Replacing Cadmium and Bendalloy with Atium and Malatium

[Creation he/him]

During Mistborn era 1, Leras makes 16% of people become mistings, but this included the god metal Atium and Malatium, instead of cadmium and bendalloy. Also, I believe cadmium and it's alloy is only possible to be created in modern times. So, if cadmium and bendalloy are part of the 16 metals, why were they replaced by Atium and Malatium? 

Edited October 21, 2025 by Chaos
Topic title change

[Time]

During era 1, Ati corrupted the metals, hiding away cadmium and bendalloy and pretty much removed every source about them. 

Quote

“Preservation chose sixteen as a sign. Sixteen percent of people became sick. Sixteen percent of them became Allomancers. He wanted mankind to see this number and understand it.
The problem is that atium was not truly one of the sixteen basic metals—it was something different, something beyond them.
Yet because of the situation, people began counting it as one of the sixteen.”

This is rather ironic, because it caused Ati's downfall, as it allowed Elend & friends to burn away his body, all from his subtle manipulations.  

[Creation he/him]

Yes, thanks, but how could Ati corrupt something Leras did with his own body?

[Creation he/him]

Oh, damn, sorry. Can I change something, perhaps?

Edited October 21, 2025 by Creation

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

30 minutes ago, Creation said:

During Mistborn era 1, Leras makes 16% of people become mistings, but this included the god metal Atium and Malatium, instead of cadmium and bendalloy. Also, I believe cadmium and it's alloy is only possible to be created in modern times. So, if cadmium and bendalloy are part of the 16 metals, why were they replaced by Atium and Malatium? 

I'll look for the WoB, but the reason that Lerasium replaced Cadmium and Bendalloy was that he thought that they were harder to get to, and Atium and Malatium (to a lesser extent) would be more useful in the fight against Ruin.

[Creation he/him]

Okay, thanks, I understand now, but I still wonder about how Preservation can make someone be able to burn his opposite's Godmetal. 

[Trusk'our he/him]

17 minutes ago, Damnation said:

During era 1, Ati corrupted the metals, hiding away cadmium and bendalloy and pretty much removed every source about them. 

This is rather ironic, because it caused Ati's downfall, as it allowed Elend & friends to burn away his body, all from his subtle manipulations.  

What?

Where did you learn this? I don't recall this ever coming up in the book nor a WoB.

[NerdyAarakocra They/Them]

Just now, Creation said:

Okay, thanks, I understand now, but I still wonder about how Preservation can make someone be able to burn his opposite's Godmetal. 

Actually, anyone can burn Pure Atium. The atium from Hathsin (referred to either as atium (capitalization inconsistent) or Hathsinium) is an Atium/electrum alloy.

This is broadly referred to as "the Atium Retcon." Arcanum isn't loading on my computer for some completely incomprehensible reason, so I can't find the WoB.

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

18 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

What?

Where did you learn this? I don't recall this ever coming up in the book nor a WoB.

I know that I've heard it before. Here's the best WoB I could find (@Treamayne), we're dying out here:

Quote

little wilson (paraphrased)

I saw Brandon at a book signing back in mid-December, and I asked him about the 16 percent deal. He said that Preservation replaced the real External Temporal Metals with atium and malatium (at least I'm assuming malatium, but he didn't mention that specifically. He only said atium). So not-cerrobend and cadmium weren't counted in the 16%. nicrosil and chromium, on the other hand, were. So there are chromium andnicrosil Mistings running around, not knowing that they're Mistings.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/291/#e16082

 

Edited October 21, 2025 by ThatOneWorldhopper
Silly Hopper! You need TWO parenthesis!

[Time]

Oh, whoops

[Treamayne]

 

9 hours ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

Almost everything about this title is a spoiler, please change that.

Never mind, you can't do that, sorry.

You can change the title - edit the first post and the title can be changed while in the Edit display. Please see the  SHARDER FAQ  for editing tips, and much much more.

The reason why we avoid spoilers on thread titles is because they display on the main page, so you would be effectivly spoiling the climax of Era 1 for people who may not have read Mistborn at all yet. Thread Titles should always avoid spoilers. 

 

9 hours ago, Creation said:

10 hours ago, Creation said:

During Mistborn era 1, Leras makes 16% of people become mistings, but this included the god metal Atium and Malatium, instead of cadmium and bendalloy. Also, I believe cadmium and it's alloy is only possible to be created in modern times. So, if cadmium and bendalloy are part of the 16 metals, why were they replaced by Atium and Malatium? 

