Harmonium Splitting

[EchoOfThePlanes he/him]

I recently finished The Lost Metal (currently finishing the secret projects) and a thought occurred to me. At the end of The Lost Metal it was revealed that Wax's harmonium-splitting experiment partially succeeded when the Kandra found trace amounts of atium and lerasium dusting his poor basement. Ever since then I have been wondering how and why he succeeded where countless Set experiments failed. I was discussing this with my brother, who suggested we both reread that chapter to look for clues, because knowing Brandon, he most likely left some. I reread it, and I noticed that the vault-box-thingy Wax used for his experiment was sealed. Then it hit me: memories of Navani's experiments with Voidlight. She succeeded in creating anti-Voidlight by cutting off Voidlight from the Rhythm of Odium by sealing some in a vacuum, then exposing the Voidlight to its anti-Rhythm. My theory is that once Wax's experiment began and the harmonium detonated, the resulting explosion burned up all of the oxygen inside the sealed vault, thus creating a temporary vacuum and cutting off its contents from the Rhythm of Harmony. Whatever was left of the now lonely harmonium was then able to split into atium and lerasium.

What do you all think? Am I Khriss reincarnated, or am I insane? Please feel free to point out flaws in this theory, I really want to hear all of your thoughts.

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

Sounds more plausible than the acids or some incredibly vague Intent of 'Not actually wanting the power' or something like that.

That would explain why there's so little Lerasium and Atium made, the vacuum would only occur for an instant so the separation process would be incredibly brief.

I'm still not entirely convinced, if only because I think that it would be harder to manipulate solid-state Investiture (Godmetals) than it is to manipulate Gaseos Investiture (Lights). 

But I guess this is harder, since they needed two specific Godmetals to interact in a vacuum with electric currents and all that.

If true, then a way to produce more Lerasium/Atium rather than a big boom, would be to have it in an incredibly durable vacuum seal or something like that.

[EchoOfThePlanes he/him]

5 hours ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

Sounds more plausible than the acids or some incredibly vague Intent of 'Not actually wanting the power' or something like that.

That would explain why there's so little Lerasium and Atium made, the vacuum would only occur for an instant so the separation process would be incredibly brief.

I'm still not entirely convinced, if only because I think that it would be harder to manipulate solid-state Investiture (Godmetals) than it is to manipulate Gaseos Investiture (Lights). 

But I guess this is harder, since they needed two specific Godmetals to interact in a vacuum with electric currents and all that.

If true, then a way to produce more Lerasium/Atium rather than a big boom, would be to have it in an incredibly durable vacuum seal or something like that.

Thanks for the reply!

I agree that solids would be harder to manipulate, especially solid Godmetal, but I would like to point out that the harmonium had already been super heated by the electric current running through it which seemed to result in a more quasi-liquid state. Perhaps that made it easier? I don't know.

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

7 hours ago, EchoOfThePlanes said:

I recently finished The Lost Metal (currently finishing the secret projects) and a thought occurred to me. At the end of The Lost Metal it was revealed that Wax's harmonium-splitting experiment partially succeeded when the Kandra found trace amounts of atium and lerasium dusting his poor basement. Ever since then I have been wondering how and why he succeeded where countless Set experiments failed. I was discussing this with my brother, who suggested we both reread that chapter to look for clues, because knowing Brandon, he most likely left some. I reread it, and I noticed that the vault-box-thingy Wax used for his experiment was sealed. Then it hit me: memories of Navani's experiments with Voidlight. She succeeded in creating anti-Voidlight by cutting off Voidlight from the Rhythm of Odium by sealing some in a vacuum, then exposing the Voidlight to its anti-Rhythm. My theory is that once Wax's experiment began and the harmonium detonated, the resulting explosion burned up all of the oxygen inside the sealed vault, thus creating a temporary vacuum and cutting off its contents from the Rhythm of Harmony. Whatever was left of the now lonely harmonium was then able to split into atium and lerasium.

What do you all think? Am I Khriss reincarnated, or am I insane? Please feel free to point out flaws in this theory, I really want to hear all of your thoughts.

This looks awesome, but can it explain this:

WoBs:

Spoiler

Quote

Thanatos17901

If Sazed were to die, would he drop the Shards Ruin and Preservation, or would he drop the Shard Harmony?

Brandon Sanderson

Excellent question. The shards are now intermingled, and would take effort to split apart. He would drop Harmony. (This is what Odium feared would happen, by the way.)

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/190/#e4115

Quote

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Were Odium to shatter Harmony, we would NOT get Ruin and Preservation back but instead would get smaller pieces.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/307/#e14846

Quote

CosmereQuestioner

Like Adonalsium, could Harmony split into 2 shards OTHER THAN Ruin/Preservation with the right intent.

