Hemalurgy

Hemalurgy is one of the three prime manifestations of Investiture on Scadrial. The natives of that world consider it one of the three Metallic Arts. At the times of the books, it is the least known Metallic Art.

A koloss, one of the three types of Hemalurgic constructs

Lore & Background

Hemalurgy is the most mysterious of the Metallic Arts, creating some of the most exotic things in the Final Empire. At its core, it involves stealing powers from one person and giving it to another. In order to do this, a metal spike must be stabbed through one person's body and then placed in the second's. The placement of the spike determines what power charges the spike. As such Hemalurgy is the most complex of the Metallic Arts, and the Steel Ministry has experimented for centuries with little success at finding new places to stab Hemalurgic spikes and new spots to lay them in the target. Typically, the correct placement of a spike is a vital organ, so the person who had their power stolen from invariably dies.

After the spike pierces through the initial person and is Hemalurgically charged, the Law of Hemalurgic Decay states that the spike loses some of its potency. The longer a spike is outside a body, the weaker it becomes. Thus, when the Steel Ministry creates an Inquisitor, the spikes are outside of a person for as little as possible.

Hemalurgic Constructs

• Steel Inquisitors are created from nine to eleven spikes, which are charged with various Allomantic or Feruchemical powers.
• Koloss are created from four spikes, each charged with human strength. By twisting the power of creation and putting into a human, the target is extremely warped, turning them into this strange koloss. No one can be blamed for not knowing koloss came from humans, given that they appear so alien.
• Kandra are created from two spikes, both charged with the same human attribute. To the kandra, this is known as a Blessing. Unlike koloss, however, these spikes are placed into mistwraiths. Instead of twisting a person as is the case with koloss, this gives the kandra sapience.

Hemalurgic Properties of Metals

• Iron - Steals Human Strength
• Steel - Steals Allomantic Physical Powers
• Tin - Steals Human Senses
• Pewter - Steals Feruchemical Physical Powers
• Zinc - Steals Human Emotional Fortitude
• Brass - Steals Feruchemical Mental Powers
• Copper - Steals Human Mental Fortitude
• Bronze - Steals Allomantic Mental Powers
• Gold - Steals Feruchemical Temporal Powers*
• Atium - Steals Allomantic Temporal Powers**
• Aluminum - Steals Allomantic Enhancement Powers

*Presumably. This fact is currently uncorroborated with canon and is subject to change

**Not entirely factual. Atium is special in this regard. However, in this present time in history, the Steel Ministry believes atium has this property.

Side Effects of Hemalurgy

When an Allomancer can sense Allomantic pulses through a coppercloud (known as piercing a coppercloud), it is most usually due to a Hemalurgic spike. It's simply a matter of Allomantic strength to pierce copperclouds, so if a Seeker has a spike charged with Allomantic bronze, that essentially makes them twice as powerful, allowing them to overpower a coppercloud.

Hemalurgy is a destructive art. It twists the body into something almost inhuman. This twisting is how Inquisitors survive with spikes through their eyes and other vital places, and explains why koloss look so strange.

Ruin constructed Hemalurgy with a flaw: each spike creates holes in the mind, making them easier to manipulate. Through powerful emotional Allomancy, one can Push on a spiked creature's emotions so hard that they literally become under the Allomancer's control. Indeed, the spikes in the koloss were what allowed the Lord Ruler to control them. Kandra also can be controlled in this way, but as Allomancers decreased in power, this knowledge was forgotten.