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Within each Invested Art, the spiritwebs of the practiioners can be viewed as a closed system. The Investiture used to create an effect can come from one of he following three categories within the closed loop.
;End positive: When practicing an end-positive InvestitureInvested Art, the practitioner draws in power from an external source.{{book ref|aol|part=ars}} The practitioner gains power from the external source. The Investiture is positive in that it adds -- in most cases temporarily -- power to the practitioner. Most typesInvested of InvestitureArts are end-positive.{{wob ref|1084}}
;End-neutral: For an actInvested of InvestitureArt to be considered end-neutral, power is neither gained nor lost{{book ref|aol|part=ars}}. A practitioner manipulates power that already exists or power that comes from themselves.
;End-negative: In the practice of an end-negative InvestitureInvested Art, some power is lost.{{book ref|aol|part=ars}} End-negative Investiture is very rare.{{wob ref|1084}}
While every typeInvested of InvestitureArt can be classified along these categories,{{wob ref|1084}} it is most useful when applied to the [[Metallic Arts]].{{wob ref|171}} Allomancy draws Investiture from [[Preservation]] in a similar way to [[AonDor]] pulling power from the [[Dor]]; both are considered end-positive since they add power to the Allomancer or Elantrian. Allomantic [[Atium]] draws power from [[Ruin]]'s concentrated Physical form, but is still considered end-positive as the power comes from an outside source. [[Feruchemy]] is end-neutral, since the amount of Investiture remains constant. [[Hemalurgy]] is end-negative. Investiture held in a spike outside the body decays.{{book ref|mb4|part=ars}}
These categories don't always apply well to other Invested Arts because of differences in how the system is defined when analyzing the net gain or loss of Investiture.
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