Theory: Allomantic metals correlate to a Shard

[Isomere]

This theory is based off the Shardic Lens Theory. Restated briefly, the Power of Creation is a source of Light. Each of the 16 Shards is viewed as a Lens that can access this light and allow it to enter the Cosmere. When the Power passes through a Shard, it is distorted based on the Intent, creating 16 "colors" of Light. A human must have a piece of a Shard and use a physical Focus to access the Powers of Creation.

One of my questions deals with the Power of a Shard and the Power of Creation. Are they the same thing? Could they be related? I am not sure, but for this theory I make an assumption that they are two different things. (The theory could also be reworked assuming they are the same, but subtle differences arise as a result)

So assuming the Power of Creation is separate from the Shard itself, each Shard acts sort of like a Sun, radiating the Power of Creation into the Cosmere, but altering the Power in the process. That Light can be harnessed and used by any of the other Shards to accomplish their goals.

I believe the metals of Scadrial form a link to one of the 16 Shards and allow access to one "color" of Light. Alloys may allow you to blend and combine various colors. This Light is then used as fuel. Under typical use, Allomancy would not change the total amount of Power that Preservation controls since the source of energy is the Power of Creation, filtered through the various Shards, then accessed through a Focus. You can also fuel Allomancy directly with the body of any Shard. We have seen that happen with the Well of Ascension, the Mists and Lerasium. Using these as fuel will directly access the Power of Preservation, temporarily dispersing his power and weakening the shard.

The end effect of allomancy will be related in some way to the Intent that shaped the Power's color. Many of us have been puzzled by the correlation between Atium and Electrum. Used allomantically, they both reveal shadows of the future and have virtually the same effect. But electrum shows your own shadow while atium shows the shadows of others. I suggest that they are both directly related to the Intent of Ruin. Electrum is a physical focus that forms a link to Ruin, allowing access to black colored Light. Atium allows you to access Ruin's Power directly. Both forms of Power are shaped by the Intent of Ruin and will have similar effects when used allomantically.

Expanding on this idea, could all of the metals have a corresponding shard? The only other God-Metal we know about is Lerasium, and it seems to be capable of altering a person's Identity to Attune them perfectly with Preservation. There is a feruchemical power that stores Identity. I suggest that Aluminium is the Metal that accesses white Light from Preservation. Used allomantically, aluminium alters the Identity of the other metals in the user, destroying them instantly. I suggest that a trained allomancer could control how Aluminum changes the metals instead of just destroying them.

[skaa he/him]

I believe the metals of Scadrial form a link to one of the 16 Shards and allow access to one "color" of Light. Alloys may allow you to blend and combine various colors. This Light is then used as fuel. Under typical use, Allomancy would not change the total amount of Power that Preservation controls since the source of energy is the Power of Creation, filtered through the various Shards, then accessed through a Focus. You can also fuel Allomancy directly with the body of any Shard. We have seen that happen with the Well of Ascension, the Mists and Lerasium. Using these as fuel will directly access the Power of Preservation, temporarily dispersing his power and weakening the shard.

The end effect of allomancy will be related in some way to the Intent that shaped the Power's color. Many of us have been puzzled by the correlation between Atium and Electrum. Used allomantically, they both reveal shadows of the future and have virtually the same effect. But electrum shows your own shadow while atium shows the shadows of others. I suggest that they are both directly related to the Intent of Ruin. Electrum is a physical focus that forms a link to Ruin, allowing access to black colored Light. Atium allows you to access Ruin's Power directly. Both forms of Power are shaped by the Intent of Ruin and will have similar effects when used allomantically.

 

That is a very interesting theory, Isomere! I was thinking of an idea earlier today that was sort of similar (it relates the Shards to the metals, and it's also an alternative to my thoroughly-battered Atium-Electrum conspiracy theory). We know that both Preservation and Ruin exists in all the base metals on Scadrial, right? Well, my new theory is that the two Shards each chose a metal that would represent him on Scadrial's Physical Realm, took a bit of that metal from the land, and removed the other Shard's influence from that bit. Ati chose electrum, so Atium is electrum that doesn't contain any part of Preservation in it. That's why Atium Allomancy looks so much like Electrum Allomancy.

