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Are Radiants functionally immortal ?


erarufus

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Just wondering, since I'm somewhat new and haven't read all the wobs, how a radiant who decided to live in the countryside could ever really die ?

Stormlight means they can't really die of infection or sickness, and the only things that could kill someone through age seem like they should be healed through stormlight (Various heart diseases, weak bones, weak immune system).

The only thing I can think of is failing mental faculties, but it seems like they should be healed from things that they 'shouldn't' have, that don't make their personality, so they should be healed of dementia and other age related mental disease ?

Another issue might be a lack of stormlight but this would mostly just mean a couple months(weeks ?) in the weeping where they'd have to survive off of a store, or not get hurt. Also if this is a total hypothetical then a windrunner could just ride just above the highstorm for investiture during weepings, or endlessly.

Are there any obvious issues I'm missing or could Kaladin and Lift survive to space era

 

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5 minutes ago, erarufus said:

Just wondering, since I'm somewhat new and haven't read all the wobs, how a radiant who decided to live in the countryside could ever really die ?

Stormlight means they can't really die of infection or sickness, and the only things that could kill someone through age seem like they should be healed through stormlight (Various heart diseases, weak bones, weak immune system).

The only thing I can think of is failing mental faculties, but it seems like they should be healed from things that they 'shouldn't' have, that don't make their personality, so they should be healed of dementia and other age related mental disease ?

Another issue might be a lack of stormlight but this would mostly just mean a couple months(weeks ?) in the weeping where they'd have to survive off of a store, or not get hurt. Also if this is a total hypothetical then a windrunner could just ride just above the highstorm for investiture during weepings, or endlessly.

Are there any obvious issues I'm missing or could Kaladin and Lift survive to space era

They cannot:

(Spoilers for the first mistborn book.)

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.

Eventually they will die of old age, as age related illnesses can't be healed by stormlight.

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6 minutes ago, Nameless said:

They cannot:

(Spoilers for the first mistborn book.)

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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.

Eventually they will die of old age, as age related illnesses can't be healed by stormlight.

Damm, Would a radiant be unable to heal from these before aging as well do you think ? Would a radiant with, say, cystic fibrosis or cancer, be unable to heal from these ? And do we know how healing works with mental things?

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1 hour ago, erarufus said:

Damm, Would a radiant be unable to heal from these before aging as well do you think ? Would a radiant with, say, cystic fibrosis or cancer, be unable to heal from these ? And do we know how healing works with mental things?

You heal to what your body thinks it should be in an ideal state.  Age is a natraul and accounted for part of living so your body thinks you should be as old as you are.  However with something like cancer your body does not feel like it should be ill(unless you have had it for a very long time) and so you can heal from it.  You can also transition if you are trans by healing.  Mental illness is a bit odd.  If caused by recent brain injury you should be able to heal yourself of it.  However a natraul condition like autism that you were born with would not by healable because your spiritual identity says you should see the world in that way.

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14 hours ago, Karger said:

However a natraul condition like autism that you were born with would not by healable because your spiritual identity says you should see the world in that way.

There was that autistic boy in elantris named Adien. He was healed from autism.

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2 hours ago, One_Armed said:

There was that autistic boy in elantris named Adien. He was healed from autism.

Not exactly becoming an Elantrain involves more then just healing.  The partial change effected his mind giving him "autism."

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On 3/27/2020 at 8:57 AM, One_Armed said:

There was that autistic boy in elantris named Adien. He was healed from autism.

I'm not sure what Karger is saying so I'll answer you as well. My impression was that Adien was never "cured" of autism. He had always had it since birth (as you do), and while his sanity was restored when the chasm line was added to the giant Aon, it had no effect on his condition. In fact, it's quite obvious that Adien's still an autistic savant since he was able to tell Raoden the precise number of steps to Teod's capital.

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14 hours ago, ILuvHats said:

I'm not sure what Karger is saying so I'll answer you as well. My impression was that Adien was never "cured" of autism. He had always had it since birth (as you do), and while his sanity was restored when the chasm line was added to the giant Aon, it had no effect on his condition. In fact, it's quite obvious that Adien's still an autistic savant since he was able to tell Raoden the precise number of steps to Teod's capital.

I had the impression that he was healed from the bad sides but still kept his genius side. Here is the relevant paragraph from the book.

Quote

“Adien,” Raoden said with surprise. “You’re …”
The young man, looking strikingly like Lukel now that he was healed, stepped forward. “I … I feel like my entire life has been a dream, Raoden. I remember everything that happened. But, I couldn’t interact—I couldn’t say anything. That’s changed now, but one thing remains the same. My mind … I’ve always been able to figure numbers….”

Elantris
Sanderson, Brandon

 

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5 hours ago, One_Armed said:

“Adien,” Raoden said with surprise. “You’re …”
The young man, looking strikingly like Lukel now that he was healed, stepped forward. “I … I feel like my entire life has been a dream, Raoden. I remember everything that happened. But, I couldn’t interact—I couldn’t say anything. That’s changed now, but one thing remains the same. My mind … I’ve always been able to figure numbers….”

Elantris
Sanderson, Brandon

 

Looking at that, it seems like his pain was healed, but he says his mind remains the same. At least that's the impression I got from that.

 

 

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