Lerasium's True Power, MB Era 1 Spoilers

[BitBitio]

So, this theory is centered around Lerasium, Allomancy, and Hemalurgy. 

The first thing we need to do is figure out Lerasium in Allomancy. See, there is this WoB that suggests that consuming Lerasium makes one Mistborn. However, burning it supposedly has a different effect, and it is also said that anyone can burn Lerasium. So, we'll use clues from our knowledge of the mists, Atium, and the Well of Ascension.

So there is that quote from Kelsier:

"It's the same power, after all. Solid in the metal you fed to Elend. Liquid in the pool you burned. Gaseous in the mists, confined to the night, hiding you, protecting you, giving you power!

So, I figured something interesting: what if it really is the same power? The mists could be burned as a catch-all, any sort of metal, and more effective than any other as well.

Evidence 1: Elend somehow obtained pewter that worked especially well, which saved his life after a gut wound. Or was it Lerasium?

Evidence 2: Atium is a catch-all in Hemalurgy, so Lerasium should be a catch-all in Allomancy.

So, Hemalurgy. Lerasium, near as I can figure, "preserves" more effectively. Since Atium "ruins" more effectively in Allomancy, as pointed out by Vin and Elend.

[Lord Mistborn Bondbreaker]

1 hour ago, BitBitio the Mudkip said:

 

Evidence 1: Elend somehow obtained pewter that worked especially well, which saved his life after a gut wound. Or was it Lerasium?

Well your theory could have merit, the pewter Elend burned was in the vial that Vin gave him to wash down the bead of Lerasium. 

[The Harlem Worldhoppers]

2 hours ago, BitBitio the Mudkip said:

Evidence 1: Elend somehow obtained pewter that worked especially well, which saved his life after a gut wound. Or was it Lerasium?

I think the pewter working especially well is mostly to do with his incredibly strong allomancy.  Elend's allomantic abilities are quite a bit stronger in terms of raw power than Vin's.

2 hours ago, BitBitio the Mudkip said:

Evidence 2: Atium is a catch-all in Hemalurgy, so Lerasium should be a catch-all in Allomancy.

 

This is true as burning non God metals simply filters the power of Preservation while Lerasium itself is the essence of Preservation and it can be used to fuel the base metals as shown in Elend's fight against Marsh at the end of HoA.

However, there are probably some more interesting ways that Lerasium could be used outside of Allomancy doping such as the use of Lerasium metal minds or Lerasium alloys

 

https://wob.coppermind.net/adv_search/?query=Lerasium#10116

 

[Calderis]

The mists being able to fuel anything has to do with their structure. 

Quote

Kaimipono

Allomancy is fueled by Preservation's body? How exactly does that work? And how does that interact with Atium—it's fueled by both gods' bodies?

Brandon Sanderson

The powers of Ruin and Preservation are Shards of Adonalsium, pieces of the power of creation itself. Allomancy, Hemalurgy, Feruchemy are manifestations of this power in mortal form, the ability to touch the powers of creation and use them. These metallic powers are how people's physical forms interpret the use of the Shard, though it's not the only possible way they could be interpreted or used. It's what the genetics and Realmatic interactions of Scadrial allow for, and has to do with the Spiritual, the Cognitive, and the Physical Realms.

Condensed 'essence' of these godly powers can act as super-fuel for Allomancy, Feruchemy, or really any of the powers. The form of that super fuel is important. In liquid form it's most potent, in gas form it's able to fuel Allomancy as if working as a metal. In physical form it is rigid and does one specific thing. In the case of atium, it allows sight into the future. In the case of concentrated Preservation, it gives one a permanent connection to the mists and the powers of creation. (I.e., it makes them an Allomancer.)

So when a person is burning metals, they aren't using Preservation's body as a fuel so to speak—though they are tapping into the powers of creation just slightly. When Vin burns the mists, however, she'd doing just that—using the essence of Preservation, the Shard of Adonalsium itself—to fuel Allomancy. Doing this, however, rips 'troughs' through her body. It's like forcing far too much pressure through a very small, fragile hose. That much power eventually vaporizes the corporeal host, which is acting as the block and forcing the power into a single type of conduit (Allomancy) and frees it to be more expansive.

source

"In physical form it is rigid and does one specific thing." 

Lerasium should have one specific function, that we don't know. 

