Would you rather: Lerasium v Atium?

[Mistchemist16]

This is a fun little idea I had to see how people felt about the original two God Metals of Scadrial. Here’s the explanation for each of the 3 rounds.

Round 1: You can choose a lerasium bead the size of the one Elend got, allowing you to become an ancient level Mistborn. Alternatively, you can pick a guarenteed lifetime supply of Atium, along with the ability to burn it.

Round 2: You can choose a lerasium bead of the same power before. But this time, you can be an Atium Compounder instead, with the Atium supply still in place for your entire life.

Round 3: You can either have one pure lerasium bead or 16 alloyed beads: one for each of the Misting types. The 16 are also at ordinary Misting strength, while the Lerasium bead is still ancient level. Is the whole greater than the sun of its parts?

I also encourage you to explain why you made each choice. Have a nice day!

Edited March 7, 2023 by Mistchemist16

[Stick The Savant]

Atrium is really useful in combat, but aside from that, I can't think of many users in my day to day life (I could probably become the world champion in fighting games). I feel like being a mistborn is more useful because of the variety of abilities, pewter alone seems like it would be life changing to have.

Compounding is more useful, but I'd probably feel lonely after being immortal for a few centuries. Brandon has said that compounding can be used to enhance allomancy but we don't know the specifics yet. 

If I had to pick between one bead and the sixteen, I think I would still go for the single bead because I don't think I trust 16 people enough to give them allomancy (maybe aluminum lol)

[Quantus he/him]

I want the whole mistborn package, not just lifespan.  For lifespan Id want a nice 5th heightening Nestegg. 

[Jozomby he/him]

3: I voted for the 16 individual beads, because there are some powers I don't care about.  So with separate beads I could sell the powers I don't want for a ridiculous amount of money.

Coinshot, pewterarm, slider, etc. plus retirement-level cash?  Yes please.

[alder24]

We're talking about pure Atium, not Atium-electrum alloy, that was used during era 1?

1 hour ago, Mistchemist16 said:

Round 2: You can choose a lerasium bead of the same power before. But this time, you can be an Atium Compounder instead, with the Atium supply still in place for your entire life.

What is an entire life for an Atium compounder?

1 hour ago, Mistchemist16 said:

Round 3: You can either have one pure lerasium bead or 16 alloyed beads: one for each of the Misting types. The 16 are also at ordinary Misting strength, while the Lerasium bead is still ancient level. Is the whole greater than the sun of its parts?

Like why is it even a choice? You can be either all powerful Mistborn by just doing one step, or average Mistborn by doing 16 steps. That's not a choice. If it was the other way around, small Lerasium bead, making you Kelsier level Mistborn vs 1 Lerasium Alloy of your choice making you Elend level Misting, then that would be a good choice to make. 

 

I am always going for Lerasium bead. Living for 1000 years is overrated.

[therunner he/him]

3 hours ago, alder24 said:

What is an entire life for an Atium compounder?

Presumably somewhere in between 1000-2000 years?
TLR seemed to be nearing the limit of what he far he can stretch atium based on some WoBs.

[Green Hoodie Mistborn he/him]

I'm Lerasium bead for all of them... ancient mistborn powers for me for one life rather than a millennia of age

[IlstrawberrySeed]

On 3/7/2023 at 9:56 AM, Mistchemist16 said:

Round 3: You can either have one pure lerasium bead or 16 alloyed beads: one for each of the Misting types. The 16 are also at ordinary Misting strength, while the Lerasium bead is still ancient level. Is the whole greater than the sun of its parts?

On 3/7/2023 at 11:17 AM, alder24 said:

Like why is it even a choice? You can be either all powerful Mistborn by just doing one step, or average Mistborn by doing 16 steps. That's not a choice. If it was the other way around, small Lerasium bead, making you Kelsier level Mistborn vs 1 Lerasium Alloy of your choice making you Elend level Misting, then that would be a good choice to make. 

I completely missed that. Obviously the benifit of the beads is that one can re-alloy them, but I was still envisioning same size of bead. Probably would have changed my answer, as one can still split it and alloy to be more powerful at specific things instead of splitting it evenly. Oh, and because you get the investiture from the alloy, it would be more than just eating the bead.

[Mistchemist16]

26 minutes ago, IlstrawberrySeed said:

I completely missed that. Obviously the benifit of the beads is that one can re-alloy them, but I was still envisioning same size of bead. Probably would have changed my answer, as one can still split it and alloy to be more powerful at specific things instead of splitting it evenly. Oh, and because you get the investiture from the alloy, it would be more than just eating the bead.

When I was thinking about the question, I didn’t want the 16 beads to be the same size as the one lerasium bead because the 16 beads could do the same thing as the one plus more versatility. But one thing you could do is take the lerasium from aluminums bead and use it for something more worthwhile. I didint know the alloy math but I had imagine it as an option for giving other people Allomancy or becoming a weaker overall Mistborn who would be better at the useful powers. But I can see how that could be easily misinterpreted.