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Why Harmonium?


Amaror

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I don't really know where it originated but I have often seen the potential metal of our favourite new shard be called Harmonium. At first that makes a lot of sense. The Shard is named Harmony, so the metal corresponding to that Shard should be named Harmonium. 

But if we look at the both other known God-Metals, it makes less sense. They are are not named Ruinum and Preservatium, but rather Lerasium and Atium after the names of their Shardholders Leras and Ati. Following that naming-scheme shouldn't a Harmony-Metal be named Sazedium or something like that rather than Harmonium?

Edited by Amaror
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Atium and Lerasium both sound neat.

Sazedium doesn't.

That is at least my take on it. 

 

Alternatively, Sazed is too humble for naming a metal after himself. He prefers to name it after the Shard.

I also think that there is a story reason for the other metals to be named Atium and Lerasium. Calling Atium Ruinium would have spoiled one of the biggest twists of the series. We don't have that problem with Harmonium, since everyone knows the connection between him and the metal, so Brandon can name it whatever he wants too. 

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18 minutes ago, Toaster Retribution said:
43 minutes ago, Amaror said:

Following that naming-scheme shouldn't a Harmony-Metal be named Sazedium or something like that rather than Harmonium?

Atium and Lerasium both sound neat.

Sazedium doesn't.

That is at least my take on it.

You're half right Toaster.

Quote

Q: is there a reason [for harmonium] you didn't follow the convention of the other ""god metals"" and call it something like sazedium?
 
A: Sazed didn't like the sound of Sazedium.

The metal would actually be called Sazedium, but Harmony decreed differently, and his word is law, as it were. Not that it really matters, since the only in-world name it currently has is Ettmetal.

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24 minutes ago, king of nowhere said:

But how do people know that Sazed does not like the name? Did Sazed told the people how to not call the metal? He doesn't intervene directly in mortal affairs, I don't see him doing an apparition just to retcon a name

I can technically rectify this pretty easily. How many people actually call him Sazed? How many people call him Harmony? He could just tell the Pathians that the metal is "of him" and they'd call it Harmonium on their own.

And we know it has another name he hasn't interfered with: Ettmetal.

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37 minutes ago, king of nowhere said:

But how do people know that Sazed does not like the name? Did Sazed told the people how to not call the metal? He doesn't intervene directly in mortal affairs, I don't see him doing an apparition just to retcon a name

His own religion has as a tenant 'Don't worship me!' so yes, I could imagine him specifically telling people to not call the metal by his name if it ever became a widespread thing. :D

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1 hour ago, Toaster Retribution said:

Someone rushes into a Pathian meeting:

"Guys, guys, god spoke to me!"

"What did he say?"

"Well, I can't name this new fancy metal I found after him..."

But in that case, the best way to not worship him would be to defy him, and call it Sazedium just to stick it to him...:D

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It's been suggested that Harmony will manifest not just Hamonium, but Atium and Lerasium as well. I'm not sure I buy this (unless there's a WoB) but if it is, there would be three metals all coming from him and naming the combined one after the combined Shard would make sense. And since he could have been Discord if he wasn't so zen at holding two opposing Shards, the reminder of his hamoniousness is nice. 

I don't think any of that's true, but why not :)

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8 hours ago, Extesian said:

It's been suggested that Harmony will manifest not just Hamonium, but Atium and Lerasium as well. I'm not sure I buy this (unless there's a WoB) but if it is, there would be three metals all coming from him and naming the combined one after the combined Shard would make sense. And since he could have been Discord if he wasn't so zen at holding two opposing Shards, the reminder of his hamoniousness is nice. 

I don't think any of that's true, but why not :)

Relevant paraphrased WoB:

Quote

ANDREW THE GREAT

Does lerasium have Feruchemical and Hemalurgical powers.

BRANDON SANDERSON (PARAPHRASED)

Yes. Brandon will probably be getting into these, and the other metals Hemalurgical and Feruchemical powers, in greater detail in the future Mistborn Trilogies. He also will probably release full charts for these as he did with Allomancy.

This was in 2009 though, so it may no longer be intended to be explored in the main stories anymore, but I believe that this, and several statements like it, are where people derive the idea that lerasium (and also atium) are going to make a comeback.

