Wayne & his 17th Metal? 17th Shard?

[Wit Beyond Measure she/her]

Mistborn Era 2 counts in base 16 with "sixteens of years," "sixteens upon sixteens of cars," and "sixteens of feet," all crafted from the premise that there are 16 base metals. Wayne's fascination with 17 instead of 16, however, in the "Lost Metal" particularly drew my interest. Wayne chooses 17 for his scale of 1 to 17, instead of 16:

Quote

“How misogynistic is it? Can you give me a number on some kind of scale?”

“Uh … thirteen?”

“Out of what?”

“Seventeen?”

“What kind of insane scale is that?” she whispered, halting atop a boulder and glancing down at him. “Why in the world would you pick seventeen? Why not, at least, sixteen?”

“I don’t know! You’re the one what asked me for a scale."

Sanderson, Brandon. The Lost Metal (The Mistborn Saga) (pp. 29-30). Tor Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

And then he keeps his scale at 17, despite Marasi's reaction to the number:

Quote

“Way one,” he said, sliding to the next outcropping. “When they take off clothes, they get hotter. Strange, eh? Normal folks, they get colder when they take off—”

“Normal folks?” she repeated, following him. “By normal, you mean men?”

...

“So … uh … fourteen then?” he said. “Outta seventeen.”

“And rising. It’s not even true, Wayne. Plenty of men get hotter when they take off clothing. Depends on the man.”

Sanderson, Brandon. The Lost Metal (The Mistborn Saga) (p. 30). Tor Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Hoid surprisingly accepts Wayne's live rat in trade for his precious harmonica after Sir Squeekins escapes from Wayne 17 times:

Quote

“I call him Sir Squeekins,” Wayne said. “I wasn’t gonna bring him, but he snuck into my pocket, he did. So I figure, ‘That’s the seventeenth time you’ve let him escape his cage, Wayne. Better give him to someone responsible.’”

Sanderson, Brandon. The Lost Metal (The Mistborn Saga) (pp. 154-155). Tor Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

And finally, Wayne uses 17 bags of bendalloy to become the surprise hero of Era 2, where Harmony thinks 17 will be enough:

Quote

How much bendalloy do you have left?

He fished a pouch out of his pocket.

Hmm. Maybe enough to—

Wayne fished another pouch out of his other pocket.

Okay, and—

And the pouch in his sock. Uncomfortable, but handy.

Wayne, how many pouches do you have?

“Seventeen,” he said. “I’m a fancy rich guy now. Will that be enough?”

Oh, Wayne. Yes. I think it will.

Sanderson, Brandon. The Lost Metal (The Mistborn Saga) (p. 451). Tor Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Seventeen. Now, if you're a normal, well-adjusted reader sauntering through these passages, you probably just keep on moving. But I have never been a normal, well-adjusted reader, particularly after Sanderson took hold of me. There is always another secret, and Sanderson leaves the best crumbs.

Even though I'm reasonably sure Wayne's 17 is meant to grab our attention and point to a future secret, what I don't know - what I really have no idea about - is what Wayne's 17th secret truly is. My best guess points to one more base metal: 17 base metals instead of 16.

Does this mean we also have one more god? One more shard? A hidden one? The new shard of Harmony? But Harmony as the 17th shard doesn't really seem to fit, in my opinion, because there will likely be lots of mergings of shards in our journey to putting Humpty Dumpty back together again, to a new Adonalsium, which is where I think the whole cosmere is headed.

And are we truly done with Wayne? Most of me cannot fathom Wayne sticking around or ascending, and yet part of me marvels at how blatantly our tale's Blatant Barm beginning mirrors the ending: "It gets better," Wayne's Ma tells us, "because the ending has a surprise."

Jak defeats his villain by being swallowed by the beast and then choking the beast from the inside as he goes down with him, both ending in tragedy. Sound familiar? But there is always another secret with Sanderson, the promised surprise ending. Jak "sauntered out down its tongue—like it was some fancy mat set outside a carriage for a rich man" (where Wayne describes himself as "a fancy rich guy now").

Quote

“Maybe it doesn’t mean anything,” Wax said. “Maybe she came up with it because something needs to happen in stories.”

