DoctorWh0m Posted March 17, 2014 Report Share Posted March 17, 2014 (edited) Title says it all, really. I was wondering if the references to cutting off the 'spirit' of a limb and such are actually accurate, or if it is actually cognitive damage, as someone (can't remember who) theorized that it was, and thus Nalan brought back Szeth by reconnecting his Cognitive aspect to his physical one. If it is Spiritual, it brings up an interesting possibility: if a Compounding bloodmaker can heal Shardblade wounds, one type of Spiritual damage, then perhaps they can heal another type: Hemalurgy, thus creating an infinite source of Allomantic gold spikes. Edited March 17, 2014 by DoctorWh0m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinpoint Posted March 18, 2014 Report Share Posted March 18, 2014 (edited) It cuts the soul. I don't think it does harm the cognitive. The cognitive does need the spiritual to survive though. Edited March 18, 2014 by Pinpoint Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevalion Posted March 20, 2014 Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 I emailed Brandon a long time ago, asking about whether is the spiritual or cognitive aspect that is affected by such things a Shallan taking a "piece" of someone when she draws then, or Cusicesh "draining" those nearby. Or, as you say what is happening with hemalurgy, or shardblades, or the forging of the Emperor's "soul." Unfortunately, the words soul and spirit mean different things to different people, someone may mean spirit or the spiritual realm when they say soul, or they may mean the mind, will and emotions, which would correlate to the cognitive realm.We need to ask the question in terms of the cosmere terms of the physical, cognitive and spiritual realms. Haven't got an answer yet and haven't found one on the forums. If it has been answered, I'd love to hear from some of the site gurus and linkmasters. It's the one question I will ask if I can ever get to a signing, and if it gets RAFOed, I'll try to rephrase or ask a subset of the larger question. Sadly, my 24 hour shifts fell on the signings near me recently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shardlet Posted March 20, 2014 Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 Title says it all, really. I was wondering if the references to cutting off the 'spirit' of a limb and such are actually accurate, or if it is actually cognitive damage, as someone (can't remember who) theorized that it was, and thus Nalan brought back Szeth by reconnecting his Cognitive aspect to his physical one. If it is Spiritual, it brings up an interesting possibility: if a Compounding bloodmaker can heal Shardblade wounds, one type of Spiritual damage, then perhaps they can heal another type: Hemalurgy, thus creating an infinite source of Allomantic gold spikes. Spiking a bloodmaker would remove the bloodmaker's ability to draw on his/her feruchemical reserves and thus no healing could occur. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurkistan Posted March 20, 2014 Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 Spiking a bloodmaker would remove the bloodmaker's ability to draw on his/her feruchemical reserves and thus no healing could occur. I believe the good Doctor took this into account: he was talking about spiking out the Allomancy, not the Feruchemy. So any pre-made reserves would still be accessible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shardlet Posted March 20, 2014 Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 I believe the good Doctor took this into account: he was talking about spiking out the Allomancy, not the Feruchemy. So any pre-made reserves would still be accessible. All too correct, Kurk. My own preconceived notions about the practical value of Allomantic gold led me to discount this as a possibility. So I assumed the spikes would be Feruchemical gold being of much greater practical value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurkistan Posted March 20, 2014 Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 (edited) Actually, on that note, Allomantic gold can be pretty valuable merely as a tool for Compounding. Consider that this would easily allow any Bloodmaker to become a Compounder, as well as letting literally anyone benefit from "shared Compounding": everyone could have Allomantic gold spikes, including a few full Feruchemists with access to both Feruchemical gold and Feruchemical aluminum. Why hello there, world of perfect health.This would even allow similar "power copying" for just about everyone and every power, actually, since everyone would have access to Compounded Feruchemical gold... EDIT: Actually, you'd never even need to bring anyone but the original Gold/Gold twinborn into the picture to get infinite power. He can just Compound his original Feruchemical gold metalminds whenever we spike out his Feruchemical gold and tap them whenever we spike out his Allomantic gold. Infinite Allomantic gold and Feruchemical gold for all!!!!!!!! EDIT 2: Although metalminds might be keyed to the spikes at that point rather than their recipients. Which would stop Compounding and explain why Inquisitors never Compounded... EDIT 4: Ah, nope, nevermind: Marsh is compounding Atium, so he can obviously use spiked powers for compounding. Either that or he has Feruchemical aluminum, but I rather doubt that and Occam has to step in eventually for these types of things. Edited March 20, 2014 by Kurkistan 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoctorWh0m Posted March 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 EDIT 2: Although metalminds might be keyed to the spikes at that point rather than their recipients. Which would stop Compounding and explain why Inquisitors never Compounded... EDIT 4: Ah, nope, nevermind: Marsh is compounding Atium, so he can obviously use spiked powers for compounding. Either that or he has Feruchemical aluminum, but I rather doubt that and Occam has to step in eventually for these types of things. It could be that having multiple people trying to use the exact same set of sDNA could do some weird things, or just not work at all. Or perhaps it would weaken as more copies were made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vortaan Posted March 20, 2014 Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 It could be that Shardblades cut the connection between the Cognitive and Spiritual, thereby doing damage to both. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoctorWh0m Posted March 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 It could be that Shardblades cut the connection between the Cognitive and Spiritual, thereby doing damage to both. But that wouldn't have any effect on the Physical. Actually, now that I think of it, has anyone already compared the draining of color that happens with Shardblade with that of Awakening? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurkistan Posted March 21, 2014 Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 Yes they have. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senor Feesh Posted March 21, 2014 Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 (edited) But that wouldn't have any effect on the Physical. You mean like how Shardblades DON'T cut physical living things? They don't cut an arm unless the arm is aready soul-severed. They don't cut Chasmfiend carapace unless the Chasmfiend is dead (or at least that part of it is). Wonder why they cut through stone/other inanimate objects immediately. It's not even a matter of sentience (unless rockbuds are sentient), but a matter of living things. Wonder how life is defined, Realmatically? I mean, if all things exist in all three Realms, is there a certain threshold of Spirit or Cognition at which point you're considered 'alive'? Sorry if I'm going over old ground, just musing Edited March 21, 2014 by Senor Feesh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybal Posted March 21, 2014 Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 My theory points towards Cognitive. That is based on the fact that the blades are in the Cognitive Realm when they are not in the Physical. Additionally, aren't spren Cognitive by nature? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trendkill Posted March 21, 2014 Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 Yes, they are. Which leads me to agree that it's Cognitive damage. Basically, it severs the mind's ability to interact with the limb. Kaladin's use of stormlight would have been a way to repair that Cognitive pathway, allowing him to heal the limb. But, I could be wrong. Probably will need a WoB to answer this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vortaan Posted March 21, 2014 Report Share Posted March 21, 2014 But that wouldn't have any effect on the Physical. Actually, now that I think of it, has anyone already compared the draining of color that happens with Shardblade with that of Awakening? How do you figure? Everything is linked, shown best I think by Hemalurgy. Modifying the spirit web causes Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual changes. As for how a Shardblade cuts Physical things, is it possible it's actually separating Cognitive aspects apart, thus causing a Physical split? Case study: dead chasmfiend, Cognitively thinks of itself as "corpse of chasmfiend". Adolin chops into it and it's split into "corpse of chasmfiend" and "chunk of chitin". Keeps chopping and things keep getting smaller, similar to Kaladin's mother's explanation of spren. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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