Atium: The Secret Revealed

[aeromancer he/him]

Now, I propose a theory henceforth known as Grandmaster.

 

Allow me to establish the baseline for this theory before espousing it:

 

Suppose Vin is fighting a Mistborn assassin (pre-WoA). She thinks the assassin has Atium so she burns it herself. Unfortunately (for the assassin) the assassin does not have atium, and gets killed. However, Watcher (aka Zane) is watching the fight and (for purposes of our discussion) burns atium as well. What happens?

 

Conventional Atium Theory (CAT): Since Zane is in no way getting involved in the Vin's fight, Vin does not appear as exploding atium shadows to Zane, until Zane interferes.

 

Grandmaster: Atium does not allows the user to see into the future, it allows the user to foresee the chain of events, like a chess grandmaster. Anyone burning atium is unpredictable and/or will deviate from predicted course, thus Zane would see the atium shadows. Evidence towards Grandmaster: The user never sees an Atium shadow of him/her-self. Strike you as odd?

 

So does Zane see the shadows or not?

 

OK, chess grandmasters don't work like that, I should know better. But it's a cool name.

Edited September 24, 2013 by aeromancer

[Kurkistan he/him]

I agree that "Grandmaster" is more likely: knowledge of the future gives you extra shadows, then. I don't think that Seers not seeing their own shadows is evidence of anything, though: Atium's just an external metal, with Electrum filling in the "see your own fate" category.

[Shardlet he/him]

I agree with Grandmaster, but for slightly different reasons.  Even if Zane chooses not to move he could choose to move.  Atium shows shadows of interactions.  So Zane would see shadows of Vin’s potential responses to his potential moves.  Also, this would give Zane’s presence away since Vin would see the potential that Zane has for interference.  Moral of the story is, if you are hiding from a mistborn, only burn atium when their back is turned and they are a fair distance from you.

[aeromancer he/him]

Yes, precisely. Since he could choose to move atium shadows occur. However, in actuality, Zane will not move, so no atium shadows according to CAT.