Okay, thanks, I understand now, but I still wonder about how Preservation can make someone be able to burn his opposite's Godmetal. 

Lots of discussion on this - please see the SHARDER FAQ for tips on searching both these forums and the Arcanum (WoB Database). 

 

Please note that what the Scadrians refer to as Atium in Era 1 is not pure Atium (which, as a GodMetal, anybody [any allomancer, any Scadrian unclear which version of "anybody" applies] should be able to burn, not just Mistborn and specific Mistings).

WoBs:

Spoiler

Quote

Kingsdaughter613

Primary question: Peter recently said something about atium in Era 1 actually being an atium-electrum alloy. Is this accurate?

Brandon Sanderson

This is accurate, yes.

You could, by the way, just continue to call it atium. That's what they think atium is in-world. It's very slightly tainted.

Kingsdaughter613

Secondary questions: If the above is yes, did Kelsier get malatium by separating the atium and gold from the silver in nalatium? If so, do atium and gold have similar melting points?

Brandon Sanderson

That's more of a RAFO in that I'm not sure I want to canonize any of that right now.

Quote

/u/AAKS_

My understanding is that Brandon thinks it is a plothole that Lerasium can be burned by Scadrian (regardless of if they are mistings/mistborn) but Atium can't.

His solution is to retcon the Pits to naturally produce an Atium/Electrum alloy, presumably by the design of Preservation. Therefore we don't know what pure Atium looks like or does when used in any magic.

Peter Ahlstrom

We do know what it does. It’s on the Allomancy poster, and the effect appeared one time at the end of Hero of Ages.

LewsTherinTelescope

Interesting. Do you know if he had already conceived the retcon by the time the poster was written, or if that line about pure atium just turned out to fit really well retroactively?

Peter Ahlstrom

The retcon is way older than a lot of people assume.

LewsTherinTelescope

Does this mean he had it in mind by the time Hero of Ages released (since the first public version of the poster dates to 2008), or just that it's old but not sure exactly how old?

Peter Ahlstrom

Remember that what's in the books is filtered through the understanding of the characters. So even if Brandon planned it from the beginning, if the characters didn't know about it, it's not going to come out in the book.

And see this thread reply from 2009.

Quote

Lance Alvein (paraphrased)

You've said that "The Pits of Hathsin were crafted by Preservation as a place to hide the chunk of Ruin's body that he had stolen away". How does one Shard steal a portion of another Shard and create a Physical outlet for it, like the Pits were for Ruin's power?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It has to do with clash between the two Shards' power. When pressed, he then said that it was "kind of" like splintering

Hal-Con 2012 (Oct. 30, 2012)

Quote

Chaos (paraphrased)

Does Ruin have a pool, similar to Preservation's pool with the Well of Ascension and Skai's pool in Elantris?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes. His pool is the Pits [Pits of Hathsin].

Ancient 17S Q&A (May 1, 2010)

 

So, basically what happened was that Preservation, to prepare his Gambit, replaced Cadmium and Bendalloy (since Scadrial had not discovered these metals yet, and he needed to replace Temporal Metals) on the Allomantic Table with his Atium alloy (Atium/Electrum) and Malatium (Era 1 Atium alloyed with Gold) to enable it's use as you see in the books - preserving (see what I did there) the Sign of 16 - which Leras expected to remain a significant number (Ati ruined that part of the plan).

When Sazed ascended to Harmony, he restored the original metals (regaining the lost part of Ruin that was trapped in the false alloy produced by the Pits of Hathsin) which is why there are no Mistings for those metals any more. Note: an "Atium Misting" was never actually a Misting for Era 1 Atium - but actually an Electrum Misting which was able to burn Era 1 Atium because of its Electrum Content.

Spoiler

Annotations to HoA Ch 21:

Quote

The Number Sixteen

I worry that having Vin make this connection is one of the more forced events in the book. She’d just finished telling everyone that she wasn’t a scholar, and now she discovers a pattern of numbers hidden in the statistics of how people fall sick? My original intention for this was to have her be in a mind-set where she was looking for natural rules—because of her earlier discussion of Ruin and his rules—which then allowed her to see this pattern.

Rereading it, I’m not 100% pleased with it, but it’s too late to make a change. I’d probably rewrite it so that Noorden or Elend make the connection, then let Vin connect that to what she’s been thinking about. That would have been a much more natural progression.

