Question and Answer

[Zas678 he/him]

I initially wanted to say that the pools do exist, as it does for all Shards. But thinking back, we don't really know that. 

 

We know that Aona/Devotion had a shardpool, but she was dead. 

We know that Preservation had a shardpool, but he was pretty much dead.

We know that Ruin had a shardpoolish in the Atium, but that was siphoning off power.

I'm pretty sure that the pool that Rock mentions in the mountains is a shardpool, and that could easily be of now-deceased Honor.

 

It's possible that pools only exist for weakened/dead shards. That's interesting. I don't know if it is true, but it's possible. 

[Turos he/him]

Do we know that Harmony isn't just a new shard of the two combined? I was under the impression they were now one part, but I can't think of any evidence either way. I guess I should stop assuming stuff. xD

 

I wonder if there is an Adonalsium pool.

[Curiosity he/him]

Do we know that Harmony isn't just a new shard of the two combined? I was under the impression they were now one part, but I can't think of any evidence either way. I guess I should stop assuming stuff. xD

 

No. 

 

 

 

QUESTION

Were Ruin and Preservation two shards or one? 

BRANDON SANDERSON

They were two shards. Harmony is considered a shard, although it’s really two, in the same way that a king of two countries would still be considered a king.

 

And yes.

 

 

 

THANATOS17901 ()

Thanks so much for all your writing, Way of Kings is the best book I've read in the last decade.

If Sazed were to die, would he drop the shards Ruin and Preservation, or would he drop the shard Harmony?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Excellent question. The shards are now intermingled, and would take effort to split apart. He would drop Harmony. (This is what Odium feared would happen, by the way.)

[Turos he/him]

Thank you for sating my version of yourself, Curiosity. Ten points!

[emilylime she/her]

I was reading the Coppermind page for Slivers and it says that "Kelsier guided Preservation after Leras' death" with the source being this WoB: (sorry I don't know how to properly cite it)

 

If you hold all the power that makes you a Shard, but the Lord Ruler held a little bit of it and then let it go. From then on they referred to that change in him—the residue, what was left—as a Sliver. When he held it he became the Shard for a short time, and Vin was a Shard for a short time. After Vin gave up the power, what Kelsier is at the end of the trilogy—that's a Sliver of Adonalsium. 

  

How is Kel a Sliver? I didn't think he ever held Preservation... I'm confused. 

Edited May 23, 2015 by Lady Eowyn

[WeiryWriter he/him]

I was reading the Coppermind page for Slivers and it says that "Kelsier guided Preservation after Leras' death" with the source being this WoB: (sorry I don't know how to properly cite it)

How is Kel a Sliver? I didn't think he ever held Preservation... I'm confused. 

He did actually:

 

 

You may want to note that the moment Preservation dropped out and let the last of his consciousness die, someone was waiting in the Cognitive Realm to seize the power and hold on for a short period until Vin could take it up more fully. You'll find him using it to whisper in moments of great stress in the book, to one person in specific in two places. (I'll bet someone on here has already found them.)

 

He never could just let things well enough alone....

 

(source)

[Guest]

I was reading the Coppermind page for Slivers and it says that "Kelsier guided Preservation after Leras' death" with the source being this WoB: (sorry I don't know how to properly cite it)

 

  

How is Kel a Sliver? I didn't think he ever held Preservation... I'm confused. 

 

In the HoA's Annotations he talks about this a bit.

The voice that talks to Spook after he becomes a Savant but before he get's spiked is Kelsier holding Preservation.  Can't look up the reference right now because work blocks Brandon's official page (but not 17th Shard, go figure).

[emilylime she/her]

OOh okay! Thanks! (and now I'm ridiculously happy owo)

[Turos he/him]

Do Shards design the powers on the worlds in their areas of influence or does their influence simply manifest in forms of power naturally? Or perhaps both at once or sometimes one and sometimes the other? Is it instead a natural manifestation that the Shards later tweak, or the reverse?

