Jump to content

Lerasium's Powers (Spoilers)


NysemePtem

Recommended Posts

We know that Lerasium is the condensed power of preservation, as Atium is to Ruin. 

The power of shards can exist in material form in solid and liquid states. Logically, it should be able to exist in gaseous form as well (and plasm) which leads me go believe that the Mists are - in fact - Preservation's own power in gaseous form. 

-Vin is able to absorb the Mists and enhance her Allomancy with it, becoming capable of manipulating metals inside someone else like the LR and perform a Steelpush so powerful it decimates Kredik Shaw. 

Lerasium turns people into Mistborn, but apparently this is just a side effect. Lerasium's true power is unknown, but we know that using the Mists (a sort of dilute Lerasium) gave Vin a huge boost. According to the wiki, burning enough Lerasium to achieve Savanthood would make one the Shardholder of Preservation; this seems to be what Vin did by absorbing all of the Mists. We know that Leras intended for her to succeed him temporarily, and she Ascended after his death. This makes me wonder, however, what would have happened if Leras still lived and Vin absorbed the Mists - would she have been unable to, as someone already held Preservation? Or, can anyone at anytime take hold of Preservation by burning enough Lerasium? (I know it's unlikely anyone would have access to the relevant amounts)

-Lerasium is also unique in that anyone can burn it, thereby becoming Mistborn. 

Lerasium spikes steal all abilities, much like Atium spikes. The wiki states that Atium spikes are "better" at this than other metals - and I believe that this means Atium spikes lose less power during the transfer. Based on Preservation's intent, however, I believe that:

1- A Lerasium spike is exempt from the Law of Hemalurgic Decay, that is the powers it steals will always remain at full strength, barring that the spike is split. 

2- A Lerasium spike isn't just able to steal any ability (like Atium) but will invariably steal and store all abilities. 

My problem with the second part of this theory is that things beyond Metallic abilities can be stolen, like Investiture and Identity. I'm not sure what the implications of this are. 

I have no idea what Feruchemical properties Lerasium has.  Maybe it can somehow store the Preservation part of people, making the person more destructive while feeding a Lerasium mind, and more Preservative while tapping it? This is, however, rather flimsy guesswork. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your first theory could possibly be a side effect much like the ability of turning one into a Mistborn. One theory I have is that Lerasium is able to grant a greater spiritual connection to Preservation and this would be why those Mistborns are at such levels of power. 

You might lead to some problems though if you were to use Lerasium as a spike since Hemalurgy is a net-loss process and Allomancy is a net-gain process and they might conflict, I don't really know how it's just a theory. It might be possible that a Lerasium spike could be able to store all types of Feruchemical energy because of the influence of Ruin and Preservation. I still have some questions as to why a Lerasium spike would be needed because the person who found it could just become a Mistborn themselves rather than going through the trouble of making a spike.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

49 minutes ago, The Deity said:

Your first theory could possibly be a side effect much like the ability of turning one into a Mistborn. One theory I have is that Lerasium is able to grant a greater spiritual connection to Preservation and this would be why those Mistborns are at such levels of power. 

Yup, this is the most popular theory right now, that Lerasium strengthens Spiritual Connection, defaulting towards Preservation to grant Mistborn powers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Harmonium is a clue as to Lerasium's power. Based on the WoB Honoerless had quoted, Lerasium's ability to Connect people to Shardic power as a side effect, Vin being supercharged by the Mists, Harmonium's ability to copy Allomancy and Feruchemy (and if my suspicion is correct, other forms of Investiture), and Lerasium's Hemalurgic power, I have a suspicion that Lerasium's true power is the ability to strengthen Investiture and Connection of the person who burns it.

Edit: ah, didn't actually submit the post until late, but it's nice to see other people also view Lerasium the same way

Edited by StanLemon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, The Deity said:

I still have some questions as to why a Lerasium spike would be needed because the person who found it could just become a Mistborn themselves rather than going through the trouble of making a spike.

The reason is that you can spike a feruchemist with the spike to be a full feruchemist.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, StanLemon said:

Also, the description is "abilities" which we don't exactly know the limits of. Is it just a magic system? Is every trait that Hemalurgy can take?  

