How does Regrowth work?

[Seeker861]

We know that healing with Stormlight is based on how one views themselves, but how does this apply to the use of the Progression Surge? When Lift heals Gawx does she heal him according to how she views him or does she merely give him the capacity to heal himself? Could Lift heal Kaladin's scars?

[Argent he/him]

I think it could go either way.

You can make the argument that the healing needs to follow the healer's guidance - so, for example, if Lift was healing a burn victim, she wouldn't know to restore their birthmarks; so she wouldn't.

On the other hand, a healer cannot possibly know everything about their patient, so at some point they need to let the patient's body do some work. In fact, a Surge called Progression - not Restoration, or Healing, or anything like that - suggests that the Surgebinder is, in some ways, accelerating natural processes (one of which is healing). So Regrowth might very well be the act of granting magical healing to someone, and letting them, all of their Realmatic aspects, handle it as well as they can. Maybe with some guidance. 

Obviously, the answer could be a mix between the two extremes. The healer's knowledge (e.g. awareness of how infections how) and the patient's... self-knowledge, the natural (at least for the Cosmere) awareness of the body of what a healthy state is. 

I am personally in favor of one of the last two options. I don't think a Surgebinder with control over Progression does all the work when they Regrow someone; I believe they (mostly) allow the patient's natural healing ability, magnified by the Surgebinder's magic, to handle things on its own. So Lift probably wouldn't be able to heal Kaladin's scars, no more than he can.

[Argel he/him]

Sounds like we will learn more about how healing, etc. works in Warbreaker 2 (Warbreaker and The Emporer's Soul spoilers):

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

Me: Regarding Ashraven... Would it be correct to say that memories are part of the mind/CR aspect? Assuming so, was Shai forging a new CR aspect to in-effect reconnect Asharaven's Soul (SR) with his body (PR)? I was thinking this could explain how she got his mannerisms correct -- i.e. that those are timeless SR aspects, so she didn't really get those right but instead, the SR connection was re-established?

Brandon: Regarding Ashrovan: The problem here is that I don't want to get too deep into these sorts of things, for reasons that I want aspects of the magic to remain subject to discussion for a while yet. Suffice it to say that when we talk about Returned and lifeless in Warbreaker sequels, you'll have more ammunition for understanding what happened in Emperor's Soul.

 

I like your thinking on it -- it could apply well to Resealing and Forgery in TES and why they needed Shai. And if it's a mix of the healer and the soul, then that would explain why Ashraven has to be stamped everyday, etc. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Argent said:

I think it could go either way.

You can make the argument that the healing needs to follow the healer's guidance - so, for example, if Lift was healing a burn victim, she wouldn't know to restore their birthmarks; so she wouldn't.

On the other hand, a healer cannot possibly know everything about their patient, so at some point they need to let the patient's body do some work. In fact, a Surge called Progression - not Restoration, or Healing, or anything like that - suggests that the Surgebinder is, in some ways, accelerating natural processes (one of which is healing). So Regrowth might very well be the act of granting magical healing to someone, and letting them, all of their Realmatic aspects, handle it as well as they can. Maybe with some guidance. 

Obviously, the answer could be a mix between the two extremes. The healer's knowledge (e.g. awareness of how infections how) and the patient's... self-knowledge, the natural (at least for the Cosmere) awareness of the body of what a healthy state is. 

I am personally in favor of one of the last two options. I don't think a Surgebinder with control over Progression does all the work when they Regrow someone; I believe they (mostly) allow the patient's natural healing ability, magnified by the Surgebinder's magic, to handle things on its own. So Lift probably wouldn't be able to heal Kaladin's scars, no more than he can.

What if the Radiant hasn't absorb enough strormlight to heal the injured, how will the healing be performed? Will the injured's body automatically heal the most life threatening injuries and stop when stormlight runs out? Lift merely gives what seems to be akin to a "stormlight breath" to Gawx, so what if it wasn't enough? Is there a point where you give enough stormlight so the patient heals himself independently of the healer's knowledge or is it the healer needs to guide the stormlight to heal what matters the most? In other words, not waste stormlight heal a small cut, but heal the gaping wound on the abdomen instead.