You once stated that it is plausible that with a different intent Adonalsium could have shattered into a DIFFERENT 16 shards. You have also said that Harmony is one shard (or could be viewed this way.) My question: Could Harmony split/be split into 2 shards OTHER THAN Ruin/Preservation (yet still complementing/opposite) with the right intent of the splitter?  And if not is this because Harmony is still too invested in Scadrial as Ruin/Preservation?

Brandon Sanderson

Almost anything is possible... but it is very, very unlikely that Harmony would split except back to Ruin/Preservation.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/139/#e2258

 

So, from what these state, harmony is now the shard harmony and NOT the shards ruin and preservation. No matter how sazed views it. So what I'm asking is: why would harmonium be splitable at all? That's like saying you can split H2O. You can, but it'd be real unstable.

Also @Treamayne your awesome help use out here.

[Treamayne]

On 4/12/2025 at 7:35 PM, CoderDrag0n8 said:

So, from what these state, harmony is now the shard harmony and NOT the shards ruin and preservation. No matter how sazed views it. So what I'm asking is: why would harmonium be splitable at all? That's like saying you can split H2O. You can, but it'd be real unstable.

The thing to keep in mind is that Harmonium is unstable because of Sazed's conflicted Intent.

Spoiler

Quote

Mason Wheeler

Harmonium is ettmetal... Its chemicals properties are sort of analogous to cesium. It explodes in contact with water. People are made out of water. You try to spike someone, you try to swallow it, you try to wear it as jewelry, it will not end well. Why in the world would he pick something so inharmonious?

Brandon Sanderson

He didn't pick it. It's unstable because of the two halves of him not meshing well.

Oathbringer release party (Nov. 13, 2017)

Quote

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

He said ettmetal is chemically reactive, not nuclear.

The longer answer makes it sound like Harmonium isn't a Lerasium/Atium alloy, but a whole new metal. He described it as "super-cesium," and that its volatility was based on electrons, not on protons or neutrons.

"It is not unstable, it is reactive. So it's like a "super-cesium". It reacts so violently..."

Footnote: Unspecified question by Pagerunner.
Arcanum Unbounded Hoboken signing (Dec. 3, 2016)

Quote

Isaac Stewart

Thought I'd just get this out into the world since I hadn't yet: The Feruchemical symbol for Harmony.

ArgentSun

Ah, so I am not the only one who thought they looked like fangs

Isaac Stewart

I was looking to the Feruchemical symbols for lerasium and atium for inspiration. Thus the sort of fang-like projections. This is starting to look very Decepticons to me...

QuestReadyMD

So cool. The symmetry is perfect. I also love that you can see elements of the symbols of lerasium and atium in it.

Isaac Stewart

That's exactly what I was going for. Glad you saw those symbols in there!

ArgentSun

Hey, you say Harmony do you mean harmonium? As far as we know, we only have symbols for metals, not Shards

Isaac Stewart

The symbol for Scadrial (at least among the Cosmere-aware) is also the symbol for Harmony but will probably also be used for Harmonium. It was a mashup of the other god metal symbols. It was natural to make a symbol to fill this void in the Feruchemical symbols as well.

Joe Sanders

Was this on purpose or is it an accident? I can see both the symbol of the Chalice and symbol of the phallus in this, is this a sign of him being an Eunuch?

Isaac Stewart

Totally on accident!

Giffyglyph

Rare to see symmetry in Feruchemy glyphs; does that reflect Harmony's "balanced" nature? Or perhaps an implicit connection to Roshar's glyphs...?

Isaac Stewart

Harmony's symbol was symmetrical and balanced in its Allomantic form, so I decided to carry that over in its Feruchemical form. No relationship to Roshar's glyphs.

General Twitter 2019 (July 15, 2019)

 

So, parts of Atium and Lerasium make sense as residue from Ettmetal because harmony's own intent is comprised of, specifically, maintinaing the Intents of Preservation and Ruin in Balance (even if he's not very effective at the Balance part yet).

On 4/12/2025 at 2:26 AM, EchoOfThePlanes said:

What do you all think?

Possible, but we have no indication that Investiture in a Solid Matter State is also susceptible to Tones the way that Gaseous Investiture is (we also see the Mist react to tones as far back as TFE, since Burning Tin - which emits Preservation's Tone to the Rhythm of Tin allows the Misting to better see through the Mist).

Since we do not know how The Set explored these experiements, we cannot compare Wax's methodology to their's to identify differences. I could see the sealed chamber being part of the reson, but I am unsure that a possible Vaccum and separation from Tones is the factor - if only because Rhythm and Tone is less a part of Scadrial's MoIs than other places like Roshar. This WoB (below) indicates why Brandon will make some Realmatic principals more or less of a factor for each Magic System (such as Command being a very important piece of Awakening, but only slighly important in Surgebinding and Allomancy).

Spoiler

Argent

With Intent and Command, I've been thinking about how these things would apply to other worlds. On Nalthis they seem kind of folded together into the same thing, but I can't crack the metals on Scadrial and the Aons in Elantris. Because the Aons seem very Command-y, not very Intent-y, right? What about the metals?

