How to Survive Death by Shardblade

[Trusk'our he/him]

We know that it is already possible to be healed and survive a Shardblade blow to the head or spine, but only if the Surge of Regrowth or theoretically some other form of Invested healing were to come from someone else. Plus, it requires a lot of Investiture and must come immediately after death.

We also know that the medallion tech made by the Southern Scadriens is more "automatic" than normal Metalminds and is moving further towards becoming mechanically based than will based.

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YouTube Spoiler Stream 5 - Arcanum (coppermind.net)

Raddatatta

In Era 1, Sazed says the only thing you can Feruchemically store while sleeping is wakefulness, but in Era 2 they have the sky ships that require everyone to be storing weight to fly and they don't land while people sleep. Was Sazed just wrong, or is that a difference between normal Feruchemy and using the unsealed metalminds?

Brandon Sanderson

Unsealed metalminds, I am moving toward complete—you probably already guessed this—mechanical uses of Investiture, and this indeed is a step toward that. And so we are stepping toward having a little machine that gives you powers. That's what the world wants to try to find. And this is—this being mechanical—we'll just say that the medallions and the things that they're building have more of a life-force, more of an Identity of their own than a traditional metalmind does, even though they're unkeyed and all of this stuff.

So my idea is that it may be possible to create a Fabrial (or specialized Metalmind tech, if you will) that could automatically heal you of a Shardblade induced death.

[alder24]

So regrowth Fabrial that has a sphere of strong healing influence? But activates only when you're dead? The first part is likely easy, but the second part I don't know. I don't think you can get healed by medallions once you're dead. Your soul and cognitive aspect are separated from your body, so there is nothing that can tap medallions now. But then there is Wax, who tapped the Bands of Mourning when his soul and mind was separated from his body. But while in book Harmony said:

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“I’m dead then.”
“Yes,” Harmony said. “Your body, mind, and soul have separated. Soon one will return to the earth, another to the cosmere, and the third … Even I do not know.”

There is WoB contradicting this.

Spoiler

Questioner

Is Wax a Cognitive Shadow, or did he really heal and come back?

Brandon Sanderson

Wax is not a Cognitive Shadow, good question. Wax did not every fully leave... the soul didn't leave the body. He didn't die, in other words. I should say that he didn't die and leave behind an imprint as a Cognitive Shadow. He could have been Invested in that moment enough to make one, so it's a good question; but he did not.

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[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

14 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

We know that it is already possible to be healed and survive a Shardblade blow to the head or spine, but only if the Surge of Regrowth or theoretically some other form of Invested healing were to come from someone else. Plus, it requires a lot of Investiture and must come immediately after death.

We also know that the medallion tech made by the Southern Scadriens is more "automatic" than normal Metalminds and is moving further towards becoming mechanically based than will based.

So my idea is that it may be possible to create a Fabrial (or specialized Metalmind tech, if you will) that could automatically heal you of a Shardblade induced death.

Do we know that the healing must be external to survive a shardblade to the spine?  I would imagine that it would break connection to everything below it as in the case of paraplegic and quadriplegic patients depending on where the cut was made.  If a gold compounder had metalminds on and in their head they should still be able to burn them to heal up right?  

We have WoBs saying that Miles could have burnt gold and compound healed his way through spikes that yoink the spirit away... why would cutting a spirit be any different?  The healing rate is so high that it would be healed as the blade passed through. 

Also... when the bridgeman lost use of his legs was it a lower back injury or just above the knees or what?  

Instinctive burning is a thing we have seen of allomancy and seems to work in the same sphere as stormlight just doing its thing.  If a shardblade hits your spine does the body cease all functions? Are bowels and bladder released after shardblade death or does the body and musculature lock down in its exact state?  

 

There is dead and there is mostly dead... and then there is nightblood dead.  

 

 

[alder24]

12 minutes ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Do we know that the healing must be external to survive a shardblade to the spine?  I would imagine that it would break connection to everything below it as in the case of paraplegic and quadriplegic patients depending on where the cut was made.  If a gold compounder had metalminds on and in their head they should still be able to burn them to heal up right?  

I imagine he could access metalminds above the cut.

12 minutes ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

We have WoBs saying that Miles could have burnt gold and compound healed his way through spikes that yoink the spirit away... why would cutting a spirit be any different?  The healing rate is so high that it would be healed as the blade passed through. 

But he would have to survive spiking, which likely would be done by being in the middle of tapping a goldmind.

Spoiler

Kurkistan

If you spiked out Miles' Feruchemical gold, would he be able to burn his Allomantic reserves [read: Feruchemical reserves using Allomancy] and heal it back?

