Halyo_Alex

Aaaaall right, time to see how many holes will be poked into this theory by those more knowledgeable than I. So, the basic premise is that Trell (whoever or whatever they are; that's not what this theory is about) specifically designed Trellium to be the most desirable metal for the Metallic Arts, particularly for Kandra. We see this clear enough with Bleeder in Shadows of Self. It can, apparently, steal any Power (Metalborn power) or Ability (the non-power stuff that hemalurgy deals with) as a single spike, including being used as a Kandra Blessing. It can even create aggresive, durable, and powerful Constructs. This is HUGE, as anyone who's read SoS will probably agree. Now, on to the theory part. The theory being; Trellium ALSO works for Allomancy and Feruchemy, and the effect it has is... Anything. Any metalborn ability that exists. Allomantic steel, Feruchemical Brass, it can mimic ALL of them. A Trelliummind would be a bit like a Tinmind, in that any one mind can store one power (or sense, for Tin), but if you drain it fully, you can put in a different one. This also kind of draws on an older theory I had (but never made a post about); the "true" allomantic effect of Lerasium. I believe that Lerasium could, if an Allomancer tried (with proper Intent), be burned for any Allomantic ability, all the while strengthening the Connection to Preservation. They could act as a Mistborn while becoming a Mistborn, but with just one metal. But I digress. The idea with this theory of Trellium being able to do anything within the bounds of the Metallic Arts also offers an explanation for why the Set seems to be attempting to breed Mistborn. They may want to be able to spike Trellium Allomancy out of them and give it to a Kandra. Imagine that, a freaking Kandra with any Allomantic effect they wanted, using just ONE spike. Absolute madness. And I feel like it lends some credence to this theory, if only theoretically. Additionally, if it can store any Feruchemic Trait, the Set may also (less obviously) be attempting to breed Full Feruchemists (or they'll start trying soon, perhaps in The Lost Metal), and spike Trellium Feruchemy out of them. That would also be somewhat terrifying, a Kandra with access to the entire repetoire of Feruchemic effects. We already saw how lethal Bleeder was with just Steelrunning, imagine a rogue Kandra with that and more. ...the really terrifying part is if they can somehow manage to make a single spike (or equivalent when it comes to Harmony's control) that grants both Trellium Allomancy and Feruchemy simultaneously. Instant Fullborn. Instant Kandra-with-power-equal-to-the-Lord-Ruler. This is probably the longest shot in this whole theory, and loads of this is probably going to be proven inaccurate, but honestly, I don't mind. I want to refine this theory to the truth.

I've actually theorized about additional Kandra Blessings in my free time. If the 4 we know of are based on the 'human attributes' that Hemalurgy can steal, why not "destiny" or "connection/identity"? They're not Metallic Arts powers. Since Chromium "might steal destiny" according to the chart, why not call it the Blessing of Fate? Wherein the Kandra inherits part of the donor's future, like... Inventing something that could change the world in some way, like if you spiked the guy that built the radio in BoM, and gave that as a Blessing to a Kandra, then that Kandra might end up inventing the radio instead. ... this one is the weirdest, because 'destiny' is super vague. is it stealing "future connections"? remember, time doesn't exist in the spiritual realm. Duralumin steals Connection/Identity. I feel like this one would be called the Blessing of Personality. If you spiked a person and then had a Kandra absorb their body and use that as their "main identity", and gave them these duralumin spikes, the Kandra's personality and behaviours would be more in line with the spiked person. They would basically come "pre-installed" so to speak, with Connections to other people, places (so you can nail the local dialect) and the Identity of the person which has a bunch of interesting implications.

I believe the coppermind says that Inquisitors could still breed to make normal humans, on the page for Steel Inquisitors. So they wouldn't be over that line in particular.

