The Hairpins of Sapience

[ForcesOfNoodles]

Mraize's collection has been an interesting topic of debate. We all know that they're items from around the Cosmere, generally relevant to their planet's magic systems.

Quote

Other curiosities baffled her. A vial of pale sand. A couple of thick hairpins. A lock of golden hair. The branch of a tree with writing on it she couldn't read. A silver knife. An odd flower preserved in some kind of solution. There were no plaques to explain these mementos. That chunk of pale pink crystal looked like it might be some kind of gemstone, but why was it so delicate?

Most of them are pretty obvious; the pale sand is from Taldain, the flower is a Tear of Edgli from Nalthis. There are however a few that we do not fully understand; the pink crystal, the lock of hair, and most notably here, the hairpins.

General consensus is that the hairpins are Hemalurgic spikes from Scadrial. The fact that they are described as "hairpins", however, is unusual. A think hairpin would likely have a diameter of perhaps two centimeters, and not much longer than twenty centimeters. Far smaller than you would expect an Inquisitor spike to be.

Being in Mraize's collection, it is unlikely that they're just random spikes off-world, and it is even more unlikely that Mraize created them for enhancement, otherwise they would be stored in blood to preserve their charge. They must be from Scadrial, and they must have some sort of special significance there.

So what are they?

A Kandra Blessing.

Quote

TenSoon stuck a paw into the depression, digging out the ash, working to uncover the things he had hidden a year before. He found them quickly, rolling one—then the other—out onto the rock shelf in front of him. Two small, polished iron spikes. It took two spikes to form a single Blessing. TenSoon didn't know why this was. It was simply the way of things

Let's look at that description again.

Quote

A couple of thick hairpins.

 

Edited September 6, 2017 by ForcesOfNoodles

[Nathrangking]

I always read the pink stone as being soulstone from sel

[ForcesOfNoodles]

Soulstone's a type of stone, whereas that's a crystal. That's pretty weird actually, aren't crystals amorphous?

I've read that it's an Aether from Yolen. Which would be kinda hard to come by, so maybe not.

[+Extesian]

I'm inclined to agree with a Blessing. There are kandra worldhoppers, if they killed one they'd get two Blessings. 

[Fatling]

Good catch! I don't know if we will ever know for sure, but it certainly seems plausible. Does that mean Mraize killed a kandra?

I thought maybe the golden hair could be the royal locks from Nalthis and the silver knife could be from Thredony, but that's just me shooting at the hip, I haven't read any of the discussion on this. Plus I don't remember if the royal locks change color when they are cut. I just keep thinking about Tangled...

[ZenBossanova]

4 hours ago, ForcesOfNoodles said:

I've read that it's an Aether from Yolen. Which would be kinda hard to come by, so maybe not.

Almost certainly an Aether. 

[Toaster Retribution]

19 hours ago, Fatling said:

Does that mean Mraize killed a kandra?

I wouldn´t be surprised if he did. Mraize gives an aura of being extremely dangerous to most things. Him hunting and killing a kandra would be very much in character. Wonder if those spikes came from WalDo?

[Nathrangking]

I feel stupid for having to ask this, but what is an aether?

[Irregular]

4 minutes ago, Nathrangking said:

I feel stupid for having to ask this, but what is an aether?

It's a type of magic from unpublished book Aether of Night, you can request a copy here : 

 

[Calderis]

3 minutes ago, Nathrangking said:

I feel stupid for having to ask this, but what is an aether?

Unless you've read the Liar of Partinel chapters or Aether of Night they haven't been shown (living) in canon. 

We know that they are canon though, and that's the most likely place. 

Spoilers for unpublished works 

Spoiler

Aethers are basically little fragments of magic, like physical spren, that can be bonded into a person's body to grant an ability. 

The one this resembles, Amberite, looks like a pale rose colored crystal, which can be grown outward to form armor and/or weaponry

 

[Nathrangking]

4 minutes ago, Irregular said:

It's a type of magic from unpublished book Aether of Night, you can request a copy here : 

 

Thank you. I have the manuscript though I have yet to read it. Maybe now I have more incentive to do so.

4 minutes ago, Calderis said:

Unless you've read the Liar of Partinel chapters or Aether of Night they haven't been shown (living) in canon. 

We know that they are canon though, and that's the most likely place. 

Spoilers for unpublished works 

  Reveal hidden contents

Aethers are basically little fragments of magic, like physical spren, that can be bonded into a person's body to grant an ability. 

The one this resembles, Amberite, looks like a pale rose colored crystal, which can be grown outward to form armor and/or weaponry

 

Than you. Now I have learned a new piece of cosmere trivia and I have incentive to read aether of the night.

[The One Who Connects]

On 9/6/2017 at 6:48 PM, ForcesOfNoodles said:

the lock of hair

A snippet of the Royal Locks from Nalthis. It's the only place we've seen so far that has anything to do with hair.
Not sure they would be of any use separated from the head that grew them, but...

On 9/6/2017 at 6:48 PM, ForcesOfNoodles said:

The branch of a tree with writing on it she couldn't read.

For future reference, we have a WoB on what this is, even if you didn't mention it in the "unsure" category.

On 9/6/2017 at 6:48 PM, ForcesOfNoodles said:

General consensus is that the hairpins are Hemalurgic spikes from Scadrial.

