Weird Hemalurgy Question

[Faceless Mist-Wraith he/him]

Can spikes be recharged? Like if I used a charged spike to spike a person for the same attribute it holds, would it regain a charge?

If this does work, would it still work if someone were using the spike at the time? Like if an Inquisitor had a really long eye spike, and he spiked someone behind him with the spike, would the spike be recharged/supercharged?

[Weltall]

My guess is no on both counts but for different reasons. The 'charge' in a spike is essentially the bit of spiritweb that it's ripped from the victim and there's a bit of Identity coded to it. In other words, you don't get 'the ability to use allomantic steel' from spiking Coinshot Joe, you get 'Coinshot Joe's ability to use allomantic steel'. This is why it's possible for someone with feruchemy gained through hemalurgy to use the metalminds of the spiked person; they gain enough of the Identity of the original feruchemist that the metalmind recognizes them as the right person. Spiking a second person with an existing hemalurgic spike would be adding a second independent charge rather than a suppliment to the first one, even if it was the same power. I'm not sure how the spiritweb would interpret that if they came from the same spike, as opposed to coming from separate spikes.

On the other question, I don't think it would work physically. In all examples we know of the spike needs to go completely through the victim in order to pick up whatever trait it's stealing, so even if you had a super-long spike in your body and managed to poke somebody in just the right place, I don't think you'd be able to trigger its spiritweb-ripping-off function.

In both of these cases, another issue to bear in mind is that since the spike already has a charge (and a distinct charge with associated Identity), they're already Invested objects and it would be harder to get a second charge into them. We know it's possible for objects to be so invested that they can't really be made into spikes on account of being 'full' already (even if the example's we've been given of this are super-Invested things like Nightblood) so a small spike might not be able to hold a second charge anyways.

Just found a WoB that seems to leave a little wiggle-room for multiple charges in a spike, but in general the answer appears to be 'no'

Quote

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

Atium spikes, they can hold a lot. Can they hold multiple different abilities, can they hold Surgebinding and--

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

Usually you've gotta use a spike for one thing at a time.

 

Edited February 2, 2018 by Weltall

[Calderis he/him]

Agree with @Weltall.

Additionally, if there is a way to charge a spike with multiple things, it's something we haven't see yet, and not possible with the variety of hemalurgy we know. 

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Brandon Sanderson

So, since I was doing other things.  Hemalurgy-when you spike, you place the spike in a place that determines which charge the spike gets.  

Kythis

Through the heart seems to pick up universally.

Brandon Sanderson

It depends on where in the heart. It's like acupuncture. This was designed from acupuncture and you get very specific on which nerve you're hitting and things like that

Kythis

So the spike will never pick up more than one power.

Brandon Sanderson

Well, the way they know how to do it.

Footnote: This clarifies two previous questions.
source

Emphasis added

[SallyA she/her]

On 2/2/2018 at 8:02 AM, Weltall said:

 We know it's possible for objects to be so invested that they can't really be made into spikes on account of being 'full' already (even if the example's we've been given of this are super-Invested things like Nightblood) so a small spike might not be able to hold a second charge anyways.

Just found a WoB that seems to leave a little wiggle-room for multiple charges in a spike, but in general the answer appears to be 'no'

 

Whoa . . . I just read the story from the web site:  Warbreaker where it is implied that to bring sentience to steel requites a massive amount of breath, and I assumed this also may have been the reason Nightblood aka sword nimi, was sentient.

Not so it seems!  Nightblood is also hyper-invested?  ... So is there a book where this is divulged?  TIA ;-)

[Weltall]

1 hour ago, SallyA said:

Not so it seems!  Nightblood is also hyper-invested?  ... So is there a book where this is divulged?  TIA ;-)

The thousand-plus Breaths that it took to Awaken Nightblood is the reason it's so heavily Invested, so your assumption was correct. That amount of Breath is roughly halfway to the Fifth Heightening, at which point the combined effect of all that Investiture makes you functionally immortal. Lots and lots of Investiture there. We also have Word of Brandon, here's the most straightforward one.

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Questioner

Is Nightblood a minor Shard?

Brandon Sanderson

Nightblood is one of the most heavily Invested things in the cosmere that is not a Shard.

Now, we still don't know exactly why Nightblood turned out the way it did, but it probably has to do with Vasher and Shashara trying to use one magic system to replicate the effects of a completely different system, which they may not have fully understood. Odd things can happen when you cross the streams- I mean, mix Investitures. xD

Edited February 3, 2018 by Weltall

[SallyA she/her]

Thank you!