What to do with Spikes.

[Aminar]

This is primarily for the RPG, but I figure it could be a fun discussion to speculate on more kinds of Hemalurgic Monstrosities.

I decided to make a collection of them based around perverting the abilities granted by Feruchemy. They are obviously intended to be horrific on some level, being based around Ruin and all(although I tried to make some humorous ones.)

From what I've seen hemalurgy does a couple things.

It makes people stupid or insane.(Koloss/Inquisitors)

It makes stupid things intelligent.(Kandra)

It makes Monsters.

I'd love to see more of these.

I'll start with the following relatively unoriginal creations

Wolfmen

These Hemalurgic creations require 2 Tin Spikes(non-Blessing) and any 1 blessing. They then take the stats of a wolfhound. THis makes the hound intelligent as well as giving it +3 on senses rolls and slowly mutates the creature into an anthropomorphic werewolf like creature. The tin spikes are driven in right above the eyes while the blessin should pierce the heart. This is a playable race at medium power level.

Burned Men

1 Brass spike granting Brass allomancy

3 Iron Spikes.

A Burned Man ignites once spiked. It Burns for 7 days before dying at which point its spikes are collected for later use. These insane men are often used to clear out wooden hovels and the like or raid crops. All 4 Spikes pierce the large intestines. Burned Men are nearly impossible to take out with physical damage, requiring beheading or removal of the brass spike. Holding one in place is a painful experience resulting in lots of burns. They are typically released in squads of 10-12.

Feruchemical weight.

Two pewter spikes and two unendowed iron spikes stabbed into a mistwraith create just that. The mistwraith becomes a ravenous being of mist prone to eating flesh from bones and wandering the mists devouring unwary souls. The spikes themselves turn to mist but can be pushed or pulled. Removing each spike is a difficulty 4 check and the creature will not dissolve till all are removed. They dislike light and fire and running water as well.

Feruchemical speed. Stab one feruchemical speed spike and one unendowed steel spike through a mans lungs. These men can only breathe while moving, must consume their bodyweight in meat a day, and will take bites of anything meaty when hungry. By stabbing a feruchemical cadmium spike and providing a metalmind the being can store breath. This allows them to stand still and breathe making them more dangerous. They operate in packs hunting their fellow man and any other source of food.(They are often used as couriers as they can run at speeds of up to 200 MPH but average around 60. They can spend as much as 50 speed charges in a round and Never need to store speed.(depending on the rank of their feruchemical spike and how hungry they are. Each charge saps away an ounce of weight so they can be bled dry quickly.)

Tin Man-Feruchemical Tin

1 Feruchemical Tin Spike

1 actual Tin Spike

Stabbed in just above each eye.

These Hemalurgic creations can sense everything within 100 feet of them. This quickly drives them mad. They are typically conditioned to be terrified of anything containing investiture and thus start screaming anytime an invested object enters their range.(An Allomancer with metals inside, metalminds containing charges, and hemalurgic spikes no their own.(and other things if they come up, like Shardblades)

Feruchemical Strength.

Stab a Feruchemical pewter spike into a Koloss's forehead. The Koloss will rapidly grow to the point it shreds it skin completely, covering its body in a thick scab armor(giving them armor 2) They are immensely strong and huge(often over 18 feet tall). In addition they live longer than other Koloss and have completly maxed their physique score. They can store strength in their metalminds to halt growth at a rate limited by their physique or their spikes level and can use Pewter Feruchemy.)

Mental Speed

1 Spike granting Feruchemical Zinc(Through the roof of the mouth and 4 copper(wits) spikes 1 through each hand and foot holding them together. Grants Telekenesis. They can push or pull on any object as if they had an Iron and Steel rating equal to their Wits score. They can take Iron and Steel stunts... note that because their hands and feet are bound together they must move via pushing and pulling.

