Theory: Hemalurgy can transfer any Investiture

[Wispsy he/him]

you wouldnt really be stealing breaths but the ability to hold and control them anyway right?

[discipleofhoid he/him]

you wouldnt really be stealing breaths but the ability to hold and control them anyway right?

If I have the realmatics figured out correctly you would be transferring the breaths not just the ability to use them. To simplify the way I have it worked out, Hemalurgy transfers the spiritual connection to a given shard to the spike which can then be added to anyone else. With most of Brandon's magic systems that is just the ability to access the magic. With Awakening it is different because with Awakening it appears that your connection to the shard increases as you gain breath. That means that breath is not something that you just use to perform the magic but breath is the access to the magic. That is why I think that a spike would transfer the actual breaths.

As a side note if I am correct you would not need to be from Nalthis to receive a breath from someone else by the normal route. However only those from Nalthis would have an innate breath.

[Wispsy he/him]

isnt the breaths abit like hemalurgy anyway? transfering your connection to the shard or whatever to some1 else? just a more willing process. but some people are innately better at controling breaths (royal line) so could you steal their ability too? i mean it would make sense to steal that first, doesnt that come from an increased connection to endowment tho in their sdna? but it is different from having more breaths, just using them better, guess you could steal either depending on how u spiked em?

not sure if that makes sense but its 5am and its what went thru my head!

[b4dave he/him]

I wonder what would happen if one were to be "spiked" with every magic system in the cosmere?

[discipleofhoid he/him]

isnt the breaths abit like hemalurgy anyway? transfering your connection to the shard or whatever to some1 else? just a more willing process. but some people are innately better at controling breaths (royal line) so could you steal their ability too? i mean it would make sense to steal that first, doesnt that come from an increased connection to endowment tho in their sdna? but it is different from having more breaths, just using them better, guess you could steal either depending on how u spiked em?

not sure if that makes sense but its 5am and its what went thru my head!

The royal line has a little bit of a Returned connection in them -- This has to do with the progenitor of the royal line who returned and then had a child. I would say that they are the exception and not the rule. Could you steal that part of them? I'm not sure, but it is a different case from the standard person on Nalthis.

[Satsuoni he/him]

Well, here are my thoughts (some mirroring those already expressed above)

1. You can transfer any investiture with Hemalurgy.

2. Outside Scadrial, you shall need atium (or alloy) to do that. If you drang somebody inside Scadrial, the same metals that steal, say, Allomancy, may work to steal that person's specific ability .

Reasoning: Hemalurgy the the expresssion of Ruins power, and what fuels the transfer (destroying part of the power in the process) is Ruin. Scadrial is where Ruin is, so its power permeates everything. Outside Scadrial, you need a power source made out of Ruins body.

3. I think that yes you can steal Breaths. The question is, each spike can hold only so much charge. So depending on the spike size, you may be able to steal, say 10 breaths, and then you have the spike in your gut (or rectum, or wherever the bind point is), and are out of a bind point. So the amount of the breaths that can be stolen is limited by the spike size (relative to your body), and number of valid bind points. I don't think the impact can be that great, actually. I mean, you can rob the person of breaths by threatening him with death anyways... Well, up to a certain number. And you don't have to hurt yourself in the process.. Also the question is: the spike only maintains your life since it is charged. If you give stolen breaths away, say, to awaken something, will you end up with just a large chunk of metal through your body?

I wonder what would happen if one were to be "spiked" with every magic system in the cosmere?

Catolnasium

[Wispsy he/him]

being a misting is a different case to the standard person on scadrial then right? mistborn are rare as hell but that doesnt stop them entering the discussion as a rule not an exception :/

i dont see how an innate sdna connection to a shard is an exception to the rule :/ (one far more stable then mistborn too) but i kind of see what u mean. thing is how can a returned having a child do that? would it also happen if an awakener reached the 10th heightening and had some babies, would it have a similar effect? yes i know the returneds breaths are divine splinters and special and all that but if you are far above the 5th heightening surely your connection to endowment is pretty strong as well, more so then that of any normal returned right?).

also i like satsuonis point about just having metal stuck in ur vital organs if you accidentally give your breaths away! it makes sense!

