Spiked: Hemalurgy in Mistborn 

In with an opening joke: nailed it!

10:31 Radiants: I'll take your entire stock!

Ok, hear me out: What if you spiked enough people to get spikes for all allomantic/feruchemical powers, gave someone those powers, and then took the powers from them using a lerasium spike. This could be a way to "condense" different spikes together. It is also possible you could make a more potent spike by giving someone many of the same kind, and then spiking them to condense all of those different sections of spiritweb into one spike. This could be a way to get around being controlled by a shard, and also how Paalm managed to create the Chimeras with only one spike (Trellium likely can steal all attributes in the same way lerasium steals all abilities). I have more theories: The "linchpin" spike of the Inquisitors is actually a spike that steals stability (similar to the Kandra blessing), stabilizing their spiritweb (hence why no one had figured out how to control inquisitors despite their number of spikes seeming to make so any Soother or Roiter would be able to). Other theories: When ingested, lerasium grants all allomantic powers. When alloyed with another metal, it grants that specific metal's allomantic power (but you can get more power from it because you are increasing the volume of metal you have when alloying). What would happen if you used an alloyed lerasium spike hemalurgically? I think that it could grant hemalurgic knowledge of that particular metal (though that is a bit of a wild guess). Last theory: What would happen if you took two spikes and alloyed them together? (This cannot happen with the base metals, so it must be with at least one god metal) Would it just be like having both spikes, or would it merge them into something special? I personally think that they would merge, as it has been repeated multiple times as a theme that alloys are more than the sum of their parts, but I do not know how they would merge.

Spoilers... Also the hemalergic thing that interests me the most is the thought that you could take someone's identity. But that is because we have characters like Shallan who have separate identitys could a spike take a single one? Could you use a spike to take Vale and put her into someone else?

14:35 Does anyone remember that 17th shard thread about creating a beaver with the abilities of the Lord Ruler?

Your videos are by far the best explanations for the magic systems that I've seen. Thanks for taking the time to research and make these. It would be cool to see hemalurgy explored in the future, like with stealing aviar powers or sand mastery. Maybe making almost an ultimate invested being that could wield all manner of powers.

Hemalugy is a very interesting magic. I am looking forward to the compounding video, I need a refresher on it before the next book Mistborn comes out!

You know, I've been on a huge Sanderson binge lately and started listening to a lot of different content creators about the cosmere. You are by far my favorite. Love your personality and your well-researched presentation of information.

Me: if Hoid used a bendslloy spike to steal some feruchemical powers, made a connection/duralumin mind with Design, un-keyed the metallmind and made a sword, would that effectively make it a makeshift honorblade? Employee: sir, this is a Wendy’s Edit: he sort of mentioned it at the end, but I think it’s very plausible that this is something similar to what honor did to make the HBs, but maybe from himself somehow

Great video, but im really just leaving a comment to boost your algorithm, more people need to see this

Those steel inquisitors are the scariest things in the cosmere, other than maybe ruin or odium. I remember reading mistborn and those things are both creepy and powerful.

Oh, yeah! I've been waiting eagerly for this one. Great video! PS: 17th Shard should definitely have you on their podcast, that would be sick!

God, you've just explained hemalurgy in 5 seconds with that stapler... Brilliant! Also thank you for putting an order for all the things i do know about hemalurgy, great video.

My personal theory is that all god metals have the same hemalurgic application, they just connect you to different gods Atium connects you to Ruin but in a stronger way than the 16 base metals Lerasium connects you to Preservation (imagine if it was Leras in your head instead of Ati) Trellium connects you to Autonomy And so on

im somehow more confused, but good video

Thanks! Now I can infodump my friends who don't read (?

2:03 Yeah, that makes sense since allomantic symbols look like sickles or unclosed circles, pierced with spikes, with addiction of a dot, what would respectively represent: body, spike and bind point.

Hemalurgy is f*cking terrifying! The fact that it can steel investiture, connection, identity, and someone’s very ability to use investiture is quite concerning. We all know that Brandon will take advantage of this at some point, and I can’t decide if I’m looking forward to reading about it, or if I dread it!

I want to know how Hemalurgy can reattach a cognitive shadow to a new body.

I never noticed that thing with the allamantic symbols owing their origin to the hemolurgic symbols, that's so cool!

