Could nicrosil spikes recreate Adonalsium

[benothy]

My question is this: If nicrosil spikes can steal investiture, what would happen if one were to steal the investiture of all the remaining shards? Would this be possible? And if the shattered shards could be brought back, and one could theoretically steal the investiture of all 16 shards, could that individual become as invested as Adonalsium?

Edited November 20, 2024 by benothy
Thanks for the great answers- I really like how y'all show the source material. Figured people would've asked this before, but I had to ask.

[Trusk'our he/him]

2 hours ago, benothy said:

My question is this: If nicrosil spikes can steal investiture, what would happen if one were to steal the investiture of all the remaining shards? Would this be possible? And if the shattered shards could be brought back, and one could theoretically steal the investiture of all 16 shards, could that individual become as invested as Adonalsium?

Welcome to the Shard!

As epic as this idea is, it wouldn't work for several reasons. 

Hemalurgic spikes have a very finite storage space for Investiture compared to Shards. Trying to steal enough Investiture with one to Ascend is virtually impossible. 

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/93-odysseycon-2016/#e2662

Blightsong

Is it theoretically possible to Hemalurgically spike a Shard into someone else, and if so, what would be the outcome?

Brandon Sanderson

A full shard? Hemalurgy could not hold that much of an Invested charge... not... yeah, like a hemallurgic spike really couldn't hold that much. Not without something really weird happening, so.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/522-dragonsteel-2023/

Questioner

Assuming you have a way to siphon out a Vessel from a Shard, how much hemalurgic metal would be required to contain that Vessel?

Brandon Sanderson

An astronomically large amount. Oh, the Vessel? Or contain a Shard? The Vessel, just a little dude... not that much. Basically, like a decent-sized gemstone would hold an Unmade, and that's more Investiture than we're talking about.

Questioner

Can hemalurgic metal hold around the same amount of an Invested creature as a pure gemstone?

Brandon Sanderson

No, gemstones can do more.

There's also the complication that robbing the Investiture from the Vessel (which seems to be the only valid target for Hemalurgy directly affecting a Shard) would be difficult at best, as they're physical form is typically amorphous. 

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/522-dragonsteel-2023/

Questioner

Can Shards be spiked?

Brandon Sanderson

Like, a Shard of Adonalisum? This is just not gonna work really well. It's a little like saying, "can I give a piercing to a whale?" Like... okay, but it's not gonna do anything, it's gonna fall off. And the moment they notice it, it becomes irrelevant. It's the most technical of yeses, but it's just basically worthless to try it. Because, again, you're gonna have to find a physical form of a Shard to do that, so what are you doing. Is it some avatar that they've made that'll just evaporate when they're done with it? What does it even mean to spike a Shard? Are you talking about somehow getting access to their Vessel, which has been completely transformed into Investiture at this point, so how do you spike that? There's all sorts of asterisks to this answer, but a technical yes; I'm sure you could find a way to do it.

Third, nicrosil may just not be the right tool for this.

From what hints we have, I think it's likely Hemalurgy corrupts the stolen Investiture's Intent, driving it toward Ruin. Which if true would probably prevent you from realistically combining multiple Shardic Intents into Adonalsium, no matter the outcome. 

Perhaps duralumin stealing enough Shardic Connection could work to help pick up a Shard if the Vessel were to be killed, but you're still likely to have some issues regarding Intent and collecting enough Connection in the first place. 

Hope this was helpful!

Edited November 19, 2024 by Trusk'our

[Duxredux he/him]

In addition to what Trusk'our has said, a lot of people have theorized about reforming Adonalsium and have asked Brandon at various signings. To paraphrase Brandon said at a very recent signing this past April, using power and abilities derived from Adonalsium to reassemble Adonalisum is more complicated that we might assume. 

Quote

Questioner

With the incredible ability Bondsmiths have to reassemble things, would they theoretically be able to reassemble Adonalsium himself out of the Shards if they were detached from their hosts?

Brandon Sanderson

This is kind of a chicken-and-the-egg question. Would they be able to reassemble Adonalsium? Can you use Adonalsium's own power to reassemble Adonalsium? Can someone externally do it? I'm gonna give you a RAFO on that right now, but I'm gonna warn you this idea of using something to reassemble itself is more tricky than you might assume, all right?

C2E2 2024 (April 26, 2024)

A natural continuation of this idea is that perhaps the tools and abilities used to shatter Adonalsium in the first place could be brought to bear to reassemble Adonalsium, right? I'm not sure because it's much easier to make a machine that can blow itself up than one that can reassemble after having destroyed itself - if it could it would probably have needed to be designed from the beginning with that functionality. It's way easier to set a log on fire and create ash than it is to reassemble ash back into a log. 

At any rate, a lot of us have theorized over the years, but knowing Brandon if it is possible and is planned, he's going to reserve at least one key bit of information for the book that it occurs. It's how he can answer so many questions and still surprise us. Welcome to 17th Shard, @benothy! Join us as we ask and debate questions like these.