Shadows of Self spike (spoilers)

[Thermophile]

As anyone who has read Shadows of Self knows, Bleeder is revealed to have a spike made from an unknown God Metal, originating from a shard that is neither Ruin, nor Preservation. This spike allowed her to fool Harmony.

 

There are two ways I could image this coming about. A. Bleeder used a piece of a splintered Shard, and somehow gained the knowledge to use it. This is unlikely, since there are very few that Cosmere-literate. B. Bleeder met a Shard that willingly gave her a piece of it's power to mess up Harmony.

 

If we pick the first option, it could either be Devotion, Dominon, Honor, or the other Shard Odium splintered. Again, I find this unlikely as only a Shard or Splinter would be able to give her the knowledge to use it. With the second option, I can only think of two that could possibly cause this: Autonomy (mildly suggested by Bleeders talk of 'freedom'), or Odium. Although, I am much more inclined to believe the metal belongs to Odium, considering that it is stated to have red on it.

 

Most other people probably came to this conclusion also, but I figured I'd write it down since I haven't seen it anywhere else.

[Edgedancer]

Just a heads up, the Shadows of Self spoiler board is especially there for topics containing Shadows of Self Spoilers.

[Thunder_93]

If I may ask, how does Odium and the color red work together?

[Thermophile]

If I may ask, how does Odium and the color red work together?

Wasn't the Everstorm red?

 

Preservation was associated with blue (wasn't the mist blue? I thought it was), and ruin was associated with black (the smoke that was his gaseous state was definitely black).

Edited November 20, 2015 by Thermophile

[Elbereth]

Preservation was white, actually. Also, in case you hadn't seen them, there is discussion of the god metal/Trell here and here for Trell being Autonomy and here for him being Odium.

[Thermophile]

And Trell was the god of stars, making it plausible that he is a Shard that has gotten involved in Scadrial before. My theory that the red slpotches indicate Odium still stands.

 

If Trell is Odium, that might explain him hating the sun. Hmm.

[Pagerunner]

Do we know for sure that the spike isn't from Ruin or Preservation? Or is that assumed since Harmony doesn't know what it is?

 

Two properties of the spike make me think it is a new Atium alloy.

 

1) Color. Silvery, with dark red spots; two distinct colors. Atium was silver, and dark red spots could be indicative of the other metal mixed in. There is a red metal used in Allomancy; copper. (I don't have a copy of the original Mistborn trilogy, so I can't look up the description of Malatium; what did it look like?)

 

2) Function. The spikes were used to steal both Feruchemical and Allomantic abilities; we have already seen a metal that can steal both of those. Atium can be used to steal any abilities in Hemalurgy; an Atium alloy could potentially also steal all abilities. Copper in Allomancy hides the user; what if using a Copper-Atium spike lets you steal any ability, and also lets you hide the ability while you're using it?

 

The outstanding question, of course, is why doesn't Sazed know about it? Maybe it's something that he has forgotten (or been made to forget); there's no guarantee that he's omniscient. Maybe it's something like the Twinborn phenomenon; a new development in the metallic arts, one that he doesn't know about because nobody has used Atium alloys for Hemalurgy before. I don't have a good answer, but based on how the spike behaves, it makes me think it's a Copper-Atium alloy.

[Moogle]

1) Color. Silvery, with dark red spots; two distinct colors. Atium was silver, and dark red spots could be indicative of the other metal mixed in. There is a red metal used in Allomancy; copper. (I don't have a copy of the original Mistborn trilogy, so I can't look up the description of Malatium; what did it look like?)

 

2) Function. The spikes were used to steal both Feruchemical and Allomantic abilities; we have already seen a metal that can steal both of those. Atium can be used to steal any abilities in Hemalurgy; an Atium alloy could potentially also steal all abilities. Copper in Allomancy hides the user; what if using a Copper-Atium spike lets you steal any ability, and also lets you hide the ability while you're using it?

 

Alloys are... well, alloyed at a molecular level. An alloy should not have dark red spots and still be a pure alloy. So I disagree with your idea on #1. At least, I disagree with the idea that it is atium + a base metal - it could be atium alloyed with another god metal that is not lerasium (which might have the dark spot thing).

 

On 2, we know that the spike's material in and of itself is what hid Paalm from Harmony. You could be correct on the function of a copper-atium spike, but I don't think it's likely because I think Harmony would know if he was dealing with an atium + base metal alloy.

 

The book pretty clearly implies its a different Shard that's responsible for the metal (and Paalm's actions), even though the character (MeLaan?) in question is not reliable on matters of whether a metal is of a different Shard.

[Thermophile]

And the fact that it specifically stated that Harmony was 'terrified', if I remember the quote correctly.

[happyman]

And the fact that it specifically stated that Harmony was 'terrified', if I remember the quote correctly.

Not Harmony; the Kandra.

[Thermophile]

Not Harmony; the Kandra.

No, I distinctly remember that she mentioned that Harmony was scared of the implications of the spike, because Wax was musing about that afterward. I don't have the book with me now, but does anybody have a text version of the book to reference?

[Pagerunner]

No, I distinctly remember that she mentioned that Harmony was scared of the implications of the spike, because Wax was musing about that afterward. I don't have the book with me now, but does anybody have a text version of the book to reference?

 

It's ambiguous.

