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What would you do with a bead of Lerasium?


The Gecko

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I am rereading mistborn era 1, and I've thought a lot about lerasium (who hasn't?) and I'm curious how people would use it. Clearly the most common response would be to burn it to become Mistborn, but I feel you'd be wasting so much power on things like aluminum and gold. Let me present how I would use it, with a few variations.

First off, I'm ignoring that becoming mistborn is a 'side effect' of lerasium, and I'm not sure either have been confirmed, but I am assuming that burning more or less will vary your power levels, as well as assuming that alloys of lerasium produce mistings.

With my bead, I would split it into 16 pieces of equal size, and then alloy 6 of them with Steel, Iron, Pewter, tin, zinc and brass. I would then burn all of these alloys to become lerasium level mistborn for all of these. I would then burn the 10 other pieces as normal and become a full mistborn of 10/16 lerasium strength for all metals except those 6, where I am 26/16 times the strength of a lerasium mistborn, making me super powerful in all of those metals.

In my mind, metals like duralumin and electrum will work just as well no matter your  Allomantic strength. Duralumin will burn away all of your burning metals at once, whether you are a lerasium level mistborn, or a super diluted level mistborn. I don't think it matters. Electrum will still be poor mans atium, aluminum will still burn away your metals no matter your strength. The only reason I left 10 slivers of Lerasium is just in case I were to come across a new metal. If I knew I would never find a new one, I would actually put more lerasium into the other powers. That way, I would use a second piece of my lerasium bead in both steel and pewter, and maybe brass. I could also put a piece into copper and bronze, and being such a powerful user of those metals, I could possibly pierce copperclouds without a spike, and maybe make my own copperclouds unable to be pierced, even by someone with a spike.

If I were to do all of those slight variations, I would end up being 21/16 LS (Lerasium Strength) in Iron, Tin, Zinc, Copper, and Bronze. I would be 37/16 LS in Steel, Pewter, and Brass. I would also be 5/16 LS in every other metal, which would all work the same, except possibly Bendalloy and Cadmium, which I'm not sure how they would react to the varying power.

Now I am curious how other people would split theirs up, or if they would simply burn it, or keep it, or sell it, or whatever you would do. Let me know.

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Your strength would effect all of them. At least slightly. 

Electrum, the shadows would extend out to a lesser degree, would probably still counter atium.

Aluminum burns itself as well as everything else so the same thing would happen, just a little slower. 

But with everything else, duralumin included, strength = a faster burn rate as well as more power squeezed out for the amount of metal burned. 

Duralumin is not just "instant." it just seems that way because of how it works. It accelerates the burn rate of any metals burned in tandem with it so you get all of that at once... But if you had enough of the other metal it would be a sustained burn at a ridiculous rate. 

Lowering the strength of Duralumin means lowering its effect, which means slower burn of the other metal and less power. 

With bubbles, the rate of compression/dilation would be lessened by strength, possibly the size of the bubbles as well. 

But the biggest thing is that alloying to things specifically would increase your strength in that area and that area only... Which means if you can forge a connection to another Shard, you need strength as a Mistborn to even attempt to burn their metal with any amount of power. As well as atium alloys. A copper burner can't burn bronze just because it's an alloy of copper... 

So yeah, I'd go straight Mistborn. Skill typically trumps strength, as Vin vs Elend shows, and strength as a Mistborn means strength when and if it's possible to access other metals 

Edited by Calderis
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It's a toss-up whether I'd burn it myself or sell it for millions/billions. Maybe I'd cut the lerasium nugget in half, burn one half to see if it works (and probably pick up the power level of a "standard" non-lerasium Mistborn), and sell the remaining half to the highest bidder.

The only thing better than being a Mistborn is being a Mistborn who's richer than God to boot.

Edited by Unlicensed Hemalurgist
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You're making a lot of assumptions about how lerasium works. It's possible that you need the full bead to get the full strength for any given metal. Alloying 1/16 of a bead with iron might only give 1/16 the lurching strength of a lerasium mistborn. In other words, hacking the system to exceed 16/16 LS might not be possible.

So I'd do what I assume Hoid has done: burn half now, and save the other half for when we know what it's really capable of.

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Yeah, I'd probably skip the craziness, and just swallow the Lerasium. Maybe I'd be a bit weaker, but I'd still be an insanely strong Mistborn compared to the mistings that are around during and after Era 1. I honestly didn't know anything about cutting it up and trying to alloy it or anything like that. I didn't know that worked. Selling it might make me rich, but I could also make a ton of money in other ways with it. Plus I like the idea of vigilante mistborn superhero. That would be dope. I might study the Lerasium in a lab to try to understand it's elemental and chemical makeup, to see if it would be possible to create more somehow using SCIENCE. I could have the Avengers going on in here. 

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Divide the bead, burn part of it and save the other half until I know what its effect is when you burn it as a mistborn.

35 minutes ago, Unlicensed Hemalurgist said:

The only thing better than being a Mistborn is being a Mistborn who's richer than God to boot.

