DoctaDajman Posted March 31, 2025 Posted March 31, 2025 What do you think having excess innate investiture does for a metalborn? We see the Set strip people of their innate investiture and even leave the person alive and worse off than a drab. I feel like the presence or extra innate investiture as we see it in the form of biochromatic breath allows people to have a better understanding of what their magics can do... for instance the 6th heightening granting instinctive awakening. We also know that more innate investiture makes you more immune to some invested attacks and can even grant extra senses. With the nicrosil spikes able to hold more than 1 persons innate investiture and, at least in my head must not be large spikes as it was threaded in and out of the person without killing them... what benefits do you suppose metalborn will gain from being spiked with 50 peoples innate investiture? Do you think they could obtain some sort of life sense? Maybe perfect pitch? Or start to see some faint aura that would indicate other metalborn? Perhaps they will simply have a better understanding of their metalborn powers or become stronger in every power? Do you think you could get closer to lerasium levels of power in the metallic arts with a bunch of innate investiture? I know we saw it harvested but did we ever see it applied to anyone? That is probably the biggest cliffhanger for me. I would love to see a POV of someone spiked with that. Do you think it could be a viable eye spike to grant you that vision of the Gods as Kelsier describes it? To gain that and more... that is a spike I wouldn't complain about waking up having recieved.
ChickenBonanza Posted March 31, 2025 Posted March 31, 2025 I do not believe ‘uncoded’ Innate Investiture would do very much for a Metalborn’s Metallic Art, asides from the general beneficial effects of having more Innate Investiture in your soul. When the Set gave someone a full (fairly certain nicrosil, it’s described as ‘silvery’, do they name it?) spike of Innate Investiture, no specific power is granted permanently. Quote “We think we need to code this in some way to give a specific Metallic Art blessing. We’re working on that. We’ve had some few gain a power for a short time using one of these spikes, but it gives out soon after.” (Lost Metal, chapter 47) It could also be possible that Identity contamination is somehow involved, but who knows. Personally, I would say it would be possible to somehow encode this spike to grant a specific power, but the amount it could hold would be the same as all other spikes. That is, a vague amount. However, if one were to have a large amount of this Innate Investiture, I believe the ‘side effects’ granted would be notably different from the Heightenings of Breath. Metalborn detection might be possible. Dawnshard Rysn does gain Heightening-like effects, life sense included, which detects people by their Investiture. Probably not too effective, though. Metalborn aren’t particularly more Invested, but enough to be differentiated in a lineup. No particular kinds, though. To me, eye-spikes giving enhanced Steelsight is a result of a certain power being inserted into a certain bindpoint. Like the power takes inspiration from the function it replaces, maybe. Generic Preservation probably wouldn’t achieve that effect. Probably be an Allomantic steel and iron specific result. 1
alder24 Posted April 1, 2025 Posted April 1, 2025 (edited) 18 hours ago, DoctaDajman said: What do you think having excess innate investiture does for a metalborn? We see the Set strip people of their innate investiture and even leave the person alive and worse off than a drab. I feel like the presence or extra innate investiture as we see it in the form of biochromatic breath allows people to have a better understanding of what their magics can do... for instance the 6th heightening granting instinctive awakening. We also know that more innate investiture makes you more immune to some invested attacks and can even grant extra senses. With the nicrosil spikes able to hold more than 1 persons innate investiture and, at least in my head must not be large spikes as it was threaded in and out of the person without killing them... what benefits do you suppose metalborn will gain from being spiked with 50 peoples innate investiture? Do you think they could obtain some sort of life sense? Maybe perfect pitch? Or start to see some faint aura that would indicate other metalborn? Perhaps they will simply have a better understanding of their metalborn powers or become stronger in every power? Do you think you could get closer to lerasium levels of power in the metallic arts with a bunch of innate investiture? I know we saw it harvested but did we ever see it applied to anyone? That is probably the biggest cliffhanger for me. I would love to see a POV of someone spiked with that. Do you think it could be a viable eye spike to grant you that vision of the Gods as Kelsier describes it? To gain that and more... that is a spike I wouldn't complain about waking up having recieved. All forms of innate investiture will grant effects similar to Heightenings granted by Breaths. This includes increased lifespan, pitch and color recognition, life sense, immunity to illnesses and toxins and agelessness. This was more explored in TSM. While the specific effects of Heightenings related to Awakening might change and be related to other invested arts depending on the innate investiture used, we don't know if this works like this (for example we don't know if the 6th Heightening gained from Hemalurgy will increase your intuitive understanding of Metallic Arts), but it's still possible. Breaths seem to be one of the most invested forms of commonly available innate investiture, Scadrians have less of it from the Preservation's fragment in them, therefore a spike containing 50 fragments in it would be most likely less invested than 50 Breaths (which is the 1st Heighetning). It looks like if you want to have effects given by higher Heightenings, you need to spike a huge amount of people. Hemalurgy doesn't seem like a very efficient way of gaining innate investiture (unless you want to use it to steal a Divine Breath, which is possible), people on average just aren't invested enough to make this practical. We haven't seen anyone with a Hemalurgic nicrosil spike giving them only innate investiture. But for example, inquisitors generally had an increased lifespan because of their higher innate investiture levels. Steelsight can be gained from having your eye spiked - Inquisitors had it, Kelsier has it. Just spike your eye and you will gain Steelsight. It can also be acquired just from having Allomantic steel and iron without any spike. Spoiler tskyeguye From Rysn's observations in the epilogue, it seems like she has a lot of the same aspects of a Fifth Heightening/Returned at the least. Is this because her Dawnshard is particularly connected to Endowment or because the effects of a certain level of Investment result in similar effects? Brandon Sanderson The latter. Skrimyt Interesting. So are actively Surgebinding Radiants or metal-burning Allomancers just not Invested enough to gain those passive effects, or do they not experience perfect pitch/color/etc. because their Investiture is just not as tightly bound to their Spiritweb as Endowment's Breaths or a Dawnshard would be? Brandon Sanderson Be aware that the two groups you mention don't generally hold much Investiture themselves, at least not in large quantities over time. More in Surgebinding. Almost none in Allomancy. But RAFO to specifics. Dawnshard Annotations Reddit Q&A (Nov. 6, 2020) Spoiler Chaos (paraphrased) How long is the lifespan of an Inquisitor? Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased) It depends on the powers they're given. Some burn up quickly, and others are extended. In general though they do tend to have slightly longer lives. Since Marsh has the missing bag of atium he's going to be around for a while. Ancient 17S Q&A (May 1, 2010) Spoiler Brandon Sanderson By the way, you probably remember form book one the way that Inquisitors see. They have such a subtle touch with Steel and Iron, and their lines, that they can see via the trace metals in everyone's bodies and in the objects around them. The thing is, any Allomancer with access to iron or steel could learn to do this. Some have figured it out, in the past, but in current times, nobody–at least, nobody the heroes know–is aware of this. Except, of course, for Marsh. And he chose not to share it. The Well of Ascension Annotations (Nov. 11, 2007) Edited April 1, 2025 by alder24
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