[Bands Spoilers] The Lost Metal

[MistWit]

Currently, the Mistborn novels have had titles that generally relate to the main object/focus of the book. So we can speculate with fair certainty that the fourth installment of the Wax and wayne books I going to deal direct with The Lost Metal.

 

So what exactly is this lost metal going to be. There seems to be three answers that would make sense.

 

1. Atium: An obvious choice but it has only been gone for around 300 years, which compared to the other two choices is a short time(although 300 is enough time for Atium geodes to have regrown if the Pits of Hathsin still exist in a functional way). Another question is if Atium even forms now that Ruin doesn't exist on his own.

 

2. Lerasium: This is a truly lost metal since it has been nearly nonexistent since the Lord Ruler gained found it. It doesn't seem likely that Lerasium will be reintroduced.

 

3. Ettmetal: This metal has been lost for a very long time. On top of that it hold the power for huge technological advances for the North, which is certainly a topic the book could focus on. My bet is on this for being the lost metal.

 

4. Harmonium: I would include this in my likely metals but seeing as it has only existed for 300 years and nobody has ever even seen it there doesn't seem to be a lost aspect to it. It could still turn out to be this.

 

Anyone have different ideas on metals or the focus for the next book based of which metal is the lost metal?

Edited January 27, 2016 by InquisitorWit

[Seerow]

What about the unknown metal that was used on Lessie? That seems to me to be the strongest contender besides Atium, seems strange to leave that out.

[Lightflame]

A Metal band started by Szeth. They broke up when he became Truthless, but he got the band back together, and now their music is so bad that it's creating Trell.

[Plaeggs]

I believe that atium has been referred to several times in-text as the lost metal. I don't have a specific WoB, but I remember it being in SoS. Wax was at a party I think?

[Argent]

I believe that atium has been referred to several times in-text as the lost metal. I don't have a specific WoB, but I remember it being in SoS. Wax was at a party I think?

 

Yeah. The easiest references is a plaque there that reads "Atium: the lost metal." When Wax is climbing out of the Pits he also makes a reference to "the lost metal. Legendary atium."

 

So, unless it's a wordplay on the phrase, I think the title is pretty clear.

[Voidus]

Do we have confirmation that Ettmetal isn't one of the god metals? I was under the distinct impression that it's almost certainly Harmonium.

[nervousnerd]

That might make sense because it neither creates or destroys. It uses an allomancer or feruchemist's own reserves to transfer some of their power for a time. That seems harmonious to me.

[Landis963]

That might make sense because it neither creates or destroys. It uses an allomancer or feruchemist's own reserves to transfer some of their power for a time. That seems harmonious to me.

It doesn't create or destroy until it comes in contact with water, that is. Then it just can't help itself destroying things.

[natc]

Metal exploding in water is a perfectly normal, nonmagical phenomenon that chemistry teachers probably want excuses to demonstrate, however. Not really Ruinous at all.

I'd like to point out that neither shard could create by themselves, so that's the wrong dichotomy to use for Harmony here.

Edited January 28, 2016 by natc

[Alpharho]

The exploding in water part could point to it just being a non-god-metal that people simply weren't aware of, like Magnesium. It might break the 16 metal symmetry, but wasn't it said somewhere that 16 was just something Preservation presented as a clue that there was something larger going on?

 

Though why Harmony wouldn't put that in his book, I couldn't guess.

[thegatorgirl00]

We know that the title of the last book is The Lost Metal. But what metal does the title actually refer to? Is it Atium, the metal that gives Allomancers the power to see into the future? Is it Lerasium, the metal that can be burned to make anyone an Allomancer? Is it the mysterious metal inside Paalm, that even Harmony couldn't see?

Thoughts?

[CaptainRyan]

This might be somewhat of a tangent but are we sure that there are only sixteen (16) base metals? I know that with the "God-Metal" alloys we can go beyond sixteen but do we have WoB that there are, for sure, only sixteen base metals?

[Windrunner]

We know that the title of the last book is The Lost Metal. But what metal does the title actually refer to? Is it Atium, the metal that gives Allomancers the power to see into the future? Is it Lerasium, the metal that can be burned to make anyone an Allomancer? Is it the mysterious metal inside Paalm, that even Harmony couldn't see?

