TLR not dying from beheading.

[Through The Living Grub He/Him]

I'm doing another TFE read through for fun and noticed that when Kell at one point mentions how he doesn't know how to kill TLR he says people cut off his head, and that only annoyed him. Did he have goldminds on his head, or was this maybe a rumor to make him seem like God?

[The Bookwyrm he/him]

As far as I understand it, when someone with great healing capacity is beheaded, they just grow a new head. I don't know if we ever see it happen canonically in the Cosmere, but (Dragonsteel Prime spoilers):

Spoiler

When Topaz (proto-Hoid) is beheaded at the end, we see him in the epilogue show up and find his beheaded head. He seems confused that his body grew a new head, rather than the other way around, so I guess he thought the same thing as you.

In Cosmere mechanics, it seems like you regrow your body from the largest remaining piece, rather than your head. I'm not entirely sure why this is the case,  but it is. Other people can probably explain it better than me, but I'm guessing it has something to do with cognitive and spiritual aspects of a person. (i.e. you regrow from your "core", or something...)

So I think Kelsier was completely telling the truth, but the metalminds the Lord Ruler was using to heal were still on his arms or torso. People tried to behead him, and he just grew a new head.

[Trusk'our he/him]

27 minutes ago, Xiahida said:

I'm doing another TFE read through for fun and noticed that when Kell at one point mentions how he doesn't know how to kill TLR he says people cut off his head, and that only annoyed him. Did he have goldminds on his head, or was this maybe a rumor to make him seem like God?

There is a WoB talking about this a bit, saying that some of it was an exaggeration, but for what it's worth Miles shows that a gold Savant can absolutely survive serious brain trauma and come back.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/291-twg-posts/#e11199

Arabas

The question is about the Lord Ruler's death.  He is basically killed because Vin was able to remove his Feruchemy storage bracelets thus depriving him of his stored youth and strength correct?  Once he didn't have access to these she could simply kill him like a normal man.Now on page 627 about the 3rd paragraph down the Lord Ruler states " I've survived burning and beheadings.  I've been stabbed and sliced, crushed and dismembered." (I also think this is also reference somewhere else in the book that I could not locate)If all it took to drain the Lord Ruler of his power was to remove access to his Feruchemy items wouldn't he have died if he was dismembered?  Remove the storage devices from the trunk of the body and he would die?

Peter Ahlstrom

I asked Brandon about this once, and I'm pretty sure he said the beheading survival part was a lie/exaggeration. I'd have to go back and check my notes.

The Lord Ruler would have reason to want people to believe he had survived beheadings and being burned to ash.

So, beheading probably wouldn't end him, but getting burned to ash probably would, in my opinion. 

[Treamayne]

32 minutes ago, Xiahida said:

I'm doing another TFE read through for fun and noticed that when Kell at one point mentions how he doesn't know how to kill TLR he says people cut off his head, and that only annoyed him. Did he have goldminds on his head, or was this maybe a rumor to make him seem like God?

Most of TLR's healing was exaggerated. WoB:

Spoiler

Arabas

The question is about the Lord Ruler's death.  He is basically killed because Vin was able to remove his Feruchemy storage bracelets thus depriving him of his stored youth and strength correct?  Once he didn't have access to these she could simply kill him like a normal man.Now on page 627 about the 3rd paragraph down the Lord Ruler states " I've survived burning and beheadings.  I've been stabbed and sliced, crushed and dismembered." (I also think this is also reference somewhere else in the book that I could not locate)If all it took to drain the Lord Ruler of his power was to remove access to his Feruchemy items wouldn't he have died if he was dismembered?  Remove the storage devices from the trunk of the body and he would die?

Peter Ahlstrom

I asked Brandon about this once, and I'm pretty sure he said the beheading survival part was a lie/exaggeration. I'd have to go back and check my notes.

The Lord Ruler would have reason to want people to believe he had survived beheadings and being burned to ash.

TWG Posts (April 9, 2008)

There is Cosmere healing that can survive beheadings, and Miles in Era shows us that significant cranial damage can be survived with Gold Compounding, but there was also teh element of the Lord Ruler exaggerating the level of damage he can survive as a way of the Ministry teachings helping to prevent those attacks. 

Also discussed in a few threads, like this one.

