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Can Oracles break prophecy


Fallen Rope

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I may have found another use of electrum allomancy. Shards  are able to see into the future, atium gives someone a short term version of this ability. Electrum has been shown to stop atium, so maybe if an oracle is always burning then they are immune to any shard prophecies that have been made. Maybe nicrobursting an oracle removes them from any prophecy for the near future.

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For much the same way that it's unlikely simply burning copper would make you immune to Ruin's direct control, I would be surprised if burning electrum did much to thwart a Shard. With your own foreknowledge, it might be possible to add enough confusion to a tipping point, but just burning it as a whole probably won't bring you the results you want. Remember that Atium becomes useless because suddenly there are thousands of possibilities, and the human brain cannot have thousands of thoughts at once. From Vin's ascension, we see that Shards aren't quite so limited. From references to Rashek's brief Ascension, he accomplishes in minutes things that would take a human hundreds of hours, at least, to think his way through. Most Shards, if they gave you their full attention, could probably track down all thousand or so images you're putting off, correlate the data, and come up with a plan that will cause you to act how they want, no matter which future path you go down.

 

Shards can also probably use direct shardic intervention to simulate something like chromium and simply stop any single human's investiture that they wish. We know any Shard can power any Investiture, though this causes them to expend themselves in a way they are hesitant to do. Presumably, it would be a similar principle that would allow them to snuff any single Investiture.

 

I would suspect an electrum burst would be something like the opposite of what you suggest... rather than a longer immunity, I think it fits more with what we know of bursts for it to provide a stronger resistance for a shorter time.

 

Your idea has some merit. I could perhaps see a scene which two conflicting Shards have both foreseen and attempted to influence, their powers coming to a head, then suddenly in leaps Hoid, burning electrum and duralumin, putting off enough power to confuse the Shards just for a second while he... does whatever thing he does to change the outcome. I'm not gonna pretend to understand Hoid's plans.

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@Outis:
 
Burning metals enhances the mind, and this effect is enhanced with more power so far as I can tell. I find it very likely that burning duralumin with electrum would allow you to understand the futures you see to a crazy degree, though perhaps not all of them. I agree it would probably not allow you to formulate chessmaster-like plans and act on them, but in Elend's case he was able to see Preservation's end-plan and act correctly to checkmate Ruin.
 
WoB:

Allomancy’s Mental Effects
An interesting side note is to watch how Allomancy—all of its forms—enhances the mind in some way. Though the original concept for the magic system focused on different powers—some physical, some mental—the final product always had a mental component. Notice how, when burning tin, Spook is more able to focus on solitary conversations in the room. Or how his mind can filter out the mist or the cloth he wears. Burning pewter or tin will also make the mind more alert and awake. Burning atium not only lets one see a little bit into the future, but also lets one process that information in a useful way.
The mind is such a big part of what makes us who we are. I wanted Allomancy to impact the characters—to have an effect you could see on the minds of those using it. As I’ve stated, one of the places where books can outshine television or movies is in the ability to see exactly what is happening inside a character’s thoughts and emotions. By adding a mental component to each of the Allomantic powers, my hope was to play off of this strength of the written form.
(source)

 

Most important bit here is "Burning atium not only lets one see a little bit into the future, but also lets one process that information in a useful way".

Edited by Moogle
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I doubt it, for all the reasons given above.  Basically, I felt like all the shards are always burning mega-hyper-super-duper-Atium, and can take into account such trivial things as two humans fighting with the stuff without even breaking a sweat.

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@Outis:

 

but in Elend's case he was able to see Preservation's end-plan and act correctly to checkmate Ruin.

 

...That was atium he was burning. A God Metal.

 

I'm sure electrum helps somewhat, but we saw that even atium, a godmetal, cannot help you make sense of a literal cloud of shadows. There might be some utility to electrum, but it's unlikely that you'd suddenly be able to process the thousand potential futures at once. Being able to process a few dozen at once would be a huge mental benefit, and even that wouldn't help you greatly.

 

I think I understand what point you're trying to make by your comment about Elend. Remember, however, that he didn't checkmate Marsh, or Ruin. Ruin wanted to kill Elend. The only thing atium helped Elend do was to see that dying was the right thing to do. He didn't have to trick Marsh into anything, or confound Ruin's plan. He didn't have to outmanuever Marsh. He just had to allow Marsh to complete his actions unimpeded. Significantly easier to do than outfighting him.

 

An interesting point, however... duraboost atium let Elend see even farther into the future. If that's an underlying principle, presumably duraboost electrum would do the same, let you see your future even farther in advance. With even more opportunities to branch, this would probably lead to even more electrum shadows...

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