Ascendent Meatball of Hemalurgic Doom

[Trusk'our he/him]

This was inspired by a comment by @IlstrawberrySeed the thread "how to become ludicrously strong".

A Kandra can shape its body pretty much any way they like, so long as it obeys the laws of physics (i.e., they can't go too big since it would crush them and they can't go too small because they need enough mass to support cognitive functions).

Therefore, you get a two-hundred-ton sphere of nicrosil, might need Soulcasting, put a (relatively) small amount of Identity-blanked Feruchemical nicrosil in it to reprogram the potential Invested output (it spreads out like a gas, so you don't need a ton), and have the Kandra engulf it like an amoeba.

Then, you give the Kandra access to Allomantic nicrosil as well as Allomantic duralumin via Hemalurgic spikes.

Now the Kandra burns the metal- with the aid of duralumin- gives themselves insanely large quantities of Investiture.

Hopefully, the Kandra will ascend (similar to the Well of Ascension) and briefly become a god. Plus, since you gave the power to burn the nicrosil with Hemalurgy, they will most likely fuel their Ascension with Ruin's Investiture.

So basically, that's how you create an invested meatball-god of death! 

A way to improve this would be to increase the potency of the Hemalurgically granted A-nicrosil. Probably stacking multiple Identity-blanked Hemalurgic charges together in the same spike so that the amount of Investiture the Kandra gets per the amount of metal is increased.

[therunner he/him]

9 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Therefore, you get a two-hundred-ton sphere of nicrosil, might need Soulcasting, put a (relatively) small amount of Identity-blanked Feruchemical nicrosil in it to reprogram the potential Invested output (it spreads out like a gas, so you don't need a ton), and have the Kandra engulf it like an amoeba.

Then, you give the Kandra access to Allomantic nicrosil as well as Allomantic duralumin via Hemalurgic spikes.

Now the Kandra burns the metal- with the aid of duralumin- gives themselves insanely large quantities of Investiture.

You would not get insane quantities of Investiture as that is not how burning metalminds works.
It would be like burning nicrosilmind only for a short time, before the charge would run out, see WoB

Quote

yurisses

If Miles stored a very tiny bit of health into a gold bead and then burned it, what would happen? Would he see goldshadows for a time and then obtain Compounded health when reaching the charged part of the bead? Would the bead be evenly charged and deliver only health, no gold shadows, but at a very low rate since only little health was loaded in it? Would the bead be evenly charged and deliver only health, but at a standard rate the user would always get when compounding?

Brandon Sanderson

He'd hack the system to deliver health for a short time instead of doing what it was supposed to do, but only until the small portion of gold Invested with his Investiture ran out.

Worldbuilders AMA (Dec. 4, 2015)

You only get 10x the amount of Investiture that you stored after you burn through it, that is it.

Edited March 7, 2023 by therunner

[alder24]

12 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Therefore, you get a two-hundred-ton sphere of nicrosil, might need Soulcasting, put a (relatively) small amount of Identity-blanked Feruchemical nicrosil in it to reprogram the potential Invested output (it spreads out like a gas, so you don't need a ton), and have the Kandra engulf it like an amoeba.

Then, you give the Kandra access to Allomantic nicrosil as well as Allomantic duralumin via Hemalurgic spikes.

Now the Kandra burns the metal- with the aid of duralumin- gives themselves insanely large quantities of Investiture.

Hopefully, the Kandra will ascend (similar to the Well of Ascension) and briefly become a god. Plus, since you gave the power to burn the nicrosil with Hemalurgy, they will most likely fuel their Ascension with Ruin's Investiture.

So basically, that's how you create an invested meatball-god of death! 

That wouldn't work. Firstly even if all of this nicrosil was full of investiture (which isn't in your example, there is only a "small amount of Identity-blanked Feruchemical nicrosil", it still would be a tiny drop compared to a power of the Well. The power of the Well was able to move the planet to a different orbit, shift the crust of that planet, create huge volcanoes and change every living organism on that planet. Scadrial is a low investiture world, metalminds contain very little investiture, even that big. Secondly, you only get one particular attribute you are burning, so you just explode with that power, without a mind to comprehend it, and with no ability to use it in a different way, still far too little to Ascend. At best you will become a savant, at worst nothing will happen and you just wasted a lot of useful attributes.

[Trusk'our he/him]

3 hours ago, therunner said:

You would not get insane quantities of Investiture as that is not how burning metalminds works.
It would be like burning nicrosilmind only for a short time, before the charge would run out, see WoB

You only get 10x the amount of Investiture that you stored after you burn through it, that is it.

