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Ooh, this fits perfectly with my personal model of Realmatics. Under my model, the conception (origin) of Ideals happens in the Spiritual realm, while perception happens in the Cognitive. I believe we discussed this back in my old thread, Kurk. If I remember correctly, one of the ideas of your MEC theory is that the Spiritual Realm is the source of all Motivation in Realmatics, right? Under your own model (and also mine), the motivation of Gold Feruchemy would start from the Feruchemist's Spiritual aspect. Even though Feruchemical gold clearly depends on the Cognitive, it still needs to be initiated by the Spiritual. You had the answer all along, Kurk! Speaking the third Oath changed Kaladin's Spiritual aspect and therefore changed his Ideal Self. That might sound bizarre, but not if you see Investiture as a kind of Cosmere metaprogramming, as I do. Of course, his Spiritual aspect was already being changed ever since he bonded with Syl, but it was only after the third Oath that these changes manifested in a Physical transformation. Stormlight 3 spoilers:

Well, we don't even know what lerasium's Feruchemical attribute is, but sure, I'd say Feruchemists should be able to Compound whatever that attribute may be. Now, if its Feruchemical attribute is "connection to Preservation", then Compounding that would probably lead to... becoming Mistborn.

While waiting for his answer, I shall use the noun! Welcome to the 17th Shard forums, Username! I also have low self control, which makes me post every single Cosmere theory that comes to mind, no matter how silly. People from one of the Guilds will undoubtedly start recruiting you, soon. If you're not into that sort of thing, might I suggest you peruse the Sanderson-related discussions on the Brandon Sanderson board? There's also a separate one for Brandon's non-Cosmere works (Steelheart, Alcatraz, Legion, etc.). I hope you enjoy it here!

Yeah, that is definitely a valid theory, Weiry! Is this the WoB you were referring to? It's an answer to the question of what a lerasium atium alloy does: My understanding of the part I emphasized is that the effect of alloying atium and lerasium is hard to understand for normal humans. It doesn't necessarily mean that normal humans can't alloy atium and lerasium together. Unfortunately, Brandon says nobody has done it yet. The thing I like about my proposed harmonium theory is that it's a possible explanation for how Southern Scadrian Allomantic technology works. If we assume that harmonium is what they use to power Allomantic technology, then a real life metal would be a more likely candidate for harmonium than an atium-lerasium alloy. I think it's quite feasible for the (presumably) more technologically-advanced Southern Scadrians to have alloyed gold and aluminum at some point in their thousand-year history, whereas we're not even sure if they have any access to atium and lerasium (since the Shardpools are both up north). Of course, it's all just speculative assumption, which is all we can do for now pending another related WoB. Sorry. It's been a habit of mine since last year, and nobody's told me off for it until now. I hope it's not something against forum rules. I sometimes break things up in cases where there are multiple main ideas in a single mega-theory, like this one. I feel that it would increase readability if each main idea had their own post. Also, it allows people to upvote only the ideas they particularly like; that's a good way to get feedback on how well I've presented each idea.

TL;DR: Atium is pseudo-electrum, lerasium is pseudo-duralumin, and harmonium is the normal (non-god) intermetallic compound AuAl2 or purple gold.

Appendix A: Possible Flaws in the Theory Like all of my previous bouts of speculation (see my signature), my god metal theory is not without issues. I don't think they are fatal issues, but they are nonetheless stuff that undermine my conclusions, stuff that I cannot answer right now because I just don't have enough information. The first issue is the color of the god metals. For example, Phantom Monstrosity once told me that lerasium is green. I am still in the process of verifying that claim right now, but if it's true then it is a an issue because duralumin doesn't look green. If lerasium isn't green, but is instead the color given to it by the latest Allomantic chart on Brandon's website, then that's also an issue because the color still doesn't match duralumin. That chart also has differing colors for electrum and atium. I could say that the color doesn't matter since the god metals are not exactly the metals they mimic, but that doesn't change the fact that matching colors would have been a huge evidence in favor of my theory. So, well, I'm a bit disappointed about this. Another issue is that none of my reasoning above disproves the possibility that the god metals mimic the molecular structure of substances outside of the 16 metals of the Metallic Arts. But if they're outside of the sixteen, then it wouldn't be possible to even guess what those substances might be. They could be any metallic element, compound, or alloy imaginable. That would be sad for a Cosmere theorist like me, and so I chose to ignore that possibility, even though it might turn out to be true. As for my musings on harmonium, they are admittedly quite flimsy. One problem is that Brandon already said the 16 base metals of the Metallic Arts are "basically it". But from the transcript, he did seem to have suddenly remembered about harmonium after making that "basically it" statement. Also, my proposed harmonium isn't technically an Allomantic metal; it's not something you can burn, it's just something that affects Allomantic metals. Still, most of what I said about my proposed harmonium could easily be disproved by a future WoB saying that harmonium is Sazed's god metal. But that's okay. I will accept defeat if such a WoB appears, but for now, I gotta say, I really like my harmonium theory.