Thoughts?

Merged two similar topics into one, thus the repetition.

[nervousnerd]

Sorry meant preserves or destroys.

I don't really see there being much more than 16 base metals because we already know relatively little about many of the feruchemical properties of metals and we know next to nothing about hemalurgy

I think if there is a lost metal, that is must be a god metal.

[Jke]

We need to generate polls for some of these theories. For instance, take the options presented by Witty above and have 17th Sharders vote on options. For me, I think the lost metal is atium. The new metal used by SoScads is Harmony's new metal. And since we haven't seen anybody "snap" into a new mistborn-equivalent since Harmony has ascended, I suspect that his metal, harmonium, is a version of the ettmetal. But what it would do in the original(?) solid metal form I couldn't guess. 

[Angsos]

My guess is the Lost Metal is Atium. Does anyone in book even know about Lerasium because I don't remember it mentioned. Also the new spike metal is unknown not lost. Unless something better comes along my money's on atium.

[VoltCruelerz]

Based on the plaque, I'd say it's almost certainly Atium.

[junior]

Atium does seem to be the most likely option. I was rereading Mistborn last night, and after Kelsior destroys the Pits, there's a comment that he'd cut off the supply of new Atium for a few centuries. And it has now been a few centuries since Kelsior destroyed the pits. If Atium is going to reappear, you would expect it to happen at about this time - give or take a few decades.

Lerasium seems unlikely because no one was ever really aware of it. And unless the series is about to have a lot more mistborns show up, it'll remain unknown. Sazedsium might be a possibility (a godmetal based off of Harmony is the topic of one of the newspaper articles shown in BoM, which might be Sanderson's way of introducing it), but you have to have something before you can lose it. And no one's had Sazedsium to date, so it can't be a "lost" metal.

[Ari]

Do we have confirmation that Ettmetal isn't one of the god metals? I was under the distinct impression that it's almost certainly Harmonium.

 

I'm pretty sure we've seen people handle Atium in the rain, so I don't think it can be Ettmetal. I'd have to re-read Era 1 to be sure though.

 

I'd say the Lost Metal is either Atium or Ettmetal. Harmonium, to our knowledge so far, hasn't existed yet, so it can't be lost. Lerasium could be technically lost, although it doesn't really seem to be known about enough to consider it a "lost metal" in a way dramatic enough to merit a book title.

 

Ettmetal could potentially be a lost metal depending on what it actually is. But that's a bit more of a long shot. I'm 75% that we'll be seeing some sort of Atium Hunt going on. (Which will be interesting, as it'll only be Seers who can burn it this time, instead of Mistborn, so the biggest use for Atium would be to Atium compounders...)

Edited February 1, 2016 by Ari

[mjk]

Hey guys! Okay, so I'm totally new to this forum thing, but I just devoured BoM and SH in a single day, and I had a couple of ideas based on linguistics that might provide some insight into the whole Ettmetal/lost metal thing.

 

You see, one thing I noticed when reading BoM is that the Southerner's language patterns seem to be somewhat derivative of our own Scandinavian languages - some words are even directly translatable (I'm Norwegian, which is why I noticed it), while others just bear similar linguistic patterns. For instance, when Allik talks about the "Jaggenmire", he mentions that the Jaggenmire is composed of Herr and his sister/wife Frue, which in the Scandi-languages translate directly to Mr. and Mrs, and makes complete in-world sense as well. Or when Allik first recognizes Wax as an Allomancer, he says "Hanner konge?", which would more or less translate from Scandi to English as "He is a king?" - which again makes total sense considering how Allik pretty much sees Wax as a godlike being from there on out. 

 

Anyway, this is all just grasping at linguistic straws on my part, but! If I follow this little "theory" even further and apply it to Ettmetal, and translate that, then we get "The Onemetal". To me, anyway, "The Onemetal" implies something that is one - something unified - which obviously brings loads of associations to Harmony with it. But hey, I'm new to this and it might not make much sense to anyone but me! 

[skaa]

...

That makes a lot of sense, actually. I now have no doubt that what Miles called "the final metal" is in fact ettmetal, and that ettmetal is harmonium.