Seems likely to me that it could come up for exploration in the planned SH-2 or (in the very distant future) SH-3.

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1 hour ago, hwiles said:

Relevant paraphrased WoB:

This was in 2009 though, so it may no longer be intended to be explored in the main stories anymore, but I believe that this, and several statements like it, are where people derive the idea that lerasium (and also atium) are going to make a comeback.

Seems likely to me that it could come up for exploration in the planned SH-2 or (in the very distant future) SH-3.

Well at least atium would make some sense. If Harmonium is equal parts Preservation and Ruin, then Sazed would need some way to keep his balance over time, since his Preservation half is weaker because it's more invested in Scadrial. Creating a ruin-metal could illeviate that somewhat.

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5 minutes ago, Amaror said:

Well at least atium would make some sense. If Harmonium is equal parts Preservation and Ruin, then Sazed would need some way to keep his balance over time, since his Preservation half is weaker because it's more invested in Scadrial. Creating a ruin-metal could illeviate that somewhat.

Harmonium is skewed very very slightly towards Ruin. 

It's very heavily discussed in this wonderfully useful thread. 

 

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11 minutes ago, Calderis said:

Harmonium is skewed very very slightly towards Ruin. 

It's very heavily discussed in this wonderfully useful thread. 

 

Do we actually have confirmation from Brandon that that is the case though? I followed that thread and don't recall seeing explicit confirmation that there is more Ruin than Preservation in harmonium. Saze could be doing something else with the extra Ruin.

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16 minutes ago, Calderis said:

Harmonium is skewed very very slightly towards Ruin. 

It's very heavily discussed in this wonderfully useful thread. 

 

 

3 minutes ago, Windrunner said:

Do we actually have confirmation from Brandon that that is the case though? I followed that thread and don't recall seeing explicit confirmation that there is more Ruin than Preservation in harmonium. Saze could be doing something else with the extra Ruin.

As the author of that thread, I have seen that theory tossed around as fact several times. I will be editing the OP to make it clearer which are my ideas. But harmonium is not definitively unbalanced towards Ruin - that was a natural progression of my idea that harmonium's electrons were either of Ruin or Preservation.

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7 minutes ago, Pagerunner said:

 

As the author of that thread, I have seen that theory tossed around as fact several times. I will be editing the OP to make it clearer which are my ideas. But harmonium is not definitively unbalanced towards Ruin - that was a natural progression of my idea that harmonium's electrons were either of Ruin or Preservation.

Ah. I apologize for my misunderstanding. I'm definitely guilty of purporting this as fact.

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46 minutes ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

Considering that Kelsier seems to have given etmetal to the South, it's possible he ends up being the source of the name by revealing it in the Lost Metal (where he will have a cameo.) Alternatively, Harmony could tell his followers through their earrings.

The only problem I see with this is that not all earrings are spikes

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16 minutes ago, Nethrangking said:

I think he would have learned better than to fragment his power by creating a new metal especially considering the war that odium is waging against him.

This assumes his adversary is Odium. It's possible, but the evidence is just as strong if not stronger that it's Autonomy. 

There are also 6 Shards we've yet to meet. 

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2 hours ago, Calderis said:

This assumes his adversary is Odium. It's possible, but the evidence is just as strong if not stronger that it's Autonomy. 

There are also 6 Shards we've yet to meet. 

Ah, but wasn't there that WoB that said that it was from a Shard we already knew?

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2 minutes ago, StrikerEZ said:

Ah, but wasn't there that WoB that said that it was from a Shard we already knew?

The metal yes. The adversary itself no. 

I don't think it likely their different, but Brandon confirming the metal and not the source is the type of wiggle room he likes. 

Hell, that confirmation doesn't even rule out the metal having come from Harmony. 

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Just now, Calderis said:

The metal yes. The adversary itself no. 

I don't think it likely their different, but Brandon confirming the metal and not the source is the type of wiggle room he likes. 

Hell, that confirmation doesn't even rule out the metal having come from Harmony. 

Ah...I'd forgotten the specific wording, but that's true....

Hmm...I dunno, I think it'd just be odd if the godmetal and adversary at the same, but eh.

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