Dragonsteel Prime Spoilers - WoB:

Spoiler

/u/ph4mp573r

[Hoid] was beheaded in Dragonsteel Prime and the Dawnshard is what regrew his head. He makes a crack about always thinking his head would have grown a new body, not vice versa, as he stares at his own severed head.

/u/sambadaemon

Slightly related: If the Dawnshard let Hoid regrow his entire head, will it eventually give Rysn back the use of her legs?

Peter Ahlstrom

The different dawnshards have different powers.

Information subject to change when it appears in canon.

General Reddit 2022 (Dec. 2, 2022)

Hope that helps

Edited October 30, 2024 by Treamayne
SPAG

[+Lewis Nethur He/Him]

2 minutes ago, The Bookwyrm said:

As far as I understand it, when someone with great healing capacity is beheaded, they just grow a new head. I don't know if we ever see it happen canonically in the Cosmere, but (Dragonsteel Prime spoilers):

  Reveal hidden contents

When Topaz (proto-Hoid) is beheaded at the end, we see him in the epilogue show up and find his beheaded head. He seems confused that his body grew a new head, rather than the other way around, so I guess he thought the same thing as you.

In Cosmere mechanics, it seems like you regrow your body from the largest remaining piece, rather than your head. I'm not entirely sure why this is the case,  but it is. Other people can probably explain it better than me, but I'm guessing it has something to do with cognitive and spiritual aspects of a person. (i.e. you regrow from your "core", or something...)

So I think Kelsier was completely telling the truth, but the metalminds the Lord Ruler was using to heal were still on his arms or torso. People tried to behead him, and he just grew a new head.

@The Bookwyrm beat me to it, but he has the right of it. Canonically, turbocharged healing, particularly gold healing, is supposed to be able to allow one to survive and recover from very nearly anything.

I would like to believe that the Keepers must have tried tapping steel to rush TLR and cut off his head with a glass knife or axe at least once. TLR could not have, in my opinion, plausibly remained in power for 1024 years if any Keeper could have assassinated him at any time on a whim and just...never tried.

[Trusk'our he/him]

1 hour ago, Terrisman said:

Miles blew himself up though so why would burning would be any different

If I recall correctly, Kelsier says in TFE that TLR was reduced to nearly a skeleton by being burned at one point, only to regenerate in an eyeblink.

If Rashek had been burned that badly he may not have been able to retain contact with his Metalminds, or there may simply have not been any living tissue remaining to grow back from regardless of his healing factor.

However, I think this is story is more than likely untrue, as there are exaggerated stories of assassination attempts on TLR (as hinted by the WoB), and of course Rashek could just heal before the damage got that bad or could simply prevent death via fire by storing heat.

[Raven Wilder]

Healing seems to work much the same way as repairing Shardplate: long as you have a piece of it, and feed it Investiture, it'll regrow back to its full form from that one scrap (unless someone else as a larger piece they're also feeding Investiture to, then that'll take precedence).

[Terrisman]

On 10/30/2024 at 1:30 PM, Trusk'our said:

There is a WoB talking about this a bit, saying that some of it was an exaggeration, but for what it's worth Miles shows that a gold Savant can absolutely survive serious brain trauma and come back.

  Reveal hidden contents

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/291-twg-posts/#e11199

Arabas

The question is about the Lord Ruler's death.  He is basically killed because Vin was able to remove his Feruchemy storage bracelets thus depriving him of his stored youth and strength correct?  Once he didn't have access to these she could simply kill him like a normal man.Now on page 627 about the 3rd paragraph down the Lord Ruler states " I've survived burning and beheadings.  I've been stabbed and sliced, crushed and dismembered." (I also think this is also reference somewhere else in the book that I could not locate)If all it took to drain the Lord Ruler of his power was to remove access to his Feruchemy items wouldn't he have died if he was dismembered?  Remove the storage devices from the trunk of the body and he would die?

Peter Ahlstrom

I asked Brandon about this once, and I'm pretty sure he said the beheading survival part was a lie/exaggeration. I'd have to go back and check my notes.

The Lord Ruler would have reason to want people to believe he had survived beheadings and being burned to ash.

So, beheading probably wouldn't end him, but getting burned to ash probably would, in my opinion. 

Miles blew himself up though so why would burning would be any different