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Stormlight healing Shardblade wounds


King of Herdaz

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In the prologue to The Way of Kings it is said that Szeth's stormlight can't restore a limb "killed" by a Shardblade. However in Words of Radiance and Oathbringer we see several bridgemen doing just that. So why the inconsistency? Is it just that Honorblade stormlight healing works differently, but why shoud that be so?

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30 minutes ago, King of Herdaz said:

In the prologue to The Way of Kings it is said that Szeth's stormlight can't restore a limb "killed" by a Shardblade. However in Words of Radiance and Oathbringer we see several bridgemen doing just that. So why the inconsistency? Is it just that Honorblade stormlight healing works differently, but why shoud that be so?

Intent.  Szeth thinks that you can't heal blade wounds so he can't.  The bridgemen know that you can so they can.

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1 hour ago, King of Herdaz said:

In the prologue to The Way of Kings it is said that Szeth's stormlight can't restore a limb "killed" by a Shardblade. However in Words of Radiance and Oathbringer we see several bridgemen doing just that. So why the inconsistency? Is it just that Honorblade stormlight healing works differently, but why shoud that be so?

It's a difference in how Honorblades work vs how the Nahel bond works. Szeth isn't able to heal a Shardblade wound with Stormlight since he's only using an Honorblade. A Knight with a spren (or squires) can heal Shardblade wounds. Brandon's compared it to Honorblades being v. 1.0, and living Shardblades being v. 2.0.

 

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Brandon Sanderson

A full-blown Radiant can heal almost anything (cut from a Shardblade included) because of the way the magic works--their soul is literally bonded to Investiture, and it suffuses them in such a way that even the soul is very resilient to damage.

Honorblades are what you'd consider a "prototype" for what eventually happened with Shardblades. An Honorblade can be used by anyone, without need for oaths, which makes them very dangerous--but since the bond isn't as deep, they are far less efficient. They use more Stormlight, for example, and can't heal to the extent that a Radiant can.

So the difference is not in the device that did the damage, but in the method using to heal. Over the course of the first two book, the reader should be able to subtly pick out differences from what Szeth says is possible(in more than just healing) and what Kaladin experiences.

General Reddit 2017 (Sept. 8, 2017)

 

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Questioner

Szeth says in the first Stormlight book that he can't heal from a Shardblade--

Brandon Sanderson

He can't.

Questioner

So when he got cut he couldn't heal that...

Brandon Sanderson

No. Not with his powers.

Questioner

Not from an Honorblade.

Brandon Sanderson

Not from an Honorblade.

Firefight Chicago signing (Feb. 20, 2015)

 

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18 minutes ago, King of Herdaz said:

Kaladin, after Szeth's attack on Dalinar, didn't know he could heal his arm but it healed surprising him

Kaladin did not know it was impossible so he tried and it worked.

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1 hour ago, Karger said:

Not quite.  My beliefs are still viable(if only barely).

Brandon says quite directly that Honorblade-granted Stormlight healing isn't powerful enough to heal a Shardblade wound, so no amount of belief on Szeth's part can make it work.

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Questioner

So when he got cut he couldn't heal that...

Brandon Sanderson

No. Not with his powers.

Questioner

Not from an Honorblade.

Brandon Sanderson

Not from an Honorblade.

Now, intent does matter with Honorblades in the same way that it applies to unsealed metalminds (if you don't know or at least suspect what it is, you won't get access to its powers) but healing isn't a part of it.

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2 hours ago, Weltall said:

Now, intent does matter with Honorblades in the same way that it applies to unsealed metalminds (if you don't know or at least suspect what it is, you won't get access to its powers) but healing isn't a part of it.

An extremely favorable reading of that WoB could indicate that he simply can't heal a death strike.  More minor wounds like getting you hand chopped off might be a different story.

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So then, if Szeth gets cut by a shardblade now that he has a nahel bond, will he be able to heal with it or would his understanding/intent get in the way?

Also, why hasn't nahel-bond-healing interacted with his stapled soul/cognitive shadow self? Does his soul not recognize that as damage?

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9 hours ago, RShara said:

Oh come on.

I don't actually think I am right BTW.  Just thought I would make that clear.

1 hour ago, Q10fanatic said:

So then, if Szeth gets cut by a shardblade now that he has a nahel bond, will he be able to heal with it or would his understanding/intent get in the way?

Also, why hasn't nahel-bond-healing interacted with his stapled soul/cognitive shadow self? Does his soul not recognize that as damage?

Good questions.  Szeth has encountered Kaladin knows that he is a Radiant without Regrowth powers so he also knows that he can heal blade wounds.  He also already knew that Radiants can heal blade severed limbs when they met(that is why he freaked so much).  I have no idea what the Nahel bond will do to his whole ghost soul separation.  Maybe he already thinks of himself as mostly dead so it will do nothing?

Edited by Karger
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1 hour ago, Q10fanatic said:

So then, if Szeth gets cut by a shardblade now that he has a nahel bond, will he be able to heal with it or would his understanding/intent get in the way?

As per the WoB posted by the others, if Szeth now as a knight radiant got cut by a shardblade, he could heal from it

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Also, why hasn't nahel-bond-healing interacted with his stapled soul/cognitive shadow self? Does his soul not recognize that as damage?

As to why his body seems distorted, that is because of how long he was "dead" before Nale healed him with the fabrial. I will post the WoB as I pull it up. 

 

Questioner

*inaudible*

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah the Divine Breath is a gift of investiture directly to the...basically they are being given a large splinter of Endowment.

Questioner

But is it the size?

Brandon Sanderson

The size is important, to make that happen, yeah.

Questioner

To make it happen?

Brandon Sanderson

To make it happen, yeah. To make them come back and to do the things but...there is obviously some leakage there when they basically taking a cognitive sh...they have to create a cognitive shadow of the spirit, right. Which requires some work, and then to push that back into the body and get it to stick requires some work as well. You'll see that with Szeth it isn't sticking very well.

Questioner

*inaudible*

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah Szeth is not a cognitive shadow, he actually got stuck back in but the soul is not sticking very well to the body

Questioner

*inaudible*

Brandon Sanderson

That's what she's saying.

Arcanum Unbounded Seattle signing (Dec. 1, 2016) Edited by Pathfinder
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Well, here's another point of detail about Szeth and healing from Shardblade wounds in general...

In (the revised edition of) his climactic duel in the skies with Kaladin, Szeth is stabbed through the wrist by the Sylblade - turning it gray - before he falls to his death by unbonding the Honorblade of Jezrien and giving up his Lashings. He is brought back with a fabrial of Regrowth by Nalan, and afterward, has no apparent loss of use of his sword hand.

So dying and being brought back with the (externally provided) Surge of Regrowth also "resets" the Spiritual severing from a Shardblade, even if it can't heal it from a living person like Bisig or Hobber, who could only heal from their Shardblade paralysis when they could draw Stormlight into themselves (Shallan and Renarin couldn't help them, just as Rysn's more ordinary paralysis stemmed from too old an injury).

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