“Nah,” Wayne said. “You didn’t know my ma, Wax. She was good at stories. Real good. It meant somethin’…”

Sanderson, Brandon. The Lost Metal (The Mistborn Saga) (p. 384). Tor Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

 

---

 

Another interesting observation, which may or may not be related, is how atium (Ruin's body) and lerasium (Preservation's body) disappear as Preservation and Ruin disappear while Harmony emerges just as ettmetal, also known as harmonium (Harmony's body), emerges.

The only known method for separating harmonium back into atium and lerasium occurs by applying trellium (Autonomy's body), with limited success. Is this metal splitting a foreshadowing of how Autonomy herself will eventually split Harmony back into Ruin and Preservation, in Era 3 perhaps? Or is this a metaphor for something that already started to happen with limited success?

Miles Hundredlives describes trellium as "the final metal" (Lost Metal pg 58). I'm not sure what that means but it seems significant.

Wax describes trellium as extremely hard and brittle (Lost Metal pg 86), where surely hard and brittle describe both the metal and the shard itself.  "Stannis is pure iron, black and hard and strong, yes, but brittle, the way iron gets. He'll break before he bends." (A Clash of Kings, GRRM)

Harmonium, on the other hand, is "pliable" (Lost Metal pg 86) and so "highly unstable" that the metal must be kept in a protective oil to keep it from reacting to the very air (Lost Metal pg 89). Just. Like. Harmony. Oh, I hate that for Sazed. He's so good, a wonderful person to be a vessel. But no one would be able to hold Harmony for long by its very nature.

Will all merging shards be highly unstable until we reach back to a new Adonalsium? Is a 17th shard needed as glue to unify the shards permanently and make our new Adonalsium truly eternal?

Edited April 7, 2023 by Wit Beyond Measure

[Treamayne]

2 hours ago, Wit Beyond Measure said:

Will all merging shards be highly unstable until we reach back to a new Adonalsium?

It is worth noting that at least part of Harmony's difficulties are because of how opposed Preservation and Ruin's intent are perceived (WoB):

Spoiler

Quote

#1 

ericth

Could Sazed take down Rayse since he has two shards?

Brandon Sanderson

Rayse is VERY scared of Sazed. However, given Sazed is a composite of two diametrically opposed shards, he finds it very difficult to act.

Quote

#2 

Brandon Sanderson

Sazed speaks to Wax

So, if it matters to you, this is actually Sazed talking to Wax here. It's not just Wax's imaginings.

You should know that holding two opposed Shards of Adonalsium has made Sazed more . . . zen, if you will. Not inactive. However, he has taken a belief that both Ruin and Preservation are important in people's lives, and doesn't feel that interfering is something he should often be doing. He sees his primary role being to encourage people to be better, to keep an eye on the other Shards, and to make sure the world keeps working as it should.

There are a number of theories as to why this is, but my opinion is because Sazed never actually combined the Shards. He's going by the name Harmony, but you can clearly see his Intent in HoA when he picks them up is to "keep them separate but use them together for a shared purpose." HoA Ch 82:

Quote

We never understood. He wouldn’t simply bear the power of Preservation. He needed the power of Ruin as well.

The powers were opposites. As he drew them in, they threatened to annihilate each other. And yet, because he was of one mind on how to use them, he could keep them separate. They could touch without destroying each other, if he willed it. For these two powers had been used to create all things. If they fought, they destroyed. If they were used together, they created.

 

 

[alder24]

That's interesting, I've missed this. I wonder now is there any connection between the number of basic metals and the number of Shards? Or is that something independent from Shards, derived from spiritual properties of metals themself before the Shattering? Metal has a big significance in Cosmere likely both before and after the Shattering.

But I think that the number 17 isn't about the new Shard, but about the worldhoppers organization, The Seventeenth Shard. Its name was chosen deliberately, and they have a strict non-interventionist philosophy.

SA letters spoiler:

Spoiler

Dragon Frost is associated with them, lived through the Shattering and said to Hoid that "Our interference so far has brought nothing but pain. My path has been chosen very deliberately", which makes me wonder if he and founding members of the Seventeenth Shard were involved in the Shattering in some way. 

