Usuaria:Rasarr/Ruin and Ati

To Ruin and Ati

{{shard info
|image=Ruin.jpg
|shard=Ruin
|vessel=[[Sazed]]
|status=Whole, conjoined with [[Preservation]]
|slivers=[[Ati]]
|splinters=None{{wob ref|3020}}
|perpendicularity=[[Ruin's Perpendicularity]], [[Pits of Hathsin]]
|magic=[[Hemalurgy]], [[Feruchemy]]
|residence=[[Scadrial]]
|books=[[Mistborn Era 1]]
}}

“This force was time infinite. It was the winds that weathered, the storms that broke, the timeless waves running slowly, slowly, slowly, to a stop as the sun and the planet cooled to nothing. It was the ultimate end and destiny of all things. And it was angry. ”

—Kelsier

Ruin, also known as Herr in Southern Scadrial, is one of the Shards of Adonalsium. Its original Vessel was Ati, but it's currently held by Sazed alongside Preservation, forming Harmony. Ruin's Investiture is typically associated with the color black.

Intent

“Death is necessary. Every clock must wind down, every day must end. Without me there is no life, and never could have been. Life is change, and I represent that change. ”

—Ruin

Ruin is the embodiment of entropy and decay; it seeks change, so that all may age and pass. It is not inherently evil, as without change there can be no life, but its destructive actions are often contrary to life existing peacefully. This approach to Ruin as simply inevitable decay is largely due to Ati's original kind nature, as he deliberately channeled Ruin towards a more peacable, natural state. In other hands, the Shard would've been a far more destructive force.

Since the Final Ascension, this intent has been tempered by Preservation, which also makes it difficult for anyone holding Harmony to take action.

Associated magic

Hemalurgy

Para más información, ver Hemalurgy.

Ruin fuels Hemalurgy, one of the three Metallic Arts on Scadrial, and a unique one among them in that it can be used by anyone anywhere, provided they have the appropriate tools and Intent. It allows for removing a portion of a person's spiritweb and grafting it onto someone else with a metal spike, essentially stealing an attribute or power and taking it onto oneself. Various attributes can be stolen, from physical qualities such as strength or senses to magical powers, like Allomantic abilities, and even foreign magic systems like Surgebinding. What attribute is stolen depends on the metal used and the placement of the spike.

People who are pierced by Hemalurgic spikes can hear Ruin's voice in their head. In addition to this, Ruin can also subtly manipulate the emotions of spiked individuals, and slightly alter their perception of certain things without them being aware of it. The more spikes piercing a person, the more holes in their spirit web, which in turn allows for easier control as well as greater susceptibility to emotional Allomancy. For example, humans with one spike are only subtly affected by Ruin, whereas Koloss, which are human with four spikes, are under direct and absolute control of Ruin. Three spikes or less do not enable complete control of a person.

Feruchemy

Para más información, ver Feruchemy.

Feruchemy is a Metallic Art created by both Ruin and Preservation. Unlike Feruchemy, it is inheritable; a person has to be born with the ability to use it. Like Preservation's own magic, Allomancy, Feruchemy grants sixteen separate powers for each of the base metals, as well as additional abilities for every god metal. A person can store an attribute of themselves in a piece of metal called a metalmind, diminishing it in themselves, and tap the stored attribute, increasing it in themselves -- for example, store strength to become weaker, then tap it to become stronger.

Which attribute can be stored depends on the metal used. A person can be born a Feruchemist, allowing them to use all powers, or a Ferring, letting them use only one metal. The base sixteen metals are divided into four categories: physical, which store physical attributes of a person, cognitive, which store attributes of the mind, spiritual, which store attributes of the soul, and hybrid, which store attributes related to bodily processes, like health or energy.

Mists

Ruin's power can sometimes manifest in a gaseous form as black mist, though it's unclear whether it has any magical effect. Its appearance does, however, signal Ruin's presence, and is how much of Ruin's power appears in the Cognitive Realm. This mist is present at the Well of Ascension upon Vin's discovery of the well, and a similar manifestation appears after Ati's death before Sazed takes up both shards. After the Final Ascension, black mists are sent forth by Harmony alongside Preservation's white mists.

Atium

Para más información, ver Atium.

