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I've actually been wondering about this for a while now, and actually did come up with a post about it long ago, but I think that I may have changed my mind on the concept. Hemalurgy is a fascinating thing in the Cosmere, and it has lots of potential. But would it really be the best thing to practice openly on Scadrial, or anywhere in the Cosmere? Hemalurgy can; (1) grant powers to people of your choice, (2) take powers from those of your choice, (3) transform people into different kind of creatures. Power granting: With this ability, you could give your constables Invested powers, such as Allomantic pewter, Allomantic steel, or Feruchemical gold, making them much better at their jobs. You could also give certain other government officials powers to improve their jobs, such as Feruchemical copper, zinc, or bronze. This should increase their efficiency, which would then improve their society. If people got too selfish or irresponsible with their newfound power, you could remove the spikes and give them to someone else. However, a better alternative seems to already exist. Malwish Medallion tech also provides Invested powers and does not need to rely on Hemalurgic spiking to do so. It would also be easier to remove a medallion from an abuser, since they need to be recharged. Hemalurgic spikes do not, and they also cause pain to the donor and the recipient. This brings us to out next issue. Power removal: Using Hemalurgy, you can remove powers from Metalborn who abuse their natural talents and recycle them for something (hypothetically) good. Many outlaws exist in the Roughs who have access to the Metallic Arts, and having the very real threat of having their sticks taken away from them might push them to shape up. However, this could end up doing even more bad than it solves. When you introduce motivation to place blame on someone with a natural advantage, one that you might possibly get to have if they lose it, you will undoubtedly see people in positions of power abuse the laws that make it possible to steal other's Investiture. This doesn't just apply to government officials either. If Hemalurgic spikes were to become monetized rather than simply being a tool for the government, the rich would almost certainly be the ones to benefit, since they have the actual means to grab such powers; you wouldn't be putting power in the hands of the people, you'd likely end up putting even more power in the hands of a handful of privileged nobility. It's true, you could have people voluntarily give up their powers to trusted individuals or desendants if they were terminally ill, or perhaps if you found a way to non-lethally remove powers, but you'd have to be careful not to abuse such an occurrence. Transforming people: This is probably the least useful aspects of Hemalurgy, at least as it stands now. If you've read Shadows of Self... it's hard to forget the Chimera. That is evil. There just isn't a good way to use that application of Hemalurgy. Now, I could see the analytical insights provided by Hemalurgy's mechanics being used in a beneficial manner, but only if controlled carefully. It would be like CRISPR in the Cosmere, or at least researching Hemalurgy could lead to such knowledge. That is useful, and I think could be worth pursuing. It would likely require access to the Spiritual Realm to achieve any useful insights in this area though, but such a thing wouldn't be unattainable to those with the resources and knowledge. My conclusion: after considering all of this, my personal thinking is that knowledge of Hemalurgy should become widespread but should have strict laws placed upon its usage. Then, any secret organizations like the Set cannot use it as effectively since awareness of its existence will be common knowledge, and research into its uses for Spiritweb manipulation could be pursued on a societal level. I no longer think that powers should be regularly given and taken though, and Scadrial's laws should reflect such; it's just too easy to abuse, and Unsealed Metalminds seem like a better alternative to granting Invested powers to more people anyway. I think that power donation via Hemalurgy could still be useful in certain individual cases (Wax, Wayne and Marasi could use a power-up by recyling Set agent spikes to better deal with the rest of the Set, for example), but on a societal scale, it isn't something I'd hazard. What are your thoughts on the matter?