Hemalurgy and Snapping

[PiedPiper]

Can someone's Allomantic power be passed on through Hemalurgy before they Snap?

[Karger]

Good question.  I would say no.  At the very least it depends how they snapped.  I don't think all the mist snapped people could have made inquisitors.  Of course I don't think there is any way to actually know the answer to this question.  Also snapping works differently now.

Edited July 30, 2020 by Karger

[Brgst13]

No.  Snapping involves a break in the Spirit web, where the gap is filled by Allomantic ability.  Until you have Snapped, there is no allomancy in your Spiritweb to remove via Hemalurgy.

[Dancer]

2 hours ago, Brgst13 said:

No.  Snapping involves a break in the Spirit web, where the gap is filled by Allomantic ability.  Until you have Snapped, there is no allomancy in your Spiritweb to remove via Hemalurgy.

I don't think that is true. Allomancy is part of your sDNA. It is part of your make up. You just wouldn't know someone is an Allomancer until they have snapped. Like what happened to Kelsier. When you snap the Investiture which was unable to flow freely is now free to do so. Whithout the right sDNA the Investiture wouldn't be able to flow at all so I don't see why spiking someone who hasn't snapped would be different from someone who has. 

[Brgst13]

15 hours ago, Dancer said:

I don't think that is true. Allomancy is part of your sDNA. It is part of your make up. You just wouldn't know someone is an Allomancer until they have snapped. Like what happened to Kelsier. When you snap the Investiture which was unable to flow freely is now free to do so. Whithout the right sDNA the Investiture wouldn't be able to flow at all so I don't see why spiking someone who hasn't snapped would be different from someone who has. 

The Coppermind describes Hemalurgy as removing a piece of the Spiritweb.  Multiple WoBs indicate that Allomancy is not part of the Spiritweb until an individual Snaps.  This is why I don't believe Hemalurgy could aquire Allomancy from an unSnapped victim.

[Dancer]

10 hours ago, Brgst13 said:

The Coppermind describes Hemalurgy as removing a piece of the Spiritweb.  Multiple WoBs indicate that Allomancy is not part of the Spiritweb until an individual Snaps.  This is why I don't believe Hemalurgy could aquire Allomancy from an unSnapped victim.

Quote

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Seventy

The Reason for the Mistsickness

So, it finally comes out. I wonder at this numbers plot, as I think many readers will glaze over it and ignore it. I think others will read into it and figure out what it means very quickly, then feel that the reveal here isn't much of a revelation. Hopefully I'll get a majority in the middle who read the clues, don't know what they mean, but are happily surprised when it comes together. That's a difficult line to walk sometimes.

What is going on here is that the mists are awakening the Allomantic potential inside of people. It's very rough on a person for that to come out, and can cause death. Preservation set this all up before he gave his consciousness to imprison Ruin, so it's not a perfect system. It's like a machine left behind by its creator. The catalyst is the return of the power to the Well of Ascension. As soon as that power becomes full, it sets the mists to begin Snapping those who have the potential for Allomancy buried within them.

Many of these people won't be very strong Allomancers. Their abilities were buried too deeply to have come out without the mists' intervention. Others will have a more typical level of power; they might have Snapped earlier, had they gone through enough anguish to bring the power out.

My idea on this is that Allomantic potential is a little like a supersaturated solution. You can suspend a great deal of something like sugar in a liquid when it is hot, then cool it down and the sugar remains suspended. Drop one bit of sugar in there as a catalyst, however, and the rest will fall out as a precipitate.

Allomancy is the same. It's in there, but it takes a reaction—in this case, physical anguish—to trigger it and bring it out. That's because the Allomantic power comes from the extra bit of Preservation inside of humans, that same extra bit that gives us free will. This bit is trapped between the opposing forces of Preservation and Ruin, and to come out and allow it the power to access metals and draw forth energy, it needs to fight its way through the piece of Ruin that is also there inside.

As has been established, Ruin's control over creatures—and, indeed, an Allomancer's control over them—grows weaker when that creature is going through some extreme emotions. (Like the koloss blood frenzy.) This has to do with the relationship between the Cognitive Realm, the Physical Realm, and the Spiritual Realm—of which I don't have time to speak right now.

Suffice it to say that there are people who have Snapped because of intense joy or other emotions. It just doesn't happen as frequently and is more difficult to control.

From this I would say that it is there laying dormant in your sDNA. If it wasn't snapping would do nothing for you but cause trauma. Look at Elend and the rest of the Nobility. All the Nobles that when through trauma but didn't snap either didn't have the ability to perform Allomancy, or the latent ability was so low that the trauma needed to bring it out would kill them. 

Edited August 1, 2020 by Dancer

[Brgst13]

On 7/31/2020 at 4:39 AM, Dancer said:

I don't think that is true. Allomancy is part of your sDNA. It is part of your make up. You just wouldn't know someone is an Allomancer until they have snapped. Like what happened to Kelsier. When you snap the Investiture which was unable to flow freely is now free to do so. Whithout the right sDNA the Investiture wouldn't be able to flow at all so I don't see why spiking someone who hasn't snapped would be different from someone who has. 

I agree that Allomancy is part of your sDNA.  Heraldry can't steal anything until it is part of the Spiritweb.  It's like DNA and proteins.  You might have a gene for a protein, but until that gene is expressed there would be no protein to collect.

Relevant WoBs:

 

Quote

Questioner

In Secret History we find out that when Kelsier had the power of Preservation, whenever he was near someone with cracks in their minds he would end up healing them up naturally, right? When he tried to--

Brandon Sanderson

Not heal them up but--

Questioner

The intent was that he would Preserve them, right?  So my theory is that Snapping, when they’re getting physically damaged their cracks are wider and wider and that it ends up Preservation, if they have a good Connection with Preservation or whatever randomly comes in those cracks.  Am I anywhere along the right track?

Brandon Sanderson

This theory has merit.

Calamity Seattle signing (Feb. 17, 2016)[/Quote]

Quote

Questioner

You’ve spoken before how DNA exists on multiple different levels in your magic systems. I was curious about something else that I think I read that that the Hemalurgy system actually splices something into the DNA - so what does that imply for heritability of those?

Brandon Sanderson

So, it is not inheritable when it's Hemalurgic because it's splicing. It's basically ripping off a piece of the soul and spiking it on someone else's. So, it would not transfer.

Shadows of Self San Jose signing (Oct. 9, 2015)[/Quote]

If Hemalurgy stole the sDNA itself, this would be inheritable.  Since it is not, this implies that Hemalurgy is stealing.the expression of the sDNA in the Spiritweb, not the sDNA itself.  Also, stealing only the sDNA itself would likely require the spiked individual to then Snap in order to have Allomantic powers.

 

Edited August 1, 2020 by Brgst13
Formatting

[Dancer]

8 hours ago, Brgst13 said:

I agree that Allomancy is part of your sDNA.  Heraldry can't steal anything until it is part of the Spiritweb.  It's like DNA and proteins.  You might have a gene for a protein, but until that gene is expressed there would be no protein to collect.

Relevant WoBs:

 

 

huh. I have never seen that WoB before. Good find. Well consider me convinced. This now changes how I thought Hemalurgy worked.