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The Historian

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  1. Ah, good point. I had forgotten those bits. So yes, that would change things, would it not? Still, one way or another this will be a problem in the long run, especially if Harmony continues his streak of inconsistent intervention. (At least, that's how I read his character around Era 2.) It would seem the limitations make the system a little more finicky, which makes sense. Frankly I am a little rusty on Mistborn things, and am thus misremembering important aspects if the arts, but I still think there might be applications beyond that of transferance, you know? Taking advantage of the diminishing aspects of the Art. While it is wasteful, to skipena donor and just never have a recipient for that spike seems advantageous in certain situations.
  2. True, true. Seeking power at the expense of the self is the quickest way to a deserved demise. That and I do tend to think from the villains perspective, if for no other reason than to think of how the heroes would have overcome that circumstance. There are some truly deranged people in the Cosmere, or just plain sociopathic, that might consider these options. Also, Ruin as a shard would probably be just fine with the abhorrant use of his power. That's probably why he designed it that way. I was looking at it from the perspective of spiking someone to take their power away but just leaving the spike behind, charging the spike and leaving it to rust. No harm to yourself that way, if that is possible. A waste, yes, but better for the spikers. At least from a certain point of view. A cold hearted assassin who kills invested peoples but is not interested in gaing more power themselves. Now to store the powers? I could see spikes in jars to bestow on loyal henchmen or agents, if that's the route the mafia takes. Or to barter. It think the allure of "free" powers would cause many to become indebted to whomever held the spikes to give out. A force of powers collected from across the cosmere, but undetectable and uncontrollable by Harmony, and all indebted to the Cosmere-spanning mafia. Ruin would be proud.
  3. Which begs the question, what limitations to its potential will Brandon institute? I mean it seems like unchecked, a system like this could be the downfall of many different cosmere systems, or at least a wildcard/timebomb that could spring up and complicate matters at any time. He has been good so far, with relatively contained series (series staying on a single world) to make magics that have their own limitations. This also means that the clash of magic systems seems like a far off threat. I think he will probably pull the creator card and just say that Hemalurgy dosent spread until he is ready for it to. Which one one hand works, but to think of the worlds as living, breathing things, these threats begin to feel real and almost imminent. I would like to see some kind of complication like this in the back half of stormlight. But I also think that it might be too much for books that are nearing half a million words in length already. I think we just dont know enough about Hemalurgy at current to properly project whet the future may hold. That said, I like where it is going. The next 20 years of Brandon books will be a ride, to be sure.
  4. Which is one of the most frightening parts of the Ghostbloods af this point, to be perfectly honest.
  5. I also have a theory that the blade Vyre used to kill Jezrien was some kind of Hemalurgic construct hooked up to a fabrial. I'll outline this in more detail in a separate post, as well as a few reasons I think it might not be. It is a bit of a crackpot theory, but I think these are the most fun. The short version is the the blade had all the components nessassary to destroy a Cognitive Shadow and store its investiture, by way of Nicrosil, in a gem. This is why we see the gem light up when Jezrien it killed. This would include stealing his connection to Honor, the investiture sustaining him, and a few more things I need to work out. But why would Odium turn to Hemalurgy? Well... uh... good question. I'm still working on that part.
  6. Good to know. I thought I remembered that WOB, but I wasn't sure. And yes, that's it. She and Mraize were the ones I had in mind with the "Spike Gun" comment at the start of tbe thread. At least as a jumping-off-point for my rather wild and vivid imagination. I should think if anyone might introduce Hemalurgy to Roshar, or any other planet even, it would be a native Scadrian. That said, with a power this potentially catastrophic? The secret would be well protected and sought after. We should probably hope the Ghostbloods dont get their hands on it. They could potentially become the mafia of the Cosmere, and nobody wants that. The other interesting idea would be how much spiking or of what kinds would be nessassary to make the art useful in open combat. I'm thinking to disable other invested peoples or to steal strategic things on the fly. Zseths martial art that he practices, when paired with specific spikes, could pave the way for some devastating battles. Imagine a single person or small group of insurgents in a battle between, say, Raidants and Singers (picked for their high saturation of investiture). They wield spikes that can steal connection, investiture, abilities and powers, etc. Might they be able to effectively ruin (pun intened) an Invested force? And to what extent, if the charge of the spikes was disregarded, i.e. wasted and not transferred, would it be a viable system? Embrace the Hemalurgic decay, and all that. I still think I am overthinking this.
  7. You may even have to go as far as obtaining the metal on Scadrial, where Ruin is invested. Metal is available everywhere, but maybe only the metal from his planet would work? The Intent I get. That makes sense. I guess the question is how could it be used off-world from Scadrial. Could someone native to Roshar, with the knowledge of Hemalurgy and the intent to make the spike, use metal from Roshar to create one? I could see it going either way, personally. Might what's her name from the ghostbloods, the Scadrian native, be somewhat privy to this info? (I'm blanking on her name) depending on when she left and what she knew when she was there.
