What ever happened to Malatium?

[TheRavenHasLanded he/him]

It just poofs.

[alder24]

9 minutes ago, TheRavenHasLanded said:

It just poofs.

What do you mean? I don't understand what you're asking about.

It's gone in Era 2 because it was made artificially, it didn't exist naturally and it was an alloy of pure Atium and gold. The legend of the 11th metal was fabricated by Ruin, people like Gemmel and Shezler were either spiked or insane and thus influenced by Ruin. Ruim led Kelsier to the discovery of Malatium. 

[Treamayne]

3 hours ago, Aion said:

It would have been one of the god metal alloys and they would not have been able to make it in era 2 because Kelsier destroyed the Pits of Hathsin. They could possibly create it in the near future because I remember Dox saying in TFE that it would take around three hundred years or so for the pits to regrow. That's only if they haven't come into contact with more Allomancy.

The Pits no longer grow anything, because Harmony removed E1Atium and Malatium from Allomancy and restored the proper metals. 

Had the Final Empire not ended (Vin took the power instead of releasing it), then the Pits might have started making more Atium after a few centuries. 

Edited February 3 by Treamayne
SPAG

[TheRavenHasLanded he/him]

1 minute ago, alder24 said:

What do you mean? I don't understand what you're asking about.

It's gone in Era 2 because it was made artificially, it didn't exist naturally and it was an alloy of pure Atium and gold. The legend of the 11th metal was fabricated by Ruin, people like Gemmel and Shezler were either spiked or insane and thus influenced by Ruin. Ruim led Kelsier to the discovery of Malatium. 

ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh got it.

[alder24]

3 minutes ago, TheRavenHasLanded said:

ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh got it.

It's in the name Mal-ATIUM  

[TheRavenHasLanded he/him]

Just now, alder24 said:

It's in the name Mal-ATIUM  

.... Wow ok im dumb lol.

[KelsierFortnite he/him]

I believe there was some note in AoL about removing Ruin's metals (atium and malatium) from the table of Allomantic metals.

[+robardin he/him]

On 1/27/2024 at 6:58 PM, KelsierFortnite said:

I believe there was some note in AoL about removing Ruin's metals (atium and malatium) from the table of Allomantic metals.

They were always "false" entries on the Allomantic table, anyway - where that table is a shorthand for "all naturally occuring Allomantic powers", one interpretation of which is to say, "Mistings exist for this metal".

The idea (can't remember where I read/saw it, though) is that part of Leras' "trick" was to modify the behavior of Allomancy so that there would be such a thing as an atium Misting (Seers like Yomen and Demoux), with the extra duration of mistsickness in producing them as the "hint" that This Metal You Can Burn Now Is Special.

That bumped some other metal off the Table in order to accommodate that hint, since there had to be sixteen types of Mistings for the hint to work, which was rooted in that "number of power". (And perhaps, also requiring a necessary paired Misting to burn a designated alloy, "malatium", that we never saw.)

That insertion of atium into the Allomantic Table was then undone by Harmony, so that the "two metals" unknown to Era 1 that he alluded to in his note to Spook were restored to Cadmium and Chromium, along with their alloys Bendalloy and Nicrosil, which generate their proper set of Mistings in Era 2.

There are no more atium Mistings after Harmony's Ascension, and no more "malatium" Mistings, either (assuming there ever were).

It's also a minor retcon, BTW, that what the Final Empire called "atium" was never the "pure god-metal and body of Ruin", which should have been equally as universally usable as lerasium would be, but rather an alloy composed of "pure" atium alloyed with a bit of electrum as part of the process that Leras set up to "precipitate" that Investiture as geode-wrapped atium beads at the Pits of Hathsin.

[alder24]

12 minutes ago, robardin said:

The idea (can't remember where I read/saw it, though) is that part of Leras' "trick" was to modify the behavior of Allomancy so that there would be such a thing as an atium Misting (Seers like Yomen and Demoux), with the extra duration of mistsickness in producing them as the "hint" that This Metal You Can Burn Now Is Special.