Wait. ...That reminds me of the Fused overtaking the modern Singer bodies. We know from WoBs that you can bond a Cognitive Shadow in a similar manner to a spren, in fact, almost identically. What if there's a reason for that? What if these two are parallels to one another? "old" Voidbinding, where Spren are simply added onto the Voidbinder's spiritweb. Surgebinding, where Spren bond to and gradually grow closer to the Surgebinder's spiritweb. "New" voidbinding, where Cognitive Shadows (Fused) are simply added onto the Voidbinder's spiritweb (in this case, we know this destroys the mind of the original Singer. I'm unsure of if "old" Voidbinding would have replaced the Voidbinder's mind with that of the Spren). And this unknown art of gradually bonding a Cognitive Shadow like a Surgebinder and Spren. It almost feels like an "internal/external & push/pull" double duality like a quadrant of the Metallic Arts. Which, I know, isn't very relevant. It just reminds me of that sort of thing. 4 parts of a set, each one removed from the two adjacent to it by one trait. The method of bonding, and what is being bonded. A, a, and B, b. 1 or 0 in two bits for 4 combinations. ...anyway that's my midnight theory ramble over, go ahead and poke this full of holes with actual facts.

Yep. I'm pretty sure the Honorblades (as the name implies) are splinters of Honor's investiture directly, and act "sort of" like a spren in that you bond to them for the Surges. I don't think there's anything about them that would need their originally corresponding Herald to still be alive or whatever for the Surges to still work.

Okay, fine, you guys win, I'll put ambition back in the Increasing Inward Temporal spot. I also made a second version of the chart showing what shards are on what Shardworlds and which ones are Splintered. Funny enough, Ambition is the one shard that isn't really on a Shardworld. Yes, part of her Investiture was splintered off onto Threnody, but Ambition was later splintered away from Threnody.

Hmm... That is a fair point. However, this is "dead" plate, with Identity altered by a Radiant bond, so there's still a chance it's just a quirk of 'dead' plate. But you do bring up a good point, and like I said, I didn't think this was a perfect theory on plate.

I'm glad you asked! Currently my theory is that by pouring Stormlight into a single Plate gauntlet, you would be giving enough Stormlight to the lesser spren making up the gauntlet that it would basically "call" the other lesser spren over there, because there's a big source of Stormlight over there, enough to (theoretically) regrow the whole plate there. It's a bit like putting a spren inside a fabrial gem, actually. In this case, the "thing the plate-spren want" is stormlight to regrow into a functioning set of Plate, because that is their goal, that is what they are perceived as: a whole set of plate. The plate-spren abandon the stormlight inside the rest of the Plate and return to the gauntlet being fed with Stormlight, building off of that to become the full Plate again. this is also why you can block this "plate recall" with your own stormlight supply, the plate-spren that you're feeding will basically disagree with the gauntlet plate-spren and stay where your supply of stormlight is, trying to recall the gauntlet plate-spren back to them so it can feed on that supply of Stormlight as well.

Ok, I'm pretty sure I just had a crazy moment, but hear me out for a second with this very much on-the-spot hypothesis. What if Shardplate is lesser spren (at least as a framework for Stormlight to be formed into Plate), but not in the way most people think that means? What if the nahel bond at (at least approximately) 4th Ideal is strong enough to connect to a batch of Lesser spren, which then have their Identity... changed. Not "overwritten", but... ... re-harmonized? There's a word for what I'm thinking of, basically i'm picturing Identity as a specific Frequency that the spiritweb vibrates at, and by changing that frequency, the Identity shifts. So the Radiant bonds a batch of Lesser spren, and the bond transfers the radiant's Identity frequency to the spren, and makes their Identities all... "resonate" with the Radiant Identity. So, the Radiant's Investiture can 'penetrate' through their own Shardplate because the Identity frequency is similar enough to their personal Identity that it can wiggle through the plate. And I imagine at 5th oath the Identity becomes even more closely resonating, so the Plate is even easier to Surgebind through, thus needing less Stormlight to "brute force" through the lesser spren Identity of the plate. And if the lesser spren are just forming a framework for the Plate, that still allows the lower durability of plate to make sense, and the ability for "dead" plate to be healed with Stormlight suddenly becomes a matter of Stormlight just naturally doing what it does: restoring the physical to a Spiritual ideal, filtered through the Cognitive. The Lesser spren of Plate still have that altered Identity from their old Radiants (which is why you can't Lash through it in modern times) and need Stormlight to repair their Physical form back to their natural, Spiritual ideal. The lesser spren are Connected (by the lingering bond provided by the Radiant) to each other, and are in effect their own Spiritweb, which Stormlight can heal into a proper physical set of Plate. They perceive themselves as Plate, so they heal themselves to that form. But they still have enough... awareness? to shift into a perfectly fitting set of plate for whoever wears them. They know what they were made to do, and they do it. Even if that person puts a helm over their fist, the Lesser spren still know "oh, we ought to conform to this" and they do. Maybe not that sapiently, but on a fundemental, "cosmere programming" level, they know to conform to whoever wears the plate. this also explains "dead" plate's ability to block out Stormform lightning bolts from sight, the lesser spren still "remember" how to do that, and automatically block out the lightning on instinct. The glow of proper Radiant Plate would then be the glow of the lesser spren being alive and somewhat pulled into the physical realm to be the framework of the Plate, glowing with the same way Stormlight does. Again this is an entirely spontaneous crazy moment hypothesis, but after writing this out I think it has some merits... Feel free to poke holes in it with evidence though, I know this can't be perfect.

