Questioner
Is Hoid using the Lerasium as a metalmind.
Brandon Sanderson
That's a read and find out, but I'll give you a card!
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Is Hoid using the Lerasium as a metalmind.
That's a read and find out, but I'll give you a card!
If Hoid was to get his hands on "bavadinium," could he alloy it with lerasium and get Sand Mastery?
This is theoretically possible.
I've got a list of various Cosmere bits of metal and I was wondering if you would rank them from like one to ten or just easy to difficult on how hard it would be to steelpush on them. So with one being just a regular coin, ten being like when the Lord Ruler was moving bits of glass on the floor, so like metal inside a person's body.
It depends on how strong the Investiture in them is.
Is that gonna be the answer for all of these?
Probably!
How about a spike charged with Hemalurgy?
A spike charged with Hemalurgy... that depends on...
Not in a person.
Depends on how strong, yeah, a spike is moderately, (in the realm of these kinds of things) moderately easy to push on because a spike does not rip off very much Investiture. Only enough to short circuit the soul, and less it over time. I would put that at the bottom, with the top being very hard, to be one of the easier things.
How about a metalmind that is full?
That is full? That is going to be middle of the realm of the, yeah. Generally easier than, for instance, a Shardblade which is going to be very hard.
A Shardblade is [inaudible] actually metal? [metal]-ish?
Ish. Is Lerasium a metal? Yeah.
So that'd be the same for Shardplate too?
Shardplate and Blade are very hard. Blade is probably gonna be a little harder.
A Half-shard?
A Half-shard shield? That's gonna be moderate.
Nightblood? I imagine that being hard.
Hard, of all the things you've listed, that is going to be the hardest. Far beyond even a Sharblade.
Far beyond metal inside a person?
Uh, yes. Depending on how invested the person is.
If somebody was invested as much as Nightblood?
Yes, for instance the God King, right. At the end with all those Breaths. Pushing something inside of him, getting through all of that? Gonna be real hard. Average person on Scadrial? You've seen how hard that is. A drab? Much easier.
That was my next one, or no, sorry not a drab. A lifeless?
A Lifeless, yeah. Even... yeah. Lifeless are kind of weird because they've had their soul leave but then they've had a replacement stuck in in the form of Breath which leaves them in a very weird position compared to a drab which has had part of their Investiture ripped away but a majority remains, so, anyways. I'm going to give you one more. Pick your favorite.
A soulstamped piece of metal?
A soulstamped piece of metal is going to be on the lower, easier side. Not a lot of Investiture going on in a soulstamp.
Would an alloy of atium and lerasium produce the same effects pre- and post-Harmony?
Yes.
Why is there such an imbalance between the amount of atium and the amount of lerasium in the world? Also, why are atium and lerasium very imbalanced in Allomantic power (Lerasium is far more useful than atium, really)?
There isn't. Leras is just spread out further. He is in the mists, in the Well, and in the lerasium. Ruin's power however is condensed strictly in atium.
Did the Lord Ruler create the lerasium that he gave to the ten foreign kings? Or where they put there by Leras--
Oh, good question… No one's asked me that before, I don't believe. Did the Lord Ruler create the lerasium that he gave-- No, he found the lerasium. It was existent before his Ascension.
Can I ask if it was placed there intentionally by Leras or did it sort of grow similar to how atium--
The Lord Ruler-- It was not placed for him, he had to-- he had to get it.
Because you've talked about alloying the god metals with other ones-- I was wondering whether you would be able to melt them down as you would with normal metals.
If you could distill the god metal: you could distill it out of the mist, that's theoretically possible.
What's lerasium?
That is the bead of metal that Elend finds at the end of Book 2, that Vin finds and gives to Elend.
Oh so there were only two and the Lord Ruler kind of left it there?
There actually were a bunch of them, and the first Mistborn came from people who ate that. The Lord Ruler took one for himself and he left others there to use if he needed them.
What would happen if you used lerasium as a spike for Hemalurgy?
Oh lerasium as a spike for Hemalurgy? Um lerasium as a spike for Hemalurgy--
Would it work or would it just not work?
No I mean it would work--
If you were to place a lerasium spike would you transform into a full Mistborn as opposed to--
Well it can also steal powers, not just grant them, right?
Um, right. The thing about it is you're trying to Invest something that is already very Invested, which always has weird effects. So while you could do it, it would be a gross waste of the potential. It's like using a nuclear bomb as a paperweight. It is functional but--
Does that mean it would be hard, for example, to make Nightblood stick something? Because--
Yes it would be very hard to make Nightblood stick to something. The amount of Investiture in Nightblood is--
Astronomical?
