Godmetal Resonances

[Trusk'our he/him]

While thinking through a scenario for a Pewterarm/Pinnacle Twinborn using an Atiummind (trying to think of ways a person could live between Eras), I had a thought: if a Twinborn uses a Godmetal to refocus one of their powers on a regular basis, would they develop a new Resonance?

On one hand, they're using the same powers that were already a part of their Spiritweb. On the other, one of their powers is now providing a very different effect.

Personally, I'm thinking that this should create a new Resonance, possibly one combining three powers if the Twinborn uses their Godmetal tweaked power in its normal state too.

[Treamayne]

8 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

if a Twinborn uses a Godmetal to refocus one of their powers on a regular basis

Can you please clarify what you mean by this? Using an atium-mind with stored Age should have no effect on Burning Pewter or storing/tapping Determination, so I am confused by what you mean. 

[Trusk'our he/him]

4 hours ago, Treamayne said:

Can you please clarify what you mean by this? Using an atium-mind with stored Age should have no effect on Burning Pewter or storing/tapping Determination, so I am confused by what you mean. 

Sorry about that, fair criticism.

I was thinking of an electrum/Atium alloy they could use as a Metalmind to store youth.

Basically along the line of how Seers were retconned into being Oracles burning an Atium/electrum alloy to get, effectively, a different power.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/456-general-reddit-2021/#e15110

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.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/482-youtube-spoiler-stream-3/#e15299

Kingsdaughter613

Primary question: Peter recently said something about atium in Era 1 actually being an atium-electrum alloy, which is called nalatium. 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. 

 

Footnote: Peter's comment did not give the alloy a name, Adam misread a sentence where the questioner mentioned their own nickname for it.

So, under that reasoning, any Twinborn who used an alloyed Atiummind to tweak their Feruchemy would get a completely (or at least somewhat different) use of their power.

And if the effects are different, I'm assuming the "program" the Investiture uses is different, which I think would therefore change the Twinborn's Resonance.

[Treamayne]

2 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

So, under that reasoning, any Twinborn who used an alloyed Atiummind to tweak their Feruchemy would get a completely (or at least somewhat different) use of their power.

Except that Preservation did not change feruchemy at all (based on current known information). Preservation made specific changes to Allomancy and an Oracle cannot burn electrum to get an Atium effect. Burngin Electrum creates the effect of Electrum | burning E1Atium creates the E1Atium effect. At no point is either ability changed or tweaked, they just got likely to be one of two mistings that get to burn two metals (the other being Gold/Malatium). It is not impossible that Feruchemy was affected, but we have no indication that it was affected - and none of that applies to E2 or beyond, because Sazed undid Leras' changes during the Catacendre. 

It does open the possibility that E1 Seers like Yomen might have had an A-Electrum/A-Atium resonance.

Hope that helps

Edited December 6, 2025 by Treamayne
Speculation/SPAG

[Trusk'our he/him]

14 hours ago, Treamayne said:

Except that Preservation did not change feruchemy at all (based on current known information). Preservation made specific changes to Allomancy and an Oracle cannot burn electrum to get an Atium effect. Burngin Electrum creates the effect of Electrum | burning E1Atium creates the E1Atium effect. At no point is either ability changed or tweaked, they just got likely to be one of two mistings that get to burn two metals (the other being Gold/Malatium). It is not impossible that Feruchemy was affected, but we have no indication that it was affected - and none of that applies to E2 or beyond, because Sazed undid Leras' changes during the Catacendre. 

It does open the possibility that E1 Seers like Yomen might have had an A-Electrum/A-Atium resonance.

Hope that helps

I still don't think I was clear in my communication. Sorry.

What I mean to say when the Era 1 Oracles using Atium would have "tweaked" powers is that they were using an Atium/electrum alloy. They should have been able to use their standard power by burning mundane electrum as well (presumably, since they were still Oracles), but when burning a Godmetal alloy they produce a new effect using that metal's Investiture.

It is my thought that by doing this you could get a new Resonance, since the kinetic Investiture flowing through your Spiritweb is different from what that Misting/Twinborn would normally have. Kinda like how I postulated a while ago that Compounders like Miles who focus a lot on only producing their Feruchemical effect rather than mixing in their true Allomantic effect probably won't have a Resonanance- only it's the reverse here.

Basically, I think that Godmetals work by overwriting the "frequency" of the Allomancy or Feruchemy using them (also fueling the process with their own substance in the case of Allomancy), very similarly to how a Compounder's Metalmind has an overwritten frequency, which then produces a new effect when Compounded.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/220-open-the-fridge-interview/#e4702

Lyndsey Luther

Ok, last question. It was really difficult coming up with three questions that haven’t been asked already...

Brandon Sanderson

OK... you’re not going to ask me the “what would you ask me” question?

Lyndsey Luther

Not quite...

Brandon Sanderson

OK good, because I hate that one! (laughs)

Lyndsey Luther

My question is if there’s anything that you’ve never been asked that you would like to talk about?

