Corruption from Hemalurgy

[Trusk'our he/him]

Sja-anat is capable of corrupting Spren, leaving Odium's touch on them. We see that a corrupted True Spren that is attacked by an Anti-Stormight weapon will remove the remaining Honor-aligned Investiture from them, but won't necessarily destroy them.

Spoiler

"I. . ." the Cryptic said. "I am sorry. But I hate you. Mmmm. . . it is a strong hate."

"You will have to deal with that," Shallan said, inspecting the Cryptic's left side, which had been burned away- leaving a hole where the arm and shoulder should have been. She glanced to Iyatil's inkspren, who was radiant with colors to show its changed nature- and was huddling in the shadows nearby. 

"Is there a way to heal you?"

"I do not know," the Cryptic said. "You burned away the part of us that is Stormlight, not the part that is Voidlight. I. . . I feel sad. And hurt. I do not want to talk to you."

Wat pg. 1,252

With Hemalurgy it is said to "twist" the power it steals (especially attributes).

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/270-the-hero-of-ages-annotations/#e7711

Brandon Sanderson

The Mechanism of Hemalurgy

The Blessings and the workings of Hemalurgy gave me some trouble as I designed the second and third books of this series. On one hand, I liked the way Hemalurgy worked by stealing powers from Allomancers or Feruchemists and giving them to other people. However, if I was going to limit myself to sixteen metals and be able to steal both Allomancy and Feruchemy, that meant I needed a mechanism to determine which power got stolen. If, for instance, you drove a pewter spike into a person who was both an Allomancer and a Feruchemist, then how would that spike know which power to suck out and grant to the one who would gain it?

As I was toying with how this would work, I realized that I needed to work the kandra and the koloss into this as well. Only, it was ridiculous to assume that the Lord Ruler would kill Allomancers to make koloss. There weren't enough Allomancers, for one thing—plus it would be foolish to lose the power of an Allomancer to gain an inferior tool in a koloss.

So that meant koloss had to be made out of regular people, not Allomancers or Feruchemists. Suddenly I had another set of abilities that Hemalurgy had to be able to steal—the basic pieces of Preservation inside the souls of all men.

Hence the decision that where the spike was placed in the receiver, and how it was used to kill a person, influenced how the power was shaped. Now a pewter spike could steal any of a number of powers, based on how it was used. And regular people could be used instead of Allomancers—however, when that happened, the receiver was twisted much more than if an Allomantically charged spike or a Feruchemically charged spike was used.

My rationale for this is that if the spike is pulling out the pure power of Preservation—part of the power of all creation—and twisting it, it would change the body of the recipient greatly. Twisting them through use of the twisted power.

I think that there is a parallel between the two. 

Perhaps the reason Hemalurgic spikes grant a Connection to Ruin is because at least part of the stolen Investiture they hold is replaced by/attuned to Ruin.

What's more, Corrupted Spren change their appearance to reflect their new natures. Perhaps attributes (and to a lesser extent powers) granted by Hemalurgy are twisted in part because they're filtered through the lens of Ruin, the Shard of destructive change. 

So if you could change a spike's Investiture type, or even just tweak its Tone, maybe you could end up with a different result. For example, a Koloss who's spikes were re-aligned with Preservation might have few warping qualities at all, or a Koloss who's spikes are aligned with Endowment might be built more like an Olympian god than an ogre.

 

[Jult]

On 4/13/2025 at 5:08 PM, Trusk'our said:

Sja-anat is capable of corrupting Spren, leaving Odium's touch on them. We see that a corrupted True Spren that is attacked by an Anti-Stormight weapon will remove the remaining Honor-aligned Investiture from them, but won't necessarily destroy them.

  Hide contents

"I. . ." the Cryptic said. "I am sorry. But I hate you. Mmmm. . . it is a strong hate."

"You will have to deal with that," Shallan said, inspecting the Cryptic's left side, which had been burned away- leaving a hole where the arm and shoulder should have been. She glanced to Iyatil's inkspren, who was radiant with colors to show its changed nature- and was huddling in the shadows nearby. 

"Is there a way to heal you?"

"I do not know," the Cryptic said. "You burned away the part of us that is Stormlight, not the part that is Voidlight. I. . . I feel sad. And hurt. I do not want to talk to you."

Wat pg. 1,252

With Hemalurgy it is said to "twist" the power it steals (especially attributes).

  Hide contents

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/270-the-hero-of-ages-annotations/#e7711

Brandon Sanderson

The Mechanism of Hemalurgy

The Blessings and the workings of Hemalurgy gave me some trouble as I designed the second and third books of this series. On one hand, I liked the way Hemalurgy worked by stealing powers from Allomancers or Feruchemists and giving them to other people. However, if I was going to limit myself to sixteen metals and be able to steal both Allomancy and Feruchemy, that meant I needed a mechanism to determine which power got stolen. If, for instance, you drove a pewter spike into a person who was both an Allomancer and a Feruchemist, then how would that spike know which power to suck out and grant to the one who would gain it?

As I was toying with how this would work, I realized that I needed to work the kandra and the koloss into this as well. Only, it was ridiculous to assume that the Lord Ruler would kill Allomancers to make koloss. There weren't enough Allomancers, for one thing—plus it would be foolish to lose the power of an Allomancer to gain an inferior tool in a koloss.