Yes. Larger than most things you've seen. So Pushing on Nightblood, really hard.
What happens to god metals when a Shard is Splintered?
God metals are unaffected.
And atium and lerasium stayed unaffected when they merged?
Lerasium and atium that existed before were unaffected.
If Vin and Elend hypothetically each blindly ingested equivalently sized beads of lerasium, would Vin be a stronger Mistborn than Elend, or would they be equal?
Yes, Vin would be stronger. It is additive, not just an overwrite.
So I just finished Secret History about an hour ago.
Okay.
And I just have a simple yes or no question? Is Kelsier's spike made of lerasium?
No... Good question.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Preservation's Power
All right, so maybe I lied about there only being three magic systems in this book. It comes down to how you term the powers of Preservation and Ruin, who kind of blanket the entire system. There are a lot of things going on here, and—well, the truth is I don't want to mention all of them, for fear of spoiling future books. However, I'll give you a few rules to apply.
First, to these forces, energy and mass are the same thing. So, their power can take physical shape—as Preservation's did in the bead of metal Elend ate. Second, there is a bit of Preservation inside of all the people—and it's this that allows the people to perform Allomancy. It needs to be awakened and stirred to be of use, but when it is, a proper metal can draw forth more of Preservation's power. It's like the metal attunes the bit within the person, allowing it to act as a catalyst to grab more power.
Allomancy is not fueled by metal; it is fueled by Preservation. The metal is the means by which a person can access that fuel, however. If there were another way to access it, then the metal wouldn't be needed.
Preservation's touch on people differs. Some have more, some have less. This doesn't make them better or worse people—indeed, some most touched by Preservation have been among the worst people in the world. As Ruin later points out, there is a difference between being evil and being destructive.
Regardless, if a person can get more Preservation into them, they become better Allomancers. Hence Elend becoming a Mistborn. Like all people, he had the potential within him—it was just too small of a potential to be awakened through normal means. That little jolt of Preservation's body, however, expanded and awakened his Allomancy.
As a tidbit, that was a side effect of what that bead of metal did. It wasn't the main purpose of the bead, and if another Allomancer were to burn it, it would do something else.
Did Hoid use the bead of lerasium to rewrite his spiritual DNA or Web in a way other than just giving himself Allomantic powers?
His goal was to become an Allomancer.
And did he use it to create other powers than Allomancy?
It could not give powers other than Allomancy.
Because it’s lerasium?
Yes.
So he did burn it and become a Mistborn, right?
You have seen him use Allomancy…
Yes, because it’s creating a lot of <misunderstandings>.
You have actually seen him use Allomancy.
So you have said that making someone Mistborn is not lerasium's primary function, that a Mistborn burning it would have another effect. Is this also true of its alloys?
RAFO.
So, in Allomancy, most of the metals are in pairs, they're equal and opposite, pushing and pulling, Rioting, Soothing, that kind of thing. The god metals have always-- lerasium and atium, have always struck me as kind of unbalanced in a way. Like, lerasium gives you the power to use all these metals, plus atium being one of them. Is there a reason for that?
Yes, there is, and it kinda has to do with Snapping and some of the fundamental rules of the Mistborn world and the fact that people have Preservation and Ruin inside of them and all these sorts of things. So, the answer is yes.
Partially, narratively, I built that in partially just 'cause I wanted atium to seem odd in the placement, right, when people got to it it's like "What? Why is this one-- This one doesn't match the others. This doesn't really work." When I was building Mistborn, one of the big things I wanted was this idea of a periodic table that was, kind of a flawed construct, that, as you read the books, you came to understand better and better. And that was something I executed-- I don't think I executed that 100% right, but I'm pleased with the general concept and how it plays out. And so I wanted atium to stick out like a sore thumb.
The other thing is, I knew I needed some good foreshadowing for Fortune, for people being able to kinda see the future or versions of the future, for the whole cosmere to work. And, so, I built in atium specifically to do those things. And I built in lerasium to have, kind of, the ultimate sort of benevolent endowment sort of thing. (Not Endowment the Shard, you know what I mean.) But I also wanted to show these two magics were intrinsically tied together on Scadrial because the way that humankind was created. We're getting into some deep stuff, I'll just leave it there. But that was what was going through my mind as I was building those things all out.
On the Coppermind there is this idea that if a natural Mistborn burned Duralumin and then Lerasium it would empower them to godly levels. Would this actually happen or would another effect happen.
