Radiant immortality

[Stick The Savant]

We that having the fifth heightening grants immortality.

First, is this a basic property of investiture (I assume it is) 

Second, would a radiant with a constant stream of stormlight also be immortal. (yes this would be very hard to do) perhaps a Bondsmith could somehow allow them to draw directly from Honor/Cultivations investiture

*(Biological immortality)

[alder24]

31 minutes ago, Stick The Savant said:

We that having the fifth heightening grants immortality.

First, is this a basic property of investiture (I assume it is) 

Second, would a radiant with a constant stream of stormlight also be immortal. (yes this would be very hard to do) perhaps a Bondsmith could somehow allow them to draw directly from Honor/Cultivations investiture

*(Biological immortality)

Not with healing. Healing doesn't cure age related illnesses and aging itself. Radiants aren't ageless.

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?

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.

Stormlight Three Update #5 (Nov. 29, 2016)

Just having a constant stream of Stormlight isn't enough, of course they would have to hold it in their body (which isn't perfect and leaks). But there are some passive effects of holding investiture similar to Heightenings, but we don't know if holding massive amounts of Stormlight would stop your aging. Hard maybe. But you would need a looot of it, which would leak very fast. That's not a very practical way to gain immortality.

Spoiler

tskyeguye

From Rysn's observations in the epilogue, it seems like she has a lot of the same aspects of a Fifth Heightening/Returned at the least. Is this because her Dawnshard is particularly connected to Endowment or because the effects of a certain level of Investment result in similar effects?

Brandon Sanderson

The latter.

Skrimyt

Interesting. So are actively Surgebinding Radiants or metal-burning Allomancers just not Invested enough to gain those passive effects, or do they not experience perfect pitch/color/etc. because their Investiture is just not as tightly bound to their Spiritweb as Endowment's Breaths or a Dawnshard would be?

Brandon Sanderson

Be aware that the two groups you mention don't generally hold much Investiture themselves, at least not in large quantities over time. More in Surgebinding. Almost none in Allomancy.

But RAFO to specifics.

Dawnshard Annotations Reddit Q&A (Nov. 6, 2020)

 

Edited October 8, 2023 by alder24

[trav]

Anyone who is highly invested is ageless and functionally immortal.

Radiants are never even close to it and I see little possibility for them to increase it.

I really wonder what the limitation is that keeps radiants from sucking in as much Investiture as they want.

[Trusk'our he/him]

4 hours ago, Stick The Savant said:

We that having the fifth heightening grants immortality.

First, is this a basic property of investiture (I assume it is) 

Second, would a radiant with a constant stream of stormlight also be immortal. (yes this would be very hard to do) perhaps a Bondsmith could somehow allow them to draw directly from Honor/Cultivations investiture

*(Biological immortality)

I find it worth mentioning that the majority of a Radiant's Investiture is Kinetic, not Static like with an Awakener. 

I'm not sure that Kinetic Investiture can grant biological immortality, (at least not without Shardic levels of it)- otherwise TLR wouldn't have needed Atium Compounding to maintain his youth.