Immortal radiants

[TWOTHOUSANDFREAKINGPOUNDS]

So with how quickly the knights radiant heal, perfectly mending all wounds, it seems, do the radiants age? With how healing works in our normal bodies, those of us who can't absorb stormlight, do cells make perfect copies, much like wolverine does? 

[Dancer]

The Radiant would still age. What the healing is doing is aligning your physical body with your spiritual ideal. Your spiritual ideal includes how old you are. If you are able to trick your spritweb into thinking it is younger then what it is like what the LR did then you can extend your age. There are multiple ways to do this and some are better then others.  

[Aon Tia she/her]

I wonder that too. Does healing make KRs immortal? It should... they do make perfect copies. What they do is cellular regeneration to the extent that they can even regrow lost limbs, heal shard wounds. At the very least, it should make them leave much longer than an average human being. Should not it? Like 200-300 yrs easily...

[Gilphon]

They do age normally- Shallan's not seven anymore, after all. But healing doesn't make them age faster than normal, if that's what you're asking- the healing isn't enhancing what would happen naturally, it's magically restoring them to how they feel they're 'supposed' to be. Hence why Stormlight could heal Lopen's arm, but not Kaladin's brands. 

[Aon Tia she/her]

And immortality is such an interesting subject. There are so many magic systems in the Cosmere that grant immortality, it is clearly not implausible. Elantrians have it, awakening and possessing enough breaths grant people longer life I think if not immortality, even I think the Dakhor monks too came in this category, lord ruler with attium spike, etc 

Slightly off the topic, but All this makes cosmere timeline very confusing. We know that white sand came first, then mistborn era 1 then Elantris, then warbreaker, and then Roshar 

but exactly how many years could have passed between these events. We don’t know because the characters crossing over either are immortal (hoid, vasher, dula) or may be ( azure, khriss) are immortal or have elongated their lives through some investiture. 

[Aon Tia she/her]

11 minutes ago, Dancer said:

The Radiant would still age. What the healing is doing is aligning your physical body with your spiritual ideal. Your spiritual ideal includes how old you are. If you are able to trick your spritweb into thinking it is younger then what it is like what the LR did then you can extend your age. There are multiple ways to do this and some are better then others.  

So you think that it is possible to achieve but may not happen naturally? But it should still grant them longer than usual lives.. kind of aes sedai...

Edited September 22, 2019 by The traveller

[Calderis he/him]

As has been stated already, healing does not increase longevity beyond the natural. It will allow a Radiant to live to a maximum normal lifespan, but age is a part of the Spiritual Aspect. For Immortality, other means need to happen. 

They are various methods of immortality in the Cosmere, but healing isn't one. 

Relevant WoB, Spoilered because it address immortality in all magics, not just stormlight. 

Spoiler

Iceblade44

So White Sand [then Elantris] is earlier... Then how the heck old is Khriss then? Will we ever get an answer as to why every worldhopper is flippin' immortal?

Brandon Sanderson

There is some time-dilation going on. I'll explain it eventually; we're almost to the point where I can start talking about that. Suffice it to say that there's a mix of both actual slowing of the aging process and relative time going on, depending on the individual. Very few are actually immortal.

Faera

Implying that some are actually immortal?

Brandon Sanderson

Depends on which definition of immortal you mean.

Doesn't age, but can be killed by conventional means. (You've seen some of these in the cosmere, but I'll leave you to discuss who.)

Heals from wounds, but still ages. (Knights Radiant with Stormlight are like this.)

Reborn when killed. (The Heralds.)

Doesn't age and can heal, but dependent upon magic to stay this way, and so have distinct weakness to be exploited. (The Lord Ruler, among others.)

Hive beings who are constantly losing individual members, but maintaining a persistent personality spread across all of them, immortal in that as long as too much of the hive isn't wiped out, the personality can persist. (The Sleepless.)

Bits of sapient magic, eternal and endless, though the personality can be "destroyed" in specific ways. (Seons. Spren. Nightblood. Cognitive Shadows, like a certain character from Scadrial.)

Shards (Really just a supercharged version of the previous category.)

And then, of course, there's Hoid. I'm not going to say which category, if any, he's in.

Some of these blend together--the Heralds, for example, are technically a variety of Cognitive Shadow. I'm not saying each of these categories above are distinct, intended to be the end-all definitions. They're off the cuff groupings I made to explain a point: immortality is a theme of the cosmere works--which, at their core, are experiments on what happens when men are given the power of deity.

Shagomir

Heals from wounds, but still ages.

Would Bloodmaker Ferrings exist in this category as well? If not, what about someone Compounding Gold?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, you are correct.

Shagomir

As a Bloodmaker ages, what keeps them from healing the damage and carrying on as a very old, but very healthy person? Do they come to a point where they can't store enough health to stave off the aches, pains, diseases, and other things that come with old age?

This makes sense for traditional Feruchemy as it is end-neutral, so storing health becomes a zero sum game - eventually, you're going to get sick and you're not going to be able to overcome it with your natural healing ability no matter how much you manipulate it with a goldmind.

...Unless you've got a supply of Identity-less goldminds lying around. Would a Bloodmaker with a sufficient source of Identity-less goldminds (or the ability to compound, thus bypassing the end-neutral part of Feruchemy) eventually just die from being too old?

Brandon Sanderson

Basically, yes. They can heal their body to match their spiritual ideal, but some things (like some genetic diseases, and age-related illnesses) are seen as part of the ideal. Depends on several factors.

Stormlight Three Update #5 (Nov. 29, 2016)

 

[Dancer]

4 hours ago, The traveller said:

So you think that it is possible to achieve but may not happen naturally? But it should still grant them longer than usual lives.. kind of aes sedai...

As @Calderis said above healing doesn't extend your life. there are ways to do this that include but are not limited to Atium compounding (what the LR did), Becoming an Elantrian, gaining 2000 breaths, whatever the Dakhor monks do, becoming a cognitive shadow or rewriting your spirit web (possibly with forgery and Lerasium but that's debatable on both). 

Edited September 22, 2019 by Dancer

[Wandering Investor]

Another way to look at it is that Stormlight healing is not healing, more like reverting back to where the body is suppose to be. So normal wear and tear on the cells caused by aging, that's suppose to be there, so stormlight won't change it. Actually, if you did manage to fix said wear and tear, the stormlight might put it back, causes that's the bodies natural state.