u/ace_wulf

So atium in Mistborn era 1 was a weird case of a god metal that was only able to be used by a Mistborn or a atium misting, while other god metals are supposedly something anyone could use, case in point, Elend being able to burn Lerasium, and Brandon Sanderson even said he regrets making it something only Mistborns or Seers could use. However, it was also stated that the majority of atium on Scadrial was actually an alloy of atium and electrum. So what if the reason why atium was only able to be burned by Seer mistings was because they weren't mistings for atium, but rather ones for electrum. That way, it wouldn't be a property of atium that made it unable to be used by other mistings, but rather the fact that they were trying to burn the electrum in the alloy too. If a auger got a hold of malatium, they'd be able to use that too, since they can burn the gold in the alloy, but no one else could since they couldn't use the gold. If they made an alloy of atium and say, tin, a tineyes could use it, but no one else could, the property of atium makes it so that alloys made with it don't act like a new metal, it acts like a corrupted version of the metal it's alloyed with. Electrum lets you see your future, so atium alloyed with it lets you see others' future. Gold lets you see your past/what you could have been, atium alloyed with it lets you see others past/what they could have been. The god metal of the Shard of Ruin, when alloyed with a metal, breaks allomancy.