That bumped some other metal off the Table in order to accommodate that hint, since there had to be sixteen types of Mistings for the hint to work, which was rooted in that "number of power". (And perhaps, also requiring a necessary paired Misting to burn a designated alloy, "malatium", that we never saw.)

That insertion of atium into the Allomantic Table was then undone by Harmony, so that the "two metals" unknown to Era 1 that he alluded to in his note to Spook were restored to Cadmium and Chromium, along with their alloys Bendalloy and Nicrosil, which generate their proper set of Mistings in Era 2.

There are no more atium Mistings after Harmony's Ascension, and no more "malatium" Mistings, either (assuming there ever were).

That was true pre-Atium retcon but this isn't canon anymore. Now it's that Atium Mistings were simply Electrum Mistings and that's it. No Mistings were "taken out" of Allomancy or Snapping mechanism - there is no need for it now. The tables are however human constructs, so they are flawed, filtered through the understanding of the characters in books.

Pre-retcon WoB that you're talking about:

Spoiler

Chaos2651

Hemalurgically, atium steals Allomantic Temporal Powers. But, that seems unlikely, since atium is a god metal. It wouldn't fit in with the rest of the magic system. Did Preservation, in addition to switching cadmium and bendalloy for atium and malatium, also switch atium's Feruchemical and Hemalurgic powers with cadmium? Because it seems to me there's not a lot of atium Marsh can use to live for hundreds of years into the next Mistborn trilogy.

Brandon Sanderson

Preservation wanted atium and malatium to be of use to the people, as he recognized that it would be a very powerful tool—and that using it up could help defeat Ruin. But he also recognized that sixteen was a mythological important number, and felt it would make the best sign for his followers. So he took out the most unlikely (difficult to make and use) metals for his sign to his followers. But that doesn't have much to do with Hemalurgy's use here.

Remember that the tables—and the ars Arcanum—are 'in world' creations. (Or, at least, in-universe.) The knowledge represented in them is as people understand it, and can always have flaws. That was the case with having atium on the table in the first place, and that was the case with people (specifically the Inquisitors) trying to figure out what atium did Hemalurgically.

Their experiments (very expensive ones) are what determined that atium (which they thought was just one of the sixteen metals) granted the Allomantic Temporal powers. What they didn't realize is that atium (used correctly) could steal ANY of the powers. Think of it as a wild card. With the right knowledge, you could use it to mimic any other spike. It works far better than other spikes as well.

As for Marsh, he's got a whole bag of atium (taken off of the Kandra who was going to try to sell it.) So he's all right for quite a while. A small bead used right can reverse age someone back to their childhood.

But this was a little beyond their magical understanding at the time.

Barnes and Noble Book Club Q&A (July 8, 2009)

Post-retcon canon:

Spoiler

Xais56

Brandon has said that everyone ought to be able to burn Atium, like they can all burn Lerasium, and the fact that they can't was an oversight on his part that he would've done different in hindsight.

Maybe now he's had an in-universe reason to re-write the laws of allomancy it's back to his intended concept; Mistborn burn all 16 base metals, mistings burn one base metal, non-allomancers can only burn godmetal.

Peter Ahlstrom

My explanation for this is that Preservation somehow caused all naturally occurring atium to form as an alloy of atium and electrum. The atium Mistings were actually electrum Mistings.

Xais56

It's a very tidy solution, but it creates the maddening question of what does pure atium do?

Peter Ahlstrom

That answer has already been revealed canonically. RAFO.

Footnote: It has since been clarified that the effect was revealed on the Table of Allomantic Metals poster and seen at the end of The Hero of Ages.
General Reddit 2021 (Nov. 2, 2021)

[+robardin he/him]

5 minutes ago, alder24 said:

That was true pre-Atium retcon but this isn't canon anymore. Now it's that Atium Mistings were simply Electrum Mistings and that's it. No Mistings were "taken out" of Allomancy or Snapping mechanism - there is no need for it now. The tables are however human constructs, so they are flawed, filtered through the understanding of the characters in books.

