quixote

Hey guys, Ive been lurking/reading brandon sanderson forums since the final empire came out, and I finally decided it was time to contribute my own opinion on some of these theories. Nice to officially meet all of you guys!

So to backtrack a little, but to me it seems illogical, following the patterns presented in the ars arcanums so far, for Hemalurgy to be able to steal investiture abilities from other realms. 1. I think this whole "spiritual DNA/spiritweb" is more restrictive than this theory espouses. I do not remember the exact quotes, but Im pretty sure it is said in a couple of different spots that the metallic arts as a whole are a result of how the shard ruin and preservation (and their intents) interact with the genetics of the people of scadrial. 2. Thus, hemalurgy should only work for the people of scadrial. The poeple of other worlds have different genetics. If it did not, shouldnt someone on another world have been accidently spiked at some time and been influenced by ruin or something? I.e. Why have awakeners never noticed this possibility? I do understand though that Brandon might just not have shown this yet. 3. However, keeping in mind that the intent of hemalurgy is to "ruin" something, I think what is being ruined is individual's allomantic and feruchemical abilities. Thus, intent-wise, hemalury isn't necessarily acting on the recipient of a spike, but instead the victim, ruining their investiture capabilities. 4. Consequently, when the AofL Ars arcanum says hemalurgy is potentially the most useful to the cosmere, I think it is because that even though it can only STEAL or RUIN scadrial abilities, it can GIVE those abilities to anyone, regardless of planet of origin. what do you guys think?