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I just finished a reread of all of Mistborn and in HoA, I came across an interesting line. “Preservation’s power remains, for power cannot be destroyed. His mind however, was all but destroyed-for this was the sacrifice he made to imprison Ruin.” “The sliver remains,” another reminded. “The shadow of self.” “Yes,” Haddek said. “But that is not Preservation, just an image-a remnant…” (The Hero of Ages Hardback pg. 507 Lines 1 and 3 added for context and emphasis is mine.) And I got to thinking… What is the connection to Shadows of Self? Is there a connection? Is book 5’s title a reference to Leras, Rashek, Kelsier, or Vin? Or all four? Or not of Preservation at all but of Ruin? Is Ati’s mind out their somewhere? Maybe somebody else? I’m gonna feel dumb it this has already been posted and explained. By the way, this is my first post so, howdy all!

I can't remember if this was covered in the books or not, but where did feruchamy come from? We know that the Terris people had it long before Allomancy and Hemalurgy became some what common in the Mistborn world, but I don't think we know anything else. The only thing that I can think of is that it is a magic system that combines the elements of Ruin and Preservation, although why it was only given to the Terris people is beyond me.

So the last week or two me and my good buddy(irl) Sirce Luckwielder have been having a discussion about Atium and how it is linked to the Lord Ruler's staying young. It led to some other discussions and I was wondering if any of what i suspect has been confirmed. Or maybe some of you who are smarter than I am can help credit or discredit this theory. I don't see how we will see Atium again at all and this is why. Atium was the physical manifestation of Ruin but it was either all used up to fight the Koloss or destroyed by Kelsier in the pits of Hathsin. He thinks that since Sazed has both shards there will still be Atium that will regrow. I disagree. Anyways, all of this discussion got me looking in to things that i haven't really cared about in the past (I'm a Roshar guy!) and I have firmed up in my conclusion that Ruin and Preservation no longer exist or are on the verge of no longer existing as two seperate shards. In The Emperor's Soul, Shai tries to teach Gaotona about the Physical, Spiritual, and Cognitive realm and she says this: All things exist in the three realms, Gaotona.... The Physical is what we feel, what is before us. The Cognitive is how an bject is viewed and how it views itself. The Spiritual Realm contains an object's soul- its essence- as well as the ways it is connected to the things and people around it.......Here is the point. The longer an object exists as a whole, and the longer it is seen in that state, the stronger its sense of complete identity becomes.. Do citizens of Scarial see Sazed as Ruin and Preservation? I do not believe so(my memory isn't perfect) They see him as Harmony. Sazed is seen as one entity, not to. So I believe that if the shards haven't already been merged, they are on their way. Anyways, I was wondering what people think about this theory. Sorry my post might seem all over the place, I have a hard time typing out the thoughts in my head. This is kind of new to me as I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about things on Scadrial, I've mostly kept to Roshar. So please forgive anything I might have misunderstood. Also, I'm sure when Sirce has a minute he can write our discussion better, he's a lot better with words than I am.

I was wondering if there was a way to artificially generate Lerasium and Atium. this question come from the fact that everything (except humans) on scadrial contains equal amounts of ruin and preservation, I was wondering if there is some way to separate the two powers that is contained in say, a rock, and condense them into equal amounts of Lerasium and Atium.

So from what I understand, shard blades are blades formed from the power of a shard, examples being spren. For example, Syl is a piece of the Honor shard, and can form into a blade, thus the blade is essentially made from a shard. Honorblades were the original tool given to the heralds to allow them to use certain powers associated with the honor and cultivation shards. Now, this is a little silly and wouldn't fit well into the stories, but its WoB that Harmony is having issues doing anything because of the nature of his two shards. I want to see him make some preservation shard bearers and send them around to be his "hands" in the world. Like imagine an Honorblade that gives the powers of allomancy, a Preservation-blade. I think it would be pretty boss. None of this would necessarily fit well into the cosmere narrative but i think the idea of the Honorblades would mix well with some of the other magics.