Pre-retcon WoB that you're talking about:

  Reveal hidden contents

Chaos2651

Hemalurgically, atium steals Allomantic Temporal Powers. But, that seems unlikely, since atium is a god metal. It wouldn't fit in with the rest of the magic system. Did Preservation, in addition to switching cadmium and bendalloy for atium and malatium, also switch atium's Feruchemical and Hemalurgic powers with cadmium? Because it seems to me there's not a lot of atium Marsh can use to live for hundreds of years into the next Mistborn trilogy.

Brandon Sanderson

Preservation wanted atium and malatium to be of use to the people, as he recognized that it would be a very powerful tool—and that using it up could help defeat Ruin. But he also recognized that sixteen was a mythological important number, and felt it would make the best sign for his followers. So he took out the most unlikely (difficult to make and use) metals for his sign to his followers. But that doesn't have much to do with Hemalurgy's use here.

Remember that the tables—and the ars Arcanum—are 'in world' creations. (Or, at least, in-universe.) The knowledge represented in them is as people understand it, and can always have flaws. That was the case with having atium on the table in the first place, and that was the case with people (specifically the Inquisitors) trying to figure out what atium did Hemalurgically.

Their experiments (very expensive ones) are what determined that atium (which they thought was just one of the sixteen metals) granted the Allomantic Temporal powers. What they didn't realize is that atium (used correctly) could steal ANY of the powers. Think of it as a wild card. With the right knowledge, you could use it to mimic any other spike. It works far better than other spikes as well.

As for Marsh, he's got a whole bag of atium (taken off of the Kandra who was going to try to sell it.) So he's all right for quite a while. A small bead used right can reverse age someone back to their childhood.

But this was a little beyond their magical understanding at the time.

Barnes and Noble Book Club Q&A (July 8, 2009)

Post-retcon canon:

  Reveal hidden contents

Xais56

Brandon has said that everyone ought to be able to burn Atium, like they can all burn Lerasium, and the fact that they can't was an oversight on his part that he would've done different in hindsight.

Maybe now he's had an in-universe reason to re-write the laws of allomancy it's back to his intended concept; Mistborn burn all 16 base metals, mistings burn one base metal, non-allomancers can only burn godmetal.

Peter Ahlstrom

My explanation for this is that Preservation somehow caused all naturally occurring atium to form as an alloy of atium and electrum. The atium Mistings were actually electrum Mistings.

Xais56

It's a very tidy solution, but it creates the maddening question of what does pure atium do?

Peter Ahlstrom

That answer has already been revealed canonically. RAFO.

Footnote: It has since been clarified that the effect was revealed on the Table of Allomantic Metals poster and seen at the end of The Hero of Ages.
General Reddit 2021 (Nov. 2, 2021)

Wow, I had not seen that second retcon WoB. (Well, "WoP" but as the Mouth of Brandon, haha.)

It's a bit unsatisfactory, though, as we do see Elend and Vin both burning electrum "the normal way" (as an alloy of gold), calling it "poor man's atium" in that it enabled shielding from an atium burner, but did not enable the "see what another person will do" feature against a non-atium burner. Both of who were well familiar with burning "regular" FE atium.

Or are you saying, atium Mistings were simply Electrum Mistings, but that Electrum Mistings could burn "regular" (and more easily accessible) electrum as well as the atium+electrum "alloy" that was beaded up at the Pits?

I guess that does make some sense, atium providing the "godly" aspect seeing another person's future, and of course only available in that alloy per Leras' dictum.

Edited January 31 by robardin

[alder24]

4 minutes ago, robardin said:

Or are you saying, atium Mistings were simply Electrum Mistings, but that Electrum Mistings could burn "regular" (and more easily accessible) electrum as well as the atium+electrum "alloy" that was beaded up at the Pits?

That's it. Mistings can burn their base metal and its alloys with god metals. Mistborn can burn everything. So an electrum Misting can burn both electrum and Atium-electrum alloy. 

[+robardin he/him]

2 hours ago, alder24 said:

That's it. Mistings can burn their base metal and its alloys with god metals. Mistborn can burn everything. So an electrum Misting can burn both electrum and Atium-electrum alloy. 