  8. I would suspect you could, and it remains to be seen if he would be able to regain that strength back, provided he survived the spiking. Like if you stole just his current level of strength of his overall capacity. I should also think it possible that, with the right spike, you could steal his bond with his shardblade as well. I see my oversight in only bringing up Nicrosil. It was the one that caught my attention the most, especially after the discussion on the Shardcast. Hemalurgy as a whole has frightening implications for the Cosmere in general. That being said, we would need some hard confirmation on how Hemalurgy functions from the perspective of one who is performing the art. We gave seen its effects, but I dont think we have seen someone actually performing the deed. So what is required for someone to be a Hemalurgist? Could someone not from Scadrial perform Hemalurgy? Brandon is good at building magic systems so that they dont get too OP, but even still under tve right circumstances, this particular section of the metallic arts holds much to be anticipated.
  9. With the publication of the new Hemalurgy Table, it has be thinking about the implications of the Metallic Arts on the Cosmere as a whole. Emphasis on the Arts, not simply the powers. Nicrosil - Steals/Stores Investiture Some thoughts here. Basics first. Investiture is the base definition of magic in the Cosmere. It is like the quarks that make up the protons and neutrons of the magic systems. Investiture, in and of itself, is not determined by the end result. Investiture is not Breath or Stormlight, but instead Breath and Stormlight are made of Investiture. It is the parts out of which the magic systems are fueled. At least to a degree. I imagine Brandon would give some Spiritual Realm explanation, but this was my interpretation. This lends itself to the idea that storing or stealing investiture through the use of Nicrosil stores the parts by which the magic is made, or even more simply the magic itself. If an Awakener of, say, the 5th heightening were spiked properly by Nicrosil, they would lose their stored Breaths, and the Breaths themselves would now be stored in the metal mind, or stolen by the Hemalurgist and stored in them by their spike. The same would probably be true of a Knight Radiant holding Stormlight or a Metalborn burning metals. It would be a subject of debate if the metals in their body not being burned, and therefore the investiture not being accessed, would be stolen as well. I would hazard a guess that they would not. Alternatively, the investiture might be broken down to a pure state, not formed into something like Breath or Stormlight. It would be a pool of pure Investiture that could serve as a battery for a machine that runs on magic. While I am not sure how likely this is, it would mean that Nicrosil Hemalurgy is like draining a battery, and Nicrosil Feruchemy is like charging a battery. Applications Spike Gun: A firearm or other projectile weapon that shoots Nicrosil spikes. If they landed in the right bind point on in invested person, they would sap their investiture completely, giving an opening or killing them outright. Possibly used by an assassin who specializes in hunting Invested peoples. Mixed with aluminium this could not only drain someone of their power supply, but also cut off their ability to use magic entirely (presumably). It would seem like a natural progression of the magic of the Cosmere, and I could see a group like the Ghostbloods wanting this technology. Magic Machines: A machine that runs off of batteries powered by pure Investiture. Could be used to run many different machines and possibly even recharge fabrials. This would depend on if they needed specific forms of Investiture or just the substance in general. A machine with a copper core to store information with a line of the metal that allows anyone to access the metal mind (I cant remember) could make for an interesting computer network. Or constructs that have near infinite knowledge and are powered by Investiture Batteries. Possible base for AI? Just some thoughts. Discuss. (Note - I may have missed something, or misspelled words. It happens. I'm not the best historian.)
  10. Nicrosil - Steals/Stores Investiture Some thoughts here. Investiture is the base definition of magic in the Cosmere. It is like the quarks that make up the protons and neutrons of the magic systems. Investiture, in and of itself, is not determined by the end result. Investiture is not Breath or Stormlight, but instead Breath and Stormlight are made of Investiture. It is the parts out of which the magic systems are fueled. At least to a degree. I imagine Brandon would give some Spiritual Realm explanation, but this was my interpretation. This lends itself to the idea that storing or stealing investiture through the use of Nicrosil stores the parts by which the magic is made, or even more simply the magic itself. If an Awakener of, say, the 5th heightening were spiked properly by Nicrosil, they would lose their stored Breaths, and the Breaths themselves would now be stored in the metal mind, or stolen by the Hemalurgist and stored in them by their spike. The same would probably be true of a Knight Radiant holding Stormlight or a Metalborn burning metals. It would be a subject of debate if the metals in their body not being burned, and therefore the investiture not being accessed, would be stolen as well. I would hazard a guess that they would not. Alternatively, the investiture might be broken down to a pure state, not formed into something like Breath or Stormlight. It would be a pool of pure Investiture that could serve as a battery for a machine that runs on magic. While I am not sure how likely this is, it would mean that Nicrosil Hemalurgy is like draining a battery, and Nicrosil Feruchemy is like charging a battery. Application Spike Gun: A firearm or other projectile weapon that shoots Nicrosil spikes. If they landed in the right location on in invested person, they would sap their investiture completely, giving an opening or killing them outright. Possibly used by an assassin who specializes in hunting Invested peoples. Mixed with aluminium this could not only drain someone of their power supply, but also cut off their ability to use magic entirely. It would seem like a natural progression of the magic of the Cosmere, and I could see a group like the Ghostbloods wanting this technology. Magic Machines: A machine that runs off of batteries powered by pure investiture. Could be used to run many different machines and possibly even recharge fabrials. This would depend on if they needed specific forms of Investiture or just the substance in general. A machine with a copper core to store information with a line of the metal that allows anyone to access the metal mind (I cant remember) could make for an interesting computer network. Or constructs that have near infinite knowledge and are powered by Investiture Batteries. I'm not sure how likely it all is, but these explanations seem to be the simplest, and as Occam's Razor would lead us to conclude, the answer that requires the least mental hoops is most like the correct one. Just some thoughts.
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