MaiPon Lifeless

[Trusk'our he/him]

We have new WoBs! This one was really interesting to me, because it tells us that Ashravan's actual consciousness moved to the Beyond and what Shai put in his place was a form of sapient Investiture.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/549-dragonsteel-nexus-2025/

Questioner

At the very end [of the Emperor’s Soul], the Ashravan construct, the simulacrum that’s been made, is convincing. Is it a real boy?

Brandon Sanderson

So, by cosmere terms, what has happened here is that it is a new individual who has the memories that Shai has put into his head. She has actually constructed something that is using some of the matter and stuff behind (it can access some of the matter). Is it a real boy? It is a construct that has enough Investiture to be self-aware. So it is a person, I would say yes.

Is it a real boy? Is Syl a real girl? If you say yes to Syl being a real girl, then yes, it’s a real boy. It’s definitely a person, does that make sense? But is it actually him? No. Not by basically anyone’s definitions. If you go to the religious definitions, they’re gonna be like, “No, that soul passed on.” If you go to the arcanist definitions, they’re gonna be like, “This isn’t quite a Cognitive Shadow, but it’s something analogous to it.” You’ve taken some Investiture that’s become self-aware and can access the memories, ‘cause it’s got… It can actually access memories that she didn’t put in there, because it has access to the brain, that was still functional. But see, it gets a little sticky here. She basically made them a better version, but it also has autonomy. It is a person.

This sounds a whole lot like a Lifeless, but more filled with life. Use Investiture to create a "false soul" that puppeteers a deceased body.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/100-rbooks-ama-2015/#e3644

Phantine

Would a lifeless Koloss still be super strong?

Brandon Sanderson

You see, what is happening to create a koloss is a human soul is taken, sliced up, and sutured back together--with the spikes being the "stitches" that holds it all together. That's a problem, since the various forms of investiture don't play very well together. In Awakening, you're basically giving something a counterfeit soul. (But without the skill or knowledge of something like an Essence Mark.)

This means that in investing the corpse of the koloss, you have troubles. It's going to want to snap back to the original human shape and strength. If you COULD overcome this, then yes, it would be stronger.

Makes me think, Forgery could be used to reanimate bodies, provided you knew their history and personality to some reasonable degree. It would take a lot more work than just using Breath, but has the added advantage of not needing to drain a person of their innate Investiture.

It would be cool, I think, to see a Selish organization utilizing this with some sort of immortality protocol where their soldiers or other agents could have their histories rewritten if killed to create a kind of skilled Lifeless.

[Treamayne]

30 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

Forgery could be used to reanimate bodies, provided you knew their history and personality to some reasonable degree.

Depends on the desired final result. We already see "forgery" reaminate bodies in TES - Bloodsealing. 

Sure, you might get closer to a Selish Clod with Forgery (or similar) to add depth and detail to the artificial soul - but the basics of Dor-based Lifeless were already a thing long before this WoB. . . 

Edited December 9, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG

[Trusk'our he/him]

1 hour ago, Treamayne said:

Depends on the desired final result. We already see "forgery" reaminate bodies in TES - Bloodsealing. 

Sure, you might get closer to a Selish Clod with Forgery (or similar) to add depth and detail to the artificial soul - but the basics of Dor-based Lifeless were already a thing long before this WoB. . . 

Yeah, true, I suppose. 

[Nitpicking]

On 12/9/2025 at 1:53 PM, Trusk'our said:

Makes me think, Forgery could be used to reanimate bodies, provided you knew their history and personality to some reasonable degree. It would take a lot more work than just using Breath, but has the added advantage of not needing to drain a person of their innate Investiture.

But you have to be in particular region of Sel, or have a bottle of purified Dor (or the equivalent) lying around.