A New Take on Hemalurgic Attributes

[Trusk'our he/him]

Sorry for not posting the last couple of days; I had some minor burnout but I'm feeling better now.

For the longest time I've really liked the potential magical boosts that come from Hemalurgic human attributes, such as the ones the Kandra get, but I wasn't a real fan of the physical transformation that had to come with it. That was the unacceptable drawback unless you were a Kandra, and I have spent a number of my Hemalurgy theories discussing how to bypass it. I'm now thinking that there may be a better way to look at the situation.

Let's take a look at Koloss for a minute; they have enormous strength, increased speed (Sazed comments on this when he encounters them the first time in WoA), they somehow have an incredible immune system (otherwise they'd die very quickly from not having a proper skin to keep out pathogens), and they can subsist off of most biological matter (even ash and dirt apparently). There are a number of weaknesses too, which has always kept me from admiring them too much, but if one were to find a way to make such a major transformation a temporary ability that could be turned on or off at will, being a Koloss would be much nicer.

Additionally, nobody says you couldn't potentially find a way to make more "minor" physical alterations that let you retain most of your humanity but still get a few nice physical/psychological and magical perks- you'd just have to really know what you were doing (i.e., A-Atium, enhanced A-electrum, F-chromium, Hemalurgic Heightenings, Hemalurgic Connection shenanigans, etc.).

In any case, the post is meant to delve deeper into the ideas of using Hemalurgic attributes to physically change someone in beneficial ways (with a magical boost added on top, as attributes seem to do that too from what I can tell). I be focusing on relatively minor changes that are meant to retain most of the Hemalurgist's humanity but still give them a powerful boost in certain areas as opposed to a full-blown change to your fundamental self, such as becoming a Koloss.

I will post my own ideas, but I'd sure love it if others wanted to do so as well 

H-iron. We've seen from Koloss that this spike can increase muscle mass, alter growth hormones, increase the oxygenation of blood (Koloss blood is unusually bright, likely indicating there is a higher level of oxygen), increase speed (possibly the magical side of the Blessing of Potency, but present nonetheless), alteration/augmentation of the digestive tract (Koloss can eat just about any biological matter), and a high tolerance for pathogens.

I would think that any of these abilities would be on the table for H-iron (possibly others, though these fit the bill for this attribute more), with more that haven't been used yet. 

So, if done properly, I bet you could alter your base musculature, such as taking steroids but without as many consequences potentially. You might be able to affect your metabolism so as to be able to eat things other humans couldn't or to sustain the microbiome necessary for Aviar worms.

Speaking of steroids, it would be interesting to see if you could create a "super-adrenaline" rush with the right alteration/magical boost from H-iron, allowing for bursts of crazy strength, speed, ferocity, and focus (maybe not compared to Hemalurgically augmented Pewterarms, but it could be an Investiture cheap alternative).

You could also increase bone density and shape, similar to the Dakhor monks (the magical aspect of the attribute may help boost it to more supernatural levels as well, though getting on the same footing as a real Dakhor would require high levels of Investiture).

I bet you could alter your biology in such a way as to become more resistant to/immune to exhaustion via physical exertion. This one may take some extra work, but there are muscles in your body that don't get tired from extensive use (such as the heart) and can keep functioning.

H-tin. This one is another interesting attribute (@Koloss17, here's one you may get excited over ). The alterations made to the bearer of tin spikes are almost certainly going to be tied directly to the sensory organs, which makes them a little more intuitive than most of the others. The most interesting aspect of H-tin over Allomantic or Feruchemical tin is that it doesn't just give you a boost to your senses, it can give you new ones as well.

You could give yourself the nose of a bloodhound and track the world by scents. You could alter you vision to have better night vision, or perhaps to see colors regular humans can't (such as ultraviolet or infrared light. X-rays I'm not sure about, as you'd probably need a source of light that gives them off to utilize it).

You could make yourself able to use the hairs on your body to feel the world around you like a spiker does, able to feel the movement of individual atoms. 

You could have echolocation, electrical detection, or the ability to sense magnetic fields (built in GPS). 

H-copper. This one is a bit trickier, as it delves deeper into the mind and brain than the rest of the body I'd think.