[discipleofhoid he/him]

being a misting is a different case to the standard person on scadrial then right? mistborn are rare as hell but that doesnt stop them entering the discussion as a rule not an exception :/

i dont see how an innate sdna connection to a shard is an exception to the rule :/ (one far more stable then mistborn too) but i kind of see what u mean. thing is how can a returned having a child do that? would it also happen if an awakener reached the 10th heightening and had some babies, would it have a similar effect? yes i know the returneds breaths are divine splinters and special and all that but if you are far above the 5th heightening surely your connection to endowment is pretty strong as well, more so then that of any normal returned right?).

also i like satsuonis point about just having metal stuck in ur vital organs if you accidentally give your breaths away! it makes sense!

The reason the royal line is an exception is that from what I understand the Royal lines connection to Endowment is different then the connection provided by a breath. Basically there are two types of connections to Endowment - Normal breath and Returned breath. They work differently and while they provide some of the same bonuses they are innately different. No matter how many breaths you have you cannot change your appearance. The Royal/Returned connection allows you to do that though. In the Misting/Mistborn case the connections are the same the Mistborn just has more of them at once. Also note that you can not transfer a Mistborn's entire connection to Preservation with 1 spike(unless atium allows this). You have to transfer each group of metals separately. Standard Nalthis Breath though does not have different types - It is just about the strength of your connection. Thus all of the standard Breath should be able to be stored in an hemalurgic spike. Size of the spike might matter though.

Having though about it yes I think you could steal a royal line connection to Endowment - However it would be a separate transaction - requiring a separate bind point - from stealing their breaths. The same would be true of stealing a returned's large breath vs their normal breaths.

[Wispsy he/him]

then what do you believe would happen if you spiked some1s breath, stuck it in u and then awakened something that took them all, or gave them all away, or would you not be able to give them away or awaken? would be easier ways in the cosmere to go about not aging and staying healthy lol,

because really...you would have removed all hemalurgic charge from it then right?

also ye ofc it would need diff bindpoints if both can be done and ye i doubt all can be stolen at once, would jsut be too easy, but you also could not steal all of a returned awakeners connection with one spike, you would have to choose the splinter or their store of breaths, also i do not think you should discount the royal line, they have many of the powers of a returned without needing to die or constantly consume breaths...i dont think brandon really goes for exceptions to rules so i would figure what happens to them with their contact with the shard is as valid as what happens to any others. (still not slept yet sry if it makes no sense)

Edited November 9, 2011 by Wispsy

[discipleofhoid he/him]

then what do you believe would happen if you spiked some1s breath, stuck it in u and then awakened something that took them all, or gave them all away, or would you not be able to give them away or awaken? would be easier ways in the cosmere to go about not aging and staying healthy lol,

because really...you would have removed all hemalurgic charge from it then right?

also ye ofc it would need diff bindpoints if both can be done and ye i doubt all can be stolen at once, would jsut be too easy, but you also could not steal all of a returned awakeners connection with one spike, you would have to choose the splinter or their store of breaths, also i do not think you should discount the royal line, they have many of the powers of a returned without needing to die or constantly consume breaths...i dont think brandon really goes for exceptions to rules so i would figure what happens to them with their contact with the shard is as valid as what happens to any others. (still not slept yet sry if it makes no sense)

I don't think I explained well. I think the Royal line abilities should be treated the same as a Returned's breath. It is not so much that they are an exception as that the returned's breath is different than normal breath. As for awakening with the spike I am not sure how that would work hemalurgacly(is that a word?).

And yes there is an easier way to not age (AKA the Lord Ruler/Marsh)

Edited November 9, 2011 by discipleofhoid

[Wispsy he/him]

not to mention hoid and elantrians, loads of ways to get immortal and thats just the few we know of!

and i think the have become something slightly different again, from the returned and normal awakeners, i mean they start with a normal breath of their own and its never consumed by any of their abilities it seems

[Thor he/him]

I don't think I explained well. I think the Royal line abilities should be treated the same as a Returned's breath. It is not so much that they are an exception as that the returned's breath is different than normal breath. As for awakening with the spike I am not sure how that would work hemalurgacly(is that a word?).

And yes there is an easier way to not age (AKA the Lord Ruler/Marsh)

The spelling would be Hemalurgically, based off of a similar word (Metallurgy, to be specific.)