 

Just like you, I also suspected that aluminum was Leras' metal. But later I decided that Leras probably chose nicrosil, since that would mirror the Atium/Electrum relationship better:

• Nicrosil is an alloy, just like electrum.

   

• Atium is like a more powerful version of electrum with a Self/Others inversion. Lerasium is like a more powerful version of nicrosil with an Others/Self inversion.

   

• Nicrosil Feruchemy stores Investiture while Lerasium Allomancy grants Allomantic Investiture. Electrum Allomancy shows your future while Atium Feruchemy stores your future (in a way; it stores Age, after all).

 

So, Atium is electrum without Preservation, Lerasium is nicrosil without Ruin.

 

 

Of course, your theory sounds so much cooler than mine since it also involves the other Shards outside of Scadrial.

 

May I ask, under your theory, what's the Allomantic power of an Atium-electrum alloy?

Edited May 19, 2013 by skaa

[Isomere]

Nicrosil Feruchemy stores Investiture while Lerasium Allomancy grants Allomantic Investiture.

I personally do not believe that Lerasium grants permanent Investiture. The quotes we have from WoB talk about altering sDNA, not granting a piece of a Shard. I have heard a great many people suggest that you do indeed get Investiture from Lerasium, and think it's possible you get some temporary investiture that disappears after the burn is complete.  Similarly, burning Atium does not grant permanent Investiture. 

 

 

We know that both Preservation and Ruin exists in all the base metals on Scadrial, right?

This is news to me. I think the metals are just ordinary metal, but are important because their subatomic wave-forms create a Surgepattern that pairs with one of the Powers of Creation. This is a non-conventional theory at the moment, but I'm hoping it will catch on. 

 

 

May I ask, under your theory, what's the Allomantic power of an Atium-electrum alloy?

Well, your comment really brings out the Internal/External pairing of the God metal vs the associated Focus metal. If you mix them, you might get both internal and external affects. Perhaps an alloy would let you see shadows of both yourself and others at the same time?

[skaa he/him]

This is news to me. I think the metals are just ordinary metal, but are important because their subatomic wave-forms create a Surgepattern that pairs with one of the Powers of Creation. This is a non-conventional theory at the moment, but I'm hoping it will catch on.

 

I got it from what Sazed said in HoA:

 

Atium, then, was an object that was one-sided. Instead of being composed of half Ruin and half Preservation--as, say, a rock would be--atium was completely of Ruin.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=949

Viper

Hah. So in Cosmere, does physics work the same way in the physical realm as it does in our world? Specifically, particle physics; and are atoms made up of protons and neutrons and electrons, and is light photons, etc?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Viper

So what's at the core of an atom of Atium? Ate-teum? Also how do you pronounce it? At-teum?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. And the matter is just normal matter, but it's wrapped in the spiritual. The Spiritual DNA [or something] is what makes it magical.

Viper

(Note: he might've said slightly more about this but I didn't write it down and I don't remember. Sorry for not bringing a tape recorder

 

Atium is a bit different than the others, which just have microstructure stuff that acts as aons.

Edited May 19, 2013 by Phantom Monstrosity

[skaa he/him]

http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=949

 

Atium is a bit different than the others, which just have microstructure stuff that acts as aons.

 

This is what I took from the HoA text I quoted and the WoB you quoted: The physical aspect of the base metals on Scadrial are exactly like in real life, but their spiritual aspect contains both Preservation and Ruin. The God Metals are different in that Atium's spiritual aspect only contains Ruin while Lerasium's spiritual aspect only contains Preservation.

 

 

Well, your comment really brings out the Internal/External pairing of the God metal vs the associated Focus metal. If you mix them, you might get both internal and external affects. Perhaps an alloy would let you see shadows of both yourself and others at the same time?