First off, increasing certain forms of intelligence feels like the obvious go to, such as increasing one's kinesthetic intelligence and gaining a better ability to learn to fight or learn to read other's fighting styles, increasing one's linguistic-verbal intelligence to read, write, and speak better, increasing logical-mathematical intelligence to boost general problem-solving skills etc. 

There are simply too many possibilities for me to list here with how long the rest of this post is going to be (though others are more than welcome to accept the challenge )

The magical portion of the spike already provides a boost to memory (TenSoon is proof of that), but I wonder if there could be a shifting in the Cognitive Aspect via copper that could make it more effective, granting an additional mnemonic ability similar to Radiant Lightweaver's Resonance.

Perhaps you could alter other functions of the brain as well, such as mimicking a dolphin's ability to unihemisphericly sleep (one side of their brain sleeping at a time to always retain a semblance of consciousness).

H-zinc. This one's possibilities are probably similar to H-copper in that it effects the brain and how the body functions with it, but I'm honestly stumped as to how to utilize it effectively (except maybe for increasing certain forms of intelligence that copper doesn't. Some form of emotional intelligence maybe?).

The others. Hemalurgic chromium, duralumin, and nicrosil all are pretty nifty (probably), but @alder24 and I have discussed it before and I'm really not certain that they would cause serious transformations, as the attributes they deal with don't interact with the body or mind directly- for example, Awakeners can have much more Investiture than other humans, but don't have any serious physical alterations made to them.

Their magical aspects are plenty interesting though, but I've already made posts regarding what they possibly do before (Spiritual Hemalurgy's Hypothetical Possibilities).

[therunner he/him]

Interesting ideas!

One note before digging into more details, Koloss are not 'just' spiked humans, they are Hemalurgic construct, i.e. they are basically a different species all-together.
Now the fact that what the do get is done solely through Hemalurgy does show it can be done, that does not mean it could be done with a single spike, but possibly might.

1 hour ago, Trusk'our said:

H-iron. We've seen from Koloss that this spike can increase muscle mass, alter growth hormones, increase the oxygenation of blood (Koloss blood is unusually bright, likely indicating there is a higher level of oxygen), increase speed (possibly the magical side of the Blessing of Potency, but present nonetheless), alteration/augmentation of the digestive tract (Koloss can eat just about any biological matter), and a high tolerance for pathogens.

 

I would think that any of these abilities would be on the table for H-iron (possibly others, though these fit the bill for this attribute more), with more that haven't been used yet. 

So, if done properly, I bet you could alter your base musculature, such as taking steroids but without as many consequences potentially. You might be able to affect your metabolism so as to be able to eat things other humans couldn't or to sustain the microbiome necessary for Aviar worms.

Speaking of steroids, it would be interesting to see if you could create a "super-adrenaline" rush with the right alteration/magical boost from H-iron, allowing for bursts of crazy strength, speed, ferocity, and focus (maybe not compared to Hemalurgically augmented Pewterarms, but it could be an Investiture cheap alternative).

You could also increase bone density and shape, similar to the Dakhor monks (the magical aspect of the attribute may help boost it to more supernatural levels as well, though getting on the same footing as a real Dakhor would require high levels of Investiture).

I bet you could alter your biology in such a way as to become more resistant to/immune to exhaustion via physical exertion. This one may take some extra work, but there are muscles in your body that don't get tired from extensive use (such as the heart) and can keep functioning.

Broadly speaking I agree that most of these would/should be possible with very good knowledge of Hemalurgy.  Though I don't think you would be able to get full blown immunity to exhaustion, resistance yes.

Minor correction, Koloss don't have Blessing of Potency, Blessing are specifically Kandra spikes prepared in some special fashion.

Since most of the above could be stolen from human it might not have to result in too overt physical changes (unless you straight-up spikes yourself with strength).
Those that are more complicated modifications (e.g. changes to digestive tracts) might require multiple spikes however, and would change subject into Hemalurgic construct.

1 hour ago, Trusk'our said:

H-tin. This one is another interesting attribute (@Koloss17, here's one you may get excited over ). The alterations made to the bearer of tin spikes are almost certainly going to be tied directly to the sensory organs, which makes them a little more intuitive than most of the others. The most interesting aspect of H-tin over Allomantic or Feruchemical tin is that it doesn't just give you a boost to your senses, it can give you new ones as well.