I don't think you could steal Breath with a spike. Hemalurgy steals the ability to use magic, not the focus for the magic (though you can use the spike itself as a focus, if you feel like it. Results may vary: Allomantically burning a spike that is in you causes...problems, but you can store and tap spikes as Feruchemical metalminds.) Example: A spike used to steal the abilities a Windrunner has should not give you the Windrunner's Stormlight, just the ability to use Stormlight. It is interesting to note that (if this idea is true) one could steal the ability to use BioChroma from anyone native to Nalthis, as anyone, afaik, can become an Awakener with enough Breath.

Hmm, I don't think I completely convinced myself with that argument... Would stealing a Feruchemist's powers allow you access to their metalminds? If so, then my theory is invalid, because it relies on Hemalurgy's inability to steal foci. If a Feruchemical spike doesn't allow access to the previous owner's metalminds, then that would support my theory... Need moar data!!

TLR's Atium trick is actually one of the harder ways to acquire immortality: you need Atium in large quantities if you plan on staying alive for a long time. From Nalthis, you need to reach the Fifth Heightening to become immortal (2000 breaths is a lot but it is doable with enough wealth) as long as you don't awaken very often/at all (every time you awaken you would drop below the Fifth Heightening, aging for as long as your breath was being stored.) Elantrians are possibly immortal and becoming an Elantrian requires being taken by the Shaod or, presumably, stealing it with Hemalurgy (which are both easier than obtaining large amounts of Atium or 2000 breaths.)

And we have no idea if Hoid actually is immortal, though the data seems to support this overwhelmingly.

[Soother he/him]

Wasn't it stated in Elantris, that Elantrians are not in fact immortal, but just age REALLY slow? Just doing a fact check.

[discipleofhoid he/him]

The spelling would be Hemalurgically, based off of a similar word (Metallurgy, to be specific.)

I don't think you could steal Breath with a spike. Hemalurgy steals the ability to use magic, not the focus for the magic (though you can use the spike itself as a focus, if you feel like it. Results may vary: Allomantically burning a spike that is in you causes...problems, but you can store and tap spikes as Feruchemical metalminds.) Example: A spike used to steal the abilities a Windrunner has should not give you the Windrunner's Stormlight, just the ability to use Stormlight. It is interesting to note that (if this idea is true) one could steal the ability to use BioChroma from anyone native to Nalthis, as anyone, afaik, can become an Awakener with enough Breath.

Hmm, I don't think I completely convinced myself with that argument... Would stealing a Feruchemist's powers allow you access to their metalminds? If so, then my theory is invalid, because it relies on Hemalurgy's inability to steal foci. If a Feruchemical spike doesn't allow access to the previous owner's metalminds, then that would support my theory... Need moar data!!

TLR's Atium trick is actually one of the harder ways to acquire immortality: you need Atium in large quantities if you plan on staying alive for a long time. From Nalthis, you need to reach the Fifth Heightening to become immortal (2000 breaths is a lot but it is doable with enough wealth) as long as you don't awaken very often/at all (every time you awaken you would drop below the Fifth Heightening, aging for as long as your breath was being stored.) Elantrians are possibly immortal and becoming an Elantrian requires being taken by the Shaod or, presumably, stealing it with Hemalurgy (which are both easier than obtaining large amounts of Atium or 2000 breaths.)

And we have no idea if Hoid actually is immortal, though the data seems to support this overwhelmingly.

My point above is that from what I can tell Breath is the ability to use the magic. We know for a fact that they are not the focus of awakening - the foci of awakening are the commands. It is also not the fuel - that is color.

I don't think that the Stormlight/Breath analogy works. Stormlight is consumed when performing magic. Breath is not. A greater amount of stormlight does not grant you additional abilities. A greater amount of breath does.

As I stated above having more Breath seems to increase your connection to Endowment. That spiritual connection is exactly what hemalurgy steals.

That is not cannon though so I could be wrong about it. Can anyone come up with an alternate explanation of why your abilities increase when you gain more Breaths?

And Soother yes Galladons father was a elantrian and he died. So you are correct.

Edited November 10, 2011 by discipleofhoid

[Wispsy he/him]

hehe ye i know they arent technically immortal because they can die, but its a nice word and compared to folks like us they might as well be! lol when i said that before all i really meant in it was they stopped aging and could heal themselves (part from maybe hoid, dunno if he can heal himself! but i cant imagine him walking all over the cosmere for thousands of years without a couple of tricks to get himself out of trouble!

