Trusk'our

Metals don't have to be in the stomach to be burnable, just be in the body.

True, there are other Shardworlds with agelessness available, but none have a direct, commonly known method that you can just buy your way into.

You're welcome I just happened to remember something like it in my mind as I read your post and did an Arcanum dive to double check.

This is correct.

Nalthis has a fairly unique magic system, what with the fact that it's fairly simple to obtain and can literally stop natural causes of death. So, does this mean Nalthis is the perfect place for ultra-rich immortal schemers to organically rise? I mean, if you were super rich and could literally buy off death, wouldn't you? And, with that agelessness, why wouldn't you be willing to wait a few decades to see more long-term plans come to fruition? Plans that mortals can't really compete with, since they have a very finite lifespan. Seems like Nalthis should have lots of these in the future, at least to me.

It is plausible that Divine Breaths can be used for other things, though nobody knows how to do it. I'm sure it's possible, but I doubt it will be the default scenario. A Cognitive Shadow needs the continuous influx of Investiture to live because their ties to the Realms are severed, leading to their souls passing into the Beyond. Spren and other Invested beings don't seem to have this issue.

I do not believe this to be the case. Returned must feed on Investiture not to sustain their Divine Breath, but because they are Cognitive Shadows. Hemalurgically spiking a Divine Breath wouldn't require extra Investiture if it were given to a non-shadow. I think both Nightblood and Azure's blade feed on Investiture as a natural component of their Commands. Nightblood is seen to stop being able to destroy matter when not actively feeding on Investiture in Warbreaker when Vasher has to drop the sword. Furthermore, I think Nightblood uses Ruin's Investiture because of the Command used, corrupting other Investiture like Hemalurgic spikes seem to (most likely as a unique quirk of Ruin's Intent, much like how Endowment's Investiture is easy to leave Nalthis or Autonomy's repells other Investitures).

We don't know exactly yet. It's genetic in nature, but it relies on spiritual DNA, not physical, so the rules are more subject to in-universe dictation. Allomancy is hardwritten into your Spiritweb based on your level of Preservation, though to actually utilize it you must Snap, which unlocks it somehow (I strongly suspect this is done by forging a bond between the person's Allomantic power and the Shard of Preservation). This Connection between the Allomancer can then be used to trade metals for Investiture, which is shaped by the type of metal used. As a side note, Feruchemy weakens too, but the effects are much less pronounced. Scadrial and it's people were directly created by Ruin and Preservation. Humans didn't exist on the planet before, as there was no planet before they came along. What's more, all three of the Metallic Arts spawned naturally between the interactions of Ruin, Preservation, and Scadrial. There were some more direct meddlings (like with Lerasium and the Well of Ascension), but all three magics could have existed simply by Scadrial being created the way it was. Allomancy is a Spiritweb thing. The Allomantic powers are comprised of Investiture which is encoded within the Spiritweb, which is why Hemalurgy can steal it. This extra Investiture in the Spiritweb can be used to Connect to Preservation and draw more power for an active effect by metabolizing metals. The type of metal acts as a focus, telling the Investiture how to act. It's nice to have another Sharder who's interested in the deeper Investiture mechanics

No worries As @Treamayne said, we've got some great admins.

Welcome to the Shard! As epic as this idea is, it wouldn't work for several reasons. Hemalurgic spikes have a very finite storage space for Investiture compared to Shards. Trying to steal enough Investiture with one to Ascend is virtually impossible. There's also the complication that robbing the Investiture from the Vessel (which seems to be the only valid target for Hemalurgy directly affecting a Shard) would be difficult at best, as they're physical form is typically amorphous. Third, nicrosil may just not be the right tool for this. From what hints we have, I think it's likely Hemalurgy corrupts the stolen Investiture's Intent, driving it toward Ruin. Which if true would probably prevent you from realistically combining multiple Shardic Intents into Adonalsium, no matter the outcome. Perhaps duralumin stealing enough Shardic Connection could work to help pick up a Shard if the Vessel were to be killed, but you're still likely to have some issues regarding Intent and collecting enough Connection in the first place. Hope this was helpful!

That is an excellent question. As far as I'm aware, we don't know, but I see a few possibilities. It's possible that the initial spiking loses power as a portion of the donor's Investiture is siphoned off to fuel the process. Kind of like how Feruchemy becomes less efficient as you tap it more quickly. It's also possible that this Investiture is still present in the spike, but because the spike needs to rearrange the bearer's Spiritweb to prevent death, this costs a portion of its power. And, it could very well be that the process just isn't perfectly efficient, which also makes some sense since Atium focuses it better and takes more Investiture in the first place. But, if we're talking about the leaking that occurs after the initial spiking, I think it's comparable to a phenomenon in the Stormlight Archive. I think that when a spike is outside a body the Investiture will attempt to fulfill Ruin's Intent and grow in entropy, dispersing from the metal over time. This lost Investiture will eventually make its way back to whatever Shard it belonged to before, just like how any expended Investiture would. Hope this was helpful!

