Silver?

[Ashbringer he/him]

1 hour ago, Oltux72 said:

Then why would it be a danger to ordinary spren?

Not that I have a full counterproposal, but there seems to be a basic weakness in this theory.

We only have a WoB that it could be a danger to spren (and that it is more easily turned into a danger than aluminum). That could mean through a Chain, or though its nature, or something else entirely.

[lacrossedeamon]

Silver was originally going to be in Aluminum's place on the Allomantic table but got switched out due to Silver being more common than Aluminum in pre-industrial cultures (at least on Earth; I think this would have been fine on Scadrial) so that the wiping ability would be secret.

Silver outright killing Spren seems iffy to me even with the WOB given that Raboniel tries so hard to create Antilight. Not as much need for it if Silver could have been used instead.

[StanLemon]

 

10 hours ago, lacrossedeamon said:

Silver outright killing Spren seems iffy to me even with the WOB given that Raboniel tries so hard to create Antilight. Not as much need for it if Silver could have been used instead.

It might have the same effect on spren as a Shardblade cutting them. Hurts them without killing them

[Frustration he/him]

11 hours ago, lacrossedeamon said:

Silver was originally going to be in Aluminum's place on the Allomantic table but got switched out due to Silver being more common than Aluminum in pre-industrial cultures (at least on Earth; I think this would have been fine on Scadrial) so that the wiping ability would be secret.

That's not true, Silver had Tin's role in allomancy originally, and was changed when Brandon learned there was almost no silver in Pewter.

[lacrossedeamon]

1 hour ago, Frustration said:

That's not true, Silver had Tin's role in allomancy originally, and was changed when Brandon learned there was almost no silver in Pewter.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/270-the-hero-of-ages-annotations/#e7983

[Frustration he/him]

10 minutes ago, lacrossedeamon said:

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/270-the-hero-of-ages-annotations/#e7983

That does not support your original statement. Aluminum has always had the role it does, once tin took Silver's place Brandon considered swapping them but there was never a time where silver served the same role.

Edited January 9, 2023 by Frustration

[lacrossedeamon]

So my timeline of ideas might have been off a bit (he doesn’t actually specify if Aluminum had been decided prior or not) but it still shows that Brandon was thinking about giving Silver a purifying Allomantic power which lines up with how its used in conjunction to both Shades and Aethers.

Edited January 9, 2023 by lacrossedeamon

[AquaRegia he/him]

On 1/5/2023 at 8:53 AM, Oltux72 said:

Nightblood's sheath is described as silver. I always understood that as a color. Now, in hindsight ...

Nightblood's sheath is canonically aluminum, at least, according to the Coppermind.

1 hour ago, lacrossedeamon said:

So my timeline of ideas might have been off a bit (he doesn’t actually specify if Aluminum had been decided prior or not) but it still shows that Brandon was thinking about giving Silver a purifying Allomantic power which lines up with how its used in conjunction to both Shades and Aethers.

Again, no.  He wanted silver to have the "internal pulling" spot, the one which amplifies the senses.  He even named said Mistings "Silvereyes", which is objectively super storming cool.  Later, he found out that pewter was mostly tin, with little or no silver, and had to bump silver out and replace it with tin.  So we got Tineyes instead.

I think it's an awesome story - silver is unique throughout the Cosmere because some 1980s hobby shop employees didn't know what pewter was.

[lacrossedeamon]

11 minutes ago, AquaRegia said:

Again, no.  He wanted silver to have the "internal pulling" spot, the one which amplifies the senses.  He even named said Mistings "Silvereyes", which is objectively super storming cool.  Later, he found out that pewter was mostly tin, with little or no silver, and had to bump silver out and replace it with tin.  So we got Tineyes instead.

The WOB posted also shows he considered silver for the "internal pulling enhancement" which ultimately ended up being aluminum.

[+Bzhydack he/him]

On 5.01.2023 at 2:53 PM, Oltux72 said:

However, as you brought it up, the Fused can touch silver without ill effect.

Can we be certain of it? Does anyone stabbed Fused with Siver Knife at any time?

[Treamayne]

What if part of the effects of either Silver and/or Aluminum is dependent on whether the Investiture is Static or Kintetic? Another possibility, Silver affects the ability of Investiture to cross realms (e.g. Shades mostly reside in the Cognitive, so Silver is repulsing/reversing their effect in the Physical)

[lacrossedeamon]

1 hour ago, Treamayne said:

What if part of the effects of either Silver and/or Aluminum is dependent on whether the Investiture is Static or Kintetic? Another possibility, Silver affects the ability of Investiture to cross realms (e.g. Shades mostly reside in the Cognitive, so Silver is repulsing/reversing their effect in the Physical)

Investiture being static or kinetic is reliant on how it’s being used, not inherent to the specific type of Investiture itself. So I don’t think that would matter to either Silver or Aluminum.

[Ashbringer he/him]

I don't think we've seen aluminum do anything to static Investiture, except Allomantic aluminum. But silver kills static spores. There is a physical change there, so it's not as simple as severing a Cognitive Connection... although that could be a result of the spores losing Connection to the moon aethers / True aethers.

Sort of a side note - are there guesses as to why salt affects the spores? Is that assumed to just be a biological response as opposed to a Spiritual/Invested one?

[+Oltux72 he/him]

6 hours ago, Bzhydack said:

Can we be certain of it? Does anyone stabbed Fused with Siver Knife at any time?

Rabional physically handled the silver chain she had gotten from Mraize.

[+Bzhydack he/him]

11 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

Rabional physically handled the silver chain she had gotten from Mraize.

She also is able to handle Anti-Voidlight, and we know this thing if lethal for her. Did anyone STABBED Fused with Silver? Im almost sure no. Silver have no military aplications, why bother with soulcasting something like this.

[Frustration he/him]

1 hour ago, Bzhydack said:

She also is able to handle Anti-Voidlight, and we know this thing if lethal for her. Did anyone STABBED Fused with Silver? Im almost sure no. Silver have no military aplications, why bother with soulcasting something like this.

She recoiled in shock just for touching the anti-voidlight.

[Wadders]

What if silver disperses investiture?

The limitation might that it's effect is easily block by other materials. As far as I can remember all the uses of silver we have seen have required it to be uncovered.

So it wouldn't work well on people as they act as a container but shades or the spores are more easily disrupted as they have little to no physical substance.