Physical properties of Atium

[JekyllLantern97]

Just a dumb curiosity question, but do we know the properties of Atium? I just imagine having an atium sword or shield or something would be really cool, but would it be possible to smelt down a whole bunch of atium beads? Also, if you could smelt it, would that create atium smoke or something? I feel like atium smoke would maybe show pictures of the future or something neat. If there is any canon info about this, I would really appreciate it. 

[Quantus]

We dont have a whole lot of details, but Atium can be melted down like a normal metal to create Alloys like Malatium, at the very least. 

[Ixthos]

Atium can also be melted into bands, like those Rashek wore. Also, Lerasium is the condensed power of the well and the mists, as noted when Vin became Preservation, so Atium smoke would be like the black fog outside the chamber where Vin went to the Well.

[Ripheus23]

23 minutes ago, JekyllLantern97 said:

I feel like atium smoke would maybe show pictures of the future or something neat.

Woah, you just figured out what the Smoke Monster from LOST was all along!!!

[Weltall]

2 hours ago, JekyllLantern97 said:

I just imagine having an atium sword or shield or something would be really cool, but would it be possible to smelt down a whole bunch of atium beads?

Yes, it would be possible. As mentioned we've seen atium bracers that Rashek wore and atium spikes are invaluable for hemalurgy so it can be melted and cast into different shapes, or alloyed with other allomantic metals even if we only know of malatium right now. So yes, it would be possible to make an atium sword if you got enough beads. However, we don't know of its properties like ductility, malleability or hardness so we can't say whether it would be any use in weapons or armor and we definitely know that using it that way would be a fanastic waste given how powerful it is in the Metallic Arts. Plus, you'd need so much atium to make even a small sword that it's not even funny.

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Also, if you could smelt it, would that create atium smoke or something? I feel like atium smoke would maybe show pictures of the future or something neat. If there is any canon info about this, I would really appreciate it. 

As mentioned, atium is Ruin's Investiture condensed into solid form. This same Investiture in gaseous form is the 'dark' mists that are occasionally seen, which continue to exist post-Catacendre. And the black pool that Alendi writes about in his journal was Ruin's Perpendicularity, the liquid form of the Investiture. So far as we can tell, it didn't have any special power or function, it just allowed Realmic transition like any Perpendicularity. However, molten atium is not the same as the liquid in the Perpendicularity and gaseous atium is not the same as Ruin's mists, so the three forms of condensed Investiture should be seen as separate manifestations rather than a single manifestation in three states.

Liquid or gaseous atium would function the same as solid atium Realmatically, except that it would be extremely dangerous to try burning in those states. We can infer this because we know that molten metal can be used in feruchemy, with the same caveats..The metal doesn't gain new effects just because it's undergone a phase transition.

Related WoB:

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Condensed 'essence' of these godly powers can act as super-fuel for Allomancy, Feruchemy, or really any of the powers. The form of that super fuel is important. In liquid form it's most potent, in gas form it's able to fuel Allomancy as if working as a metal. In physical form it is rigid and does one specific thing. In the case of atium, it allows sight into the future. In the case of concentrated Preservation, it gives one a permanent connection to the mists and the powers of creation. (I.e., it makes them an Allomancer.)

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Edited January 14, 2019 by Weltall