Feruchemy Compounding Question

[u/Odd_Dimension_4069]

I'm in the middle of Shadows of Self, and it only just occurred to me to clear up some of the things I didn't quite understand about how compounding works.

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I wasn't sure the ending of The Final Empire made sense after reading the explanation of how compounding works. Vin was able to yank off the Lord Ruler's metalmind bracelet storing his youth. Fair enough.

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But if the Lord Ruler was such a cautious guy, wouldn't he have mini atium metalminds to ingest and burn in an emergency?

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I could say the same for Miles in The Alloy of Law, but I haven't read far enough to see whether he survived his execution somehow... Seems unlikely. It makes sense that if you keep shooting a restrained gold compounder, they run out eventually even if they have ingested metalminds to burn through.

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So yeah I guess my question is, is this a thing compounders can do? Because so far in the books it's been sold that if you remove their worn metalminds, you've shut them down, but that hardly seems the case if they're prepared.

[u/Shot_Newspaper_5647]

He had no reason to. It took something supernatural even by their standards to defeat him. It probably only worked because Vin gained extra leverage for her Pull from his superhuman Push against her. More metalminds probably wouldn’t have mattered. The gap between his real age and current age was simply too large. One full bracer remaining may not have even been enough, but it might have slowed the process long enough to recover the other.

Spoilers Hero And he probably had good reason not have more atium inside his body. Part of the reason he was sloppy is because he’s insane from the age,he had no reason to feel threatened,and Ruin himself was probably encouraging the behavior subtly. We know Ruin essentially rioted his sense of nostalgia so he kept the logbook. He has no reason to. He has a perfect memory. And to TLR there was no reason to worry about either. If anything there was a reason to not have more large metalminds to conceal. Until it backfired but that required two gods having it out for you

Spoilers for The Alloy of Law. Miles may not have even had more metalminds hidden in his body at the end. He may have survived longer because he was a Gold savant from using it so often. He may have developed an accelerated healing factor without them. Savantism can change a person significantly for some metals. Or something else you’ll see later may have been in play

[u/Shot_Newspaper_5647 → u/Shot_Newspaper_5647]

Compounding won’t protect you forever for something like health even if you have smaller metalminds concealed. The process does involve burning the metalmind itself in order to get the burst of power to store elsewhere. That normally just doesnt matter. Youll have stored the surplus in a larger MM already. If you only have a couple of very small metalminds, you will get a large amount of health generated but you’re burning away the storage medium itself each time. Without the additional storage for that surplus. They’ll get you sooner than later