The problem with that, though, is that electrum WAS known in the Final Empire - at least to the Steel Ministry - because it's one of the metals The Lord Ruler mentioned on a storage cavern steel plate (mentioned as the one in Urteau), which is how Vin and Co. learned about it in the first place.

In fact, malatium was also mentioned on a Steel Ministry plate, the one in Vetitian, the city where Elend rescued "Lord" Fatren's people from an assault of koloss to open The Hero of Ages.

Of course maybe even the Steel Ministry didn't realize burning atium and electrum were the same Allomantic power - maybe TLR kept that tidbit to himself?

There were also quite a few WoBs over many years about how the Ministry detected and recruited Seers and kept them secret, I guess those all go out the window per this later WoB (by proxy)?

 

[Treamayne]

22 minutes ago, robardin said:

Of course maybe even the Steel Ministry didn't realize burning atium and electrum were the same Allomantic power - maybe TLR kept that tidbit to himself?

Small quibble - they are not the same power, just one "Misting" can burn both. And TLR likely did know about it, as that is probably how so many inquisitors were able to burn Atium (they only needed a spike to become Electrum Mistings). 

22 minutes ago, robardin said:

There were also quite a few WoBs over many years about how the Ministry detected and recruited Seers and kept them secret, I guess those all go out the window per this later WoB (by proxy)?

The method shown (trace amounts with a Jump scare to cause reflexive bruning) would still apply as a way to find these mistings - much easier actually than getting a reflexive Electrum burn. . . 

Edited January 31 by Treamayne
SPAG

[alder24]

2 minutes ago, robardin said:

The problem with that, though, is that electrum WAS known in the Final Empire - at least to the Steel Ministry - because it's one of the metals The Lord Ruler mentioned on a storage cavern steel plate (mentioned as the one in Urteau), which is how Vin and Co. learned about it in the first place.

Quote: "There are metals of Allomancy which I have shared with none. If you are a priest of mine, working this cavern and reading these words, know that you will incur my wrath if you share this knowledge." Problem solved.

True, the storage cave was in Urteau's Canton of Inquisition, Inquisitors might have read it but consider that they all believed that Atium was just a normal metal, just like gold was. They would have no reason looking for electrum Mistings or giving them Atium to burn, if they believed Atium and electrum are separate metals and that electrum is just a poor version of Atium, useless for Inquisitors. 

They don't possess the ultimate knowledge, quote from one of the WoB above: "Their experiments (very expensive ones) are what determined that atium (which they thought was just one of the sixteen metals) granted the Allomantic Temporal powers. What they didn't realize is that atium (used correctly) could steal ANY of the powers."

Description on plates given by Rashek are not complete, they don't say anything about Atium not being a part of full set of 16, they have no reasons to suspect this isn't the case and even if they knew about metals like electrum and Malatium, they can't do anything with this knowledge without the approval of the Lord Ruler. 

9 minutes ago, robardin said:

In fact, malatium was also mentioned on a Steel Ministry plate, the one in Vetitian, the city where Elend rescued "Lord" Fatren's people from an assault of koloss to open The Hero of Ages.

We know that Vetitan had Steel Ministry offices but we don't know which Canton. They aren't equal, Canton of Inquisition is the most dangerous, but others have rivalry with them. 

10 minutes ago, robardin said:

Of course maybe even the Steel Ministry didn't realize burning atium and electrum were the same Allomantic power - maybe TLR kept that tidbit to himself?

Yup.

11 minutes ago, robardin said:

There were also quite a few WoBs over many years about how the Ministry detected and recruited Seers and kept them secret, I guess those all go out the window per this later WoB (by proxy)?

No because they believed Atium and electrum were different things and what they believed in is important. They were searching for Atium Mistings not knowing those are also electrum Mistings - most obligators would not even know about electrum anyway, only those working in the Urteau's Canton of Inquisition would know, unless Rashek allowed this information to spread further - this is unlikely because  Yomen looked like he wasn't even aware of duralumin and he was a high ranking obligator.

