[HOA SPOILERS] What was the point of keeping the Pits of Hathsin at all?

[Arcoss]

Giving the Atium to the Kandra was done supposedly to prevent Ruin from getting hold of it. That seems needlessly over-complicated to me

 

TLR could have simply destroyed the Pits of Hathsin like Kelsier did and destroy them again when the crystals regrow. If that's somehow not possible. He could simply have burned all the Atium himself

Edited May 10, 2016 by Arcoss

[Jondesu he/him]

I think it was less about just hiding it, and more about giving Ruin something to hunt for and distract him while Preservation's plans fell into place. It was a trap basically.

jW

[AliasSheep]

Giving the Atium to the Kandra meant that it wouldn't need to be destroyed every couple hundred to a thousand years.  It doesn't seem like a lot of work, but in the scale of an empire that was looking to last hundreds of thousands of years, it adds up.  In addition, the mines spread the Atium out which meant it could act as a distraction for Ruin.  It was also a pretty good punishment in terms of controlling people.

[BramFinem he/him]

Also, you need to remember that TLR had just been the holder of Preservation, it likely made much more sense to him in that state of mind to store something away rather than destroy it all.

[Edgedancer he/him]

The Lord Ruler needed Atium to fuel his immortality. Permanently destroying the pits would have severly limited his lifespan.

[Yata he/him]

And he creates a whole economy based on something with he has the only source in the world.

[Palpie]

Also didn't it only matter to keep the atium from Ruin after Vin let him out of the well at the end of WoA?  TLR wouldn't have released him, probably, he did have 1000 years of ruin's influence messing with his mind, so why destroy a useful and powerful resource.