Edited May 23, 2015 by Turos

[Moogle]

Do Shards design the powers on the worlds in their areas of influence or does their influence simply manifest in forms of power naturally? Or perhaps both at once or sometimes one and sometimes the other? Is it instead a natural manifestation that the Shards later tweak, or the reverse?

 

Magic systems arise naturally:

KAIMIPONO

On a broader level, is hemalurgy officially dead, then? Or is it still extant in some Ruin-free (but still messy) form? (If it's gone, is there any imbalance since Preservation's magic power is kept and Ruin's isn't?)

BRANDON SANDERSON

Is Hemalurgy dead? No, not at all. It, like the other two powers, was not created by Ruin or Preservation, but by the natural state of the world and its interaction with the gods who created it. It still requires the same method of creation, but very few people are aware of how it works.

(source)

 

As far as we know, they can't even change their magic systems, and the most they can do is change how people interact with them (create atium Mistings, Sazed making Snapping easier, perhaps Preservation could have created Mistings with two powers rather than one). This is, for the moment, a theory, though we have a recent WoB I can't find suggesting that.

[Allomancy she/her]

I was wondering, is it possible, that braces or a retainer could be pulled out of your mouth?(if it were real). And, how does the location of where the hemalugic spike is placed make a Peron either a steel inquisitors or a kolos? Because they are widely different in personality and appearance.

[Turos he/him]

Do you mean using braces or a retainer as hemalurgic spikes?

 

From what I have learned, Hemalurgy requires a few things:

 

1. The spike-driver intends it to create a hemalurgic spike.

2. A specific point in the victim's body is targeted for a specific trait to be stolen. This tears away a part of the victim's soul, including any traits or powers tied to that area.

3. Applying a spike requires a specific targeted area to gain access to specific traits from the attached bit of soul. The spike must be in contact with flowing blood in order to grant the trait.

 

Specific areas of the body are tied to areas in the soul, which areas comprise what is known as the spritweb. Teeth would be hard. If you hit the vein inside, it could possibly do something, as there is flowing blood. Whether a valid part of the spirit web is located in those veins remains to be seen.

 

Removing any spike removes the trait with it and it begins to lose potency until it is put back into a body. This means the granted trait is weakened, including the power, if any, tied to it.

 

My opinion of why inquisitors are created in one scenario and koloss in another are all about the places in the spiritweb that are targeted, the number of spikes involved(four for koloss, eleven for inquisitors), and the traits stored in the spikes. Extra spikes don't seem to mess things up and change them into new things, but I believe as long as you have the basic pattern of specific traits in the right places, you get the hemalurgic construct affiliated with it.

[Dunkum he/him]

I assume he meant them as two separate questions:

1. would someone be able to steelpush/ironpull on braces and/or a retainer? I assume not, I seem to remember someone keeping extra metal in their mouth to keep it hidden from mistborn (I want to say Zane kept a coin there at one point, but not really sure), so presumably the same would apply to braces or a retainer (if I am correct)

 

2. how location matters for hemalurgy.  This one I think you covered about as well as we know it.  Certainly I have nothing to add to it anyway.

[Turos he/him]

Ah, that makes sense.

 

You're right, Dunkum. Vin asks him where he found a metal anchor to push on after she shot all of the coins away and fell to the ground. That's when he pulled one out of his mouth and showed her. I guess braces pierce teeth, but a retainer might not resist a pull or push if you open your mouth wide. Not sure.

[Dunkum he/him]

Ah, that makes sense.

 

You're right, Dunkum. Vin asks him where he found a metal anchor to push on after she shot all of the coins away and fell to the ground. That's when he pulled one out of his mouth and showed her. I guess braces pierce teeth, but a retainer might not resist a pull or push if you open your mouth wide. Not sure.

