Theory about Harmony *AofL Spoilers*

[Kurkistan he/him]

Ok, are the three people on this forum who haven't devoured The Alloy of Law by now gone? You sure? Then let's get cooking!

People have been voicing a certain amount of befuddlement about Sazed's ability to read minds in Alloy of Law. Previously, the fact that Ruin could only speak to people, not read their thoughts, was a rather crucial plot point in the original trilogy. My theory is that while Ruin is only capable of "writing" into peoples minds, Preservation is similarly only capable of "reading." Therefore, the combination of the two (Harmony) would be fully read-write capable, able to both read peoples minds and speak to them directly. This also fits in nicely with the ongoing dualism between Ruin and Preservation.

We have evidence that Hemalurgy was not always simply a tool for evil, backed up by the hemalurgic earrings that Pathians wear in AoL.

From the Brandonothology:

Piercings, and Hemalurgy, were part of the world before the coming of Allomancy in its modern form. Then, they were seen as a means of communicating with deity--which, indeed, they were. Ruin manipulated this to make sure any Hero of Ages who came would be under his influence.

Assuming that most people didn't worship the sentient embodiment of entropy, this suggests that Preservation also relied upon Hemalurgy in order to communicate with his followers. The nature of that communication is unclear, though. I can easily see a world where Preservation reads the minds of his followers and then alters the physical world in order to impart messages to them, similarly to how Ruin observes the actions and surroundings of spiked individuals in order to give situation-appropriate nasty comments, and create the perception of reading their minds.

We've already seen Preservation communicating in round-about ways with the 16% snap-rate for the mists; albeit this could be an exception rather than the rule, since the mist's auto-snap mode was set up as a mechanism meant to operate after Preservation's departure.

I would like to note that I'm assuming that it's possible to give a spike a slight hemalurgic charge by killing an animal with it, or perhaps taking a single large spike that killed one person (a terminally ill volunteer, hopefully) and break it into innumerable smaller, very weak spikes. All of this is for the sake of Pathians not being incredibly evil people.

From the Brandonothology:

Hemalurgic power can be split among multiple spikes and reforged, but remember that the longer a spike is outside of a person, the more the power is going to decay. Things like splitting it will decay it even further.

EDIT:

Sorry for being so late getting around to Editing, here's the proof.

Edited January 25, 2013 by Kurkistan

[CrazyRioter she/her]

I kinda figured Harmony could talk to Wax because Wax has faith in him and the earrings are just symbolic rather then actually hemalurgically charged. We see Vin talking to Elend a bit when she takes the power of Preservation because Elend has faith in her, and Kelsier actually did talk to Spook a few times while piggybacking his mind on the same power.

[Kurkistan he/him]

I kinda figured Harmony could talk to Wax because Wax has faith in him and the earrings are just symbolic rather then actually hemalurgically charged. We see Vin talking to Elend a bit when she takes the power of Preservation because Elend has faith in her, and Kelsier actually did talk to Spook a few times while piggybacking his mind on the same power.

*Wishes he had the books on hand for the umpteenth time*

And this is why I should re-read the original trilogy again.

In an attempt to defend myself: wasn't Spook spiked when Kelsier talked to him? Actually, weren't at least a few of the times "Kelsier" talked to Spook possibly Ruin, trying to preserve and guide his newly-spiked asset? I had the firm impression that this was the case, especially given the lengths that Ruin went to in order to get Spook spiked.

If it was Kelsier all or part of the time, then it would still blow my "Preservation can't talk" theory up a bit (although I might be able to squeak out of it by saying that Kelsier, as a human, had a bit of Ruin in him as well as Preservation), but possibly still maintain the necessity of spikes for communication.

As to Elend and Vin, what was the exact nature of their communication? Did she send warm feelings towards him? Did they have a conversation? Did she just hear Elends thoughts, but not he hers? Was it a bright light in the sky that inspired Elend to fight harder? I honestly can't remember.

Edited November 11, 2011 by Kurkistan

[FeatherWriter she/her]

Wait a second, I totally forgot about Preservation!Kelsier talking to people at the end of HoA. That pretty much proves that Preservation can talk in people's minds too. Though, I don't think he needs a spike to do it. Actually, it may be that he can't talk to those who are spiked. As I remember, all of the times he talks to Spook are post-spike removal and the most significant time he talks to Vin is right after Marsh rips her earring out.

So, maybe Ruin's mind-speaking requires a spike, while Preservation's only requires faith or perhaps need. Maybe if the two were combined Saze would get the extra mind reading perk. Like an alloy (haha), you put two metals together and you get something completely new!

[CrazyRioter she/her]

*Wishes he had the books on hand for the umpteenth time*

And this is why I should re-read the original trilogy again.

In an attempt to defend myself: wasn't Spook spiked when Kelsier talked to him? Actually, weren't at least a few of the times "Kelsier" talked to Spook possibly Ruin, trying to preserve and guide his newly-spiked asset? I had the firm impression that this was the case, especially given the lengths that Ruin went to in order to get Spook spiked.