The most interesting thing Hemalurgy does in my mind is enabled when combined with the Medallions, specifically those made of Gold and charged with Ferruchemic healing. This potential to mass produce spikes would enable more people to participate in the process of finding ways to make Invested Arts helpful, rather than having the intense hierarchies we see around the Cosmere so far.

This is like my number 1 cosmere channel

ITS HERE! And that opening was great

“This drink is spiked” made me spit out my coffee all over my car. This might be my favorite video yet!!! ^_^ I wanna see a villain who goes around collecting all the powers and Creating sentient cats. Also! If someone were to spike you could they steal all your knowledge of the Cosmere? Or can you not steal memories? What about memories stored in breaths? O_o See!!? What a cool rabbit hole. Thanks man!

That Inquisitor thumbnail is going to give me nightmares.

As a fellow Cosmere fanatic with a new child, bless your heart for these!

One more theory about hemalurgy: since hemalurgic chromium may steal destiny, and feruchemic chromium stores fortune, I bet that "destiny" is a cosmereic trait that has to do with fortune somehow. Therefore, if you could spike Hoid with chromium, could you maybe take his place as a world hopping adventurer, and use his fortune related abilities to go where he would go?

Imagining that paper man is Moash. Staple "so satisfying" staple staple staple...

Thinking about hemalurgy too much always makes me regret my 5 piercings, although they’re titanium so I should be good? It’s odd that titanium and platinum aren’t used in the magic system, but whatevs. Also it’s odd that nobody reacts to the spikes physically (I can’t wear cheap steel earrings due to a nickle allergy) so the magic inherent in the hemalurgy must prevent tetanus and allergic reactions. They can shift organs so why not Anyway I think stealing identity is the most interesting use of hemalurgy. It’s what made Emperor’s Soul such a compelling story. Although the idea that transferring spikes from person to person to person takes pieces of who are is fascinating and not something I’d considered before. It’s got interesting implications for koloss and koloss blooded people in era 2

if one can steal identity could one move their Consciousness into a cat or other living thing by simply spiking them

Damn. That was in-depth. Awesome. Keep it up. Can't wait for the next video.

I’m working on a homebrew D&D campaign where the big bad uses Hemalurgy to steal magic, thanks for the breakdown!

it's on days like this i see just how good Sanderson it at this

Excellent work as always! Love your visualizations and comparisons! The ability to steal the use of invested arts and identity has some fascinating implications! I agree the this will be very important going forward in the Cosmere.

Awesome work!

Wait, we've seen hemalurgy on Roshar? I'm probably missing something obvious - I assume this is something besides when Nale stapled SzethSoul back to himself? P.S. fully retweet that Shardcast should have you on

Damn you Timezones, why's the premiere so late in the night? Rest in Piece Sleep Schedule I guess 🤷🏻‍♂️

The idea that Aluminum spikes remove a blockage from the donor is pretty fascinating. Does that mean there might be non-lethal ways to grant artificial investiture abilities?

Im imagining aluminum spike bullets as the ultimate Hazekiller round rn

"We've apparently seen Hemalurgy on Roshar already." Way to make me go back and read the entire series yet again with part of one sentence.

What’s a supreme inquisitors favourite food? Donor kebab

Once again amazing video! Always waiting for the next one!

I always like how Preservation requires you to burn something up, and Ruin give the people a way to keep powers around. Feels like they were trying to mimic their other half with each of their magic systems.

3:32 - I'm prety sure you literally became Ruin for a second there, hahah!

Hemalurgy is my favorite of the three metalic arts, and even from The Cosmere in general (I don't know what it said about me jaja), so I really apreciate this video, thanks. Also, your Alumin theory blow op my head. Sorry if there are any mistakes, english is'nt my first lenguage.

I now have in my head a sort of arms race where an Aluminium Gnat stores all of their identity, and then a Hemalurgist tries to spike that identity out of them. No idea if it would work that way but still makes one thinks. Also I believe it is Canon that while ascended Rashek had an instinctive understanding of basic Hemalurgy despite it being the metallic art most opposed to Preservations nature. It makes me wonder if that is why he only figured out a couple of ways to use it himself? Which suggests Harmony knows a lot more tricks already and adds to the explanation of why other shards would be scared of him. MY other genuine theory is that in some way Nightblood is in fact a Hemalurgical construct. It is always devouring energy and seems so much more alive than other awakened constructs. But I can easily see the combining of Breath and Hemalurgy to create a type 4 awakened entity being possible.

