Husked-one fused weaponry / Cosmere Wolverine

[Hoid Slayer He/Him]

So, I was making a character for one of the role playing subs, and it got me thinking. We know from Rhythm of War (RoW) that Husked-ones can’t bring anything with them when they teleport (it’s the reason Lezian has to fight with his carapace). But what if they pierced their bodies with something? Say, an earring? Would that be transported with them?

 

Even though it’s not technically part of their body, we know from Mistborn (no spoilers) that metal piercing someone’s body can’t be allomantically affected. Additionally, if Husked ones truly can’t take anythingwith them them, what about things in their stomach? Maybe they can’t take anything inorganic with them, but what if they swallowed something inorganic at some point by accident?

 

This clearly has something to do with Identity, and probably has something to do with how the subject perceives themselves (Intent). Now, it’s unlikely a Fused perceives something like a knife they occasionally pierce their body with as a part of them, but it could happen. And if so, then in theory, Lezian could have just gone around with a bunch of weapons stuck in his flesh and pulled them out when necessary. Yes, it would consume a lot of voidlight to heal, but it might be worth it.

 

Of course, as I was typing this, I realized you could extend this to create a stormlight or voidlight fueled Wolverine! I mean, isn’t that basically what El is? 

 

(I haven’t finished the Lost Metal and still haven’t read Wind and Truth, so please prevent spoilers)

[Quantus he/him]

Hard to say for sure, but since the Husked ones leave the husk of their former body behind, I think normal piercings and swallowed objects, etc would stay behind.  [Msitborn stuff]

Spoiler

Hemalurgic spikes, on the other hand, might be integrated into their Spiritweb enough to come along for the ride.

 

Edited March 4, 2025 by Quantus

[Duxredux he/him]

I dunno, if it's easier for the nex-im to grow their hair into clothes than bring along a pair of pants, I have a hard time thinking it's as simple as swallowing something. 

That said, let's examine what happens when the nex-im teleport. They start by ejecting a red light from their body which flies to a new location. The previous body crumbles into dust. The light flies to a new location and they utilize Voidlight to create a new body for the light to inhabit. Presumably they have some degree of control over the form their body takes, considering the long hair for clothing and carapace used as weapons. This is different from the other applications of the Surge of Transportation that we've seen and I'll lay them out.

• Elsecalling by creating a mini-Perpendicularity allows someone to transition between the Cognitive and Physical Realms along with carried objects and other people. There seems to be no geographic displacement, only Realmic transition.
• The spren of Oathgates work by pairs, allowing Realmic transition in addition to swapping a defined volume between Oathgates. This is faster than light travel. The cost in Stormlight increases with the number of people and objects being transported. They use Spiritual Realm shenanigans to this, no idea if this is transporting them through the Spiritual Realm using the Connection between the Oathgates as an intermediary or what, though that is my guess. 
• The nex-im by contrast seem to become spren-like, moving like Syl and being constrained by physical objects like being unable to slip through small gaps. This puts them as still within the Physical Realm, but perhaps not entirely so like the Radiant spren. Note, that the whole body does not get transformed into light, it leaves a husk which crumbles away. It looks like they eject their soul from their body, fly around mostly in the Physical Realm, before recreating their body from Voidlight. Many of the Brands of the Fused have a passive ability that takes no Voidlight to use and an active ability that drains their Voidlight. The example of the shanay-im or Heavenly Ones that can fly indefinitely but can burn Light to Lash objects or people. My guess is that the nex-im can travel in their spren-like form indefinitely but that it takes Voidlight to create a new body. 

All in all, I have two main guesses for the answer to this question. Option 1, is that the nex-im each time they teleport grow a new body from the Spiritual template. Anything that was affecting the original body gets left behind. We talk a lot about Identity and healing, but I'm still of the opinion that you have to have more than a few screws loose to look at the big ol' sword sticking out of your forearm and legimately think"Yup, this is normal. This is exactly what me and my arm are supposed to be like." while ignoring the pain. I'm still not sold on if you can reform it as part of you, considering General Cosmere Spoilers not including TLM and WAT:

Spoiler

We know from TSM that the body has a tendency to shed the alterations to your soul that are least a part of you. In this case, it wouldn't surprise me if even a Hemalurgic spike got left behind in the Physical body, possibly causing tremendous pain on exiting the soul.

Guess two is that the Voidlight cost to bring anything else besides themselves might be prohibitively expensive. Okay, maybe a random steel dagger, but definitely not something highly Invested that can't be used as fuel, like a Shardblade or Stormlight infused spheres. If it did work like you say, there will be an increased cost to use transportation for each additional weapon or object they bring that has to be reformed from Voidlight. 

Edited March 4, 2025 by Duxredux

[Hoid Slayer He/Him]

1 hour ago, Duxredux said:

We talk a lot about Identity and healing, but I'm still of the opinion that you have to have more than a few screws loose to look at the big ol' sword sticking out of your forearm and legimately think"Yup, this is normal. This is exactly what me and my arm are supposed to be like." while ignoring the pain.

Well… we know many fused aren’t exactly completely sane 

1 hour ago, Duxredux said:

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We know from TSM that the body has a tendency to shed the alterations to your soul that are least a part of you. In this case, it wouldn't surprise me if even a Hemalurgic spike got left behind in the Physical body, possibly causing tremendous pain on exiting the soul.

Guess two is that the Voidlight cost to bring anything else besides themselves might be prohibitively expensive. Okay, maybe a random steel dagger, but definitely not something highly Invested that can't be used as fuel, like a Shardblade or Stormlight infused spheres. If it did work like you say, there will be an increased cost to use transportation for each additional weapon or object they bring that has to be reformed from Voidlight

I get what you mean, and it makes sense. Still, with infinite voidlight with the help of, say, a perpendicularity, one can only imagine…

And also, I get why something sticking out of the body would be difficult, but what about something internal like Wolverine’s claws? It is much easier for that to be seen as a part of oneself, and it’s hard to believe all non-digested items within the body would be left behind…

[PanicPug]

Wouldn't a Magnified One be closer to Wolverine's powers? Claws they can grow and healing they have due to voidlight.