I sincerely hope the healer's knowledge plays a part in the healing... How easy it has been for Lift has bothered me slightly.

Also how about shock and hypothermia which often follows serious injuries? How does it feel for the injured to be healed in such way? For instances, if you were dead or nearly dead and suddenly revives, is your body heath restored to you automatically or does the injured still needs to be cared for up until he is fully, fully healed?

These would be the questions I would have.

[marianmi]

From Dalinar's vision, he is told to "save Regrowth" for others. Since it's a fabrial, it means probably to save the stormlight, which is the only thing consumed when using the fabrial.

Just going by the "ReGrowth" name, I would say, like the above comment, that the surgebinder starts an accelerated healing process. So it can heal partially, or totally, depending on how much stormlight he's using. Using less stormlight, the "regrowth" process still starts - e.g. when growing a limb, you could run out of stormlight when only 1 finger is created. The person would need to continue natural healing. We actually see this with Lopen. With a bit of stormlight, he grew a small stump. He then went to ask for more stormlight to continue the healing process and grow the entire hand.

But I would assume that "starting" the process requires a minimum amount of stormlight. E.g. like the one Lift used when bringing Gawx back to life. You don't have enough => nothing happens. I don't remember the exact scene, so please correct me if I am wrong with this: my impression was that Lift leveled up then, and when doing a level-up you get some "free" stormlight (like how Kaladin "explodes" with stormlight after saying his oaths), so maybe Lift leveled-up and all that "free" stormlight was used on Gawx (want's she otherwise quite out of stormlight?)

[+Lewis Nethur He/Him]

You can't heal something that doesn't exist, ie, Lift can't build a new person, or golem, out of stormlight using regrowth. It'd also be extremely weird if she could augment a cremling into a dragon. This suggests to me that regrowth is fundamentally limited and guided by the cognitive aspect of the person/thing being targeted with regrowth.

That said, investiture is tricky. A master of regrowth could probably forcibly "heal" what they regarded as a deficiency in their patient, even against their patient's wishes, with enough force (stormlight, willpower, and identity). This would probably only be a temporary effect that the recipient's spirit web eventually rejected however, similar to soul stamping. But...yes...under the right circumstances, lift could probably heal Kaladins scars, at least for a little while; doing so might interfere with one or both of their oaths though, which could have some horrible rebounding consequences...

[Savanorn he/him]

10 hours ago, maxal said:

What if the Radiant hasn't absorb enough strormlight to heal the injured, how will the healing be performed? Will the injured's body automatically heal the most life threatening injuries and stop when stormlight runs out? Lift merely gives what seems to be akin to a "stormlight breath" to Gawx, so what if it wasn't enough? Is there a point where you give enough stormlight so the patient heals himself independently of the healer's knowledge or is it the healer needs to guide the stormlight to heal what matters the most? In other words, not waste stormlight heal a small cut, but heal the gaping wound on the abdomen instead.

I sincerely hope the healer's knowledge plays a part in the healing... How easy it has been for Lift has bothered me slightly.

Also how about shock and hypothermia which often follows serious injuries? How does it feel for the injured to be healed in such way? For instances, if you were dead or nearly dead and suddenly revives, is your body heath restored to you automatically or does the injured still needs to be cared for up until he is fully, fully healed?

These would be the questions I would have.

Hey Max.

I'd suspect it works a lot like Stormlight healing but works on people who are not Radiants. It is noted that this is an enhancement of the body's natural healing and not healing action of the Light itself.

As such, I'd suspect it to be equal to or exceed the possibilities granted by stormlight healing. My main evidence here is the (now noncanon but still valid?) Old final WoR scene with Szeth.

I would guess it is guided by some element of the cognitive aspect of the person being healed. I would suspect that this means that someone else could heal Kaladin's scars, if they were aiming to, but not if they were merely trying to heal him.

Finally, I'd guess that the more stormlight used the more complete the recovery, but there would probably be some plateau where the patient would need to rest and recover.

Edited October 13, 2016 by Savanorn