So, be a mistborn and buy a F-Chromium medallion. Compounded Fortune? I'm pretty sure that however that ultimately works, you could find a way to gamble with it and make money while still keeping the other half of a lerasium bead.

23 minutes ago, KalaDANG said:

I might study the Lerasium in a lab to try to understand it's elemental and chemical makeup, to see if it would be possible to create more somehow using SCIENCE. I could have the Avengers going on in here. 

Not on Earth definitely, but if you were on Scadrial we have the possibility that you could distil godmetals out of the mists.

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Unfortunately as I remember it, each time you burned it you’d overwrite your spirit web and become a new misting until you burned its pure form and then you’d just be a mistborn. 

 

I would cut a part of it off to preserve it (see what I did there??) and then burn the rest to become mistborn. Then I’d see if I could figure out a way to use the sliver to become full born somehow. 

Edited by Green Hoodie Mistborn
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7 minutes ago, Green Hoodie Mistborn said:

Unfortunately as I remember it, each time you burned it you’d overwrite your spirit web and become a new misting until you burned its pure form and then you’d just be a mistborn. 

It's additive. 

Quote

Questioner (paraphrased)

Could you become a double misting if you took two lerasium/metal alloy beads (I think the example was iron and steel) at the same time?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes.

Footnote: This contradicts what Brandon has previously established, that there is no canonical way of being able to burn more than one metal without being Mistborn or using Hemalurgy.
source

 

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39 minutes ago, Unlicensed Hemalurgist said:

Burn duralumin + second half, become a GOD

Unfortunately... 

5 hours ago, Calderis said:

Duralumin is not just "instant." it just seems that way because of how it works. It accelerates the burn rate of any metals burned in tandem with it so you get all of that at once... But if you had enough of the other metal it would be a sustained burn at a ridiculous rate. 

That accelerated burn rate makes it seem stronger, because it happens faster... But you don't actually get more out of it. 

Edited by Calderis
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50 minutes ago, Unlicensed Hemalurgist said:
  1. Burn duralumin + second half, become a GOD

Adding to what @Calderis said, we have a WoB that directly states this wouldn't work.

Quote

Bithorp

On the Coppermind there is this idea that if a natural Mistborn burned Duralumin and then Lerasium it would empower them to godly levels. Would this actually happen or would another effect happen.

Brandon Sanderson

That actually wouldn't work, but it is a clever idea.

source

 

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And more directly to cal's point

Quote

Questioner

What happens if you burn duralumin while Compounding?

Brandon Sanderson

Duralumin while Compounding. So, what duralumin does is it burns out of all of your metal in one burst. So it doesn't necessarily gain you power, it makes it all happen at the same time. The same thing would happen.

Questioner

Could you turn into a baby?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, you could totally turn into a baby. That is within the power of using that, doing <health wrong>, yeah you could totally... You'd be really dangerous.

Questioner

But it wouldn't really do much?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh it would have explosive... it does things really fast. That's what it does. Yes you could achieve very powerful sudden effects through that. It'd be scary. Controlling it can be dangerous, regardless of which metal you use.

source

 

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Everything you've said makes sense, particularly the duralumin, and though squeezing less power out of the metal would be inconvenient, I don't think it would really matter all that much. Slowing down the Duralumin could even be helpful in some cases. We see both Vin and Elend use Duralumin and we don't see that big of a difference. Because it uses so much power so fast, being less powerful isn't that big a deal, duralumin+pewter would still basically make you invisible until it runs out, no matter the strength of the duralumin. I think of it like getting struck by lightning, you could get struck by lightning, or you could get struck by lightning that's twice as powerful and twice as fast. To the one getting struck, its effectively the same thing as both will probably kill you.

I can't really think of why being full LS in aluminum would make any difference, as I wouldn't ever use it anyways, and if I were forced to like vin was, it may be better if it was slower.

Gold, similar story. Unless I was also a gold Feruchemist, which would change everything.

Electrum, like @Calderis said, would still counter atium, which as far as I know, its its main and pretty much only purpose.

Nicrosil and Chromium would be just like Duralumin and Aluminum, slowing down the time is a drawback I can deal with, though even with such low 'mistborn power' I would still be comparable to era 2 leechers and nicrobursts.

Losing Cadmium and Bendalloy strength would be disappointing, as I love Bendalloy so much, but I, like Marasi, would find uses for Cadmium and use it occasionally, but losing strength wouldn't matter much to me. Bendalloy, considering how much it costs vs how much it gives, just diminishes its value a lot. Unless its the only allomancy you have, like it is for Wayne.

Its really the 8 basic metals of era one that are the super flashy and powerful ones, and I still think they are the most affected by Allomantic strength. You really only need brass or zinc, and I'd rather be a soother. With Elend and Vin, steel and brass/zinc are the ones that are mentioned the most as being affected by Elends strength. With how I split my lerasium, I would be nearly two and a half times the strength of Elend in steel, pewter, and brass. The other basic ones I would be quite a bit stronger, though not as much.

