Investiture Efficiency

[Trusk'our he/him]

We know from Nomad in TSM that different magic systems have various levels of efficiency, and Raboniel further confirms this in RoW when explaining to Navani that you can grow crops more easily with Lifelight and music than Stormlight and music.

I'm thinking then that different Intents of Investiture will have differing levels of efficiency with certain powers and effects. For example, perhaps the reason Pulsing is so much more potent than Sliding is because both are fueled by Preservation's power, which would stand to reason that it favors putting things in stasis rather than speeding them up (so Hemalurgically stolen Bendalloy Allomancy may be better, even after taking decay into account). Lift might be particularly powerful at healing others with Progression given her use of Lifelight. A Rioter hooked up to breath Voidlight might find themselves being particularly potent. Division in the hands of a Hemalurgist who stole it from a Surgebinder might be a very scary thing indeed. . .

[Through The Living Grub He/Him]

29 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

We know from Nomad in TSM that different magic systems have various levels of efficiency, and Raboniel further confirms this in RoW when explaining to Navani that you can grow crops more easily with Lifelight and music than Stormlight and music.

I really like this idea.

32 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

I'm thinking then that different Intents of Investiture will have differing levels of efficiency with certain powers and effects. For example, perhaps the reason Pulsing is so much more potent than Sliding is because both are fueled by Preservation's power, which would stand to reason that it favors putting things in stasis rather than speeding them up (so Hemalurgically stolen Bendalloy Allomancy may be better, even after taking decay into account). Lift might be particularly powerful at healing others with Progression given her use of Lifelight. A Rioter hooked up to breath Voidlight might find themselves being particularly potent. Division in the hands of a Hemalurgist who stole it from a Surgebinder might be a very scary thing indeed. . .

The idea for the Pulser and Lift both make sense, and the Rioter may be more powerful with Voidlight than raw Investiture or metal, but the strength and use cases feel a little limited. I also think that Hemalurgy strengthening a magic system would require direct intervention from Ruin (or another Shard) IMO. I don't know if the Investiture itself can plot like Ruin. Ati was more than willing to build something up to knock two things down, making me think this could work, but that feels like it would have to be a direct action from the Shard.

Bendalloy probably won't work this way either. Ruin and Hemalurgy are about decay, and speeding up time doesn't seem to help or hinder this very much.

[Trusk'our he/him]

2 hours ago, Xiahida said:

I really like this idea.

Thanks.

2 hours ago, Xiahida said:

The idea for the Pulser and Lift both make sense, and the Rioter may be more powerful with Voidlight than raw Investiture or metal, but the strength and use cases feel a little limited. I also think that Hemalurgy strengthening a magic system would require direct intervention from Ruin (or another Shard) IMO. I don't know if the Investiture itself can plot like Ruin. Ati was more than willing to build something up to knock two things down, making me think this could work, but that feels like it would have to be a direct action from the Shard.

It's been a long standing theory of mine that Hemalurgy (specifically the type that uses metals as a focus to rip off pieces of Spiritweb and then suture them onto another. Crystal/Cosmere-wide concepts of Hemalurgy may be different) actually scrubs much if not all of the previous Shardic association the stolen Investiture had, then aligning it with Ruin's Intent and instilling anyone who bears that spike with a Connection and Investment from Ruin. Similar to how other mangled forms of Investiture turn black and have a Ruinous vibe (such as Nightmares, Nightblood, and possibly the Midnight essence- though that last one is even further removed and might actually just be coincidence).

This is why I think Division stolen by Hemalurgy could work better than naturally within Hornor's/Cultivation's system, because it seems like a perfect fit for Ruin's Intent.

2 hours ago, Xiahida said:

Bendalloy probably won't work this way either. Ruin and Hemalurgy are about decay, and speeding up time doesn't seem to help or hinder this very much.

I disagree with this, and believe bendalloy Allomancy would fit with Ruin quite well, as it's the opposite of cadmium- speeding up the passage of time and allowing erosion and entropy to progress. But like with most of my post, it's all just a hypothesis with a few leading ideas to anchor it.

[Cephandrious Attack/helicopter]

Speeding up the passage of time could be relative to how you view it, because how I view it is that it speeds up the people in the bubbles thinking and movement efficiency, because it could be looked at as just a zinc and steel metalmind but in allomancy form and you can do it to other people

10 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Thanks.

It's been a long standing theory of mine that Hemalurgy (specifically the type that uses metals as a focus to rip off pieces of Spiritweb and then suture them onto another. Crystal/Cosmere-wide concepts of Hemalurgy may be different) actually scrubs much if not all of the previous Shardic association the stolen Investiture had, then aligning it with Ruin's Intent and instilling anyone who bears that spike with a Connection and Investment from Ruin. Similar to how other mangled forms of Investiture turn black and have a Ruinous vibe (such as Nightmares, Nightblood, and possibly the Midnight essence- though that last one is even further removed and might actually just be coincidence).

This is why I think Division stolen by Hemalurgy could work better than naturally within Hornor's/Cultivation's system, because it seems like a perfect fit for Ruin's Intent.

I disagree with this, and believe bendalloy Allomancy would fit with Ruin quite well, as it's the opposite of cadmium- speeding up the passage of time and allowing erosion and entropy to progress. But like with most of my post, it's all just a hypothesis with a few leading ideas to anchor it.

 

[Xanpheon]

On 2/3/2026 at 3:02 AM, Trusk'our said:

It's been a long standing theory of mine that Hemalurgy (specifically the type that uses metals as a focus to rip off pieces of Spiritweb and then suture them onto another. Crystal/Cosmere-wide concepts of Hemalurgy may be different) actually scrubs much if not all of the previous Shardic association the stolen Investiture had, then aligning it with Ruin's Intent and instilling anyone who bears that spike with a Connection and Investment from Ruin. Similar to how other mangled forms of Investiture turn black and have a Ruinous vibe (such as Nightmares, Nightblood, and possibly the Midnight essence- though that last one is even further removed and might actually just be coincidence).

While I do understand where you're coming from with this particular stance, I'm not sure I agree.

Hemalurgy is ripping away a piece of a spiritweb and stapling it to another entity. Strength, speed, or the spiritual DNA to create a bond to Preservation, allowing the wielder to use an Allomantic power, for example. But using Allomancy as an example for this kind of works against the idea - in the books, advanced Seekers can sense the difference between the "tones" (pulses, but I'm using tones to tie in to the "source" of the investiture) - enough to tell what sort of Allomancy is being used. And Inquisitors don't have a different sensation to their power than anyone else when they use Allomancy - which indicates they still use metal as a key to Preservation's power to allow them to use Allomantic abilities.

Similarly, hemalurgy can't strip all identity from investiture as we know that it can allow a spiked Feruchemist to access metalminds made by the person who had their powers stolen from. It tracks the identity of the user - and thus likely also tracks the original "source" of the investiture.

I won't argue that it infects their spiritweb with part of Ruin's Investiture and gives whoever the bearer of the shard is a bond to them - we know it does - But I don't think it erases previous shardic affiliations.