What happens when you lose agelessness?

[Aspiring Writer]

Okay, important. So if you get the fifth weighting, you cannot age whatsoever. What happens when you give up some of your breath and lose the fifth heightening? Does the age catch up or do you continue aging where they left off? Also, just because every time I hear functionally immortal I become suspicious, when they say immortal, they mean immortal right? They cannot age period? Just wanna confirm that, because me planning on something, and this is vital to said plan. (Also, does anyone know what the hell is the currency used in Nathline?)

Edited October 19, 2020 by Aspiring Writer

[RShara she/her]

Brandon's not ready to make it canon, but is leaning toward them snapping back to their full age, similar to atium.

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Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

If a person held enough breath to attain the 5th heightening, lived for a thousand years, and then sold all but their initial breath, would their spiritual age force them to rapidly age as we saw with Rashek, or would they resume natural aging from the point at which they ceased?

Brandon Sanderson (written)

I think they would rapidly age.

But I'm not ready to say 100%.

General Signed Books 2018 (April 17, 2018)

 

[ftl]

Well, it's "functionally immortal" meaning that they can still be killed, they just won't die of natural causes.

[Weltall]

On 10/19/2020 at 0:46 PM, Aspiring Writer said:

Also, just because every time I hear functionally immortal I become suspicious, when they say immortal, they mean immortal right? They cannot age period?

There are different kinds of immortality in the Cosmere. Fifth Heightening immortality means you stop aging and (as a side effect of all that Investiture) you are functionally immune to all disease and poisons including alcohol, but you can still die from any other cause.

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(Also, does anyone know what the hell is the currency used in Nathline?)

We know they use coins of some metal which are referred to as 'bits' and a single bit isn't worth much since Vivenna thinks that one wouldn't get her more than a mouthful of food while she's living on the streets.

[Dancer]

Depends on how much Breath you give up. If you give up all of it then you will snap back like Atium. We don't know what will happen if you give up say just a hundred. My guess is that you would slowly start to age from there. Every Breath you have will get you closer to agelessness. So if you still have all that Breath but lose enough to not have the fifth Heightening then you should still have enough Investiture pushing on your soul to not snap back instantly.