Hemalurgic Consequences for Descendants

[Trusk'our he/him]

Quick thought here, but if an Allomancer had their power non-lethally spiked out and then they had children later, would the children have less Allomantic potential than their parent due to the missing Connection, or would the former Allomancer's Spiritweb still remember being "programmed" to be an Allomancer, thus giving their children a similar level of Connection/power?

After all, you can regrow a power lost to Hemalurgy via F-gold, which suggests some memory of it in the Spiritweb may remain to be built upon, but I'm not sure (could just be the Cognitive Aspect remembering instead, which wouldn't transfer to offspring).

Thoughts?

[Treamayne]

28 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

Thoughts?

I would think that "I'm an allomancer" (Feruchemist, etc.) section of the spiritweb has to be separate from the "Abiility to burn/store <metal>" section otherwise you would not be able to steal different powers from a Mistborn/Twinborn (based on metal used and spike location). Therefore the sDNA that factors for genetic descendants is likely based on the "Amount of Allomantic/Feruchemical potential" section moreso than the "Burn/Store <metal>" section - especially since we see that specific metals do not seem to floow family lines. 

Edited May 27 by Treamayne
SPAG

[alder24]

35 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

Quick thought here, but if an Allomancer had their power non-lethally spiked out and then they had children later, would the children have less Allomantic potential than their parent due to the missing Connection, or would the former Allomancer's Spiritweb still remember being "programmed" to be an Allomancer, thus giving their children a similar level of Connection/power?

After all, you can regrow a power lost to Hemalurgy via F-gold, which suggests some memory of it in the Spiritweb may remain to be built upon, but I'm not sure (could just be the Cognitive Aspect remembering instead, which wouldn't transfer to offspring).

Thoughts?

That's a great question. Hemalurgy steals spiritual DNA, so the portion responsible for Metallic Arts is missing from a victim of Hemalurgy. This might mean that their powers and potential will not be transferred to their children as their sDNA doesn't contain that part anymore. The bloodline would be weakened.

On the other hand we don't know how the spiritual ideal fits into this. Will it somehow be imprinted in their kids sDNA, giving them back the potential they once had? I doubt it but that's possible.

 

6 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

I would think that "I'm an allomancer" (Feruchemist, etc.) section of the spiritweb has to be separate from the "Abiility to burn/store <metal>" section otherwise you would not be able to steal different powers from a Mistborn/Twinborn (based on metal used and spike location). Therefore the sDNA that factors for genetic descendants is likely based on the "Amount of Allomantic/Feruchemical potential" section moreso than the "Burn/Store <metal>" section - especially since we see that specific metals do not seem to floow family lines. 

Disagree. "I'm a Metalborn" part of sDNa should be contained of all powers you have. A Misting has only one part that tells which metal he can burn, a Twinborn has two parts, a Mistborn sixteen parts of that “I’m a Metalborn” fragment of sDNA. You can spike one of it out, but the rest will still be there. And that fits in as your Metalborn abilities are coded into you at birth:

Spoiler

PrncRny (paraphrased)

How and when is the type of Misting you become determined? Can you tell what type of Misting you are before you Snap?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It's determined at birth. The cosmere by combining 3 aspects of self. Your physical self, mental self, and spiritual self. The spiritual self is tied to the Investiture of the world that you come from. When an Allomancer snaps, a piece of their soul is broken and some of that power leaks into them, giving them their abilities.

Idaho Falls signing 2014 (Nov. 29, 2014)

 

Edited May 27 by alder24

[Treamayne]

7 minutes ago, alder24 said:

Disagree.

Spoiler

PrncRny (paraphrased)

How and when is the type of Misting you become determined? Can you tell what type of Misting you are before you Snap?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It's determined at birth. The cosmere by combining 3 aspects of self. Your physical self, mental self, and spiritual self. The spiritual self is tied to the Investiture of the world that you come from. When an Allomancer snaps, a piece of their soul is broken and some of that power leaks into them, giving them their abilities.

Idaho Falls signing 2014 (Nov. 29, 2014)

 

That's fine, we are allowed to disagree. Your cited WoB confirms only that it is determined at birth, not that they are the same section of Spiritweb. I still think that if the same section of sDNA was the determining factor you would have more "familial lines" of the same kind of Misting, rather than Siblings like Push and Pull, or Children like Tineye Straff and his multitude of non-Tineye children. 

[Trusk'our he/him]

1 hour ago, Treamayne said:

I would think that "I'm an allomancer" (Feruchemist, etc.) section of the spiritweb has to be separate from the "Abiility to burn/store <metal>" section otherwise you would not be able to steal different powers from a Mistborn/Twinborn (based on metal used and spike location). Therefore the sDNA that factors for genetic descendants is likely based on the "Amount of Allomantic/Feruchemical potential" section moreso than the "Burn/Store <metal>" section - especially since we see that specific metals do not seem to floow family lines. 

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

That's a great question. Hemalurgy steals spiritual DNA, so the portion responsible for Metallic Arts is missing from a victim of Hemalurgy. This might mean that their powers and potential will not be transferred to their children as their sDNA doesn't contain that part anymore. The bloodline would be weakened.

Holy crap, I just realized something that may answer this question;

When an Inquisitor gets powers from their spikes, those powers aren't passed down to their children despite being usable and Pre-Catacendre Hemalurgy overriding Identity contamination. 

However, Koloss do pass on some of the power of their spikes (despite the fact that we see in SH that their "true" Spiritweb retains no changes after death, and therefore shouldn't of itself have changes made to potential offspring) to their children. 

It seems to me then that @Treamayne's proposal about the sDNA that determines your Allomantic potential and your actual powers is probably accurate.

Powers themselves being more removed from your core sDNA may also help explain why using power spikes doesn't warp you to the extent that using attribute spikes does.

[therunner he/him]

8 hours ago, Trusk&#x27;our said:

However, Koloss do pass on some of the power of their spikes (despite the fact that we see in SH that their "true" Spiritweb retains no changes after death, and therefore shouldn't of itself have changes made to potential offspring) to their children.

That is only after Sazed altered Koloss to turn them into a true breeding species.

So Koloss after Catecedre pass that to their offspring, nothing from the spikes.

[Trusk'our he/him]

6 hours ago, therunner said:

That is only after Sazed altered Koloss to turn them into a true breeding species.

So Koloss after Catecedre pass that to their offspring, nothing from the spikes.

Hmm, good catch. 

Perhaps separated sDNA and powers aren't the full answer then. I'll have to think on this some more.