As for "the lost metal", I think it's possible that it is not the same as "the final metal". Atium was called "the lost metal" in Shadows of Self, so I prefer to think that atium will be reappear in the fourth Era 2 book. If so, giving post-Catacendre Scadrians access to atium would be a great opportunity for Brandon to show off other cool atium alloys (which are certainly more interesting than lerasium alloys).

Edited February 2, 2016 by skaa

[Ari]

Hey guys! Okay, so I'm totally new to this forum thing, but I just devoured BoM and SH in a single day, and I had a couple of ideas based on linguistics that might provide some insight into the whole Ettmetal/lost metal thing.

 

You see, one thing I noticed when reading BoM is that the Southerner's language patterns seem to be somewhat derivative of our own Scandinavian languages - some words are even directly translatable (I'm Norwegian, which is why I noticed it), while others just bear similar linguistic patterns. For instance, when Allik talks about the "Jaggenmire", he mentions that the Jaggenmire is composed of Herr and his sister/wife Frue, which in the Scandi-languages translate directly to Mr. and Mrs, and makes complete in-world sense as well. Or when Allik first recognizes Wax as an Allomancer, he says "Hanner konge?", which would more or less translate from Scandi to English as "He is a king?" - which again makes total sense considering how Allik pretty much sees Wax as a godlike being from there on out. 

 

Anyway, this is all just grasping at linguistic straws on my part, but! If I follow this little "theory" even further and apply it to Ettmetal, and translate that, then we get "The Onemetal". To me, anyway, "The Onemetal" implies something that is one - something unified - which obviously brings loads of associations to Harmony with it. But hey, I'm new to this and it might not make much sense to anyone but me! 

 

Good catch, thankyou for translating!

 

You could potentially interpret "the Onemetal" to mean any of the Godmetals, however given the comments about Preservation and Ruin always being one... that seems like a pretty strong push for Ettmetal being Harmonium. Not sure if that necessarily makes it make sense as the title metal, but it seems a lot more possible if Harmonium and Ettmetal are the same thing.

[mjk]

Good catch, thankyou for translating!

 

You could potentially interpret "the Onemetal" to mean any of the Godmetals, however given the comments about Preservation and Ruin always being one... that seems like a pretty strong push for Ettmetal being Harmonium. Not sure if that necessarily makes it make sense as the title metal, but it seems a lot more possible if Harmonium and Ettmetal are the same thing.

 

You're very welcome! I've been reading these forums for ages, so I'm just happy to be able to contribute to them, even if said contribution is highly speculative. Also very happy that my idea makes sense to someone other than me! 

 

I'm actually with skaa up above there in thinking that the lost metal probably refers to Atium, though, and that Ettmetal and Harmonium are the same thing, just not lost. So excited to see where Brandon takes this! 

[nervousnerd]

We need to generate polls for some of these theories. For instance, take the options presented by Witty above and have 17th Sharders vote on options. For me, I think the lost metal is atium. The new metal used by SoScads is Harmony's new metal. And since we haven't seen anybody "snap" into a new mistborn-equivalent since Harmony has ascended, I suspect that his metal, harmonium, is a version of the ettmetal. But what it would do in the original(?) solid metal form I couldn't guess. 

 

But if ettmetal is harmonium then I do not understand why Harmony let the southerners freeze for like 10 years. Also if harmonium was used for the southerners then that means that Harmony is the one who sent Kelsier (or someone who looked like him) to them.

[junior]

That makes a lot of sense, actually. I now have no doubt that what Miles called "the final metal" is in fact ettmetal, and that ettmetal is harmonium.

As for "the lost metal", I think it's possible that it is not the same as "the final metal". Atium was called "the lost metal" in Shadows of Self, so I prefer to think that atium will be reappear in the fourth Era 2 book. If so, giving post-Catacendre Scadrians access to atium would be a great opportunity for Brandon to show off other cool atium alloys (which are certainly more interesting than lerasium alloys).

 

I have a vague recollection of a WoB stating that Atium would be coming back.  Unfortunately, I can't remember where or when that WoB might have been made.  If my recollection is correct, then it's worth noting that when Kelsier destroyed the Pits of Hathsin, it was stated that his actions basically meant no more Atium for a few centuries.  And the current books take place a few centuries after the Pits were destroyed.