Hemalurgy and worldhopping questions

[R_P_Gamer]

Hemalurgy is one of the most fascinating forms of investiture yet revealed in the cosmere books, but i also find some of its properties confusing, namely where and how it can be used.

For example, hemalurgy doesn't seem to be restricted by place, allomancers only appear on scadrail, breath is granted to the peoples of nalthis, but you could use hemalurgy anywhere in the cosmere as long as you had the intent to create a hemalurgic spike, why is that? Can only scadrains create hemalurgic spikes, making it a part of the scadrain spiritual DNA? Do they need to be made with Scadrian metal? If neither of those are the case, is all metal in the cosmere invested with the ability to create hemalurgic spikes? If so how did THAT happen, when all of the other systems of magic are tied to their respective planets and shards?

Second question is about worldhopping, and is more of a curiosity. We know that distances between worlds in the cognitive realm are significantly smaller than in the physical, i presume that this is because there isn't a whole lot of thinking going on in outer space. We also know that Mistborn will eventually go sci-fi, presumably resulting in starships out in the vastness of space, and therefore, thought. Would this create ripples or eddies in the cognitive realm for worldhoppers? I wonder what they would look like, considering the differences in the cognitive realms of each world. Would a rosharan starship create a pool of beads and a scadrian one a bank of mist?

[Weltall]

Welcome to the Shard!

Great question on the Cognitive effects of space travel. My guess is that if they're using FTL in the Physical Realm, their presence in any given bit of CR 'space' would be so brief that it wouldn't have time to create anything on the other side. Considering how compressed Cognitive space where there's no Physial thought is implied to be and how quickly a ship traveling FTL in the Physical would be moving through that relatively compressed space, any effect on the Cognitive side would probably be so brief that you wouldn't notice it. Maybe if you had very regular traffic through a given bit of space there would be enough regularly occurring thought to leave some sort of Cognitive impression but even then I imagine it would be pretty tenuous.

As for the hemalurgy questions, the Metallic Arts only use metal as a 'key' to accessing the powers of Preservation and Ruin. The Shards' power is concentrated in the Spiritual Realm where time and space are irrelevant, so the powers granted by these magic systems can be used anywhere in the Cosmere as long as you have the necessary metals, and where you get the metal isn't important. Allomancy and feruchemy require that the user have the necessary sDNA while hemalurgy can be used by anyone as a built-in feature of the system. The only things you need to perform hemalurgy are a spike of the necessary metal, knowledge of the points you need to hit in the donor and recipient's bodies and the intent to actually create a hemalurgic spike. It's this last one that's the most important and it's the reason that 'accidental hemalurgy' isn't possible.

By the way, it's not only the Metallic Arts that are usable offworld, they just happen to be very easy to use on other planets because metal is ubiquitous. BioChroma works anywhere as long as you have Breath (pay attention to Hoid's appearances in Stormlight Archive for examples) and it's the easiest system we know of for non-natives to access because the Breath keys itself to your Identity when you recieve it. The only thing that's restricted to native Nalthians is becoming a Returned, which Brandon has said would be 'really hard' for a non-native to do. Surgebinding theoretically can be used offworld, as long as you can solve the two problems of keeping a supply of stormlight and getting the spren whose bond makes the magic possible away from Roshar's Cognitive region. We've been told this is possible if you know how to do it. Sand Mastery's another potentially universal one. with Brandon saying that you could recharge the sand anywhere light from Taldain's star is visible. And it can be recharged with other forms of Investiture as well.

Literally the only magic system that we know is actuallly impossible to use offworld (right now) is Selish magic in all its manifestations, because of what Odium did to try and prevent anyone from taking up Devotion and Dominion's power after he left. Thus, it's actually location-dependant unlike everything else where you can do the magic anywhere so long as you have the right sDNA and/or the necessary catalyst(s).

Here's a Word of Brandon that summarizes a lot of this stuff, in addition to the other ones I linked.

Edited January 12, 2018 by Weltall

[R_P_Gamer]

I was aware of the ability to use other magic systems on the disparate cosmere worlds. It just seems so odd that hemalurgy is so ubiquitous. For the other magic systems, you are always... carrying something with you, or tapping into a more local power source. Breath is carried by an individual, surges come from a bonded spren and stormlight, sand mastery uses the invested sand of Taldain... Though... when you consider metal as the "key" to allomancy (by tapping into preservation/harmony), rather than the power source itself, that makes using hemalurgy about the same as using allomancy off of scadrial (something Hoid has presumably already done with Shallan's father)... Could that have something to do with Ruin and Preservation as universal forces?

We are asked all the time in stormlight what spren really are, and how they are divided into natural forces and emotional or cognitive ones (wind spren and honor spren, for example), do you think shards could be divided similarly?

Edited January 12, 2018 by R_P_Gamer

[Calderis he/him]

@R_P_Gamer we actually have a pretty recent WoB that helps address some of this. (for both of these source links, because of how recent, if you haven't read OB, you may want to avoid reading the surrounding WoBs) 

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/256/#e8605

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Overlord Jebus [PENDING REVIEW]

Is all Investiture in the cosmere associated with a Shard?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

Yes, well, okay. So this is a complicated one. *pauses* So, Investiture predates the Shattering of Adonalsium, all Investiture was from Adonalsium, all Investiture got assigned to one of the 16 Shards when Adonalsium was Shattered. Some of the Investiture was not on Yolen but location is irrelevant. So Investiture is related to Shards even on planets where none of the Shards are inhabiting. 

Overlord Jebus [PENDING REVIEW]

Are they aware of that Investiture?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

That's part of the whole seeing into the infinite, being beyond even the power of a Shard. So, technically you could make the argument that Harmony could feel the sense of Preservation on every world in the cosmere, right? Because the building blocks of all life and creation are these things.

Overlord Jebus [PENDING REVIEW]

So the Shard of Preservation embodies all preservation in the cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

Yes but he just can't do that, right? Like, he's not infinite. The Vessels are not, even if their minds are enormously expanded by holding a Shard, they are not infinite. The Connection is all there in the Spiritual Realm

And then a follow up that addresses Spren more directly. 

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/314/#e8903

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Chaos [PENDING REVIEW]

So, at the Forbidden Planet signing you said that when Adonalsium was Shattered, all Investiture in the cosmere was associated to one of the Shards... So, what happened with Adonalsium's spren on Roshar? Were those associated to Honor and Cultivation? What happened with them?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

So they were very-- They were already associated to certain parts of Adonalsium and they went with those associations. There's a lot of Cultivation in all of the spren, particularly the natural spren.

So with everything that @Weltall said in his wonderful summary, and on that all investiture in the Cosmere is delegated to the Shards by the nature of what it is, and the pervasive nature of many things becomes more easily explained. 

Hemalurgy, in my mind, is available to everyone by its nature, because latent Ruin investiture is everywhere. Everything is effected by entropy. So if you have the knowledge and the Intent to create a spike, Ruin's investiture will key into its magic system and do what it is meant to do.