 

But Malatium (Atium-Gold) only has an External power. So it's not an Internal-External mixture.

Edited May 19, 2013 by skaa

[Phantom Monstrosity]

It's actually the molecular structure

 

http://www.openthefridge.net/blog/2011/11/18/interview-author-brandon-sanderson.html

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.

[Chromium Compounder]

Ooh, I like that quote from Brandon.  That does put Compounding in a different light.

 

I like this theory, though I don't think it's really what Brandon was thinking of when he came up with the metallic arts.  Still, I wonder if we could identify other shards which would correspond with the other metals.

 

So far we have:

Preservation - Either Aluminum or Nicrosil (I prefer the Nicrosil theory)

Ruin - Electrum

 

The other shards we know of are Endowment, Devotion, Dominion, Honor, Cultivation, and Odium.  I've seen references to a couple others, but there weren't names for them, and I never heard anything about powers or intent with them, with the possible exception of the shard that just cares about surviving and staying hidden.

 

Endowment - Pewter (Awakening gives life to things.  Pewter gives life to yourself.)

Devotion - Duralumin (I subscribe to the belief that the shaod takes those of Aonic blood who show great devotion to something.  So the shaod is changing people to give them great power.  Duralumin brings extra great power from other metals.)

Dominion - Bronze (Seekers were used by the Steel Ministry to hunt down Allomancers.  And most Inquisitors began as Seekers.  Hemalurgy reminds me of both Dakhor and Bloodsealing, both of which seem more closely related to Dominion than to Devotion to me.) or Brass (Skilled Soothers can practically gain dominion over other people.)

Honor - Iron (Ironpulling is like surgebinding (which I've always thought is more strongly related to Honor than any other shard on Roshar) but only for connections between yourself and metal.)

Cultivation - Tin, Gold, Bendalloy? (We know less about Cultivation than about the other shards on Roshar, so there's not much to go on.  We know Cultivation was good at seeing the future, so that makes me think of the temporal metals, but I could also see Tin as being the closest to Cultivation's powers.)

Odium - Chromium (I believe shardblades (and the Thrill) are of Odium (though not Dawnblades, they're of Honor).  Shardblades destroy all non-living things they come in contact with, and they shear through the souls of living things.  Chromium allows you to destroy the metals of others.)

(Nameless survivor shard) - Copper (Though we know next to nothing about this shard, copper clouds are used for hiding allomancy, which makes sense for this shard.)

 

Anyway, like I said, I don't really believe in this theory, but I think it's a fun one.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Brandon mentioned on TWG that he's just made choices on metal effects (particularly nicrosil and chromium) simply because they were cool, even if they didn't really follow patterns.

 

I think trying to assign a (non-god) metal to each shard isn't really going to work out.  Especially since all metals have complements, and all shards don't.

[Chromium Compounder]

Brandon mentioned on TWG that he's just made choices on metal effects (particularly nicrosil and chromium) simply because they were cool, even if they didn't really follow patterns.

 

I think trying to assign a (non-god) metal to each shard isn't really going to work out.  Especially since all metals have complements, and all shards don't.

 

Agreed.  That's part of why I don't believe this theory.

[Voidus]

Yeah I don't see this as being likely to happen, especially since all the other magic systems would need an equal mirroring of all 16 Shards' natures.

[Chromium Compounder]

I think trying to assign a (non-god) metal to each shard isn't really going to work out. Especially since all metals have complements, and all shards don't.

Does anyone have a quote about shards not having complements? I've heard that before, but never anything authoritative.

[Windrunner he/him]

We know that all Shards don't have a perfect opposite

CHAOS

Are Shards all paired? Does Endowment have a counterpart?

BRANDON SANDERSON

RAFO. Also, yes and no. Not all Shards have perfect counterparts like Ruin and Preservation.

Source

Personally, I do think they have complements though, as one of my bigger theories hinges on that.