Malatium at Ashravan

[+Oltux72]

What happens if you turn your malatium at a Forged person? Do you see the original? Would that be a corpse in Ashravan's case?

[Honorless]

I'd assume you'd see either the original Ashravan or a different possible version of their post-Soulstamp self. Malatium grants the ability to see either who another person was in the past, or who they could have become if they had made different choices.

Seeing a corpse sounds closer to a retroactive version of Sak's Aviar abilities.

We do have this hint, with gold:

Quote

Dirigible (paraphrased)

If Shai had a gold shadow, and she used one of her Essence Stamps, would her gold shadow change to reflect her new self?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, because she is changing her soul so the gold shadow changes.

Arcanum Unbounded Fort Collins signing (Nov. 29, 2016)

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Brandon Sanderson

Vin's attempt at killing the Lord Ruler was, I thought, rather clever. I made a point of making her be able to touch her past self when she was burning gold. There are a couple of reasons why this didn't work. First of all, the images are just that–images. When Vin touched the face of her past self, it was all part of the illusion that gold produced. None of it was real. So, even if she HAD been able to touch the image of the Lord Ruler's past self, she wouldn't have been able to hurt the Lord Ruler himself by killing it.

The other reason is important as well. The thing is, the Eleventh Metal isn't actually an alloy of gold, but an alloy of atium. If you understand Allomantic theory, you'll understand why this has to be. Each quartet of metals is made up of two base metals and two alloys. The base metals are the Pulling metals, like iron and zinc. They are also made up of two internal metals and two external metals. Two change things about you, two change things about other people.

The Eleventh Metal, like atium, changes something about someone else. Both have to be external metals–that's the way the pairing works. Gold (and its compliment) change things about the Allomancer.

So, atium shows the future of someone else, malatium shows the past of someone else. Gold shows the past of yourself, and electrum (gold's compliment) shows your own future. (We'll talk about that in a different book.)

So, anyway, the Eleventh Metal (malatium) matches with atium–both of which create images from other people. And, just like atium shadows are incorporeal, so are malatium shadows. That's why Vin couldn't touch the one she saw of the Lord Ruler.

Mistborn: The Final Empire Annotations (May 28, 2007)

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Peter Ahlstrom

Gold works like malatium and electrum works like atium. Yet they're on opposite corners of the metal square.

Hero of Ages Q&A - Time Waster's Guide (Oct. 15, 2008)

 

Edited July 9, 2020 by R J
edited for clarity