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So, I was reading the AMA again and thinking about God Metals, and something Brandon said (basically that our understanding of the god metals has some holes in it) got me thinking about how atium works. We know that Lerasium can be used by both allomancers and non-allomancers, but in different ways. Non-allomancers do not need the ability to burn metals in order to tap the fraction of Preservation's power held in the Lerasium. Now let's turn to atium. To paraphrase what another user (mooglefrooglian) said on Reddit, Allomancy is required in order to burn atium--the burner either needs to be a seer or a Mistborn. It makes sense that a normal person swallowing atium is unable to use it like a person swallowing Lerasium is able to tap into its power, because swallowing and burning metals is part of allomancy, a magic system that is of Preservation, not Ruin. So, if used hemalurgically, is it possible that atium would not need to be charged, just like Lerasium does not need to be burned in order to grant allomancy? If this is the case, it could be that hemalurgic atium, like allomantic Lerasium, has more than one effect, depending on whether it is used within the magic system (with sacrifices, blood, and the whole works) or if it is just made to pierce the skin. The one hole in this theory is Shardic intent. It makes sense that Preservation's power can be given to anyone, since Preservation's intent is to preserve as much as possible. Ruin's intent is subtractive--compelling the holder to destroy and reduce things to smaller and smaller pieces. Hemalurgy requires sacrifice because it suits ruin's intent to concentrate power in the hands of fewer individuals. So, allowing for potential hemalurgists to gain power without sacrifice by using uncharged atium would be contrary to Ruin's intent. The only ways around this hurdle that I see are a) that the effect of using uncharged atium for hemalurgy does something that suits Ruin's intent in the same way that creating Mistborn fits with Preservation's intent, or b ) that utilizing the god metals outside of the magic systems allows the user to tap into a fraction of the shard's power, regardless of intent. Personally, I like option A better, but what do you guys think? Thanks for tolerating my musings .