Atium
Licensed IP · Legendary · Timeless
In the Mistborn books, a god metal. Burned by an Allomancer it shows the next few seconds of everything nearby, every person moving as a shadow one step ahead of themselves. Two people burning atium at once cancel the advantage exactly, and that is the only defence against it. Burning it consumes it, and nobody can make more.
Identity
- Source
- Mistborn series, by Brandon Sanderson
- Also known as
- God metal of Ruin, Pits metal
- Comes from
- the Pits of Hathsin
Physical Properties
- Appearance
- Dark brown-black crystalline beads, irregular in shape, slightly warm to the touch
- Luster
- Dull
- Density
- 8 g/cm³
- Melting point
- 900 °C
- Boiling point
- 1700 °C
- Lighter
- Stainless Steel
- Denser
- Korvaire Steel
- Magnetism
- Non-magnetic
- Electrical conductivity
- Low
Mechanical Properties
- Mohs hardness
- 5
- Tensile strength
- 400 MPa
- Softer
- Palladium
- Harder
- Inconel
- Workability
- Moderate
- Brittleness
- Moderate
- Malleability
- Low
- Ductility
- Low
Chemical Properties
- Corrosion resistance
- High
- Reactivity
- Low
Lore & Narrative
The Lord Ruler hoarded atium, using scarcity to maintain economic and political control over the nobility. What almost no one knew was that atium was not merely a metal. It was literally a piece of a god, and its true purpose in the cosmology was something far more profound than combat advantage.
- Notable uses
- Allomantic combat enhancement, economic control, divine ritual
- Forge uses
- Allomantic use, Economic currency
- Worldbuilding traits
- God-metal, Future-sight, Mistborn, Cosmere
Sources
- Brandon Sanderson, Mistborn: The Final Empire, Tor Books, 2006
- The Pits of Hathsin were read in search excerpts of the Sanderson wikis, whose pages could not be fetched: to be checked against The Final Empire.
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