Each Shard has an intent. Many of these intents contradict each other, sometimes prompting battles between Shards. What was Adonalsium's intent? It might have had no intent, since the intents would have canceled each other out, or it might have had all 16 intents at once. This would cause Adonalsium to always be in conflict with itself. Given the strength of the intents of the Shards that we have seen, it would also be in extreme agony, and never actually be able to do anything. A solution to that situation would be for Adonalsium to shatter itself, hence my theory.

I have this theory about the Oathpact and the reason for the torture of Heralds, the death of Honor, the reason for the Desolations, and the origin of Honorblades that I don't think anyone else has already stated. First, I'll start with a couple references from Mistborn: In Chapter 57 of Mistborn:HoA, Ruin says this: And throughout the book it's made clear that Preservation's sacrifice was only a temporary solution that caused him to give up his mind, but would eventually allow Ruin to escape his prison. Also, in chapter 81 of HoA, Vin was able to use the power of Preservation to push back against Ruin causing her divine body to tremble in pain and agony and eventually die. I know Vin didn't trap Ruin this way, but I'm just pointing out that she hindered Ruin and that fighting a god causes pain - at least when the gods are so opposed. To me, this sounds a lot like the Oathpact. It's called a bargain, instead of a pact, but they mean almost the same thing. There is pain involved. A god must give of themself. A god eventually dies as a result. A god is trapped/imprisoned or hindered in some way. It's a temporary solution. Now, what if Honor and the the Heralds figured out a way to trap (or at least hinder) Odium and make it closer to permanent? Instead of Honor suffering agony for thousands of years (just like Preservation), dieing, and Odium eventually escaping (or regaining full power), the Heralds agreed to endure the pain in place of Honor (how this was accomplished will be discussed below). And what if by doing so, they prevented/delayed Honor's death? There was some kind of bargain (Oathpact) between Honor and Odium that trapped/hindered Odium temporarily, but caused Honor to die, after a few thousand years of agony, in the process. Afterall, would it not be honorable to give up your life to save the lives of the entire world? However, Odium was tricked because of the intervention of the Heralds (this might be considered dishonorable though, so Honor would not be involved in the trick). Odium still escaped his prison (or regained his full power) every few thousand years and it caused a Desolation. He is defeated and re-imprisoned; the Heralds return to the place of torment; and Honor still lives as a result. Now, I know Taln was still being tortured after the "last" Desolation, but what if that wasn't enough to save Honor's life this time, so he died or splintered. There is speculation that this is what caused the Recreance. Finally, I think this original Oathpact is what forged the Honorblades - their origin being hidden in plain sight. Honor had to give of himself to trap/hinder Odium, and the Honorblades are the physical manifestation of Honor's power - much like the Mist is the physical manifestation of Preservation's power or Atium is Ruin's. These Honorblades were given to the Heralds to grant them great power during the eventual escape of Odium. But in the process, because they held pieces of Honor's "body," they endured great torture when they were in the place of torment. I believe that place of torment is one and the same as Odium's prison. Holding an Honorblade and being in Odium's prison at the same time is excruciatingly painful, but it saved Honor's life - until the Heralds (except for Taln) failed to return the last time. Any thoughts, flaws, additions? Edit: modified for clarity and to address some of the comments below

Since Sazed now holds the power of Preservation, couldn't he take the form of the mist spirit like Leras did if he wanted to? Also, would he be bound in not being able to directly speak to humans anymore (as Preservation was) or would the fact that he is partly Ruin amend that (as Ruin was able to speak directly to those with Hemalurgic spikes)?