Is it this WoB talking about Steelpushing Radiant blades vs Deadblades? I think it's referring to there being more Investiture in a living blade because something is missing in Deadeyes. I think it could also be reasoned that Honorblades are less Invested than Radiant Blades, as Radiant Shardblades have a consciousness residing within them on top of their functional Investiture.

Ah, nice! And true, the WoB does say the more Rashek aged the more youth he'd need to tap. I had assumed this just referred to standard Feruchemical compression loss, though now I see how this fits the theory so well. One other thing in here I find interesting, it says that this change is purely physical, no Connection (i.e. spiritual) shenanigans going on. So, maybe other physical attributes like strength draw from the Spiritweb initially, but only affect the physical when tapping? Indeed, the more quickly you tap, the less efficient you are with your stores.

True, Harmonium generally uses a field effect. I do think there must be some way to create a Harmonium Fabrial to selectively target though, like by utilizing Connection. That would make certain powers way more convenient, like Emotional Allomancy or Pewter. I agree with this idea. It does make me think that "quieter" manifestations like Lightweaving or Feruchemical attributes (unless Compounding) will be harder to mimic, but probably any Investiture with a detectable pulse is fair game. And since things like just summoning Shardblades or transferring Breath make them kinetic, I think options like filling Hemalurgic spikes with extra power or boosting Lerasium Allomancy is plausible. My guess is that the Harmonium would most likely glitch out and not pick up anything due to multiple patterns interfering, just like with medallions or Hemalurgic Identity contamination. Perhaps if they both came from the same person you could mix them a bit, get something slightly new, like how Surgebinders can manifest their Surges differently because of their combinations. Indeed, which shows a strong chance of Harmonium devices being far more flexible than previously assumed. There's a thread discussing this topic further, if you'd like to check it out.

In BoM we see that there is a way to use Harmonium to pick up on and mimic other manifestations of Investiture, as the Malwish airships must use this method. Additionally, there's a WoB stating that this is not limited to Allomancy, but could theoretically be extended to other Invested Arts: So, what about Godmetal effects? For example, if Marsh Compounded (or maybe just tapped) youth with the correct Harmonium Fabrial in hand, could he use the Harmonium to replicate and fuel that ability instead of relying solely on his extremely finite supply of Atium? Or, if a person burned a small amount of Lerasium, could the Harmonium replicate the effects and with enough essentially give you more Allomancy? I suppose one weird side affect is that if an inanimate object were to burn Lerasium, it might target the device instead, permanently granting it more Connection and Investiture. Maybe Awaken it? I also wonder how Harmonium would respond to Shardblades, as they do possess an Invested pulse when summoned (which I'm assuming, perhaps falsely, Harmonium uses to determine what to mimic Investiture) though only briefly. What about Awakened Commands? Would using Harmonium in tandem with Breaths make the process cheaper? Or, what of charging Hemalurgic spikes? Maybe with Harmonium Fabrial attached to a spike while charging it you can metabolize the metal and superchge the spike, adding to its raw power.

The Spiritweb is a fickle thing, constantly changing and evolving as Shai says in TES. It does resist external influence though, seen as Soulstams can be rejected if they are too different from the actual Spiritweb. We also see similar things with the congnitive aspect of a person, where blunt Emotional Allomancy can induce an opposite reaction in a target, and wiping too many memories can cause the whole process to collapse. In any case, I think the Spiritweb of a person resists strong change, but smaller, more congruent changes seem to be acceptable as Soulstamps show. I think that Hemalurgy might contend with a similar issue, where the spike has to overpower the Spiritweb's rejection of foreign material. This contest usually results in a greater weakening of the Spiritweb as a whole, contributing to the Flaw and causing unnecessary warping in the recipient (also causing greater exhaustion like in Yumi). I don't think this is the only factor, but certainly an issue. However, if you were to add a small spike with a relatively small amount of Investiture to the recipient, making only a small, plausible change like with Forgery, I wonder if some of the Hemalurgic weaknesses could be mitigated. Though a hole in the Spiritweb would still be present (as Pathian earrings show us to be the case), the damage to the body and psyche may be significantly reduced due to the lessened conflict. What's more, because the Spiritweb is fighting back less, perhaps you could add more spikes over time? Yumi shows us that a body resisting a foreign Spiritweb will reduce its rejection over time, so perhaps swapping the spikes for slightly more Invested ones over time (or using something like Raysium to add more Investiture to current spikes) would give the Spiritweb time to acclimate to the added Investiture, making the process easier to handle. Additionally, while thinking on this topic, I wondered whether Spiritweb resistance is relevant to more than just Hemalurgy. What if, perhaps, a significant amount of Feruchemical compression loss is due to the Spiritweb fighting unnatural changes to its structure? The more you tap, the less efficient you become as your Spiritweb tries to snap back to its natural state and you must tap more to compensate (there's also the fact that some Investiture must be siphoned off to protect the Feruchemist as well, but I don't think that's as big a contributing factor). Thoughts to add on to or contradict these ideas?

