Raysium
| Raysium | |
|---|---|
| Metal type | God Metal (Odium) |
| Properties | Conducts Investiture |
| Universe | Cosmere |
Raysium is the God Metal associated with the Shard of Odium. Its name is presumably derived from Rayse, the original Vessel of Odium. It is rare and available only to a select few amongst Odium's forces.[1]
Properties
Physical Properties
Raysium is a bright golden metal, so light it is almost white.[2]
Investiture Conductivity
Raysium naturally conducts Investiture, drawing it in from any source. This applies to all of the Lights, but also to spren - allowing someone to transfer spren between gemstones, including spren halves produced during the creation of pairing fabrial.[3] When using the soul-harvesting dagger, Raboniel removes the Raysium strip and reinserts it in the opposite orientation in order to switch the knife from drawing Investiture into its gemstone to sending it back out, suggesting that the Raysium only conducts Investiture in one direction. It is unclear if all Raysium is polarized in this fashion or if the portion in the soul-harvesting dagger was specially treated.
Uses
As raysium's physical properties are unknown, most of its uses have to do with its ability to conduct Investiture.
Weapons
Odium's forces have been using raysium in weapons for several Returns leading up to the True Desolation, utilizing the metal's Investiture conductivity to drain enemy Radiants of their Stormlight, and also fill gems with Light.[3] The spears used by the shanay-im during the True Desolation are likely such weapons.
Soon after the imprisonment of Ba-Ado-Mishram during the False Desolation, a Fused known as She Who Dreams realizes that raysium could also be used to direct the soul of a Herald to a gemstone prison.[3] At least a few such soul-harvesting daggers have been created in the years since - the knife used by Vyre to kill Jezrien is one of them, and Raboniel is in possession of at least three more during the occupation of Urithiru: one gets destroyed while experimenting, one she uses to permanently kill her daughter (and is later used by Navani to mortally wound the Lady of Wishes herself[4]), while the other is charged with anti-Stormlight and given to Vyre to eventually be used against Phendorana.[5] Yet another such knife is given by Mraize to Shallan so she can collect the soul of the Herald Kalak for the Ghostbloods.[6]
Fabrials
Raysium has no known uses in cage construction, but its ability to transfer Investiture - spren, specifically - from one gem to another allows for a half-spren trapped in one half of a conjoined pair of gems to be transferred to another gem, not part of the original pairing. This can lead to an asymmetry between the movements of the two spren halves, as moving a larger gem a certain distance will now make its smaller paired counterpart move a larger distance.