[Thor he/him]

My point above is that from what I can tell Breath is the ability to use the magic. We know for a fact that they are not the focus of awakening - the foci of awakening are the commands. It is also not the fuel - that is color.

I don't think that the Stormlight/Breath analogy works. Stormlight is consumed when performing magic. Breath is not. A greater amount of stormlight does not grant you additional abilities. A greater amount of breath does.

As I stated above having more Breath seems to increase your connection to Endowment. That spiritual connection is exactly what hemalurgy steals.

That is not cannon though so I could be wrong about it. Can anyone come up with an alternate explanation of why your abilities increase when you gain more Breaths?

And Soother yes Galladons father was a elantrian and he died. So you are correct.

Sigh. I knew I had gotten something wrong there...oh well! Breath can be consumed when performing magic (Lifeless are the main example, though Nightblood counts as well). I believe that having a larger amount of Breath doesn't truly grant new abilities, it merely enhances the abilities that a normal human on Nalthis already has (a person with one Breath can still Awaken, but there isn't much you can awaken with only one breath.)

Examples of enhancement for each Heightening (the later ones are either decent or fail badly, though, if pushed, I expect Brandon could give us examples for each of these):

1. Aura Recognition: You can see Breath auras normally but it is much easier with this. (Can drabs see Auras? I can't remember...)
   
2. Perfect Pitch: Each Breath increases the ability to hear Perfect Pitch; this is the maximum.
   
3. Perfect Color Recognition: As the Second Heightening but with color.
   
4. Perfect Life Sense: Again, same as above.
   
5. Agelessness: As PP/PCR/PLS but with respect to aging, disease, and poison.
   
6. Instinctive Awakening: You have so much lifeforce that the lifeforce guides you? (Not too sure on this one.)
   
7. Invested Breath Recognition: A super increased version of Breath auras: they do not need to be in a human to be sensed.
   
8. Command Breaking: Commands can be broken by those of lower Heightenings but this is easier.
   
9. Greater Awakening, Audible Command: This is similar to the standard Awakening just expanded to non-organic matter and you have so much Breath that it can "link" itself together to reach far objects(?).
   
10. Color Distortion, Perfect Invocation, Mental Command: An extreme form of the Breath aura, extreme form of color as fuel, and extreme version of command giving (where you have so much Breath that speaking is unnecessary because the Breath is in tune with your body?)
    

Having a greater connection to Preservation (via Lerasium, for instance) doesn't give you additional abilities (if you are already a Mistborn), you are just stronger with Allomancy. Same with following more ideals of the Knights Radiant (granting a greater connection with Honor): Kaladin doesn't gain any new abilities, his old ones just become stronger and more efficient.

While Elantrians may either age very slowly or be immortal, Galladon's father's death does not support/undercut that at all. Galladon's father may have been 80 or 90 at the most when he died. It may be that he was overcome with grief and decided to go to the pool; Galladon mentions that his father "died about a year after I left." (Chapter 25) While Galladon says that Elantrians could die from things like heart attacks, we have no way of knowing if the heart attack was staged to allow an Elantrian to go to the pool or if they actually got heart attacks.

Depending on what definition of immortality we are talking about, being able to die by any means does not make one mortal. I think immortality in this case is immunity to death by natural causes (age being the big one) not immunity to death by any means. Think Elves from Tolkien; they can die from wounds in battle and that is about it (and melodrama, but we won't go there). And a dagger in the back is not a "natural" cause, no matter what Drow say.

[discipleofhoid he/him]

Sigh. I knew I had gotten something wrong there...oh well! Breath can be consumed when performing magic (Lifeless are the main example, though Nightblood counts as well). I believe that having a larger amount of Breath doesn't truly grant new abilities, it merely enhances the abilities that a normal human on Nalthis already has (a person with one Breath can still Awaken, but there isn't much you can awaken with only one breath.)

Examples of enhancement for each Heightening (the later ones are either decent or fail badly, though, if pushed, I expect Brandon could give us examples for each of these):

1. Aura Recognition: You can see Breath auras normally but it is much easier with this. (Can drabs see Auras? I can't remember...)
   