Brandon Sanderson

If you spiked out his ability to heal gold and somehow left him alive?

Kurkistan

Yeah, but still having Allomancy.

Brandon Sanderson

Still has Allomancy...

Kurkistan

And he’s like in the middle of burning a goldmind.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, that would still work. It'd still have a Spiritual Connection to him.

Kurkistan

So if you're a Coinshot and you get [spiked] to have Feruchemical steel, and then you lose the spike after making a store, you can still Compound that for speed?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes... Yeah, that should still work.

Kurkistan

Was Paalm doing that?

Brandon Sanderson

That's a RAFO.

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14 minutes ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Also... when the bridgeman lost use of his legs was it a lower back injury or just above the knees or what?  

Cut through legs.

14 minutes ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Instinctive burning is a thing we have seen of allomancy and seems to work in the same sphere as stormlight just doing its thing.  If a shardblade hits your spine does the body cease all functions? Are bowels and bladder released after shardblade death or does the body and musculature lock down in its exact state?  

The body is still working, but your connection to those cut off parts are severed, as your soul is severed. If you survived. Death is likely looking the same as it should, as muscles aren't locked in place (bridgeman cut by Szeth would be unable to change his leg position).

 

But I agree, as long as a person has enough investiture to heal shardblade cuts, and can assess them, he would be able to heal cuts to a spine or even head. If he runs out, then there is still a chance to bring him back with the use of an external source of investiture (like Szeth was killed by a Shardblade cut before Brandon changed it).

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

24 minutes ago, alder24 said:

I imagine he could access metalminds above the cut.

But he would have to survive spiking, which likely would be done by being in the middle of tapping a goldmind.

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Kurkistan

If you spiked out Miles' Feruchemical gold, would he be able to burn his Allomantic reserves [read: Feruchemical reserves using Allomancy] and heal it back?

Brandon Sanderson

If you spiked out his ability to heal gold and somehow left him alive?

Kurkistan

Yeah, but still having Allomancy.

Brandon Sanderson

Still has Allomancy...

Kurkistan

And he’s like in the middle of burning a goldmind.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, that would still work. It'd still have a Spiritual Connection to him.

Kurkistan

So if you're a Coinshot and you get [spiked] to have Feruchemical steel, and then you lose the spike after making a store, you can still Compound that for speed?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes... Yeah, that should still work.

Kurkistan

Was Paalm doing that?

Brandon Sanderson

That's a RAFO.

Shadows of Self Chicago signing (Oct. 12, 2015)

 

Cut through legs.

The body is still working, but your connection to those cut off parts are severed, as your soul is severed. If you survived. Death is likely looking the same as it should, as muscles aren't locked in place (bridgeman cut by Szeth would be unable to change his leg position).

 

But I agree, as long as a person has enough investiture to heal shardblade cuts, and can assess them, he would be able to heal cuts to a spine or even head. If he runs out, then there is still a chance to bring him back with the use of an external source of investiture (like Szeth was killed by a Shardblade cut before Brandon changed it).

Yeah that is sort of where my mind was.  If a compounder had gold plates throughout his body and instinctive burning is a thing then being able to use f gold to heal the spirit should work. WoB says it works to the point of gaining powers stripped by a spike back should be more than enough to mend the soul even post shardblade to the spine. 

[therunner he/him]

38 minutes ago, alder24 said:

But I agree, as long as a person has enough investiture to heal shardblade cuts, and can assess them, he would be able to heal cuts to a spine or even head. If he runs out, then there is still a chance to bring him back with the use of an external source of investiture (like Szeth was killed by a Shardblade cut before Brandon changed it).

This is not the case, Fused can heal Shardblade cuts, but cut to head, spine or gemheart is instantly fatal even to them, despite having Voidlight.
It stands to reason that it would be fatal for Radiants as well, unless external source of healing was available.

I think it would be because cuts through head/spine sever the connection to Physical.

[alder24]

10 minutes ago, therunner said:

This is not the case, Fused can heal Shardblade cuts, but cut to head, spine or gemheart is instantly fatal even to them, despite having Voidlight.
It stands to reason that it would be fatal for Radiants as well, unless external source of healing was available.

If that's the case then you're likely right. I don't remember this being said except for a gemstone.

[therunner he/him]

1 minute ago, alder24 said:

If that's the case then you're likely right. I don't remember this being said except for a gemstone.

I did not remember that either, but I started re-read of RoW yesterday
Kaladin states in his first fight with Pursuer still in Hearthstone.