Trace Metals and Hemalurgy

[Trusk'our he/him]

Trace metals are an interesting part of Allomancy. With them, an Allomancer can instinctively (and often unknowingly) use their Allomancy. 

It's been discussed before whether Feruchemy can use trace metals, but now I wonder, could Hemalurgically Invested trace metals have similar results?

Basically, lets say someone drinks water that's been sloshed around with a bunch of Koloss spikes. Would the person's body, in incorporating the residual iron into itself, be draw on the metals' traces of Investiture?

I'm sure the effects would be a lot subtler than standard Hemalurgy, but it would probably have some noticeable effect.

I feel the need to mention, yes, I know Hemalurgy requires a substantial level of precision to work correctly. Investiture has a tendency to wriggle its way to functional states, so I felt it was worth considering at least. Maybe the body would subconsciously align the trace metals to a useful place, as it’s actually capable of manipulating it.

Other side thought on a similar (ish) note: if a person got Hemalurgically Invested bits of steel stuck in their eyes, would they gain Metalsight, maybe while overlapping their existing vision? Like, the metal is small enough your eye can heal around it, leaving both the eye and the metal largely intact.

Edited January 3, 2025 by Trusk'our

[Treamayne]

1 hour ago, Trusk'our said:

Basically, lets say someone drinks water that's been sloshed around with a bunch of Koloss spikes. Would the person's body, in incorporating the residual iron into itself, be draw on the metals' traces of Investiture?

I'm sure the effects would be a lot subtler than standard Hemalurgy, but it would probably have some noticeable effect.

Unlikely, because Hemalurgy must pierce a Bind point, and do so with Intent and blood. Digested trace metals fit none of those requirements. 

Spoiler

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Master_Moridin

What is the relationship between blood and the Spiritual Realm? (Since Hemalurgy needs blood to graft the sDNA in a spike into someone else's sDNA)

Brandon Sanderson

The blood being in motion is part of it.

17th Shard Forum Q&A (Sept. 28, 2012)

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Questioner

Allomancy requires, you need to be either a Misting or a Mistborn to be able to do that. But Hemalurgy you just need to stab someone through the heart. So what would stop someone on Roshar from using Hemalurgy, because it's not Innate? Do you have to be in proximity to Ruin?

Brandon Sanderson

Intent is a big part of a lot of the magics, including Hemalurgy, meaning that you need to know what you're doing. Or somebody needs to-- There needs to be Intent involved in what's happening to you.

Questioner

So like with Spook when he got spiked, where was the Intent?

Brandon Sanderson

The person who was driving that spike was being influenced by Ruin, and the Intent was there.

Holiday signing (Dec. 12, 2015)

 

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Odium's_Shard

Lastly, less pressingly, do Spirit Points (Hemalurgic spots) apply to ever magic system, and through the cosmere at large? Ie. could Hemalurgy be used to take any other magic systems aspects, and do other magic systems also have these 'Points', such as Body Focuses, that work in similar ways?

Brandon Sanderson

Hemalurgy crosses magic systems. You could steal things from people on other worlds, if you knew the right places for the spikes.

17th Shard Forum Q&A (Sept. 26, 2012)

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focoma

We've seen Kandra True Bodies made of crystal, stone, or wood. Can a kandra use a True Body made of metal? If so, what happens if each metal "bone" had a Hemalurgic charge, and each one is touching an appropriate bind point?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. And that would work, better than you think, because Kandra have fluid bind points. But too many spikes can be dangerous to the psyche, even with Ati not messing things up.

/r/books AMA 2015 (March 12, 2015)

 

Hope that helps

Edited January 3, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG

[alder24]

15 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Basically, lets say someone drinks water that's been sloshed around with a bunch of Koloss spikes. Would the person's body, in incorporating the residual iron into itself, be draw on the metals' traces of Investiture?

No because there is no intent and they don't pierce binding points. Hemalurgy requires a very specific intent that a body driven to survive likely won't be able to reproduce.

I'm also wondering if those traces of metal would contain any investiture from spikes. Does division of spikes require intent? Does the soul in the spike naturally stick to the largest part of the spike (like in healing)? If yes then any traces of metal that got separated wouldn't contain any Hemalurgic charge in them, but I must admit, it seems unlikely.

[Trusk'our he/him]

21 hours ago, Treamayne said:

Unlikely, because Hemalurgy must pierce a Bind point, and do so with Intent and blood. Digested trace metals fit none of those requirements. 

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Hope that helps

Fair points. The metals would most likely go to various cells for physical use instead of spiritual bindpoints, unless some unknown forces come into play.

Still, it could be a fun way to explain seemingly random attribute augmentation or random changes to NPCs in the upcoming Mistborn RPG, as long as you're okay with bending the rules a little. 

7 hours ago, alder24 said:

No because there is no intent and they don't pierce binding points. Hemalurgy requires a very specific intent that a body driven to survive likely won't be able to reproduce.

I think the Intent mostly matters for Investing the spikes, but you bring up a good point that the body probably won't know what to do with the metal anyway and would just misplace it.

Wonder if a Kandra could do it? It'd probably be largely pointless, but they do have an awareness on a cellular level, so it's more plausible. 

7 hours ago, alder24 said:

I'm also wondering if those traces of metal would contain any investiture from spikes. Does division of spikes require intent? Does the soul in the spike naturally stick to the largest part of the spike (like in healing)? If yes then any traces of metal that got separated wouldn't contain any Hemalurgic charge in them, but I must admit, it seems unlikely.

That would be interesting to know, because in that case you could shrink bulky spikes used to steal Investiture into something easier to bear.

Metalminds seem to automatically split their Investiture amongst their broken parts. I don't think they usually have the level of Identity that spikes do, as they're not functional pieces of Spiritweb, just batteries. 

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/210-torcom-qa-with-brandon-sanderson/#e4618

Maru Nui

What happens when you break a Hemalurgic spike or metalmind? What happens to that power?

Brandon Sanderson

Hemalurgic power can be split among multiple spikes and reforged, but remember that the longer a spike is outside of a person, the more the power is going to decay. Things like splitting it will decay it even further. Metalminds can also be broken and still be accessed

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/398-prague-signing/#e13238

Paleo

We tried to develop a theory of what a metalmind actually is, and we know that splitting a metalmind can halve the charge effectively or divide the charge.

Brandon Sanderson

It can divide the charge although it makes it much harder to, yeah.

Paleo

But is it actually physical... is the charge concentrated physically at one point or is it more like a gas so it diffuses?

Brandon Sanderson

It diffuses.

So it might go either way, I think.