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Ok so my theory is that the Pits of Elantia and the Pits of Hathsin are the same. The koloss tat live in the pits of Elantia are there to protect the atium (possibly under Sazeds orders) Thoughts?

Potential Spoilers For Mistborn and Stormlight Archive (Not sure if this should be in the Mistborn section, but if so, somebody tell me and I'll get a mod to move it or something) In the Stormlight Archive, seeing the future is considered blasphemous. Their "God" is Honor. Therefor, on Roshar, seeing the future is of Odium. Is it just me, or does that seem to be a little too coincidental to the fact that on Scadrial, Ruin's God Metal is atium. Atium allows one to see the future. Therefor, on Scadrial, seeing the future is of Ruin. Ruin and Odium are both negative attributes. Seeing the future seems to be a negative thing in general. Is that a coincidence, or does anyone know if this is a thing?

So, my friend has this theory: he thinks that the Lord Ruler, during his fight with Vin, used a Duralumin burst with Atium that he had compounded, letting him see several years into the future. He decided that Vin could handle Ruin better than he, and, since he was sick of living (I mean, who wants to live for a thousand years where your noblemen hate and fear you and your vassals hate you), he let Vin win. Tell me what you think.

Brandon has stated that the true nature of atium is misunderstood, and there are inconsistencies in how it fits with other metals e.g. its relationship to electrum. It has been previously theorized that what is thought of as atium is an electrum-atium alloy but that has been argued against. The second quote I have leads me to wonder what the true nature of atium is, besides being the physical incarnation of Ruin's power. I think the alloy idea is possible, but perhaps atium is pure and there is something else I am missing to figure it out. CHAOS (15 OCTOBER 2008)I really want to know what the last two metals are. I always thought the bead Elend ate was one of them, but perhaps they are just things of Preservation, not meant to be understood. BRANDON SANDERSON (15 OCTOBER 2008) The metal chunk that Elend ate is intended to be something of a mystery. Much like atium, actually. Suffice it to say that atium isn't, and never was, what people thought it was. I intended Allomancy to be much like a real science. People investigate and put things into boxes, trying to describe and understand the world around them. That doesn't mean they always get things right, however. Let me say this, as I don't want to spoil too much. If that metal Elend ate were fused into specific alloys with certain metals, it could have instead created Mistings of each of the different Allomantic powers. Atium's abilities are not entirely explored yet either. CZANOS (17 OCTOBER 2008)Are Atium and the External Temporal Pulling metal really the same? BRANDON SANDERSON (17 OCTOBER 2008)You are on to something.

This all comes from my friend, but he doesn't post here, so very little of this is my actual idea. We were just wondering if The Lord Ruler had the ability to worldhop. If anyone in Scadrial's history could, it would be him. I believe it's WoB that every Shardworld's arcana has at least one trick that allows for worldhopping. Scadrial has three arcana that we know of. The Lord Ruler was the unquestioned master of Allomancy and Feruchemy. He could use his feruchemy to power his allomancy; nicrosil speculation aside, we have no idea how he did that and no canon examples of anyone doing the same. He prolly knew more hemalurgy than anyone there's ever been on Scadrial. He had exclusive access to the god metals, one of them in enormous quantities. However Scadrian worldhopping happens, odds are very good that The Lord Ruler was at least theoretically capable of doing it. Then there's his Ascension. In that moment when he held Preservation's power, he could well have gained cosmeric knowledge. The way Sazed realized his Powers were once a part of something greater, Rashek could have realized there were other Powers out there, too. I realize it's all speculation. I just wonder if it's something The Lord Ruler was aware of.

Just doing a big reread starting with Mistborn and noticed something weird. How come Kelsier only left them 6 beads of Atium? Shouldn't he have gotten heaps when he went through and destroyed the Pits of Hathsin? Or did destroying the crystals break the Atium?

It seems to be a commonly accepted fact that Preservation fundamentally changed allomancy before he sacrificed his consciousness to trap Ruin. It is said that he took away cadmium and bendalloy from the "official" ranks of allomantic metal and replaced them with atium (and malatium?). Two things: 1) Did he actually change the way in which allomancy works? Or did the people just not know about those metals yet? (I tend to believe the latter… but feel free to change my mind!) 2) If allomancy was fundamentally changed for that period, how was it changed? Was it the introduction of new Mistings or what? If it's quite obvious that what the answers are, please link me to the source (i.e. the wiki page, specific q&a, etc.). If not, the debate is on!

