Theory: Soulcast Blood and Hemalurgy

[timasp he/him]

What happens if you cover a hemalurgic spike in soulcast blood?

 

Here's my theory:

 

First off, we know from SoS that covering a spike in blood transfers powers hemalurgically, and that investiture is intrinsically linked to perception. If a radiant were to soulcast blood right onto a spike (atium, in this case, because it holds everything), what would happen?

 

Because perception has so much power, I think that it would be as if that person's blood covered the spike. A person spiked with this would thus gain control over two surges. If someone else were to use a soulcaster, it would still be their blood on the spike. 

 

This might have other ramifications, but basically, soulcast blood is a replica of the blood of the soulcaster. What do you think?

 

EDIT: as many have pointed out, I misread SoS, and so thought that covering a spike in blood (completely) was the same thing as stabbing someone. 

Edited March 2, 2016 by timasp

[yurisses]

Covering a spike in blood averts hemalurgic decay. A spike has to go through a person's heart to become charged.

And you can soulcast different blood types. Is it your blood if it isn't the same blood type?

Edited January 22, 2016 by yurisses

[Voidus]

As was mentioned a spike has to go through a bind point (Typically the heart or another vital organ) to become charged, simply dipping it in blood isn't enough.

[Moogle]

Welcome to the forums, timasp!
 
Unfortunately, as others have said, this is not how Hemalurgy works, so your theory seems very unlikely.
 
Brandon describes the process in detail in this WoB:
 

Chaos2651
Is there a rationale to how Hemalurgic powers are distributed? I tried to look for a system, but they seem rather randomly distributed. For example, the spike which steals Allomantic powers for a particular quadrant is not always in one particular spot.

Brandon Sanderson
That is correct, it's not always in one particular spot.  None of them are.  I used as my model on this magic system the concept of acupuncture and pressure points.  Placing a Hemalurgic spike is a very delicate and specific art.  Imagine there being a different overlay on a human body, like a new network of nerves, representing lines, points, and 'veins' of the soul's spiritual makeup.

What is happening with Hemalurgy, essentially, is that you're driving a spike through a specific point on a person's body and ripping off a piece of their soul.  It sticks to the spike on the Spiritual Realm.  Then, you place that spike on someone else in a specific place (not exactly the same place, but on the right spiritual pressure point) and 'hot wire' the spirit to give it Hemalurgy or Feruchemy.  It's like you're fooling the spiritual DNA, creating a work-around.  Or, in some cases, changing the spirit to look like something else, which has the immediate effect of distorting the body and transforming it into a new creature.

Hemalurgy is a very brutal way of making changes like this, though, so it often has monstrous effects.  (Like with the koloss.)  And in most cases, it leaves a kind of 'hole' in the spirit's natural defenses, which is how Ruin was able to touch the souls of Hemalurgists directly.
(source)

 
You need to hit somebody's soul and rip it apart to charge a spike - touching the blood, unfortunately, is not enough. The commonly theorized reason that Hemalurgy involves the blood is that the blood acts as a sort of "junction" to reach the Spiritual:
 

Master_Moridin
1. What is the relationship between blood and the Spiritual Realm? (Since Hemalurgy needs blood to graft the sDNA in a spike into someone else's sDNA)

Brandon Sanderson
The blood being in motion is part of it.
(source)

 
You are, however, right that Hemalurgy can take Surges:
 

Question
Would a Hemalurgic spike take surges?

Brandon Sanderson
Hemalurgy can interact with every one of the magics.  I designed it specifically in writing Mistborn for future use.  Because some of the magics are so limited by their planet I wanted one that transcended all of them and Hemalurgy is very important to the entire cosmere  Its invention is a thing of great power and great danger to the entire cosmere.
(source)

 
We don't know how this would work - whether you have to steal the Radiant's bond to his spren, or if you can somehow spike the spren and steal a Surge, or what. It's also unknown if you could use a regular metal spike or if you would have to use a gemstone spike.

[Landis963 he/him]

We don't know how this would work - whether you have to steal the Radiant's bond to his spren, or if you can somehow spike the spren and steal a Surge, or what. It's also unknown if you could use a regular metal spike or if you would have to use a gemstone spike.

 

I'm of the opinion that, given that the nahel bond requires an alteration to the Spiritweb to take hold in the first place, that the bond itself is the thing the spike would steal.  And then the Hemalurgist would have to go through the journey-before-destination song and dance in order to keep the powers.  (And the spren might be very reticent to grant the powers in the first place, especially given how... messy hemalurgy can be.)

[Pathfinder]

I'm of the opinion that, given that the nahel bond requires an alteration to the Spiritweb to take hold in the first place, that the bond itself is the thing the spike would steal.  And then the Hemalurgist would have to go through the journey-before-destination song and dance in order to keep the powers.  (And the spren might be very reticent to grant the powers in the first place, especially given how... messy hemalurgy can be.)

First let me qualify this post with the fact that there is no evidence to back what I am about to state, and it is purely an intuitive leap on my part. I feel that if the spren was able to withhold the use of the power when gaining the ability through hemalurgy, then the spike would be mostly useless. Any individual willing to rip someone else's soul out of them in order to attain a bond rather than the old fashioned way of living the ideals, I feel would break the bond just from the act of plunging the spike into their body. Which I feel would result in either gaining nothing from the experience, or prompty a dead shardblade popping up. But that is only my own interpretation. 

[Voidus]

Personally I'm of the opinion that the spren would go stupid due to their original bondee dying but the power they impart remains and is siphoned through the spike.

[The Invested Beard]

Regular spren, probably wouldn't work on because of the bond. The spren that the Parshendi "bond" with? Now I can see that working as the Parshendi don't really have to uphold any oaths or anything.

[Pinnacle-Ferring he/him]

Not completely related to the topic, but here's a little tidbit I picked up on. In the preface to Shadows for Silence Brandon mentions that some of the rules on Threnody came from old Jewish laws and traditions.

"The world was mostly formed in my head, though over the years I’d added the idea of the shades for various reasons. One was to show off a few hints regarding the Cosmere afterlife, and another came during my initial research for the Stormlight Archive, where I read a lot about classical Hebrew life and philosophy. The original idea for Threnody was to make a system of magical rules with their roots in the Law of Moses and Jewish tradition. (Not mixing meat with milk, not kindling flames after nightfall on the Sabbath, etc.)"

Now, I'm Jewish and I know quite a bit about these things and in the Torah it's mentioned that the reason eating blood is forbidden is because "blood is the spirit". This could be where Brandon got the connection between blood and the Spiritual Realm from.