2. Perfect Pitch: Each Breath increases the ability to hear Perfect Pitch; this is the maximum.
   
3. Perfect Color Recognition: As the Second Heightening but with color.
   
4. Perfect Life Sense: Again, same as above.
   
5. Agelessness: As PP/PCR/PLS but with respect to aging, disease, and poison.
   
6. Instinctive Awakening: You have so much lifeforce that the lifeforce guides you? (Not too sure on this one.)
   
7. Invested Breath Recognition: A super increased version of Breath auras: they do not need to be in a human to be sensed.
   
8. Command Breaking: Commands can be broken by those of lower Heightenings but this is easier.
   
9. Greater Awakening, Audible Command: This is similar to the standard Awakening just expanded to non-organic matter and you have so much Breath that it can "link" itself together to reach far objects(?).
   
10. Color Distortion, Perfect Invocation, Mental Command: An extreme form of the Breath aura, extreme form of color as fuel, and extreme version of command giving (where you have so much Breath that speaking is unnecessary because the Breath is in tune with your body?)
    

Having a greater connection to Preservation (via Lerasium, for instance) doesn't give you additional abilities (if you are already a Mistborn), you are just stronger with Allomancy. Same with following more ideals of the Knights Radiant (granting a greater connection with Honor): Kaladin doesn't gain any new abilities, his old ones just become stronger and more efficient.

While Elantrians may either age very slowly or be immortal, Galladon's father's death does not support/undercut that at all. Galladon's father may have been 80 or 90 at the most when he died. It may be that he was overcome with grief and decided to go to the pool; Galladon mentions that his father "died about a year after I left." (Chapter 25) While Galladon says that Elantrians could die from things like heart attacks, we have no way of knowing if the heart attack was staged to allow an Elantrian to go to the pool or if they actually got heart attacks.

Depending on what definition of immortality we are talking about, being able to die by any means does not make one mortal. I think immortality in this case is immunity to death by natural causes (age being the big one) not immunity to death by any means. Think Elves from Tolkien; they can die from wounds in battle and that is about it (and melodrama, but we won't go there). And a dagger in the back is not a "natural" cause, no matter what Drow say.

I never meant to say that the Elantrians did not age extremely slowly - From what I understand they are as immortal as say the Lord Ruler was. Basically as long as they continue to use their power to preserve themselves the could live long enough that for all intents and purposes they are immortal. For some reason I though that this required active intervention on their part (using the Aon Iam to de-age themselves), but now I can't find a direct statement of that so maybe not.

As for breaths being consumed - In the two cases you listed breath is not consumed but just cannot be retrieved. In the first example you listed the body of the lifeless is too close to a living human and the breath sticks to it, the breath is still there just stuck. In the second example Nightblood is sentient or almost so. You can never take breath back from a sentient creature so I would not say that Nightblood's creation consumed breath. - If the breath was gone in these two cases the lifeless would fall apart and nightblood would become a normal sword again.

So the hole in my theory here is when Nightblood consumes breath when drawn and when the Returned consume it to stay alive another week. I will have to think on that and work it in. Can anyone come up with a replacement that increases your connection to Endowment? All of the other shards have something that does this so Endowment should.

Edited November 10, 2011 by discipleofhoid

[Comatose he/him]

Okay. I'm on my phone so it's hard to track down quotes but here are a few observations.

Firstly in regards to the original theory, gaining hemalurgy does require acting in accordance with Ruin's intent. You must ruin or destroy someone (or possibly something) in order to steal and gain powers. You preserve your life to gain allomancy and destroy lives to gain hemalurgy. On this note I'm not sure if there is a work around for killing things to use hemalurgy as that is the magic system's intent.

Secondly, we should keep in mind that hemalurgy can steal things that all humans have such as mental and emotional stability, normal human senses and strength, etc (ie. Koloss spikes and kandra blessings).

Thirdly a question. How does location effect things? When stealing investiture based on shards that are not from Scadrial does it matter which planet you are on?

As for the tears of edgli thing, I don't think they can be used in Hemalurgy. The reason allomancy and hemalurgy can react the way they do is because they use the same focus: metal. Neither use color the way awakening does. While it's very likely hemalurgy can be used to steal powers from other worlds, that doesn't mean it can use the same focii. You need metals to use hemalurgy. A hemalurgist who has gained the ability to use breath can use the tears to awaken but not for hemalurgy. Does that make sense?

Edit: Also I was under the impression that the purpose of the pool was so Elantrians could die. I don't think they can die of old age.

