How is Demoux alive?

[Hoidmybeer]

So I don't understand one thing.

We know that 

Spoiler

Demoux is a worldhopper and he is on Roshar in Wok. 

But the events of Wok happened hundreds of years after the events of HoA. How is he alive? 

Maybe I missed something in which case I apologise. But it doesn't make sense to me. 

Also, I haven't read Row yet so please no spoilers for that one :D. 

Thanks in advance for answers.

Life before death! 

[Kingsdaughter613]

1 minute ago, Hoidmybeer said:

So I don't understand one thing.

We know that 

  Hide contents

Demoux is a worldhopper and he is on Roshar in Wok. 

But the events of Wok happened hundreds of years after the events of HoA. How is he alive? 

Maybe I missed something in which case I apologise. But it doesn't make sense to me. 

Also, I haven't read Row yet so please no spoilers for that one :D. 

Thanks in advance for answers.

Life before death! 

Worldhoppers employ various means to become functionally immortal.

[Elegy]

Demoux doesn't have to be that old. There's time dilation in the Cosmere:

Quote

Questioner

Is all the worlds in the Cosmere on a linear timeline?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, with an asterisk. There is time dilation. If you get too close to large amounts of matter or large amounts of Investiture, you will have time dilation. 

Starsight Release Party (Nov. 26, 2019)

And worldhoppers make use of it:

Quote

Questioner 1

So you mentioned earlier that a lot of the characters that we see in multiple books are functionally immortal-- that interact between the different stories are functionally immortal. Can we-- But some of them when we saw them in actual just books, before we saw them jumping between worlds, were not functionally immortal at that time. Can we then take that to mean that they somehow became functionally immortal?

Brandon Sanderson

You can take that to become that. Now--

Moderator

Correctly. There's an implied correctly.

Brandon Sanderson

You can correctly. Now here's the distinction. Some of them are not. Some of them are using tricks of *searches for correct word* relativistic time travel to move forward in the future. Some of them are not aging and others are just aging really slowly. And those are three separate things among characters you have actually seen.

Questioner 2

And which are which? *laughter*

Brandon Sanderson

...I will give you hints as you read the books.

JordanCon 2016 (April 23, 2016)

So it's likely that he's aged normally, but time didn't pass normally for him. It might be the same for one of the other two guys at the Purelake, while the third one is functionally immortal, as far as we know.

[Mage]

I always thought that since Demoux was already an Atium misting, he was halfway to Lord Ruler style immortality through Atium compounding. With some hemalurgy or some other hack he could have gotten Atium Feruchemy and used that.

But now that I think about it, there was no more Atium after HoA, so one of the other explanations is probably more feasible. I don't know for sure, but Atium compounding is my head-canon.

[Kingsdaughter613]

1 hour ago, Mage said:

I always thought that since Demoux was already an Atium misting, he was halfway to Lord Ruler style immortality through Atium compounding. With some hemalurgy or some other hack he could have gotten Atium Feruchemy and used that.

But now that I think about it, there was no more Atium after HoA, so one of the other explanations is probably more feasible. I don't know for sure, but Atium compounding is my head-canon.

He could have gotten a Feruchemy medallion from Kell. And there is still some Atium.

[stonewalker16]

On 12/30/2020 at 11:36 PM, Mage said:

But now that I think about it, there was no more Atium after HoA, so one of the other explanations is probably more feasible. I don't know for sure, but Atium compounding is my head-canon.

If you remember Marsh had a bag of atium beads that he stole from the Kandra. Demox could have gotten that, or even had some left over.

[+robardin]

On 12/31/2020 at 0:55 AM, Kingsdaughter613 said:

He could have gotten a Feruchemy medallion from Kell. And there is still some Atium.

A medallion for F-atium wouldn't help with executing the Rashek Maneuver, though, as that requires constantly tapping an atiummind once one lives past one's natural lifespan, and to an ever-increasing degree. So relying on the medalion for the Feruchemical ability would mean running out of being able to use the atiummind at all once the medallion ran out, regardless of Compounding, unless you could also compound the (presumed) nicrosilmind that stored the Feruchemical ability, which would require being a Feruchemist (or something like the Bands).

A Feruchemist who could naturally use the atiummind, though - whether being a full Feruchemist, or if there were such a thing as an atium Ferring, which it doesn't seem like there ought to be any more after the Catacendre - could use a medallion for A-atium to access the Allomantic ability every now and then to burn atium to Compound, and create or add to some highly Invested atiummind (keyed to themself).

Edited January 6, 2021 by robardin

[Hoidmybeer]

Ok sorry in advance for maybe asking a stupid question but I always thought that atium is for seeing into the future and not for making myself live longer (gold is for that). So why are so many of you talking about atium? What am I missing? Thank you :). 

[stonewalker16]

15 minutes ago, Hoidmybeer said:

Ok sorry in advance for maybe asking a stupid question but I always thought that atium is for seeing into the future and not for making myself live longer (gold is for that). So why are so many of you talking about atium? What am I missing? Thank you :). 

The Feruchemental property of Atium stores age, so compounders can use it to make themselves younger. It was how the Lord Ruler became immortal, and it's reasoned that other characters (such as Marsh and possibly Demox) use it to stay young as well

[Kingsdaughter613]

1 hour ago, robardin said:

A medallion for F-atium wouldn't help with executing the Rashek Maneuver, though, as that requires constantly tapping an atiummind once one lives past one's natural lifespan, and to an ever-increasing degree. So relying on the medalion for the Feruchemical ability would mean running out of being able to use the atiummind at all once the medallion ran out, regardless of Compounding, unless you could also compound the (presumed) nicrosilmind that stored the Feruchemical ability, which would require being a Feruchemist (or something like the Bands).

A Feruchemist who could naturally use the atiummind, though - whether being a full Feruchemist, or if there were such a thing as an atium Ferring, which it doesn't seem like there ought to be any more after the Catacendre - could use a medallion for A-atium to access the Allomantic ability every now and then to burn atium to Compound, and create or add to some highly Invested atiummind (keyed to themself).

There is a word of Brandon that indicates that Nicrosil works in a similar manner to copper: something distinct (memory/investiture) is removed from the individual and is later restored. This may mean that Kell could permanently, via compounding, give Spook Feruchemical Atium. If nothing else, a medallion would make him an Atium Ferring for awhile (Nicrosil minds seem to be slow to run out), and Kelsier would probably replace it as needed.

[+robardin]

1 minute ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

There is a word of Brandon that indicates that Nicrosil works in a similar manner to copper: something distinct (memory/investiture) is removed from the individual and is later restored. This may mean that Kell could permanently, via compounding, give Spook Feruchemical Atium. If nothing else, a medallion would make him an Atium Ferring for awhile (Nicrosil minds seem to be slow to run out), and Kelsier would probably replace it as needed.

Well problem #2 would be that Ghost Kelsier would have to become a (Full) Feruchemist somewhere along the way...

Maybe with The Lost Metal we'll finally see how the Excisors and the Bands were created. (I had this crazy theory, which I wrote up at one point with details but don't remember any more, is that he and Spook gained access to spikes for Feruchemy - or even a host with full Feruchemy built into it - via the First Generation of kandra, who were originally human Feruchemists like Rashek had been, and perhaps still were on a Spiritual or Cognitive level the way we see former koloss appearing as human again in Secret History)