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Idea: Use hemalurgic bullets to allow Harmony to control Set members. As an agent of Harmony, it makes a lot of sense to have a dedicated gun for shooting hemalurgic earrings. Of course, Harmony would need to be complicit, and I don't know how he'd feel about that, but he was willing to do it to stop Paalm, so why not for Telsin? Question: Can hemalurgy be used to steal memories? It stands to reason that it could, seeing as you can steal physical strength (Koloss) and such. If so, hemalurgy could be used against captured spies, and becomes all the more terrifying.

I've seen this come up in many threads but have yet to see a thread devoted specifically to the topic so it seemed appropriate to start one. The question here is, what exactly do we know about the process of Hemalurgic decay? Take particular note of any apparent contradictions as they likely mean a gap in knowledge where we can start to speculate. Below are the points that we know. This is only what is actually evidenced in the books or confirmed in a WoB, not dealing with theories on the subject (we'll get to those). For the sake of this discussion we should have some standardized terms. The terms to be used (so we all know what we are talking about) will be as follows: Hemalurgist: The one performing the act of spiking Donor: The one whose power or attribute is being taken Host (Changed from Beneficiary): The one who is being spiked and thus gaining the trait Hemalurgic Construct: A creature like a Koloss or Kandra who has gained or lost traits through Hemalurgy that are not directly connected with the powers or attributes granted by the spikes. Note that Inquisitors are not in this category as we have no direct evidence that they have any effects from Hemalurgy other than the direct powers of the spikes themselves. Laws of Hemalurgic Decay A spike left outside of a body loses charge at an indeterminate rate for an indeterminate amount of time to an indeterminate minimum. Inquisitors took great pains (as well as inflicting great pains) as they made spikes to ensure they spent as little time outside a body as possible. Spikes can be reused. When as spike is reused it is also important to get it back into a body as quickly as possible (as seen by Human rushing to make a new Koloss as quickly as he could with the spike1). A spike kept in a body intermittently will still maintain some degree of a charge (Vin's and Wax's earrings), though what degree of charge is indeterminate. Spikes may be divided, separate pieces maintaining some charge, but a lesser amount each. This process heightens Hemalurgic decay in some indeterminate way. Please note any other laws/evidence I have missed and this list will be updated. Similarly note anything you think I have misphrased or misrepresented and with appropriate evidence the list will be altered. Remember this list is for provable, verifiable facts, not extrapolations and theories. Now the list was not really the intended subject of this thread, but it is a good starting point. The issues of the earrings have plagued us for far too long and it is time we put our collective obsessive minds to work on trying to figure out hemalurgic decay. Maybe it will come to nothing as we simply don't have enough information yet to make a definite conclusion on, or maybe we'll find that nugget buried somewhere that cracks this all wide open. Below I'll keep updated a synopsis of each possible theory based on our list of laws that seems to explain all of our gathered evidence. As long as a theory remains sound it keeps its place on the list. I'll use a series of codes to indicate usefulness of said theory. Since I'm starting and organizing this discussion the categories are at my discretion and opinion though if anyone disagrees with a categorization make your case and I can probably be persuaded. Plain Text = Possible theory, takes all points into account and has not been fundamentally disproved but cannot really be proved either. Strikethrough = Debunked theory, disproven via direct undeniable evidence. Italics = Unlikely or tenuous theory. Technically possible but unlikely due to other known factors. Bold = Highly likely theory. Takes all points into account and elegantly explains the inconsistencies. Blue = Wild stab in the dark. Theory technically possible but not really based on presented evidence. Pink = Mocking. 17th Sharders taking the piss as we are often wont to do. The first theory presented is one of mine for this, but I'm ready to admit it doesn't really belong as anything but plain text by my codes. Possible Extrapolations from the Laws of Hemalurgic Decay Spikes continually lose charge at a relatively quick rate whenever they are outside a body. The decay rate is constant but exponentially decreasing (basically a half-life, though not necessarily based on a factor of 2) to some bounded minimum charge. This minimum is some factor of the original charge placed in the spike, not an absolute. Spikes lose charge quickly until they are first attuned to a Host, at which point they stop losing charge even while not actually in the Host anymore. (Attributed to Outis, full theory link here) Please join in this discussion. It's long since time we got organized on this one. If this format works out, it might also be something to try for other head-scratchers that plague us all. Footnotes 1. Supporting evidence debunked. Law #4 changed to Wild Stab in the Dark due to lack of supporting evidence.