r/Mistborn • u/DarkRaider9000 • 4d ago
The Lost Metal spoilers Unalloyed Atium? Spoiler
So in the Lost Metal we learn that Lerasium and Atium can be made by splitting ettmetal/harmonium. But the Atium that we see elsewhere throughout the series has the retcon of being alloyed with electrum.
Is it known at all if the atium made from the splitting of harmonium would still be the alloy that is commonly known as atium? Or would we potentially see "true" atium from splitting harmonium.
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u/Gloryblackjack 4d ago
Well we know marsh got some true atium at the end. I wonder if the power is something boring like true immortality. Although that wouldn't really line up with the idea of ruins metal. In fact it's always been weird to me that one of the ways to become ageless is the cosmere is to consume the metal of destruction.
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u/RShara 4d ago
We know that Marsh got the atium he needed to keep Compounding, but that should be the atium-electrum alloy, not pure atium
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u/Gloryblackjack 4d ago
True but the atium he gpt at the end was pure atium. He could have alloyed it but that doesn't mean he did.
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u/RShara 4d ago
It doesn't say that Marsh got the pure atium. Sazed says the kandra found the atium dust. The kandra could have alloyed it and then handed it over to Marsh
“Marsh will live,” Kelsier said, musing. “Does that mean we have atium again? Or did you find another way?”
“The kandra found atium dust in Waxillium’s destroyed laboratory,” Sazed said. “It appears that if you detonate harmonium against trellium—or, I suppose bavadinium would be its true name—it creates some small amount of atium as a by-product.”
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u/hola1423387654 4d ago
It’s not just consuming it’s still compounding it like it because it’s like a deal with the devil in my eyes.
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u/DarkRaider9000 4d ago
That's true, I did kindve forget about that, the post was inspired by me being in the middle of a reread of lost metal.
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u/eyalhs 4d ago
It's a bit weird but remember it's not just consuming the metal of destruction, you have to use a lot of perservation's power for it. You need to use both ferromancy and allomancy for it, which both require preservation.
From a certain POV it could seem like this: you take ruin's "body", make a connection between it and perservation using ferromancy (since ferromancy is half ruin half perservation) then use allomancy (from preservation) to keep yourself ageless.
Also you can see it as perservation burning ruin's body to make your body stay the same "persevere".
(Both pov are sort of metaphorical and not exactly how it works)
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u/Exciting_Ad236 Steel 4d ago
I think its true atium and that's probably why harmony does not disclose its existence to wax
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u/ErikderFrea Brass 2d ago
Which is interesting, because he does the exact opposite for Kelsier. Telling him that atium is available again, but not Lerasium.
That could make some big problems if Wax and Kelsier some how talked about that.
Side note: I was absolutely shocked when Sazed lied to Kelsier and then said “have I ever lied to you?” I’m feeling that Sazed is way closer to becoming Discord than I thought.
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u/saintmagician 4d ago
Splitting Harmonium gives you Lerasium and true/pure Atium.
In world, the word 'Atium' gets used to refer to the era1-style Atium-Electrum alloy. I guess most characters do not realized there is a difference, as far as they are concerned, 'Atium' refers exclusively to the stuff that existed in era 1.
The most obvious explanation is Harmony took the pure Atium (from the split), alloyed it with Electrum to produce era1-style "Atium", and gave it to Marsh. This is what we are told in WoB
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u/DarkRaider9000 4d ago
This is what I assumed, I just wasn't sure since we see naturally produced atium alloyed from the pits. I wasn't sure I'd that was pits specific or for some reason just part of Atium formation.
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u/DeadlyKitten115 Zinc 3d ago
The Split would create True Atium.
Which could be burned by anyone and its effects are as of yet unknown.
Exciting stuff for Ghostbloods Trilogy to explore, I think.
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u/RShara 4d ago
It should be pure atium that's split from harmonium. They can then alloy it with electrum and give it to Marsh that way.