I'm gonna be honest and say them being spikes has never sat right with me. It always felt.. off, like we were missing something important and just going with the 2nd option. I was almost convinced it was something from one of the other worlds we haven't seen yet, something in the same vein as the Royal Locks, where we wouldn't make the connection to any particular magic system.

I'm willing to believe that they are a Kandra blessing through, since that takes away most of the uncertainty. Nice catch.

[Hernanduer]

I think the flower is actually one of the blooms from a Patji's Finger, stored in some kind of sap (probably laced with blood.) There's no mention of the color of the flower and the Edgli's were said to be incredibly vibrant. That seems like something Shallon would have noticed given her artistic nature.

Not to mention the inherent dangers in gathering one of the flowers from First of the Sun, matching suitably with Mraize's dangerous vibe.

 

This way also makes sense to have the lock of hair coming from Nalthis, since it wouldn't be the only planet to have two items on his shelf.

Edited September 14, 2017 by Hernanduer

[Yata]

1 hour ago, Hernanduer said:

I think the flower is actually one of the blooms from a Patji's Finger, stored in some kind of sap (probably laced with blood.) There's no mention of the color of the flower and the Edgli's were said to be incredibly vibrant. That seems like something Shallon would have noticed given her artistic nature.

It's described as vibrant from people with Breath and we know the Tears are related to Awakening as they are the best source of fuel for It.

Maybe for a Drab or a foreign Human the flower doesn't appear special at all.

[Shuffel]

Could potentially be Iriali hair. We believe their race are a race of world hoppers.

[Wreith]

I was sure I had seen confirmation somewhere that the crystal was an atium crystal from Scadrial, but I'm unable to find it again.

[Landis963]

20 hours ago, Wreith said:

I was sure I had seen confirmation somewhere that the crystal was an atium crystal from Scadrial, but I'm unable to find it again.

Atium beads are spherical, true, but they are very obviously metals.  Compare with Mraize's mysterious crystal, which is pink, obviously crystalline, and delicate, cracked "as though the act of setting it down had somehow crushed it" or a phrase to that effect. 

[Wreith]

15 minutes ago, Landis963 said:

Atium beads are spherical, true, but they are very obviously metals.  Compare with Mraize's mysterious crystal, which is pink, obviously crystalline, and delicate, cracked "as though the act of setting it down had somehow crushed it" or a phrase to that effect. 

I'm not talking about the beads. I'm talking about the crystals in the Pits of Hathsin that the beads are extracted from

Edited September 27, 2017 by Wreith
spelling

[Landis963]

10 minutes ago, Wreith said:

I'm not talking about the beads. I'm talking about the crystals in the Pits of Hathsin that the beads are extracted from

Possibly.  I might be misremembering.  However, I also seem to recall that atium beads were found in geodes (which were found in jagged cracks, hence the scars of Kelsier et al.), which would look more like especially round stones than like a surprisingly fragile piece of rose quartz (as Mraize's crystal is described).  

[Wreith]

24 minutes ago, Landis963 said:

Possibly.  I might be misremembering.  However, I also seem to recall that atium beads were found in geodes (which were found in jagged cracks, hence the scars of Kelsier et al.), which would look more like especially round stones than like a surprisingly fragile piece of rose quartz (as Mraize's crystal is described).  

I went and looked at coppermind.
It describes them as crystals, but also at one point calls them geodes.

I feel like this is a misuse of the word "geode" by whoever wrote the article, but I don't have an e-copy of Mistborn to confirm the word isn't used there somewhere.

[Calderis]

Geodes are crystal filled rocks... 

The inside of the geode would have crystals pointing inward that form the bead. 

And unless that crystal were harvested pre-catecendre it shouldn't exist. 

Most things point to that crystal being an Aether. 

[The One Who Connects]

7 hours ago, Wreith said:

I feel like this is a misuse of the word "geode" by whoever wrote the article, but I don't have an e-copy of Mistborn to confirm the word isn't used there somewhere.

Geode is used several times actually. Largely by Kelsier, on account of his history with the Pits. Also google:

Quote

ge·ode

ˈjēōd/

noun

noun: geode; plural noun: geodes

1. a small cavity in rock lined with crystals or other mineral matter.

   • a rock containing a cavity lined with crystals or other mineral matter.

[Wreith]

I don't think I've ever heard that word defined as or used to mean anything other than hollow rocks with crystals inside them. interesting.

I think I found where I first got the atium crystal idea.

No actual confirmation though and aether is brought up later in the thread.

Having re-read the available portion of Liar, the description of aether does fit. So I may have to concede the point.

It irks me, however, to believe the Brandon would include an artifact from a magic system it has been stated he may not even use in canon.

Brandon:

http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=1094#45

Peter:

http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/784-question-about-unreleased-works/#comment-16843

 

Edited September 28, 2017 by Wreith
link to WoB on not using aether

[Calderis]

44 minutes ago, Wreith said:

It irks me, however, to believe the Brandon would include an artifact from a magic system it has been stated he may not even use in canon.

We have WoPs saying that Aether are already Canon in the Cosmere. That's precisely why people think that crystal is an Aether. 

[Wreith]

4 minutes ago, Calderis said:

We have WoPs saying that Aether are already Canon in the Cosmere. That's precisely why people think that crystal is an Aether. 

We do? Apparently I stink at finding things then. I looked heavily after seeing people seeming so sure that a thing from non-canon materials was being referenced, but I didn't find anything indicating that aether should exist.

I don't suppose you have the source for that?