What is the true nature of Atium?

[The King's Wit]

Brandon has stated that the true nature of atium is misunderstood, and there are inconsistencies in how it fits with other metals e.g. its relationship to electrum. It has been previously theorized that what is thought of as atium is an electrum-atium alloy but that has been argued against.

The second quote I have leads me to wonder what the true nature of atium is, besides being the physical incarnation of Ruin's power.

I think the alloy idea is possible, but perhaps atium is pure and there is something else I am missing to figure it out. 
 

CHAOS (15 OCTOBER 2008)

I really want to know what the last two metals are. I always thought the bead Elend ate was one of them, but perhaps they are just things of Preservation, not meant to be understood.

BRANDON SANDERSON (15 OCTOBER 2008)

The metal chunk that Elend ate is intended to be something of a mystery. Much like atium, actually. Suffice it to say that atium isn't, and never was, what people thought it was.

I intended Allomancy to be much like a real science. People investigate and put things into boxes, trying to describe and understand the world around them. That doesn't mean they always get things right, however.

Let me say this, as I don't want to spoil too much. If that metal Elend ate were fused into specific alloys with certain metals, it could have instead created Mistings of each of the different Allomantic powers. Atium's abilities are not entirely explored yet either.
 

CZANOS (17 OCTOBER 2008)

Are Atium and the External Temporal Pulling metal really the same?

BRANDON SANDERSON (17 OCTOBER 2008)

You are on to something.

 

[Two McMillion he/him]

Those quotes are from 2008. The 2011 release of Alloy of Law answered many of these questions, if you haven't read it. If you have I'm not sure what your question is.

[Cstryon he/him]

Atium does seem to have been limited in it's uses. After all, it's current uses, are pretty useful (seeing the future, immortality).

There is a WoB out there, that says Larasium could do other things if the user knew what they were doing. So why not Atium? They are the bodies of shards after all.

I think this question could be applied to all metals. We see aluminum doing some weird stuff.

[Youngy he/him]

There have been several questions raised recently about the nature of Atium and its alloys. 

The first was that why can Lerasium be burned by anyone whereas Atium can only be burned by Mistings/Mistborn.

The second was what kind of temporal effects its other alloys have - and whether they all relate to their related metal.

 

We don't really know enough to answer any questions though...

[skaa he/him]

It has been previously theorized that what is thought of as atium is an electrum-atium alloy but that has been argued against.

 

Hi. I was the unfortunate person who wrote that theory, earning the wrath of certain Sharders. I've since moved on to another God Metal theory. May I ask you opinion on that?

Edited May 31, 2014 by skaa

[Link Start he/him]

Hi. I was the unfortunate person who wrote that theory, earning the wrath of certain Sharders. I've since moved on to another God Metal theory. May I ask you opinion on that?

 Hi there, unfortunate person.

I read your second theory, and I think that, if there is a real metal which is Atium if contains only ruin, I would assume it to be a raw metal for the sake of simplicity (since theoretically it can be alloyed with all the other allomantic metals, and alloying two alloys may not always work).

Also, I would assume that its physical properties should be just like those of its correspondent.

 Now we have two possibilities: it's either one of the 8 pure allomantic metals, and if so the theory that allomantic metals correlate to a Shard must be right, and it would be Ruin's shard allomantic metal, or;

 It's a different metal. I think it is because Atium's described physical properties are different from all the other eight metals. It's described as having a similar density to lead and metallic silver/grey in appearance (it is not described as having any particular color, like copper or gold). The only metals I can think of with similar properties are Bismuth, Rhodium and Palladium (Platinum is too heavy).

 We know of an allow of Atium, Malatium, which is basically Atium and Gold. It is silvery-white in appearance, so it makes Palladium the most likely - Gold and Palladium is a know alloy, called white gold. It is silvery-white if not plated.