Hemalurgic Linchpins and Investiture Coordination

[Trusk'our he/him]

I recently got the opportunity to re-read TLM, and a portion of Wax's dialog about Spook's book on page 100 caught my eye.

Spoiler

The book detailed how to use Hemalurgy. He'd studied the notes in depth, and had created a chart of all the points on the body where spikes could be placed. A detailed list of the ways they worked, requiring linchpin spikes to coordinate and keep the network functioning. 

This made a new idea pop into my head: what if Hemalurgic linchpin spikes aren’t unique, maybe it's just their placement?

A Steel Inquisitor has at least one linchpin located between their shoulder blades. However, I think the reason they have a linchpin there is to coordinate the spikes between the head and main body, acting as a bridge between Bindpoints. Remove it, and their eye-spikes spell their doom.

This would also suggest that you could build a network of spikes more closely knit together, which might allow for backup linchpins, as multiple spikes would be anchored to each other based on their positions.

You might even be able to fully remove the spikes of a Koloss or Inquisitors if you started with the outer spikes and tapped healing simultaneously, being careful not to disrupt the links of linchpins in the process. 

Finally, I think I know why Hemalurgic spikes bypass the limit of powers Unsealed Metalminds have: Hemalurgic spikes naturally coordinate with each other, but Unsealed Metalminds don't have this natural mechanic, making it more difficult to add powers without coordination. You can add up to about three powers in an Unsealed Metalmind just as you can have up to three Hemalurgic spikes with no linchpin, but like spikes, number four is where things get too complex without some added coordination. 

And while Metalminds having uncoordinated powers causes them to fail, having completely uncoordinated spikes leads to their failure- only as you're the hardware, the consequences are deadly. 

So perhaps the future of Unsealed Metalminds will take a hint from Hemalurgy and build a web of coordinated Metalminds (or at least bind the powers of a single Metalmind more cohesively) then trying to cram them all haphazardly together.

Now, as a disclaimer here's a WoB that is worded to counter this, suggesting linchpins are more specially made, but this is from 2010, hence the reason I'm starting to doubt it.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/294-17th-shard-interview/#e10123

<snip>

Brandon Sanderson

Right. Yeah, obvious, but the thing is you've gotta have a Keeper to be able give a healing spike. The ones alive now pretty much all have healing spikes, but there were times throughout history when he needed a new Inquisitor and he didn't have a Keeper (a Feruchemist) handy. He could make an Inquisitor without that. That is not what's keeping them alive from the spikes being driven through their bodies.

17th Shard

So the linchpin spike is not always the same type of spike.

Brandon Sanderson

It doesn't have to be. The linchpin spike is just, when you're putting that many spikes together into somebody it needs a spike to coordinate them all. That is part of what's holding their body together from all of this damage, and it doesn't have to be the healing spike. The nature of Feruchemy is separate from that, if that makes any sense. For instance, you could put a few spikes into an Inquisitor without a linchpin spike, and they wouldn't die.

Edit: Oh, and I also find it worth mentioning that I think Mistborn have this coordinating factor naturally. This could potentially explain how the Bands of Mourning were made: a single individual with natural coordination (or added from Hemalurgy) could make Unsealed Metalmind creation easier. 

Thoughts?

Edited September 15 by Trusk'our

[+hwiles He/Him]

My running theory has been that linchpin spikes function like power regulators and heatsinks between complex circuit components for hemalurgic constructs that are too complex to otherwise survive organically. Without getting buried in jargon, that interpretation would imply that linchpins are needed anytime two hemalurgically augmented interfaces are exchanging kinetic Investiture and only when the magnitude of that Investiture could theoretically be drawn upon powerfully enough to cause damage (which, in my mind, would essentially mean they exist to prevent the accidental creation of internal Investiture feedback loops inside a body or machine).

This approach would mean that a linchpin doesn't so much "coordinate" Investiture flow so much as guard against massive uncontrolled spikes in transfers between entities, are tehcnically the cause of hemalurgy being "leaky" and less efficient than "naturally" obtained power, and really only serve to protect the most delicate parts of any system in which they are present from being overwhelmed. I would anticipate that location within a hemalurgic construct or body is technically, critically important, but also, surprisingly flexible with a little ingenuity (like pieces on a circuit board).

Hopefully that helps. For what it's worth, I believe you are correct that people are the hardware in many of these cases.

 

[Trusk'our he/him]

8 hours ago, hwiles said:

Without getting buried in jargon, that interpretation would imply that linchpins are needed anytime two hemalurgically augmented interfaces are exchanging kinetic Investiture and only when the magnitude of that Investiture could theoretically be drawn upon powerfully enough to cause damage (which, in my mind, would essentially mean they exist to prevent the accidental creation of internal Investiture feedback loops inside a body or machine).

This approach would mean that a linchpin doesn't so much "coordinate" Investiture flow so much as guard against massive uncontrolled spikes in transfers between entities, are tehcnically the cause of hemalurgy being "leaky" and less efficient than "naturally" obtained power, and really only serve to protect the most delicate parts of any system in which they are present from being overwhelmed.

Seems like a valid line of thinking. 

We do know that Hemalurgy always has some initial loss of Investiture when charging a spike, and needing to siphon off a bit to shield from its own side effects seems likely to me.

It would be kind of like how Feruchemy siphons off some attribute to protect from its use.

8 hours ago, hwiles said:

I would anticipate that location within a hemalurgic construct or body is technically, critically important, but also, surprisingly flexible with a little ingenuity (like pieces on a circuit board).

Agreed. 

Bindpoint placement is really important in Hemalurgy- it's basically magical genetic engineering, and like genetic variability, there are tons of options to improve the efficiency of a system.

8 hours ago, hwiles said:

Hopefully that helps. For what it's worth, I believe you are correct that people are the hardware in many of these cases.

Thanks 

[+hwiles He/Him]

16 minutes ago, Trusk&#x27;our said:

...

Agreed. 

Bindpoint placement is really important in Hemalurgy- it's basically magical genetic engineering, and like genetic variability, there are tons of options to improve the efficiency of a system.

Thanks 

It's SOOOOO much worse than genetic engineering! It's genetic engineering, plus electrical engineering, plus chemical engineering, plus mechanical engineering, plus systems engineering, plus theoretical physics, plus literally every other subject that I don't understand the proper name for yet simultaneously. It is kind of fun to think through though! 

And you're super welcome, you've dropped some golden posts, I usually just try to bounce 'em back or up higher these days.

[Trusk'our he/him]

5 minutes ago, hwiles said:

It's SOOOOO much worse than genetic engineering! It's genetic engineering, plus electrical engineering, plus chemical engineering, plus mechanical engineering, plus systems engineering, plus theoretical physics, plus literally every other subject that I don't understand the proper name for yet simultaneously. It is kind of fun to think through though! 

Lol, true, it's pretty crazy. Guess playing god with literal souls is a bit more complicated than splicing a few wires together 

8 minutes ago, hwiles said:

And you're super welcome, you've dropped some golden posts, I usually just try to bounce 'em back or up higher these days.

Thanks so much! I really love the banter I can get into with others who share my interests on the Shard