Trusk'our

As I've been dwelling on general Investiture, I thought about how it seems to mostly be raw power just floating around waiting to be used up. In fact, if a Surgebinder had access to Biochroma they could substitute it for Stormlight without much difficulty. This makes me wonder, can other general Investiture be used similarly? For example, let's say a Bloodmaker steals Investiture from another person with a nicrosil spike and implants it into themselves. Could they learn to draw on the spike's Investiture in place of a Goldmind (assuming they stripped it of Identity prior)? I don't think it's quite as powerful as Compounding in most instances, but being able to vampirically fuel your Invested Arts with Hemalurgic nicrosil might be a plausible hack.

Excellent question. Preservation could have done this, but there would have been two issues. Firstly, the Mist sickness was done partially to convey a message, something that adding Mistborn in would have screwed up. Secondly, it would have been much more costly to Preservation in terms of raw power than Snapping a Misting, something that couldn't be spared while still in direct confrontation with Ruin.

Nah, you've provide adequate evidence. I'm now convinced the orb probably doesn't contain Breaths, which I had assumed for a while, but the quotes definitely don't lean in that direction. I will say that I don't think a Returned accessing Fortune necessarily restricts all Bio-Chroma to that same method (especially if it's a construct made through some kind of Command), but other than that I think I can agree with you now. Thanks for finding the quotes!

It's been a while since I had access to OB, but didn't Kaladin specify that his vision with the orb was different than his typical one riding the Storm? That there was a rainbow of colors, like with Bio-Chroma, and the Stormfather mentioned later that he couldn't sense Kaladin there like he normally does (possibly because their using a different Shard's Investiture)?

To some extent Commands are left out of the Metallic Arts, as each magic system has a bit of its own thing going on. That said, I think you're onto something regarding Intent and the Metallic Arts. Pewter Allomancy's already been described having extra appearance-altering potential, and Feruchemical powers like tin and duralumin require greater specificity to store certain senses and Connections. Compounding itself is regarded as being a special skill, requiring real practice and Intent to pull off, so tweaking other powers via refined Intent seems likely.

Ah, those are some good points. I think Elantrians are kinda weird in particular. Design considers them to be very highly Invested, even compared to other Invested beings. However, I think much of this Investiture may be due to an artificial boost from Elantris itself. We know, for example, that Elantrians lose their characteristic glowing metallic skin when they stray too far from the Dor, presumably because they aren't working as a conduit for Investiture anymore. Essentially, I think the artificial boost of Investiture might actually be what grants Elantrians some Heightening effects, like agelessness, speed, and strength. These traits might be direct effects more than actual Heightenings, especially considering that Elantrian longevity differs from Heightening longevity in its psychological toll. Additionally, I think Riino himself might actually have Breaths. His crystal ball seemed to shimmer with Bio-Chroma, he seemed to have a noticeable Lifesense even when other Elantrians don't express that trait, and he automatically assumes Kaladin has Breaths when using his Fortune ball. I'll have to do more digging later, but I think it's mentioned Returned have some weird ability to remotely taste with their Breath. Khrissilla's papers on Nalthis were supposed to discuss this, I think? Thanks so much! I always enjoy a good Cosmere mechanics discussion.

Honorblades are a bit finicky. If you bond one that shares Surges with your Radiant Order you'll receive a slight increment to your Surgebinding power, but not much.

Oh yeah, Autonomy's a big fan of Kelsier. Normally, I think of it as being more a contest of directing their Investiture to destroy the opposing Vessel, but Autonomy plays weird. I think her Shard might have the unique ability to boot other Shards by Investing a place, much like how Trellium repells other Investitures. If her minions can get a strong foothold in a country or planet, perhaps their Connection to her Shard can reinforce her own to that place, letting her perform this strategy with greater ease.

