Mistborn 3, Stormlight 4, and Sunlit Man spoilers ahead, light references to Warbreaker as well:
So I recently learned about the Atium retcon (the Atium in Era one is actually an alloy of Gold, Silver and Pure Atium, and that any Seer misting we saw was actually an Oracle misting capable of burning Electrum) and I’m fine with it, but hear me out: Brandon made this retcon so that any scadrian can burn Atium now just like they can burn Lerasium, that raises the question: under what circumstances can someone burn a god metal?
Brandon’s Atium retcon has kinda indicated to me that since Scadrians can burn both of their native god metals, anyone could burn a god metal if they are relevantly Connected to the respective shard. If this is the case, what constitutes a relevant Connection? Is having a soul above 3 BEUs invested enough? Does that then mean that a Nalthian with one breath could burn Edglium? Is that not possible, but with more Breath you could? If so, could any Radiant burn Tanavastium, Coravellium, and/or in Renarin/Rlain’s case Raysium.
Is being a human that is directly created by that shard the threshold? In my opinion this option causes the least problems with the Atium retcon.
The third option is that you can burn the god metals of your homeworld’s Shard(s) which is a different threshold of connection. This third option would mean that in Zellion’s case he could only burn Coravellium, Tanavastium, and the god metal of whichever shard made Canticle, as opposed to the second option that would allow him to burn any god metal just as he can inhale any gaseous investiture. This brings up a question then: because a mistborn just has homeworld connections to Scadrial they can only burn Atium and Lerasium. A Full Feruchmist or even just a Connection Ferring could (maybe this requires compounding) burn ANY god metal with enough Connection tapping. If this is the case, how very ironic that the retcon that taketh away the Mistborns ability to burn everything giveth that same ability to the Feruchemists (and Hemalurgists who steal connection).
LMK your thoughts!!