 

 

"Congratulations," MeLaan said, pulling open the door. "You've found proof of something that terrifies us."

 

It could be just the Kandra, or it could be Harmony. And Wax's closing viewpoint doesn't say what Wax is thinking, no mention of Harmony or the new metal.

 

 

Alloys are... well, alloyed at a molecular level. An alloy should not have dark red spots and still be a pure alloy. So I disagree with your idea on #1. At least, I disagree with the idea that it is atium + a base metal - it could be atium alloyed with another god metal that is not lerasium (which might have the dark spot thing).

 

On 2, we know that the spike's material in and of itself is what hid Paalm from Harmony. You could be correct on the function of a copper-atium spike, but I don't think it's likely because I think Harmony would know if he was dealing with an atium + base metal alloy.

 

The book pretty clearly implies its a different Shard that's responsible for the metal (and Paalm's actions), even though the character (MeLaan?) in question is not reliable on matters of whether a metal is of a different Shard.

 

A good point - the metal doesn't appear to be homogenous, so it couldn't be a true alloy. However, that same logic should exclude it from being a pure metal, as well. The spike is multi-colored, but it still functions in Hemalurgy (where we know that metals and alloys need to follow strict compositions). Maybe it is just patches of rust on parts of an otherwise homogenous spike. Maybe it was a poorly constructed spike, so the mixing was good enough to create a workable alloy, but there are still pockets of unmixed metals. I think the description is supposed to be a clue - silver and red, where have we see metals of those colors before?

 

Oh, the book doesn't imply - MeLaan and Marasi straight-up say that there's another god opposing Harmony. However, we've seen characters in Mistborn be wrong before, especially if they're working on bad information from Harmony (more on that below). That's why I stepped away from their conclusions to look at how the metal functioned - to compare what their theory (god metal of another Shard) to how we've seen the metal behave. There's already a big hole in their theory:

 

 

"Either way, didn't you wonder why Harmony couldn't see Bleeder? Couldn't track her, couldn't predict her? What could stop a god, Marasi Colms? Any guesses?

 

 "Another god," Marasi whispered.

 

We saw Ruin limited by metal in the first trilogy. I unfortunately don't have the book to look at (anyone want to return the favor of finding a quote?), but I recall that Ruin couldn't read and change messages inscribed in metal, and he couldn't find the Atium stash. Marasi could have given a different answer: metal blinds a god.

 

I just came across another piece of information that I think is relevant. In addition to the two aspects of the metal's function I listed in my previous post (steal any ability, hide from Harmony), one other unique property of this metal is that it grants the powers to Kandra. That's something we haven't seen yet; but we do have a WoB about it:

 

 

NinjaMeTimbers

What would happen if you gave it a spike imbued with steel allomancy? I'm assuming that wouldn't be enough to grant it sentience but could it then use steel powers? Can you give allomantic powers to a kandra?

Brandon Sanderson

Hemalurgy can give allomantic powers to a kandra. The process to do so is not known to anyone but Harmony.

 

The Metallic Arts already have a way to give Kandra Allomancy through use of Hemalurgy. All three unique things that this spike has done, they are already present elsewhere in the metallic arts. Furthermore, why would another god metal do what Atium does, and then some? SInce it's Ruin's magic system, why would a god metal be more powerful than Ruin's own metal?

 

That's not to say there isn't a force opposing Harmony. On the contrary, Paalm was taking orders from someone else.

 

 

You know he's just another pawn.

 

"I don't know that."

 

I wasn't talking to you that time, Waxillium.

 

She's talking about Wax, to whoever is giving her orders. What if she's talking to a Shard... or a Splinter?

 

The conspiracy theory I subscribe to has pieces of a few other theories that have been floating around. I think Kelsier's cognitive shadow has taken over the extra piece of Ruin's power, and he's trying to overthrow Harmony the same way he did the Lord Ruler. It would tie together a number of different pieces:

• RAFOs about what Harmony did with the extra bit of Ruin (It's a Splinter, and could gain sentience on its own like the Stormfather if no one was holding it)
• RAFOs about what Kelsier has been up to (but we are going to find out soon)
• The WoBs about how Kelsier could have been a villain, in a different story
• The conflict between Pathism and Survivorism that Paalm was fomenting (the gods of these two religions are actually going at one another, as well)
• Where Marsh is (he's working with his brother against Harmony, and as the only person in the world with atium, he could provide Paalm with atium-alloy spikes)

Combine that with Sazed being a less-than-stellar guy in this book, and I can believe that he would lie to the Kandra about not knowing what Paalm's spike was and not sharing how to give Kandra allomancy (he's using the Kandra, and doesn't want to give them tools against him).

 

Yeah, it's a bit of a stretch, and it's way too specific of a theory to be 100% right, but I'm just trying to show that we can have opposition to Harmony without it coming from a new Shard. That means that Paalm's spikes can be something that's already a part of the Metallic Arts: Atium-Alloys in Hemalurgy.

[natc]

Metal just glows really brightly in Shard-o-Vision on this planet. Ruin can see metal's presence fine, but he sure as heck can't make out any details without being there himself. By your logic he wouldn't be able to perceive hemalurgic constructs at all, which is clearly false.

If it still happens to internalized metal, then he'd be stuck tracking minds, which clearly isn't working. If spikes still blind him, well with so much metal everywhere I doubt it would help much.