Brandon Sanderson

The Aons, you should be able to eventually figure it out. With the metals, when I wrap this in, it's going to be very slight, and you shouldn't assume that every one of the permutations of the cosmere magics are going to require the same levels of... I need the freedom on each one. So Intent and Command can't be a major feature of every magic, otherwise it's too restrictive. You're going to end up with too many that feel the same. You can imagine, on Scadrial, that different metals would not have had to do what they do in the origin of the magic system. That is not necessarily innate, that is relating to the creation of the magic.

<edited for length and relevance> Footnote: While the question was being asked, Brandon was nodding the entire time until he first spoke.
JordanCon 2021 (July 16, 2021)

So, while we know that Tones and Rythms are a factor for Bronze Allomancy, we have no indication that they are a major feature of all Metallic Arts in a way similar to how they premeate all things on Roshar. Not impossible there is a correlation though.

Hope that helps

Edited May 20, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG

[alder24]

On 4/12/2025 at 8:26 AM, EchoOfThePlanes said:

My theory is that once Wax's experiment began and the harmonium detonated, the resulting explosion burned up all of the oxygen inside the sealed vault, thus creating a temporary vacuum and cutting off its contents from the Rhythm of Harmony. Whatever was left of the now lonely harmonium was then able to split into atium and lerasium.

Interesting, pure tones might have played a role here, however in my opinion not in this way. Harmonium reacts with water like cesium does, this reaction does not need any oxygen to be sustained, it's 2Cs + 2H2O → 2CsOH + H2. The Harmonium-Trellium reaction on the other hand is more similar to fission, which also doesn't require any oxygen to occur. Both of those reactions release tremendous amounts of energy via heat and radiation, which heats up air around it and this creates a shock wave, which is the explosion. This isn't even considering the fact that air is only 21% oxygen, the rest is nitrogen, which would still be there even if oxygen was used up if hydrogen were to be ignited - there would be no vacuum.

However, the experiment took place in a controlled environment, not in a vacuum chamber and Harmonium was also coated with oil, so it couldn't react with water at all. So while the vacuum and pure tones are a smart idea, I don't think it can possibly be applied to this reaction. Harmonium and Trellium are pushing each other away even when they were placed in close proximity and the electric current seemed to be the only physical thing allowing for a fission-like reaction to happen between Harmonium and Trellium.

Also, Navani's experiment succeeded because Navani played the tone of anti-light once the vacuum was created, so that the very first thing light inside would hear is the inverted anti-tone. Nothing like this happened during Wax's experiment, there was no source of the pure tone of Preservation or Ruin for the Harmonium inside to pick up while leaving the vacuum. Those two experiments aren't similar at all.

TLM ch 15:

Quote

“Electric current to soften some harmonium,” Wax said, pointing at the equipment he’d set up: a system to deliver a powerful current through a tiny nugget of harmonium held at the center, coated in oil to prevent it from corroding. “That’s the closest we ever came to dividing it.”

RoW ch 97:

Quote

“We’ll see,” Navani said. She grabbed her bow, then pressed the plate against the side of the vacuum chamber and began playing her anti-Voidlight tone.
Raboniel winced at the sound. “The Light won’t be able to hear,” she said. “It’s in a vacuum, as you said.”
“Yes, but it’s moving across, and will soon touch the empty diamond at the other side,” Navani said. “I want this to be the first thing it hears when it touches matter.”

 

Spoiler

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

He said ettmetal is chemically reactive, not nuclear.

The longer answer makes it sound like Harmonium isn't a Lerasium/Atium alloy, but a whole new metal. He described it as "super-cesium," and that its volatility was based on electrons, not on protons or neutrons.

"It is not unstable, it is reactive. So it's like a "super-cesium". It reacts so violently..."

Footnote: Unspecified question by Pagerunner.
Arcanum Unbounded Hoboken signing (Dec. 3, 2016)

 

My personal theory is that Wax had a very specific intent, which allowed for the creation of Lerasium. Moreover, I believe that you can only create one god metal depending on which intent you have - if you don't want to change anything about yourself or use god metals for your own gains, you will create only Lerasium, if you do desire the opposite, you will create Atium. Wax created only Lerasium (Sazed lied), Kandra only Atium, Set could have been unaware that god metals are created in this reaction as they could only see the destructive potential of it for their bomb, thus they'd never search for god metals. Other than Wax's intent during the experiment, I can't really see anything else special there that could play a major role in it, at least nothing more is in the book. TLM ch 15:

Quote

It took a good half hour to set the whole thing up. All the while, Wax wondered. What if he did split harmonium? He’d have two metals, the bodies of gods, each capable of incredible things from ancient lore, like manipulating time or creating beings with mythological Mistborn abilities. What if he had that power? What would that change about him?
Nothing, he thought to himself. I’ve held that power. And when I had it, I used it to save my friends.