Brandon Sanderson

Oooooh, ok. Hm. That one is so hard! Every time people ask me something like this... What have I never been asked that people should be asking, is basically what the question is? Something that the fans have just missed... They pick up on so much, that it’s hard... I do wonder if, you know… all the magic systems [in my books] are connected and work on some basic fundamental principles, and a lot of people haven’t been asking questions about this. One thing I did get a question on today, and I’ll just talk about this one... they didn’t ask the right question, but I nudged them the right way, is understanding that tie between AonDor [the magic system from Elantris] and Allomancy [Mistborn’s magic system].

People ask about getting the power from metals and things, but that’s not actually how it works. The power’s not coming from metal. I talked a little about this before, but you are drawing power from some source, and the metal is actually just a gateway. It’s actually the molecular structure of the metal… what’s going on there, the pattern, the resonance of that metal works in the same way as an Aon does in Elantris. It filters the power. So it is just a sign of “this is what power this energy is going to be shaped into and give you.” When you understand that, Compounding [in Alloy of Law] makes much more sense.

Compounding is where you are able to kind of draw in more power than you should with Feruchemy. What’s going on there is you’re actually charging a piece of metal, and then you are burning that metal as a Feruchemical charge. What is happening is that the Feruchemical charge overwrites the Allomantic charge, and so you actually fuel Feruchemy with Allomancy, is what you are doing. Then if you just get out another piece of metal and store it in, since you’re not drawing the power from yourself, you’re cheating the system, you’re short-circuiting the system a little bit. So you can actually use the power that usually fuels Allomancy, to fuel Feruchemy, which you can then store in a metalmind, and basically build up these huge reservoirs of it. So what’s going on there is… imagine there’s like, an imprint, a wavelength, so to speak. A beat for an Allomantic thing, that when you burn a metal, it says “ok, this is what power we give.” When it’s got that charge, it changes that beat and says, “now we get this power.” And you access a set of Feruchemical power. That’s why Compounding is so powerful.

This is what makes me think that using Godmetals/Godmetal alloys effectively turns one Allomantic/Feruchemical power you already have into a new one on top of the original, which could then produce a new Resonance, as there is a new effect flowing through the Spiritweb (and in the case of a reusable Godmetal Metalmind, it could be done a lot over time without a large reservoir of the metal being needed).

Edited December 7, 2025 by Trusk'our

[Frustration]

On 12/6/2025 at 9:19 AM, Trusk'our said:

Sorry about that, fair criticism.

I was thinking of an electrum/Atium alloy they could use as a Metalmind to store youth.

Basically along the line of how Seers were retconned into being Oracles burning an Atium/electrum alloy to get, effectively, a different power.

  Reveal hidden contents

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/456-general-reddit-2021/#e15110

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.

  Reveal hidden contents

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/482-youtube-spoiler-stream-3/#e15299

Kingsdaughter613

Primary question: Peter recently said something about atium in Era 1 actually being an atium-electrum alloy, which is called nalatium. 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. 

 

Footnote: Peter's comment did not give the alloy a name, Adam misread a sentence where the questioner mentioned their own nickname for it.

So, under that reasoning, any Twinborn who used an alloyed Atiummind to tweak their Feruchemy would get a completely (or at least somewhat different) use of their power.

And if the effects are different, I'm assuming the "program" the Investiture uses is different, which I think would therefore change the Twinborn's Resonance.

Please ignore this if you want to, this is just the perfectionist in me wanting to say it's not a retcon, it was planned this way since at least 2009, the characters were just wrong, and Brandon only let us in on it recently.

Spoiler

Peter Ahlstrom

I do get annoyed a bit with the "atium retcon" terminology though. In that case, I consider it to always have been that way; at the very latest that was decided before the release of Hero of Ages. The characters just had it wrong all along—which is something that constantly happens in these books; new information comes along that changes the characters' understanding. Nothing needs to change in the text of Era 1 to accommodate the "atium retcon" because it's completely compatible with what was written; the characters were just wrong. 

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/529/#e16899

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.

Footnote: The link is to a post on the Timewaster's Guide forums, where Peter responds to someone asking about whether atium is an alloy by saying he now knows enough to confirm or deny the theory, but is not allowed to.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/486/#e15955

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 12/7/2025 at 1:49 AM, Trusk'our said:

I still don't think I was clear in my communication. Sorry.

What I mean to say when the Era 1 Oracles using Atium would have "tweaked" powers is that they were using an Atium/electrum alloy. They should have been able to use their standard power by burning mundane electrum as well (presumably, since they were still Oracles), but when burning a Godmetal alloy they produce a new effect using that metal's Investiture.

It is my thought that by doing this you could get a new Resonance, since the kinetic Investiture flowing through your Spiritweb is different from what that Misting/Twinborn would normally have. Kinda like how I postulated a while ago that Compounders like Miles who focus a lot on only producing their Feruchemical effect rather than mixing in their true Allomantic effect probably won't have a Resonanance- only it's the reverse here.

Basically, I think that Godmetals work by overwriting the "frequency" of the Allomancy or Feruchemy using them (also fueling the process with their own substance in the case of Allomancy), very similarly to how a Compounder's Metalmind has an overwritten frequency, which then produces a new effect when Compounded.

