Do lerasium spikes truly steal all power?

[dadmehr]

I mean, can a lerasium spike stack all powers? For example, we have a mistborn that has been spiked (for example, bronze.) now if we spike them with a lerasium spike and transfer that spike to a random stranger, do they get all the mistborn powers but not the extra bronze, or do they get the bronze too, or do they just not get anything at all?

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

14 minutes ago, dadmehr said:

I mean, can a lerasium spike stack all powers? For example, we have a mistborn that has been spiked (for example, bronze.) now if we spike them with a lerasium spike and transfer that spike to a random stranger, do they get all the mistborn powers but not the extra bronze, or do they get the bronze too, or do they just not get anything at all?

There is a WOB that goes into detail on the difference between Hemalurgic properties of Lerasium (All Abilities), Atium (Any Power) and Nicrosil (Investiture).

Atium can steal any ONE power, so long as you know the right bindpoint, so its a universal Hemalurgic Spike.

Nicrosil steals a piece of someone's soul, just a single piece of raw Investiture, like Breath. So, no abilities or powers, at least so far, in TLM there have been implications that more can be done with this...

Lerasium steals all ABILITIES, which means things like Strength, Senses, attributes in general. And with the specific wording it sounds like a Lerasium spike doesn't just steal one thing at a time but uniquely steals ALL attributes of a person.

So H-Lerasium doesn't steal powers, just more mundane things. Though this could be a way to make a kind of Captain America Super Soldier, imagine a person stuck with 4 Lerasium spikes that enhance EVERYTHING about them fourfold. That would either create an amazing superhuman, or a very grotesque monster that would make a Koloss look handsome, who knows for sure.

Its also said that using Lerasium as a spike is a huge waste of its potential, like 'Using a nuke as a paperweight', which I'm inclined to agree because why go through the effort of making a spike for mundane abilities, when you can just burn it to permanently become a Mistborn.

[Treamayne]

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39 minutes ago, dadmehr said:

I mean, can a lerasium spike stack all powers?

17 minutes ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

There is a WOB that goes into detail on the difference between Hemalurgic properties of Lerasium (All Abilities), Atium (Any Power) and Nicrosil (Investiture).

Here's that WoB, for reference:

Spoiler

Pagerunner

The Hemalurgy table, you wrote down "atium steals any power, lerasium is all abilities, nicrosil is Investiture"; what's the difference between those three?

Hemalurgic atium, lerasium, and nicrosil. What's powers, abilities, and Investiture?

Brandon Sanderson

People are Invested in ways that do not give them active powers. So for instance, everyone on Nalthis is Invested. Everyone in the cosmere is, really. You want to steal their Investiture, but they don't have a power. You're still ripping off a piece of their soul. So there is a distinction between the actual Investiture that's in a human being and a specific power that they have.

So that distinction is pretty easy. You can also, with Hemalurgy, steal specific things. You can steal just general Investiture. You can steal, if you want--this is where the kandra Blessings come from. You can instead steal specific things that are not like stealing Allomancy. Stealing, for instance, someone's mental acuity.

Pagerunner

So abilities is like the half that's all the strength, speed, all that kind of stuff? Those are abilities, versus the Metallic Arts are all powers?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Pagerunner

Then Investiture, is that offworld magics?

Brandon Sanderson

No, no, it's the raw power.

Pagerunner

Nicrosil is their soul?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. A piece of their soul, essentially.

Pagerunner

So how would you go about stealing an offworld power?

Brandon Sanderson

It's going to depend. A Breath, you would steal with nicrosil. It's general Investiture, is what you would probably going call that. You could forcibly remove someone's Breath from them. The ability to be a Sand Master you would steal with the power ability.

JordanCon 2021 (July 16, 2021)

 

Edited August 6, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG/Clarification