Part III: Harmonium??? During this year's Salt Lake City Comic-Con, Brandon gave an exciting reveal about the Metallic Arts: Last year I speculated that Sazed/Harmony will not create his own god metal, as there are already two existing metals that I believed reflect his harmonious Intent perfectly: aluminum and gold. As you can imagine, when I read what Brandon said about harmonium my first reaction was, "Damnation! So much for my theory!" It looked like harmonium is a third god metal, the Physical fragment of the new Shard Harmony. At least, that's what all of us who commented in that news article seemed to believe. Believe me when I say that I was ready and prepared to discard my "harmonious metals" theory. After all, I'm not the kind of person who sticks stubbornly to disproved theories, as you could see in the "Abandoned theories created by me" section of my About Me page. But the more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that I made an incorrect interpretation of Brandon's words. Here are two reasons why: Brandon did not say that harmonium was a god metal. That may not mean much, but it's important to acknowledge that "harmonium is a god metal" is an assumption I made, not something that Brandon actually said. The name "harmonium" breaks the naming pattern of the god metals. Atium and lerasium were named after the original Shard holders of Ruin and Preservation, Ati and Leras. But harmonium's root is "harmony", which just so happens to be the name of Sazed's Intent. This is something people noticed because most of us here expected Sazed's god metal to be called "sazedium". Some people tried explaining this away by saying that "harmonium" sounds better, but that doesn't change the fact that the pattern was broken. I do not like broken patterns. They irritate me. So instead of continuing with the "harmonium is a god metal" assumption, I'm going to keep my "harmonious metals" theory... with modifications. *starts new baseless theorizing adventure* We know from Alloy of Law that aluminum does not need to be burned by an Allomancer to exhibit special traits related to Allomancy. For example, you cannot Ironpull or Steelpush on aluminum, and you cannot Riot or Soothe someone whose head is covered in aluminum. I now propose that harmonium is the Scadrian name for another real life metal that exhibits an Allomantic function without being burned, and that this function is the opposite of aluminum's. To incorporate my old theory, I further propose that harmonium contains aluminum and gold. I'm not talking about a mere alloy, by the way, but rather an intermetallic compound of gold and aluminum. The most stable gold-aluminum intermetallic appears to be AuAl2, also called "purple gold" or "amethyst gold"; I'd say that's a good candidate for my proposed harmonium. So, how would my proposed harmonium work? It would act as an Metallurgic catalyst, something that, while not being Allomantic in itself, causes Allomantic metals as well as Feruchemical metalminds to activate (but not be consumed) upon contact. This allows for the creation of machines that can harness the powers of the Metallic Arts without the help of a human Allomancer and without needing to replenish the metals used. Hello, Metallurgic Technology! I believe that harmonium was known on Scadrial pre-Harmony, that it was named after the concept of harmony (perhaps because metals aren't destroyed when using it), that it was discovered by the Southern Scadrians, and that they use it to power their Metallurgic machines. Edit: In my mind, my proposed harmonium isn't something Allomancers can burn safely. It's something that Kelsier might call a "bad alloy", and is fatal when burned. Incidentally, purple gold is also called "purple death" in real life (due to far more boring reasons). Edit: Here's one neat coincidence that ties Parts I, II, and III together: electrum contains gold, duralumin contains aluminum, and my proposed harmonium contains gold and aluminum.

