Thermophile Posted November 20, 2015 Report Share Posted November 20, 2015 (edited) When I recently reread the Mistborn books, during the part with the atium stash, I wondered how much it would acutally have containted. After all, the Lord Ruler would have to burn it literally all the time in order to compound age storing, and not die of old age. Even if the Lord Ruler kept it on a very low burn most of the time (higher when there is anybody to see him) the speed at which atium burns means that he couldn't possibly need less than 10 beads per day. The prisoners in the pits of hathsin get one bead a week. This means that, simply to keep the Lord Ruler alive, there would have to be more than 70 prisoners on average. When Kelsier takes over the pits, he mentions that there are only a couple dozen guards [citation needed]. This means that there could not have been all that many prisoners. Combined with the fact that being sent there is extremely rare (the old guy in the first book had only seen it happen once), I'm thinking that the pits have an average of 100 prisoners at a time, each getting an average of one atium geode a week. With the Lord Ruler using ~70 of those beads and 10 going to the nobility, that leaves 20 going to the kandra each week. Remember, a lot of the atum the nobility gets goes to the kandra, so let's say that the kandra get 25 a week. With some quick math (and assuming that Scadrial has the same length year as Earth) we can conclude that the kandra's cache should have contained (roughly) 1.3 million atium beads. With that number, we no longer have to worry about it being too small an amount, but it could be too large. In the fight against the colos where the atium got burned up, there were about 200 atium mistings, plus Eland, and that they were fighting for roughly 3-5 hours straight. With each misting having to burn a total of 65000 beads, this means that each geode worth of atium would have to take roughly 3.6-6 minutes to burn. Sounds about right. And with that, we can conclude that if I was correct with my calculations, Brandon Sanderson likely was too. Edited November 20, 2015 by Thermophile 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natc Posted November 20, 2015 Report Share Posted November 20, 2015 You don't . . . need to burn continuously. Just store as much of it as you can and tap. I feel you're rather underestimating how much superfluous power allomancy can generate for a low-power system such as feruchemy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thermophile Posted November 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2015 (edited) The Lord Ruler is (was) literally a thousand years old. I feel like he'd still need a lot of the stuff considering how fast it burns. Besides, considering that his bracers were confirmed to contain a very small quantity of atium, he'd have to burn it very often. Edited November 20, 2015 by Thermophile Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natc Posted November 20, 2015 Report Share Posted November 20, 2015 (edited) He would need yo do it increasingly often, yes, but that's what the hut is for. He wouldn't burn in public. We don't know how much age a charged bead used in compounding can generate nor the capacity of his bracers to buffer that age. The kandra are definitely sitting on a fortune, but estimating how much TLR actually uses is somewhat of a fool's errand. Plus he'd be burning none to start with and slowly increasing. Edited November 20, 2015 by natc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thermophile Posted November 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2015 (edited) He'd be burning none for what, fify years? That isn't much in comparison to a thousand years. I'm mostly just impressed that I actually got a number that's plausible, rather than 15 minutes per bead, or 10 seconds per bead. Although I will admit that this theory is not well grounded. Edited November 20, 2015 by Thermophile 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charononus Posted November 20, 2015 Report Share Posted November 20, 2015 There are way too many unknowns imo. Also I think I remember seeing someone say that there was a WoB that Marsh has been going 300 some odd years off of a small bag of atium and would be able to be around a while longer, so I think that's a big problem with your math on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thermophile Posted November 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2015 (edited) There are way too many unknowns imo. Also I think I remember seeing someone say that there was a WoB that Marsh has been going 300 some odd years off of a small bag of atium and would be able to be around a while longer, so I think that's a big problem with your math on this. Oh. I was under the impression that Sazed made Marsh immortal so that he could have an Inqusitor minion. Although, if the Lord Ruler didn't have to use a significant amount of atium, that would make the size of the cache 4 million beads, and the duration of each bead around 75 seconds, which makes even more sense. Edited November 20, 2015 by Thermophile Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plaeggs Posted November 20, 2015 Report Share Posted November 20, 2015 Inquisitors live longer anyways, about 250 years, it says something about it in book 1. It wouldn't be that implausible for Marsh to have an even longer life, considering all of the other things Sazed did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charononus Posted November 20, 2015 Report Share Posted November 20, 2015 Inquisitors live longer anyways, about 250 years, it says something about it in book 1. It wouldn't be that implausible for Marsh to have an even longer life, considering all of the other things Sazed did. Honestly this and Sazed changing things were my first thoughts when reading the books. But I feel the need to point out that someone told me about the WoB talking about Marsh's atium. I'm really bad at searching for the WoB's though so unfortunately I can't find it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rellar Posted December 2, 2015 Report Share Posted December 2, 2015 (edited) Inquisitors live longer anyways, about 250 years, it says something about it in book 1. It wouldn't be that implausible for Marsh to have an even longer life, considering all of the other things Sazed did. In Alloy of Law (Spoiler) we find at the very end that Marsh is still well and alive and was working for Sazed/Harmony still. Which is roughly around 350 years after the end of the first mistborn trilogy. So definitely possible that is how he continues living! (The thread's title is also sort of spoiler-ish for the final novel by the way!) Edited December 2, 2015 by Shotgunsalesman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cephandrius Posted February 21, 2016 Report Share Posted February 21, 2016 (The thread's title is also sort of spoiler-ish for the final novel by the way!) shhh! IT's only a spoiler now that you mentioned that! and the kandra's stash was emptied at the end of Hero of Ages, so it has nothing to with era 2. Personally my prediction is they find the pits of hathsin at the magnetic north pole, or the well of ascension at true north (where luthadel) and some lerasium, or both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oversleep Posted February 21, 2016 Report Share Posted February 21, 2016 Where does it go? he thought. The atium reaches the city, but then disappears. It isn’t the Ministry—we’ve watched them—and no skaa hands touch the metal. We assume it goes into the treasury. We hope it does, at least. He knew how much atium was harvested at the pits, and Dockson had researched the amounts that the Lord Ruler doled out—at exorbitant prices—to the nobility. Barely a tenth of what was mined eventually found its way into noble hands. Ninety percent of the atium produced in the world had been stockpiled, year after year, for a thousand years. With that much of the metal, Kelsier’s team could intimidate even the most powerful of the noble houses. When discussing atium cache nobody brings it up, so here I am. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeadFencer Posted February 21, 2016 Report Share Posted February 21, 2016 There was a WoB that a single atium bead could restore someone elderly to youth. If we assume that means around 80 to 10, TLR wouldn't need too much atium. A lot, yes, but not the whole production of the Pits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndigoAjah Posted February 21, 2016 Report Share Posted February 21, 2016 Isn't there a WOB somewhere that the Lord Ruler doesn't even need to stay old at all, he just chooses to? Or am I inventing that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeadFencer Posted February 21, 2016 Report Share Posted February 21, 2016 I do recall that actually. Something about TLR choosing to stay the age he appears as. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Aldric Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 "Oh. I was under the impression that Sazed made Marsh immortal so that he could have an Inqusitor minion." That was my first thought, too, but then it struck me that the Lord Ruler had been unable to do this with the power (why he needed the atium bracers), so it's probable that Sazed could not, either. That's not to say that every night Sazed isn't making him younger again, but I don't think he has the power to make someone immortal without constantly readjusting that person. "Inquisitors live longer anyways, about 250 years, it says something about it in book 1. It wouldn't be that implausible for Marsh to have an even longer life, considering all of the other things Sazed did." Upon reflection, it makes sense that inquisitors would live a long, long life because of Gold, esp. if they compound. Gold cannot keep anyone from getting old, understandably, but nobody dies, really, from being old. They die because parts start failing, or they get diseases and can't be operated on because they are too frail, etc. If you can keep your organs really healthy through gold compounding and heal up from anything that happens you could live quite a long time. You'd still be really wrinkled, and your hair may be pure white, but every time your liver failed or your heart stopped you could heal what is wrong. Basically, as a gold compounder you'd be alive until the point where EVERYTHING was so worn out it all just stopped at once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voidus Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 shhh! IT's only a spoiler now that you mentioned that! and the kandra's stash was emptied at the end of Hero of Ages, so it has nothing to with era 2. Personally my prediction is they find the pits of hathsin at the magnetic north pole, or the well of ascension at true north (where luthadel) and some lerasium, or both. Both the well and the pits are no more in era 2. "Oh. I was under the impression that Sazed made Marsh immortal so that he could have an Inqusitor minion." That was my first thought, too, but then it struck me that the Lord Ruler had been unable to do this with the power (why he needed the atium bracers), so it's probable that Sazed could not, either. That's not to say that every night Sazed isn't making him younger again, but I don't think he has the power to make someone immortal without constantly readjusting that person. "Inquisitors live longer anyways, about 250 years, it says something about it in book 1. It wouldn't be that implausible for Marsh to have an even longer life, considering all of the other things Sazed did." Upon reflection, it makes sense that inquisitors would live a long, long life because of Gold, esp. if they compound. Gold cannot keep anyone from getting old, understandably, but nobody dies, really, from being old. They die because parts start failing, or they get diseases and can't be operated on because they are too frail, etc. If you can keep your organs really healthy through gold compounding and heal up from anything that happens you could live quite a long time. You'd still be really wrinkled, and your hair may be pure white, but every time your liver failed or your heart stopped you could heal what is wrong. Basically, as a gold compounder you'd be alive until the point where EVERYTHING was so worn out it all just stopped at once. I would be very surprised if a Shard couldn't come up with a way to stop aging if they felt so inclined, they can toss planets around on a whim, immortality isn't that big of a deal and it exists on multiple Shardworlds. Inquisitors very rarely were able to compound and I doubt they'd ever have been able to compound gold, TLR wanted them weaker than he was and they'd have to kill a Mistborn in order to get a spike with Allomantic gold which is a bit of a waste. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natc Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 Also, Elantrians are apparently immortal (though it's apparently exhausting somehow) and their shard isn't even alive. Eithet of them. Nalthis-wise it's apparently as simple as fifth heightening. Which is only a divine breath's worth of power in normal breaths to maintain. Then there's Heralds. Not only do they remain unaged for at least 4000+ years at the longest, they even get resurrected on Braize when they die. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uilos Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 Then there's Heralds. Not only do they remain unaged for at least 4000+ years at the longest, they even get resurrected on Braize when they die. Can you confirm that last one please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndigoAjah Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 Can you confirm that last one please? Very first chapter/prologue of WoK? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uilos Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 Very first chapter/prologue of WoK? Actually, I just tracked it down to WoR, 32nd chapter. I'll have to find the quote later. disregard this tangent. This is not the topic you're looking for, you can go about your business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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