How Malatium works?

[Erandeni he/him]

How does Malatium works? It shows the past? Or an alternative possible past? I know it shows Connection, but what thats mean?

[Calderis he/him]

It seems to use connection to show an alternate present if previous decisions were made differently. 

[Nathrangking he/him]

The coppermind notes that it either shows another person's past or who they could have become had they chosen differently. If it is the first it is a mirror power to that of gold. In terms of connection...

Spoiler

The SH makes it clear that connection and events spread out like a tree with all possible futures extending outward in the spiritual realm. It is possible that Malatium reverse engineers the process and reveals the person at a specific juncture before their life was irrevocably changed.

 

[Erandeni he/him]

10 minutes ago, Calderis said:

It seems to use connection to show an alternate present if previous decisions were made differently. 

I thought so when Vin used it, but in SH:

Spoiler

When he flare malatium he sees Rashek in the Well, remaking the world.

It seems like he sees the actual past, isn't it?

Edit: with @Nathrangking's explanation of connetion it has more or less sense, with the Well being the point of inflexion for Rashek's life.

Edited August 7, 2017 by Idealistic

[+Lewis Nethur He/Him]

19 hours ago, Idealistic said:

I thought so when Vin used it, but in SH:

  Reveal hidden contents

When he flare malatium he sees Rashek in the Well, remaking the world.

It seems like he sees the actual past, isn't it?

Edit: with @Nathrangking's explanation of connetion it has more or less sense, with the Well being the point of inflexion for Rashek's life.

I believe there's a WoB explaining that Kelsier's maltium flare may have worked...differently...than a normal malatium flare would be expected to.  I think the justification was that, since he was dying and therefore actively transitioning between the realms, he was briefly able to use the metal to "greater" effect than normal.  If you burned duralumin and malatium you could probably achieve a similar result, but that's still speculative.

[+Extesian he/him]

9 hours ago, hwiles said:

I believe there's a WoB explaining that Kelsier's maltium flare may have worked...differently...than a normal malatium flare would be expected to.  I think the justification was that, since he was dying and therefore actively transitioning between the realms, he was briefly able to use the metal to "greater" effect than normal.  If you burned duralumin and malatium you could probably achieve a similar result, but that's still speculative.

Here are the passages from Secret History.

Quote

The Lord Ruler backhanded him. Agony hit Kelsier like a stroke of lightning. In that moment, Kelsier flared the Eleventh Metal, and caught a glimpse of something new. The Lord Ruler standing in a room—no, a cavern! The Lord Ruler stepped into a glowing pool and the world shifted around him, rocks crumbling, the room twisting, everything changing. The vision vanished. 

...

“I saw something,” Kelsier said, “as the Lord Ruler killed me. The person as he might once have been. His past? A version of his past? He stood at the Well of Ascension.” “Did you? Hmm. Yes, the metal, flared during the moment of transition. You got a glimpse of the Spiritual Realm, then? His Connection and his past? You were using Ati’s essence, unfortunately. One shouldn’t trust it, even in a diluted form. Except . . .” He frowned, cocking his head, as if trying to remember something he’d forgotten.

So yeah the actual clear vision of the past, as opposed to the alternate present reality, is to do with burning it at the moment of death. Unless Ruin deliberately interfered in the effect of his own metal as he wanted TLR dead...

[Nathrangking he/him]

It seems to me that he saw an actual version of the past based on everything that we know about Rahek plus the speculation on the coppermind.

[Erandeni he/him]

Thanks! I wonder if the effect could be replicate burning it along with duralumin, I hope we'll see more about malatium in the future.