Does stormlight heal shardblade through the spine?

[DoctaDajman]

Given Szeth's ending in WoR it appears that regrowth can heal a shardblade through the spine, but can passive stormlight from a radiant heal a shardblade through the spine?  

I feel like I have seen that some of the windrunners may have died in this way but I need someone to spoil it for me truly.  

We have seen that a gold ferring can heal a shardblade wound. I know stormlight healing is OP but I feel like someone with Miles compounding who could be tapping from multiple goldminds at once all located at different spots could probably pull it off. 

 

[Treamayne]

27 minutes ago, DoctaDajman said:

Given Szeth's ending in WoR it appears that regrowth can heal a shardblade through the spine, but can passive stormlight from a radiant heal a shardblade through the spine?  

Did you read the harddcover for WoR? That''s not the canon "death" for Szeth at the end of WoR. WoB:

Spoiler

The__Good__Doctor

Hi Brandon! I wanted to talk about the revised ending of Words of Radiance.

So, it looks like Kaladin won't be actually delivering the killing blow to Szeth any more. I think that Kaladin was entirely justified in doing this, since it was a fight to the death, and Kaladin was protecting not only Dalinar but his entire squad below. Kaladin even seems surprised when he lands the blow, expecting Szeth to block it like he had been doing the entire fight. The killing was not done in vengeance or with malice, unlike what Adolin does later. Having the storm kill Szeth seems like an anti-climatic way to end the scene, since it takes away Szeth's decision to die by the sword, and means we no longer have an example of why the spren Shardblades don't immediately kill people.

Brandon Sanderson

I woud be fine having him do it, though I think killing a foe who has given up was against this thematic plot. But what pushed me over the edge to change was the sense that I was pulling too many fast ones on the reader with people coming back to life. I wanted it clear to readers that Szeth was not dead, so this scene wasn't a fake out, which would weaken Jasnah's arrival later.

Dancingedge

Um, Mr. Sanderson, I don't mean to be disrespectful as you probably have the scene better in your head than I do but how is a man without Stormlight falling from a very large hight, while in the middle of two Highstorms coliding and throwing entire platoos in the air expected to survive? Maybe I don't have the right persective on this given that I saw both Jasnah (the body disapearing is just as much a give away as it never being shown in my book) and Syl (Pattern outright said Sprens can be revived) coming but unless you severly change the fight scene I don't see how being stabbed actually matters for Szeth survival chances.

Brandon Sanderson

The idea is that the reader didn't see him die, so there's a psychological trigger--one that says "Ah, I didn't see a body. He's probably not dead."

Yes, Szeth totally died from that fall--just as the young man that Lift revived had died from what he suffered. We know that Stormlight can fix the body and bring back the dead, so long as very little time has passed.

The import of the tweak to me is allowing some question in the reader's mind, so that the return is not a betrayal.

The__Good__Doctor

That is a lot more understandable. Having too many reveals at the end could be problematic. I agree that Jasnah coming back felt like pulling a fast one right at the end. However, I think the suprise of Szeth coming back was really well done, especially with the reveal of Nin (Nale, Nalan? This dude is so old he has three names!) at the very end with his special sword friend. I feel like that was the real zinger that should have closed the book.

I was a little underwhelmed with Jasnah coming back, not because I dislike her, but because I thought she was well and truly dead. She died so early in the book that I was completely accepting of her death by the end, and her coming back in a 'gotcha' moment felt a little hollow. Perhaps this could have happened about a hundred pages into the next book? I don't know the entire story like you do, of course, but as a reader it felt like Szeth and his rebirth should have been the final closing image.

Brandon Sanderson

This all came about, if you're curious, during the detailed plotting of the second book. Originally, the outline did not call for Jasnah to leave, but I was having real trouble getting Shallan into a place--emotionally and experience-wise--where she could do the things she needed to do while Jasnah was around. I determined that Jasnah needed to pull a Gandalf, and let her ward alone for a while, and I'm glad I did it--the book is much, much stronger for it. However, the side effects of the last-minute change in the plot required Jasnah's reappearance, which sent a few waves through the book. (Szeth's death and survival being the main one.)

/r/books AMA 2015 (May 8, 2015)

So, the likely answer is that Regrowth can but passive Stormlight can only heal before the body has died (where dead is the point that the Cognitive Shadow begins forming in Shadesmar) - which is why Szeth has an after image in Edgedancer and beyond, Nale was nearly too late and his Cognitive self did not fully re-attach to his body. 