In solid form, Ruin's power appears as the metal atium, named after the original vessel. Like all god metals, atium has its uses in the Metallic Arts. In Allomancy, it allows the user to see a few seconds into the future; in Feruchemy, it can be used to store youth, and through compounding, it permits near-agelessness. As a Hemalurgic spike, atium can steal any power, including those of other magic systems, though it must first be refined.

Atium burns incredibly quickly; even a relatively large bead lasts for only about two minutes. Prior to the Final Ascension, the metal could only be found in the Pits of Hathsin, which surrounded Ruin's perpendicularity. Production there ceased when Kelsier destroyed the crystals that the Atium grew from. Post-Catacendre, atium can no longer be formed, though remnants from before ati's death still exist.

History

The deal and betrayal

Ruin and Preservation, the two Shards on Scadrial, struck a deal to create life on the planet. Neither Shard could create by themselves but working together they created life. Preservation gave an extra piece of his power to create sentient life. In doing so, he left himself weaker than Ruin, which formed the basis of their agreement that Ruin would be allowed to destroy the world some day.

Preservation broke the terms of the agreement by sacrificing his mind to create a prison for Ruin's mind, preventing him from destroying the world. Furthermore, in an attempt to balance the power (since some of Preservation was now stored in humanity), he sequestered away a portion of Ruin's power by condensing it into the metal atium.

(Pact with Preservation - from Ati)

As one of the sixteen people who shattered Adonalsium, Ati became the original vessel of Shard Ruin. As the vessel, his mind was warped to fit his Shardic intent, making him always want to reduce everything down to its smallest possible form, to destroy everything. In an agreement with the Shard Preservation, he obtained Preservation's help in creating a planet (Scadrial), with the agreement that if Preservation could create sentient life, Ruin could eventually destroy Scadrial and its inhabitants. However, Preservation's Intent prevented him from actually allowing Ruin to destroy Scadrial. He orchestrated the downfall of Ruin on Scadrial with an elaborate plot to sacrifice himself (since holding Preservation meant he was unable to destroy). He sacrificed his mental capabilities to entrap Ruin in the Well of Ascension, effectively preventing Ruin from majorly affecting the world. Ati was still able to use Ruin's power to affect the world, and changed the Terris Prophecies to trick Vin into freeing him from the Well of Ascension. Once free, he began to make the Ashmounts to erupt more frequently, causing the omnipresent ash to fall more heavily and lava flows to endanger several villages close to each Ashmount. Earthquakes were also much more frequent, so much so that Elend remarked that earthquakes were practically unheard of in the Inner Dominances, but during a short time he had already experienced several.

Touch on the world

Ruin's entrapped mind could still influence the world. In particular, he changed the prophecies left behind by Preservation in an attempt to get the Hero of Ages to release him from his prison. This led to Rashek becoming the Lord Ruler. Ruin also encouraged the mists, left behind by Preservation, to choke off sunlight to the planet. This is what became known as the Deepness from Pre-Ascension times.

As a result of his manipulation of the Terris prophecies, Vin unwittingly released Ruin from his prison 1024 years later, believing that the power of the Well of Ascension had to be released in order to right the changes Rashek had made to the world. Once he was freed, Ruin immediately went on a rampage to destroy Scadrial; central to this plan was his need to overcome Preservation, which meant that he needed to find the stash of atium left behind by the Lord Ruler.

The death of Ati

Ruin's rampage was ended when he had Marsh kill Elend. Vin, now the Vessel of Preservation, threw the full force of Preservation at Ruin, telling him that Elend was the last thing she had to live for. Due the opposite nature of these Shards, the conflict killed both her and Ati.

The end of Ruin was Preservation's plan all along. Leras had held Preservation for so long that he was bound by its intent, and could not kill or destroy anything, not even Ruin. He arranged to have the Shard pass on to a new Vessel, who would not be so strongly bound by the Shard's intent and thus would have more freedom to use its power.

Sazed picked up both Ruin and Preservation following Vin's sacrifice, and is the current Vessel of both Shards. Ruin's power mixed with Preservation's, forming the Shard Harmony. It is unclear how Sazed was able to balance the two Shards, since Ruin was slightly stronger than Preservation.

Influence

“You make our religion all about you. They hardly remember the truth any longer. ”

—Leras to Ruin

Quotes

Para a list of quotes from Ruin, ver Ruin/Quotes.

Notes

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{{Mistborn|Era 1}}
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