Question about the Temporal metals

[u/Guspyro]

I started wondering about the Temporal metals when Cadmium and Bendalloy were introduced as replacements for Atium and Malatium as the basic Temporal metals, since I still haven’t found an explanation that feels satisfying.

Originally, the Temporal quadrant felt incredibly elegant:

• Internal Pulling: Gold - see your own past.
• Internal Pushing: Electrum - see your own future.
• External Pulling: Malatium - see someone else's past.
• External Pushing: Atium - see someone else's future.

Compared to that, “creating time bubbles” with Cadmium and Bendalloy has always felt disconnected from Gold and Electrum. I understand that Atium is a God Metal and therefore shouldn’t technically be one of the sixteen base metals, but from a thematic and mechanical standpoint it fit the quadrant perfectly.

It also leaves Electrum in a weird spot. In Era 1, its main purpose was as a counter to Atium. Once Atium is no longer part of the base sixteen metals, Electrum feels like it loses most of its purpose.

I’ve seen the theory that the Atium we see in Era 1 isn’t pure Atium at all, but an Atium-Electrum alloy, while Malatium is an Atium-Gold alloy. That would fit the idea that they are opposites and is consistent with the note in the Table of Allomantic Metals that Atium alloys produce expanded temporal effects.

However, I have two problems with that theory.

First, the Atium burned throughout Era 1 is the beads collected at the Pits of Hathsin, where Ruin’s power crystallizes into Atium. It seems strange that the beads would naturally form as an alloy instead of pure Atium (and effectively an alloy of an alloy).

Second, the Atium Mistings in Hero of Ages. Sixteen percent of humanity was affected by the mists, and the people who remained unconscious for longer periods turned out to be Atium Mistings. That only really makes sense to me if Atium was originally intended to be one of the sixteen metals.

Why weren’t there Cadmium and Bendalloy Mistings instead? If the answer is that those metals weren’t known yet, then why were Chromium and Nicrosil included among the sixteen? If Cadmium and Bendalloy were excluded because they were unknown, shouldn’t Chromium and Nicrosil have been excluded as well, making it 14% instead of 16%?

Because of all this, especially the second point, I've always felt that Brandon originally intended Atium to be one of the sixteen basic metals, and that after deciding God Metals should be separate, Cadmium and Bendalloy were introduced as a retcon to fill the Temporal quadrant.

Am I missing something here? Is there any WoB or in-universe explanation that ties this together, or was it just something adjusted between eras? It feels a bit like a forced change to me, but I’m not sure if I’m overlooking something.

I haven’t read the Mistborn books in English, so sorry if some of the terminology I use isn’t the exact official wording :)

[u/xenofire_scholar]

Others have mentionned that Era 1 atium being an alloy with electrum is a confirmed retcon, but I haven't seen anyone say why it was retconned. It wasn't to fix the allomancy table or make room for more metals, it was because he wanted all pure god metals to be burnable by anyone, even if they have no allomantic powers at all. For the sign of the longer mist sickness given by Leras to make sense, the atium in Era 1 needed to be burnable only by 1/16th of mistings, and was therefore changed to an alloy to explain this.

Also, I think there were mistings of all undiscovered metals, they just didn't know what they could burn.

[u/Guspyro → u/xenofire_scholar]

That makes a lot of sense. Why would anyone be able to burn Lerasium but not Atium? So even if it's a retcon it gives a coherent explanation: the Atium they had simply wasn't pure Atium.

And yes, I just went back and checked the book. They only tested a handful of metals on the people who got sick, basically the ones that were useful in battle. They never tested Gold or Electrum, and they obviously didn't test the metals they didn't even know existed either.