Interesting. I did not know that was the case, thanks for the quote!

With that being the case, you're right, you would need to Compound to get enough Investiture to fill the forty-ton Nicrosilmind, possibly by burning a four-ton Nicrosilmind beforehand. It would definitely take time, but the Kanra-meatball could still pull it off.

But yeah, it might take years to set things up correctly for a few moments of transcendent power, but honestly, the trad-off could be well worth it. Assuming you figure out someting useful ahead of time.

[Trusk'our he/him]

Just now, alder24 said:

That wouldn't work. Firstly even if all of this nicrosil was full of investiture (which isn't in your example, there is only a "small amount of Identity-blanked Feruchemical nicrosil", it still would be a tiny drop compared to a power of the Well. The power of the Well was able to move the planet to a different orbit, shift the crust of that planet, create huge volcanoes and change every living organism on that planet.

Okay, that's a fair point. 

Still, if a few metal flakes burned by a run-of-the-mill Mistborn were enough to crush buildings, a super-charged Hemalurgic spike providing Allomantic nicrosil used on a catalyst millions of times bigger should have some sizable impact. Perhaps you could punch open a momentary Perpendicularity?

I do wonder how much Investiture it would take (and how big a Metalmind) to equal the total Investiture of the Well of Ascension?

5 minutes ago, alder24 said:

 Secondly, you only get one particular attribute you are burning, so you just explode with that power, without a mind to comprehend it, and with no ability to use it in a different way, still far too little to Ascend.

It should be noted that use of Investiture enhances the mind to be more capable of wielding it, even if it wasn't necessarily the main part of the power.

This would also explain why Awakeners simply have more innate skill with their Investiture than those with less raw power.

Quote

 

The Hero of Ages Annotations (Sept. 22, 2009)

Allomancy's Mental Effects

An interesting side note is to watch how Allomancy—all of its forms—enhances the mind in some way. Though the original concept for the magic system focused on different powers—some physical, some mental—the final product always had a mental component. Notice how, when burning tin, Spook is more able to focus on solitary conversations in the room. Or how his mind can filter out the mist or the cloth he wears. Burning pewter or tin will also make the mind more alert and awake. Burning atium not only lets one see a little bit into the future, but also lets one process that information in a useful way.

The mind is such a big part of what makes us who we are. I wanted Allomancy to impact the characters—to have an effect you could see on the minds of those using it. As I've stated, one of the places where books can outshine television or movies is in the ability to see exactly what is happening inside a character's thoughts and emotions. By adding a mental component to each of the Allomantic powers, my hope was to play off of this strength of the written form.

 

[alder24]

10 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

Still, if a few metal flakes burned by a run-of-the-mill Mistborn were enough to crush buildings, a super-charged Hemalurgic spike providing Allomantic nicrosil used on a catalyst millions of times bigger should have some sizable impact. Perhaps you could punch open a momentary Perpendicularity?

Yes, perpendicularity is possible. Any large amounts of investiture in small space will create perpendicularity 

Spoiler

TheFulgid

Could you Invest... Could you use a nicrosil metalmind to Invest the sort of Investiture enough that you could open a Perpendicularity up to the Cognitive Realm?

Brandon Sanderson

So, I'll just say it this way. Enough concentrated Investiture in one point is going to pierce the Realms, no matter what form it takes. 

TheFulgid

...So, it doesn't have to be a nicrosil metalmind.

Brandon Sanderson

No. 

TheFulgid

Okay... But it could be?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. That is theoretically possible. 

Oathbringer release party (Nov. 13, 2017)

 

[Trusk'our he/him]

1 minute ago, alder24 said:

Yes, perpendicularity is possible. Any large amounts of investiture in small space will create perpendicularity 

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TheFulgid

Could you Invest... Could you use a nicrosil metalmind to Invest the sort of Investiture enough that you could open a Perpendicularity up to the Cognitive Realm?

Brandon Sanderson

So, I'll just say it this way. Enough concentrated Investiture in one point is going to pierce the Realms, no matter what form it takes. 

TheFulgid

...So, it doesn't have to be a nicrosil metalmind.

Brandon Sanderson

No. 

TheFulgid

Okay... But it could be?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. That is theoretically possible. 

Oathbringer release party (Nov. 13, 2017)

 

Yeah, plus...

TLM spoilers.

Spoiler

Apparently, a Metalborn suffused with enough power can "move objects vast distances", likely eluding to the ability to traverse the spiritual realm and basically teleport.