Feruchemy

Feruchemy is one of the three prime manifestations of Investiture on Scadrial. The natives of that world consider it one of the three Metallic Arts.
== Mechanics ==
Feruchemy is an end-neutral manifestation of Investiture that allows the user to convert certain attributes into Investiture and store them in metal that they are in physical contact with, and to later retrieve them from the metal. Although it is generally inherited or obtained through Hemalurgy, there are other ways to become a Feruchemist, involving the Scadrian God Metals, atium and lerasium. As an end-neutral art, Investiture is not gained from an outside source (as it is in end-positive arts) and Investiture is not permanently lost (as it is in end-negative arts). Ordinarily, when a Feruchemist is tapping an attribute at the same rate it was stored, they are able to get out exactly what they put in, for example, if they store 50% of their strength for one hour they can tap that and be at 150% of their strength for one hour. However, if the Feruchemist taps at a greater rate, then some of the attribute is lost, to facilitate the compression of the Investiture. This means that a Feruchemist who stores 50% of their strength for one hour might only be able to stay at 200% for 25 minutes, rather than a full half hour. The more a Feruchemist compresses the attribute, the more is lost. While a Feruchemist can only store attributes at a reasonable rate, there isn't an upper limit of how much they are able to tap at any given time.
The type of metal determines what attribute can be stored within it. Pieces of metal that have been charged by Feruchemists are referred to as metalminds in general, or more specifically as the type of metal with an added "-mind" suffix. The act of charging, or Investing, a metalmind is referred to as storing and the act of retrieving the stored attribute is referred to as tapping. Feruchemists are capable of innately knowing how much of an attribute is stored within a metalmind at any time, as long as they are physically touching the metal mind, in the same way an individual can know how tired they are.
A larger piece of metal will be able to store more of an attribute, but the scaling is not linear; there are certain thresholds of size where the amount of attribute that can be stored increases. If a metalmind is broken, the stored attribute will be split among the pieces. This is because the power inside the metal acts like a gas acts inside a jar. It is possible to store and tap using molten metal (setting aside the conventional hazards of touching molten metal) which would have some effect on the stored Investiture. If the molten metal is mixed to form an alloy, however, the Investiture will become inaccessible, even if the alloy in question is Feruchemically viable. If the alloy is Feruchemically viable, a Feruchemist will not be able to store as much of an attribute as they could in an identically-sized metalmind: while the original Investiture is inaccessible, it does still take up "space" in the metalmind.
Ordinarily, a Feruchemist's stores are keyed to their Identity and are inaccessible to another Feruchemist. However, other Feruchemists can sense the presence of the original Feruchemist's stores, but only if they have the ability to use that attribute themselves.
In order to get the most storage out of a metalmind of an alloy, the metal has to be alloyed in a specific combination of metals. If the metal does not have the right mixture, it is considered impure. This is likened to how Allomancers require these 'pure' metals as well. If a metalmind is not pure, it will not hold as much charge as one that is alloyed correctly with the same size.
=== Special Metalminds ===
Special metalminds can be created so more than the Feruchemist who filled it can access the stored attributes. There are no genetic or Spiritual restrictions to using them. Due to the nature of Intention in the cosmere, an individual must be aware of the metalmind's nature before they can use it.
==== Unkeyed Metalminds ====
An unkeyed metalmind is a special kind of metalmind that anyone with the relevant Feruchemical ability can access. They are created through manipulation of Identity, such as through aluminum Feruchemy. Whereas a conventional metalmind is keyed to the Identity of the Feruchemist who created it, unkeyed metalminds are not attuned to any specific individual's Identity.
==== Unsealed Metalminds ====
An unsealed metalmind is a special kind of metalmind that anyone can access. The exact method of their creation is unknown, but it involves Feruchemical nicrosil and duralumin and something referred to as an Excisor. Unsealed metalminds are formed of nicrosil and one or more other metals. The nicrosil grants the user the ability to use the other metals. Unsealed metalminds see widespread use among the Southern Peoples of Scadrial in the form of medallions, but perhaps the most famous example are the fabled Bands of Mourning. Hemalurgy makes it easier to create unsealed metalminds, even if one is already a full Feruchemist and Mistborn. Unsealed metalminds have more of an Identity than normal metalminds, which may allow people to fill them while sleeping.
=== Savantism ===
Feruchemists who tap their metalminds for extended periods of time may be physiologically altered by the constant influx of power. Since Feruchemy doesn't draw from an external power, it is very difficult to become a savant from just using normal Feruchemy. If the Feruchemist is able to Compound and draw power from an outside source they could become a savant more easily.
== Types of Feruchemists ==
Feruchemists are categorized based on if they can fill or tap a single metal, Ferring, or if they can utilize all metals, Full Feruchemist. Other Invested Arts, such as Hemalurgy, is the only known way to access a combination powers that falls outside of this categorizations structure. Each type of Ferring was given a particular name depending on their ability, such as Skimmer, Steelrunner, or Archivist.
