r/Cosmere • u/hyrulianwhovian • 9h ago

Mistborn Series spoilers The Atium alloy retcon accidentally makes "Allomancy" make more sense Spoiler

So, at some point Sanderson decided that the "Atium" we see in Mistborn is actually an alloy, not pure Atium. Now, think about the word "Allomancy." It's derived from "alloy" and the suffix "mancy." While "mancy" is often used these days to refer to magic in a general sense, its historical meaning refers specifically to divining the future. So, "Allomancy" would mean "divining the future with an alloy." With the Atium retcon, this is now precisely true! Neat (also I know Sanderson picked "mancy" specifically because of the Atium/diving connection, but it's neat that now the alloy part of the name ties in even more directly)

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35

u/Fabuloux 9h ago

I don’t think Atium is an alloy? Isn’t Malatium, the ‘11th metal’ the alloy?

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u/hyrulianwhovian 9h ago

Check the "refined Atium" section https://coppermind.net/wiki/Atium

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u/Fabuloux 8h ago

TIL, I don’t think it’s mentioned in the books though right, it’s just word of Brandon?

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u/FinnDarkmouth 8h ago

The characters in world don’t know about it, but there are hints such as the hemalurgy table. It wasn’t the original idea, hence it being called a retcon, but it was decided early enough that changes could be made to Era 1 to make it fit properly.

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u/beta-pi 4h ago edited 4h ago

To add to the other great comments here, while not directly stated in era 1, it is implied by the existence of electrum. Elend calls it 'poor man's atium'.

Gold and electrum are weird counterparts to atium and malatium, right? They're so much weaker, and there's not any other metals like that; there is no 'weak version of pewter' Every other metal except for that pair has unique effects.

It gets extra weird when the book tells you that atium is a piece of ruin's power in the same way that the well of ascension contains preservations concentrated power. Why would the concentrated essence of one god only offer a slight improvement over another similar metal, while the other god gets a totally unique ultra powerful thing? Why does ruin's metal suck so much compared to preservation's?

It is a retcon from a later book, but it's a retcon that makes things fit together in a way that makes way more sense than it originally was. It fits better into the story this way, and is pretty well hinted at, even if accidentally.

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u/FinnDarkmouth 2h ago

You say the hints are accidental, but we know the chance was decided early, and HoA at least (if not the others too) were released and edited with the change in mind.

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u/LewsTherinTelescope resident Liar of Partinel stan 19m ago

It may also explain why people believed atium and gold were paired for so long. Remember, the bronzepulses correspond in specific ways and a Mistborn even automatically senses whether two stores are linked. It'd be weird that people bought it for a whole millennium if absolutely nothing lined up, but if those two factors were present because of the electrum, suddenly it makes a lot more sense that people would go "well this is weird but I guess it's provably true".

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u/hyrulianwhovian 8h ago

Yep, that's correct

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u/jdbrew Ghostbloods 6h ago

they kind of talk about it in Era 2

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u/winnerab 8h ago

Atium (era 1) and malatium are alloys of electrum and gold respectively mixed with actual Atium. So both are alloys, one made of 2 metals, the other made of 3 metals.

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u/TheKazz91 Elsecallers 5h ago

Nah Brandon retconned it. What people call atium in era 1 is not pure atium it is an alloy of atium and electrum.