Gagylpus he/him Posted March 2, 2016 Report Share Posted March 2, 2016 (edited) Why is it that a non-allomancer can burn lerasium and thereby become a mistborn? For a long time I just assumed that, well, lerasium is a god metal, it's different. And maybe that is true. However, lately I've come up with a theory that explains how anyone can burn lerasium, so I thought I'd share it. Premise 1: Greater allomantic strength means higher maximum burn rate, and greater amount of power obtained per amount of metal burned. (This seems to be the case comparing the allomantic strengths of Kelsier, Vin, and Elend.) Premise 2: Lerasium, when burned by an allomancer with the ability to burn it, increases allomantic strength permanently. (Implication: there could be lerasium mistings, but their power would basically just let them use less lerasium to become a mistborn than others, or to become an even stronger mistborn than lerasium grants to non-allomancers.) Premise 3: Everyone native to Scadrial, by virtue of their innate investiture from Preservation, is a tiny bit of an allomancer in every metal. (This is normally completely unnoticeable, because the rate at which a non-allomancer could burn any of the metals is insignificantly small and produces next to no effect.) Premise 4: Anyone with allomantic ability unconsciously burns their metals a tiny amount when ingested. (Again, this is normally unnoticeable.) Putting these assumptions next to each other: everyone can burn lerasium a tiny amount, and does so unconsciously when it is ingested. But, lerasium increases allomantic strength. So the tiny initial burn increases their allomantic strength, and therefore their ability to burn lerasium increases. Which means they burn it faster and get more power, increasing their allomantic strength more - resulting in a positive feedback loop, which persists until the lerasium is all used up, and the person's allomantic strength has increased to the point of them being a very powerful mistborn. Problems, aside from the lack of evidence for premises 3 and 4: this only works with the theory that lerasium alloys create mistings if combined with the theory that mistings can burn god metal alloys of their metal. Can't remember if the first of those theories has been confirmed by WoB, but I don't think the second one has. Bands of Mourning spoilers: I have another theory that something similar to this is happening with the south scadrial medallions, such that each medallion contains a second nicrosilmind filled with f.nicrosil ability, which creates the positive feedback loop allowing anyone to tap from f.nicrosil to get the ability that the medallion grants. The major problem for that one is that it requires unconscious tapping, which doesn't seem to work with what is described in the text. Edited March 2, 2016 by Gagylpus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugsy he/him Posted March 2, 2016 Report Share Posted March 2, 2016 (edited) Biggest issue I see with this is Snapping. Based on this theory, anyone on the planet could Snap. It's said that the Terris people were immune to the Mist sickness because of their ability to do just that, however. This leads me to feel that they must have had no base allomantic strength. Based on this, TLR shouldn't have been able to burn the Lesarium at the well. My personal theory is due to a higher concentration of preservation in their spirit web, they have a natural affinity to the investiture of preservation and are therefore able to utilize his power when its concentrated in the Lesarium bead. ETA: Also, this would mean that if a mistborn were to ingest metals including duralumin, their entire store would be used because they would be unconsciously burning all of the metals (once again, including duralumin). On top of that, this theory would allow for a normal person to perform allomancy assuming they were boosted by enough nicrosil mistings. Edited March 2, 2016 by Bugsy6912 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aeromancer he/him Posted March 3, 2016 Report Share Posted March 3, 2016 WoB on this: "Think of Lerasium as a metal anyone can burn. Does that make sense?" Essentially, making a Mistborn is the secondary effect of Lerasium that any Scandrian can get, due to their spiritweb, much like any Scandrian can get spiked. I had a theory a while back (year or two, maybe? Check my started thread if you want to see it.) about the real effect of Lerasium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mason Wheeler Posted March 3, 2016 Report Share Posted March 3, 2016 Except that Hoid took Lerasium, and (if his appearance in one of Shallan's flashbacks is any indication) burned it himself, and he's not Scadrian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yata he/him Posted March 3, 2016 Report Share Posted March 3, 2016 Except that Hoid took Lerasium, and (if his appearance in one of Shallan's flashbacks is any indication) burned it himself, and he's not Scadrian. We don't know if he burned it... It may using Allomancy in another way. And also if the "became a Mistborn" is just the default outcome of Burning Lerasium on a Scadrial subject. Everyone with the right knowledge may obtain the same outcome with a more complex use of Lerasium (and Hoid is quite an Investiture Scholar) Anyway I think that "became a Mistborn" is the default outcome for everyone who burn it, but I can't be sure of this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aeromancer he/him Posted March 4, 2016 Report Share Posted March 4, 2016 Read the Letter from WoK. He's using it Feruchemicaly. I don't have a clue how though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gagylpus he/him Posted March 5, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2016 Biggest issue I see with this is Snapping. Based on this theory, anyone on the planet could Snap. It's said that the Terris people were immune to the Mist sickness because of their ability to do just that, however. This leads me to feel that they must have had no base allomantic strength. Based on this, TLR shouldn't have been able to burn the Lesarium at the well. My personal theory is due to a higher concentration of preservation in their spirit web, they have a natural affinity to the investiture of preservation and are therefore able to utilize his power when its concentrated in the Lesarium bead. ETA: Also, this would mean that if a mistborn were to ingest metals including duralumin, their entire store would be used because they would be unconsciously burning all of the metals (once again, including duralumin). On top of that, this theory would allow for a normal person to perform allomancy assuming they were boosted by enough nicrosil mistings. Good points about the Terris people, and duralumin. Thanks for pointing those out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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