There is still atium

[ruler of the mists He/His/the survivor of the pit]

I saw one of the broadsheets and they hade this article about a famous backer who decorates his pastries with atium.What are your thought on this thing?

 

 

[Quantus he/him]

I would assume it's Fake Atium and marketing. It could just be a supremely indulgent use of leftover Atium beads, but I wouldnt think that sort of ultra-rich black market would end up in the broadsheets.  

[Treamayne]

35 minutes ago, ruler of the mists said:

I saw one of the broadsheets and they hade this article about a famous backer who decorates his pastries with atium.What are your thought on this thing?

 

 

18 minutes ago, Quantus said:

I would assume it's Fake Atium and marketing. It could just be a supremely indulgent use of leftover Atium beads, but I wouldnt think that sort of ultra-rich black market would end up in the broadsheets.  

^This^
With no information other than "see the back, column 5" - it seems like a in-world version of using goldflake in baking (except there is no atium, and they don't really even know what it looks like, so they can fake it if they can convince customers to pay). 

 

[ruler of the mists He/His/the survivor of the pit]

oh okay thanks

 

[DoctaDajman]

On 1/31/2025 at 9:18 AM, Quantus said:

I would assume it's Fake Atium and marketing. It could just be a supremely indulgent use of leftover Atium beads, but I wouldnt think that sort of ultra-rich black market would end up in the broadsheets.  

Beyond all of this, if it were real atium, surely an allomancer would have recognized it was burnable right?  Since the retcon that all Scadrian people can burn atium as it is a God metal right? 

[Treamayne]

1 hour ago, DoctaDajman said:

Since the retcon that all Scadrian people can burn atium as it is a God metal right?

Maybe. Be careful of ambiguous language. WoB:

Spoiler

Edited for Length and Relevance

Brandon Sanderson

This is a post-Era-1 retcon where I realized I need all the God Metals to do different things, and this is just one of the aspects that comes down. For those who don't know what's going on: I get done with Era 1, I start really working on the nature of metals in the cosmere. I'm like, "Ehhh... Atium really should be burnable by anybody. It's a God Metal. The way God Metals work is not in line with how I've made atium. So what they call atium has to have trace elements of something else, and then there's a pure form of atium out there that would be the true pure God Metal." That is one of those unfortunate retcons when you're doing all this continuity. And it works just fine in the books, because the way that atium is being made is a pretty complicated little process there in the Pits of Hathsin.

YouTube Spoiler Stream 5 (Dec. 2, 2022)

The problem is Brandon did not define "anybody." It could mean:

• Literally Anybody (Unlikely)
• Any Scadrian (possible, based on Lerasium - but Lerasium's effect on Elend was a side-effect, not it's main use)
• Any Allomancer (most likely, but unconfirmed yet)

WoB:

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)

So, Allomancers burning a God Metal is different from a non-Allomancer burning Lerasium - with no other indications that a God Metal would be burnable by a non-Allomancer. But, as I noted - not actually "confirmed."

[ChillPenguin]

On 2/3/2025 at 10:10 PM, Treamayne said:

Maybe. Be careful of ambiguous language. WoB:

  Reveal hidden contents

Edited for Length and Relevance

Brandon Sanderson

This is a post-Era-1 retcon where I realized I need all the God Metals to do different things, and this is just one of the aspects that comes down. For those who don't know what's going on: I get done with Era 1, I start really working on the nature of metals in the cosmere. I'm like, "Ehhh... Atium really should be burnable by anybody. It's a God Metal. The way God Metals work is not in line with how I've made atium. So what they call atium has to have trace elements of something else, and then there's a pure form of atium out there that would be the true pure God Metal." That is one of those unfortunate retcons when you're doing all this continuity. And it works just fine in the books, because the way that atium is being made is a pretty complicated little process there in the Pits of Hathsin.

YouTube Spoiler Stream 5 (Dec. 2, 2022)

The problem is Brandon did not define "anybody." It could mean:

• Literally Anybody (Unlikely)
• Any Scadrian (possible, based on Lerasium - but Lerasium's effect on Elend was a side-effect, not it's main use)
• Any Allomancer (most likely, but unconfirmed yet)

WoB:

  Reveal hidden contents

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)

So, Allomancers burning a God Metal is different from a non-Allomancer burning Lerasium - with no other indications that a God Metal would be burnable by a non-Allomancer. But, as I noted - not actually "confirmed."

Buuut Hoid burned a Lerasium bead and we KNOW he is a Mistborn (I mean he can at least use emotional allomancy of one type). He is a weird case too I guess - having held a Dawnshard and existing pre-shattering. I’m just saying he’s definitely not Scadrian. 
 

About the atium though, yes all Scadrians should be able to burn it. I feel like Brandon could have been like “atium is a weird godmetal because… reasons.” Or maybe that Preservation is just different and can be burned…

Anyway, I agree that the atium advertised is fake. 

[+robardin he/him]

On 2/3/2025 at 8:31 PM, DoctaDajman said:

Beyond all of this, if it were real atium, surely an allomancer would have recognized it was burnable right?  Since the retcon that all Scadrian people can burn atium as it is a God metal right? 

Eh, to the extent that a baker in Elendel in Era 2 could actually have any atium left over from before the Catacendre, it would be as it was known/harvested from geodes at the Pits of Hathsin, which we have WoBs as actually being an alloy of pure atium and electrum. Which was not useable "by anyone" like a full godmetal might, but only by full Mistborn, by Marsh the Last Inquisitor, and a surviving Seer Misting like Demoux.

That apparent retcon, that "atium" as known in the Final Empire was not "pure godmetal", actually explains a bunch of things: (a) how Preservation could create a "precipitation cycle" around another Shard's Investiture as godmetal (he couldn't; but COULD bind it to a metal that he DID have power over, electrum); (b) why atium granted "future sight" at a godlike level (it's similar to what electrum grants an Allomancer, and also why burning electrum interferes with atium); (c) how Preservation could make Mistings to burn so-called atium (a modification of the Allomantic Table that Harmony later reversed and restored).

But Marsh would have shaken him down long ago for that stuff. 100% it's fake and some kind of "brand name" for shiny edible metal flakes on pastries, LOL.

Edited February 5, 2025 by robardin

[Treamayne]

3 hours ago, robardin said:

But Marsh would have shaken him down long ago for that stuff. 100% it's fake and some kind of "brand name" for shiny edible metal flakes on pastries, LOL.

Thanks, now I want a Microfiction of "Death visits the Elendel bakery". . . 

3 hours ago, ChillPenguin said:

Buuut Hoid

Spoiler

burned a Lerasium bead and we KNOW he is a Mistborn

 

Please Spoiler tag your non-Scadrial content. This is the Mistborn Forum, not Cosmere Discussion.

Technically,

Spoiler

we know Hoid got a Lerasium bead in M:SH and that he successfully became Mistborn some time before WoR. We do not know if he had to accomplish extra steps to achieve this effect. So, Lerasium's Side Effect is not confirmed to be "anybody" or "any Scadrian;" but is confirmed for, at least, non-Metalborn Scadrians (and possibly others, until we have more Hoid-as-Mistborn information or a Confirming WoB). 

Hope that helps