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This has been bugging me ever since I finished tLM— how are Shai and Kaise still alive? Hoid’s long life being extended via Dawnshard spirit web stuff makes sense, but these two don’t have anything like that as far as I can think of. I suppose this would also apply to Baon/Demoux/Galloran as well. Am I missing something; is there even an explanation?

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There are different ways of staying alive, most common one used involved slowing down aging, but not stopping it completely, WoBs on this:

Spoiler

Dirigible (paraphrased)

Did Demoux achieve immortality by manipulating his Connection age?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Demoux uses the same method as most of the Seventeenth Shard. That method slows aging by a lot, but doesn't stop it completely.

Arcanum Unbounded Fort Collins signing (Nov. 29, 2016)

 

Spoiler

Iceblade44

So White Sand [then Elantris] is earlier... Then how the heck old is Khriss then? Will we ever get an answer as to why every worldhopper is flippin' immortal?

Brandon Sanderson

There is some time-dilation going on. I'll explain it eventually; we're almost to the point where I can start talking about that. Suffice it to say that there's a mix of both actual slowing of the aging process and relative time going on, depending on the individual. Very few are actually immortal.

Faera

Implying that some are actually immortal? :D

Brandon Sanderson

Depends on which definition of immortal you mean.

Doesn't age, but can be killed by conventional means. (You've seen some of these in the cosmere, but I'll leave you to discuss who.)

Heals from wounds, but still ages. (Knights Radiant with Stormlight are like this.)

Reborn when killed. (The Heralds.)

Doesn't age and can heal, but dependent upon magic to stay this way, and so have distinct weakness to be exploited. (The Lord Ruler, among others.)

Hive beings who are constantly losing individual members, but maintaining a persistent personality spread across all of them, immortal in that as long as too much of the hive isn't wiped out, the personality can persist. (The Sleepless.)

Bits of sapient magic, eternal and endless, though the personality can be "destroyed" in specific ways. (Seons. Spren. Nightblood. Cognitive Shadows, like a certain character from Scadrial.)

Shards (Really just a supercharged version of the previous category.)

And then, of course, there's Hoid. I'm not going to say which category, if any, he's in.

Some of these blend together--the Heralds, for example, are technically a variety of Cognitive Shadow. I'm not saying each of these categories above are distinct, intended to be the end-all definitions. They're off the cuff groupings I made to explain a point: immortality is a theme of the cosmere works--which, at their core, are experiments on what happens when men are given the power of deity.

Shagomir

Heals from wounds, but still ages.

Would Bloodmaker Ferrings exist in this category as well? If not, what about someone Compounding Gold?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, you are correct.

Shagomir

As a Bloodmaker ages, what keeps them from healing the damage and carrying on as a very old, but very healthy person? Do they come to a point where they can't store enough health to stave off the aches, pains, diseases, and other things that come with old age?

This makes sense for traditional Feruchemy as it is end-neutral, so storing health becomes a zero sum game - eventually, you're going to get sick and you're not going to be able to overcome it with your natural healing ability no matter how much you manipulate it with a goldmind.

...Unless you've got a supply of Identity-less goldminds lying around. Would a Bloodmaker with a sufficient source of Identity-less goldminds (or the ability to compound, thus bypassing the end-neutral part of Feruchemy) eventually just die from being too old?

Brandon Sanderson

Basically, yes. They can heal their body to match their spiritual ideal, but some things (like some genetic diseases, and age-related illnesses) are seen as part of the ideal. Depends on several factors.

Stormlight Three Update #5 (Nov. 29, 2016)

 

Edited by alder24
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I mean, there's a limited number of ways that humans can extend their lives beyond a century or so in the cosmere and still be human. The three that we've seen on screen are getting a shitload of Breath, becoming an atium compounder, become an Elantrian, or otherwise become a cognitive shadow or shard. It's honestly just as hard to artificially become an atium compounder or Elantrian as it is to become some kind of spirit, so I suspect that a bunch of worldhoppers have been through customs on Nalthis to get themselves a life extension. 

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On 1/29/2023 at 4:56 AM, Proletariat said:

I mean, there's a limited number of ways that humans can extend their lives beyond a century or so in the cosmere and still be human. The three that we've seen on screen are getting a shitload of Breath, becoming an atium compounder, become an Elantrian, or otherwise become a cognitive shadow or shard. It's honestly just as hard to artificially become an atium compounder or Elantrian as it is to become some kind of spirit, so I suspect that a bunch of worldhoppers have been through customs on Nalthis to get themselves a life extension. 

Time dilation has confirmed to be a big part, and we know the big H is from a dawnshard. The main Time Dilation effects we know are cadmium and Sel.

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