  Reveal hidden contents

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/220-open-the-fridge-interview/#e4702

Lyndsey Luther

Ok, last question. It was really difficult coming up with three questions that haven’t been asked already...

Brandon Sanderson

OK... you’re not going to ask me the “what would you ask me” question?

Lyndsey Luther

Not quite...

Brandon Sanderson

OK good, because I hate that one! (laughs)

Lyndsey Luther

My question is if there’s anything that you’ve never been asked that you would like to talk about?

Brandon Sanderson

Oooooh, ok. Hm. That one is so hard! Every time people ask me something like this... What have I never been asked that people should be asking, is basically what the question is? Something that the fans have just missed... They pick up on so much, that it’s hard... I do wonder if, you know… all the magic systems [in my books] are connected and work on some basic fundamental principles, and a lot of people haven’t been asking questions about this. One thing I did get a question on today, and I’ll just talk about this one... they didn’t ask the right question, but I nudged them the right way, is understanding that tie between AonDor [the magic system from Elantris] and Allomancy [Mistborn’s magic system].

People ask about getting the power from metals and things, but that’s not actually how it works. The power’s not coming from metal. I talked a little about this before, but you are drawing power from some source, and the metal is actually just a gateway. It’s actually the molecular structure of the metal… what’s going on there, the pattern, the resonance of that metal works in the same way as an Aon does in Elantris. It filters the power. So it is just a sign of “this is what power this energy is going to be shaped into and give you.” When you understand that, Compounding [in Alloy of Law] makes much more sense.

Compounding is where you are able to kind of draw in more power than you should with Feruchemy. What’s going on there is you’re actually charging a piece of metal, and then you are burning that metal as a Feruchemical charge. What is happening is that the Feruchemical charge overwrites the Allomantic charge, and so you actually fuel Feruchemy with Allomancy, is what you are doing. Then if you just get out another piece of metal and store it in, since you’re not drawing the power from yourself, you’re cheating the system, you’re short-circuiting the system a little bit. So you can actually use the power that usually fuels Allomancy, to fuel Feruchemy, which you can then store in a metalmind, and basically build up these huge reservoirs of it. So what’s going on there is… imagine there’s like, an imprint, a wavelength, so to speak. A beat for an Allomantic thing, that when you burn a metal, it says “ok, this is what power we give.” When it’s got that charge, it changes that beat and says, “now we get this power.” And you access a set of Feruchemical power. That’s why Compounding is so powerful.

This is what makes me think that using Godmetals/Godmetal alloys effectively turns one Allomantic/Feruchemical power you already have into a new one on top of the original, which could then produce a new Resonance, as there is a new effect flowing through the Spiritweb (and in the case of a reusable Godmetal Metalmind, it could be done a lot over time without a large reservoir of the metal being needed).

Now this is theoretically possible, and does have some interesting applications. I don't think the reaction would be severe enough for someone to go put of their way to gain a new Resonance, but I suppose it might happen.

[Trusk'our he/him]

21 hours ago, Frustration said:

Please ignore this if you want to, this is just the perfectionist in me wanting to say it's not a retcon, it was planned this way since at least 2009, the characters were just wrong, and Brandon only let us in on it recently.

  Reveal hidden contents

Peter Ahlstrom

I do get annoyed a bit with the "atium retcon" terminology though. In that case, I consider it to always have been that way; at the very latest that was decided before the release of Hero of Ages. The characters just had it wrong all along—which is something that constantly happens in these books; new information comes along that changes the characters' understanding. Nothing needs to change in the text of Era 1 to accommodate the "atium retcon" because it's completely compatible with what was written; the characters were just wrong. 

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/529/#e16899

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.

Footnote: The link is to a post on the Timewaster's Guide forums, where Peter responds to someone asking about whether atium is an alloy by saying he now knows enough to confirm or deny the theory, but is not allowed to.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/486/#e15955

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honestly it doesn't bother me either way, though I like your idea better. More consistent, and it's not like things were spelled out in the books themselves, so it could work that way.

 

[LewsTherinTelescope]

Going by the below WoB about gaining resonances from the Bands, I think it's totally possible for them to develop a new resonance if they use God Metal alloy alongside their other power(s) enough, yeah.

Spoiler

yulerule

Okay, so Twinborn have [resonances], but full Mistborn don't, right?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

yulerule

So then I assume that a nonmagical person, like someone who doesn't have magic, holding the Bands of Mourning will not have no perks.

Brandon Sanderson

I would say they would not.

yulerule

Will a Twinborn that's holding the Bands of Mourning still have their original perk?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

yulerule

Or, if a Ferring is holding the Bands, and they use just one ability, will they develop a perk, tied to the one second ability they are using?

Brandon Sanderson

The longer they use it, the more likely that this is to happen.

yulerule

Using Investiture a lot over a long period changes your Spiritweb. So what happens if a nonmagical uses the Bands for a while?

Brandon Sanderson

Same thing that would happen to someone else, um, it would have a definite effect on them. *laughter* It would change them, as... in similar ways. Not exactly the same, but in similar ways.

JordanCon 2018 (April 21, 2018)