That actually wouldn't work, but it is a clever idea.
You said that it's theoretically possible that Hoid could have alloyed the lerasium bead with another god metal to acquire another magic. Has he done so?
He has not. Because there are certain things that were preventing that from working.
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.
Is Wit, or Hoid-- Is he an Allomancer
He did steal a bead of lerasium off of Scadrial. If he were to make use of that bead, certain powers could have been gained.
Okay. "If he were to have used it."
If he were to have used it.
We know that Hoid took a bead of lerasium, but it never specifically says that he consumed it.
Yes, he did.
Alright, so he is a Mistborn?
Yes, I'll go ahead and canonize that.
If a lerasium spike is used to steal a trait--
You're straying way into RAFO territory here.
Will the recipient of the spike gain anything other than the ability stolen?
I'm not going anywhere near this one. This one’s a RAFO.
Allomancy is fueled by Preservation's body? How exactly does that work? And how does that interact with Atium—it's fueled by both gods' bodies?
The powers of Ruin and Preservation are Shards of Adonalsium, pieces of the power of creation itself. Allomancy, Hemalurgy, Feruchemy are manifestations of this power in mortal form, the ability to touch the powers of creation and use them. These metallic powers are how people's physical forms interpret the use of the Shard, though it's not the only possible way they could be interpreted or used. It's what the genetics and Realmatic interactions of Scadrial allow for, and has to do with the Spiritual, the Cognitive, and the Physical Realms.
Condensed 'essence' of these godly powers can act as super-fuel for Allomancy, Feruchemy, or really any of the powers. The form of that super fuel is important. In liquid form it's most potent, in gas form it's able to fuel Allomancy as if working as a metal. In physical form it is rigid and does one specific thing. In the case of atium, it allows sight into the future. In the case of concentrated Preservation, it gives one a permanent connection to the mists and the powers of creation. (I.e., it makes them an Allomancer.)
So when a person is burning metals, they aren't using Preservation's body as a fuel so to speak—though they are tapping into the powers of creation just slightly. When Vin burns the mists, however, she'd doing just that—using the essence of Preservation, the Shard of Adonalsium itself—to fuel Allomancy. Doing this, however, rips 'troughs' through her body. It's like forcing far too much pressure through a very small, fragile hose. That much power eventually vaporizes the corporeal host, which is acting as the block and forcing the power into a single type of conduit (Allomancy) and frees it to be more expansive.
Why didn't Hoid take the second bead of lerasium?
Hoid knew that if he did so, bad things would happen.
Is there a reason why Rashek left a nugget of Lerasium at the Well of Ascension?
He left several. It was, in his opinion, one of the best kept secrets and best protected locations in his empire.
Were there originally 16 of them?
An excellent guess.
Can lerasium alloys grant Feruchemy?
It c--RAFO, we'll RAFO that.
How were the original beads of Lerasium created?
They were created for the purpose that they were originally used for.
Who created them?
They were created by Leras.
I was also wondering if... I just finished reading the Ars Arcanum in the back of Bands of Mourning and I heard it mention that god metals could be alloyed to give different abilities or traits.
Yes.
Could you give an example of one?
So, you could alloy lerasium with certain metals of the sixteen in the table and get, if you had just enough lerasium, it would make them a misting of those powers.
If you fed a lerasium bead to an Aviar, would it become an Allomancer?
Oh, wow, what a great question! RAFO!
In Allomancy, normal metals are simply a tool that channels Allomancer's already existing Connection to the power of Preservation, which is why non-Allomancers don't get powers from digesting metal. But if I understand it correctly, god metals are an exception, since they are a form of a Shard's power, burning them directly uses the power stored within.
If I have this right, how come a normal person can burn lerasium, but not atium? Or could they, and no ones thought to try? But if that was true why are there atium Mistings?
Suffice it to say that what people both in the books and out think about the god metals has some holes in it.
Can you share any abilities that Hoid has accrued so far in the books, does he-- with him taking the bead, I can't even pronounce the L-word...
Yes, lerasium, he is indeed an Allomancer. So. That has happened. I haven't confirmed much else, but he does have that.
We know that Hoid has a bead of lerasium. Does he have any atium?
He has access to atium, yes.
How many shards has Hoid received powers from, whether taken, stolen, given, etc?
Well, he has a bead of lerasium.
I was curious, what would happen if a full Mistborn burned lerasium? What would the Allomantic powers be?
