Questioner
Are we going to find out more about the cesium, the exploding metal?
Brandon Sanderson
The super cesium? Well, the last Wax and Wayne book is called The Lost Metal so....you kinda got it...yeah.
Found 27 entries in 0.183 seconds.
Are we going to find out more about the cesium, the exploding metal?
The super cesium? Well, the last Wax and Wayne book is called The Lost Metal so....you kinda got it...yeah.
Have we seen harmonium?
That's a RAFO.
*holding out list of Allomantic metal symbols* Is ettmetal's symbol one of these four? *Points at the unused ones*
Uh, no, it is not. Ettmetal has it's own symbol.
Have we seen it?
I don't believe you have. Isaac... *inaudible*
*making connections internally* Oh, that's interesting, since we have seen harmonium's symbol.
You've seen his symbol? You've seen the symbol?
Yeah, we have. *momentary staredown*
*inaudible* it might have been the...
It looks lerasium but both sides. *waves hands around in the air like an idiot to pantomime the axis of reflection*
*looks crestfallen* Oh... Okay... okay, yep, he put it in. *inaudible* Okay, ettmetal's... Fine, fine, fine.
Am I allowed to tell people? I can keep it a secret if you want.
No, you can tell people. I mean, it's obvious *inaudible* The fact that ettmetal's so volatile. It's intended to be a *inaudible*.
You have described ettmetal as some kind of super-cesium. After the reaction with water, is there residual ettmetal hydroxide and what are its properties?
Yes, there is. There's the potential they'll find it and use it, but as far as the properties are concerned, you get a RAFO.
I asked what would happen if you burned lerasium or atium near ettmetal.
RAFO! :)
He said ettmetal is chemically reactive, not nuclear.
The longer answer makes it sound like Harmonium isn't a Lerasium/Atium alloy, but a whole new metal. He described it as "super-cesium," and that its volatility was based on electrons, not on protons or neutrons.
"It is not unstable, it is reactive. So it's like a "super-cesium". It reacts so violently..."
What is the metal that powers the airships?
Ettmetal.
*sigh* Oh, come on. I know how alkali metals work, just tell me which one.
It is not a metal that is-- um-- It is in the line, but it's not one that exists in our world.
Mmm, okay.
It is way too explosive to-- it's more explosive even than the ones in our world.
Harmonium is ettmetal... Its chemicals properties are sort of analogous to cesium. It explodes in contact with water. People are made out of water. You try to spike someone, you try to swallow it, you try to wear it as jewelry, it will not end well. Why in the world would he pick something so inharmonious?
He didn't pick it. It's unstable because of the two halves of him not meshing well.
If I were to alloy atium and lerasium, would I get harmonium? Or is harmonium different after the Shards combined?
It's different after the Shards combined.
If I was to take harmonium and separate it out through distillation, would I get lerasium and atium or something that functions similarly?
No, you would-- It actually has become a different--
Can't be split?
Yeah. I mean, you could find a way, but you're not going to get it through normal, mechanical means.
Before Preservation locked up Ruin, or whatever, or if Ruin had won. Would atium exist?
...There are timelines where there would be no atium.
...So if Harmony exists, does atium exist?
Atium does not exist because there is no Ati. Well there is atium left over from before, but--
So it was only part of Ati's body and not part of Harmony's body.
There is no atium, there is no Preservation any longer, there is no Ati.
So does harmonium exist?
...There's no Leras and there's no Ati, there's no Ruin--
Does harmonium exist then?
Good question.
Are there 50 Allomantic metals?
Nearly. Does Harmony have a metal?
Is that an alloy of lerasium and atium?
You're along the right lines.
Can you make a Hemalurgical spike out of harmonium and what would it do?
Yes, but RAFO. So half an answer and half a not-answer.
If someone is a full Mistborn and is able to use Feruchemical gold... can they safely burn harmonium?
Oh, okay. This is theoretically possible.
Would it have an effect?
Yes. It would do something.
And I'm going to hopefully ask what that is.
*gives a RAFO card* You've earned their card.
Will there be a metal called harmonium in the mistborn world?
RAFO. But good question.
Just an fyi but you have confirmed the existence of harmonium before. (And this is probably a RAFO, but is there a reason you didn't follow the convention of the other "god metals" and call it something like sazedium? "Harmonium" just seems out of place.)
Sazed didn't like the sound of Sazedium.
What will an Atium-Lerasium Alloy do ?
