Burning Hemalurgic spikes

[Lunu’anaki he/him]

So I know that inquisitors can burn metal from their spikes and I've heard a WoB about how burning hemalurgic metals could have "weird" effects, but nothing is clear in my mind really...

Is burning hemalurgic metals the same as burning regular ones but with weird side effects, or is it possible that there is some form of Hemalurgic "compounding" that could be done? What do we know?

[Calderis he/him]

There is an old WoB that says that burning a Hemalurgic spike would graft the spike into your soul. 

Quote

Maru Nui

What happens when you burn a Hemalurgic spike?

Brandon Sanderson

Burning a Hemalurgic spike would have the effect of splicing your spiritual DNA to that of the person's that is in the spike, which would have some very strange consequences.

Tor.com Q&A with Brandon Sanderson (Jan. 10, 2011)

But we have a more recent one that contradicts that. 

Quote

Questioner

If you burn a Hemalurgic spike, would it graft the piece of stolen soul onto your soul?

Brandon Sanderson

No, but it would have... There are some interesting effects there.

Shadows of Self Chicago signing (Oct. 12, 2015)

Personally, I think it would "compound" and you'd get an excessive amount of the Hemalurgic trait for the duration of the burn... Which could be monstrous, or fatal. 

But I also think it's an integral part of making medallions. 

 

[Calderis he/him]

5 hours ago, danox46 said:

 

That's not as easy as it seems. If you were to survive the harvesting someway, that harvesting wouldn't work so the spike won't have a charge. So, to both be alive an have an spike "keyed" to you would need to create an Identity-less Identity metalmind. Store your identity. Make someone else store their identity in another metalmind and tap yours the harvest him with a spike. I'm not sure if we will.see that one in the story.

Nah, if you were to survive, the spike would be charged, and you'd be in a horrible state, missing a chunk of your soul. 

[Karger he/him]

19 minutes ago, Lunu’anaki said:

Is burning hemalurgic metals the same as burning regular ones but with weird side effects, or is it possible that there is some form of Hemalurgic "compounding" that could be done? What do we know?

You have everything!  We know odd stuff is going to happen.  That is it.

[Lunu’anaki he/him]

1 hour ago, Karger said:

You have everything!  We know odd stuff is going to happen.  That is it.

damnation  

I was hoping for more 

[Karger he/him]

57 minutes ago, Lunu’anaki said:

damnation  

I was hoping for more 

Sorry.  Nada.

[Lunu’anaki he/him]

3 hours ago, Calderis said:

There is an old WoB that says that burning a Hemalurgic spike would graft the spike into your soul. 

But we have a more recent one that contradicts that. 

Personally, I think it would "compound" and you'd get an excessive amount of the Hemalurgic trait for the duration of the burn... Which could be monstrous, or fatal. 

But I also think it's an integral part of making medallions. 

 

That post of yours that you shared is one of the most interesting things I've seen in a long time. Tons of questions I didn't know I had being answered right now!! Great theory too. I can see how that would be close to the medallion creation process. Maybe Kelsier and Spook got some willing subjects (or used themselves) to make those so noone would ever need to again?

[Quantus he/him]

13 hours ago, Calderis said:

There is an old WoB that says that burning a Hemalurgic spike would graft the spike into your soul. 

But we have a more recent one that contradicts that. 

Personally, I think it would "compound" and you'd get an excessive amount of the Hemalurgic trait for the duration of the burn... Which could be monstrous, or fatal. 

But I also think it's an integral part of making medallions. 

 

Woah... So in theory, I wonder if you could compound a spike like that into the right 4-spike requirement for Kolos, basically getting a temporary transformation?

 

I really like you're model, though Im personally still undecided about the assumptions it rides on.  In addition to the two you mention, it's also hinges on whether the effects of burning a spike are indeed temporary for the duration of the burn (as is the case for all metals save Lerasium), or if it causes some permanent Change (as the older WOB indicated).  If it's causing a permanent Change more along the lines of Lerasium, I cant imagine what that would do.  It cant be as simple as splicing the sDNA into your spiritweb permanently, that would be redundant to the spike function itself and also the sort of thing that somebody should have thought to try, right?  

 

One way to reconcile the WOB might be if we find out that Burning a Spike works different depending on what the metal is storing.  In other words, maybe burning a spiritual trait (including a Power) acts as you describe, but burning say Iron (which stores a purely physical trait) would splice it the way that older WOB described.  

[Karger he/him]

This also leads to the question.  What if you burn your own spike?  What if the identity in the spike is keyed to you?

[danox46 he/him]

 

On 11/13/2019 at 0:57 PM, Karger said:

This also leads to the question.  What if you burn your own spike?  What if the identity in the spike is keyed to you?

That's not as easy as it seems. If you were to survive the harvesting someway, that harvesting wouldn't work so the spike won't have a charge. So, to both be alive an have an spike "keyed" to you would need to create an Identity-less Identity metalmind. Store your identity. Make someone else store their identity in another metalmind and tap yours the harvest him with a spike. I'm not sure if we will.see that one in the story.

[Highline he/him]

I was thinking, if you burned the spike would that lead to a permanent "connection" to harmony? Basically it would take away the need for the spike to be physically in the person?

[danox46 he/him]

1 hour ago, Mr.Brough said:

I was thinking, if you burned the spike would that lead to a permanent "connection" to harmony? Basically it would take away the need for the spike to be physically in the person?

We know it will change the spirit web of the person. Now, being able to talk to and listen to Harmony without a spike would be an interesting, if annoying, change XD