Gold Foreshadowing Hemalurgy

[Trusk'our he/him]

There's a fine little WoB that says anything that lets you see into the SR will aid in knowing where to place Hemalurgic spikes.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/48-nooktalks-twitter-qa-with-barnes-noble/#e545

PhantoMonstrosity

Atium is the best metal to use for Hemalurgy. Does *burning* atium help you figure out where to put the spikes?

Brandon Sanderson

Anything that gets you a glimpse of the Spiritual Realm could help with placing spikes.

<snip>

I had still kind of dismissed gold Allomancy for its use here, but I think I see a possibility now.

If gold Allomancy shows you a different self you could have become, does that mean it can show you a version of you that bears Hemalurgic spikes and their placement?

For example, let's say an Auger had the opportunity to use Hemalurgic spikes on themself to become a construct, but turned it down. If they burned gold later and saw how things could have gone, maybe they could see a version of themselves with a spike configuration stable enough not to instantly collapse (or else the shadow couldn't show that timeline, since you'd be dead).

Plus, they could experience that version's eyes and thoughts, allowing them a more solid understanding of the consequences of that form before just choosing to go through with it.

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

We've never seen an Augur control their Gold Shadows to intentionally show a specific future, but then again we've only ever seen two uses of it total. I've a feeling it would take extensive practice or maybe Savantism in the ability to show such a specific future.

Gold Shadows also change depending on your current situation, so maybe if you sat around a bunch of Hemalurgic Spikes and really considered using them on yourself and then burned Gold then your Gold Shadows would start showing some of those possibilities.

So I'd say it'd be possible, though probably very unpleasant. Gold Shadows always make the user uncomfortable, adding in Hemalurgy would probably make the experience torturous. 

[Trusk'our he/him]

8 minutes ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

We've never seen an Augur control their Gold Shadows to intentionally show a specific future, but then again we've only ever seen two uses of it total. I've a feeling it would take extensive practice or maybe Savantism in the ability to show such a specific future.

Gold Shadows also change depending on your current situation, so maybe if you sat around a bunch of Hemalurgic Spikes and really considered using them on yourself and then burned Gold then your Gold Shadows would start showing some of those possibilities.

True, consciously controlling your gold shadows or at least controlling the situation enough to alter them would almost certainly be necessary. 

9 minutes ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

So I'd say it'd be possible, though probably very unpleasant. Gold Shadows always make the user uncomfortable, adding in Hemalurgy would probably make the experience torturous. 

Yeah, that's probably true. 

Seeing through the eyes and feeling the thoughts of an inhuman monstrosity may be especially unsettling for the psyche, but it's certainly better than using the spikes blindly or cruelly testing it on others.