Nicrosil in Hemalurgy

[basement_boi]

I think that you could steal someone’s Breath with nicrosil hemalurgy. Simple as that. I think that’s the kind of thing we’re looking at.

[Weltall]

Breaths are probably not possible to steal hemalurgically.

Quote

Questioner

With spikes, would you be able to actually transfer Breaths, when they get to the other planets?

Brandon Sanderson

So spikes rip off pieces of the soul and so Breaths are not going to be part of the soul. You could maybe get a divine Breath but I haven't really decided on regular Breaths, they're kind of stuck there in the Physical Realm which is not a thing that spikes are dealing with. Divine Breath, potentially, because that's something that's actually melding onto your soul. But, you know, when you're using the Breaths they reach through to the Spiritual Realm so, maybe if you got it while the Breaths were kinetic, right, while you're using them, then you might be able to rip them off. I'm not a hundred percent certain on that one.

Bystander

There's still things to decide upon.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah there's still things, like I have to kind of see. My instinct says no right now. But, you know, how they interact is not something that I have-- Yeah.

Shadows of Self London UK signing (Oct. 19, 2015)

 

[Frustration]

Though, this does bring up a question I've had for a while, what would nicrocil steal?

[Halyo_Alex]

38 minutes ago, Frustration said:

Though, this does bring up a question I've had for a while, what would nicrocil steal?

I think if you took it to the CR, you could spike a Surge out of a Radiant Spren and give it to yourself, no oaths needed (but also none of the major benefits of being Radiant- with just one spike you'd basically be a Fused without the immortality!)

[Frustration]

1 hour ago, Halyo_Alex said:

I think if you took it to the CR, you could spike a Surge out of a Radiant Spren and give it to yourself, no oaths needed (but also none of the major benefits of being Radiant- with just one spike you'd basically be a Fused without the immortality!)

but it says it steals investiture, not invested arts, and if it can steal other powers why can't it steal Metalborn powers, and if it can what is the purpose of Atium?

[Halyo_Alex]

Just now, Frustration said:

but it says it steals investiture, not invested arts, and if it can steal other powers why can't it steal Metalborn powers, and if it can what is the purpose of Atium?

That is a lovely question.

I have no idea.

[Raphaborn]

7 hours ago, Frustration said:

but it says it steals investiture, not invested arts, and if it can steal other powers why can't it steal Metalborn powers, and if it can what is the purpose of Atium?

Well, Atium is still able to steal anything (even one at a time) better than any other spike and it also doesn't decay.
My biggest problem with Nicrosil stealing any type of Investiture (including Metalborns) is that, unless the metals that steal powers can do more than that, these eight metals seem somewhat redundant.

[Quantus]

12 hours ago, Frustration said:

but it says it steals investiture, not invested arts, and if it can steal other powers why can't it steal Metalborn powers,

 

I dont know if that is a semantic rabbit hole we want to go down.  Nicrosil "Steal Investiture" Hemalurgically, and "Stores Investiture" Feruchemically.  In the latter that means "Stores their ability to Use their Investiture". But Hemalurgically that doesnt sound any different than the various "Steals ____ Powers" metals, so it's hard to say. Plus we know from some WOB's that there is overlap in what different Spike metals can do, so they arent actually exclusive in that way.

 

12 hours ago, Frustration said:

and if it can what is the purpose of Atium?

Watsonian Answer:  To Trap Ruin by crystalizing his Investiture into a solid form.

Doyistic Answer:  To Foreshadow Fortune.

Hemalurgically they are a Skeketon Key that can steal literally anything the stabber can conceive and Intend to Steal, without any restrictions, limitations, or realmic skewing from the metal.  If nothing else it means they can remove a variable and experiment on finding Bind Points alone.

 

Quote

 

Questioner

So, in Allomancy, most of the metals are in pairs, they're equal and opposite, pushing and pulling, Rioting, Soothing, that kind of thing. The god metals have always-- lerasium and atium, have always struck me as kind of unbalanced in a way. Like, lerasium gives you the power to use all these metals, plus atium being one of them. Is there a reason for that?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, there is, and it kinda has to do with Snapping and some of the fundamental rules of the Mistborn world and the fact that people have Preservation and Ruin inside of them and all these sorts of things. So, the answer is yes.

Partially, narratively, I built that in partially just 'cause I wanted atium to seem odd in the placement, right, when people got to it it's like "What? Why is this one-- This one doesn't match the others. This doesn't really work." When I was building Mistborn, one of the big things I wanted was this idea of a periodic table that was, kind of a flawed construct, that, as you read the books, you came to understand better and better. And that was something I executed-- I don't think I executed that 100% right, but I'm pleased with the general concept and how it plays out. And so I wanted atium to stick out like a sore thumb.

The other thing is, I knew I needed some good foreshadowing for Fortune, for people being able to kinda see the future or versions of the future, for the whole cosmere to work. And, so, I built in atium specifically to do those things. And I built in lerasium to have, kind of, the ultimate sort of benevolent endowment sort of thing. (Not Endowment the Shard, you know what I mean.) But I also wanted to show these two magics were intrinsically tied together on Scadrial because the way that humankind was created. We're getting into some deep stuff, I'll just leave it there. But that was what was going through my mind as I was building those things all out. 

Oathbringer Chicago signing (Nov. 21, 2017)

 

 

[Weltall]

15 hours ago, Frustration said:

but it says it steals investiture, not invested arts

It doesn't hurt to remember that the hemalurgy table is an in-universe document written by people who aren't aware of any forms of Investiture beyond the Metallic Arts, so we shouldn't take it as the final word on the topic. I suspect other metals like steel probably have hemalurgic uses beyond just targeting allomantic powers, we simply haven't had the opportunity to see it yet.

[Raphaborn]

2 hours ago, Weltall said:

It doesn't hurt to remember that the hemalurgy table is an in-universe document written by people who aren't aware of any forms of Investiture beyond the Metallic Arts, so we shouldn't take it as the final word on the topic. I suspect other metals like steel probably have hemalurgic uses beyond just targeting allomantic powers, we simply haven't had the opportunity to see it yet.

I agree. They've been wrong twice with Atium. First they thought that it only stole only Temporal powers. Then any power. I think we only know from Wob that this is actually a wilcard, even the people of the world probably don't know it yet.

[Kingsdaughter613]

49 minutes ago, Raphaborn said:

I agree. They've been wrong twice with Atium. First they thought that it only stole only Temporal powers. Then any power. I think we only know from Wob that this is actually a wilcard, even the people of the world probably don't know it yet.

To add to this: I suspect that chart was created by Kell and Spook. I would not put it past Kelsier to deliberately spread misinformation for some secret purpose.