Lerasium beads at the Well of Ascension

[Meg]

Re-reading Mistborn trilogy and trying to understand more about Scadrial, Preservation, Ruin and Sazed, a question formed in my mind:
 
Apparently there had been 10 beads of Lerasium at the Well of Ascension.

• TLR got his abilities by taking up the power from the Well, he didn't use a bead.
• Nine beads were given to political allies who became the origial first Allomancers.
• One bead saved Elend's live.

But Preservations "number" was sixteen.

• It also left clues, such as the number 16 everywhere, (source)

   

•  16 metals (there are more as BS tells in interviews, but that's what the book reads)
   

• precisely sixteen percent of the soldiers fell sick. To the man. (HoA, Ch  21)

   

• Yet, the sickness in this population here is within a single person of being exactly sixteen percent (HoA, Ch 21)

   

• That's exactly one-sixteenth of those who fell to the sickness, my lord," Demoux said. "And we stayed sick exactly sixteen days. To the hour." (HoA, Ch 36)

   

• (And yes I know that 1/16 =| 16 % and I know there's a thread about this.)
   

There might be other "number-16-clues" that I don't remember at the moment.

 

So my question: Has anyone an idea why there should have been ten beads of lerasium? I itches me to find out if there were 16 beads and what happened to the other six.

 

 

[Mailliw73]

Hoid also has one

[Kadrok]

What makes you so sure Rashek didn't use Lerasium to gain Allomancy? I'm not convinced using the Well just gives you Allomancy. For me the breakdown is:

 

1 Rashek

9 "First" Allomancers

1 Hoid

1 Elend

4 My MAG team

 

But in all seriousness I am of the view that the Lerasium beads are not a static thing, that they form gradually over time like Atium, probably capping out at 16 beads by the end of 1024 years. (Note: I'm not the originator of this idea, but I have no idea who on these boards first espoused it...)

Edited September 19, 2013 by Kadrok

[Shardlet]

The fact that the beads were mounted in dried clay or pottery of some sort suggests to me that they are placed there directly.  It seems unlikely that they naturally formed that way.  Also, if they formed over a period of 1024 years, then where are the 16 beads that would have formed post TLR ascension?

[Kadrok]

The fact that the beads were mounted in dried clay or pottery of some sort suggests to me that they are placed there directly.  It seems unlikely that they naturally formed that way. 

Honestly I see this as further evidence they formed. They form in clay, much like Atium forms at the center of a geode.

 

Also, if they formed over a period of 1024 years, then where are the 16 beads that would have formed post TLR ascension?

Scattered around the chamber's nooks and crannies? Ingested by my MAG team? I have no answer to this question yet.

[Shardlet]

I would be floored if they did not search out every corner of the cavern that they could discover.  The beads were in discs of clay while the atium was found in geodes.  The geodes are of course discrete in nature being a single rock, while clay, in contrast, is found as large deposits rather than in a discrete cohesive mass.  This further suggests to me placement. 

[Vortaan]

Ten's also a pretty Cosmere important number. Ten Heralds, Ten Heightenings, Ten Orders... I seem to recall there being ten Shardworlds, but I'm probably wrong on that. So ten as a hint doesn't surprise me. Also, the quote you refer to for the number of nobles who ingested lerasium pretty strongly hints that Rashek got his Allomancy the same way. If not, why wasn't Vin an Elend-level Mistborn after using the Well?

[Moogle]

If not, why wasn't Vin an Elend-level Mistborn after using the Well?

 

She never used the power of the Well to enhance her ability. She gave it up.

 

Or I mean, that's one answer. I personally think TLR took a lerasium bead.

[Kadrok]

She never used the power of the Well to enhance her ability. She gave it up.

 

Or I mean, that's one answer. I personally think TLR took a lerasium bead.

We've had no indication he actively used the well to increase his power, and I got the impression from the OP that she thought the power of the well made him Mistborn. My argument against this is that both Vin and Rashek took the power of the well, both became Slivers. If something was going to happen automatically, I'd have imagined it would have happened then. Also note that Sazed observes that Rashek was equal in power to the original 9 Allomancers.

[Meg]

Hoid also has one

 

Ooops, I forgot Hoid, how could I?

 

 

What makes you so sure Rashek didn't use Lerasium to gain Allomancy? I'm not convinced using the Well just gives you Allomancy. For me the breakdown is:

 

1 Rashek

9 "First" Allomancers

1 Hoid

1 Elend

4 My MAG team

 

But in all seriousness I am of the view that the Lerasium beads are not a static thing, that they form gradually over time like Atium, probably capping out at 16 beads by the end of 1024 years. (Note: I'm not the originator of this idea, but I have no idea who on these boards first espoused it...)

 

 

I'm under the impression (but I don't have an evidence or quote now), that Rashek got his power through using the Well, and he didn't ingest a bead of Lerasium. 

 

That makes: 

1 Hoid

1 Elend

9 the First Allomancers 

 

= 11 beads, so the number 10 seems not important here. 

 

For clarifying: I don't want to claim that there must be 16 beads. It only seems strange to me, that there would be (or would have been) no more 5 beads.  

 

@Kadrok 

We may have no evidence for TLR not taking a bead, but I think, he didn't. I might be wrong.  

[Oudeis]

Do we know that Hoid only took one?

[Kadrok]

He does call the one he's carrying the element, which suggests one, though he may have used one while he was there, or at some time in the past... like when he founded the Worldbringers and attuned himself to Feruchemy

 

 

 

(Clarification: We don't have confirmation on that last bit. Just don't want to confuse anyone)

[Meg]

TLR did not use a bead of lerasium to become an Allomancer. 

 

Q. This is the last one here we have from Mistborn: Did the Lord Ruler use lerasium to gain his super allomantic abilities or did he grant that to himself with the Well’s power?  If he used the bead, does he count as one of the nine original allomancers that Sazed mentions?

 

A: Excellent question.  He did not use the bead… In all of this he granted himself basically, he rebuilt himself to be extremely powerful and he did not use one of the beads.

source

 

(Yes, I'm glad that I was right.) 

[Kadrok]

I don't know who nega-voted it, but have an upvote... that's very interesting and will impact on a lot of our thinking.

 

 

 

EDIT: Something has just occurred to me. While Rashek was playing around with the Well, the general pattern was that he kept creating problems, but as he became more skilful he created smaller and smaller problems. What does this say about his self-rewrite? Did he screw himself up in some way, or is the well more easily used (in an intuitive understanding kind of sense, rather than a power kind of sense) to rewrite one's sDNA (which there is some hint of, given that condensed Well when burned has this effect) than it is to, say... move the planet around?

Edited September 26, 2013 by Kadrok

[Moogle]

TLR did not use a bead of lerasium to become an Allomancer. 

 

Fascinating! Based on your quote there, I'm now convinced that The Lord Ruler could easily have lived forever, using the Well to reset his age so that his daily atium requirements didn't grow beyond production. I wonder what other changes he made to himself? I thought it was a bit weird he was described as being extremely handsome, perhaps he changed himself to look like Alendi so as to make his conquest post-Well that much easier?