I just had an idea: we might be looking at this wrong. What if we have spent too much time looking at the powers of the metals as complete opposites, and thinking that that should match the Shards? What if we should look at the metals themselves, rather than their allomantic powers? I would say that maybe there are pairings of Shards where one Shard is an “alloy” of the other, for instance, Cultivation and Ruin could be an “alloy” pairing, as well as Devotion and Endowment, and perhaps Honor and Preservation.
explanation for each pairing:
•Ruin And Cultivation: This is probably the most obvious of me the pairings, they both have “change” as a major element of their nature. I would say Cultivation is an alloy of Ruin. I would call Ruin “change” which ends up as Entropy because of the nature of the universe, and I would call Cultivation “change mixed in with improvement.” This can be seen with the nightwatcher not understanding Lift’s request to “not change.”
•Devotion and Endowment: This one is more strenuous, but I would call Endowment “giving of yourself to others” and I would call “giving yourself to those you love.”
•Honor and Preservation: I would call Preservation “wanting to keep everything the same” and Honor “wanting to keep yourself the same.” This can be seen with the Stormfather stating that “he does what is in his nature, and to defy that is pain.”
What do you think? Has the Taint on Saidin driven me insane or do you think I might be on to something?