Well summarized and great theories!

Great video! That was a super in-depth summary and I definitely learned something new here. You always explain cosmere-related stuff so well.

This was such a great watch. You're like an excellent professor.

Great video! This really helped me wrap my mind around one of the most confusing cosmere elements!

Holy heck. I thought I had a good grasp of how this worked until you explained it. Well done. Now it makes even more sense than before. Perfect.

Speaking of aluminum could it be wrapped around a sphere to stop or slow Stormlight leakage? Could Kelsier jump into an aluminum box and be carried away from Scandrial? Would that "hide" him from the anchor effect? If it did work and he climbed out of the box in say Roshar Shadesmar, would he snap back to Scadrial instantly? Or would he Connect to Roshar? If a spirit of a just deceased person that appears in the Cognitive Realm were placed in such a box, would they be stopped from being pulled to the Beyond? Damn the implications are deep.

That paper cutout was so spiked it was under Harmony’s control by 3:31

omg I decided to check out another vid and I am rewarded with this greatness. So good! Keep it coming man

LOVE. And thanks for the call out! 😂😂😂💀

Great video, love the breakdown, but the headroom is throwing me off, I keep wanting to scroll up to center the shot. Oh well.

I would be disraught if I still knew how to tap but couldnt...tap that knowledge Nevermind the rusting spike of metal that is now stuffed in me.

Hoodoo BOY! Have I been waiting for this one. Hemalurgy is my favorite metallic art to theorize about. You actually touched on something I was wondering about a bit. Namely, could a spike be used to steal talents such as drawing, singing, or marksmanship? Imagine if, in the second Era of mistborn, there was a guy who went around stealing people's marksmanship skill. Like maybe he has a single spike that he has gotten really good at using repeatedly. He takes it out, spikes his target, then drives it right back into himself. If a woman, this could possibly be done through seducing them until she can go in for a hug and spiking them in the back. If done quickly enough, it might result in a net-gain of ability. And if that person happens to be a ferochemist who can use tin for sight, they could conceivably become able to hit a target from hundreds or even thousands of yards. And they would have a perfect alibi because "nobody can kill a man half a mile away with just a handgun".

If it's possible to yank someone's determination out of them and staple it to someone else, I could EASILY write a Cosmere/UnderTale crossover.

When you're only Scadriel (pardon if it's spelled wrong) into the Cosmere making several things blow your mind or confuse you

Finally! Thank you Steve. Great stuff.

One application of hemalurgy that I was wondering about: if you can steal innate attributes from people, such as strength or intelligence, would you get more of a hemalurgic charge in your spikes if you stole the attributes from someone who was buff and muscular or highly intelligent? For instance, if you were to spike Jasnah for her intelligence, would you get more of an attribute from her than some random person off the street?

I hadn't even considered what would happen if a Mistwraith ate a Koloss. Interesting. Have you thought of everything Steve?

You are fantastic at these informational types of videos. I feel like you would be a great teacher.

You would think supreme inquisitors don’t have a lot of sex. Apparently they get nailed all the time!

I think it would be cool for an Awakener to use an altered cloak like wings, while storing physical weight in an ironmind to actually be able to get off the ground

The best explanation ever!!!

Interesting... Hemalurgy was always the magic system I had the most trouble grasping, so this video helped a lot. It certainly has a lot of interesting implications that I can't wait to see expanded upon in future Mistborn books. I'd also forgotten all about the Hemalurgic chimeras, but according to the wiki they only appeared briefly in one of the books. They certainly show the scary untapped potential of Hemalurgy.

YES! I've been waiting for this video for awhile! Thank you for making it.

Steve! I love your videos man, great job! Always fun and engaging, and Wit-ty :) This one was really helpful in regards to Mistborn lore. I was wondering if you could make a video explaining all of the cross-investiture uses among the Cosmere? For example, where in the Stormlight Archives did we see Hemalurgy, and on other planets, where did we see uses of non-native investiture? Thanks for your hard work and research! P.S. A video on Nightblood would be awesome ;)

I believe it's sapience, not sentience. A small, but very important distinction.

Excellent video as always.

