ByDanielD
Have you ever suddenly gotten a burst of energy at 9pm at night, when there’s no test to study for, no race to run, no reason to feel so energetic? Imagine if you could store that energy for later, then tap into it when you needed. That’s Feruchemistry in a nutshell. While the Feruchemists of old were able to store attributes in all 16 Feruchemical Metals, by Mistborn Era 2 Feruchemists are born with only one Feruchemical power.
Which means that we need to rank them, since that’s what humans do. For the purposes of this article, the discussion will assume that we are a Feruchemist living in Luthadel during Era 2. We’ll discuss the reasoning behind the ranking below, but for now, here’s our list of the 16 Feruchemist types in Mistborn, ranked:
Store Investiture
This is one of those abilities that might be useful in relation to other Cosmere-y things — being able to store and tap into Investiture has a lot of applications off of Scadrial. But unless you’re a Worldhopper with access to other forms of Invested magic, this doesn’t do anything.
Store Identity
This isn’t a well-understood power, so it’s hard to speculate, but the uses for this seem niche. Being able to store part of your personality might be useful — keeping the aspect of you that likes dirty jokes in a metalmind until you stop visiting grandma, for example — but it’s not clear if that’s something that’s actually possible. Generally speaking, this Feruchemical ability is like Nicrosil, in that it’s useless you’re combining it with other Invested arts.
Store breath
Not to be confused with the capital B Breath from Nalthis, Gaspers literally store breath — or perhaps they store the oxygenation of their blood. Either way, unless you’re an endurance athlete, or really like diving, it’s hard to imagine a use for this. Storing it also seems particularly unpleasant, as the name of this type of Feruchemist indicates.
Store nutrition and hydration
If you’re someone who can’t go more than a few hours without eating, this might be the ability for you — being able to store nutrition and satiate yourself from a metalmind means no having to sneak food into the theater. Not having to carry a water bottle around would be pretty nice too. But perhaps the most useful aspect of being a Subsumer isn’t in the use of your stored attribute, but in the storing: you can eat as much as you want, as long as you have a metalmind to fill!
Store warmth
I know a few people who would probably put Firesoul at #1, because they’re always cold. But for most people, putting on a jacket is enough. Storing warmth wouldn’t be too hard, however, as you could bundle yourself up while doing so. It’s also a cool ability (pun intended) if you live in a hotter climate, as you’d basically be able to perfectly thermoregulate, even moreso than humans already can.
Store mental speed
We’ve all had moments where we needed to think quickly. It could be silly stuff, like coming up with an excuse when our mom asks where we were, deciding what to order at a restaurant — or it could be a life or death decision about which way to dodge out of the way of that carriage that’s heading right towards you. Storing mental speed wouldn’t be too hard, but you’d be limited in what you can actually be doing while storing it. But being a Sparker doesn’t actually make you smarter, it just lets you come to whatever conclusion you were going to come to faster. It seems possible that you’d go days or weeks without ever really needing to tap Zinc.
Store memories
Forgetting something important would be a think of the past if you became an Archivist. From addresses and shopping lists to legal codes and classic quotes, there are lots of things that are useful to recall, but hard to remember. Depending on your profession or hobbies, being an Archivist would be more or less useful, but no one can deny the value in storing memories for later. This is especially true in a world that doesn’t yet have an internet equivalent — when you can’t look anything up at a moment’s notice, the ability to perfectly recall important facts becomes pretty compelling. However, stored memories are gone from your head until you tap them, so you can’t store your wedding day and then watch it back later, unless you want to forget you got married in between viewings.
Store Connection to people and places
This is a confusing one if you don’t know what Connection is. In short, Spiritual Connection is a person’s relationship to everyone and everything around them. Storing Connection removes those links — friends will start to forget you, so you’d have to be thoughtful about your relationships while storing it. But tapping Connection in turn makes it easier to form friendships, and based on what we know about unsealed duraluminminds, would allow you to speak foreign languages. Imagine traveling to a new country and not only being able to speak the language, but make new friends with ease. For anyone who likes to travel, being a Connector is hard to beat.
Store wakefulness
Remember in the intro when we talked about storing your energy for later? That’s this one. Being a Sentry means no more hoping you can fall asleep and nap to prepare for a late night out — just close your eyes, store wakefulness, and then tap your metalmind right around midnight. In addition to being able to party whenever you want, there are more practical uses of wakefulness as well: being more alert at work, while doing a difficult or dangerous task, and so on. You can even fill a bronzemind while sleeping, which doesn’t totally make sense — but we won’t complain! Even if you couldn’t store wakefulness while asleep, it wouldn’t be too hard to find moments throughout the day where you didn’t have to be alert, so this one ranks pretty high on the “easy to store the attribute” scale.