Ah, I've been asked this before. There are a number of theories, but nobody's really sure, since there haven't really been any opportunities to alloy lerasium with atium. You can choose which one to believe. Most require an understanding of realmatic theory to comprehend, which you need to be a Shard or Splinter to even begin to understand.What Lerasium is, is essentially a hack for something like your spiritual DNA. It rewrites what your spiritual self is capable of. So, combined with atium, which allows you a glimpse into the vision of everything - past, present, future - the theories say it could do one of two things. It could either create a substance so volatile that it would have world-ending repercussions, or rewrite your "spiritual DNA" (his phrase, not mine) with atium's power. Is that a vague enough answer?
So if I understand correctly, every Shard has three different states in which it manifests physically in the world, liquid, gaseous and solid. So my question is, Harmony's holding two Shards, is there any bleedover that would make like...harmonium?
In the newspaper pages, one of the essays is on "Does Harmony have a metal?". So this is a question they are asking in-world, that they think should probably be, and if you look around you see strange metals appearing, including one that is highly unstable. Or highly reactive is what I would say, not unstable, because it's not radioactive but it is...yeah, so.
So harmonium, we have a working theory that the reason it's so volatile is because some of the subatomic particles are associated with Ruin and some of them are [of?] Preservation. Is that true?
Yeah, that's basically what's going on is that it's creating a very unstable metal. Now, it is in the nature of the Cosmere not a compound but an element. But, you could call it a subatomic particle sure. It's very volatile because it is in nature spiritually in contrast with itself. And so though it is a single element rather than a compound, the spiritual nature is not happy as it is, and you can set up in the physical realm, through reactivity things that would just rip it apart and really your energy is not, your energy in that is actually pulling from the Spiritual realm, and so that's why it can be so much more explosive than even the chemistry would account for.
So it's not that the subatomic particles are invested, it's that they have a spiritual identity which causes them to...
Yes.
So then it's not creating an oxide because after the spiritual energy goes away from the explosion then it's a different metal, right?
Right, and...
So you can't find harmonium oxide in the water afterwards.
Right right right right. Because it's not, it's, yeah. But you might be able to find something else, which is really relevant to the Cosmere. And to Scadrial.
So the core elements, the core particles, having extra repulsion causes them to have a nuclear potential.
I would not call it nuclear because it's not the same exact thing. But there is a Cosmere equivalent. To - I mean, you could do nuclear power just the same in the Cosmere, but since we have a third kind of state of matter, right? Matter, energy, Investiture. You have a third axis that, you know, you can release energy from matter, you can release investiture from matter, and things like that. So it's similar, but following its own rules that I have a little more - that are controlled by me, right, that are built on this idea. So once you add *inaudible*, matter now can exist in this third state, you get all sorts of weird things, which one of the things that happens is, you can get an energy release in sort of the same way. A reaction, I'm not going to call it a nuclear reaction, but of the same vein.
[Question unknown]
So, don't consider [harmonium] magically-enhanced cesium. Consider it a magically-created alkali metal. It's going to share attributes with the alkali metals, and generally follows the trends of the others, save for its melting point.
But in answer to your real question, atium would be a platinum group metal. (And platinum itself was my model.)
There is a metal used to charge in the last Mistborn book, is that lithium?
[Sounds like he's going to say "no" but then changes his mind] I'll dig into that, that's another RAFO. But I'm glad you're thinking along those lines. Let's just say that.
What would be the difference between an aluminum and a chromium grenade, and between nicrosil and duralumin grenades?
We're talking specifically about the Bands of Mourning ones?
*Matt affirms*
So, what would be the difference? Aluminum would create a sort of "You can't use Allomancy in this... nearby this" most likely, yeah. Duralumin would do the opposite. You would be able to use it and then enhance someone. I haven't played with the ranges on these things yet, and so that's where we get into kind of the question mark territory. Like, right now, I haven't really given them an area of effect unless the power itself has an area of effect. Does that make sense?
But, my intent is to get to the point where it's doing things like this, right. Where you could theoretically be an Aluminum Gnat, you could charge this thing up and throw. And hey, you know, you have... the Metalborn nearby are unable to use their talents. That's convenient, right? Like, I want more of the powers to be relevant and these grenades are a way to do that.
You know, Marasi's power is not the most useful on the planet to have herself. For those who don't know, she can slow down time... well, speed up time? Awkward how... the phrasing of how you do that. But basically she can make a bubble around herself where everyone outside of it moves super fast. That's not terribly useful, right? Unless you want to age, you know, really slowly.
[...]
Not really useful in combat, to be able to be like "Yeah, I'm gonna make all my enemies move really, really fast and I can't respond to them". But, she can charge up one of those grenades and toss it, it becomes real handy. For her, the grenades are more useful than the inverse, right, because speeding up someone is useful, but slowing someone down takes someone out of the battle essentially. Or a whole globe of them... globe is the wrong term, but yeah.
Question about primer cubes and Rhythms. There's a Rhythm associated with every metal when they're used and that's what gets sensed by bronze Allomancy. Does the primer cube sense that same Rhythm and replicate it?