Thanks, I thought that was what happened, but the physical versions of the books are difficult to search.  And braces are generally glued to teeth (or mine were anyway) though if memory serves your braces and retainer were always liable to be piercing some part of your mouth, much to my chagrin at the time (OK, that's slightly exaggerated).  That said, I assume a normal lurcher could pull retainer or braces from an open mouth, but it would take someone like TLR to pull them from a closed mouth.

[Guest]

1. The spike-driver intends it to create a hemalurgic spike.

 

I can find no WoB supporting this, and the guard that Spiked Spook definitely did not intend to make a Spike from his friend.

 

Making a Hemalurgic Construct (like an Inquisitor) would require intent for practical reasons.

[Turos he/him]

I stand corrected. Thanks for the catch. Somehow I wrangled this requirement out of other posts, but I can't find any WoB on it, either, other than ones indicating the opposite is true.

 

Here's something interesting I found, though:

AoL series Spoiler? Who knows?:

 

Yes, Wax's earring is Invested. (Or, in other terms, it's a Hemalurgic spike.)

Source

 

I guess I always thought metal piercings period meant Ruin, or in this case Harmony, could speak to someone. I wonder who's been stealing powers and what traits his earring is giving him.

[Kurkistan he/him]

 

1. The spike-driver intends it to create a hemalurgic spike.

I can find no WoB supporting this, and the guard that Spiked Spook definitely did not intend to make a Spike from his friend.

 

Making a Hemalurgic Construct (like an Inquisitor) would require intent for practical reasons.

 

 

Here's the WoB you were looking for; someone involved in the process on some level needs the intent, but not necessarily the man holding the spike directly.

 

I stand corrected. Thanks for the catch. Somehow I wrangled this requirement out of other posts, but I can't find any WoB on it, either, other than ones indicating the opposite is true.

 

Here's something interesting I found, though:

AoL series Spoiler? Who knows?:

Source

 

I guess I always thought metal piercings period meant Ruin, or in this case Harmony, could speak to someone. I wonder who's been stealing powers and what traits his earring is giving him.

 

AoL Spoiler reply:

Pathian earrings are made of melted down Inquisitor spikes.

Edited May 29, 2015 by Kurkistan

[Guest]

Here's the WoB you were looking for; someone involved in the process on some level needs the intent, but not necessarily the man holding the spike directly.

Ahh. I had always just thought that Ruin was adjusting the PLACEMENT of the spikes, but he was actually adding the needed INTENT when Spiking people.

This means that Hemalurgy is virtually impossible to discover by accident...

[Guest]

Q: Do we know what would happen if a Feruchemist tapped a Tinmind for a sense he no longer had? Assume an unlimited amount is available.

[Turos he/him]

@Kurkistan's AoL reply:

Woah! That means you can divide a spike up and it still retains investiture? Even when molten? That is awesome! I wonder how much potency is lost in the process.

Edited May 29, 2015 by Turos

[Arook he/him]

More than normal is my understanding.

[natc]

@Kurkistan's AoL reply:

Woah! That means you can divide a spike up and it still retains investiture? Even when molten? That is awesome! I wonder how much potency is lost in the process.

Well it works on metalminds too supposedly. As long as the metallic content is still at viable percentages the charge should hold.

Actually melting them down would take enough time away from a living body that the decay of the whole mass would probably be ridiculous though. And you're splitting it up into larger numbers of smaller spikes too. They probably barely do anything anymore.

[Raysen_ht]

Do we have a theory (or an actual explanation by Brandon) on why szeth lashings makes him cold/freezing while kaladin´s doesn´t?

It probably have something to do with the honorblade, but i mean something more specific about the mechanics...

Edited June 3, 2015 by Raysen_ht

[Kurkistan he/him]

Do we have a theory (or an actual explanation by Brandon) on why szeth lashings makes him cold/freezing while kaladin´s doesn´t?

It probably have something to do with the honorblade, but i mean something more specific about the mechanics...

 

I... had not noticed that. Interesting...