How Shardblades Kill

[Malim]

There has been something bothering me about the manner in which shardblades kill their victims.  They do not affect the physical being of living things, but instead, they directly target and kill the soul.

 

Given that shardblades can be considered to be a physical manifestation of spren, it would seem to me that they are cognitive in nature.  This would seem to make their logical target the cognitive identity of their victims.  Since all three apects: cognitive, physical, and spiritual are needed for life in the cosmere, this would be just as effective a way of killing in my mind. 

 

The question that arises, then, is why do they target the spiritual aspect?  It could be that once the cognitive is killed, there is nothing holding the soul in place.  However, when Szeth is brought back, Nalan seemed to imply that the mind was the last thing to survive, so it doesn't seem that the cognitive was targeted at all.

 

Any thoughts, speculation, WoB on this?

[Kurkistan]

Well the way that healing works in the cosmere (and the fact that it works on shardblade wounds) tells us that some very large part of the cognitive, at least, remains intact after begin Shardbladed: otherwise magic wouldn't be able to use "cognitive templates" to heal you back to your normal self.

 

Also recall that Spren (at least bond-spren, it seems) are Splinters, and Splinters have an even mix of Cognitive/Spiritual, so it's not too terrible for them to have a Spiritual impact.

[Moogle]

Shardblades cut the soul. Here's a collection of WoBs:
 

Question
A shardblade, what it does is cut off healing and control of an arm or whatever...

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Question
So like if an arm got badly wounded and was bleeding out and needed to be amputated. If you went through it with a shardblade first, would that damage you in other ways?

Brandon Sanderson
No it wouldn't. What it does is sever the soul of the arm.

Question
I know like in Mistborn, if you take bits of soul out of people it messes them up.

Brandon Sanderson
It does.

Question
if you do it with shardblades...

Brandon Sanderson
It leaves a wound...

(source)

 

Pinpoint
If Hoid got beheaded, would his body grow a new head?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Pinpoint
What if Hoid got cut by a shardblade?

Brandon Sanderson
The Shardblade cuts the soul and what Hoid does heals the soul.

(source)

 

Kurkistan ()

Does a limb that has been "severed" by a Shardblade have any Hemalurgic bindpoints? If the same limb was then cut off more conventionally, would a Bloodmaker ferring be able to grow it back?


Brandon Sanderson

A severed Shardblade limb needs repair to the soul before it would function again. A Bloodmaker would be able to heal it without needing to grow it back.

(source)

 

---

As to spren, they're actually Cognitive entities based on a Spiritual ideal. WoB:

Kurkistan
Are flamespren, are they all doing their own thing, or is there some Ideal of "Fire" sitting in the Spiritual Realm that they're all based on?

Brandon Sanderson
Each spren is based on the Ideal of Fire.

Kurkistan
And is that sitting in the Spiritual Realm?

Brandon Sanderson
Yes, we're using sort of a Platonic Ideal, and that concept is in force, so < sounds hesitant > "yes", but [spren] are manifestations of it.

(source)

 

And, naturally, I was mostly ninja'd by Kurk on the part of this post where I explain things. Oh well.

Edited August 14, 2014 by Moogle

[Malim]

Thanks for the replies.  I hadn't seen the WoB on the nature of spren as cognitive/spiritual entities.  That clears up the question in my mind.  I have to work on my wiki-fu it seems

[Kurkistan]

@Moogle

 

I only managed to NINJAAAA  you because you took the time to give a much more full/useful response than I did, so I wouldn't be too put out if I were you.