Or, going back on Scardial, number 17 being repeated through the book is foreshadowing that Wayne will ingest 17th metal - Lerasium. The book title is The Lost Metal after all, the book is focused heavily on the possibility of creation of Atium and Lerasium, and Wayne is the first person after more than 300 years to use old god metal (except for Marsh). And I think that's the case, it's a clever foreshadowing from Brandon, that Wayne will use god metal in the end.

 

7 hours ago, Wit Beyond Measure said:

Another interesting observation, which may or may not be related, is how atium (Ruin's body) and lerasium (Preservation's body) disappear as Preservation and Ruin disappear while Harmony emerges just as ettmetal, also known as harmonium (Harmony's body), emerges.

It's worth pointing out that Sazed could bring Atium and Lerasium back but he don't want to do that:

Spoiler

Questioner

Could [Sazed] also bring back lerasium beads, if he wanted to?

Brandon Sanderson

It would be within his power to do so, yes.

Firefight Miami signing (Jan. 8, 2015)

 

Spoiler

Zchance

I'm surprised no one else has asked but does this new world have atium? If atium was the body of Ruin then it would seem when Sazed took up Ruin's power he would have reabsorbed all of the atium. New atium then would be bits of Sazed's new powers and weaken him with each newly formed bead. It would seem then that if atium exists it would be much rarer, and mean that Sazed would not be able to control this process.

I guess I am trying to understand why he would want to allow any atium to make its way into the hands of people or rather out of his control?

Brandon Sanderson

It's theoretically possible for atium to appear in the future, but right now Sazed has no plans to release any of it to the people. It is, effectively, now something of myth and legend.

Hero of Ages Q&A - Time Waster's Guide (Oct. 15, 2008)

 

[Quantus he/him]

This is fascinating.   A couple datapoints that may lead to something:

• There are technically 17 mundane metals of significance in the Cosmere. The 16 allomantic 16 plus Silver. 
• Shards have bumped metals into or out of the system before, implying they'd need to do that to maintain a 16 count on Scadrial, or at least that 16 pattern that time (by teh Shards internal logic that wasnt exactly sane, to be fair).  He initially said Leras Bumped Chromium because it was hard to get, but then changed his mind to Aluminum with a very specific Asterisks that it wasnt for the reasons people were thinking.
• Because of the WOB that implies its not Natural in the Cosmere, lots of folks think Aluminum is Adonalsium's Godmetal, or some similar unnatural thing.
• He often reiterates that the Metallic Arts charts and tables are in-world constructs that can be flawed or incorrect. 

Possible Conclusion:  There are in fact 17 "base" metals, Aluminum is the unnatural one and bumped Silver out of the 16th slot on Scadrial for Lategame purposes.  Allomancy is the only confirmed Investiture effect that can mess with Aluminum, which I think will play a role at the end of things.

[Wit Beyond Measure she/her]

Thanks, Treamayne, for the insights on why other shard mergers will likely not be so unstable: that makes so much sense! I love the WoB quotes.

alder24, I forgot the mention our 17th Shard organization! I meant to. Yes, Wayne's 17 references could definitely be pointing to a future alliance or membership. At the same time, the 17th Shard group name could be the kind of double-ironic foreshadowing we see with the dead Survivor's survival hoax in The Well of Ascension: a hoax no longer.

[GeoMantrix]

I had missed the perseveration on 17, but that does seem too many to be coincidence.

I was bullish on Wayne becoming a shard, but it's really emphasized that he went beyond after his death.  So I had considered that theory as dead as a taxidermized frog.  

I have a theory on the creation of atium/lerasium after my 3rd reading of The Lost Metal. 

Spoiler

Sazed states something different happened when Wax tried to split Harmonium.  Rereading the lab scene, it's noted that a secondary explosion could result from a contaminant.  And the wall was plastered with Alek's chocolate biscuits.  On the one hand this seems delightfully corny.  On the other,

the Kandra say that if harmonium splits, harmony ceases to be harmony.  (spoiler not for any actual spoiler, but to offset a bizarre theory).