Technically, if you ignore your electrum shadows (made easier if your eyes are closed) your future won't change, will it? So if you ignore your electrum shadows, like it seems Vin and Elend did, would your future really change? Of course, if you not paying attention made it not change, then you'd pay attention, so it would change. But thats a paradox... so..

I would like to take the time to again warn that this post CONTAINS SPOILERS. It also contains some of my own theories. I will outline why I think there is something wrong with how Atium works in Allomancy and give suggestions on how I think it should work. If you find any mistakes in my logic or you have a reference that discredits one of my assertion please comment with it. This theory is something I want to be proven wrong on. Brandon's Allomancy/Hemalurgy/Feruchemy magic system is something I absolutely love, yet I cannot reconcile the issues I've found. Basis/Lore I feel that the way Atium works is incongruent with the logic of how Lerasium would indicate it would work. In the beginning it was said that humans did not exist on Scadrial, Ruin and Preservation had to work together in order to create them. Preservation had to promise Ruin that she would let him destroy the world (as is his nature) in the future if he would work with her this time. It was also said that Feruchemy came ages before the other metallurgic arts. I think that Ruin and Preversation created Feruchemy as a consequence of their collaboration. Allomancy (Net positive): Preservation’s power arrived during the first ascension, through Rasheck sharing the Lerasium beads with his most loyal companions. Allomancy generates greater force/energy than what is consumed from the metal. Hemalugry (Net negative): Ruin’s power and would be innate in the world. Some of the power is lost when using hemalurgy, the one with the spike always has a weaker version of the ability than it's original owner had. Ferucehmy (Net neutral, but not net zero): Exists through the merging of the two powers. Weak now, strong later. This is where I start to see the incongruent behaviour. Lerasium is a god metal, and everyone is capable of consuming it; Skaa or noble alike, and grants full-fledged Mistborn-dom. Brandon said that being a god metal, Lerasium has special properties in how it rewrites your "spiritual DNA". I feel that Atium should be the same way; everyone should be able to consume it as it is also a god metal. Atium and Lerasium are the physical manifestations of shardic power, and like actual shards they should both also be able to be picked up by everyone. This is probably the reason behind why Lerasium can be consumed by everyone. Atium’s Allomantic Effect Firstly, Preservation was attributed greater foresight. This is how Preservation was able to win out in the end and not have to give in to Ruin. Thus, why is it that Atium gives foresight as an allomatic effect? Secondly, if Lerasium’s allomatic effect grants the power of net positivity, then Atium’s allomatic effect should grant net negativity. I think that Atium being net negative, it would possibly have these effects... 1) if you are a Mistborn it would turn you into a normal human being. 2) if you are already a normal human, it kills you as ruins nature is destruction. 3) If you are a Misting it would turn you into something akin to a spren with a nature that would be dependent on the type of Misting you were. 4) If you were a Ferring, it would only partial destroy you, leaving only a fragment of your physical/spiritual/cognitive aspects behind as a shell of your former self, which depends on the type of Misting you were. 5) It’s hard to say what you would be if you were a Feruchemist and burned Atium. You could be destroyed, as your net negativity would be greater than your net positivity, but it could vary. An interesting idea would be that you cease to exist but the three aspects of you (your physical/spiritual/cognitive aspects) would be fractured into separate beings, locked as metaphysical building blocks across the three realms. Atium-Lerasium Alloy Thus, the alloy of Atium and Lerasium would grant Feruchemy and not the ability to burn Atium as a Misting; as in the the creation of humans the merging of the powers created net neutrality.

So in the books so far, all we have seen is Atium being used in fights, and I think it only affects Your Vision, IE; you see what will happen. But does using Atium Force you to kill? I know it's of Ruin, but Allomancy is of Preservation, so Shouldn't Atium be slighty 'good'? Is it just for Fighting, Or could a Lip reading Politician know what His Rivals were going to Say before they said? Basically, Can I use Atium to win at Chess, Politics and Other Non Violent Stuff?