That's an excellent point. All Dawnshards provide a measure of Investiture simply from holding them. We do know that Dawnshards are supposed to be relatively harmless if borne by someone with no specific way to direct Investiture, so perhaps the Dawnshard itself lacks this component (I believe this is also directly stated in Dawnshard chapter 19, or at least that's what the Coppermind says). I think it's likely that general Investiture is drawn to a Dawnshard, but unless the person actively gives a Command to hone the Intent, it will mostly stay as general Investiture and contribute to their Heightenings, or be siphoned off to fuel other individual changes, like Nomad's Torment.

The Heightenings have been kind of annoying to me, as it seems like they should be more prevalent, given that so many people are Invested. There's definitely an element of there simply not being the same level of Investiture present in magic systems like Allomancy and Surgebinding as in Awakening (at least not in the form of Innate Investiture), but TLR was an extremely powerful Allomancer who gained his powers directly from the Well of Ascension. Seems like some Heightening effects would have been present. Or, what about Bondsmiths? Sure, most of the actual Investiture is probably tied to their vast Spren, but being Connected to them is basically hot wiring their souls together, making them act more as one, which makes that point rather moot. As such, I strongly suspect there must be something more than just possessing large portions of Investiture to obtain Heightenings. We know that Investiture responds to the thoughts and intents of thinking beings (as per Design's explanation in Yumi). I think that there is a subconscious level of Intent that your physical, cognitive, and spiritual aspects all impose on general Investiture, much like how a Pewterarm's body can impose its Intent and burn pewter to survive, even when the person is unconscious. This also fits well with Heightenings, as we know from Denth and Vasher that they can be suppressed with the right mental gymnastics, meaning a more direct Intent can override your subconscious Intents, even meaning you may have some control over which perks you retain should you do this. These subconscious Intents probably are what direct the Investiture to boost basic functions, like strength, speed, and health for the physical aspect, memory and the ability to impose one's conscious Intent (like Command breaking) for the cognitive, or one's agelessness, Connection reading (like when Radiant Spren are aware of happenstance or Returned accurately deciphering abstract paintings), and Lifesense spiritually. However, if an Investiture already is assigned a task, like the Innate Investiture of an Allomancer or Surgebinder or the Kinetic Investiture of actively using them, little to no Heightening effects should occur, as the Investiture has other Intents hardwritten into it (Radiants are considered Invested in same way that can be mistaken for having Investiture of a certain Heightening, but this could be because their partially fused with a highly Invested being whose Spiritweb probably doesn't just consist of their powers, so not all additional Investiture they bear may be tied up). If I remember correctly, I believe we see this phenomenon in TSM when Nomad is able to metabolize a few hundred BEUs from his Torment without losing any effectiveness to his Heightenings- the Investiture was there before, it was just assigned another task and therefore couldn't boost the other attributes he had. Now, there's something to add about free-floating Investiture being able to boost your health and longevity, as standing in the Mists will actually help in some miniscule manner, though with this being fairly unconcentrated Investiture around only briefly, its effects aren't particularly useful. Basically, it doesn't matter if general Investiture is free-floating or Innate, as your Intent still channels it to boost standard attributes, but free-floating Investiture probably is too diluted and/or temporary to be terribly reliable (though maybe chilling in a Shardpool jacuzzi might actually work). I'd also like to add, I believe the Heightenings are actually a rather inefficent method of obtaining these passive attribute boosts. We see Kandra Blessings- each presumably made from less than single BEU of Investiture due to Identity contamination (one donor only), Hemalurgic decay, and each attribute bearing only a fraction of a person's total Investiture- being capable of augmenting one's attributes substantially (the Blessing of Potency over doubling one's strength, as well as making you quicker as hinted in various dialog). This could perhaps be because a subconscious Intent is a weaker Intent. The more you consciously understand what you're doing (or potentially have a more direct, hardwritten Intent, like in the Metallic Arts and Surgebinding), the more efficient and powerful you become with what you have. In short, I propose that the Heightenings are a result of a person's subconscious Intents driving a substantial amount of general Investiture to boost their natural functions. Hardwritten powers like Allomancy and Feruchemy probably do not contribute to this, as they are bound up in other tasks. Any additional insights, pointers, or critiques?

Glad to hear you enjoyed it! Personally, I especially loved the twists in Warbreaker- I legitimately thought Denth and his crew were great folks for a while, but when the mercenaries turned out to be villains, I was shocked! Just goes to show that a charismatic person isn't always a good one.

Compounding is an interesting ability, and a powerful hack for lucky Metalborn. However, it requires a specific Intent that isn't always easy to pick up: We also know that Allomantic pewter can have other interesting functions, like changing one's appearance (irrelevant parts removed to prevent Cosmere spoilers): With these in mind, it makes me wonder, if a Twinborn has both Allomantic pewter and a physical Feruchemical power, can they plausibly learn to focus their Allomancy to more directly fuel that Feruchemical attribute? Say, an A-pewter/F-gold Twinborn learns that their Allomancy boosts their health a little bit, perhaps they could replace the other physical benefits with just more health if they chose? They'd already be familiar with such an attribute flowing through them, which I think would make the process so much easier to figure out. It would basically be Compounding, but more versatile (and cheaper than some metals, like gold).

Huh, I hadn’t thought of those, but I guess there are already some examples of Hemalurgy leaks then. Even with knowledge of the spikes granting power, it doesn't necessarily mean most people will make the unintuitive leap of Investing new spikes. So, perhaps there could be lots of spike recycling amongst those with the right connections, but much less creating of new spikes.

Excellent insights. The old Skybreakers seemed to be more merciful, seeing the law as something to strive for instead of being a perfect ideal itself. Coppermind: If the Skybreakers allowed measures of mercy and adaptability, I might actually align with them more, as founding and updating laws to fit the needs of a community will be more likely to bring about safety and an overall improvement of life to everyone than becoming Batman.

We don't have clear confirmation, as far as I'm aware. However, if Hemalurgy was to become more commonly known, the secret would have to leak from one of the sources that currently possesses it. Harmony, Marsh, and Kelsier are all quite aware of its functions, and Kelsier specifically has spent time considering using it for more widespread powers amongst the population. The Basin's government I think is likely to know about it due to Marasi, though probably only those highest up on the chain. I think if Hemalurgy is going to become widespread knowledge on Scadrial, it's most likely to happen because the Ghostbloods start utilizing it and the Basin starts catching onto the murders and trying to stop them, possibly escalating the situation until the beans get spilled to some source that isn't able or willing to keep the secret. Alternatively, the Basin could try innovating with Hemalurgy to provide an edge in the cold war with the south, which could also lead to the secret getting out. There are others potentially capable of figuring out Hemalurgy, such as Koloss experimenting with creating new iron spikes, a rogue Kandra, or the descendant of an obligator who managed to weasel out the secrets of the Inquisitors and passed them down, but I think these are less likely. But if we're talking about it becoming widely accepted, then no, probably not, at least not immediately. I think a major change in the culture would be needed in order to see it as okay, though given the great power it can lend to people this might actually be not too difficult.

Personally, I think an Oracle tapping Fortune while burning electrum may simply boost their Allomancy, since their mechanics are very similar in nature. It could be that they're separate enough to not directly stack, but since both rely on reading Spiritwebs (albeit electrum utilizes a more direct system filtered through the cognitive aspect by harnessing shadows while chromium tampers with organic Fortune) I think this is the most likely outcome- improved Allomantic electrum, probably with added mental acuity to handle it, as stronger uses of Investiture are meant to do. It would also be interesting if they could store extra Fortune while burning electrum, though due to differing systems this might be less likely to work. Depends on whether Fortune is counted as one's sense of Spiritwebs, or whether it's more roundabout, I think.

I don't think Honor's Intent would forbid Shardblades from doing this. The Surge of Division itself is a part of his magic system, yet it's basically the opposite of building bonds. The Intent of the Shard doesn't limit the functions of the Investiture so much as it determines how it's obtained. That's a pretty interesting idea. O think it could be plausible. Harmonium's spiritual component is in conflict with itself, so pulling it apart like Wax does before shearing through it with a Shardblade I think could separate the spiritual aspects and create Atium and Lerasium, though I think it would still explode.

This one we don't know yet, though we do know that you can take liquid Investiture from a Perpendicularity with an aluminum vessel, so perhaps aluminum is used to capture it from Sel's Cognitive Realm somehow, though the fact that it's kept in jars may alude to this not being the case.

Nice! The Surges are pretty neat. I'm more of a Metallic Arts guy myself- I just love trying to figure out new little secrets for their usage, maximizing their use, or just having crazy scenarios with them.

Welcome to the Shard! What magic system is your favorite and why?

Good thoughts. I think you're probably right, the general population likely isn't going to worry about somebody using Emotional Allomancy on them all the time, especially if they get beneficial effects when work related Soothing or Rioting boosts their moral. And, I suppose bad guys in Era 2 were already using aluminum-lined hats anyway, even in AoL, so I suppose the difference in combating Allomancy would be minimal. I would suspect so. The real danger I think lies with enemy Allomancers though, as I don't think Sazed will forcibly control people who aren't trying to destroy Scadrial, even if they're still villainous. Though that's just my opinion, and obviously Harmony's actions are subject to specific scenarios. Actually, you know what would be a cool character concept for the Mistborn TTRPG? A bad guy who stumbles upon Hemalurgy's existence and uses it. Eventually, Harmony has enough and speaks directly into their mind, and drags them along to meet the rest of the ragtag team of adventurers or threatens to control them. Basically making them pay recompense by saving the world (or at least doing some good). Maybe character growth happens along the way too, which would be nice.

I think Scadrial's harder because most Investiture there is keyed to someone else and/or keyed to a specific function. A Metalmind doesn't contain free-floating Stormlight, it bears a power designated to boost a specific attribute. Hemalurgic spikes might be able to be drained as they decay, or the Returned might be able to just spike raw Investiture into themselves to automatically absorb with nicrosil. The Mists might also be an option, but seeing as they can't be breathed in by Allomancers like Surgebinders can with Stormlight, I think they too may be keyed incongrently, meaning you'd have to process it first somehow.

It seems that any external mental influence would be diminished by aluminum's presence, so I'd say a Kandra or Koloss would be able to use the metal to be safer. As for what to cover, the brain is the general target for Emotional Allomancy, though Hemalurgic spikes actually crack open the soul, so I'd expect the Allomancy to seep in around the spots where the spikes are. In other words, I think they'd better cover the head and the spikes. Definitely an interesting take. I suppose that could be the case, it just feels weird to me that people wouldn't try having some protection from it, particularly when doing stuff like contemplating a business transaction and whatnot.

Given that aluminum is supposed to become extremely cheap come era 3, will Emotional Allomancy become largely useless for sneaky exploits? It doesn't feel like anyone taking serious actions with two functioning neurons would choose not to keep some aluminum around their head to prevent manipulation. So, does this mean Emotional Allomancers will become the new Gnats, seen useful only for their abilities in Soothing parlors?

I think era 3 may have a deeper dive done into the mechanics of the Metallic Arts and Resonances in particular. Thanks! Yes, I think that would be a natural outcropping of their Surges. Dalinar might be able to boost Kaladin's Resonance to allow for a whole battlefield to start swearing oaths to win over a tough fight, for example. Hmm, he is a lot more skilled in those metals, but I think it's mostly just a matter of skill there, not necessarily the product of a Resonance or Savantism. The Resonances that appear in Mistborn and other individuals with many powers tend to get diminished, ironically. Though, since Resonances come into play as you use the powers enough, a Mistborn who was only aware of or intentionally only used a few might still develop a more unique and prominent Resonance (like how era 1 Mistborn only knew of Allomantic 10 metals). I thought they were pretty neat! And just considering the sheer number of possible Twinborn combinations, I'm really hoping we learn some guidelines for what determines what they do.