[+robardin he/him]

17 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

Small quibble - they are not the same power, just one "Misting" can burn both. And TLR likely did know about it, as that is probably how so many inquisitors were able to burn Atium (they only needed a spike to become Electrum Mistings). 

The method shown (trace amounts with a Jump scare to cause reflexive bruning) would still apply as a way to find these mistings - much easier actually than getting a reflexive Electrum burn. . . 

What I meant was, if the Steel Ministry knew about atium (overtly/publicly) and electrum (privately), what was the point of the latter knowledge if they didn't also know about electrum Mistings, even if the knowledge that they were equivalent were kept secret by TLR?

Anyway, this is all a retcon, so we're discussing the plausibility or smoothness of the retcon more than anything else, haha. It is what it is.

I mean, electrum is already an alloy of gold, so having atium "always having really been pure atium + electrum" just makes malatium even more weird. So it's an alloy of pure atium and... an alloy? So is that alloy, like, more gold or less percent gold than the electrum alloy in Pits-atium?

My personal headcanon "fix" to "how come atium isn't burnable by anybody if it's a god metal" was that lerasium is, in fact, the only "god metal" that can be Allomantically burned, because it grants Allomancy in the first place.

We already know most metals are "Allomantically inert" and only the right purity of metal or alloy works with the powers, so, why should god metals be any different? Atium shouldn't be burnable by Allomancers, I mean it's the body of Ruin that is the direct opposite to Preservation's power. Made sense that Leras had to twist things around to enable atium Mistings, and that that could/would be undone by Harmony - the magic derived of Preservation's power being fixed as "these eight metals and paired alloys do these things, being keys that grant access to filtered Investiture derived of Preservation, and most people can access only one metal or alloy, unless you can use all of them, but there are still only sixteen of them".

Which would mean that the FAQ (with RAFO) of "could a Mistborn pick up a chip of an Honorblade or a Raysium dagger and burn it?" would have the easy answer of "no, why would it be a burnable metal?"

But evidently that is not where things went / are going,  I guess!

Edited January 31 by robardin

[alder24]

27 minutes ago, robardin said:

What I meant was, if the Steel Ministry knew about atium (overtly/publicly) and electrum (privately), what was the point of the latter knowledge if they didn't also know about electrum Mistings, even if the knowledge that they were equivalent were kept secret by TLR?

They knew electrum was useless because they had access to unlimited Atium so they didn't bother with searching for electrum Mistings - if the whole all inquisitors even knew about it.

29 minutes ago, robardin said:

I mean, electrum is already an alloy of gold, so having atium "always having really been pure atium + electrum" just makes malatium even more weird. So it's an alloy of pure atium and... an alloy? So is that alloy, like, more gold or less percent gold than the electrum alloy in Pits-atium?

That's why they've always treated Atium as a weird thing, a werid pair to gold that doesn't play by rules. If they even have means to know that Atium is an alloy - separating Atium from electrum might have been above their technological abilities and they just thought Atium is a pure metal. 

The knowledge of Malatium was hidden from them, the Vetitan's plate didn't mention composition of this metal at all (unlike the composition of electrum said in the Urteau) so they had no way of knowing what Malatium is. The description of electrum also said that it's not the power of Atium, which would be misleading to anyone trying to draw a connection between Atium Mistings and electrum one. 

Quote

My researchers have discovered that mixing an alloy of forty-five percent gold and fifty-five percent silver creates a new Allomantic metal. Burning it will not give you the power of atium, but will provide some help against those who themselves burn it.

Quote

This is the last metal I will tell you about, I have trouble deciding the purpose of it. It allows you to see the past, in a way. What a person could have been, and who they might have become, had they made different choices. Much like gold, but for others.

 

36 minutes ago, robardin said:

y personal headcanon "fix" to "how come atium isn't burnable by anybody if it's a god metal" was that lerasium is, in fact, the only "god metal" that can be Allomantically burned, because it grants Allomancy in the first place.