[discipleofhoid he/him]

Firstly in regards to the original theory, gaining hemalurgy does require acting in accordance with Ruin's intent. You must ruin or destroy someone (or possibly something) in order to steal and gain powers. You preserve your life to gain allomancy and destroy lives to gain hemalurgy. On this note I'm not sure if there is a work around for killing things to use hemalurgy as that is the magic system's intent.

This is what I was trying to say - It was worded poorly. I have changed the wording to reflect this better. Although I am still unsure it the Intent of Ruin requires the person to die or if it could be fulfilled just with the fact that some of the power is lost or ruined. In any case using hemalurgy does change the access intent to Ruin

[Catalyst21 he/him]

hehe ye i know they arent technically immortal because they can die, but its a nice word and compared to folks like us they might as well be! lol when i said that before all i really meant in it was they stopped aging and could heal themselves (part from maybe hoid, dunno if he can heal himself! but i cant imagine him walking all over the cosmere for thousands of years without a couple of tricks to get himself out of trouble!

Just to help out with your Hoid-thinking.

source = https://sites.google.com/site/brandonothology/brandonothology/part-2

Brandon: " ...Hoid is quite proficient at manipulating Shadesmar for his own ends."

source = https://sites.google.com/site/brandonothology/brandonothology/part-4

Chaos2561: Can Hoid jump through time? If so, can Shards jump through time?

Brandon: Hoid, so far, has only moved forward in time. He has not 'lived' all of those years, but has used some time dilation techniques. That said, he is far older (both in relative and real time) than a normal person can live.

[Wispsy he/him]

i thought ruin was fond of like atrophy ? if one were skilled enough with their hemalurgy then its possible that investiture can be stolen with only a loss to the power transfered (as in the charge in the spike is less than the charge the person had) ofc no matter the skill spiritwebs or snda or whatever it is that it takes must be pretty complicated and would probably mess up something else about them too as it rips it free!

whether or not he hung around for the boring parts he has been turning up in funfun dangerous events for thousands of years! xD

[quixote]

So to backtrack a little, but to me it seems illogical, following the patterns presented in the ars arcanums so far, for Hemalurgy to be able to steal investiture abilities from other realms.

1. I think this whole "spiritual DNA/spiritweb" is more restrictive than this theory espouses. I do not remember the exact quotes, but Im pretty sure it is said in a couple of different spots that the metallic arts as a whole are a result of how the shard ruin and preservation (and their intents) interact with the genetics of the people of scadrial.

2. Thus, hemalurgy should only work for the people of scadrial. The poeple of other worlds have different genetics. If it did not, shouldnt someone on another world have been accidently spiked at some time and been influenced by ruin or something? I.e. Why have awakeners never noticed this possibility? I do understand though that Brandon might just not have shown this yet.

3. However, keeping in mind that the intent of hemalurgy is to "ruin" something, I think what is being ruined is individual's allomantic and feruchemical abilities. Thus, intent-wise, hemalury isn't necessarily acting on the recipient of a spike, but instead the victim, ruining their investiture capabilities.

4. Consequently, when the AofL Ars arcanum says hemalurgy is potentially the most useful to the cosmere, I think it is because that even though it can only STEAL or RUIN scadrial abilities, it can GIVE those abilities to anyone, regardless of planet of origin.

what do you guys think?

[darniil he/him]

Well, if hemalurgy were able to give, say, an Elantrian the ability to burn allomantic metals, that would mean hemalurgy would work on an Elantrian. And if the door can swing one way, it can probably swing both ways.

[Aranfan]

What if the known hemalurgic metals can steal stuff from other magic systems, but we don't know about it because those systems don't exist on Scadrial? There's the fact that different metals steal differenent Feruchemy and Allomancy, but I'm just throwing the thought out.

[Wispsy he/him]

the only metal that can steal any ability that we know of is atium, everything else that is being stolen requires specific metals and placing the spikes requires very specific placement to have any chance at working.

what would a spike have to be made of to steal a windrunners ability? possibly atium but it seems unlikely to happen without serious knowledge of what you are doing beforehand to have any idea something is possible Oo and no other planet has atium, and the other shards dont appear to use each others magic systems much.

also im sure there was a quote somewhere saying that all of the magic systems could be made to work anywhere in the cosmere, with varying amounts of efforts, this could mean that they all require close proximity to their respective shards to work, but i think it implies that once invested it sticks with you whereever you go