Feruchemical Copper

A spike granting Feruchemical copper stabbed into A kandra creates a special kind of Kandra. They don't need bones to take shape, instead stealing memories from those around them. They also feed on memories making those that suffer prolonged exposure amnesiacs.

Mistborn Murder Sheep

Stab 2 Spikes granting Feruchemical Bronze through the frontal lobes of a sheep as well as a blessing of potency. These intelligent predatory sheep cause a target within 20 feet of them not possessing a feruchemical bronze spike to fall asleep as if storing within Feruchemical bronze with a physique and Bronze Score of the Sheeps Physique. 1 Target per Murder Sheep. This counts as a mental attack(rating the sheeps physique) resisted by wits and damaging willpower.

Investiture

3 Investiture spikes-1 through the heart, 1 through the brain, and one through the stomach.

Every invested object within 100 feet loses its investiture while in the bubble. Once 5000 charges are stored the Hemalurgist explodes with the force of a large non-Nuclear Bomb. Any Metalminds removed from the bubble are drained of all charges and all Hemalurgic spikes not involved in the investiture hemalurgists body have a strength of 2 as if they have been fully drained of power.

Fortune

1 Fortune Spike through heart and one through the tip of the big toe.

Any rolls made within 100 feet of the hemalurgist are 'reversed' A value of zero is equivalent to a value 6 roll outside the bubble(1 is 5, 2 is 4, and 3 is 3.) Nudges subtract one from the rolls value. In addition the improbable happens often.

Connection to Others

1 Aluminum Spike(through forehead) and 2 Copper Spikes.) This creates a being with 8 distinct personalities that it rotates between rapidly. The non-evident personalities are experienced by those around them much like schizophrenic hallucinations. This manifests as wits attacks combated by wits and damaging willpower. The final results almost always wind up as madness. This can be blocked by Aluminum Earplugs.

Identity

An identity spike placed into A kandra with either the blessing of awareness or potency not only looks like the person who's bones they posess, they become them-compete with memories and mannerisms(along with cognitive and spiritual DNA allowing access to any powers and metalminds the target may have had. This degrades over the course of a month, often with violent repercussions.

Energy

A feruchemical Energy Spike stabbed through the neck just behind the throat can resurrect a corpse as a Zombie with a Physique rating equal to the spikes rating.

Breath

A feruchemical breath spike through the back of the hemalurgists mouth along with a pair of iron spikes through the soldiers Lungs granmts the hemalurgist the ability to breathe underwater, swim at amazing speeds(almost 75 MPH) They have also discovered the placement of blessing sthat grants sharks intelligence and how to make Kolosslike Dolphins.

Health

4 Feruchemical Gold Spikes through the heart of a Koloss creates a Koloss that never stops growing. They often top 30 feet in height and their scab armor grants armor 3. Their fists are weapon 4 and they have a total physique score of 20(granting a total dice pool of 20) In addition they resist control from soothers as if they were a Kandra with a blessing of will.

Determination

A pair of Feruchemical Electrum Spikes through the frontal lobes of any unintelligent creature grants wits 8, the ability to psychically communicate and the trait sociopath. When this procedure is performed on a human it grants them immunity to pain, enhanced physical capabilities(at the cost fo quickly destroying the body, and a strong desire to kill anything it is ordered too.

[happyman he/him]

This is an interesting bit of fan world-building, and could be fun in an RPG, but I suspect that Hemalurgy has things going on that Brandon isn't going to tell us about because they are far too spoilery. Just a fair warning.

Also, note that it is canon that TLR and the Inquisitors spent 1000-ish years trying to create new Hemalurgic creatures, and failed. An abundance of such things created at whim just doesn't fit. I would think that in the "real" Mistborn world, creating new viable Hemalurgic creatures would have to be the result of years of research and a deep understanding of Realmantics.

