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Brandon Sanderson / Electrum (Long.. sorry)
« on: July 31, 2008, 06:07:26 AM »
Well I just reread TWoA and happened to be glancing through the back where the reffernce's are located. I was reading about this Electrum, this Internal Temperol metal. I started thinking, and as it's late at night I could have just been stupidity taking over but... here's the idea (if it hasn't already been thought of; which I wouldn't be suprised, but I didn't want to sift through the boards for a depressing answer.)
If we can agree that Electrum seems to be the polar opposite of Atium (not the opposite, that would be Malatium) then burning it should give you the ability to defeat an atium burner.
Before you say "Hold it TaA, this is unheard of! Everybody knows the only way to defeat a person burning Atium is to burn it yourself."
To that I say.. you could be right. But hear me out. WARNING: there is a good chance that this writing will get extremely confusing. I'll reread it plenty of times to make sure I explain myself fully, but when dealing with how you can change the future that then changes by your action, etc. Hopefully it works out.
To understand my "Theroy" you need to understand they way I believe Electrum works. It says in the book that it gives you the ability to look into your own future. This can be interperited in many different ways, but as all the metal powers seem closely relatied, I believe that what you will be seeing is not unlike that of what an Atium burner will being seeing of you as well. I believe when you burn this metal you will see a shadow detach from yourself and going about the action which you would have if you weren't watching yourself do it with Electrum.
So what your esentailly doing is watching yourself from an Atium burners point of view. Knowing what they are seeing can then let you infer what they will do. It's basicly what Vin did with Zane in there last conferintation. She knew what he was seeing and could therefore change what she would do. With Electrum your just skipping the middle man.
The AtiumBurner attacks you. You know where he (I'm using "he" as a place holder, I'm not being sexist. It's just easier to type "he" than "he/she/it") assumes your going to be. Therefore you just don't go there. You do somthing completely different. Hopefully the shadows don't look to far into the future. For if they do then Atium may just look so far ahead as to see the only move you make. Atium shadows may be able to making themselves infinite, but you can only make one action. The Electrum-Atium effect may not have the same playback, mirror-to-mirror effect. If this is true then this metal can be about as useful as gold is. What I think will happen is once you and the AtiumBurner see you juking left you will naturally go right, but the atium foresees this too, making a shadow for this pre-foreseen event. This is where you hope Electrum can keep up, and it also makes an "Electrum shadow" of you going right. So obviously you don't right anymore you go backwards. And the process repeats. Like a good shampoing. Until you are doing backflips and cartwheels to vary up the pre-foreseen events. Again, this should all take place in no time flat. When you start burning simotiansly with an Atium burner all these shadows should jump into being instantaniously.
What I'm getting at is you take away the atium burners advantage because you both know what your going to do. Naturally you don't do it. And with the unfolding option you can make any choice you want as to what you will do.
Now basicly your going to get the same effect with atium but all the pre-foreseen shadows will only be appearing from you. Not your opponent. We can only hope that Electrum has the same mental stimulent that Atium does so you don't get so confused you just pass out.
The advantages to this entire theroy are..
1) There is a good chance Electrum will burn slower than atium and therefore you'll be able to last well into any fight with it.
2) It is only an alloy of Gold, which is plenty more plentieful than atium ever was or possibly will be.
Well, hope that made sense, and that it is an origanol Idea so I didn't just waist a half hour of my life writing this.
Input Welcome!
EDIT: I'm actually proad of this little theroy. It's a brain wave at One O'clock in the morning. So to the person in the first post after this that pokes a huge hole right through it in such a simple and obvious way; Be Gentle. Please!
If we can agree that Electrum seems to be the polar opposite of Atium (not the opposite, that would be Malatium) then burning it should give you the ability to defeat an atium burner.
Before you say "Hold it TaA, this is unheard of! Everybody knows the only way to defeat a person burning Atium is to burn it yourself."
To that I say.. you could be right. But hear me out. WARNING: there is a good chance that this writing will get extremely confusing. I'll reread it plenty of times to make sure I explain myself fully, but when dealing with how you can change the future that then changes by your action, etc. Hopefully it works out.
To understand my "Theroy" you need to understand they way I believe Electrum works. It says in the book that it gives you the ability to look into your own future. This can be interperited in many different ways, but as all the metal powers seem closely relatied, I believe that what you will be seeing is not unlike that of what an Atium burner will being seeing of you as well. I believe when you burn this metal you will see a shadow detach from yourself and going about the action which you would have if you weren't watching yourself do it with Electrum.
So what your esentailly doing is watching yourself from an Atium burners point of view. Knowing what they are seeing can then let you infer what they will do. It's basicly what Vin did with Zane in there last conferintation. She knew what he was seeing and could therefore change what she would do. With Electrum your just skipping the middle man.
The AtiumBurner attacks you. You know where he (I'm using "he" as a place holder, I'm not being sexist. It's just easier to type "he" than "he/she/it") assumes your going to be. Therefore you just don't go there. You do somthing completely different. Hopefully the shadows don't look to far into the future. For if they do then Atium may just look so far ahead as to see the only move you make. Atium shadows may be able to making themselves infinite, but you can only make one action. The Electrum-Atium effect may not have the same playback, mirror-to-mirror effect. If this is true then this metal can be about as useful as gold is. What I think will happen is once you and the AtiumBurner see you juking left you will naturally go right, but the atium foresees this too, making a shadow for this pre-foreseen event. This is where you hope Electrum can keep up, and it also makes an "Electrum shadow" of you going right. So obviously you don't right anymore you go backwards. And the process repeats. Like a good shampoing. Until you are doing backflips and cartwheels to vary up the pre-foreseen events. Again, this should all take place in no time flat. When you start burning simotiansly with an Atium burner all these shadows should jump into being instantaniously.
What I'm getting at is you take away the atium burners advantage because you both know what your going to do. Naturally you don't do it. And with the unfolding option you can make any choice you want as to what you will do.
Now basicly your going to get the same effect with atium but all the pre-foreseen shadows will only be appearing from you. Not your opponent. We can only hope that Electrum has the same mental stimulent that Atium does so you don't get so confused you just pass out.
The advantages to this entire theroy are..
1) There is a good chance Electrum will burn slower than atium and therefore you'll be able to last well into any fight with it.
2) It is only an alloy of Gold, which is plenty more plentieful than atium ever was or possibly will be.
Well, hope that made sense, and that it is an origanol Idea so I didn't just waist a half hour of my life writing this.
Input Welcome!
EDIT: I'm actually proad of this little theroy. It's a brain wave at One O'clock in the morning. So to the person in the first post after this that pokes a huge hole right through it in such a simple and obvious way; Be Gentle. Please!