Self inflicted Hemalurgy

[Dancer]

Is it possible to perform Hemalurgy on oneself? could you say take a copper spike that is not charged. Spike yourself in the right Bind point and grant tyourself greater intelligence. Since there is no extra Spiritweb being added my guess is that parts of your own Sprirtweb would have to be used to make this work. This would mean that to get greater intelligence you would have to be lacking in something else. This is all assuming that you could survive the shock from your Spiritweb being pulled apart and sewn back together again. 

[Honorless]

Something else? You can't steal a different attribute to enhance a different attribute. Plus, Hemalurgy always results in a net loss. If you spike yourself, then the process would result in some of the "stolen" attribute being lost in between the two spikings (one spiking for the initial stealing, and one for granting) due to the law of Hemalurgic decay

[Dancer]

1 hour ago, Dreamer said:

Something else? You can't steal a different attribute to enhance a different attribute. Plus, Hemalurgy always results in a net loss. If you spike yourself, then the process would result in some of the "stolen" attribute being lost in between the two spikings (one spiking for the initial stealing, and one for granting) due to the law of Hemalurgic decay

damnation! I thought I was onto something. Back to the drawing board I go. 

[Honorless]

4 hours ago, Dancer said:

damnation! I thought I was onto something. Back to the drawing board I go. 

Self-inflicted Hemalurgy isn't a bad idea though. We've seen Investiture having a negative effect on Threnody, and on Roshar with Nightwatcher's Boon/Bane. We know that we can spike the latter out:

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Questioner

Using Hemalurgy, could you steal the boon from the Old Magic?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, from the Nightwatcher? This is theoretically possible.

Questioner

Would that take the [curse] with it as well?

Brandon Sanderson

*Hesitantly* Yes. Though it's also theoretically possible to split them apart, that would be a lot harder. Getting the boon, if you knew what you were doing, would not be that difficult.

Now, what Cultivation would do to you when she found out that had happened is another thing entirely. Because those are willful grants of Investiture.

Questioner

Similar to Endowment's with the Returned?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, things like that. When you get a Shard involved and the Shard has..  power to... Same thing like...it's on a much grander scale what's happening with the spren bond, right?

Questioner

When Hemalurgy does spread, most Shards will not be happy about this, right?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, that is correct.

Idaho Falls signing (July 21, 2018)

 

[Karger]

You might be able to spike out part of your identity or a curse from the Nightwatcher if you wanted although the side effects would be nasty.  I suppose you could spike out an attribute use some method to covert the investiture and then spike it back in but that is a lot of work.

[Quantus]

You most likely can create a spike yourself, in that you should be able to stab yourself with the required Intent and charge the spike with your own spiritweb.   While that could allow you to sacrifice yourself to create a spiek for somebody else, it's always severely damaging and almost always lethal.

That being said it is possible to use crap-tons of F-Gold to heal and regrow the removed chunk of Spiritweb, so in that sense you might be able to double up on certain attributes.  But there's a WOB that says that healing spiritual damage like that is less like Healing/regrowing the spiritweb and more like grafting a patch made of Investiture over the damage, and that there is scarring.  Also that it would depend on a lot of other factors, and many cosmere healing methods might not be enough.  At best Id say it's not something a sane person would want to do very often, not enough to get infinte spikes or anything.  But if all you are after is a single doubling your own Intelligence or Fortitude or something, it might work without too much fallout.  Again, assuming you survive the process.    

 

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Kurkistan

So you've said that healing is like the Spiritual wants to heal and then it filters through the Cognitive, but how's that work with healing wounds to the soul like Hemalurgy or Shardblades? What do you refer to to heal the soul at that point?

Brandon Sanderson

You need to make a patch on the soul with Investiture.

Kurkistan

So how's the Investiture know where to go, what to look like?

Brandon Sanderson

Well your soul is an ideal. So if you can get it up there, there are ways to do-- to recreate that with um... See I'm getting into stuff for later books.

Argent

No, that's okay.

Kurkistan

So when Hemalurgy rips something off the soul, is that the ideal soul or some sub-soul?

Brandon Sanderson

That is off of your soul, and it can be healed; but what it's going to be doing is creating a patch of new soul. So it will not be your original soul. Does that make sense?

Kurkistan

Okay, that- well, not completely, but I think that's your intention.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Bystander

If you do that, is that like Frankenstein's monster, or is it like a graft that's absorb--

Brandon Sanderson

Less horrifying- Less horrifying than Frankenstein's monster, but it is a graft that is like-- It is not your original soul.

Bystander

Yeah, but in modern medicine stuff like that is absorbed-

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, in this you will always have a scar on your soul that something else has patched over.

Kurkistan

So Kaladin shouldn't just keep getting his arm chopped?

Brandon Sanderson

*ignoring/not-hearing Kurkistan just now* But that is what happens with most forms of Investiture in the first place.

Firefight Chicago signing (Feb. 20, 2015)

 

 

 

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Questioner

If someone is attacked by a Hemalurgist, could they be healed with Regrowth?

Brandon Sanderson

So, if they were attacked by a Hemalurgist, then yes. If Hemalurgy were done to them, then it's a much more difficult thing, and that's gonna depend on a lot of factors.

Oathbringer release party (Nov. 13, 2017)

 

   

[Dunkum]

one thing to bear in mind is that Hemalurgy can have other effects besides stealing/grnting attributes.  the original Koloss were made from spiked humans.  the physiological changes to them do not come solely from just having more strength - something about the bindpoints for those spikes physically alters a human being into a koloss.  So from that perspective, if you stole an attribute from yourself, and then spiked it back in the right place, you might be able to cause changes to your body.  this is almost certainly still a terrible idea though.