I still think the way I split it would be the best, though you can play with the percentages and amounts however you wish. The only thing I think I would lose was if I came across a new metal, which would be disappointing that I was slightly weaker, but I'm still Mistborn.

Basically I'm rearranging the strength from the lerasium from the weaker metals to the stronger, with the only drawback being unknown metals. I think it'd be worth it.

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I just don't think strength matters that much. Vin would have wiped the floor with Elend. 

The only place that strength seems to truly matter is in taking direct control of hemalurgic creatures with emotional Allomancy. You can blast a much wider area. 

For the impressive manipulative uses of emotional Allomancy though its all about subtlety and reading the target. 

Edited by Calderis
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Well, you're completely right, and I completely agree. Skill matters more than strength. However... Imagine if Vin had been a lerasium strength mistborn.

Wax, with the amount of steel strength I would give myself, would be akin to a railgun. Both super accurate and skillful, and yet incredibly powerful. With the amount of soothing power I would give myself too, I would be a much more powerful soother than elend, and he can get koloss without duralumin. 

Like you said, skill matters much more, and I agree, but being both powerful and skillful makes a bigger difference.

Edited by The Gecko
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I'm torn. Part of me says that some metals are useless, and can be safely ignored. The other part of me knows that power isn't that great if it's only situational power. Yeah, I'd probably just swallow the whole thing. Maybe do the trick to purposefully exclude aluminum so that nobody could catch me in a spot like Vin in TFE.

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I feel you @Shaukan-son-Hasweth, getting a whole squad of buddies to mistborn up with you would be dooooope. I'd want at least one of my bros to go lerasium mistborn with me. Then we could learn together and fight against each other to get better and learn all the dirty tricks. Getting a squad with a couple different magic system users would be over powered as well. 

Edited by KalaDANG
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Or..... Alloy the bead with just one other metal to become super powerful misting.... Like with zinc... You would be able to toy with entire cities without leaving your home! And being so powerful would probably make it hard for seekers to pinpoint your location. On the other hand being a super powerful bronze misting would allow you to sense any tiny use of magic. Don't know how far your senses could go with that much power but I imagine it would be significant!

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13 hours ago, The Gecko said:

Electrum, like Calderis said, would still counter atium, which as far as I know, its its main and pretty much only purpose.

Brandon has said that it's possible to get more out of A-Electrum than we've seen and it could be pretty useful with practive, but Vin and Elend didn't have a need to experiment with it or really any good opportunities to do so given that they had atium and the end of the world breathing down their necks, respectively.

Quote

Kurkistan

Is it practical for an Oracle to get more out of electrum than Vin and Elend tried to?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. It is totally possible.

Kurkistan

So if you could see your shadow wince when it turned left, you would think "Oh, Mrs. Peabody's around that corner. I probably shouldn’t turn left!"

Brandon Sanderson

It is possible to squeeze more out of it than they did.

source
Quote

Questioner

How does electrum work?

Brandon Sanderson

Electrum can see future shadows only as far in the future as is done with atium in the books. They use it to counter atium in that they see their own future shadow fighting, and if they see their shadow get hit by an attack, they know to avoid that attack, and they change their own future. This compounds the future shadows they see, which makes it practically as effective at countering atium as atium itself.

While the scope of an electrum shadow is very limited, it could be useful in many situations. Like if you were playing tennis, you’d be able to look at your shadow and tell if you managed to hit the ball or not, and adjust accordingly. That would still take a lot of practice to master, but it could be very effective.

source

 

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My question is whether burning less leraisum would actually result in less powerful results. 

For example, burning a small sliver of pewter gives you the same strength as burning a large nugget of it, the only difference comes with how long you can burn it for. This seems to be the case for all of the metals we ever see burnt.

So why then should lerasium be different? Surely, if it follows the same rule as above, then you could burn a small sliver and still be as powerful as if you had burnt the entire nugget. 

I don't think Elend became as powerful as he did because he burnt a big nugget of lerasium, but instead because lerasium itself was the source of allomancy in mankind and since then the power has diluted, so he is comparitively mega powerful. So perhaps one would be capable of dividing the lerasium into many small shavings and making many mistborn from it.

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24 minutes ago, Mistborn Radiant said:

My question is whether burning less leraisum would actually result in less powerful results. 

For example, burning a small sliver of pewter gives you the same strength as burning a large nugget of it, the only difference comes with how long you can burn it for. This seems to be the case for all of the metals we ever see burnt.

So why then should lerasium be different? Surely, if it follows the same rule as above, then you could burn a small sliver and still be as powerful as if you had burnt the entire nugget. 

I don't think Elend became as powerful as he did because he burnt a big nugget of lerasium, but instead because lerasium itself was the source of allomancy in mankind and since then the power has diluted, so he is comparitively mega powerful. So perhaps one would be capable of dividing the lerasium into many small shavings and making many mistborn from it.

You'd just be very weak 

Quote

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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