So that meant koloss had to be made out of regular people, not Allomancers or Feruchemists. Suddenly I had another set of abilities that Hemalurgy had to be able to steal—the basic pieces of Preservation inside the souls of all men.

Hence the decision that where the spike was placed in the receiver, and how it was used to kill a person, influenced how the power was shaped. Now a pewter spike could steal any of a number of powers, based on how it was used. And regular people could be used instead of Allomancers—however, when that happened, the receiver was twisted much more than if an Allomantically charged spike or a Feruchemically charged spike was used.

My rationale for this is that if the spike is pulling out the pure power of Preservation—part of the power of all creation—and twisting it, it would change the body of the recipient greatly. Twisting them through use of the twisted power.

I think that there is a parallel between the two. 

Perhaps the reason Hemalurgic spikes grant a Connection to Ruin is because at least part of the stolen Investiture they hold is replaced by/attuned to Ruin.

What's more, Corrupted Spren change their appearance to reflect their new natures. Perhaps attributes (and to a lesser extent powers) granted by Hemalurgy are twisted in part because they're filtered through the lens of Ruin, the Shard of destructive change. 

So if you could change a spike's Investiture type, or even just tweak its Tone, maybe you could end up with a different result. For example, a Koloss who's spikes were re-aligned with Preservation might have few warping qualities at all, or a Koloss who's spikes are aligned with Endowment might be built more like an Olympian god than an ogre.

 

Interesting idea! We do know that Hemalurgy works by manipulating the Hemalurgist's spiritweb. And it seems that Sja-anat's corruption/enlightening of Spren does something similar; especially considering that the WaT quote you referenced takes place in the Spiritual Realm.

I'm not sure how altering existing spikes would work, but we have seen non-Ruin spikes before:

• Bleeder used a Trellium spike which would have carried Autonomy's Investiture. But it's difficult to tell if this caused her physical form or personality to shift since her physical form was already fluid and her personality wasn't very stable to begin with. 
• The crystal spikes that Moash is using as eyes seem to me like a direct example of 'Odium-flavored' Hemalurgy spikes. In his case, I'd say his mood definitely changed, but I don't recall if he underwent any physiological changes.

It'd be very interesting to see if Taravangian or Autonomy could use similar spikes to create their own brand of Koloss or Kandra. Though I feel like we would have seen Autonomy start creating her own Koloss if it were possible.

[Cosmer]

1 hour ago, Jult said:

It'd be very interesting to see if Taravangian or Autonomy could use similar spikes to create their own brand of Koloss or Kandra. Though I feel like we would have seen Autonomy start creating her own Koloss if it were possible.

Didn’t we see that in Shadows of Self with those demented human creatures that attacked TenSoon and Wax in the tunnels? They noted they were humans but twisted (very similar to my understanding of Koloss). 
 

This seemed like Autonomy (Trell) doing their best impression of Ruin’s controllable army. 

Edited April 16, 2025 by Cosmer

[Jult]

44 minutes ago, Cosmer said:

Didn’t we see that in Shadows of Self with those demented human creatures that attacked TenSoon and Wax in the tunnels? They noted they were humans but twisted (very similar to my understanding of Koloss). 
 

This seemed like Autonomy (Trell) doing their best impression of Ruin’s controllable army. 

Oh true. I forgot about those creatures. I really need to reread Era 2.. Well, now I support the idea of non-Ruin Hemalurgy even more.

[SpartanBrigade He/Him]

Besides Autonomy's abominations we actually see a full on Kandra with red eyes in her employ. It seems like she did actually find a way to make her own fully functioning Kandra (unless she was somehow taking control of one of Harmony's)

[Nitpicking]

16 hours ago, SpartanBrigade said:

Besides Autonomy's abominations we actually see a full on Kandra with red eyes in her employ. It seems like she did actually find a way to make her own fully functioning Kandra (unless she was somehow taking control of one of Harmony's)

You're talking about the being who informed Mr. Suit that he would be permitted to serve in another realm before blowing him to bits, yes? Anyone else looking forward to Cognitive Shadow Edwarn in the modern era Mistborn books?

Edited April 17, 2025 by Nitpicking

[LeondeBowa]

I mean autonomy has already demonstrated the ability to subvert kandra using a spike of what is suspected to be her own metal.

[SpartanBrigade He/Him]

1 hour ago, Nitpicking said:

You're talking about the being who informed Mr. Suit that he would be permitted to serve in another realm before blowing him to bits, yes? Anyone else looking forward to Cognitive Shadow Edwarn in the modern era Mistborn books?

Yeah that one 

[SpartanBrigade He/Him]

54 minutes ago, LeondeBowa said:

I mean autonomy has already demonstrated the ability to subvert kandra using a spike of what is suspected to be her own metal.

Yeah it was confirmed that was Trellium she used and Trellium is her God Metal.

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

20 hours ago, Cosmer said:

Didn’t we see that in Shadows of Self with those demented human creatures that attacked TenSoon and Wax in the tunnels? They noted they were humans but twisted (very similar to my understanding of Koloss). 

If I recall correctly, although these are aligned to Autonomy, they were more the Set experimenting with Hemalurgy in the only way possible without access to the knowledge of a Shard the Lord Ruler had. If Autonomy can create Hemalurgic armies though... It's only a matter of time before someone cracks the secret to Compounding with Hemalurgy.