tin was originally silver. I swapped it out for various reasons.
However, that left silver having no Allomantic powers. That feels strange to a lot of people because of how common and useful it is in our modern culture. Such an obvious metal doing nothing seems wrong to readers.
I toyed with using it in place of aluminum at the end of book one, but I realized that wouldn't work. It was too common, so if it had any Allomantic powers, people would know about them for certain. Only a metal that was very hard to find—like aluminum—would be believable as a new metal that most people hadn't heard of.
So silver is Allomantically inert. Just one of the quirks of the magic system.
What would happen if you shot a thug with an aluminum bullet or stabbed him with an aluminum knife?
Ah, that's a good question. The wound would not be able to heal around the aluminum, but once the aluminum came out and was gone from the system, they would be okay.
Wait, is that a Bloodmaker, not a Thug?
Oh, you're talking about Thugs?
It would work similarly, but it really wouldn't have a huge effect on them.
Alright, because Peter was implying that there was some weird aluminum interaction with Thugs.
What was he thinking of...?
There is some weird interaction but...
In the wedding scene, Wax thinks they would have aluminum bullets to deal with Thugs, and I was like, "Oh, that's a typo." And Peter was like, "Oh no it's not..."
No, no. That would just be-- it's like I said: healing it until the bullet is gone, it's just the same as Bloodmakers.
With aluminum and Mistborn, I know that it makes the metals and stuff all go away, but if someone has toxic metal, would that also make it go away?
It has to be Allomantically relevant.
We know aluminium blocks Investiture. Does silver block anti-Investiture?
So, silver has its own weird mechanics that I'm slowly exploring in the cosmere. That's not an answer to your question, I'm sorry.
What's the deal with silver? Why does it not fit cleanly into the Allomantic metals, why is aluminum a special one and not silver. Why is it silver powder and not aluminum powder on Threnody? These kinds of questions.
Do you want the in-world answer... or the writerly answer?
Well really I want the in-world answer.
...The in-world answer is that people are not sure yet.
Well, that's not the in-world answer. That's the in world answer from Khriss, right? What about the in-world answer from--
That's the in-world answer--they're not sure yet...
The writerly answer is that we started with silver in place of tin. And by the time I swapped it out, aluminum was already its thing. If I had to do it over again, I might make silver aluminum, but I wanted what aluminum does to be rare, and silver isn't. So I might not have. I love what aluminum does because it's super-rare pre-industrial, but you hit industrial and it's everywhere.
So it allowed me to do, when we get to modern era, to have real checks on Allomancy as Allomancy gets more powerful.
Speaking of interfering, if you shot an aluminum bullet through a time bubble, what would happen?
Ooooh, that's a good question. I'm gonna RAFO that one. It's an excellent question.
In the spirit of my obsession with Nalthis (please Nalthis novella please) - We know you can store Breath in highly Invested things without Awakening them. Can you store Breath in aluminum?
I'll RAFO Breath and aluminum for now.
In Allomancy, aluminum won't be able to be pushed or pulled, right?
Right.
So if you put a piece of steel like a gun barrel, and then you surround it with aluminum, can you still push the gun barrel?
The aluminum will add some interference, it's gonna depend on how thick the aluminum is. It's probably unfeasible. That is a viable concept, I don't think it's feasible on a gun barrel.
Would copper or, like, an aluminum hat influence subliminal messaging and that kind of thing?
*laughs* Only if they are working through cosmere magics. Not if they are just normal... which is of debatable effectiveness anyway.
It is said by a spren, Syl, that everything has a spren. Does aluminum have a spren?
Does aluminum have a spren? This is a good question for philosophers in world. I would say the majority of them would say yes, its just a very isolated and unresponsive spren. There are some who would say no, it is the dead material, that has no spren, but others would argue that a dead material with no spren would just disintegrate to death, so aluminum is kind of a strange duck.
So this flashlight is made of aluminum. So obviously, I could not affect the flashlight itself with iron or steel. Could I affect the battery inside it?
No.
Could I like, pop the trigger?
Yes.
Can a Seeker, standing outside a Coppercloud, that is between them and another Allomancer, can he sense the person standing on the other side of the Coppercloud?
Yes, but he might get some interference.
Would you sense the cloud itself, like "Hey, there's a cloud between me and what I'm looking at"?
If you know what you're doing, you might be able to say something is interfering, but you wouldn't be able to determine what. There are multiple things that could cause that, for instance-- Most of them are only-- That they would be able to-- Yeah, there are multiple things that could cause that. Like, for instance--
Big buildings?
Well, aluminum.
Is aluminum shielding from emotional Allomancy strictly line of sight? So, can someone in the basement bypass somebody’s aluminum hat on the first floor
No, they could not. You just put enough aluminum there and it disrupts.
So it disrupts like a field.
Yep.
So, Kaladin obviously draws Stormlight from a pouch, all the time... If the pouch was coated in, say aluminum, would he still be able to draw the Stormlight?
No. Good question.
What about if it was coated in silver?
Yes, he probably still could.
Does aluminum negate magic systems in all the--
Not exactly, but it has very weird-- it has interesting effects, how about that, in all places.
Does aluminium have any effect on the other Allomantic metals aside from iron/steel and zinc/brass? If yes, does that include god metals and their alloys?
Yes and no.