Thanks guys! It's nice to know it's appreciated Makes sense to me. The longer I think on it, the more steps there will be to figuring out Hemalurgy. Identity contamination isn't just the issue, the bridge between the spike and the recipient isn't just the issue, bindpoint placement isn't just the issue. It's probably all of them to some varying degree, plus more.

There is a WoB here, and it seems like Secretspren would be affected by a Coppercloud. There's some minor Cosmere references in it though. Also, even though it's only touching on Cosmere-wide stuff lightly, it would probably be best to ask questions like this in the Cosmere Forum in the future.

For the creation of new species, or just as a system in general?

Fairly certain I've had this idea before, but it wasn't as refined. I have a good WoB to back it up now. Hemalurgy's been used on Scadrial for a while, but, do they really understand what they're doing when they use it? Intent is very, very important when trying to perform tasks with Investiture, and the powerful and specific you want to be, the more refined your Intent must be. This makes me wonder, is Hemalurgy being used incorrectly? Basically, Hemalurgy is like a knife in some ways, cutting off parts of one being to sew onto another. But, if the Spiritweb isn't really understood by most Hemalurgists and they're just going off the most basic instructions of "I stab here and get this ability" then is this a weak Intent? Perhaps this is part if why attribute spikes mess up their bearers so much- you're using a butcher's knife where you need a scalpel, so you unintentionally rip off more Spiritweb than you need, and since the extra pieces are relevant to core attributes the extra stuff warps the spike's recipient more. This could be comparable to AI art, but with your soul. The less refined your Intent, the more input the inhuman will of the Investiture has. The more specific your Intent, the more manually you do the work. Of course, Ruin himself wanted maximum destruction, so he wouldn't have moderated the power, but perhaps Hemalurgy can be less gruesome in the future given the pivotal roll I assume it will play with the other Metallic Arts in Scadrial's story.

For me, the beginning of WoK was kind of slow, but it really, really pays off later.

That is certainly still a possibility, we don't know for certain yet. I'm currently not leaning in that direction with what we know, but really we'll need a more direct WoB or in-world explanation before we can be concrete.

I think I agree with the concept, at least in general. I think Feruchemical attributes that are inherently more Investiture intensive (so, probably steel and nicrosil being up there while ones like copper are on the lower end) will have a steeper drop off due to compression loss. The more Investiture you must tap to get a certain level of the ability, the bigger the loss becomes. Regarding the issue that a Soulbearer will just have more Investiture available and may accidentally bring about Savantism, but I think that depends somewhat on whether the enhanced power softens the blow or not. Though, given that they must take breaks from their heightened Allomancy in order to strengthen it, they will probably have less total Investiture saturating their system than a Twinborn using their Allomancy regularly, so I personally doubt it will be that big an issue for them compared to Compounders.

Compounding is a pretty powerful ability and is well known now across northern Scadrial. But, I think there may be another Twinborn grouping with equal potential. If natural Soulbering works like most other Feruchemical powers, a F-nicrosil Twinborn should be able to temporarily reduce the strength of their Allomancy to empower it later. Basically the opposite of what a Compounder does, using their Feruchemical strength to cover their Allomantic limitations. A Pewterarm Soulbearer could become massivly strong, quick, poised, and durable, a Coinshot make incredibly long Steeljumps, or an Oracle actually have a vision of the future.

It's possible. I'm still somewhat hesitant to think strong Allomancy can lead to Heightenings though, as Elend didn't exemplify any despite his potent abilities. This could still just be a matter of very few BEUs being present, but on the flipside this would have to make powering up the Metallic Arts stupidly easy. If a Lerasium Mistborn has fewer than 30 ish BEUs available to them (when the First Heightening starts showing up) then hot wiring other Invested Arts like Awakening to empower Allomancy would quickly become very powerful. That's also a good point. I wonder if H-nicrosil or duralumin can be hacked to grant better longevity by directly meddling with what the Heightenings would indirectly. Could be a plausible Command. I think if it's more common for Heightened artists to do this that it might just be another blanket function of the Heightenings, passively boosting one's Fortune like their other attributes. Or, maybe it's like how a Heightened person will have their aura flare with strong emotions or when dying- when focusing their skills or entering a flow state, their Breaths channel more Fortune or maybe just convey the person's Intent through their artwork better.