okay, fair enough. Maybe a true "Greed" intent shard would be the merging of Ambition and... Oh, hmm... Dominion? Here, real quick, all of y'all. Is Ambition a Temporal or Physical shard? Quote this and add your response!! lol. But seriously I do want to know what people think. I personally like ambition as a Physical shard in part due to it just being a new interpretation... But again, I can see the logic of it being Increasing Inward Temporal.

I see your shard-to-metal chart and Rayse (hah) you my own interpretation! one of the big differences in mine is that I chose to put Ambition in the Physical category. My reasoning for this is because Ambition is a desire to Increase the amount of "stuff" you have, you aspire to gain "something" from being ambitious. Now, that's not to say I don't understand putting Ambition in the Temporal quadrant, however... It strikes me more as an increase to physical possessions, almost like "greed" under a different name. (also if the Survival Shard was on this chart it would be above Preservation, in the Inward Decreasing Temporal spot)

With regards to the "three surges with one overlapping" idea, I would also like to add that it doesn't seem too unreasonable to say that the shared surge would also be much more Stormlight-efficient, especially so at higher Ideals (or Truths). Since you have two bonds growing deeper with two Spren that both grant the "same power" (the same surge), you could use both bonds to 'conduct' (not sure if that's a good term) the Stormlight to the desired effect of the Surge. For instance, say... A... DustBreaker (so edgy) would have two spren both granting Division. I feel like they could become very powerful with that Surge in less time if they were able to swear Oaths to both orders at roughly the same time (or one after another with a fairly short interval, or what have you). Another big thing with double-bonding Spren: Two (living) Shardblades! That means a Radiant like that could (maybe) do something like a Bow and Arrow, with one Spren being the Bow, and one being the Arrow that is launched (since 1 Spren can't split into multiple pieces to be a bow and arrow at the same time). And of course, the obvious badassery of dual-wielding full-sized Blades.

I like your style. And yeah, I think Brandon mentioned in a WoB that shardblades can be used to focus laser beam-esque Lightweaving power. That alone would be storming cool at high enough powers. Add on top of that the potential for other forms of wave-manipulation, and a Lightweaver could literally be a one man (or woman) army. Oh waaaait.