 

You could give yourself the nose of a bloodhound and track the world by scents. You could alter you vision to have better night vision, or perhaps to see colors regular humans can't (such as ultraviolet or infrared light. X-rays I'm not sure about, as you'd probably need a source of light that gives them off to utilize it).

You could make yourself able to use the hairs on your body to feel the world around you like a spiker does, able to feel the movement of individual atoms. 

You could have echolocation, electrical detection, or the ability to sense magnetic fields (built in GPS).

These I think while plausible would certainly result in relatively large physical changes. You need to grow the necessary organ to possess the sense, and since the additional senses would come from non-human species, the resulting changes would be ... unpleasant (as e.g. Chimeras demonstrate).

Also, detecting movement of individual atoms is...well not possible. You won't grow anything sufficiently subtle for that.


I won't comment on the others as I don't feel I know enough to do so.

[Alumínio he/him]

Why not turn this topic into a daily dive into hemalurgy and discuss one a day?

[Trusk'our he/him]

9 hours ago, therunner said:

Interesting ideas!

Thank you! That means a lot to me 

9 hours ago, therunner said:

Minor correction, Koloss don't have Blessing of Potency, Blessing are specifically Kandra spikes prepared in some special fashion.

This is true; Kandra Blessings are prepared differently and have different parts/more Spiritweb fragments taken and used.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/90/#e4652

Questioner

What's the difference between a spike prepared for a Koloss and a spike prepared for a Mistwraith or Kandra? What side effects might occur from... [?]... Koloss spikes?

Brandon Sanderson

It's the pieces of the soul that are being ripped off and the amount of the soul that's being ripped off. That's a big part of it. What side effects would there be? You would probably not get something as intelligent.

Questioner

What's the difference in how you prepare those spikes?

Brandon Sanderson

The Koloss spikes, you've seen how they're done. The Kandra spikes were prepared by the Lord Ruler. He gave them to them, and so we don't know what he did, at least in canon.

Questioner 2

That means that we kind of screwed up the role playing.

Brandon Sanderson

You can totally do- I imagine all the role playing happening in a slightly different alternate universe, where there are slight variations and differences.

But yeah, there are no- Kandra spikes are prepared and given by the Lord Ruler, they didn't even know how to make them themselves. I mean they had an inkling of what went on, but they didn't know.

The point I wished to make was that the magical boosts should be similar, which makes the Blessing of Potency the closest thing we can look at for reference material.

7 hours ago, Alumínio said:

Why not turn this topic into a daily dive into hemalurgy and discuss one a day?

It's a good idea, but I don't know that my brain can spawn that many more concepts for Hemalurgic attribute use on a regular basis.

Plus, I'd really like to hear other people's ideas and I'm not sure how much of that I'll get if I crowd them out.

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

H-Copper sounds pretty busted on paper, 'Steals intelligence, memories and mental fortitude' honestly sounds amazing, who wouldn't want to be smarter. Though this would likely have some downsides even with less than 4 spikes, like splicing bits of the 'donor's' personality with your own, leading to some disassociation issues down the line. We probably don't see this with the Blessing of Prescence because the Spikes basically give the Kandra a personality in the first place. Plus they're shapeshifters so any physical deformities aren't as permanent as they are for Koloss.

H-Zinc's main function would be to make yourself more resistant to being controlled, maybe even let you never go insane from trauma or something. So not terrible but I think aluminum would be a better use, letting you use other spikes without taking up a 'slot' now that there's a cap for Spikes.

Spiritual Hemalurgic metals would also have their uses, H-Aluminum would be an effective weapon against Invested opponents, H-Duralumin would help you take Connections, which could help with languages or even certain magic systems, plus stealing Identity which could let you bypass certain stuff in a really bloody way. Then with H-Nicrosil you could try to fill up a few spikes with as many 'donor's' Innate Investiture as possible and potentially acquire some form of Heightening? Then there's H-Chromium and Destiny which we don't know crud about. 

Edited October 29, 2023 by JustQuestin2004