Atium
The dark-beaded Allomantic metal that lets its burner glimpse the immediate future — and, Sazed learns at the Homeland, the focused body of Ruin. Unlike every other Allomantic metal, atium cannot be mined or alloyed by any natural process; its single source is the Pits of Hathsin, and its power — sight of what has not yet happened — is not the property of a metal but of a god. The bulk of the empire's supply has spent a thousand years hidden under the Trustwarren as the kandra Trust, gathered by the Lord Ruler's design so that Ruin could not find his own body when he escaped. MB1:HoA:Ch 71
The tenth Allomantic metal, and reputed to outrank every other Allomantic metal yet identified. A Mistborn who burns it sees a brief shadow of each living thing nearby in the act of doing what it is about to do — and feels their own mind quickened to act on what they see. Two burners cancel each other's advantage. Burns away in seconds, and is fragile enough that the body's juices ruin a swallowed bead in a few hours; an unkindled fortune at every breath. Mined only at the Pits of Hathsin, sold by the Lord Ruler to the Great Houses in tightly rationed monthly stipends. MB1:TFE:Ch 13 superseded at MB1:HoA:Ch 71
A rare, dark-beaded Allomantic metal that the Lord Ruler sells to the high nobility in tiny quantities at ruinous prices. Its source and its powers are state secrets; the Pits of Hathsin are its only known mine. MB1:TFE:Ch 4 superseded at MB1:TFE:Ch 13
Known facts
- only-counters-surprise-or-overwhelmThug lore Ham passes to Vin on the keep wall walk: a Mistborn burning atium sees attacks coming and dodges them before the attacker is even aware of having struck, so the only two known ways to put one down are to surprise him before he starts burning or to corner him in a position so constrained that every branching future ends the same way. Neither is reliable in an ambush.MB1:WoA:Ch 22
- worthless-without-the-economy-that-priced-itYomen, who controls the Lord Ruler's stockpile in Fadrex, tells Vin flatly that atium is worthless. Its old price came entirely from the economy of the Final Empire — the reserve system, the upper class showing how much they could leach from the Lord Ruler. With no Mistborn left to burn it and no nobles left to trade it, a starving man would not exchange a loaf of bread for a jarful. The food in the cache is the real resource.MB1:HoA:Ch 60
- is-the-focused-body-of-ruinSazed works it out in the Trustwarren while the First Generation explain the cosmology of Preservation and Ruin: atium cannot be mined like every other Allomantic metal, it comes from a single source by no known natural process, and it alone lets a burner see what is yet to happen. That is not a property of any metal. It is condensed, focused Ruin — the bulk of his body, gathered in one place.MB1:HoA:Ch 71
- most-atium-never-left-the-pitsHaddek describes the empire's atium pipeline to Sazed. Most of the metal never reached Luthadel at all: obligators on station at the Pits (never Inquisitors, who the Father did not trust with it) cracked the geodes inside a sealed metal room, took the beads, and let the noble houses ship the empty geodes onward never knowing. The atium itself moved separately, disguised in Ministry coin convoys among new acolytes so Ruin could not see it pass.MB1:HoA:Ch 71
- atium-is-the-missing-piece-of-ruinVin reasons it out from her stalemate with Ruin: the atium is the part of Ruin's power Preservation siphoned off and hid during the binding, the chunk that would otherwise have left Ruin freely stronger than her. If he recovers it the balance ends and he can destroy without check.MB1:HoA:Ch 76
- atium-hidden-where-other-metals-blazeVin, drawn by Ruin's sudden focus to a chamber near the Pits, understands why Ruin could never locate the atium: it was hidden in a place that already shines to a deity's metal-sight because of the surrounding deposits, the treasure drowned out by the noise around it. Obligators wrote in metal so he could not read their dispatches, and shipments moved by deliberately misleading routes — a thousand-year Lord Ruler operation built on the rule that nothing written on metal can be touched.MB1:HoA:Ch 79
- is-ruins-body-and-can-be-destroyed-only-by-burningSazed confirms what the Fadrex plate hinted: the Trustwarren hoard is the missing piece of Ruin himself, the reason he has searched for it for a thousand years. Surrendering it intact would make him whole and end the world; *burning* it ends it instead. Demoux's Seers do exactly that, spending every bead in the cavern to fuel a battle whose true objective is to burn Ruin's body away. By the time Elend dies the pit is empty.MB1:HoA:Ch 81
Backreferences
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 4
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 5
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 6
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 7
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 10
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 13
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 14
- factSteel Inquisitor
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 21
- factKelsier
- factThe Pits of Hathsin
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 26
- factKelsier
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 27
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 28
- factHouse Venture
- factRashek
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 30
- factVin
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 31
- factVin
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 32
- factKelsier
- factThe Pits of Hathsin
- factHathsin geode
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 33
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 34
- factKelsier
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 35
- factKelsier
- factVin
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 36
- factVin
- factThe Eleventh Metal
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 37
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 38
- summaryMB1:TFE:Epilogue
- factElend Venture
- factkandra
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 3
- factElectrum
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 5
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 12
- factLestibournes
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 22
- factThe Pits of Hathsin
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 27
- factAradan Yomen
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 28
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 32
- factAradan Yomen
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 43
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 44
- factAradan Yomen
- factAradan Yomen
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 46
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 51
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 54
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 58
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 60
- factAtium
- factAradan Yomen
- factAradan Yomen
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 63
- factVin
- factMarsh
- factAradan Yomen
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 65
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 66
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 67
- factVin
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 70
- factAllomancy
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 71
- factAtium
- factAtium
- factkandra
- factThe Trust
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 72
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 74
- factAradan Yomen
- factSeer
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 76
- factAtium
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 79
- factAtium
- factRashek
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 80
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 81
- factDemoux
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 13
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- factLerasium
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 15
- factHarmonium
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 17
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 28
- factMarsh
- factMarsh
- factThe Set
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 1
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 2
- factVin
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 3
- factElend Venture
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 6
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 8
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 11
- factBreeze
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 17
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 18
- factStraff Venture
- factZane
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 19
- factJastes
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 22
- factAtium
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 26
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 27
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 34
- factZane
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 35
- factAshweather Cett
- factAshweather Cett
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 39
- factStraff Venture
- factLord Penrod
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 40
- factZane
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 42
- factKoloss
- factJastes
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 43
- factAshweather Cett
- factZane
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 44
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 46
- factZane
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 47
- factVin
- factZane
- factThe atium shadow trick
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 53
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 55
- factStraff Venture
- factKredik Shaw
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 58