Shardblades vs. Inquisitors

[Kplynch21 he/him]

If Marsh, or another one of the inquisitors was cut with a Shardblade, what would happen? My personal belief is that nothing will happen, outside of the cutting of flesh, because the Steel Inquisitor is already dead, and the only way to re-kill one of them is to remove one of their spikes. However, I am no expert so can someone give me their beliefs?

[Hemalurgic Headshot he/him]

Uh, Welcome to the Shard! I think this belongs in the Mistborn thread. And the Inquisitor would still die. They are not dead, even if their souls have been severely twisted by Hemalurgy. Removing the spinal spike would kill an Inquisitor because it would cause its soul to fall away from the body. Cutting the spine with a Shardblade would do pretty much the same thing.

[Nashan’Elin he/him]

Though, that does bring up another question. Would an Inquistor's spikes hold enough Investiture to block a Shardblade?

[kenod]

I don't think so, because the maximum amount of Investure a spike can contain is equal to somebody's Innate Investure. We also have this WoB:

http://www.theoryland.com/intvsresults.php?kwt='nightblood'

Quote

WOR Signing Report - Herowannabe (Verbatim)

Herowannabe

I’m curious, I’ve got a list of various cosmere bits of metal, and I wonder if you would rank them from like 1 to 10 or easy to difficult on how hard it would be to steelpush on them?

Brandon Sanderson

Okay.

Herowannabe

So, like metal inside a person’s body?

Brandon Sanderson

It depends on how strong the investiture in them is.

Herowannabe

Is that going to be the answer for all of these?

Brandon Sanderson

Probably.

Herowannabe

How about a spike charged with Hemalurgy? Not in a person.

Brandon Sanderson

Not in a person? It depends on how strong—yeah. A spike is moderately—in the realm of these sorts of things—moderately easy to push on, because a spike does not rip off very much investiture. Only enough to short circuit the soul, and it loses that over time. So I would put that at the bottom—with the top being very hard—to be one of the easier things.

Herowannabe

How about a metalmind? A feruchemy metalmind that is "full."

Brandon Sanderson

That is going to be middle of the realm. Generally easier than, for instance, a shardblade, which is going to be very hard.

Aaradel

But a shardblade isn’t actual metal. Ish?

Brandon Sanderson

Ish. Is Lerasium a metal? Yeah.

Herowannabe

So would that be the same for Shardplate, too?

Brandon Sanderson

Shardplate and blade are very hard. Blade is probably going to be harder. [...]

Herowannabe

Halfshard? Like a halfshard shield?

Brandon Sanderson

Halfshard shield is going to be in moderate.

Herowannabe

Nightblood? I imagine is going to be very difficult.

Brandon Sanderson

Very hard. Of all the things you’ve listed, he’s the hardest. Far beyond even a shardblade.

Herowannabe

Far beyond metal inside a person?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, depending on how invested the person is.

Aaradel

If someone was invested as much as Nightblood I’m pretty sure it’s going to be very difficult.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, for instance, the Godking, at the end, with all of those Breaths. Pushing on something inside of him? Getting through all that? Gonna be REAL hard. Average person on Scadrial? You’ve seen how hard that is. A drab? Much easier.

Herowannabe

That was actually going to be my next one- No, sorry, not a drab, a Lifeless.

Brandon Sanderson

A Lifeless. Lifeless are kinda weird, because they’ve had their soul leave, but then they’ve had a replacement stuck in, in the form of Breath, which puts them in a really weird position compared to a Drab, which has had part of their investiture ripped away, but the majority of it remains. So anyway, I’m going to give you one more. Pick your favorite.

Herowannabe

Okay, a soul-stamped piece of metal.

Brandon Sanderson

A soul-stamped piece of metal is going to be on the lower, easier side. Not a lot of investiture going on in a soulstamp.

Quote

Q: Could a filled (fully feruchemical charge) metalmind block a Shardblade (or at least, resist a bit)?

A: Yes, it could. Excellent question.

https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/cuoajxq/?context=3

This seems to indicate that the Investure in filled metalminds would be enough to put up at least some resistance to a Shardblade. However, because of the low amount of Investure inside the spike, this seems to indicate that it would probably only resist a bit, if you're lucky. the Shardblade probably wouldn't be hindered that much.

[king of nowhere]

by the way, even if the inquisitors were dead (which, as others already pointed out, is not the case) shardblades still would cut them physically. The only thing I can think of which could be slashed through by a shardblade without taking much damage is one of the sleepless (which appear in edgedancer,  and any discussion aboout what they are or what they can do should go under spoiler.)

[Kplynch21 he/him]

Thank you!