Here's the canon scene from WoR Ch 86:

Spoiler

“It is actually true,” Szeth whispered.

“Yes.”

Szeth nodded, and the edge of tension seemed to fade from him, replaced by an emptiness in his eyes. “Then I was right all along. I was never Truthless. I could have stopped the murders at any time.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Kaladin said. “But you never had to kill.”

“My orders—”

“Excuses! If that was why you murdered, then you’re not the evil man I assumed. You’re a coward instead.”

Szeth looked him in the eyes, then nodded. He pushed Kaladin back, then moved to swing.

Kaladin drove his hands forward, forming Syl into a sword. He expected a parry. The move was intended to draw Szeth out of his attack pattern.

Szeth did not parry. He just closed his eyes to accept the attack.

In that instant, for reasons he could not have articulated—pity, perhaps?—Kaladin diverted his blow, driving the Blade through Szeth’s wrist. The skin greyed. Flashing with reflected lightning, the sword tumbled from the assassin’s fingers, then dulled as it plummeted.

The glow fled the assassin’s form. All his Stormlight vanished in a puff, all Lashings banished.

Szeth started to fall.

Get that sword! Syl sent to Kaladin, a mental shout. Grab it.

“The assassin!”

He has released the bond. He’s nothing without that sword! It must not be lost!

Hope that helps. 

Edited February 21 by Treamayne
Format/SPAG

[Trusk'our he/him]

29 minutes ago, DoctaDajman said:

Given Szeth's ending in WoR it appears that regrowth can heal a shardblade through the spine, but can passive stormlight from a radiant heal a shardblade through the spine?  

I feel like I have seen that some of the windrunners may have died in this way but I need someone to spoil it for me truly.  

We have seen that a gold ferring can heal a shardblade wound. I know stormlight healing is OP but I feel like someone with Miles compounding who could be tapping from multiple goldminds at once all located at different spots could probably pull it off. 

Supposedly Regrowth can be used to resurrect a Blade-dead person though it must be done very quickly, or at least that is what I remember Wyndle thinking is what could happen in Edgedancer.

I would like to think that, technically, enough Stormlight or other Investiture could heal someone automatically from a Blade and keep them from dying, but it would have to be Avatar-levels of Investiture. And that's purely speculation on my part.

[Qianweilian He/him]

19 hours ago, DoctaDajman said:

but can passive stormlight from a radiant heal a shardblade through the spine?  

I mean, Stormlight healing is probably comparable to F-gold, which can heal a Shardblade through the head cheap enough that Wayne can do it.

Spoiler

Questioner

If a Shardblade was put through Wayne's eye, would he able to use his ability to heal the wound?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, he should be able to heal that.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/259/#e8737

 

 

[Nitpicking]

We see Radiant healing fix a crossbow bolt to the brain.

[Returned he/him]

As long as it's not immediately fatal I'd think that you could heal it, just like Kaladin healing his arm or Hobber's legs. That might even be what happened with Hobber. Szeth's Blade might have cut him through the legs at any height to paralyze him, but not being able to feel his legs at all could also indicate a cut through his lower spine.

[Treamayne]

2 hours ago, Returned said:

As long as it's not immediately fatal I'd think that you could heal it, just like Kaladin healing his arm or Hobber's legs. That might even be what happened with Hobber. Szeth's Blade might have cut him through the legs at any height to paralyze him, but not being able to feel his legs at all could also indicate a cut through his lower spine.

Hobber was most likely cut through the thighs. Had he been severed at the lumbar or sacral spine, he would no longer have had control over his hips, and he was described repeatedly as being able to sit up on his own on a stool. 

[DoctaDajman]

2 hours ago, Treamayne said:

Hobber was most likely cut through the thighs. Had he been severed at the lumbar or sacral spine, he would no longer have had control over his hips, and he was described repeatedly as being able to sit up on his own on a stool. 

Wouldnt a cut through lumbar be like any other shard vs spine injury and result in burnt out eyes and death?  

What counts as spine in the case of instant death via shard cut?  

[Treamayne]

9 hours ago, DoctaDajman said:

Wouldnt a cut through lumbar be like any other shard vs spine injury and result in burnt out eyes and death?  

What counts as spine in the case of instant death via shard cut?  

High enough on the spine that you have "killed" (deadened due to the severing of their spiritual component) those organs essential to living - heart, lungs, diaphram, digestive tract, etc.