Lifeless kandra (topic to be moved sorry)

[DoctaDajman]

Would a lifeless kandra be able to replicate human targets still? I dont think it would succeed in deception checks at all if confronted. But strictly for the purpose of having someone smile and wave with the right face?  

Would you need a kandra at all or would you just need a mistwraith?  

How would awakening a hemalurgic construct work in general? If they are dead do those spikes fail to keep them working the way they did or would the spikes latch onto the Breath and still offer their benefits to the construct? 

 

Edit:  Can a mod please move this. I didn't realize Iwas still in warbreaker forum. 

Edited April 17, 2025 by DoctaDajman
Thought I was in general discussion.

[Duxredux he/him]

Uh... I'm not sure if we know enough about Kandra/Mistwraith or Lifeless physiology to say how it will interact with Hemalurgy. Each component seems like it has a potential failure point when interacting with the other except a living Kandra and Hemalurgy. We have at least this WoB that says that trying to Awaken a Lifeless Koloss won't work well. Hemalurgy is tearing apart souls and stapling them back together, Awakening is installing a counterfeit soul that presumably does not have the modifications seen in Hemalurgy.

Spoiler

Phantine

Would a lifeless Koloss still be super strong?

Brandon Sanderson

You see, what is happening to create a koloss is a human soul is taken, sliced up, and sutured back together--with the spikes being the "stitches" that holds it all together. That's a problem, since the various forms of investiture don't play very well together. In Awakening, you're basically giving something a counterfeit soul. (But without the skill or knowledge of something like an Essence Mark.)

This means that in investing the corpse of the koloss, you have troubles. It's going to want to snap back to the original human shape and strength. If you COULD overcome this, then yes, it would be stronger.

/r/books AMA 2015 (Aug. 11, 2015)

Hemalurgy requires contact with moving blood to function - the quirk that gives it the "hema" root. Lifeless have their blood drained and replaced with ichor alcohol - but I'm not sure if they need this or if it just extends the operating life, nor do I know if the dead heart can still push fluid through the circulatory system. Hemalurgists persist slightly longer in the transitional period after death which makes me think that there is something directly that is lost with death that sustains the soul for a longer period.

Let's also address if Lifeless can eat and still use a digestive system. They don't need to eat, but can they eat anyway? Let's not forget that Kandra generally need to eat a target in order to imitate it other than the extremely skilled and practiced. Directly related to this is the question of changes of mass of a Lifeless if a Kandra needs to imitate anyone significantly larger or smaller than their current form. How would that work? Could a Lifeless Kandra shapeshift and heal?

Last question, though perhaps the most pressing. How exactly do you kill a Kandra while leaving a corpse? They're shapeshifting blobs with incredible regeneration capabilities and fluid Spiritwebs. I'm not even convinced that slashing one in half with a Shardblade would leave a corpse. Apparently it's debatable if an Elantrian can kill a Kandra considering Riina from TotES kept around acid just for Ulaam. I can think of precisely one Kandra corpse in a state suitable to be Awakened and that was Paalm committing suicide. Kind of an odd exception that one.

All in all, it seems less likely to work. I do wonder if trying to "Awaken" a Mistwraith will have it try to shape itself to the surrogate soul. Perhaps a certain Scadrian that we think stapled his soul to Mistwraith that ate his bones didn't need to try very hard to get to shape itself to his original form.