What are the limits of Electrum burning?

[AirsickAviar he/him]

I was just wondering at the arcanum entry about electrum. Obviously seeing ones own future and being hit there or here changes what you do so it countered atium. Maybe it is a general anti-assassination power, with a few seconds use, it I find would be difficult to rely on unless you had the resources to burn all the time and who knows what happens when you get to an extent where you have an electrum savant, might it be minutes? Hmmm. We don't have much limits here. Atium was used more like what you see in the movie Next I feel, knowing what everyone is to do. But I feel even seeing what happens to you, it would be something like the movie Next anyway, because it had to do with him and it makes sense in my mind that way. But obviously it isn't that powerful, so I'm kinda wondering now... What are the limits of Electrum, do we even know from a q and a with Sanderson yet?

[alder24]

13 minutes ago, AirsickAviar said:

I was just wondering at the arcanum entry about electrum. Obviously seeing ones own future and being hit there or here changes what you do so it countered atium. Maybe it is a general anti-assassination power, with a few seconds use, it I find would be difficult to rely on unless you had the resources to burn all the time and who knows what happens when you get to an extent where you have an electrum savant, might it be minutes? Hmmm. We don't have much limits here. Atium was used more like what you see in the movie Next I feel, knowing what everyone is to do. But I feel even seeing what happens to you, it would be something like the movie Next anyway, because it had to do with him and it makes sense in my mind that way. But obviously it isn't that powerful, so I'm kinda wondering now... What are the limits of Electrum, do we even know from a q and a with Sanderson yet?

The limits of electrum are yet to be explored. There is a lot you can do with it, you need to train or use it properly. When used with duralumin it can achieve the same effect as Atium burned with duralumin at the end of HoA - peer directly into the Spiritual Realm and see the future in more detail. But regularly burned electrum still can be useful in fighting, it's just very hard to master, because there are so many different shadows you see and you can react to. But you can learn to do that. Some additional powers, like feruchemical zinc (mental speed) would likely allow you to process electrum shadows faster and thus use them more effectively.

Spoiler

Wigginns

What would a Hemalurgic spike granting atium do for an Allomancer already able to burn atium? Does it function similarly to bronze, granting enhanced atium-ing? Along this line of thought, would enhancing electrum burning via spike be of any advantage?

Brandon Sanderson

A spike of something you have would enhance your ability, giving your more strength. With atium, more strength makes for a minimal edge--the length you can push out the atium shadows. However, there's a certain breaking point where you kind of crack the whole system, peer straight into the [Spiritual Realm], and kind of have a "It's full of stars" moment.

Electrum could reach this same moment, potentially, though there's more interference to fight through. Extra strength in electrum isn't going to be terribly useful up to that point.

Alsadius

Is that what happened when atium was burned with duralumin?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Footnote: In his original response Brandon mistakenly said burning atium and duralumin would cause the Allomancer to peer into the Cognitive Realm, rather than Spiritual Realm. He has since confirmed that this was a mistake.
/r/books AMA 2015 (Aug. 1, 2015)

 

Spoiler

Sylos

I was happy when Elend finally burned duralumin with atium. I was holding my breath hoping that someone would eventually do it. However we didn't really get any info as to what Elend experienced. Does a duralumin-enhanced atium burn allow a person to see significantly farther into the future? If so, being that Elend's army was dying all around him did he get to see into the afterlife? Also if you could tell us what he saw that would be awesome. Did something he saw make him not want to avoid Marshes strike?

On a similar note if someone burned electrum with duralumin would they get to see significantly into their own future?

Brandon Sanderson

There is much here that I can't say, but I'll give as much as I can. Elend saw Preservation's ultimate plan, and Elend's own part in it. What he saw made him realize he didn't want to kill Marsh, and that his own death would actually help save the world. Like a master chess player, he suddenly saw and understand every possible move his enemy could make. He saw that Ruin was check-mated, because there was one thing that Ruin was not willing to do. Something that both Elend and Vin could do, if needed. And it's what they did.

So, in answer to your question, Elend stayed his hand. This is one of the reasons why I changed my mind and decided that Marsh had to live through the end of the book. Elend spared him; I needed to too.

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

 

Spoiler

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.

Miscellaneous 2016 (July 15, 2016)

 

[+robardin he/him]

We have never really seen any Allomancer burning electrum for its own sake, just mention in THoA that Vin and Elend had discovered it could function as an atium blocker because it caused probability shadows for an atium-burning opponent (which they desperately needed, as Ruin's Inquisitors still had access to atium while they had run out). And we never see an electrum Misting (an "Oracle") in action or even mentioned in Era 2 (nor a Nicroburst).

If you read Sixth of the Dusk, you'll see him linked with an Aviar (the magic system of that world involves bonding with a bird) that grants visions of dangerous/deadly scenarios in his near future; the more probable it is, based on what he's doing or thinking of doing at the time, the more intense the vision. Burning electrum is a lot like that.