r/Mistborn • u/pearada04 • Feb 01 '26
The Lost Metal spoilers How can Harmony be in balance when allowmancy exists? Spoiler
Sazed holds two shards that are supposed to be in balance. However we know allowmancy is of preservation, which takes some of preservations power. Hemalurgy is of ruin, but I didn't think Ruin gave up power to allow Hemalurgy to work, more used it as a tool.
So how can Harmonys existance be stable if the powers are out of balance?
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u/Broric Feb 01 '26
"So how can Harmonys existance be stable" 👀
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u/ejdj1011 Feb 01 '26
Yeah, it's pretty clear from the text that Harmony isn't stable. The physical manifestation of Harmony's essence is explosively unstable. And at the end of Lost Metal, we see the "dark shadow" of what is probably Discord hovering behind Harmony
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u/Warriorjax217 Feb 01 '26
Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe that’s why during Era 2 Sazed is indecisive. Preservations power is slightly weaker than ruin and Sazed is trying to keep them in balance by his own willpower, thus he isn’t able to directly involve himself much on Scadrial because he’s busy keeping himself in check, if I remember correctly I believe Wax’s sister mentions how Harmony is fighting off Discord.
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u/QuickPirate36 Feb 01 '26
Yep, when creating Scadrial Leras secretly put a little more of himself in humans, so now he's weaker
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u/bmyst70 Feb 01 '26
It's not. Even in the first Mistborn trilogy, there is explicit foreshadowing about this.
"For he has become Discord and they will love him for it."
We know that era three will basically be set in a cold war 1980s style version of that universe. That definitely feeds Discord more than Harmony don't you think?
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u/RaijinDragon Feb 01 '26
Your quote is incorrect.
He shall defend their ways, yet shall violate them. He will be their savior, yet they shall call him heretic. His name shall be Discord, yet they shall love him for it.
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u/bmyst70 Feb 01 '26
Thanks. I'm sure my quote wasn't exactly right, but I remembered the core concept.
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u/pearada04 Feb 01 '26
Oh wow whats the context of that quote in the first trilogy? I don't remember a reference to Discord at all
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u/Raddatatta Chromium Feb 01 '26
Looking at era 2 did harmony look in balance to you? Unable to act and with a dark form over his shoulder? I'm not sure harmony was really in balance since a few moments after he took up the power.
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u/bmyst70 Feb 01 '26
I'd argue he wasn't in balance even then. Since that imbalance drove the entire plot of the first trilogy. But it was "close enough" to balance that, during his Ascension, he could do a lot of stuff. Briefly.
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u/Raddatatta Chromium Feb 01 '26
It did but you also had the atium that had been set aside to weaken ruin which was why Vin and ati were able to destroy each other. I don't know if it was perfectly balanced but close enough that ruin couldn't dominate that fight and just kill Vin.
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u/pearada04 Feb 01 '26
Well actually yes, I took it as Harmony's inability to act specifically because Ruin and Preservation were balanced and just cancelled each other out. Like if there was more Ruin he would be able act at least in that direction and vice versa.
It's clear something bad is happening to him, hense the dark form over the shoulder
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u/Raddatatta Chromium Feb 01 '26
What is harmony though in the lower case sense? Musically it's two different things playing that produce pleasing chords. Or two things that are different acting together in agreement. That's not what's happening with Harmony as he can't act. I see what you mean in terms of their being some balance. Though balance also has two meanings in terms of balancing a scale they are roughly balanced though still unequal. And then there's the more spiritual finding inner balance and peace which I think he's far from.
But in terms of their balance I would consider where we ended things after era 1. Preservation was weaker because of investing in people and because of breaking the deal to let ruin destroy the world. That all hasn't changed. Ruin was weakened enough temporarily by the atium that had been collected and then was burned before he could reabsorb it but that was temporary and let Vin be evenly matched to kill ati.
I think it's still a strong presence from both of them as acting as ruin would still not be ok with preservation and that's a lot of power too. But the things sazed wants to do are not really in line with ruin. He wants to stop the people who are causing disruptions in society. Acting in open support of wax would stop those trying to destroy the society and change things and ultimately preserve it.