No, it's actively like, drawing the Investiture in. The active...*hems and haws* is that what's going on? I will have to RAFO that, I'm going to have to go back to think about that some more.
Could primer cubes be used to store powers besides the Scadrial ones, such as Surgebinding?
This is theoretically possible. So much fun to have in the space age, that I'm not gonna let you have yet. You have one more Mistborn book, one more Stormlight book, three more Mistborn books, and then five more Stormlight books before I'm gonna let you have that fun. Keep theorizing.
Could a Shard like Harmony create new elemental metals, like harmonium, or is that unconscious--
So, unconscious isn't the right word, but a manifestation of his will being the same as manifestation of the laws of physics in the world, if that makes sense. It's not like a choice, it's not, like, not a choice either, to create others, it is theoretically possible, but what has happened is more in line with the laws of his realm.
For the space Mistborn are we going to have more elements?
The base 16 are basically it. But the interactions between them and things. And there is one more metal, there is harmonium, so you will hear about that later on.
Thought I'd just get this out into the world since I hadn't yet: The Feruchemical symbol for Harmony.
Ah, so I am not the only one who thought they looked like fangs
I was looking to the Feruchemical symbols for lerasium and atium for inspiration. Thus the sort of fang-like projections. :) This is starting to look very Decepticons to me...
So cool. The symmetry is perfect. I also love that you can see elements of the symbols of lerasium and atium in it.
That's exactly what I was going for. Glad you saw those symbols in there!
Hey, you say Harmony do you mean harmonium? As far as we know, we only have symbols for metals, not Shards
The symbol for Scadrial (at least among the Cosmere-aware) is also the symbol for Harmony but will probably also be used for Harmonium. It was a mashup of the other god metal symbols. It was natural to make a symbol to fill this void in the Feruchemical symbols as well.
Was this on purpose or is it an accident? I can see both the symbol of the Chalice and symbol of the phallus in this, is this a sign of him being an Eunuch?
Totally on accident!
Rare to see symmetry in Feruchemy glyphs; does that reflect Harmony's "balanced" nature? Or perhaps an implicit connection to Roshar's glyphs...?
Harmony's symbol was symmetrical and balanced in its Allomantic form, so I decided to carry that over in its Feruchemical form. No relationship to Roshar's glyphs. :)
We have this WoB that says you can split ettmetal into atium and lerasium, but not through normal means. In Rhythm of War, we see Navani changing the forms of Light by removing the Connection to other Shards and introducing new ones. Is that the same way that you would turn ettmetal into atium and lerasium, or similar means?
That sort of science would possibly lead to the proper method. It is a good way to be going, but it's not exactly... Let's say there are multiple ways to do this. Some are less dangerous than others. The way you're theorizing could lead to a less dangerous way.
If you were to do that to a live, living Shardblade, which you said could be called Honor's God Metal, what would that do to the spren?
If what happened to... Oh, remove the Connection for a Blade like that?
And like, gave it Ruin's connections?
You would have a really hard time doing that, because it's an actual individual. It'd be the same as cutting off a person, which is possible, but you're talking about stuff like what a Shardblade does to a soul. So you'd have a hard time, and it would have not-happy effects on a living individual that that happened to.
At the end of The Lost Metal, we learn that Marsh will be using atium from the ettmetal experiments to stay alive going forward. However, Peter recently revealed (and you confirmed) that the atium in Era 1 which stored youth was actually a mix of atium and electrum. How will this continue to work to keep him young?
They're going to have a different term for pure atium and for what has been known as atium--what they're making. It is not hard to get the right mix down for what he needs to stay alive. It is hard to make enough of it to keep him alive. Well, not hard, but definitely not scalable to more than one person, how about that. They are able to do it, you've just got to make an alloy.
I will apologize for this. This is a post-Era-1 retcon where I realized I need all the God Metals to do different things, and this is just one of the aspects that comes down. For those who don't know what's going on: I get done with Era 1, I start really working on the nature of metals in the cosmere. I'm like, "Ehhh... Atium really should be burnable by anybody. It's a God Metal. The way God Metals work is not in line with how I've made atium. So what they call atium has to have trace elements of something else, and then there's a pure form of atium out there that would be the true pure God Metal." That is one of those unfortunate retcons when you're doing all this continuity. And it works just fine in the books, because the way that atium is being made is a pretty complicated little process there in the Pits of Hathsin.
The question is the right question. Sazed is going to get out of this pure atium, which he is going to need to tweak before he gives it to Marsh. Whether Marsh knows he is getting a tweaked version or not is subject to your own interpretation.
For arcanist purposes, if you want to call the other one pure atium and the regular one just atium, I'd recommend something like that for your wikis and things like that.