So i'm lying in bed, thinking about some out-of-the-box applications of Surges, and I'm pondering the weird uses of Illumination when i suddenly remembered that it can also manipulate sound and not just light (photons). ...So Illumination can manipulate different kinds of waves. Electromagnetic waves (photons) and pressure waves (sound). First off, this probably means that Lightweavers could make explosive pressure waves with enough stormlight and just level a city in a single explosion of concussive force. That doesn't seem like too big of a stretch to me, it's just a loud enough, single burst of sound. But if Illumination can manipulate waves as complex as a pressure wave, which is a wave through a fluid... why not something as fundamental as Electromagnetic waves, but in a different "flavor"? In this case I am referring to other Quantum fields, of which Electromagnetic is one. All particles are excitations - waves - in these fundamental quantum fields, and if Illumination can create waves in those fields, you can create matter by using Investiture. ANY. MATTER. ...Even antimatter...maybe. But that's another discussion in and of itself. Point is, if Illumination is actually able to manipulate waves in other quantum fields, you can make whatever matter you want. You can create air out of stormlight, or metals, or water, or even something as molecularly complex as blood. ...Hang on, that sounds like Soulcasting! Now we're getting to the fun part, the potential application of Transformation alongside Illumination in this manner. By using Illumination to weave some "essential" material (one of the 10 that the polestones relate to), then you could use Transformation to turn it into something else, easily. Or maybe the initial complexity of the matter you Soulcast isn't relevant to the effort and stormlight required cough STICK cough but maybe it is. I'm not sure. My point I'm making with all of this, is that the surgepairing of the Lightweavers is probably one of the craziest in the KR. Hell, if Illumination could manipulate the Higgs' field in some way, they could change the mass of objects! ...Not the gravitational effect, the MASS. They could make any particle massless and light-speed travelling by negating its interactions with the Higgs field using Illumination... and then stop messing with it, suddenly restoring its mass. The ramifications of which I am TOTALLY unsure of, but the most likely scenario I can think of is that it retains a fair chunk of its velocity (maybe you only restore part of the interaction with the higgs field to give it only a little mass but huge speed) then, it would be a relativistic bullet. But as i was saying, with Illumination and Transformation, Lightweavers could create whatever objects they want, as long as they have the Stormlight at hand to weave and cast it into the form they desire. that is, IF Illumination can manipulate waves in other quantum fields besides the Electromagnetic field. Even that is, actually, quite powerful. Electrons are, after all, the force-carrying particle responsible for molecular bonds. If you could subtract the photons from those bonds, they would break. ...Hey wait, that sounds like Division! That's weird. I have to be wrong somewhere. This is too overpowered... But then again, we did see... (spoiler for OB, just in case) This might just be the full potential of a 5th ideal/truth Lightweaver, we don't know. The one hurdle we'd have to see overcome in-world is knowing about Quantum fields and the fact that all particles are waves in those fields, like light.

I have a slightly dubious hypothesis that Atium alloys feruchemically are all weird, and actually store the attribute by drawing it out of OTHER people (with a net loss, because they're mixed with Atium, the god metal of Ruin) So Malatium would steal someone else's health and fill your metalmind, which you could then tap to heal yourself. in theory. Perhaps, if the alloy was say 90% gold 10% harmonium, that could be safe. The thing is about Harmonium is that it's Spiritually at odds with itself due to the mixture of Intents, and that's what causes it's strange physical properties.

Fair enough, but what I'm saying is that I'm spiking a spren (which, they can't really die, not like humans) to grant my Cryptic additional surges that I can use to save more lives than the one spren that's being spiked. it is one step on the journey of protecting other lives. But alright, I can see how this might be pushing it. Still, I feel like there has to be some flexibility to the First Ideal. Otherwise Shardblades would be entirely pointless and the KR would be forced pacifists.

1. Atium alloys seem to flip the internal/external-ness of the metal it's alloyed with (gold becomes external and shows other people's pasts instead of your own) so Electrum Atium would show you other people's futures. ...wait a minute, that sounds like pure Atium. Interesting. 2. Lerasium alloys would turn you into a misting of the alloyed metal, but Lerasium and it's alloys also have a "proper" allomantic effect (which I believe in Lerasium's case is that you can burn it for any allomantic effect, as if it was any metal) 3. Harmonium explodes when it touches water, so... Don't eat it. Maybe you can Feruchemy with it, but your sweat can set it off enough to burn your skin. You're better off making a Primer Cube and using that to put your allomantic and feruchemic effects at range (Or making an ultra Hemalurgy spike that simultaneously spikes multiple people in a radius when Pushed into someone from far away).

