Living while spiked

[DiamondMind]

I'm starting a re-read (well, a re-re-re-reread) of Mistborn and I came across Kelsier's line about how no one knows how Inquisitor's live with spikes in their eyes. I don't remember ever getting an explanation of why this works.

 

Looking at the coppermind, I see that Hemalurgy "twists the body into something almost inhuman" and organs are moved around, but how does that actually work? Is there any specific information? How, and maybe most importantly by what, is this "twisting" done?

 

 

[Swimmingly]

I'm starting a re-read (well, a re-re-re-reread) of Mistborn and I came across Kelsier's line about how no one knows how Inquisitor's live with spikes in their eyes. I don't remember ever getting an explanation of why this works.

 

Looking at the coppermind, I see that Hemalurgy "twists the body into something almost inhuman" and organs are moved around, but how does that actually work? Is there any specific information? How, and maybe most importantly by what, is this "twisting" done?

Ruin's power, using the spikes as gates to the spiritweb and through it, the body.

[DiamondMind]

Ruin's power, using the spikes as gates to the spiritweb and through it, the body.

 

Thanks for answering!   How do we know-is there a WoB? I kind of expected this, but it leads to even more questions than it answers.

 

1. Is Ruin doing this directly, or is it just a consequence of the spike being inserted? Practically, if Ruin's mind was in a state like Preservation's during the series, would the twisting still occur? And could Harmony stop this from happening and so render Hemalurgy useless?

 

2. When does the twisting happen? For example, if the spike is inserted in the heart, when is the heart moved aside? During the spiking? After it's damaged? Does that lead to the inference that Ruin can heal the body of any spiked creature, or manipulate it in other ways?

 

I'll probably have more questions soon as I think about it...

[Swimmingly]

That was my deductive answer based on these facts:

1. It's sure as Damnation not Preservation

2. It occurs because of Ruin's magic system.

3. It. Is. Eeeeeeevil, and that about fits with Ruin.

Feel free to theorize otherwise. I should have been more clear that I was simply stating the answer that seemed most obvious. To me it just seems part of the magic system, like why Stormlight makes you glow or Soulseals use organic ink. A structural detail.

[Crewleader Theron]

This is a take I never really thought about.

 

Thanks for answering!   How do we know-is there a WoB? I kind of expected this, but it leads to even more questions than it answers.

 

1. Is Ruin doing this directly, or is it just a consequence of the spike being inserted? Practically, if Ruin's mind was in a state like Preservation's during the series, would the twisting still occur? And could Harmony stop this from happening and so render Hemalurgy useless?

I always felt like it was not ruin directly exerting the force of the shard, but was a ritualistic way of tapping into the essence of the ruin shard.  The magical nature of the spike meeting with a ritual that symbolizes the aspect of ruin, that something can only be created out of the destruction of something else.  I think that the nature of the shard's relationship with Scadrial would always be inherently there, whether harmony wanted to stop it or not.  But this is all theory based on my interpretation of the book, I can't cite any interviews or sources for this.

 

 

2. When does the twisting happen? For example, if the spike is inserted in the heart, when is the heart moved aside? During the spiking? After it's damaged? Does that lead to the inference that Ruin can heal the body of any spiked creature, or manipulate it in other ways?

I would suspect that the "twisting" of the being isn't entirely physical.  If I recall corrrectly when Marsh was made into an inquisitor, since each spike has to be driven through the body of an allomancer possessing the power to be imbued, and that the traumatic nature of the ritual would twist the soul of the inquisitor, much like ritual abuse does in real life. And as for the organs rearranging, I would think that the power of Ruin would, when it was invoked through the ritual, protect the organs that would be needed and push them out of the way as the spike is being driven in, no explanation why, just a structural detail like Swimmingly said.  

 

...but maybe someone who has the adventure game has more information about it? 

Edited March 1, 2014 by Crewleader Theron

[Claincy]

...but maybe someone who has the adventure game has more information about it? 

The MAG doesn't really talk about this. It talks about the basics of how spikes work and then starts talking rules and gameplay but it doesn't talk about what happens internally when someone receives a spike.

[Moogle]

A change to the spirit results in a change to the physical body. Hemalurgy is the art of taking a chunk of someone's spirit and grafting it onto someone else's. In the case of the koloss, the change has huge changes to the point where they become blue. Inquisitors change slightly too, becoming more crafty, their voices deepening.

 

In the case of a spike to the head, the Inquisitor's brain is molded around the spikes. In Penrod's case in HoA, the spike caused his heart to shift upwards.

 

There's no real physiological explanation given as to how the power knows to shift the organs about so the person doesn't die. Perhaps it's almost a sort of self-defense mechanism of the body receiving the stolen spirit-web chunk. Perhaps it's just that the places where you place spikes and there is no shifting of organs end up killing you so we never saw someone with such a set of spikes, leading to a sort of survivorship bias.

 

There's no way it's Ruin directly altering the bodies of people who receive spikes; that would defeat the point of it being a magic system.

[Quiver]

The MAG doesn't really talk about this. It talks about the basics of how spikes work and then starts talking rules and gameplay but it doesn't talk about what happens internally when someone receives a spike.

The first rule of Spike Club is you do not talk about Spike Club.

[Edgedancer]

The first rule of Spike Club is you do not talk about Spike Club.

The second rule is that the spikes will explain the other rules of the spike club.

[Swimmingly]

A change to the spirit results in a change to the physical body. Hemalurgy is the art of taking a chunk of someone's spirit and grafting it onto someone else's. In the case of the koloss, the change has huge changes to the point where they become blue. Inquisitors change slightly too, becoming more crafty, their voices deepening.

In the case of a spike to the head, the Inquisitor's brain is molded around the spikes. In Penrod's case in HoA, the spike caused his heart to shift upwards.

There's no real physiological explanation given as to how the power knows to shift the organs about so the person doesn't die. Perhaps it's almost a sort of self-defense mechanism of the body receiving the stolen spirit-web chunk. Perhaps it's just that the places where you place spikes and there is no shifting of organs end up killing you so we never saw someone with such a set of spikes, leading to a sort of survivorship bias.

There's no way it's Ruin directly altering the bodies of people who receive spikes; that would defeat the point of it being a magic system.

By Ruin's power, I meant his Investiture, the power being drawn from him.

[Crewleader Theron]

I see you folks talking about the "spirit web" which got me thinking, what if the twisting happens largely in the spiritual realm? The spirit of the person being imbued with the hemalurgical power attempts to stop the process, and when met with the power of Ruin's investiture, the result is the dislocation of the organs in the physical realm.

 

Or it could be the power of Ruin's investiture is what keeps them alive despite the spikes going through spots which would normally kill them?

[Moogle]

By Ruin's power, I meant his Investiture, the power being drawn from him.

 

My understanding of Hemalurgy was that it was all self-contained. Ruin did not have his Investiture drawn because it was an end-negative system and all the power came from the person the power was stolen from. I really don't think Ruin's Investiture was used at any point during Hemalurgy, except insofar as his Investiture infusing Scadrial caused Hemalurgy to emerge as a system.

[PorridgeBrick]

My headcanon was that he actually gained power from Hemalurgy- that the power lost to hemalurgic decay flows to him. Just seems like a very Ruinous thing to do, IMO.

[Crewleader Theron]

My headcanon was that he actually gained power from Hemalurgy- that the power lost to hemalurgic decay flows to him. Just seems like a very Ruinous thing to do, IMO.

This!

 

I like it.  I think it shall become my first espoused theory lol.