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How much lerasium to make an Allomancer (Mistborn)?


robardin

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I suspect there is a WoB out there somewhere that either directly answers or indirectly comments on this, so I turn here for the answer :).

The nugget of lerasium that Elend ingests - the only one we've seen other than the one that Hoid takes in Secret History, whose use of it is still an off-screen unknown at this point - was described as a "bead", about the same size as a standard bead of atium. Which makes sense, since atium was also a "coaelesced god metal" that occurred naturally on Scadrial, as condensed Ruin as formed in the geodes at the Pits of Hathsin.

Ingesting that bead made Elend a Mistborn, and a very powerful one, at that, second only to TLR.

Now, atium can be melted, alloyed (as for "malatium"), and in one memorable trick, used to coat Allomantically inert metal of similar weight to fake a greater quantity. I'm talking about the large bead of atium that Zane supposedly gave to Vin as a gesture of trust, who then kept it secreted in her kandra wolfhound, that turned out to be a thin coating of atium over bead of lead.

However, there was a "thin coat of atium" - Vin was able to burn it and see atium shadows, they just disappeared after only a few moments, when she expected much more from a bead of that size.

I remember reading that making a lerasium alloy would make a person a Misting of that metal; ingesting a putative bead of lerasium + steel would make someone a Coinshot. So what if one were to do the Zane Trick and coat a bead of lead with pure lerasium? Would that make a very weak Mistborn, or even more curiously, make someone a Mistborn but only temporarily (not enough power to rewrite the sDNA of the person in question)?

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Brandon has said that you could use a tiny bit of a lerasium bead and it would still work, you'd just be phenominally weak.

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Questioner

The size of the metal, does it matter to transfer Allomancy or can it be really really tiny or really really big?

Brandon Sanderson

For Allomancy? Or what, a bead of lerasium? Is that what you're talking about?

Questioner

Yeah, when you're transferring the powers, like to make someone a Mistborn...

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah it has to be-- The size of it is going to influence how strong a Mistborn you are.

Questioner

It couldn't be a sliver.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah-- Well it could, you'd just be really weak as a Mistborn.

source

 

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Aha, so it is a matter of strength - that makes sense.

So here's a theoretical question then: would you rather be a "weak Mistborn" or a normal strength Misting? Would Era 1 or Era 2 metal availability be a factor?

I instinctively think being a "weak Mistborn" would be more useful/powerful than most kinds of Mistings; after all, you could flare and duralumin yourself up in many different metals.

Being (say) a 1/16 FE Era strength Mistborn, with the ability to flare to 1/8 and duralumin up to 1/4 normal strength, would still be pretty cool. It could even let you pass for "awesome normal person" instead of "suspiciously superhuman person who should be captured".

But unless you were quite small and light to begin with, you wouldn't be able to fly like an ordinary full-strength Coinshot. at 1/16 strength you would probably only be able to duralumin-jump up a couple of stories, and then have to replenish your metals real quickly.

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There's a question of Alloy vs coating in that case as well.  Given that Alloys act wildly different, Id assume that you have to fully melt and mix the two metals before it would make a difference in the actual outcome effects, otherwise there wouldnt be a lot of difference between downing Bronze and downing both Copper and Tin. 

 

Also, fwiw Id rather be a full Feruchemist than a full Mistborn, but I agree that being weak at all is preferable over being decent at one. 

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