Alright guys, I went to the signing and have a good three and a half hours of audio. If anyone wants to transcript, be my guess. So. Asked a few things: First of, Warbreaker was written as a sort of prelude to the character of Zahel. Aluminum does not give an atium shadow (Whoo!) Nightblood is a Shardblade, that is super powerful and twisted. If Kelsier's Cognitive Shadow went to the Forests of Hell, he would be a shade. If Laras's Cognitive Shadow went, he would be a shade. If a Seon went, they would be a Shade. Will post audio when I figure out how.

This theory addresses the way Preservation set up the shard pools (the Well and the Pits) and the way they distribute Lerasium and Atium. My presuppositions are that Atium is the key to Worldhopping and that the Lerasium beads in the Well chamber were generated by the well in a similar fashion to the Atium beads in the pits. I discuss these presuppositions more in this thread. Basically this all came out of my reasoning about how Atium is the key to Worldhopping on Scadrial, so I'm just going to quote myself here. I figured I'd separate this out in case anyone wanted to discuss this idea without taking my other thread off course. Here are some key points: And here is the really important bit: What do people think? I mean, I know that Leras had his master plan and all, but could this have been a motivating factor for Leras in setting up Classical Scadrial if the original function of the well was to set up a protector of Humanity? Especially considering that accessing other worlds would have given them a perspective on their own world, one which could have potentially undone Ati's history manipulation?

So, here's my second foray into the forums with this theory: I think the Set may have the location of Atium. We know that it takes about 300 years for Atium to regrow, and it's been around that time. I think it may be in the Pits of Eltania. (A location mentioned in the 'Broadsheet' pages of AoL, which supposedly has Koloss. I don't know the reliability of these sheets, though- they honestly seem a lot like tabloids. ) Anyway, in the Final Empire Scadrial, the Kandra (A hemalurgic creation) guarded the Atium. Could it be the Koloss' assignment now? Just an idea. *** It's obvious that Edwarn needed Wax to come to the city, so another Atium related theory I have is that Bloody Tan was an Atium Misting. I have thought long and hard about how he killed Lessie, but were he able to burn Atium, jerking Lessie in the path of Wax's shot would have been simple. This was the catalyst that sent Wax to Elendel, so... Just an idea. Anyone want to chime in??

These ideas have come from this thread, and the original idea in that thread of gathering a piece of every shard was Darnam's. The question is... could someone (say... Hoid) make a splinter of Adonalsium if he gathered a piece of each Shard, and if so... what would he need to gather. At least two are givens as far as I am aware (Preservation and Ruin) but what of the other Shards we know? As we go I'll update this post with what we figure out or suggest. Preservation: A Lerasium bead Ruin: An Atium bead Devotion: Dominion: Endowment: The tears of Edgli? A divine breath? Honor: A gemheart? An honourspren? Odium: Cultivation:

Now, I propose a theory henceforth known as Grandmaster. Allow me to establish the baseline for this theory before espousing it: Suppose Vin is fighting a Mistborn assassin (pre-WoA). She thinks the assassin has Atium so she burns it herself. Unfortunately (for the assassin) the assassin does not have atium, and gets killed. However, Watcher (aka Zane) is watching the fight and (for purposes of our discussion) burns atium as well. What happens? Conventional Atium Theory (CAT): Since Zane is in no way getting involved in the Vin's fight, Vin does not appear as exploding atium shadows to Zane, until Zane interferes. Grandmaster: Atium does not allows the user to see into the future, it allows the user to foresee the chain of events, like a chess grandmaster. Anyone burning atium is unpredictable and/or will deviate from predicted course, thus Zane would see the atium shadows. Evidence towards Grandmaster: The user never sees an Atium shadow of him/her-self. Strike you as odd? So does Zane see the shadows or not? OK, chess grandmasters don't work like that, I should know better. But it's a cool name.

Does Hoid have atium shadows? Anyone know?

So we know that someone who doesn't know what they are doing when ingesting a piece of Lerasium becomes a Mistborn. That led me to start wondering since it and Atium are literally pieces of the Power of Creation, what would someone who wasn't already an Allomancer ingesting a bead of Atium become or would it affect them at all? Would ingesting an Atium and Lerasium bead at the same time make someone a full Feruchemist? Anyone else have thoughts about this or am I just crazy? Maybe this is how Hoid got his Feruchemical powers, by ingesting a bead of Lerasium and a bead of Atium at the same time.