If it was Kelsier all or part of the time, then it would still blow my "Preservation can't talk" theory up a bit (although I might be able to squeak out of it by saying that Kelsier, as a human, had a bit of Ruin in him as well as Preservation), but possibly still maintain the necessity of spikes for communication.

As to Elend and Vin, what was the exact nature of their communication? Did she send warm feelings towards him? Did they have a conversation? Did she just hear Elends thoughts, but not he hers? Was it a bright light in the sky that inspired Elend to fight harder? I honestly can't remember.

Kelsier talks to Spook a couple of times after the spike is pulled out, and Brandon has confirmed that Kelsier actually did talk to Spook during those times. The times when the spike was in *was* Ruin though.

And Vin didn't read Elend's mind, she lead him to find the atium reserves by putting an image of the cave in his mind and calling his name.

[Wispsy he/him]

would make sense right....2 opposite shards with people made of both of them, when people had spikes stuck into them ruin could talk, when they allomancers preservation can! harmony i guess has very few problems in general with most things

[FeatherWriter she/her]

Yeah, Wispy, I came to that conclusion too. Preservation talks to allomancers, Ruin talks to hemalurgists, Harmony can talk to both. I'm thinking that because Wax has both when wearing his earring, this double connection could be how Harmony can read his mind.

[Wispsy he/him]

possibly that he is projecting them at the shard too, but that could easily mean nothing

[Kurkistan he/him]

While I'll withdraw my claims that Preservation absolutely cannot talk to people directly, given the massive textual evidence against me, I will now try to redefine to allow for non-Hemalurgic communication in extreme cases.

What if Preservation can only talk to non-spiked individuals when they are "faithful" or acting to preserve, or some other condition is met? It would be similar to Ruin's ability to influence the mentally unstable despite a lack of spikes, a la Vin's mother.

This might even rescue the tatters of my read-write exclusivity, since we still need to see a reason why Harmony can read minds easily while Ruin can't. It seems somewhat unbalanced to just say that Preservation is entirely more capable than Ruin as far as communication goes (although, perhaps Preservation is better at communication, but incapable of coercion through spikes. . .).

[pmj812]

Everything that we learn about Pathians wearing earrings comes in Wax's viewpoint...

And everything he knows about the Path, and also the earring, came from someone that he thinks was one of Harmony's immortal servants (KANDRA ALERT!)

I feel VERY confident that his earring in particular is Hemalurgic, and he just doesn't know any better that other Pathians don't have a direct 2-way hotline to God like he does.

I have a minor suspicion that his earring might even be Vin's earring. (If there's a sequel, I'm keeping my eyes open for him possibly discovering that he can burn bronze when it's in)

[darniil he/him]

I have a minor suspicion that his earring might even be Vin's earring. (If there's a sequel, I'm keeping my eyes open for him possibly discovering that he can burn bronze when it's in)

That brings up an interesting question about hemalurgy.

We know that placement of a spike within a body can determine what the spike does. We also know that Vin's spike was a Seeking-powered spike.

What we don't know is whether the placement in the earlobe granted the ability to burn bronze - much like Spook's spike granted him the ability to burn pewter - of if that placement simply enhanced an already-existing Seeking ability.

(Of course, there's always the possibility that "granting the ability" done on someone who already has that ability would, as a result, "enhance the ability".)

It's a fine distinction, yes, but an important one, IMO.

[FeatherWriter she/her]

Hmm, I hadn't considered that there might be different places for the spikes depending on whether one was granting the ability or augmenting an existing ability. That's an interesting point.

I personally don't think Wax's earring is Vin's but I am pretty sure it's hemalurgic. I got the feeling in the book that the kandra often give actual hemalurgic spikes to followers of the Path that Sazed tells them to, and Wax isn't quite as unique as you're assuming. These spikes are probably just there for communication and I doubt they carry Allomantic powers. It seems more likely that they'd carry something more mundane, like Mental or Emotional Fortitude, in the way of the Kandra blessings.

[Kurkistan he/him]

That brings up an interesting question about hemalurgy.

We know that placement of a spike within a body can determine what the spike does. We also know that Vin's spike was a Seeking-powered spike.

What we don't know is whether the placement in the earlobe granted the ability to burn bronze - much like Spook's spike granted him the ability to burn pewter - of if that placement simply enhanced an already-existing Seeking ability.

(Of course, there's always the possibility that "granting the ability" done on someone who already has that ability would, as a result, "enhance the ability".)

It's a fine distinction, yes, but an important one, IMO.

I thought it was spelled out that Vin's and the Inquisitor's unusual strength was a direct result of "doubling up" on an Allomantic abilities by "granting" an ability to someone who already has it, not a specialized "enhancement" bind point.

[CrazyRioter she/her]

giving people mundane attributes using hemalurgy actually distorts the recipient physicallly and mentally worse then giving them allomantic or feruchemical abilities so I don't think he'd do that, he might give non-allomancers spikes made from an aluminum or duraluminum gnat since that would never be noticed in somebody with no other allomantic powers.