[The Harlem Worldhoppers]

23 minutes ago, Calderis said:

"In physical form it is rigid and does one specific thing." 

Lerasium should have one specific function, that we don't know. 

Just out of interest, do you have any theories as to what the effects of a mistborn burning Lerasium could be?

[Calderis]

4 minutes ago, The Harlem Worldhoppers said:

Just out of interest, do you have any theories as to what the effects of a mistborn burning Lerasium could be?

No. I have no rusting clue. It's infuriating. 

[The Harlem Worldhoppers]

Just now, Calderis said:

No. I have no rusting clue. It's infuriating. 

I know right. I spent a while earlier going over every WoB on Lerasium on the Arcanum and I still haven't the faintest idea of what it does. I'm keeping a small hope alive that Lerasium is the lost metal in the Wax and Wayne 4 as that empty pedestal with 'Atium: The Lost Metal' seems a little bit too on the nose.

[Leyrann]

Quote

In physical form it is rigid and does one specific thing. In the case of atium, it allows sight into the future. In the case of concentrated Preservation, it gives one a permanent connection to the mists and the powers of creation. (I.e., it makes them an Allomancer.)

That's what the WoB Calderis quotes says, and isn't that just the answer? Concentrated Preservation is Lerasium, so it gives "a permanent connection to the mists and the powers of creation."

The question, then, is what this means beyond making them an allomancer. Perhaps a Connection to Scadrial itself, that could allow you to influence your surroundings to a degree?

[Calderis]

5 hours ago, Leyrann said:

That's what the WoB Calderis quotes says, and isn't that just the answer? Concentrated Preservation is Lerasium, so it gives "a permanent connection to the mists and the powers of creation."

The question, then, is what this means beyond making them an allomancer. Perhaps a Connection to Scadrial itself, that could allow you to influence your surroundings to a degree?

That could be it in itself, as Mistborn would definitely be a side effect of that. It has always sounded like there is a specific effect that would be noticeable though. The main one I remember is this WoB. 

Quote

Questioner

I was curious, what would happen if a full Mistborn burned lerasium? What would the Allomantic powers be?

Brandon Sanderson

Oohh, excellent, excellent question. So, I have not revealed what lerasium does if you already have Investiture. So, the answer to that is a RAFO. We've actually had like three people ask that tonight, so there must have been a discussion on the Sh-- the forums about it and I didn't answer them, so I can't answer you.

source

 

[Leyrann]

2 minutes ago, Calderis said:

That could be it in itself, as Mistborn would definitely be a side effect of that. It has always sounded like there is a specific effect that would be noticeable though. The main one I remember is this WoB. 

Well in that one Brandon says (I'm too lazy to look up WoBs that aren't in this thread btw, hence me referring to the one you posted twice in a row) "I have not revealed what lerasium does if you already have Investiture", so perhaps it only has the effect if you are already an allomancer/mistborn, which would explain why Elend wouldn't have a noticable effect. Alternatively, maybe Elend just didn't know he could use it, and we haven't seen Lerasium apart from this.

It's not much, but hey, who knows?

[+robardin]

"Drawing on the power of the mists" must do something more than just fuel Allomancy, though, because while pewter can "let one do some awesome things" in terms of withstanding injury, it does not actually HEAL injury - that's why Vin's knife to the throat or arrow shaft through the heart were still killing blows to Zane and Shan.

But at the end of The Hero of Ages, Vin had her legs, arms, and finger bones broken by Marsh as he attempted to torture her into revealing where the atium was, until Marsh (with an assist from Kelsier) was able to seize control of his own body and push out Vin's earring spike... Allowing her to draw in the mists... After which she rose up and started beating down the Inquisitors with kicks and stuff that should have been physically impossible with broken bones.

She was not just "pewter flaring" away the pain or increasing her constitution to buy her time to heal normally (if accelerated by pewter), as an ordinary Pewterarm or Mistborn would have done, she was full on healed. (Of course by the end of that fight, she'd drawn in all of the mist and Ascended, her body burning away completely.)

I guess maybe Lerasium Mistborn or Mist-fueled pewter (especially flared or duralumin-boosted) burns at such a high level of power that the "increased stamina and accelerated healing" effectively becomes like tapping gold? Except for the "pewter drag" effect that would kick in eventually.

