Hoid’s #1 Soldier Posted June 17, 2022 Posted June 17, 2022 I’m a big fan of Hemalurgy and its potential. And after giving it a little thought, I think there are some cool ways it could become involved in the future of Scadrial, and the cosmere as a whole. But this thread is for anyone who wants to discuss Hemalurgy and it’s effects! First off, I had an issue trying to wrap my mind around kandra. How exactly, in terms of Investiture and the jazz, do they work? I’m sure people have discussed it before; I just didn’t find anything in my preliminary research that matches quite what I aim to say. As such, here’s my theory. Kandra, and koloss too but moreso Kandra, are basically lacking in Identity. To start, I think we can all agree that Hemalurgy ruins one’s spiritweb, leaving holes in it. That’s just fact. And we can also agree, I hope, that healing works by having the user heal to the Spiritual ideal of the person, and how they perceive themselves. This is why trans men and women with Investiture heal into the sex they perceive themselves as. And that’s when I thought of shapeshifting; if things change in the Physical to match a Spiritual self, then perhaps that property applies to kandra shifting. Due to their ruined Identity, they can basically convince themselves to become something different. But they also work with the bones of others to this end— by convincing bones, even subconsciously, to be used again like how Kelsier could get fire to start by appealing to the identity of firewood. But because they still retain an Identity of being changeable, they can manipulate the form they inhabit and move organs around still. This is why some kandra feel like they need a role to inhabit, and tend to not break character easy. They can genuinely convince themselves on a Spiritual level that they are someone else; and depending on how ripped apart their Identity is, the more easily they shapeshift to the next set of bones. But, I open up the floor to any Hemalurgy theories. I just want somewhere to read all of these hemalurgic ideas! Please feel free to discuss them! 2
stonehand Posted June 17, 2022 Posted June 17, 2022 It would be super interesting to find out that Kandra have such a relationship with capital-I-Identity. It makes a lot of sense, too. Pre-Catacendric Kandra didn't leave their homeland outside of missions, and, as you pointed out, it's stated that many older Kandra don't seem to have a personality unless they are imitating someone. This is driectly juxtaposed by MeLaan, who while still being an expert at imitation, clearly has a strong sense of self and her own personality that comes through even when she has adopted a person's form instead of one she created for her self. Could it be that the active creating of a personal persona is the difference? Do kandra have the ability to subconciously affect their (Capital I) Identity? Does this bring Intent into the mix at all? As for your questions about Hemalurgy, I have a suspicion that Kandra don't have spirit webs of their own, and that their spikes are surrogate spirit webs for them. That's why they lose memories if they go without their spikes for too long, because of Hemalurgic decay. Chunks of their surrogate spirit webs are leaking out of the spikes when not embedded inside them.
stonehand Posted June 17, 2022 Posted June 17, 2022 (edited) I just had another thought that lends credence to the idea that Kandra's forms influence their Identity, and it's how TenSoon became loyal to Vin while being in the dog's body. Dogs are super duper loyal, and maybe holding those bones for so long made TenSoon loyal too? Edit: I was watching Livestream #4 as I typed this and not five minutes after submitting, Mr. Sanderson explicitly refuted this about TenSoon Edited June 17, 2022 by stonehand 1
Hoid’s #1 Soldier Posted June 17, 2022 Author Posted June 17, 2022 1 hour ago, stonehand said: I just had another thought that lends credence to the idea that Kandra's forms influence their Identity, and it's how TenSoon became loyal to Vin while being in the dog's body. Dogs are super duper loyal, and maybe holding those bones for so long made TenSoon loyal too? Edit: I was watching Livestream #4 as I typed this and not five minutes after submitting, Mr. Sanderson explicitly refuted this about TenSoon Yeah it was what got me thinking about kandra again. I do think that it was the role he had at the time— to act loyal to Vin— that led to his actual loyalty, though. Inhabiting the role of obedient servant loyal to Vin is what made TenSoon have his Identity shift into believing that so. I think definitely that for MeLaan especially, she established her personality. But yes, there is a degradation of Identity as a whole when the spikes are out; I mean, they are what give the kandra sapience. I think kandra develop personal identities the longer they are in bones belonging to no one/inhabiting things at their choice. Like kandra in Era 2 have a point of wearing bones they like, and the kandra in the Homeland had True Bodies to wear that weren’t tied to a specific person already. I think kandra definitely have their own spiritwebs, but removing the spikes cause the kandra to “bleed” their soul. Sort of like how removing a sharp object in the body unplugs the hole it creates, so you start bleeding until you put the object back in. 1
cometaryorbit Posted June 21, 2022 Posted June 21, 2022 (edited) There's a WoB that the kandra don't get anything Cognitive or Spiritual from the bones, it's just physical. I think kandra shape-shifting is purely Physical and biological. Kandra Identity may well be weird due to having bits of other people's souls stabbed into them + living as imitators for ages, but I don't think that's part of the mechanism of their shape-shifting. I think TenSoon's loyalty is a more natural psychological thing. Vin didn't have the normal noble mindset, she wasn't comfortable having a servant/slave, so she treated TenSoon as a person rather than a tool - which is probably really unusual. Edited June 21, 2022 by cometaryorbit
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