Was it ever mentioned what the earring was made of?

[FeatherWriter she/her]

It's bronze, though it's not because the power it stole was bronze. Bronze is the metal used to steal all Allomantic mental metals, so you could just as easily steal a Smoker, Rioter, or Soother's powers with a bronze spike. Vin's earring also used to be silver plated, but she said that it had long since worn off.

[Kurkistan he/him]

giving people mundane attributes using hemalurgy actually distorts the recipient physicallly and mentally worse then giving them allomantic or feruchemical abilities so I don't think he'd do that, he might give non-allomancers spikes made from an aluminum or duraluminum gnat since that would never be noticed in somebody with no other allomantic powers.

Was it ever mentioned what the earring was made of?

I'm not so sure about mundane attributes necessarily causing bad warping. I can't imagine a single weak Copper or Zinc spike (mental/emotional fortitude) making someone into an inhuman monster.

I don't think we ever knew what Wax's earring was made of.

Edited November 11, 2011 by Kurkistan

[discipleofhoid he/him]

I'm not so sure about mundane attributes necessarily causing bad warping. I can't imagine a single weak Copper or Zinc spike (mental/emotional fortitude) making someone into an inhuman monster.

I don't think we ever knew what Wax's earring was made of.

From the Annotations for HoA

So that meant koloss had to be made out of regular people, not Allomancers or Feruchemists. Suddenly I had another set of abilities that Hemalurgy had to be able to steal—the basic pieces of Preservation inside the souls of all men.

Hence the decision that where the spike was placed in the receiver, and how it was used to kill a person, influenced how the power was shaped. Now a pewter spike could steal any of a number of powers, based on how it was used. And regular people could be used instead of Allomancers—however, when that happened, the receiver was twisted much more than if an Allomantically charged spike or a Feruchemically charged spike was used.

My rationale for this is that if the spike is pulling out the pure power of Preservation—part of the power of all creation—and twisting it, it would change the body of the recipient greatly. Twisting them through use of the twisted power.

Edited November 11, 2011 by discipleofhoid

[Kurkistan he/him]

From the Anthology for HoA

So that meant koloss had to be made out of regular people, not Allomancers or Feruchemists. Suddenly I had another set of abilities that Hemalurgy had to be able to steal—the basic pieces of Preservation inside the souls of all men.

Hence the decision that where the spike was placed in the receiver, and how it was used to kill a person, influenced how the power was shaped. Now a pewter spike could steal any of a number of powers, based on how it was used. And regular people could be used instead of Allomancers—however, when that happened, the receiver was twisted much more than if an Allomantically charged spike or a Feruchemically charged spike was used.

My point may still stand. Once again, Copper/Zinc would probably be the least likely to cause damage, per se, and I imagine that the strength of the spike influences the amount of "twisting" which occurs. I'm assuming that Pathian's prayer-earrings are incredibly weak spikes.

Edited November 11, 2011 by Kurkistan

[CrazyRioter she/her]

Remember that Pathians don't keep the earrings in all the time, and they leak power when not in a body, so they couldn't be that weak, otherwise they'd become useless pretty quickly.

[discipleofhoid he/him]

My point may still stand. Once again, Copper/Zinc would probably be the least likely to cause damage, per se, and I imagine that the strength of the spike influences the amount of "twisting" which occurs. I'm assuming that Pathian's prayer-earrings are incredibly weak spikes.

You could be right about that - However, if these are hemalurgic spikes my guess would be that Harmony is powering them directly. That might reduce the twisting.

[pmj812]

Remember that Pathians don't keep the earrings in all the time, and they leak power when not in a body, so they couldn't be that weak, otherwise they'd become useless pretty quickly.

Or it could be that there's a limit to the deterioration - they're all completely weakened, so that all that remains in them is the link to the Deity and none of their previous power.

[Kurkistan he/him]

Remember that Pathians don't keep the earrings in all the time, and they leak power when not in a body, so they couldn't be that weak, otherwise they'd become useless pretty quickly.

Actually, that's more of an argument for a "terminal weakness" for all spikes and/or for even the smallest residual Hemalurgic charge being enough to carry on conversation. No matter how strong the spike, 23:45 outside of a body every single day for years is going to end up with some pretty weak-sauce power.

Edited November 11, 2011 by Kurkistan

[FeatherWriter she/her]

I feel like having a weak spike might affect the connection somewhat. We know that the number of spikes is a factor when talking about control, (Kandra were most resistant, while Inquisitors never stood a chance) and I feel like the ability to control would be linked to the ability to talk to.

Eh, on second thought, maybe not. Ruin was able to talk to Vin pretty clearly, even through she only had an earring. Maybe I'm crazy and this whole post should be ignored...

[DariusJenai]

Wait, are the Pathian earrings Hemalurgically charged?

I thought they were supposed to be more of a symbolic connection with the heroes of the past, and I didn't see any evidence that they were hemalurgic spikes.

[CrazyRioter she/her]

The going theory is that Wax's earring in particular is hemalurgically charged. Probably true that they aren't generally hemalurgically charged.