What happens if you alloy atium and lerasium? If a non-Mistborn burns it, it'll probably make you a Seer. If a Mistborn burns it...

We all know that during the time of the Final Empire, Atium was harvested in the Pits of Hathsin. The harvesting had a peculiar quirk: Allomancy cannot be used in the vicinity of the Pits, otherwise the Atium geodes will shatter. The Steel Ministry had to process the harvested Atium geodes first and convert them into Atium nuggets before Ruin's body can actually be used by metalborn. I think this fact, that Atium geodes shatter upon contact w/ Allomancy (Edit: perhaps just external Allomancy directed at the geodes), is very significant. I believe that it happens because Preservation's power negates Ruin, and so Ruin's body (i.e. Atium) cannot endure the presence of Allomancy. We know that Mistborn can use normal Allomancy without destroying their precious Atium reserves, so I began to wonder: What miraculous process was the Ministry using to make Ruin's body usable in Preservation's power? What made Atium nuggets different from raw Atium geodes? (Edit: Almost everything above seems suspect now. I'll just leave it there for future reference.) I remembered another peculiar thing about the Atium nuggets that were used during the Final Empire: Its Allomantic effect is just like that of Electrum, except you saw other people's shadows and not your own. And I remembered Malatium, the alloy of Gold and Atium, which was just like gold Allomantically except it, again, showed other people's shadows. Then it hit me: The Atium being used in the Final Empire wasn't pure Atium at all! It was an alloy of Electrum and Atium! That's why the "Atium" no longer gets destroyed. The Steel Ministry alloyed the pure Atium with an Allomantic metal (in this case, electrum) and this made it Allomantically stable. (Edit: there's a lot of good arguments why the Lord Ruler and his Ministry didn't do the alloying themselves. Also, I no longer think that Allomancy is dangerous to Atium.) This explains the Allomantic effect of burning this "Atium" and why it seems similar to Electrum. It had electrum in it! It could also explain why Malatium was the only other Atium alloy known during the Final Empire. Due to the chemical properties of silver and gold, it would have been easier to discover the silver component of Atium-Electrum (leading to the discovery of Malatium) than its gold component. Without removing the gold, the other Atium alloys couldn't have been discovered. If our Brandonology experts declare that the above theory doesn't contradict WoB, then I plan to discuss other theories regarding Atium alloys. Meanwhile, I'd just like to list quickly some minor theories based on my thought process above: Pure Lerasium cannot be used in Hemalurgy. Trying to pierce a person with a Lerasium spike will shatter it. (Edit: this might have contradicted WoB) Lerasium alloys have Hemalurgic properties. Atium's alloys have a similar (but non-identical) Allomantic effect to that of their non-Atium component. (Edit: it is said that all Atium alloys are mental-temporal. I don't know what this means regarding the 8 remaining physical/enhancement base metals.) The "Atium" used to Feruchemically store Age is also the Atium-Electrum alloy. That's how it can be Compounded. Edit: Alloying a metal that is already an Allomantic alloy produces an Allomantically-pulling alloy. This new minor theory is based on Phantom's comment below. Edit: Since an alloy typically has a similar power to that of its primary metal, this suggests that the alloy of Atium and Electrum has more Electrum in it. This is good, because it allows for a more efficient use of rare Atium. ​Edit: Given the difficulty of assuming that the Lord Ruler and the Ministry were alloying all the Atium they collected, I'm beginning to suspect it was Leras himself who did it, perhaps as another way to keep Atium away from Ati. He told Rashek about it, of course. It's possible that Sazed hadn't learned of this yet when he wrote the book he'd given to Spook. Since Leras is now out of the picture, I suspect pure Atium will appear in the future, giving people the chance to experiment with this God Metal and create more Atium alloys. Edit: This theory is officially "Skaa's Atium Theory #1". I no longer subscribe to this theory, and am currently working on "Skaa's Atium Theory #2", which will be incorporated into a bigger theory on the God Metals, and which will appear in another thread later.