Note that here, Vin misunderstands what these numbers mean. She’s looking for rules that bind Ruin. What she finds is not that, but instead a clue left by Preservation. Numbers are understandable to people regardless of language, and so Preservation decided to leave some clues for people to discover that would hopefully lead them to follow the plans he’d set in motion. In my prewriting, I’d intended there to be more hard facts to be discovered in the workings of the universe—numbers hidden in mathematical statistics that said rational things, like the boiling point of water or the like. All as a means of Preservation hinting to humankind that there was a plan for them.

In the end, this didn’t work out. I decided it would be overly complicated and that it would just be too technical to work in this particular novel. The only remnant of that plot arc became the number sixteen that Preservation embedded into the way the mistsickness works, intending it to give a clue about what the mists are doing to people. “You now are Allomancers!” is what this was supposed to scream. Unfortunately, the Lord Ruler’s obfuscation of Allomancy—and the number of metals in it—left this clue to fall flat.

Annotations to Ch 36:

Quote

The Number Sixteen

Demoux’s problems here are intended to give me another means of reminding the reader of the statistical anomaly found in the numbers of people who fall sick to the mist. As I wrote the draft, I’m glad I was forced to keep Demoux alive, as doing so gave me a character who was intimately connected with the problems of the mists and the things they were inflicting on people.

If the number sixteen seems obvious to you, please don’t blame the characters for not figuring it out. Remember, for a thousand years they’ve had it reinforced over and over again to them that there are only ten Allomantic metals. Sure, you’ve got the handy illustration in the back of the book showing you all sixteen in a circle, but the characters don’t have the benefit of being able to read the novel.

Quote

 

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.

 

 

For more, please see:

• Era 2 Missing Metal
• HoA Inconsistency
• Things I am confused about
• Allomantic Silver

 

9 hours ago, NerdyAarakocra said:

The atium from Hathsin (referred to either as atium (capitalization inconsistent) or Hathsinium) is an Atium/electrum alloy.

This is the first time I have ever head "Hathsinium" - is that your term?
Brandon advocates using either Era 1 Atium and Atium - or - Atium and Pure Atium as paired terms to differentiate the Stolen bit of Ruin's power fed thorugh the investiture cycle in Hathsin Pits (and therefore adulterated with Electrum) from the Pure GodmMetal of Ruin. 

Hope that helps.

Edited October 21, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG

[Creation he/him]

 

Sorry, I still don't know how I can edit this forum's title, I can't see how on the link you provided either, sorry. Could you please explain to me easier?

[Treamayne]

6 hours ago, Creation said:

 

Sorry, I still don't know how I can edit this forum's title, I can't see how on the link you provided either, sorry. Could you please explain to me easier?

SHARDER FAQ    - Half way down has a whole section on Editing posts: 

Spoiler

That said, please use the three-dot menu on the very first post of the thread to Edit that post. Above the post window will be the Thread Title, which can also be edited (second example is the Reading Recommendation  thread, because I cannot display editing your post):

Spoiler

Hope that helps

[Chaos he/him]

14 hours ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

Almost everything about this title is a spoiler, please change that.

Never mind, you can't do that, sorry.

Yes, you can. One can just edit the initial post.

I will change this title, but there will be something that people could consider spoilers. There's a balance between that and usability.

Also, "hathsinium" is not a real term. Perfectly fine for fans to use it, but is not canonical.

Edited October 21, 2025 by Chaos

[NerdyAarakocra They/Them]

On 10/20/2025 at 11:07 PM, Treamayne said:

This is the first time I have ever head "Hathsinium" - is that your term?

As Chaos said, it's used by fans sometimes (I picked it up from the discord server).

Edit: In case I didn't make it clear, the official term is just atium. Hathsinium is a fan term that appears occasionally and that I'm a fan of because it reduces ambiguity.

Edited October 23, 2025 by NerdyAarakocra

[Nitpicking]

On 10/20/2025 at 10:25 PM, Creation said:

Okay, thanks, I understand now, but I still wonder about how Preservation can make someone be able to burn his opposite's Godmetal. 

Among other things: allomancy belongs to Preservation, the relationship between Shards and metals is weird (metal seems to be invisible to Ruin, as he can't read messages written on it without Marsh's presence), and Preservation and Ruin are deeply, deeply Connected to each other as well as Scadrial.

[Creation he/him]

Okay, thankyou.