Oohh, excellent, excellent question. So, I have not revealed what lerasium does if you already have Investiture. So, the answer to that is a RAFO. We've actually had like three people ask that tonight, so there must have been a discussion on the Sh-- the forums about it and I didn't answer them, so I can't answer you.
The size of the metal, does it matter to transfer Allomancy or can it be really really tiny or really really big?
For Allomancy? Or what, a bead of lerasium? Is that what you're talking about?
Yeah, when you're transferring the powers, like to make someone a Mistborn...
Yeah it has to be-- The size of it is going to influence how strong a Mistborn you are.
It couldn't be a sliver.
Yeah-- Well it could, you'd just be really weak as a Mistborn.
Can lerasium be regrown like atium, like in a Pits of Hathsin, just for the lerasium, or no?
Lerasium did not have a Pits of Hathsin analogue... Not anymore, Leras is dead.
If a Misting burned the correct alloy of Lerasium and their metal, would that be akin to them becoming a Savant?
No.
What's the incentive of alloying lerasium and becoming a misting when you could just burn it normal and be a Mistborn?
My guess is that you'd presumably you'd use less of it? Also, arguably, not every way of using a magic is going to be the most optimal way.
It's probably just a way that lerasium can work. If you alloy it or somehow mix it with things from other systems, it's quite possible you'd end up getting those magics instead, because it'd Connect you more strongly to a different Shard.
The replies to this are correct.
If a kandra eats a bead of lerasium, can he burn it? Alternatively can he gain Allomancy via Hemalurgy?
Yes on both counts.
So, Brandon. Hoid. I remember you saying at the Idaho Falls signing last year that he was in Well of Ascension. We, your dedicated fans who like scouring books searching for obscure characters who have any possibility of being the mysterious Hoid, have yet to find him. Peter sent us on a hunt for him (Hoid, not Peter...) in the deleted scenes, and we found his boot-print.
Now, I think he broke the pottery there too—the one holding the lerasium—and since there's broken pottery in the actual version, I think he may have snuck into the cavern and broken it as well. If so, is this Hoid's part in Well of Ascension? This trace of him? I commend you if it is. It is clever, making us think it was a person, when in fact it's just something he did.
You are on the right track, but wrong on one point. Hoid does appear in the book.
I had originally toyed with making his touch on the novel more obscure, but decided that I wanted to be consistent with the other novels by actually having him appear. Once I realized I'd probably cut the scene with the footprint, I decided I needed this actual appearance even more badly.
Fortunately, I knew what Hoid had been up to all this time, and had placed him in a position where several characters could run into him. In Well of Ascension, Hoid believed (as Vin did) that the Well was in the North, even though it was not. He spent much of the book pursuing this idea.
Through events, however, he discovered he was wrong. He made the realization after Vin did, but only because of a chance meeting. (This is recorded in the books. Let's just say he was listening in when someone implied that the Well was in Luthadel.)
He hurried to Luthadel, and was in the town, skulking about in the last parts of the novel. He isn't seen here, though he does still infiltrate the Well. (Hoid is quite proficient at manipulating Shadesmar for his own ends.)
Why can lerasium be burned by anyone in the cosmere, while atium is restricted to a small portion of the population of one planet?
RAFO.
What about a lerasium savant? Or would that require so much lerasium that the person attempting it would ascend to become a new Shardholder?
Basically, this is what Ascension is.
Can a kandra burn things if they-- could they burn lerasium--and if they did would they be able to burn other things?
Yes that is possible. It is even plausible that an kandra could gain other powers, they just don't know how to do it.
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.
Could a person Soulcast more atium and lerasium if they had a bead?
No. Investiture messes things like that up.
Previously you were asked if Hoid could have been using the lerasium to alloy with other metals to change his spiritweb, and you answered it was technically possible. Does that mean you’re finally admitting that Hoid did not digest the bead?
I am not admitting that. It was possible for him to do that, but he did not.
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?
Brandon confirmed that "the element" is the bead of lerasium. Which confirms both this theory, and the theory that Hoid wrote the letter.
When I asked the question, I also thought the element and the lerasium were different. I asked it as a "Hoid clearly has a habit for taking important items. He has the bead of lerasium and the element. What other items does he have that we should know about?"
Brandon's response was that the bead and the element are the same. And that he has many items he should not have.
Is the liquid in the Well of Ascension Invested mercury? What is the chemical composition of lerasium + atium?
No.
RAFO!
Could [Sazed] also bring back lerasium beads, if he wanted to?
It would be within his power to do so, yes.