Store determination
Being awake is all well and good, but if you can’t muster the will to do what you need to do, what good is being awake? Pinnacles don’t have to worry about that, as they can tap determination on demand. Storing determination makes you depressed, which isn’t very fun, but the trade off seems worth it. If you’re sitting on the bus, bored at work, or otherwise doing something that requires zero effort, feeling bummed out isn’t a huge deal — and you can use that determination you stored to work on your hobbies, crush a project at work, or finally ask that cute coworker out.
Store strength
It was near the top of our list of Allomancer powers, but on this list it’s fallen from the third slot to the sixth. Storing strength wouldn’t be too difficult, as you can do it any time you’re sitting around or otherwise not using your body — if you don’t mind walking being a bit difficult, you could probably store strength while moving around too. But unlike Thugs, Brutes actually grow physically larger when they tap their strength, so you become an even bigger target than usual. It’s also not clear how much tapping strength helps with absorbing damage or healing, and so it’s hard to rank Feruchemical pewter as high as Allomantic pewter.
Store senses
First of all, by far the coolest name for a Feruchemist. By far. It’s also one of the types with the best outcomes while storing attributes: being able to store smell in a bathroom, or storing hearing at a loud concert, for example. Really, there are times where you might want to dull any of your senses. Conversely, there are going to be a lot of instances where having stronger senses is a big advantage, such as listening to a distant conversation or figuring out the secret recipe to the cookies that one bakery makes. You can also not pay for the aforementioned concert and still listen to it from a nearby hill.
Store mass
The strength of this ability is debatable — Wax makes it look strong, but that’s arguably because of how well being a Skimmer pairs with being a Coinshot. Yet with clever application, storing and tapping iron has a ton of uses (pun once again intended). First of all, weight is one of the attributes that can actually be beneficial to store — being lighter has many upsides. Storing a small amount of weight makes you lighter on your feet, and with the right equipment, you could probably fly like a bird if you wanted; at a minimum you’d be able to glide around.
The weight has obvious combat applications: all you have to do is get your hands on your opponent, tap weight, and lean forward — only a Brute with a whole lot of strength stored would be able to stop you from flattening them. You’d certainly be able to hold the door, as well. While using your talents as a Skimmer would take preparation and practice, those who put in the time would be rewarded with a remarkable amount of flexibility given how simple the concept is.
Store health
Bloodmakers may have a bad time storing their attribute, but it sure seems worth it. Luthadel isn’t a particularly safe city, and even if you live a relatively peaceful life, you never know when you might need to heal from a terrible accident or a bad cold. You can fill a goldmind slowly, giving yourself the sniffles and making you a bit tired — unless you’re Wayne and are constantly getting shot at or beat up, you won’t have to tap your metalminds all that often. And you never know when someone might lose control of one of those new-fangled automobile contraptions while you’re minding your own business on the sidewalk. Not an exciting power, but one that would give a Feruchemist peace of mind, at least in regards to their physical well-being.
Store physical speed
All the healing or strength in the world can’t save you if you aren’t fast enough to get away or fight back. So Steelrunners are arguably the most dangerous Feruchemists, as all they have to do is get themselves a weapon and then they can take out their opponents before their opps can react. There are other uses besides combat: pulling off a perfect heist would be a breeze if you had enough steel; you’d be essentially impossible to apprehend as well. Moving around slowly isn’t a big deal in most situations, so storing steel isn’t an issue — that said, it is one of the most difficult attributes to build up a meaningful reserve of. Used correctly, however, you’d only need to use it briefly to get done what you needed to get done.
Store Fortune
Putting a power we know so little in the number one slot leaves room for criticism, but given what we do know about Fortune, the upsides of being a Spinner seem invaluable. While the Terris in Era 2 believe chromium stores luck, it appears there is more to it than that; some references to Fortune suggest that it allows people to see the future, as well. Hoid’s ability to show up where he needs to be is also Fortune, or something related.
Whether it’s luck, future sight, or some combination, it’s hard to imagine a more useful power. If you end up in a dangerous situation, or if you’re just asking someone a question you really want a “yes” to, Fortune would be useful. Presumably, you should be able to very slowly store Fortune while sitting at home where there’s no possible danger — though it does seem like that would be a bit nerve-wracking. But who doesn’t want to be luckier when they need it most?
Agree or disagree with our list? Let us know your thoughts, and which type of Feruchemist you’d want to be, in the comments below!
Art at top of page by Kelley King
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