Electrum Feruchemy and "Soul Cracks"

[Scriptorian]

First theory post in years. Yay!

Background

Let's begin with the fact that we know very little about how storing and tapping Determination really works. There's what we have in the Ars Arcanum and what the (apocryphal) RPG speculates. For reference, we have this description from the Bands of Mourning Ars Arcanum:

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Pinnacle Ferrings can store determination in an electrum metalmind, entering a depressed state during active storage, and can tap it at a later time to enter a manic phase.

And from the RPG:

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Feruchemists use Electrum to store determination, and while doing so they display little motivation or initiative, as if deeply depressed. While tapping, on the other hand, they’re exceedingly confident, eager to take risks and facing danger head on, without fear. Tapping great determination results in something akin to a manic high, letting them act despite any and all setbacks, trauma, and mental anguish. It also lets them shake off what for lesser beings would be soul-crushing pain.

In the game, Feruchemical electrum functions identically to Feruchemical gold, except that it affects your willpower (mental health) instead of your physical health.

We should also note that, originally, Electrum and Brass (heat) had their feruchemical properties switched due to a typo, but this has since been made canon.

Theory

What might Electrum's place among the Hybrid metals imply? Gold feruchemy, for instance, might seem to be a purely physical effect, but rather than simply increasing the body's natural healing rate, it actually makes the Physical body more closely match the Spiritual (filtered through the Cognitive) body. This is why it can heal shardblade wounds. What I am suggesting, then, is that Feruchemical Electrum deals with more than just cognitive or emotional states; I think it affects the health and integrity of the soul/spiritweb.

We have several examples of soul "health" interacting with other magic systems. Allomancers must "Snap", creating cracks in their soul for the power of Preservation to flow through. Surgebinders have to be "broken" to create a hole in their soul for their spren to fill. From the back cover of WoR:

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It is the nature of the magic. A broken soul has cracks into which something else can be fit.  Surgebindings, the powers of creation themselves.  They can brace a broken soul; but they can also widen its fissures.

From these examples, it is generally accepted that any user of End-Positive Investiture must have, in some manner, a "broken soul". So the status of one's soul is a real and important consideration and integral to the fundamentals of Cosmere magic.

One of our best examples of such a "broken" person is Kaladin from SA, who appears to suffer from a variety of otherwise unpleasant mental and emotion conditions, including chemical depression, seasonal depression, and various flavors of post-traumatic-stress. Now, there is a bit of a chicken and egg problem with tying Kaladin's symptomology to his "brokenness". Did having natural chronic depression cause his soul to crack? Did his soul cracks cause the depression? Did his traumatic experiences result in both depression and soul-cracks? All of the above? In any case, the narrative closely associates his less-than-stellar mental health with his "brokenness". 

For this theory, I am hypothesizing that his chemical depression did not result directly in soul cracks, but was indicative of the overall integrity of his soul, allowing it to crack more easily under stress. Following this line of thought, I am theorizing that the "depression" associated with storing Electrum is really just a symptom of a weakened soul. Just like storing gold will not automatically make one sick, but weakens the immune system making it very possible to become ill, storing determination weakens the overall integrity of the soul making it more vulnerable to cracking. Conversely, if I'm correct, this would mean that tapping determination could actually heal the soul. 

Implications

Spoiler

 

Well, as implied above, storing determination could lower the threshold for Snapping, which, granted, is somewhat useless on modern Scadrial. However, it could be another item in the Feruchemist's toolbox of magic system "hacks". Want to attract a spren but don't feel like carrying around all the emotional baggage of being "broken" for the rest of your life? Store a lot of determination, have someone say really mean things to crack your now really weak soul, and wait for a spren. Yes, you'd still have to actually have the right behavior to attract the spren, but this is a step in the direction of making end-positive systems easier to access. Now this does beg the question, what happens to the spren-bond when you stop storing or start tapping? My guess is that it wouldn't do much--having a spren bonded would be the new default state of your soul. Tapping gold with a hemalurgic spike in your face doesn't force the spike out, after all. I think this would be much the same.

With that convenient segway into Hemalurgy...There's a theory I've seen pop up a couple times wondering if tapping determination could allow a Hemalurgist to over come Ruin/Harmony's interference. If my theory is correct, this would be true, not simply because electrum increases your willpower, but because it would (temporarily?) fill the holes in your soul that made you vulnerable in the first place. However, this could also mean that tapping determination would cleanse you of the foreign sDNA. This one I'm not as sure about. Would it be temporary? Or would it render the spike inert? A similar scenario is whether/how Feruchemical gold would reject a donated organ and regrow your own...It also could depend on if you've begun to see the foreign sDNA as your own. However, I do think that combining health and determination could be the key to surviving being a Hemalurgic "donor". Hmmm...Could you steal your own attribute, heal the physical and spiritual damage with gold and electrum, and then use the spike on yourself? Recursive Hemalurgy?!

For one last implication, we have this line from Hoid to Kelsier in SH:

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“You don’t have a body, and I don’t have the inclination to actually injure your soul.”

This is not only further evidence that the soul might have "health" analogous to the physical body's, but that being able to heal such damage could be very useful in more esoteric conflicts when the likes of Hoid and Shards are involved.

Summation

I think Feruchemical electrum deals with spiritual health in the same way Feruchemical gold manipulates physical health. This could have implications for how magic systems are gained, and could make you resistant to Shardic meddling.

This is all completely speculation, since all we have on Feruchemical electrum are brief Ars Arcanum entries and the dubious canonicity of the MAG. But there is precedent for spiritual health playing an important role in how Cosmere magic works. 

[Calderis]

On the whole, I like it as a form of Spiritual Fortitude. 

I think though, that it would only strengthen or weaken what is there, and not actually heal the soul, because Cosmere healing, whether Stormlight as we see with Kaladin, or F-gold already does that. 

http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=1084#69

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KURKISTAN (GOODREADS)

Could Miles heal back his Allomancy if it was spiked out of him?

BRANDON SANDERSON

No, he could not. He would no longer be an Allomancer. Also, he'd probably be dead.

KURKISTAN

I'd thought maybe he could just do some super-tapping from his existing Health in his goldminds (since he'd still have his Feruchemy)...

BRANDON SANDERSON

Oh, I see what you're asking. Using Feruchemy to heal the removed portion of soul. That's actually plausible, not so different from healing other kinds of soul-wounds. If he survived, then yes, this actually might work. (That's why I get for reading the questions so quickly.)

I think by reforming the soul though, you would reinforce the connections that are a part of the spirit web, so you could probably maintain the link between body, mind, and soul, even beyond the point that you should be dead. As long as you were healed before you had to stop tapping, this may allow you to keep going when you should be dead, 

Elantris Spoiler

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Spoiler

Like when Hrathen attacks Dilaf at the end. 

Please disregard quote box, mobile won't let me delete it

 

[cometaryorbit]

IIRC the Hybrid metals are basically Physical metals (that's why pewter spikes can steal Feruchemical gold), but having two quadrants called Physical would be confusing.

While, as you point out, electrum wasn't originally meant to be in that quadrant at all, now that it canonically is, IMO it probably stores neurotransmitters or something of that nature - it probably works via brain chemistry rather than spiritweb. The description sounds, to me, rather like a controllable form of bipolar disorder - except that the high-determination/manic state seems to have less associated problems.