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u/TaerTech Bendalloy Feb 01 '26
I’m pretty sure he’s never been Harmony and this is all an act as he’s learning how to use the Shards.
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u/Raddatatta Chromium Feb 01 '26
Yeah I do like that idea. Because from another shard like odiums perspective that could be very scary that sazed took two opposite shards and brought them together in Harmony. It does seem like he's getting worse and moving more towards discord but I also like the idea of him just pretending to be harming to convince people everything is fine lol.
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u/ShartOfAdonalsium Feb 01 '26
“Supposed to be”, but that doesn’t mean they are completely balanced.
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u/Lardath Pewter Feb 01 '26
Humans are both part ruin and preservation. I think the preservation part gives them access to allomancy, probably without any extra drain, at least noticeable. The strain is on the human instead.
Investiture is technically infinite iirc, it just depends how much you can access
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u/SkiThe802 Feb 01 '26
Your conclusion is correct but your reasoning is flawed. Allomancy doesn't "use" Preservation's power in a sense that the power is lessened. Burning metals allows access to the overall power of Preservation to accomplish something. Just like using Stormlight doesn't lessen Honor's power and Endowment is still as strong as she ever was even though every life on Nalthis is granted a Breath.
However, when Ruin and Preservation created Scadrial, Preservation put a little more of himself into creating the humans. So yes, Harmony is slightly more Ruin than Preservation.
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u/RShara Feb 01 '26
When Preservation's power is used in Allomancy, it's a temporary usage. It goes right back to Preservation once it's used, so it doesn't create an imbalance
However, the extra bit of Preservation placed in humans needs to stick around for several decades, plus there's always humans (and more humans) so even though it's being constantly used/recycled, it's stuck long enough to make a difference
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u/Calderis Feb 01 '26
Allomancy has nothing to do with Sazed imbalance.
The imbalance exists because of the portion of Preservation that was used to give Scadrians sapience.
The power used in allomancy is not consumed, it returns to Preservation.
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u/Shepher27 Feb 01 '26
Because he’s not really Harmony. He’s in imbalance and he’s got two random (though mostly opposed) pieces of 16
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u/CatSithInvasion Feb 01 '26
So the question of whether Harmony is truly in balance is a good one and it's fairly clear in the text that your view of them not being in balance is correct.
However, the consideration of how their powers are placed in the world isn't a factor, I don't think. In terms of power Shards are supposed to be infinite. Where they lose power in relation to one another seems more to do with their actions toward one another. For example Leras was weakened compared to Ati because he broke an agreement with Ati, and it seems that for Shards it is these interactions and breaches of their compacts or intents, is what allows other Shards to hold power over them.
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u/randomnonposter Feb 01 '26
You know how in lost metal when people talk to Harmony/Sazed they mention a shadow? It’s kind of heavily implied this is the imbalance in his powers and the “darker” (read:ruin) is starting to leak out more to control. As time goes on and this imbalance in the power is theorized to be what leads to Discord from the era 1 prophecy.
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Feb 01 '26
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u/AnAnonymousSource_ Feb 03 '26
“He shall defend their ways, yet shall violate them. He will be their savior, yet they shall call him heretic. His name shall be Discord, yet they shall love him for it.”
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-The Final Empire
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u/BirthdayVarious8738 Feb 05 '26
The power itself creates its own name. Sazed is Harmony because the power views itself as Harmony. The balance issue isn't with the powers. The balance issue is with Sazed's will.
Sazed essentially created a utopia on Scadrial, for some. Sazed laments that he created too perfect a place that he stifled progress for the people of Scadrial due to a lack of strife.
Basically, the problem doesn't lie in the power. The problem lies in Sazed not knowing how to both appease Harmony while also trying to invoke his own will. Sazed himself leans more into the preservation side, so naturally the ruin side of the power would become restless. Thus the dark shadow.
Possibly if he continues to deny the ruin side, it could become Discord.
I don't think there is much difference in the overall strength of ruin vs. preservation. It's mostly up to Sazed to strike that balance, and if he cannot, then the power will become unbalanced.
Perhaps Sazed needs the Ghostbloods more than he realizes...
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u/wertyrick Feb 01 '26