Part II: Lerasium In my old theory, I went from saying Atium is Ruin's Electrum to saying Lerasium is Preservation's Nicrosil. I no longer think this is the case. Let me first explain the train of thought that lead me to the nicrosil conclusion. I had interpreted the Self-Others inversion of electrum and atium to be the same as the Internal-External division in the Allomantic chart. Basically, I assumed that Atium Allomancy was an External version of Electrum Allomancy. This fits the pre-Harmony Scadrian understanding of atium as the External-Temporal-Pulling metal (source: the Well of Ascension Ars Arcanum), so it made sense to me at the time. From there, I reasoned that since Lerasium is obviously an Internal Allomantic metal, its "normal" equivalent should be an External Allomantic metal. And since Lerasium enhances the person burning it, allowing him to burn any Allomantic metal, the obvious "normal" candidate would be nicrosil (External-Enhancement-Pushing), the metal that boosts the power of other people's Allomantic metals. But there was a flaw in my reasoning. I trusted too much in the old Pre-Harmony Allomantic chart, even though Brandon himself has said numerous times that the chart was an in-world artifact that reflected the imperfect understanding of Scadrians during that time. The thing is, the pre-Harmony Scadrians were wrong about atium. Not only because cadmium should be in its spot in the chart, but also because atium isn't even External in the first place. Think about it. The main characteristic of all other External Allomantic metals is that they change something outside of the user. Atium does not do this. It merely alters the user's own perception of other things. This is similar to how Bronze Allomancy (Internal-Mental-Pushing) allows its user to perceive the Allomantic pulses of others, while remaining Internal. In other words, atium and its gold-alloy malatium are Internal-Temporal Allomantic metals, exactly like electrum and gold (their "normal" equivalents). NOW BACK TO LERASIUM! Because of this, I realized that just as lerasium is an Internal Allomantic metal, so must its normal equivalent be. Lerasium's normal equivalent, the metal that Lerasium's physical structure mimics, has to be the Internal-Enhancement-Pushing metal. Lerasium is pseudo-duralumin. Note the symmetry: Both electrum and duralumin are the Internal-Pushing metal of their quadrant. Note also that there is a Self-Others Inversion between duralumin and lerasium. Duralumin Allomancy targets metals being burned. The metals being targetted are inside the user (hence the Internal label) and yet they can, in a way, still be considered "Other" since they are still separate entities from the user. Lerasium, on the other hand, targets the user himself. Lerasium is a "Self" kind of Allomancy, while Duralumin is an "Other" kind. Edit: There's a thread posted earlier today by another person about what happens when duralumin and lerasium are burned at the same time. The obvious answer is that it would be the same thing as burning lerasium alone, since the duralumin would simply burn the whole lerasium at once, which would still lead to Mistborn powers. Funnily enough, under my god metal model, burning a lerasium-duralumin alloy would also have the exact same effect as burning lerasium alone, for the same reason atium-electrum has the same effect as atium: Lerasium and duralumin have the same molecular structure. In other words, alloying duralumin with lerasium and burning it doesn't create a Duralumin Gnat (which would suck). Rather, it creates a Mistborn.

Part I: Atium Have you ever wondered about the strange similarity between Electrum Allomancy and Atium Allomancy? Both show "shadows" of the very near future. The only difference is that Electrum shows the user's own future-shadows while Atium shows the future-shadows of everything other than the user. Atium shows the shadows of others, Electrum shows the shadows of self. The Allomantic power of the Atium-Gold alloy ("Malatium") also has this same Self-Others inversion with Gold Allomancy. Gold shows the "past shadow" of the user, while Malatium shows the past shadow of other people. As we all know, electrum is the regular Allomantic alloy of gold. If the pattern suggested by Atium-Gold Allomancy holds for Atium-Electrum, then the Atium-Electrum alloy should also exhibit this Self-Others inversion. Do you see the problem, yet? Yes, the problem is that Electrum Allomancy with a Self-Others inversion sounds exactly the same thing as Atium Allomancy. So, in order to fit the pattern, we'll have to conclude that burning the Atium-Electrum alloy should show the future shadows of others. In other words, atium-electrum and pure atium behave identically. The implication is clear: Atium has the same molecular structure as electrum, with Ruin as its source of Investiture. That explains how mixing atium with electrum and burning the result would be the same as burning just atium. This is the Atium Theory I upheld in my old thread, though now my interpretation has changed slightly. Back then I believed that a bead of atium is simply a bead of electrum with a modified spiritual aspect aligned to Ruin. Now I realize that this isn't necessarily the case. Atium is a byproduct of Shardic interactions that affected the Physical aspect of the Shard Ruin, producing a solid substance with a specific molecular structure that just so happens to be the same as electrum's. Therefore, I now prefer to describe atium as "pseudo-electrum", instead of insisting that it is actually electrum.

