What were marsh’s original 11 spikes and does the lynchpin spike do anything?

[MrsEthereal she/her]

Title^ also I’m new to this 

[Treamayne]

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1 hour ago, MrsEthereal said:

What were Marsh’s original 11 spikes and does the lynchpin spike do anything?
Title^ also I’m new to this 

What is confirmed (Power confered by spike, not spike metal):

• Linchpin
• Allomantic Steel
• Allomantic  Iron
• Allomantic Pewter
• Allomantic Tin
• Allomantic Brass
• Allomantic  Zinc
• Allomantic  Copper
• Allomantic  Bronze
• Allomantic  Atium
• Feruchemical Gold

What we do not know is if the linchpin is also one of those confirmed power-bearing spikes, or if the Linchpin only held the Spiritweb together or had some other ability. The only WoB on the Subject implies that a Linchpin spike may contain a power - but Sanderson is a master at not correcting errors in the question asked and allowing false assumptions to change the meaning of his response. WoB:

Spoiler

17th Shard

Very careful roleplayers have counted the numbers of Inquisitors appearing in the novels and they claim there must have been 25 if Vin and Elend killed two Inquisitors between Mistborn 2 and Mistborn 3. Could you clarify the numbers of Inquisitors there were? They've literally counted.

Brandon Sanderson

They literally, yeah…No, I mean, I've got it written down somewhere. I'm now so separated from this book. I had always imagined there being around three dozen Inquisitors at any given time.

17th Shard

Oh, okay, so quite a bit more than 20.

Brandon Sanderson

Right. Well the thing you've gotta remember is that, with the powers they're given, they're pretty much immune to disease and things like that, particularly after they've gained their healing spike.

17th Shard

Right. Is that common to all Inquisitors?

Brandon Sanderson

It does not come to all. It comes to almost all. That's a pretty common one, but being an Inquisitor does not mean you get it. I think it mentions in the books that there's one spike that they all get, but I can't remember what it is.

17th Shard

I would imagine that would…well, okay, a steel spike so they could see.

Brandon Sanderson

Right. Yeah, obvious, but the thing is you've gotta have a Keeper to be able give a healing spike. The ones alive now pretty much all have healing spikes, but there were times throughout history when he needed a new Inquisitor and he didn't have a Keeper (a Feruchemist) handy. He could make an Inquisitor without that. That is not what's keeping them alive from the spikes being driven through their bodies.

17th Shard

So the linchpin spike is not always the same type of spike.

Brandon Sanderson

It doesn't have to be. The linchpin spike is just, when you're putting that many spikes together into somebody it needs a spike to coordinate them all. That is part of what's holding their body together from all of this damage, and it doesn't have to be the healing spike. The nature of Feruchemy is separate from that, if that makes any sense. For instance, you could put a few spikes into an Inquisitor without a linchpin spike, and they wouldn't die.

17th Shard Interview (Oct. 3, 2010)

So taking comments like this at face value is a gamble - It could be that a Linchpin spike may also have a power-bearing charge and only it's location makes it function as a Linchpin - or it could be that a Linchpin spike has a different kind of charge other than Allomantic or Feruchemical powers, and there are multiple types of metal from which  a Linchpin spike may be crafted. 

Hope that helps. 

Edited June 23, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG