Trusk'our

Investiture is kind of funky. The way I understand it right now, the energy/matter/Investiture is meant to return to the Shard's total pool of Investiture given enough time and if it's not actively in use, maybe by eroding away to once again become part of the Spiritual Realm. Not sure how to visualize it exactly, but here's a few WoBs: It's kind of funny, I was arguing the same thing about Nomad earlier this week; even if Heightenings alone aren't too flashy, get several hundred thousand BEUs and you will see something impressive happen, likely by learning to innately Command Investiture as Shardic Vessels do. Weird thing about Perfect Gemstones is that they don't expend Investiture to give off their glow. It seems to be pure energy, much like a light bulb. As such, I don't think that this would really drain a Shard apart from the Investiture actually trapped in the Gemstones.

So, while you could technically drain a Shard of its Investiture, I don't think that this is really possible from a mortal standpoint. A Shard's Investiture is essentially infinite, and even if you created a system to catch some of it there would likely be far too little drained to make a noticeable impact unless it's a similar dynamic between Ruin and Preservation where every little bit counts and is drawn out over thousands of years. Also, any process that uses Investiture in a Kinetic fashion will simply have the power return to the Shard in due time, so only a process like the planet of Canticle could realistically draw and store enough Investiture (probably over a course of tens of thousands of years) to make a noticeable dent in a Shard's immediately available Investiture.

This is, essentially, a hack that allows you to quickly Compound F-tin Stores with other senses. Allomantic duralumin can be used to speed up Compounding to a near instantaneous process, and I see no reason why this would be different. Basically, as long as you Tap your newly filled Tinmind slowly, it acts as normal, just that you filled it in an instant rather than spending hours Compounding.

Hmm, interesting. I think that this fits into a theory I'm currently working on. I'll have to find a way to utilize that.

True, Nomad no longer has access to Surgebinding come the end of TSM, but if there isn't a limit on his Investiture consumption, it's still overpowered in my opinion. Because, the thing is, if you consume enough Investiture you essentially Ascend, and at that point you're basically wielding the power of the Well of Ascension. Move planets, rewrite a species into semi-immortal shape shifters, comprehend the vastness of the Cosmere, you name it. First, ow, my fee fees. But second, yes, I know they have Hemalurgy. I just don't know if it would work. At a fundamental level, I think it makes total sense that you could rip apart even a Shardic Vessel's Spiritweb, but it feels like if the scenario ever came up there would be a mechanism that would complicate it, such as the 500,000 BEUs of Investiture confusing the spike and it targeting the wrong thing, kind of like how Yumi's Spiritweb muddled Design's perception of her Connection. It's also possible that even if the spike could target properly despite overwhelmingly large amounts of Investiture present, it may not be an instantaneous process, which means you may extract something like 0.002% of the Investiture and be left with an angry god to contend with. I mean, yes, those technically can work to remove Investiture, but even if it was only 50,000 BEUs I don't think it would be remotely quick enough to properly counter Nomad. I was thinking more along the lines of Nomad traveling to a place with abundant Investiture, like Roshar, then gathering hundreds of thousands of BEUs to unlock near Shardic levels of insight and power. The more Investiture you have, the more it makes you like a Vessel, and the better you can Command it to do other things, such as mimicking other powers.

Tanavastium and Cultivation's god metal (Koravellium?) could potentially be used Allomantically, but because they're usually tied to a Spren's essence they're unusable for the Metallic Arts. So, what if you removed the consciousness and Identity of a Spren from a Shardblade? Basically, travel to the Cognitive Realm and Hemalurgically strip that from them, and you'll probably be left with "free" Shardmetal alloy of Cultivation and Honor (you'll probably also need some Connection to Roshar if you're not a native, but that's an easy fix with Feruchemical or Hemalurgic duralumin). Probably (definitely) evil, but hey, new powers.

Hadn't even thought of Shardpools, but that's an excellent point; step inside a Perpendicularity and he's probably set for a mini-Ascension. As for Highstorms and the Mists, maybe that wouldn't be doable, as with Canticle's Invested sunlight, it may be too much in one unit to safely absorb at once.

I think Brandon was talking about him needing a source of Investiture to feed off of in order to Invest himself. For example, Nomad didn't have a lot of Investiture when he first Skipped to Canticle, but he was able to absorb Investiture from the light reflected from the planet's rings as well as from Sunhearts. Plus, if we're talking about his limitations in regards to his Torment, he's overcome that by leeching the Investiture from him via Sunheart. It doesn't even seem to weaken the boons of being a Dawnsliver either.

Nomad has the ability to consume Investiture, potentially even allowing him to surpass the Hallandren God-kings in raw power: Essentially, it seems like he can just keep absorbing available Investiture and further Investing himself beyond even what his Skipping requires. He also can now strip his Torment away with his newly found Sunheart, allowing him to fight. So basically, if Nomad ever Skipped to a location where Investiture was easily accessible in large quantities, could he just consume hundreds of thousands of BEUs (or more) and become virtually unkillable, even to the Night Brigade? Harmony was skeptical of Telsin even being vulnerable to death as an Avatar of Autonomy, even though Wax had aluminum weaponry. I suppose that the Night Brigade has at least some knowledge of Hemalurgy, and anti-Investiture weapons also likely exist at this point in the Cosmere, but it just seems like Nomad could tank most of those long enough to blow their ship to smoldering bits if he got lucky on one of his Skips and had the mind to do so. But, perhaps I'm over estimating Heightening-like effects and under estimating the Night Brigade. Thoughts?

As @JustQuestin2004 said, Bindpoints matter a lot for this; even if you can bypass Identity contamination (a primary culprit of multiple donors for a single spike not working) you have to have powers that fit within the same Hemalurgic quadrant. For example, you could probably fit A-pewter, tin, iron, and steel each into a single steel spike because they belong to the same Hemalurgic quadrant, but the Identity of each power would have to be the same (such as if they were all harvested from a single Mistborn) or the Identity would have to be stripped away altogether (such as by Blanking via F-aluminum). This is also assuming that each power from a quadrant can be used interchangeably; it doesn't matter if a steel spike has A-pewter and A-steel in it if the only Bindpoint you can use for steel Allomancy is the eye and the ribs for pewter. You'd have to choose one or the other. Personally, I think interchangeable Bindpoints are possible, but we'd need real concrete evidence before we could say for certain. This would be a lot easier than trying for multiple types of powers in a single spike. There's no hypothetical Bindpoint convergence necessary, just Identity contamination to contend with. Basically, if you can use F-gold on an Allomancer (or Feruchemist, I suppose) to regrow and re-spike their power multiple times, or perhaps if you grant aluminum Feruchemy to multiple Allomancers of the same type so that they can Blank their Identity while being spiked, you should relatively easily be able to supercharge a power granted by a Hemalurgic spike. As for attributes, like Koloss spikes, I see no reason they wouldn't work for being supercharged just like power spikes if you can bypass Identity contamination.

Just a little thought here that popped into my mind, and while it very likely is just mere coincidence, I felt I'd voice it and see what others thought. We know that the human Spiritweb has between 200 and 300 Bindpoints. What's more, there are 256 possible Twinborn combinations. Coincidence? Probably, but maybe not. Does each Twinborn have a unique Bindpoint that is affected by there powers, maybe? Perhaps this is part of how Resonances form; two or more powers in a single Spiritweb begin to overlap, amplifying the natural state of another separate yet related spiritual Bindpoint, thus causing a boon to emerge that mimics natural talent or merely fortuitous happenstance.

A competent Soulcaster is stupidly dangerous. Personally, I'd be more afraid of fighting Jasnah with ample Stormlight than Kaladin, because even if I was too Invested to auto-kill, she could just Soulcast sir into stone to encase me in so I'd suffocate. In any case, I'm wondering, does it seem realistic that a good, plausible counter to being encased in Soulcast iron or immolated in burning pitch would be to "Soulcast" the surrounding matter with the Intent to not change? Basically, could two Soulcasters render each other obsolete in combat without needing to flip-flop the state of matter around them (i.e. one Soulcasts stone to mud and you Soulcast it back to stone, which very likely would just trap you in the stone), but rather being able to counter Command matter to resist the other's Soulcasting? Or, barring that, what alternatives might there be to counteracting Soulcasting, particularly in a combat oriented scenario?

So, let me see if I understand your train of thought; you suggest injecting a Surgebinder's cells into the wound of another individual in the hopes that these cells will metabolize Stormlight to repair that damage. I don't think that this will work in quite the way you hope; a Surgebinder's power is part of their Spiritweb, and that seems to be tied to their "self", so amputated body parts (or cell injections) won't transfer that ability to another. However, your idea of utilizing Connection to repair another person with a Surgebinder's own Stormlight may hold more ground; if the Investiture transfers over to the non-Surgebinder and sees them as a part of the Surgebinder just as the stones thought the Windrunners were in RoW, I could see this as a plausible (albeit probably less efficient) alternative to the Surge of Regrowth.

Electrum Stores determination, duralumin Stores Connection, and aluminum Stores Identity.

The general consensus on this WoB was that they are talking about the Malwish medallion Unsealed Metalminds specifically. After all, the Bands of Mourning didn't work that way; their Nicrosil portion was tapped just like any other Metalmind, and that's why they depleted so quickly. The Malwish medallions seem to function more like the Honorblades, where instead of Tapping you actually Bond them to access their power. Hence the reason they may not deplete their Nicrosil Stores. As for the original question of Tapping another's Metalmind and then Blanking Identity while Storing again, maybe, but a lot of attributes are going to probably not work for this. For example, let's say you Hemalurgically steal another's Feruchemical power along with a portion of their Identity. You can now Tap their Metalminds, but only while you have their Identity spiked into you, which means you can't Blank your Identity to re-Store those attributes because as soon as you do you can no longer Tap those Metalminds. Memories probably would be the one exception, since you can Tap them once, then Blank your Identity and re-Store them since Tapping isn't a continuous process for Feruchemical copper. Maybe F-Bendalloy, Cadmium, and brass could work too, since those seem to be more of "Tap it and the attributes become an actual part of you" thing. This is my current takeaway, at least.

So, I think that there may be a potential issue with this idea. I don't think an aluminum Ferring could Blank the Nicrosil Compounder's Metalminds, because they're already Keyed to another person. Still, great thought. Welcome to the Shard!

True, but Hemalurgy requires a Physical Realm medium to function, just as Feruchemy and even Allomancy require. Without metal to physically interact with, there's no way the Spiritweb can be interacted with. This is why I think disembodied Hemalurgy is so unlikely, since it clashes with one of the more fundamental requirements for the magic's use. Of course, if you could find a way to bypass physical separation of a body part, I think it would require something like how hive minds can form, though even then it would prove difficult due to a potential change of Connection. Stormlight Archive spoilers:

So, do you mean to ask if your ear is cut off with the spike still inside the severed ear, do you retain the power as long as it's in the severed ear? No, as cool as that would be, severed body parts don't continue to function as a part of "you", so a Hemalurgic spike embedded inside it would be like having a Metalmind on your wrist and it getting chopped off. Edit: although, if you really wanted to see something like this work, Cosmere rules may allow you to utilize Connection after some fashion to have the severed ear remain a part of "you" over distance even after being cut off, thus letting the spike still power your spiritual aspect, though that likely requires a whole set of hoops to jump through that we can only vaguely speculate on.

Yup, that about sums it up; rearrange the internal structure of the person with a Hemalurgic spike to make the changes of the wound something that the spike fits into, thus reshaping the organ(s) to no longer be a true injury. Basically, if you get a bullet hole in the heart, put a spike in that hole, which then changes the structure of the heart to naturally work around it as it does with any Hemalurgic spike. I mean, it's an internal and external change, and it's something that would already happen with a regular spiking, so I see no reason why it wouldn't work.

Sounds like a really cool idea! I'd have to really sit down and write up rules for its balance in a TTRPG, but I would venture to guess that it's primary limits would be with one's skill at shaping a complex object, their vitality versus water consumption, and perhaps any Invested fields (natural or artificial) that could aid in supporting Aether construction. And especially if you want to add it to a Cosmere game with all Invested abilities involved, there are at least a few Metalborn powers that would begin to unbalance its use. I mean, just one Unsealed Bendalloymind would massively change its power output, so there's that to consider.

Hemalurgic spikes rearrange organs and tissues to prevent death in the spike bearer, right? So, would staunching a wound from a blade or a bullet with a spike be a possibility then? Even if it was aligned incorrectly to grant powers, putting a spike in place until you got a better form of healing (Unsealed Goldminds or a Kandra surgeon) seems like it could be useful.

Breath is probably one of the most versatile, easiest to transport, and space efficient Investitures in the Cosmere; you can easily obtain it as long as you have a willing Nalthian, it's Identity re-keys itself to you so there's no Identity contamination to worry about, and, unlike with Stormlight it's Intent/Connection doesn't prevent Worldhopping. Plus, no Perfect Gemstones are needed to carry at least tens of thousands of BEUs with only the storage space on one person. Only hard part is, it's an innate part of Nalthians, and removing it noticeably reduces their quality of life. No matter how you spin it, traditional methods of gathering Breath have a real cost, one usually paid by those too destitute or otherwise pressured to have any other viable options. So, to combat this bleak scenario, what if you didn't need to harvest Breath from people to obtain it? In the Cosmere, it seems likely that true AI will always require a Spiritweb to exist, just like any other sentient thing. My thinking is, what if you were to create an Awakened or perhaps just highly advanced machine that could fabricate a Spiritweb by mimicking the natural process humans and other biological organisms use. They don't require an external injection of Investiture, they seem to draw it from the SR itself, so this machine likewise wouldn't need any extra Investiture beyond any needed to make it in the first place (if any). You just need to make sure the Spiritweb formed is properly Connected to Endowment during its creation. If done correctly, the process would yield a Spiritweb that drew a Breath from Endowment, adding more to the system. You then embed a Command in the artificial Spiritweb during its creation to have it give its Breath to either a human operator or another cognizant machine. Finally, you break down the Spiritweb's leftover bits and recycle its Investiture to begin the process anew. And. . . As I'm writing this I'm beginning to see another set of moral implications that I don't particularly like. So, ideally, maybe you don't even need a true Spiritweb, but just a fragment (kind of like lab grown meat, but with souls) that could trick Endowment's Shard into giving a Breath, even a smaller or weaker one, without killing any sentient/sapient being. If such a thing is even doable, I suppose era 5 Mistborn would be the earliest it would be developed; it's just too game breaking otherwise.

Yeah, that could make sense. I actually hypothesized at one point that you first, natural Breath is more tied to your Spiritual Aspect while others are more tied to the Physical, so your own Breath growing weaker with age/death (since it's still hooked up to your Spiritweb) while a separated Breath from someone else not getting weaker would make some sense for that. I guess the question I'd mostly like to know is whether vibrancy equates to raw power. Basically, does a weaker Breath Awaken less easily?

I think that the Luhel Bond is made through a different kind of Connection, perhaps one that Connects the Physical Aspects of the person and the Aether. We know that different types of Connection exist from Dalinar's conversation with the Stormfather in RoW. It seems to be more a matter of what is Connected that determines what that Connection does (i.e. the Connection to people, places, ideas, and even times). Oh definitely. I'm not trying to compare those two, I'm just trying to think about how a Feruchemist could screw with a Surgebinder if it ever came to blows. What about Szeth not being able to wear Plate without interference with his Honorblade occurring, or when in one of Dalinar's visions he needed to have his Plate removed to fly with the assistance of a Windrunner? Does a Radiant's Plate have no Identity linking, or is it just dead Plate?

That is a really interesting WoB. Are we sure it doesn't just mean that the Investiture in the gem is keyed to the Identity of the Shardbearer? Otherwise, wouldn't they become Drab, since that Stormlight is eventually lost? In any case though, perhaps Blanking Identity plus Tapping Connection would do the trick of messing with their Blade or Plate? The Nahel Bond is Connection. It has some Identity mixed in, but it's mostly just Connection. Unchained Bondsmiths can steal Connections, and since Ishar almost stole Dalinar's Bond to the Stormfather, this seems to indicate Bonds being little more than strong Connections to Invested enough Spren. Also, in RoW, doesn't the Stormfather say that the Connections Dalinar sees in the young soldier who Dalinar uses his abilities on are much like the Nahel Bond, only much weaker? Good points. What about Blanking Identity and Tapping Connection then?