Adonalsium is a hunk of God-metal

[EmulatonStromenkiin he/him]

Adonalsium was a hunk of sapient god-metal, hence the name. this is similar to spren when they manifest in the physical realm. Discuss.

[Duxredux he/him]

Well... Adonalsium is presumably a Yolish term, and the -ium ending that goes with a lot of metals is likely an aspect of the English language. To really check this, I'd need translations to see if the naming convention of Atium, Lerasium, Raysium etc. hold true in other languages, and even then it might not reveal anything because Brandon is an English speaker and the localization team just kept his made up word as is.

Mistborn Secret History spoilers:

Spoiler

Pretty sure Khriss theorizes about what Adonalsium was, if it had a vessel or not.

My guess is if you asked this, you'd get a RAFO or "some people might think this".

The question I have is how you are differentiating this hunk of metal from Shards who also can manifest themselves as hunks of metal. Is the implication that there wasn't a human or other sentient being operating as the Vessel?

Edited May 11, 2022 by Duxredux

[+Child of Hodor]

I do think Adonalsium was sentient Investiture. Investiture has 3 forms Solid, Liquid, Gas. Every example of solid investiture has been a metal so that's a way he manifested. The gas investiture we've seen has been things like breath, mist and stormlight.

There are hints he appeared as light. The mural in Dawnshard that shows the Shattering depicts a a light being split in pieces. In Oathbringer Ch. 82, when Hoid tells his version of "The Girl Who Looked Up" the girl steals "god's light". In OB, Ch. 48 we learn Ado or "Adoda" means light and Adolin means born unto light. 

 

[The Bookwyrm he/him]

52 minutes ago, Child of Hodor said:

In Oathbringer Ch. 82, when Hoid tells his version of "The Girl Who Looked Up" the girl steals "god's light". In OB, Ch. 48 we learn Ado or "Adoda" means light and Adolin means born unto light. 

Whoa. You just blew my mind a little.

Do you think that The Girl Who Looked Up is somehow referencing Adonalsium, or the Dawnshards?

3 hours ago, EmulatonStromenkiin said:

Adonalsium was a hunk of sapient god-metal, hence the name. this is similar to spren when they manifest in the physical realm. Discuss.

I don't really think Adonalsium was a giant hunk of metal. (The terms "Shattering" and "Shards" would be a lot more literal in that case...)

But your idea that Adonalsium had to have some kind of physical form or representation to interact with people does make some kind of sense to me. The same way Spren and Seons appear to people, and how Shards show themselves to others. It would make sense that Adonalsium has to follow some of those same rules.

Maybe Adonalsium was some kind of unknown, higher being, and the thing we call "Adonalsium" was just a representation of it that people could understand. (I don't really believe that, it's just a crazy idea, but there are a lot of those on the Shard.)

[EmulatonStromenkiin he/him]

8 minutes ago, The Bookwyrm said:

Whoa. You just blew my mind a little.

Do you think that The Girl Who Looked Up is somehow referencing Adonalsium, or the Dawnshards?

I don't really think Adonalsium was a giant hunk of metal. (The terms "Shattering" and "Shards" would be a lot more literal in that case...)

But your idea that Adonalsium had to have some kind of physical form or representation to interact with people does make some kind of sense to me. The same way Spren and Seons appear to people, and how Shards show themselves to others. It would make sense that Adonalsium has to follow some of those same rules.

Maybe Adonalsium was some kind of unknown, higher being, and the thing we call "Adonalsium" was just a representation of it that people could understand. (I don't really believe that, it's just a crazy idea, but there are a lot of those on the Shard.)

I love that people are diving into this, I was really tired when I came up with the idea.

[+ShardlessVessel]

5 hours ago, Duxredux said:

To really check this, I'd need translations to see if the naming convention of Atium, Lerasium, Raysium etc. hold true in other languages, and even then it might not reveal anything because Brandon is an English speaker and the localization team just kept his made up word as is.

I can confirm that the Brazilian versions of Mistborn leave the word atium unchanged. As you say, however, this doesn't say much beyond the translators deciding not to mess with the made-up word.

4 hours ago, Child of Hodor said:

Every example of solid investiture has been a metal so that's a way he manifested.

Spren can manifest as crystal to create fabrials, as we know from ROW. There's also the tenuous theory that soulstone from Emperor's Soul is solid Investiture.

 

Regarding the theory itself, it's interesting but I don't think it's the case. I think it's more likely that the naming pattern is a coincidence and Adonalsium was a lot like a Shard as we know them today.

[Duxredux he/him]

After reading the comments and thinking back, I'd guess that Adonalsium is similar to the Shards, because they were created by dividing Adonalsium. That implies that Adonalsium was originally a being of Investiture with the various attributes we see in the various Shards but combined into an entity. Adonalsium presumably created Yolen, and the inhabitants shattered Adonalsium, Ascending to become Shards.

I do think that it's very likely that there was a mind directing Adonalsium, and that mind presumably died at the Shattering (unless... they became a super Sliver or Cognitive Shadow and are still around...? That's a whole other thread that probably has already happened). Otherwise, I'd expect the Shards to be able to gain sentience and overall autonomy without a vessel, unless they somehow need to be at the scale of Adonalsium to do so. Seems unlikely though as even relatively little Honorspren bonded to humans seem to be more self-aware than say, Scadrial's pre-Catecandre mists. In-world speculation from the Hero of Ages epigraphs:

Spoiler

I believe that the mists were searching for someone to become a new host for them. The power needed a consciousness to direct it. In this matter, I am still rather confused. Why would power used to create and destroy need a mind to oversee it? And yet, it seems to have only a vague will of its own, tied in to the mandate of its abilities. Without a consciousness to direct it, nothing could actually be created or destroyed. It's as if the power of Preservation understands that its tendency to reinforce stability is not enough. If nothing changed, nothing would ever come to exist.
That makes me wonder who or what the minds of Preservation and Ruin were.

Granted, we know that Kelsier was doing some shenanigans and couldn't access or change what they were directed to do.

If Adonalsium was just a chunk of metal and there wasn't a distinct and possibly separate conscious directing it, I find it weird that so many people can Ascend so readily to become Shards. People can absorb that much power with at times minimal preparation, and that seems unusual unless the power being directed by a consciousness was something that was somehow built into the system of Investiture all the way up to Adonalsium. Some Vessels get attuned, some cheat, some seem to just be Connected to the Shard(s) and so Ascend. They can do it though, which I find telling.

Edited May 11, 2022 by Duxredux
Tweaks for clarity