Edited June 29, 2018 by robardin

[Leyrann]

9 hours ago, robardin said:

"Drawing on the power of the mists" must do something more than just fuel Allomancy, though, because while pewter can "let one do some awesome things" in terms of withstanding injury, it does not actually HEAL injury - that's why Vin's knife to the throat or arrow shaft through the heart were still killing blows to Zane and Shan.

But at the end of The Hero of Ages, Vin had her legs, arms, and finger bones broken by Marsh as he attempted to torture her into revealing where the atium was, until Marsh (with an assist from Kelsier) was able to seize control of his own body and push out Vin's earring spike... Allowing her to draw in the mists... After which she rose up and started beating down the Inquisitors with kicks and stuff that should have been physically impossible with broken bones.

She was not just "pewter flaring" away the pain or increasing her constitution to buy her time to heal normally (if accelerated by pewter), as an ordinary Pewterarm or Mistborn would have done, she was full on healed. (Of course by the end of that fight, she'd drawn in all of the mist and Ascended, her body burning away completely.)

I guess maybe Lerasium Mistborn or Mist-fueled pewter (especially flared or duralumin-boosted) burns at such a high level of power that the "increased stamina and accelerated healing" effectively becomes like tapping gold? Except for the "pewter drag" effect that would kick in eventually.

What if it just heals, the same way stormlight does? After all, that would very much Preserve the body.

[Govir]

21 hours ago, Leyrann said:

The question, then, is what this means beyond making them an allomancer. Perhaps a Connection to Scadrial itself, that could allow you to influence your surroundings to a degree?

This is a good point. Although I don't know about influencing your surroundings, it could be possible that it increases your Connection to Preservation / Scadrial. I'm vaguely remembering an annotation that talks about how Allomancers are "closer" to Preservation or something, but it's been a long time since I read the annotations, and I didn't find anything after searching for about 10 minutes on Arcanum. That is to say, if burning Lerasium increases your Connection to Preservation, it could make sense that it would make you Mistborn (and also maybe have another side effect of if you were a Worldhopper, it could maybe allow you to speak and understand the local language).

I'm on board for this theory.

[DrakeMarshall]

The best I can think of for why Lerasium (and alloys) create allomancers is that it is a raw form of the power that fuels allomancy, and just like how mists rip pathways into the spirit web to allow more power to flow, Lerasium does the same (but in a more structured way, because solid power is more structured).

Of coarse, ripping those “troughs” isn’t the primary function of the mists (the primary function is fueling allomancy). Like so, Lerasium has another primary function, that is not directly related to the side effect of gaining allomancy.

I don’t think we could have an easy time guessing what that primary use is, because I don’t think it is a generalization of the side effect, if the mists are any example. I think it is a completely distinct (although still preservation-themed) power.

[+Ark1002]

I'm pretty sure it's very simple. Lerasium isn't really an 'allomantic metal', it just creates allomancy. You don't burn it for an affect, you use it to get the ability to make affects. My question is what the lerasium alloys would do. My theories are:

1. It creates a 'super-misting': the ability to burn the metal mixed with lerasium, but at a level of a lerasium mistborn compressed into one metal.
2. Creates a new allomantic affect

[Calderis]

14 minutes ago, Ark1002 said:

I'm pretty sure it's very simple. Lerasium isn't really an 'allomantic metal', it just creates allomancy. You don't burn it for an affect, you use it to get the ability to make affects.

Brandon says otherwise. 

[+Ark1002]

He does? Where? I haven't seen it.

[MountainKing]

4 minutes ago, Ark1002 said:

He does? Where? I haven't seen it.

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18th_Shard

So you have said that making someone Mistborn is not lerasium's primary function, that a Mistborn burning it would have another effect. Is this also true of its alloys?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

source

Quote

Questioner

Have you revealed what the primary effect is of burning lerasium is?

Brandon Sanderson

I have not.

Questioner

Can you in the book?

Brandon Sanderson

No. I can write a RAFO though.

source

 

[+Ark1002]

Well, hopefully he will write it in the lost metal or one of the other future trilogies.

[Leyrann]

3 hours ago, Ark1002 said:

Well, hopefully he will write it in the lost metal or one of the other future trilogies.

At some point we'll know, that I don't doubt.

When... That's another question.

I personally like my theory of it healing though.