=== Power Dilution ===
Throughout the ages, the strength of a Feruchemist has slowly decreased, weakening a bit with each generation. This dilution of power has a limit where it cannot decrease any further. The strength of Feruchemists has reached that point by Era 3.
=== Twinborn and Compounders ===
After the Final Empire, Terris and those of noble descent began to interbreed, so it became possible for their descendants to have one Feruchemical ability and one Allomantic ability. People with such powers were called Twinborn. Like Ferrings, Twinborn were each given a name depending on their specific combination of abilities. The interaction between the two abilities creates a new, secondary effect, known as a Resonance.
A Compounder is a special type of Twinborn--a person who uses the same metal for both their Feruchemical and Allomantic abilities. A Compounder can Allomantically burn their Feruchemically charged metalmind, gaining a massive burst of the stored Feruchemical attribute. While Compounding typically refers to Allomancy enhancing Feruchemy, there is likely a way for Feruchemy to enhance Allomantic abilities as well.
== Feruchemical Metals ==
=== God Metals ===
Apart from the regular metals, Scadrial also has access to two God Metals, formed of the Investitures of Ruin and Preservation. While the Feruchemical properties of lerasium, Preservation's God Metal, are unknown, Ruin's metal, atium, allows for storing youth, letting a person appear younger or older. Ordinarily, this power has limited use outside of temporary disguise, as one must spend equal time old and young. However, it can be Compounded to greatly extend the user's lifespan. Following the Catacendre, there is also harmonium, made of Harmony's Investiture; however, its Feruchemical properties are unknown and it is difficult to experiment with as it explodes when in contact with water. The God Metals can also form alloys with each of the sixteen lesser metals. It is hypothesized that each of these God Metal-lesser metal alloys would allow other Feruchemical abilities to be discovered.
God Metals 	God Metals 	God Metals
Metal 	Shard 	Effect
Atium 	Ruin 	Stores youth
Pure Atium 	Ruin 	Unknown
Malatium 	Ruin 	Unknown
Atium Alloys 	Ruin 	Unknown
Lerasium 	Preservation	Unknown
Lerasium Alloys	Preservation	Unknown
Harmonium 	Harmony 	Unknown
Trellium 	Autonomy 	Unknown
Raysium 	Odium 	Unknown
== Interactions with Other Investitures ==
=== Allomancy ===
Perhaps the most dramatic interaction between Feruchemy and Allomancy is Compounding, by which a Feruchemist can Allomantically burn a metalmind and dramatically increase the amount of the attribute stored. Effectively this uses the end-positive nature of Allomancy to use Preservation's power to fuel the end-neutral art of Feruchemy.
Following the Catacendre, and the emergence of Ferrings, it is possible for individuals to be born with a single Allomantic ability and a single Feruchemical ability. These individuals are known as Twinborn. When an individual's abilities share a metal, they are capable of Compounding. Even when they do not, however, the interaction between the two abilities creates an effect, known as a Resonance.
Like any Invested object, a metalmind resists Allomantic Ironpulls and Steelpushes. The strength of resistance is based on the level of Investiture stored in the metalmind. A metalmind with only a small amount of stored attribute might resist only slightly, whereas a fully charged metalmind will be effectively immune.
It is theoretically possible to detect the use of Feruchemy using bronze Allomancy, as it can detect any kinetic Investiture, however it requires a "tweak" that is not currently known. Part of the issue is that Feruchemy is a more internal manifestation of Investiture than Allomancy.
=== Hemalurgy ===
A Hemalurgic spike can be used as a Feruchemical metalmind, much like how multiple Feruchemists can store in the same piece of metal, as the charges are stored in different parts of the metal.
An individual who has Feruchemy as a result of a Hemalurgic spike can access the metalminds of the Feruchemist who was used to create the spike, as the spike contains enough of the original Feruchemist's Identity. If that spike is split and implanted into two different people, they would each be able to access the original Feruchemist's metalminds, but they would not be able to share metalminds as their own Identity would interfere.
It is possible to use gold Feruchemy in order to heal the damage caused by Hemalurgy, effectively replacing the piece of the spiritweb that was stolen.
=== Nightblood ===
Tapping a metalmind is enough to fuel Nightblood while it is unsheathed.
=== Awakening ===
If an aluminummind is filled, then Awakened with Nightblood-level Investiture to give it sentience, the resulting object's personality would probably be influenced by the Feruchemist's Identity, but it would not be an identical copy of the Feruchemist's personality.
=== Nahel Bond ===
If a Surgebinder were to store Connection and Identity into the appropriate metalminds on a heavy basis, it would affect the Nahel bond between the Surgebinder and the spren.
=== Shardblades ===
A fully charged metalmind would be enough to block, or at least resist, a blow from a Shardblade.
