Vortaan he/him Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 So I was re-reading the annotations for Mistborn recently. Sazed's speech about how the Lord Ruler pulled off most his tricks struck me this time for some reason. After some thought, I realized it was because of the third metal magic that stores things in the metal, namely Hemalurgy. So the question is this. If you took a Hemalurgical spike, a small one like Vin's earring, and managed to swallow it... could you burn it? What would happen? My theory, admittedly baseless, is that you would gain the power at possibly Vin-drawing-on-mists level for Allomancy... no idea what it would do for Feruchemy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aethling he/him Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 Doubtful. I can't remember how to do a spoiler tag, but one scene in the text of the trilogy actually brings this up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos he/him Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 I have a few direct answers for you. CZANOSWould anything interesting happen if an Allomancer Burned a Hemalurgic spike, or a Feruchemist Tapped one? BRANDON SANDERSON Er, well, it’s possible. But you’d have to be burning a Hemalurgic spike that killed you and took your power... Just like you can’t gain anything by burning a metalmind unless you infused it yourself. MARU NUI ()What happens when you burn a Hemalurgic spike? BRANDON SANDERSON () Burning a Hemalurgic spike would have the effect of splicing your spiritual DNA to that of the person's that is in the spike, which would have some very strange consequences. Eric: Can you burn the spikes? Like, Allomantically? For example, could they burn the steel in their head spikes?Brandon: I considered that and I eventually decided that they could, but it would be an excruciating process that would probably knock them unconscious simply by doing it. So. Basically: 1. If you burn a spike that is currently granting you a power (like an Inquisitor), it's excruciating and you go unconscious. 2. If you burned a spike, you don't get a boost of Allomancy or Feruchemy, because to access that extra power, the spike would need to have fragments of your own soul in it. Not logistically practical So you don't get enormous bursts of power. 3. Otherwise, the only other effect to burning a Hemalurgic spike would be that spiritual DNA begins to get spliced, and we don't really know what that'd do. But, I'd imagine that it would lead to personalities fusing together (or something along those lines) rather than a burst of power. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aethling he/him Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 There you go. Directly on point. Honestly, I have always been leary of relying on interview questions for solid answers. Until it actually appears in the text of a volume, he could change his mind, which he has done on several occasions that he has admitted. Still, until something comes out in the text, the interviews will have to be good enough unless it is contradicted by an annotation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king of nowhere Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 I seem to remember that it has been established that hemalurgy do not need necessarily to kill the person it steals power from. apparently you can steal power hemalurgically even with nonfatal wounds. in which case stealing one own's power that way and then burning the spike could have some of the fancy effectes. I wonder if it will be worth it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deus Ex Biotica Posted July 30, 2012 Report Share Posted July 30, 2012 I seem to remember that it has been established that hemalurgy do not need necessarily to kill the person it steals power from. apparently you can steal power hemalurgically even with nonfatal wounds. in which case stealing one own's power that way and then burning the spike could have some of the fancy effectes. I wonder if it will be worth it Maybe. But since you would (1) be crippled both physically and spiritually, and (2) it's very possible that, even if you lived, you would have lost your ability to Burn metals completely, I'm not sure how plausible this is. If nothing else, I am certain this could never work if the spike stole your Allomancy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vortaan he/him Posted July 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2012 It'd be interesting to see what would happen if a Twinborn Compounder got spiked for their Feruchemical ability and then burned the spike Allomantically. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aradel he/him Posted August 2, 2012 Report Share Posted August 2, 2012 It would probably smell like pain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Spoonface he/him Posted August 2, 2012 Report Share Posted August 2, 2012 It would probably smell like pain. Which as we all know, is the scent of butter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos he/him Posted August 2, 2012 Report Share Posted August 2, 2012 Honestly, I have always been leary of relying on interview questions for solid answers. Until it actually appears in the text of a volume, he could change his mind, which he has done on several occasions that he has admitted. Still, until something comes out in the text, the interviews will have to be good enough unless it is contradicted by an annotation. Sure, but at the same time, that's how we get what we know about cosmere stuff. It's the best we have. I seem to remember that it has been established that hemalurgy do not need necessarily to kill the person it steals power from. apparently you can steal power hemalurgically even with nonfatal wounds. in which case stealing one own's power that way and then burning the spike could have some of the fancy effectes. I wonder if it will be worth it Probably not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aeshdan he/him Posted August 2, 2012 Report Share Posted August 2, 2012 3. Otherwise, the only other effect to burning a Hemalurgic spike would be that spiritual DNA begins to get spliced, and we don't really know what that'd do. But, I'd imagine that it would lead to personalities fusing together (or something along those lines) rather than a burst of power. I would guess that it would look something like the LTT/Rand split-personality up through TOM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vortaan he/him Posted August 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2012 I would guess that it would look something like the LTT/Rand split-personality up through TOM. Which might actually end up being a benefit if you, for example, fuse a Zane with some of Sazed's personality aspects, for example. Would that stabilize or destabilize his personality, I wonder? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squigy Posted August 7, 2012 Report Share Posted August 7, 2012 on page 287 in the second "From Brandon" box it says that you DO in fact kill to create Hemalurgic spikes, also the splicing spiritual DNA thing sounds like what happens when you plant a spike anyway. Also, the power gained in Hemalurgy is specific to where it is placed in the recipient, so which power would be gained by burning/tapping? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanscaper Posted August 7, 2012 Report Share Posted August 7, 2012 on page 287 in the second "From Brandon" box it says that you DO in fact kill to create Hemalurgic spikes, also the splicing spiritual DNA thing sounds like what happens when you plant a spike anyway. Also, the power gained in Hemalurgy is specific to where it is placed in the recipient, so which power would be gained by burning/tapping? There is an interview question somewhere that established that making a Hemalurgic spike did not necessarily kill the person. But it said nothing about the strength of the spike, nor about which spikes could be made in such a manner. Also your question is a little hard to understand but I'll answer it to the best of my ability. Hemalurgy to my knowledge is about which metal composes the spike, where you drive the spike into the person from whom the power is being taken, and then where the spike is driven into the recipient. The pure metals steal human traits, and the alloys steal either Allomantic or Feruchemical traits. Steel is used to take physical Allomancy, Pewter is used to take physical Feruchemy (Iron, Steel, Tin, Pewter), Bronze and Brass are used to take either Mental Allomancy or Cognitive Feruchemy (Zinc, Brass, Copper, and Bronze). When we get to the enhancement and temporal metals the pattern of pure metal and alloy is broken, here Aluminum steals enhancement Allomancy and Duralumin steals the Spiritual Feruchemy. After that for the temporal metals all we know is that Gold steals Feruchemical Hybrid metals. As for the binding points there are some diagrams floating around about the various bind points, but no where is it mentioned that the effects of the spike vary depending on the bind point. Putting a spike into a bind point in your leg should have the same effect as putting the spike into the bind point in your heart, however it will have various anatomical/health effects on the recipient that create variation. Like removing a spike in the heart will have more profound effects than removing a spike in the leg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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