How To Shapeshift If You're A Regular Human

[Trusk'our]

Let's say you want to be tall, strong, physically attractive, all that good stuff. Investiture healing can physically change you in the Cosmere, even going so far as to let you change your biological sex. However, it's tied to your self-perception, so unless you actually think that's what you are, simply tapping a Goldmind or receiving Regrowth isn't going to work for this purpose.

However, there is an Invested art that allows you to change your perception. Forgery.

Forgery could be used to get some of the changes you want, but they are limited to what is within the realm of plausibility, and they are temporary changes that require frequent upkeep and a close proximity to MaiPon on Sel.

However, rewriting your past so that you believe you are supposed to be a certain way physically could then allow you to use a form of Invested healing to permanently gain the body you want. After the Forgery wore away, would would probably need to lay off of healing with Investiture for a time to let the changes "settle in" to your cognitive aspect, but once that happened you shouldn't need to worry, as much of the time even things that people don't want to accept as a part of themselves, such as injuries, cannot be removed through Invested healing, so something you did want should stay.

[NerdyAarakocra]

Nice!

However, there's a better way.

Feruchemy can store Identity. Have someone use Forgery to make an unkeyed metalmind that contains your desired identity. Remember, anyone storing identity automatically makes their metalmind unkeyed. All you need is some Investure, and then you can tap the metalmind for the Identity that you want. Then use some healing, and bang! A new identity.

[Trusk'our]

On 7/3/2022 at 10:25 AM, NerdyAarakocra said:

Nice!

However, there's a better way.

Feruchemy can store Identity. Have someone use Forgery to make an unkeyed metalmind that contains your desired identity. Remember, anyone storing identity automatically makes their metalmind unkeyed. All you need is some Investure, and then you can tap the metalmind for the Identity that you want. Then use some healing, and bang! A new identity.

I think that a change of Identity can have certain limited changes on your physical body, but I'm not sure that it can, on it's own, create big changes. That seems to be tied to one's self-perception more.

Quote

Krios (paraphrased)

If you have a form of manipulating your Identity and a form of healing, are you able to shapeshift or even evolve your body like growing wings?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

You'd have to do some real work on your Spiritweb to make that work. It'd take more work than you're implying, but the [singers] for instance are doing this. It'll take a little more work, it's not just blanking your Identity. Hemalurgy would make it very easy, but also very evil. But what you want to achieve is possible.

 

[NerdyAarakocra]

On 7/8/2022 at 5:25 PM, Trusk'our said:

I think that a change of Identity can have certain limited changes on your physical body, but I'm not sure that it can, on it's own, create big changes. That seems to be tied to one's self-perception more.

 

Thanks! I didn't know about that.