Timewaster's Guide Archive

Spoiler in a non-spoiler thread. I moved your post to the spoiler thread instead.

--Brenna

*Sniifff* ...I thought this one had a chance to. Ohwell. This is not my first theroy, and nor will it be my last. Time and again they are proven dispondent, but I'll crack one out before the end.

Out of book plot though, does it still channel any truth?

I'm supprised the theroy held water this long.

I just don't like the idea of Atium being such a different metal. All the other metals react pretty simular to each other. For atium to look about a second into the future and the others to look decades just doesn't make any sense.

I agree. As I see it atium shouldn't be the outlier. One of the other metals should be simular in my thoughts. That just wouldn't make much sense. Then again, applying logic to magic of any kind proves difficult.

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!

I'm sure with Ruin in his head, it was easy to do some Blood Allomancey, as it seems that all allomancey in some way comes back to him. I'm sure Ruin knows every last secret there is to know about all metal based magic. I'm also sure with that little descretion in his past it would be easy for Zane to block it out or have Ruin not let him remember it (I'm not sure how much control he has over the people who's head he's in). I always thought that the spike with which you were impaled for the Hemalurgy Ritual enhanced your ability with that metal. Which would explain the power in all inquisitors and Vin's coppercloud piercing ability. This same theory led me to believe the spike in Zane was steel as he should increadable control with that metal.

Also I know we are not sure how Ruin is speaking in people's heads but we know it does have somthing to do with Hemalurgy. I assume it was the piercings, the bits of metal in people's bodies. But this doesn't explain why Ruin seems to have full control over the inquisitors, but not Vin or Zane. The only difference in these cases are the amount of metal used in the Hemalurgy process. The inquisitors have 11 spikes each about 14 cubic inchs (3in diameter cone about 6in long = about 14 cubic inches). That's alot of metal. Zane seemed to have a spear tip in his chest, leaving nubs on both sides. I didn't bother to figure that up but with about a half inch diameter with another 6in for length leaves you with about 1.5 cubic inches in his body. So that seems to be enough to talk in some one's head, but with vin you just have 1/8 inch of a earing which has about the diameter of a pin.. hardly anything. Would that be enough to have any conection? Could Ruin see inside Vin's head? Influence her emotions? Or can Vin possiably see inside his/it/her? Could she turn the tables back if possiable? use her ever so slight connection to gain an advantage for her eventual battle with Ruin?

This is all speculation though..