13:32 Maybe Hoid could use that to remove his inability to harm people I havent read SA 2-4 so idk if that use had been explored

The team allergy table they also be from before the Lord roller's time.

The best magic system

1. What would be the possible effects if a mistborn Burns a hemalurgic spike? 2. When creating a hemalurgic spike, should the process itself kill the victim? What I mean to say is, a spike in the leg may not kill a person, but hemalurgic points does exist there. So how exactly should the victim die? 3. Further, we have seen cases where some hemalurgic spikes were created "accidentally" (Spook getting his pewter allomancy). So is it possible to accidentally create hemalurgic spike? Or is there a specific process to create one other than sticking a metal spike in a person? 4. Totally unrelated to hemalurgy, what would happen to Spren of an object when that object is broken? For ex, when a stick is broken and " becomes" two sticks.

3:35 Ruin: Ahhhoooo. . . So satisfying.

I always want to spell it hemallurgy. Oh well. Great vid!!!!

DESTINY is by far the most interesting.... What the hell would that look like. I hope that happens at some point in the cosmere

Interested to hear what Zellion could do with his torment if he had an aluminum spike

I haven't finished the video but I wonder if it could be possible to steal Biochromatic breath from warbreaker using hemalurgy

Do you think that hemalurgy could permanently kill a fused? For example, if you stole their power to use investiture, they would need tons of power to regain it, but the fused are worse at healing than the radiants. Maybe stealing their connection to Odium would prove more effective? Or since that's more an attribute and less a power, it would be easier to heal? What are your thoughts on this?

Spoilers for stormlight archive My guess for where we saw it on roshar is the knife used to kill Jezrien, where you stab him with a knife and his investiture goes into the gem, and then dissipates. It seems very much like hemalurgy, where a metal spike is used to extract investiture, and then it dissipates. The gem may have been used to speed up the dissipation process, though I’m not sure why it wasn’t just used to give some ability to a singer or Moash. Or maybe it was used exactly like that and that’s why Moash’s emotions seem suppressed by Odium.

I have watched this video soooooo may fucking times and it still hurts my head

this was in reccomended, i have no clue what almost any of these words mean at all or what series? this is about but im interested now

I wonder if an alluminum spike can "seal" the spiritweb from outside control, like how an alluminum lined hat can protect you from emotional allomancy.

its even more disturbing when you hear about it

(spoilers to mistborn area 1 and words of radiance) So I have this theory that the honor blade are some kind of spikes, think about it they give powers of the radians but in less effect... (didnt read dawnshard and ROW so pls no spoilers)

I want a cat that has human intelligence... I wouldn't want to spike it though

This is incredible! Thank you for the insight. I'm setting up a Mistborn campaign finally! (I didn't want to start until I got through Hero of Ages) This video really helps develop storylines that I have been thinking about. I wanted to make a character who was a blind lurcher, who was tortured as a child by his master Nobleman who oversaw farmlands. The child caught the sadistic Nobleman in the act of overtaking his mother and as punishment blinded by two needles that were also used to kill his mother. Which granted him the access to not only see people as metal lines, but also heightened senses working in tandem. Kinda like a Misting Dare-Devil character. This character also suffers from severe nightmares of a dark, gravelly voice chanting to him to 'kill'. What do you think? Any wholes in the operation of spikes? Have you thought of running your own Mistborn campaign with your followers?

Great content as always! To the point, but sprinkled through with comedy!

My god, fair play to ya. You put some effort into making this video. Keep up the good work ❤️

Un vídeo increíble. Espero con ganas el siguiente!!!!

Spike a dog give it intelligence then give him feruchemy wakefulness, then alimantic pewter. I would also like people to suggest their combos for their dog.

Great video

A guy walks up to an Inquisitor and say, "Excuse me, but there's something in your eye." The Inquisitor beats the guy to death. The guy should have known Inquisitors only like knock knock jokes.

How can hemalurgy be used to move a spaceship 🚀?

How large does a specific Spike have to be? Because if they can be miniaturized then I see all sorts of crazy potential applications for their use in the Space Opera era of Mistborn. Could you imagine the use of hemalurgy to achieve a sort of magical quasi gene therapy?

Got i love this channel. Never stop

Someone has probably mentioned this already, but chakras have nothing to do with acupuncture. The concept of the chakra comes from India, and acupuncture from China.