We already know most metals are "Allomantically inert" and only the right purity of metal or alloy works with the powers, so, why should god metals be any different? Atium shouldn't be burnable by Allomancers, I mean it's the body of Ruin that is the direct opposite to Preservation's power. Made sense that Leras had to twist things around to enable atium Mistings, and that that could/would be undone by Harmony - the magic derived of Preservation's power being fixed as "these eight metals and paired alloys do these things, being keys that grant access to filtered Investiture derived of Preservation, and most people can access only one metal or alloy, unless you can use all of them, but there are still only sixteen of them".

No. God metals are burnable by anyone, but who is the "anyone" in question? I believe that anyone is referring to any Allomancers - all types of Mistings and Mistborn can burn any pure god metal, but not everyone in Cosmere can burn them. Only Lerasium can be burnt by everyone but this is just a side effect, a Mistborn burning Lerasium would do something different. God metal alloys can be burnt by only specific Mistings.

Spoiler

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Preservation's Power

All right, so maybe I lied about there only being three magic systems in this book. It comes down to how you term the powers of Preservation and Ruin, who kind of blanket the entire system. There are a lot of things going on here, and—well, the truth is I don't want to mention all of them, for fear of spoiling future books. However, I'll give you a few rules to apply.

First, to these forces, energy and mass are the same thing. So, their power can take physical shape—as Preservation's did in the bead of metal Elend ate. Second, there is a bit of Preservation inside of all the people—and it's this that allows the people to perform Allomancy. It needs to be awakened and stirred to be of use, but when it is, a proper metal can draw forth more of Preservation's power. It's like the metal attunes the bit within the person, allowing it to act as a catalyst to grab more power.

Allomancy is not fueled by metal; it is fueled by Preservation. The metal is the means by which a person can access that fuel, however. If there were another way to access it, then the metal wouldn't be needed.

Preservation's touch on people differs. Some have more, some have less. This doesn't make them better or worse people—indeed, some most touched by Preservation have been among the worst people in the world. As Ruin later points out, there is a difference between being evil and being destructive.

Regardless, if a person can get more Preservation into them, they become better Allomancers. Hence Elend becoming a Mistborn. Like all people, he had the potential within him—it was just too small of a potential to be awakened through normal means. That little jolt of Preservation's body, however, expanded and awakened his Allomancy.

As a tidbit, that was a side effect of what that bead of metal did. It wasn't the main purpose of the bead, and if another Allomancer were to burn it, it would do something else.

The Hero of Ages Annotations (Nov. 12, 2009)

 

Spoiler

Kaimipono

Allomancy is fueled by Preservation's body? How exactly does that work? And how does that interact with Atium—it's fueled by both gods' bodies?

Brandon Sanderson

The powers of Ruin and Preservation are Shards of Adonalsium, pieces of the power of creation itself. Allomancy, Hemalurgy, Feruchemy are manifestations of this power in mortal form, the ability to touch the powers of creation and use them. These metallic powers are how people's physical forms interpret the use of the Shard, though it's not the only possible way they could be interpreted or used. It's what the genetics and Realmatic interactions of Scadrial allow for, and has to do with the Spiritual, the Cognitive, and the Physical Realms.

Condensed 'essence' of these godly powers can act as super-fuel for Allomancy, Feruchemy, or really any of the powers. The form of that super fuel is important. In liquid form it's most potent, in gas form it's able to fuel Allomancy as if working as a metal. In physical form it is rigid and does one specific thing. In the case of atium, it allows sight into the future. In the case of concentrated Preservation, it gives one a permanent connection to the mists and the powers of creation. (I.e., it makes them an Allomancer.)

So when a person is burning metals, they aren't using Preservation's body as a fuel so to speak—though they are tapping into the powers of creation just slightly. When Vin burns the mists, however, she'd doing just that—using the essence of Preservation, the Shard of Adonalsium itself—to fuel Allomancy. Doing this, however, rips 'troughs' through her body. It's like forcing far too much pressure through a very small, fragile hose. That much power eventually vaporizes the corporeal host, which is acting as the block and forcing the power into a single type of conduit (Allomancy) and frees it to be more expansive.

