Could Mistwraiths have Feruchemy Genes?

[JustQuestin2004 High Prelan]

So every Feruchemist from before Rashek used the Well was turned into Mistwraiths. The Mistwraiths could only have offspring with other Mistwraiths. So would it technically be possible for the Mistwraiths and Kandra to carry pure Feruchemical potential? They can't use it of course, due to the 'blockage' that Rashek put between their physical and cognitive selves*

But if they do, could it potentially be Spiked out of them? Or perhaps could there be a way to remove this blockage and make them human?

 

*WoB

Spoiler

NinjaMeTimbers

How intelligent is a mistwraith? Could you raise and train mistwraiths like dogs or horses, controlling what forms they take by the bones you give them? Would you be able to train yourself a horsewraith steed by giving it only the bones of a horse?

Brandon Sanderson

This is feasible. One thing to keep in mind is that mistwraiths are people who have a blockage between the Physical and the Cognitive Realm, messing with their ability to think. Think of them as mentally-stunted people. There's enough there to train, but then you have to dig into the ethics of it...

 

[AltonicKeys House Lord]

Yes to Spiking. Cosmere magic is mainly stored in a person's spiritweb, which resides in the spiritual realm. Hemalurgy works like a cookie-cutter into that web. Since mistwraiths probably still have full connection there, it'd probably still work.

But since Feruchemy is genetic, and I don't know mistwraith biology, I'm not sure about the whole DNA pass-down thingy.

[JustQuestin2004 High Prelan]

9 hours ago, AltonicKeys said:

But since Feruchemy is genetic, and I don't know mistwraith biology, I'm not sure about the whole DNA pass-down thingy.

Neither am I, it's why I'm asking.

But I'm leaning towards 'probably' for this. Because the reason for Allomantic dilution is that the original Lerasium-Mistborn had kids with non-allomancers, which resulted in them being slightly weaker, which continued for a thousand years until by the first book, there is (I think) 1 Mistborn for every 1000 Mistings.

But Mistwraiths wouldn't have this issue, since all of them have the same Feruchemical potential, hopefully resulting in little-to-no loss.

All living things have DNA, and I'm pretty sure that while the Mistwraith's physical DNA is wildly different from a human's, I'm willing to think that their sDNA still works the same way as a human's.

Edited November 17, 2022 by JustQuestin2004

[robardin Bondsmith]

I don't think it's supposed to be true, but it'd be entirely consistent with what we saw in Mistborn: Secret History with the koloss and nothing in the Era 2 books have contradicted it.

By mentioning the koloss, I mean how Ghost Kelsier learns about hemalurgy: he sees koloss dying and appearing in the Cognitive Realm as humans again, including an obligator who had been a koloss overseer, who told him they were created with "spikes" before passing Beyond.

If people twisted by hemalurgy still have an underlying human base of soul or identity, then why would the kandra not experience something similar? At least the First Generation, who had been born human and changed into kandra, versus subsequent ones born as mistwraiths?

And, if Metalborn powers are associated with the soul, a Spiritweb component - would these restored-to-human compatriots of Rashek possibly have their Feruchemy restored as well?

And if THAT were the case, then even if blocked by the mistwraith conversion performed during Rashek's Ascension, could their latent Feruchemical powers be spiked out with some extremely advanced knowledge of Hemalurgy?

The catch there, of course, is that the koloss of the Final Empire were all twisted FROM human INTO koloss VIA hemalurgy, while the kandra were twisted FROM human INTO mistwraiths VIA the power of Preservation in a one-time act, into a "species that bred true" (which the FE koloss were not)... And then had their "sapience restored" via hemalurgy. So the parallel is not exact.

Edited November 30, 2022 by robardin

[Mistchemist16 Crew Leader]

On 11/16/2022 at 6:21 AM, JustQuestin2004 said:

So every Feruchemist from before Rashek used the Well was turned into Mistwraiths. The Mistwraiths could only have offspring with other Mistwraiths. So would it technically be possible for the Mistwraiths and Kandra to carry pure Feruchemical potential? They can't use it of course, due to the 'blockage' that Rashek put between their physical and cognitive selves*

I don’t think it’s as simple as the cognitive block. If it were, then all kandras should have the ability to do Feruchemy. Even if there is a Snap equivalent for Feruchemy, it should be noticeable over 1,000 years and something Rashek wouldn’t allow.
 

That being said, I think it’s possible that the Feruchemy genes are still there. In fact, it would explain why Rashek transformed them at all. What if he knew that he couldn’t get rid of the ability itself and instead settled for making them unable to breed with humans? We don’t have any reason to believe kandras and humans are compatible. It’s not impossible that Rashek deleted the Feruchemy but that makes it weird that he changed his friends. And I don’t think immortality is the answer, because he could’ve rewarded them in other ways, like making them Mistborn.

 

The only problem you’re left with is that the abilites should’ve appeared somewhere in kandra history. A Snap equivalent event and isolationism could explain it, especially if the remaining ones hide their abilities or join the Keepers. However, I also wonder if Hemalurgic spikes are the problem. I don’t know the specifics of Feruchemy, but I could believe it requires some balance of Investiture from the Scadrial shards. Hemalurgy would add extra spiritwebs and Investiture from Ruin, which could throw them off. If a Shard made them sentient, that would open up Feruchemy. But that’s just my theory. 
 

In short, I wouldn’t dismiss the idea, but I also think there has to be some other factor to explain why we don’t know any natural Kandra Feruchemists when there should be. If you can answer that, then the theory is solid.

Edited January 14 by Mistchemist16