A way to calculate lifespan of Knight Radiants

[Baine]

The whole " 9/10 of the population dead per Desolation wouldn't recover even in 300 years" thing is why that was my minimum number.

I never thought about the Vorin Church lying about the number though; has anyone asked Brandon if the 99 Desolations number is correct?

[Mistdork]

First off, tech levels. You guys are mistaken, at Alethkar's Shatter Plain camps Sebarial's economy (the one he was telling Shall an about when she came to his camp) is notably early industrial (think First Industrial Revolution from the late 17th century into the 18th, though I would compare Alethkar culturally to being like the German princedoms...kind of). I know they still use swords and spears, but they have things like good sized standing armies and early industrial manufacturing and centralizing government. These are all signs of a early industrial culture and economy. Yes, I know they have swords and spears, their weaponry has no gun powder whatsoever, but they don't necessarily need it because of fabrials kind of replacing certain techs like coal and that sort of thing. Also, places like Hearthstone (small towns in general) would still be medieval, that was how the Industrial Revolution worked...anyway I believe there was some WoB supporting this, but I'll have to retrieve it when I get home...I just thought I should address this first before adding to the discussion.

Also, on the whole age do Radiance age things... It might be possible that it's slows down according to the number of Ideals they have sworn. This is mainly speculation at this point, but each time they state an Ideal, the Radiants get closer to the intent of their spren (supposedly). This has benefits, and one of these might be slowed down aging. If we want to compare Endowment's Heightenings to something, we should compare it to this. With each Heightening an Awakener gets closer to Endowment, they receive a benefit because of this (as they become closer to Endowment's ideal/intent). A similar benefit (slowed down aging) might come from swearing the ideals, and really they give some benefits as we've seen already, not the same because the Investiture and the Shard's are intent is different, but I think that a comparison is reasonable considering that they are similar Investitures...

Now, I want to talk about the Heralds and the Return. Both are to some degree immortal and linked to a particular Shard. Both are Divine, if the Heralds are splinters though, I think they are passive splinters. What I mean by this is that they (the Heralds) can't use Storm light except under special conditions but do get some benefit (from the still lingering) Oathpact with Honor. One of these being immortality and the other being a physique better than other men (I'll find the white later). Considering this, and that Returned have a breathe that amounts to the Fifth Heightening, it might be that the Heralds and the Rediants (of the fifth ideal) have certain similarities like this. That is, they both get passive benefits that are similar thanks to their Shard just as an Awakener of the fifth heightening (or above) and a Returned have certain passive abilities that are similar... Anyway, before I dig myself further into this hole, sorry if this didn't make too much sense, typing from phone...

[Levian]

I used to be pretty sure that Stormlight would heal your body of aging if you thought of yourself as a certain age all the time, but I'm with Kurk and Nymp on this now.

 

While it does make sense that Feruchemical gold and Stormlight should heal "aging", from what we've seen and been told, it doesn't. So what makes Breath so special? Well it isn't the Breath itself obviously. You need ~2000 Breaths to not age. If you need such a high amount, it seems to me that they become a splinter of Endowment, and that is what gives them immortality. So a pretty big question about Stormlight would be, what is the conversion rate? If you could hold the equivalent of ~2000 Breaths in Stormlight, would you become ageless for as long as you hold it? Personally I think it works differently. I DO think that Surgebinders (or maybe KR specifically) have very long lifespans.

 

The problem with Stormlight is that it dissipates from your body as you hold it though. Is it possible that while you're holding it though, instead of stopping aging, maybe it reverses aging to a degree? We know that Surgebinders hold Stormlight quite frequently, multiple times a day. They do it without thinking about it, drawing in Stormlight when they're getting slightly fatigued, to help them get up a long flight of stairs without being winded, etc.

 

So far we haven't seen anybody who is "old" using Stormlight, except Dalinar that one time. I'm willing to bet that as Dalinar holds Stormlight more often he will start to look younger. Any wrinkles or aging lines on his face will gradually lessen, sore or stiff muscles/joints will go away. I doubt he'll regress back to his 20s, but I think we'll see the obvious signs of his aging start to gradually lessen. 

 

Although, now I'm curious. What would happen if somebody with Regrowth were to heal an elderly person who was about to die from some internal organ failure? Could they keep them alive well past when they should be dead by a factor of years by constantly healing failing organs?

Edited March 30, 2014 by Levian

[Swimmingly]

Probably a "oh god the pain why won't you let me die" scenario. Useful for a torturer, though. Or somebody with unique talents, like Taravangian, who you could keep alive for millennia until he had another day of awesome.

[Seloun]

The passage regarding Harkaylain:

 

 “Harkaylain says the Desolation is close, and he is not often wrong. He—”

 

This can be read in much more innocuous manner - that Harkaylain is not generally wrong about things, and he's predicting a Desolation. This doesn't require Harkaylain be 'not often wrong' about Desolations in particular.

 

We have a modern-day parallel: Jasnah. Suppose the sentence was "Jasnah says the Desolation is close, and she is not often wrong." This is in fact exactly what she's saying, and it should be easy to see how 'Jasnah is not often wrong' can be implied without 'Jasnah is not often wrong about Desolations' being implied.

[Edgedancer]

Another way to manipulate aging in the Cosmere is Feruchemical atium. It can just turn you into an old man in one moment and a smal child in the next. While this means that investure, even in in proportions of the metallic arts (granted Atium might work on a different investure scale), can stop and reverse aging I still doubt that that Radiands can pull it of though. Why? Simple every person ages since birth. It is one of the most natural thing imaginable so no one will ever thing of themself as not aging. Unless they have already some experience with it but then they would be a big exception.