[Aminar]

As I said, these were created for the RPG as its selection of things to kill is weak. There's nothing wrong with looking at what Hemalurgy has done and extrapolating from there. As to TLR's experimentatio, I get the idea they weren't the best funded. Allomancers are a valuable thing to kill quickly and Hemalurgists even more so. These should be implied to involve said years of research. Conceptually mine is a Hemalurgic Cult hidden within the obligators and inspired by Ruin as a backup plan.

[Aeshdan he/him]

Some things I thought of include the Shuhr (elite uber-death-ninja-assassins created from mistwraiths, with Potency, Presence, and awareness but no prohibition on killing humans.), Hellhounds (created by giving a wolfhound 2 iron spikes. Very low mental resistance, but hard to control due to brutish minds making them very prone to msiunderstand orders.).

[Inkthinker]

On page 282 of The Mistborn RPG, Brandon encourages players to use Hemalurgy to create monsters, stating that "Hemalurgy is poorly understood, even by its practitioners. Many creatures can be crafted with the dark art, and only a few are commonly found in the Final Empire"

The semi-canon contribution of the RPG is the monsterwraith, a mistwraith that has absorbed a koloss corpse which still has its spikes. Granted a four-spike Blessing of Potency without the two spikes that grant the Blessing of Awareness, you get a creature that combines the amorphous shape-shifting ability of the kandra with the psychotic rage and strength of a koloss. Scary stuff.

So long as you're following the logic of The Treatise Metallurgic, I'd say it's a pretty open field. With 1000 years of history to play in, there's plenty of room for experimentation on the part of TLR, the Ministry, and the chance evolution of threats.

[Inkthinker]

Also, note that it is canon that TLR and the Inquisitors spent 1000-ish years trying to create new Hemalurgic creatures, and failed. An abundance of such things created at whim just doesn't fit. I would think that in the "real" Mistborn world, creating new viable Hemalurgic creatures would have to be the result of years of research and a deep understanding of Realmantics.

"Failure" is a flexible term, and I'd argue that it's most applicable here in the sense of "cost-effectiveness" and "sustainability". Steel Inquisitors, Koloss and Kandra meet both criteria, but there's a wealth of opportunities for "failed experiments" that might have gone on for a couple hundred years (considered a failure only in hindsight), or even if they only produced a handful of results they might still represent a threat to characters in the moment.

That 1000-year gap leaves a lot of room to play in. That's why it's the time period for the video game and the suggested setting for the RPG. Because of the stagnation of development that The Final Empire enforced, even if you go back a couple hundred years you still get a world very much like that of the novels (possibly a little fresher, even) but you can remain separate enough that any events which take place have had time to fade into background noise, or be covered up by the Ministry (which controls information flow).

[happyman he/him]

"Failure" is a flexible term, and I'd argue that it's most applicable here in the sense of "cost-effectiveness" and "sustainability". Steel Inquisitors, Koloss and Kandra meet both criteria, but there's a wealth of opportunities for "failed experiments" that might have gone on for a couple hundred years (considered a failure only in hindsight), or even if they only produced a handful of results they might still represent a threat to characters in the moment.

That 1000-year gap leaves a lot of room to play in. That's why it's the time period for the video game and the suggested setting for the RPG. Because of the stagnation of development that The Final Empire enforced, even if you go back a couple hundred years you still get a world very much like that of the novels (possibly a little fresher, even) but you can remain separate enough that any events which take place have had time to fade into background noise, or be covered up by the Ministry (which controls information flow).

Fair points all. Have fun, everybody.

[J'Tal]

My first/main character's concept is: A perceived dead noble Hemalurgist.

I was freaking out about how to create this character without doling out huge amounts of AP (Advancement Points). For example, getting a strength 5 spike costs 10 AP (2x the Str of Spike[5], so 10). Then on page 291 of the MAG (Mistborn Adventure Game):

A removed spike may be transfered to another character at no Advancement cost, though that character still loses a point of Charm, Wits, Spirit, or a combination of those as usual.

All I need to do now is save up AP for Spirit, and hunt down an Inquisitor. Yay.

Edited September 19, 2012 by J'Tal