It is possible to use gold Feruchemy in order to heal the damage caused by a Shardblade, restoring function to a soul-severed limb.
== History ==
Feruchemy came into existence contemporaneously with the other Metallic Arts, Allomancy and Hemalurgy, as a result of the interactions between the planet Scadrial and its Shards, Preservation and Ruin. Unlike Allomancy and Hemalurgy, which are each closely attuned with one of the Shards, Feruchemy is equally attuned to both and represents the balance between them. Feruchemy was also the only art in widespread use prior to the Ascension of the Lord Ruler. The ability to use Feruchemy emerged among the Terris people, but, due to their insular nature and reluctance to interbreed, never spread to the general population of Classical Scadrial. Although Ferrings (Feruchemists who could only use the ability associated with a single metal) did exist during this time, they were extremely rare. During this time, there was a holy order of Feruchemist scholars, known as the Worldbringers, who served as teachers and bearers of knowledge throughout the world. Not every Feruchemist was a member, however; many had much more mundane vocations, such as being herders or mountain guides.
During the Ascension of the Lord Ruler, all living Feruchemists—with the notable exception of Kwaan—were transformed into mistwraiths by the Feruchemist Rashek. Rashek transformed himself into a Mistborn and claimed himself to be the Hero of Ages. He declared himself a god and launched a campaign to consolidate the world under his control. However, during his ascension, Rashek overlooked the recessive Feruchemical genes hidden in the Terris people, which can still allow new Feruchemists to be born. Therefore, Rashek instituted policies to heavily restrict the Terris people, which eventually grew into a breeding program designed to exterminate all genetic traces of Feruchemy. He did this specifically because he feared the prospect of the genes for Feruchemy intermixing with those of Allomancy and potentially creating a rival of comparable power to himself. Despite this, the Terris resistance worked tirelessly to thwart the efforts of Rashek in a variety of ways, primarily by tricking the breeders into including people with hidden Feruchemical talents, in order to ensure their continuation in the population. They also founded the Keepers, an order of Feruchemists dedicated to finding and securing knowledge from before the Lord Ruler's rise to power.
Following the death of the Lord Ruler and the Collapse of the Final Empire, the Synod, who were the leaders of the Keepers and de facto ruling council of Terris, emerged from secrecy and the Keepers were dispatched across the Empire to teach the people about the knowledge they had preserved. Unfortunately, this "victory" was relatively short-lived as about a year later, the Steel Inquisitors, under the influence of Ruin, attacked and slaughtered the Synod as well as all but one of the Keepers, creating Hemalurgic spikes from them in the process to increase their own powers.
After the Catacendre, the surviving Terris began to interbreed with the general population. The genes for Feruchemy began to break apart, as a result of mixing with those for Allomancy. Whereas before people had either the ability to use all of the Feruchemical abilities or none of them, Ferrings, who could use only one (analogously to Mistings), began to appear. Conversely, Feruchemists with all of the Feruchemical abilities, now referred to as "Full Feruchemists", have disappeared, though the Terris community began to work on creating one through careful breeding of Feruchemical lineages. This dilution of power eventually caps and cannot decrease any further, and has reached that point by Era 3. This period also saw an explosion of Feruchemical and Allomantic research; a number of new metals and their Feruchemical attributes were discovered, with the Spiritual abilities being of particular interest to the Terris community.
After the Catacendre, the Southern Scadrians developed Unsealed Metalminds and advanced technology based on Feruchemy.
== Notable Feruchemists ==
==Development==
The earliest inspiration for Feruchemy dates to when Brandon was a teenager and had insomnia. He would lie awake at night and be really tired during the day, so he wished that he could store up his sleepiness so that he could be sleepy when he wanted to be sleepy.
An early version of Feruchemy appeared in Final Empire Prime. During the development of Mistborn: The Final Empire, Brandon realized that Feruchemy would work very well as the magic system for Sazed and the Keepers, so he imported it into that novel and added the restriction of storing attributes in metal. In an early draft of Mistborn: The Final Empire, it was named 'Hemalurgy', but this was changed because the connotation with blood fit better with the magic system now named 'hemalurgy'.
The attributes stored in brass (warmth) and electrum (determination) were originally supposed to be reversed. By the time Brandon realized his mistake, brass storing warmth had already been canonized in released books. Brandon decided not to retcon this, citing the fact that Feruchemy operates on different principles than Allomancy. Brandon also notes that the organization of the metals in the Feruchemical chart is of human invention. Isaac Stewart also confirmed that the Feruchemical symbols for chromium and nicrosil were mistakenly swapped on the Feruchemical table (i.e. the symbols are in the correct position on the table itself, but the wrong metals were assigned to them). This may be corrected in the future.
Other names considered in development include Sangrimancy, Ferruchemy, Auronomy, Ferramy, Ferrochemy, Ferrichemy, and Ferrachemy.
== Notes ==
;Footnotes
;References
category: Metallic Arts
 
es:Feruquimia