Era 2 and the Linchpin

[Grubfriend He/Him]

I'm going to tag @Trusk'our as he is un-officially the Shard's hemalurgic specialist. Thank you for your expertise!

Does Era 2 know about linchpin spikes? The Arcanum says that present day Scadrial people can only hold 4 spikes before they stop gaining powers, and that puts you in a position to be taken control of, so really people would want 3. This has created fun topics where you choose only 3 powers to get, and really makes you think. But I think that the Linchpin helps your soul hold more spikes and gain their benefits, and with more than 4 powers, I feel the benefits outweigh the risks. There are certain measures to counteract the Flaw,  and as long as it isn't generally known you have that weakness, it could be to your advantage. 

This could also lead to Inquisitors with access to more Feruchemy than previous ones. Thoughts?

[Trusk'our he/him]

55 minutes ago, Xiahida said:

I'm going to tag @Trusk'our as he is un-officially the Shard's hemalurgic specialist. Thank you for your expertise!

Thanks! It's nice to be appreciated as the resident piercing expert 

55 minutes ago, Xiahida said:

Does Era 2 know about linchpin spikes?

Yes, at least, those who have been seen on screen using it extensively do (like the Set).

The Hemalurgy table states that a person needs a linchpin spike in order to have more than three in order to avoid potentially deadly side effects, so Dumad's existence as a wannabe Mistborn pretty much confirms this (as he is seen with Allomantic pewter, steel, duralumin, bronze, and chromium, so at least four must be from Hemalurgic spikes).

55 minutes ago, Xiahida said:

The Arcanum says that present day Scadrial people can only hold 4 spikes before they stop gaining powers, and that puts you in a position to be taken control of, so really people would want 3. 

I don't recall it being explicitly stated that four spikes are necessarily the new maximum. It's possible that it's higher and Dumad simply wasn't allowed more so as to not pose too serious a threat to his peers/superiors.

It's still totally possible that four is the new max, it's just not 100% guaranteed right now.

55 minutes ago, Xiahida said:

But I think that the Linchpin helps your soul hold more spikes and gain their benefits, and with more than 4 powers, I feel the benefits outweigh the risks. 

Possibly, though I don't see a lot of direct evidence for it yet.

Personally, I think linchpins are mostly there to coordinate multiple sources of Investiture, probably like with what a natural Mistborn has inherently coded into their Spiritweb. This is also probably why you can bear multiple spikes with differing Identities and have them still function just fine, but multiple Unsealed Metalminds are a no-go: the spikes have a natural coordination ability handwritten into the system, but Unsealed Metalminds don't yet have this advancement. 

I have some other theories on linchpin spikes explored further on this thread. 

55 minutes ago, Xiahida said:

Thoughts?

Glad to see someone else other than my own crackpot self posting some Hemalurgic theories for a bit 

Edited October 3, 2024 by Trusk'our

[Duxredux he/him]

2 hours ago, Xiahida said:

I'm going to tag @Trusk'our as he is un-officially the Shard's hemalurgic specialist. Thank you for your expertise!

Does Era 2 know about linchpin spikes? The Arcanum says that present day Scadrial people can only hold 4 spikes before they stop gaining powers, and that puts you in a position to be taken control of, so really people would want 3. This has created fun topics where you choose only 3 powers to get, and really makes you think. But I think that the Linchpin helps your soul hold more spikes and gain their benefits, and with more than 4 powers, I feel the benefits outweigh the risks. There are certain measures to counteract the Flaw,  and as long as it isn't generally known you have that weakness, it could be to your advantage. 

This could also lead to Inquisitors with access to more Feruchemy than previous ones. Thoughts?

@Trusk'our covered it fairly well, but it's worth noting that the limits on Hemalurgy aren't solely based on how many spikes you can have before you open yourself to Harmony's influence, it's also about how much stress Ruin is willing to allow on a Hemalurgist's system. Back when Ati was Ruin, he pushed on the system creating much more stress and warping in the Inquisitors than humans were ever meant to deal with. In Harmony, Ruin is subservient to Preservation's powers and the warping that was possible in Era 1 is theoretically no longer possible. Whether or not that limitation can be fully circumvented via another Shard's influence, such as using Trellium spikes, remains to be seen. Marsh probably holds the record with 22 spikes, and we haven't seen anything close to that since the Catacendre.

Beyond that, Feruchemy sometimes can be a poor choice for a Hemalurgic spike because the Law of Hemalurgic Decay results in reduced storage efficiency. Unless the Ferring that the power was harvested from has full stores on hand, you'll have to spend a considerable amount of time storing useful attributes. This is the reason that Era 1 Inquisitors needed to rest often to recharge their F-Gold spikes - which let Marsh wipe out all of the ones at Kredik Shaw. Until Identity contamination gets consistently solved, it doesn't allow for Compounding either. Don't get me wrong, F-Gold and F-Steel are still extremely useful, but those are two of the hardest attributes to store before the cut in efficiency.