So welcome back to another of my Random Speculations, theories that don't really have enough support to be an actual Theory but that I nevertheless like the idea of. I'm not saying this is how I think things are, but I do think it is a possibility to be considered. The Three Metallic Arts consist of Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy. One of these however, is not like the other. Allomancy and Feruchemy both require certain genetic codes in order to be used, Hemalurgy does not. However we know that the Southern Scadrians have different versions of the Metallic Arts, that are mechanical rather than genetic. Why did two different manifestations of the same systems emerge? Well we know very little about the mechanical Arts so let's look at the genetic Arts. How does one become a Feruchemist? Aside from Hemalurgy the only known way is to inherit the genes for Feruchemy from a parent. So where then did the genes come from? We know they only appeared in the Terris population, and that it was given to them by Preservation long ago. How does one become an Allomancer? Again aside from Hemalurgy, one must either inherit the genes for Allomancy from a parent, get Snapped by the Mists, or burn lerasium. The later two being the source of the genes. So we have three sources: a direct gift from Preservation, a mechanism put into place by Preservation, and the physical body of Preservation. I don't know about you but that smells like Shardic meddling to me. We know Preservation can alter some things, he swapped out the external Temporal metals in the Mist-snapping mechanism. So here is my random speculation: The mechanical manifestations of the Metallic Arts are the original/natural manifestations of the Metallic Arts. The genetic manifestations are a result of Preservation meddling and inserting the abilities of Allomancy and Feruchemy directly into humans. Why would he do this? Well I don't really have a good answer for that. Perhaps with Feruchemy it was an effort to help preserve the Prophecies of the Hero of Ages, and that genetic Allomancy is better at consuming atium, to help combat Ruin. I just don't know. I could be entirely wrong about all of this, I'm not convinced by this but it is an idea to be considered. What do all of you think?

"Shardpool is a non-canon termused to describe a liquid essence of Shard. It is characterized by a Shard's Cognitive aspect." - coppermind.net/wiki/shardpool From what I can tell, for every Shard, there seems to be a Shardpool. I don't think I've seen a list, however, of the "known" Shardpools. Here's a list of Shardpools and their locations from what I can theorize. Feel free to give your thoughts and/or additions. Nalthis (Warbreaker) Shard: Endowment Shardpool: Beneath Hallandren? (Something to do with the Tears of Edgli?) Scadrial (Mistborn) Shards: Ruin, Preservation, [Harmony] Shardpools: Ruin: Dark lake beneath the Pits of Hathsin || Preservation: The Well of Ascension || Harmony: N/A (Not one of the original Shards, and relatively new) Sel (Elantris, The Emperor's Soul) Shards: Devotion, Dominion Shardpools: Devotion: The Lake (The Pool) || Dominion: Swamps of Dzhamar Roshar (The Stormlight Archives) Shards: Honor, Cultivation Shardpools: Honor: Emerald Pools (Horneater Peaks) || Cultivation: The Purelake

I have a question about Preservation that I did not find answered. Why is the expression of preservation (allomancy) seemingly opposite of his intent. Mistborn are incredibly efficient killing machines, and that seems counterintuitive for a shard whose intent is to preserve everything. Is there a reason for this?

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!

This thread isn't really a theory so much as it a questioned assumption. When I read the Mistborn Trilogy, I thought I understood how the Three Metallic Arts worked in relation to one another. Hemalurgy is end-negative, and is thus the force of Ruin. Feruchemy, being end-neutral, is the force of Preservation, as nothing is either gained or lost in a Feruchemical reaction. Allomancy is the power that results from both entities coming together. And end-positive art, Allomancy could not be powered by either of the Shards on Scadrial--they must work together in order to create. These were my assumptions, at least. I think that the above system is logical, but I have frequently seen people on the forums discussing how Allomancy is the power of Preservation and Feruchemy is the result of both Shards interacting. I feel like I must be missing something, possibly a WoB or a direct quote from the series I missed. Does anyone have definitive info on how the Metallic Arts relate to the Shards?

Just a quick thought, I am going through a reread of the Mistborn series while I await the upcoming Words of Radiance novel to come out. Just a simple question, what would happen if Larasium and Atium were forged into an alloy? Would it create a Feruchemist?