Theory about Harmony *AofL Spoilers*

[Arcanist Lupus]

I don't think that Ruin could extend power to a spike, but Harmony might be able to.

Also, Wax has 3 things going for him with his communication: he as a hemalurgically charged earring spike; he believes in Harmony as his God; he's an allomancer, (4 things) he's trying to communicate with Harmony, and (amongst the things in Wax's favor are such diverse elements as) he's a feruchemist.

Between all of that, it would be more amazing if he couldn't communicate with Harmony.

Also, this is just a pet theory of mine, but I think that any piece of metal (i.e. a spike) that's piercing a living body gains some hemalurgic charge. The charge is so small as to be nonexistent, but maybe it's enough to allow Harmony to communicate with anyone with an earring, given a combination of the previous items I mentioned.

[CrazyRioter]

NO ONE expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Ahem.

Well I don't think Hemalurgy works that way, fortunately it doesn't matter as Brandon said they made earrings out of reused Inquisitor spikes, so that's where the charge comes from. Also yeah, Harmony could probably talk to Wax and his other followers even without the spike, he just doesn't.

[lauren.e135]

Well I don't think Hemalurgy works that way, fortunately it doesn't matter as Brandon said they made earrings out of reused Inquisitor spikes, so that's where the charge comes from.

That and the charge depletes when outside the body. So the extra boost it gives would probably be very small at this point.

[Aiken Frost]

+1 for CrazyRioter and Sir Read-a-Lot for referencing Monty Python!

More on topic, I believe people are letting rules get in the way of understanding that Harmony is a GOD. Not only that, but a god that is twice as powerful as the gods that existed before. He not only have their powers, but could have even more because of the interaction of the two shards he is holding.

EDIT: Typos.

Edited November 19, 2011 by Aiken Frost

[Wispsy]

Considering how important placement is in hemalurgy, would any other metal then bronze actually give power when placed in the ear like that?

[Chaos]

Considering how important placement is in hemalurgy, would any other metal then bronze actually give power when placed in the ear like that?

It's entirely possible. I don't think we know enough to say.

[Eric]

There are 16 metals. Marsh says there are "some two or three hundred bind points" (HoA 372). Possibly 256, 16 bind points for each of the 16 metals. If that is true, that each bind point is metal specific, then most likely not. Nor would you necessarily get enhanced Seeker abilities from the other 15 Bronze locations. But this is entirely speculation based on the focus on the number 16.

Edited November 20, 2011 by Eric

[Wispsy]

especially considering alendi also had his hemalurgical spike from an earing, same place same ability, whereas all other abilities we have seen granted have been placed in different spots on the body.

it doesnt make me wonder about burning hemalurgic spikes with allomancy...a feruchemical charge writes over an allomantic one when an attribute is stored in the metal. reckon this would hold true for a hemalurgic charge too(as in it could be burned and produce different effects from normal metal)? also would storing an attribute feruchemically change the metal from a hemalurgic spike to a feruchemical metalmind?

Edited November 20, 2011 by Wispsy

[Asha'man Logain]

What struck me most in this book about Harmony (other than how many times it was mentioned) is how much Alloys were mentioned. Not just in the title, though that does lend more signifigance. Many times, by both Wax and Miles, they (forgive the pun)wax philisophical about alloys. How when you take two different things (metals) and combine them you get a completly different and new material.

I know the Harmony being two shards merged together thing was discussed and largely set aside. However, I think it deserves to be revisited. It could be a red herring, but i now think that Sazed as Harmony is no longer just Ruin+Preservation but actually a new entity.

[CrazyRioter]

That does seem to be the effect the Shards are having on his personality, yes.

[happyman]

What struck me most in this book about Harmony (other than how many times it was mentioned) is how much Alloys were mentioned. Not just in the title, though that does lend more signifigance. Many times, by both Wax and Miles, they (forgive the pun)wax philisophical about alloys. How when you take two different things (metals) and combine them you get a completly different and new material.

I know the Harmony being two shards merged together thing was discussed and largely set aside. However, I think it deserves to be revisited. It could be a red herring, but i now think that Sazed as Harmony is no longer just Ruin+Preservation but actually a new entity.

The conclusions were a bit more subtle than that. My argument was that the fundamental pieces (i.e. the Shards themselves) had not combined on a fundamental level, but that their interaction with each other, via Sazed, produced a system which was functionally very different from the two uncombined shards. An analogy: Hydrogen is an element which forms a gas in its pure state, and Oxygen is a very different element which also produces a gas in its pure state. When you combine them, the hydrogen atoms and oxygen atoms remain essentially unchanged, but the resulting system (via chemical interactions) produces wildly different results, which in this analogy are molecules of water. Even if the pieces don't merge into each other physically, the higher-level interactions can have quite different results on the world.

[Aiken Frost]

Also, remember that Brandon Sanderson said that Sazed wasn't changed by the shards at all, but changed as a person. You know, like you or me would change if we became überpowerful, lived for hundreds of years and had all knowledge of the world laid down to us...