This theory is a sort of Version 2.0 of an earlier theory of mine about the god metals. Here I will start from similar premises as before, but will have significantly (though not completely) different conclusions. You may find the old theory thread here. Table of Contents Introduction Part I: Atium Part II: Lerasium Part III: Harmonium??? Appendix A: Possible Flaws in the Theory Appendix B: TL;DR (Possible future Appendix C: God Metal Alloys) Introduction The basic premise of my big theory is this: The two god metals Atium and Lerasium have physical patterns identical to real world metals. My main evidence for it is this WoB: The Allomantic effect of burning a specific metal depends on both its molecular structure and the source of Invested power. Therefore I think it's easy to conclude that atium as well as lerasium, being Allomantic metals themselves, both have molecular structure. Even if they are, in Brandon's words, "fragments of a god". You can also think of it this way: Since Atium and Lerasium can be alloyed with real world metals, they should be present enough in the Physical Realm for the alloying process to occur. This implies that they have apparent physical properties like being metallic, being able to melt at a certain temperature, etc., properties that can be analyzed scientifically and compared to real world substances. It should therefore be possible for a Scadrian with sufficient scientific knowledge and resources to determine which elements, compounds, or alloys these god metals most closely resemble in terms of molecular structure. What will our hypothetical Scadrian scientist discover after analyzing the god metals? Obviously, only Brandon can answer that question definitively (someone should try asking him that one of these days). But what else is a Cosmere theorist like me to do but to speculate? So, let us speculate, shall we? I believe our scientist will find atium and lerasium to have molecular structures that are very similar (if not virtually identical) to two particular metals that we've already encountered in the Mistborn series. Through the following posts I'll show what I believe those two metals are.

Edgedancer is correct, I think, in saying that duralumin doesn't create additional power. So I don't see how burning duralumin and lerasium would make you anything other than a lerasium Mistborn (i.e. someone with the same level of power as Elend Venture, as well as the original Mistborn created by Rashek). I think, technically, any person who could burn Lerasium can be considered a Lerasium Misting (so... all Scadrians?). There's such a thing as becoming a Lerasium Savant, though: It's called holding the power of Preservation. The reason why atium has a "special" effect when burned with duralumin is that atium, like the majority of Allomantic metals, doesn't normally burn all at once in an instant. The normal use of Atium Allomancy only consumes a bit of atium at a time, showing a bit of insight into the future at a time. Intuitively, the "burn everything in an instant" effect of duralumin makes Atium Allomancy grant a much bigger insight into the future. As an aside, I've been working on a Big Theory about god metals for several days now, so it's cool that people are already starting to talk about god metals again. You'll find out soon why I really, really like the topic of this thread.

That could be the case, yeah. It would be nice to have evidence that other Gold Feruchemists can imitate other people well, though. Another Gold Feruchemist we know is Miles Dagouter the Gold Compounder. Miles has implied that he can change himself somehow, but via Gold Allomancy, not Feruchemy, so this is not evidence for that Feruchemical gold imitator idea I had. He describes his ability as becoming an "alloy of himself", mixing his past and his present. That's different from what Wayne does, who "mixes" himself with another person, so to speak. I have a feeling that Miles is the kind of person who wouldn't even dream of acting like another person.

Wayne's Feruchemical metal is Gold, which is intimately tied to Cognitive identity (its healing property depends on how you view yourself). It's possible that the ability to change how you view yourself (in limited ways, I suppose) is a secondary enhancement of Gold Feruchemy, and that Wayne is just using this ability to imitate other people. The problem with that is it implies that all full Feruchemists must also have this enhanced ability to imitate others' personalities, but I don't recall Sazed ever imitating anybody. Perhaps Ferrings (like Mistings) are simply much better at their metal than their full-powered counterparts. Or maybe Wayne is just like Camon, Tyn, and other con men in Brandon's books who are exceptionally good at imitation.

Perhaps TLR moved a big chunk of the planet's aluminum ore deposits somewhere far from imperial territory (like, perhaps in the Southern Continent) to make its anti-Allomancy properties less likely to be discovered by rebels. But yeah, the simplest (and most boring) explanation is maybe they haven't discovered the Hall-Heroult process yet.

There were mainly two things that piqued my interest. First there's the revelation that a Connector can store his spiritual connection to a Shardworld, not just his connections with people. So, what other spiritual connections can you store in a Duraluminmind? Because right now I'm starting to imagine Connectors that can Lash themselves to the ceiling like Windrunners (gravitational spiritual connection) and Connectors that can forcibly create Nahelbonds with spren on Roshar. Surely that can't be possible, can it? Secondly, I was wrong in thinking that there won't be a god metal for Harmony. Ah, well. I guess "harmonium" is pleasant enough to the ears, but I do wish Brandon would at least come up with an in-world word that means harmony and use that instead. As for harmonium's function, whatever it is I hope it's part of the key to FTL travel, though it might also be for creating full Feruchemists. *shrugs* I say Weiry need not eat his hat. Although... if it is a tortilla hat then it might taste great with cheese or salsa.