Hadn’t thought of that. It would probably be overpowered if it did absorb everything to be honest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My take on the "steals all abilities" of H-Lerasium vs "steals any power" of H-Atium is that "abilities" refers to all the human attributes that are NOT metalborn powers (physical strength, senses, emotional fortitude, and mental fortitude/memory/intelligence), because those are a part of the extra bit of Preservation investiture inside humans, and so Lerasium is more tuned to that and is able to take it all at once as a charge, perhaps also resisting the Law of Hemalurgic Decay due to being of Preservation. By contrast, H-Atium takes any singular metalborn power (or maybe even something like Surgebinding, idk) from the target, since it's the god-metal of Ruin, the creator of Hemalurgy as an Invested Art.

tl;dr, Lerasium is a catch-all for human attributes, and Atium is a wild-card for invested powers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, NysemePtem said:

The power of shards can exist in material form in solid and liquid states. Logically, it should be able to exist in gaseous form as well (and plasm) which leads me go believe that the Mists are - in fact - Preservation's own power in gaseous form. 

Um...this is explicitly stated in the books...like, explicitly.  When Vin is pulling in the Mists.  And later in Era 2, they talk of it being Harmony's Body that is always there, but not always visible.  They literally have a line, an epic one, where Kelsior is talking to her as she is ascending:

 

"Solid in the metal you fed to Elend. The liquid in the pool you burned. And vapor in the air, confined to nightHiding youProtecting youGiving you power!"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, Honorless said:

We do have some suspicions regarding Lerasium's true use, see this WoB:

 

This, along with what we know about Lerasium Savanthood, makes me believe what people are saying about Lerasium granting increased spiritual connection. 

-could someone who burned lots of Lerasium be able to communicate with Preservation/Harmony without the need to be spiked? 

6 hours ago, Halyo_Alex said:

My take on the "steals all abilities" of H-Lerasium vs "steals any power" of H-Atium is that "abilities" refers to all the human attributes that are NOT metalborn powers (physical strength, senses, emotional fortitude, and mental fortitude/memory/intelligence), because those are a part of the extra bit of Preservation investiture inside humans, and so Lerasium is more tuned to that and is able to take it all at once as a charge, perhaps also resisting the Law of Hemalurgic Decay due to being of Preservation. By contrast, H-Atium takes any singular metalborn power (or maybe even something like Surgebinding, idk) from the target, since it's the god-metal of Ruin, the creator of Hemalurgy as an Invested Art.

tl;dr, Lerasium is a catch-all for human attributes, and Atium is a wild-card for invested powers.

The word "abilities" isn't made clear, but it seems odd that the same word would describe two different effects in two similar contexts. If you're correct, I would expect the word "attributes "  - which you used - to describe what H-Lerasium steals. It seems overpowered, but I'm inclined to think that Lerasium steals all Metalborn powers. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, NysemePtem said:

This, along with what we know about Lerasium Savanthood, makes me believe what people are saying about Lerasium granting increased spiritual connection. 

-could someone who burned lots of Lerasium be able to communicate with Preservation/Harmony without the need to be spiked? 

The word "abilities" isn't made clear, but it seems odd that the same word would describe two different effects in two similar contexts. If you're correct, I would expect the word "attributes "  - which you used - to describe what H-Lerasium steals. It seems overpowered, but I'm inclined to think that Lerasium steals all Metalborn powers. 

It seems very strange to me that Atium would use "Any Power" and Lerasium "All abilities" if they meant the same thing. If so Lerasium would say "All powers".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

20 minutes ago, Raphaborn said:

It seems very strange to me that Atium would use "Any Power" and Lerasium "All abilities" if they meant the same thing. If so Lerasium would say "All powers".

You're right, as per the Hemalurgic table. So we're back to either Lerasium stealing human's Preservation-related attributes, or abilities being an umbrella term for those and Metalborn powers. But interestingly, the WoB on H-Atium says it can be used to mimic any other spike, which includes those Preservation attributes. So, Preservation abilities seem more likely.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...