[CrazyRioter]

Also, remember that Brandon Sanderson said that Sazed wasn't changed by the shards at all, but changed as a person. You know, like you or me would change if we became überpowerful, lived for hundreds of years and had all knowledge of the world laid down to us...

I'm pretty sure it was implied that holding the Shards would inherently change him eventually, they do that to their holders.

[Aiken Frost]

I'm pretty sure it was implied that holding the Shards would inherently change him eventually, they do that to their holders.

I don't know... Holding ONE shard probably change a person, but maybe it just take a lot of time. An maybe, holding preservation and ruin at the same time make them "pushing" in opposite directions enough that he just keep being himself.

But I'm pretty sure about Sanderson saying that, that Sazed's personality wasn't affected by the shards, at least by the AoL era. It is in the most recent interview, if I remember correctly.

[FeatherWriter]

Yeah, I'm going to go with Sazed has changed, but he wasn't molded to the intents of the shards. That's always been my take on that whole business.

[ReaderAt2046]

Here's a small theory about Harmony - it's been brought up several times that, because humans are slightly more of Preservation than of Ruin, that the Ruin shard will over time have a stronger effect on Sazed.

The extra power of Ruin was counterbalanced by Leras stealing a bunch of Ruin's power and turning it into the Pits of Hathsin. I can think of no reason for Saze to discontinue the pits, so that keeps the two powers equal.

[FeatherWriter]

But, I'm pretty sure that Brandon said that there wasn't any more atium. I can't remember why; perhaps because Kell destroyed the crystals and Elend and his army burned it all up? I guess the crystals haven't come back yet, though I feel like there was a more permanent answer to that...

[Aradel]

I remember somewhere in cannon it was said that preservation switched one or both of the temporal metals with atium. Since there are now cadmium and bendalloy mistings atium may not have it's old role in allomancy.

[pmj812]

The extra power of Ruin was counterbalanced by Leras stealing a bunch of Ruin's power and turning it into the Pits of Hathsin. I can think of no reason for Saze to discontinue the pits, so that keeps the two powers equal.

There's one perfectly good reason to discontinue the Pits: keeping atium out of the world.

Though it's just as kept-out if it's miles underground I suppose.

[ReaderAt2046]

There's one perfectly good reason to discontinue the Pits: keeping atium out of the world.

Though it's just as kept-out if it's miles underground I suppose.

And why would Harmony want to keep atium out of the world? Actually, that would be one of the things he would most want to keep in play. (preservation likes keeping things around and ruin likes atium.)

[Thought]

Sanderson has said that the only atium left in the world is what Marsh is using to stay alive (compounding age). From the HoA Q&A:

2) Marsh is alive. I changed this from when I talked to Ookla. I realized some things about his use of Allomancy that would allow him to survive. Actually, he is immortal. He can pull off the same Allomancy/Feruchemy trick that the Lord Ruler did. (And he knows it too, since he was there when Sazed explained how it was done in Book One.) He's actually the only living person who actually knows this trick for certain. (Though there's a chance that Spook, Ham and Breeze heard about it from Vin and the others.) So yes, if there were another series, Marsh would make an appearance.

1. Marsh has the bag of Atium that KanPaar sent to be sold, as well as several nuggets in his stomach. So, I guess 'immortal' is the wrong phrase. He's got the only remaining atium in the world and can keep himself around for a long, long while--but he WILL eventually run out. Unless Sazed does something.

Why would Sazed keep Atium out of the world? Who knows, but it might actually be the reverse. That is, he isn't keeping it from the world but rather not giving it. When he became Harmony, the WoA was destroyed/reabsorbed, along with all accessible aspects of Preservation and Ruin (which excludes metal, such as the mysterious missing bead or beads of lerasium, and Marsh's atium). The well was made from Preservation and trapped Ruin. Since part of ruin's power was atium, it is safe to assume that the well kept atium's power from automatically reverting to Ruin. Rather, it seems likely that it was the cause of the Pits. No well, no power being diverted to the Pits, so no "naturally" growing atium. Sazed would have to intentionally create Atium, now, if he wanted people to have it.

Regarding Sazed's eventual "corruption" by the shards he holds, something to consider is that the intent of a shard might not corrupt in proportion to its power. Even if most of Ruin's power were locked away, someone holding the shard might be corrupted just as fast as if the shard were at full power. Might not, of course, but the nature of the shards and the influence of their intent is vague.

Likewise, it might be that Harmony is now the most powerful Shard in existence, overshadowing Odium. However, again, since we don't know much about the nature of the shards, we don't know how much power each started out with in comparison to the others.

[Lurriq]

In Alloy of Law, we first see Wax lose his lady love this emotionally damages him significatly. This could of unhinged him enough to commune more directly with the Ruin side of Harmony, with the aid of the Path earring.