The opposite thing happened to the Rithmatist, I believe. It started out as a Cosmere story, then Brandon decided to put it on an alternate Earth. I guess in both cases he decided at some point that changing the setting will make the story more awesome.

This gives me hope for the next State of the Sanderson. "I got a bit sidetracked while writing a Zahel-related chapter and accidentally wrote Nightblood way ahead of schedule. You can now download the Warbreaker sequel from my website for free." I think the Dark One will be set on a Shardworld we haven't heard of yet. Either that, or we'll be seeing a new Selish region (i.e. new form-based magic system!). It's too early for a Yolen story, so this probably isn't about Rayse.

Thanks for the correction! I think that makes The Long Trail the most likely candidate for the exodus Brandon was talking about when he said that, for the reason Kurk said above. Of course, that doesn't mean that other races (the Parshendi, other Rosharian humans) didn't have their own mass exodus in the past (though I personally suspect that the Parshendi are native to Roshar).

Interesting discussion, guys. I must admit that I'm not as excited about the new WoBs we're getting recently as I was about last year's WoBs, but I suppose Brandon might be saving the juicy info for when Stormlight 3 is near. Possible. Someone else mentioned the scattered remnants of the Amian race, which is also a valid guess. Me, I'm reminded of the Vorin doctrine of "The Expulsion" of humanity from the "Tranquiline Halls", which might be based on an actual event in the Cosmere. But I don't remember if that was mentioned in a WoK interlude.Edit: It's probably just a typo on your part, Arthur, but Brandon said the exodus was mentioned in WoK, not WoR:

Ah. I stand corrected about the mistwraiths being immortal and all the stuff derived from that claim. Thanks guys.

Similarly, we can ask whether a Spinner (Chromium Feruchemist) can make fortunate things happen from a distance. Like, could a Spinner affect the result of a lottery that is being drawn several miles away just by tapping his Chromiummind? I'd like to think that the strength of Duralumin and Chromium Feruchemy are based on both the distance of the target and the amount tapped at a given instance. I can't think of an alternative solution that makes sense. Being able to affect anyone in the Cosmere would be OP, but being limited to a fixed radius seems arbitrary. I think a Duralumin Compounder should be able to connect to more people than someone merely tapping his Duraluminmind, but certainly not to everyone in the whole world.

We know that certain forms of Investiture allow a person to live even when physical life as we know it (i.e. having functioning organs) is impossible. One example would be the immortal Mistwraiths, for whom lungs (to use your example) are nothing but mere decorations. I think it's theoretically possible that there's an Allomantic metal (probably an alloy of a God Metal) that does something similar to your hypothetical Deathium, Lightsworn, and that this can be used to create immortal beings like Mistwraiths. But instead of storing death, I propose that this metal stores one's spirit. Immortality is just a side-effect, because you can't die unless your spirit is destroyed or leaves the Physical realm. The metal would act like a lich phylactery or a Horcrux, binding your life to the Physical. But moving your spirit from your body to a piece of metal would have drastic consequences on your Identity, especially on how it views your now-spirit-less physical body parts. Maybe that's why Mistwraiths can discard and acquire body parts so casually. Also, just like how you'd forget a memory that you stored in a Coppermind, your Cognitive aspect would lose its link to your Spiritual aspect if you store your spirit somewhere else. This may explain why Mistwraiths seem to act like zombies, and why they don't exhibit Feruchemical powers even though they were once Feruchemists. This would also be why Kandra Blessings can "wake" Mistwraiths up from their zombie state. The Blessings, being Hemalurgic spikes and therefore having torn bits of someone's spirit, give Mistwraiths the Spiritual boost they need to start showing sentience. If I'm right about all that, then somewhere on Scadrial there is a metal store containing the living spirits of all the Feruchemists that TLR turned into immortal Mistwraiths during his Ascension.

Yeah, Platonic forms would exist in Popper's World 3. A million upvotes to Kyzkle for posting this! I've read about Popper before, but I must admit I've already forgotten about his three worlds theory by the time I encountered Brandon's Realmatics.

So, I'm back to being the only active(?) Filipino Sharder, which is sad. But I'm glad you enjoyed it here, Quitecontrary. At first I was afraid you'd get bored quickly. It's amazing how you made this place into your fun little playground during your stay. Anyway, see you around (IRL)! *goes back to lurking while waiting for new WoB*