Well not strictly so. I would be spiking another spren, but what if I truly believed that it would help me save more lives? What if it was truly what I wished to do with my knowledge of Hemalurgy?

@Nathrangking Thanks very much for that WoB! That answered most of my questions. @RShara That's not quite what I meant. I don't mean spiking the bond of a spren from someone else into yourself, I mean spiking the ability to use a particular surge out of a surgebinder or spren. So there would either be no spren at all (and the spiked human has innate Surgebinding from the spikes) or they spike their own Spren which grants them additional Surges. Which, I can see why you brought that up in the case of the latter, but like... With a Cryptic, the only ideal that might offer any moral resistance is the First Ideal, but you could logically argue that spiking extra surges into them is an unorthodox representation of Strength before Weakness, for instance. More surges to use means you could save more lives at the cost of spiking one spren (and they can't even really die per se).

Punny title aside, would it work? That is: can Hemalurgy spike out Surges (either from the surgebinder or their Spren) and grant them to someone with the right bind point? I imagine the metal most apt for this would be Nicrosil (Steals Investiture), and I think it would be more likely for the target to have to be the Spren, which would probably mean taking your spikes to the Cognitive Realm... Making it a bit of a hassle unless you have a method to get in there (Surge of Transportation, Oathgate, Perpendicularity). If this IS possible, what surges would you spike yourself with? I would personally go with Abrasion and Gravitation, because it would let me constantly slide "downhill" by lashing myself diagonally forwards and slicking my shoes. No skating effort required, just a mastery of partial lashings. Possibly more stormlight-efficient than just flying with Gravitation, too. It's also possible that you would have to put these surge spikes into your own Spren, in which case I would use a Cryptic and spike them with Abrasion and Gravitation, since their Oaths are just truths about yourself (and not, like, protecting people. Cause that would be a bit restrictive to Hemalurgy). And yes, I know, I still have to speak the First Ideal, but if these surges give me the power to save more lives than the spren I spike, isn't it worth it? Strength before weakness, after all. ...Kind of a tangent but I just wanted to preempt arguments like that.

Turns food into Awakening color, then. Huh, well I'd say that's one way to lift my spirits.

Well that's the thing: with Medallion tech, anyone could be a Steelrunner with the right blade. That's part of the magicalness of a (theoretical) scadrian shardblade.

Well, that depends. Sure, they have their uses, but with coinshots and lurchers around, they're not as clear-cut as on Earth. (cough aluminum bullets cough) But, say, a steelrunner, could actually be quite lethal with a sharp blade. Running or swinging at that much speed would put a lot of cutting power behind their strikes, and they could probably cut through a lot of stuff a normal person couldn't.

Interesting, but I didn't mean allomantic aluminum, I meant, like, cutting a Shade with aluminum vs silver. Thanks though, that is interesting to see that even Aluminum does have a use Allomantically...

An advanced enough Aon chain/group that allows the Seon to be pulled out of the Cognitive realm by the Elantrian (kept within easy reach as a tattoo on the elantrian's hand to start the process? I imagine that using Compounding (perhaps via Nicrosil) to just jam pack a sword with Feruchemy would at least be a fun way of making a push/pull resistant metal sword (make metal swords great again)! Maybe if you had a sword with Copper inlays (or Zinc) and stuffed those full, it would start doing some funky stuff Cognitively. Or MAYBE, harmonium-based technology could allow the blade to have the power we're looking for. Something like how the Primer cube can use Feruchemy (or something like it; which makes the airships store their weight in Iron) could be done with other metals. ...Say, wait a minute. Aren't Rosharan shardblades surprisingly light for their size? And maybe having a "Primer" object burning Pewter would make it more durable as well? Hmmmm... Edit: Here's my quick attempt at such a Scadrian Medallionblade, this one is Pewter. The pommel, 2 sides of the handle, and guard are all one Nicrosilmind with Feruchemical Pewter stored inside. The center of the handle, and middle of the blade, are one Pewtermind, and the cutting edge of the blade is a Steelmind (not intended for use, just to resist push/pulls and Rosharan Shardblades)