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

 

Spoiler

[...] WoB about Mistborn movie

The bit about atium is a bit confusing. The Ventures are going to have the Atium stash? Not the stash that we don’t find until the end I’m assuming? So it’ll be a stash but much smaller than expected?

Brandon Sanderson

So, I'm not sure I can explain it all in this, but one big change I wished I'd made from the start of Mistborn is making atium usable by all Allomancers. As I've gotten further in the cosmere, using a god metal as just for Mistborn has felt off.

So the lore change for the films will mean any Allomancer can use atium. This, in turn, lets House Venture have access to the LR's atium as a "Control the city" last resort. They keep a task force of allomancers for this purpose--which Ham can join, in anticipation of being able to steal it once Shan accesses it. (They don't know that House Venture is only given about a hundred beads of atium, not access to the full mythical cache, which will be reserved for the third movie.)

Makes the worldbuilding and storytelling more elegant, I've found, in the film. And it fits better with more "modern" cosmere fundamentals as have developed over the last decade. I think I'd make this change even if we moved to a television show and long form.

The Lord Ruler is still the "big bad" but Shan and the Inquisitors both get a little more screen time. (Actually, about the same as in the books--it's just that other parts are being trimmed, making them more front-and-center.)

Phantine

Based on that, you're also streamlining away the Sign of Sixteen if it gets a sequel? To be honest, that didn't really work for me in the novel anyway.

Brandon Sanderson

It's one of my least favorite parts of the trilogy. It (along with Vin drawing upon the mists in book one) are big changes I'm hoping to make to fix weaker sections of the continuity.

General Reddit 2020 (June 22, 2020)

 

45 minutes ago, robardin said:

Which would mean that the FAQ (with RAFO) of "could a Mistborn pick up a chip of an Honorblade or a Raysium dagger and burn it?" would have the easy answer of "no, why would it be a burnable metal?"

No longer RAFO, it can be burnt:

Spoiler

Dave Smith

Can a Mistborn burn any god metal such as tanavastium?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes they could.

Footnote: Previously Brandon indicated they would need a tie to that type of Investiture.
YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 (June 3, 2021)

 

Spoiler

NeedsToShutUp

What would happen if Hoid tried to burn the shard that came off Ishar's Honorblade?

Brandon Sanderson

If you were able to get a hold of that piece and burn it, it would act like burning... You would be burning a very pure form of a God Metal, and those have some very interesting effects. RAFO.

YouTube Spoiler Stream 3 (Dec. 16, 2021)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

What would happen if a person from Scadrial were to try to burn a manifested metal from Roshar?

Brandon Sanderson

So you're meaning they're in Shadesmar, they manifest it, and they try to burn it, right?

Questioner

Say a Spren of a Radiant manifests as a bead of metal instead of a Shardblade?

Brandon Sanderson

You're not going to be able to burn that if it's something that's coming from a spren, because that's not going to be treated as a metal in your body. Like, those are God Metals, and that one is actually alive and awake and it's just not gonna work. There are ways, though, that you could make that work. So it's totally possible, but you're gonna need something that's not an alive spren that's manifest like that. You're gonna need some way to get access to some tanavastium or something like that that's not, like, some living being.

Dragonsteel 2023 (Nov. 21, 2023)

[Iron-Eyes he/him]

It would have been one of the god metal alloys and they would not have been able to make it in era 2 because Kelsier destroyed the pits of Hathsin. They could possibly create it in the near future because I remember Dock saying in TFE that it would take around three hundred years or so for the pits to regrow. That's only if they haven't come into contact with more Allomancy.

[alder24]

5 hours ago, The Wayne said:

It would have been one of the god metal alloys and they would not have been able to make it in era 2 because Kelsier destroyed the pits of Hathsin. They could possibly create it in the near future because I remember Dock saying in TFE that it would take around three hundred years or so for the pits to regrow. That's only if they haven't come into contact with more Allomancy.

It has been more than 340 years since the destruction of the Pits when we saw them in SoS and it's clear they are non-functional. They don't generate Atium anymore. To get Atium you need to start splitting Harmonium, which is an explosively dangerous and ineffective way of getting this god metal.