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?) (Also, yes, i made the same thread in Cosmere Q&A. I wanted to increase my chances of getting answered, also, I'm impatient. Also, i swear nobody looks at Q&A)

[Frustration he/him]

No one knows the answer, we don't see anyone who would age lose 5th heightening.

[Eternal Khol he/him]

Brandon said, a few years ago, that he hasnt decided what happens yet, but he thinks they would probably just age really fast, like TLR

[Aspiring Writer]

4 hours ago, Eternal Khol said:

Brandon said, a few years ago, that he hasnt decided what happens yet, but he thinks they would probably just age really fast, like TLR

well crud. That's disappointing

[+Hoiditthroughthegrapevine he/him]

I got some personalized books awhile back and asked this very question for Calderis. Here's the signed book WOB:

Quote

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)

Not 100%, but a good indication that they would probably just rapidly age.

[MasterK-Bob he/him]

My head canon, derived from this unsure WOB and the fact that the heightenings aren't exactly plateaus but more a linear progression, is the amount of breaths lost would matter to this. I think rapid ag aging would happen if you go from 5th heightening to drab, but if you dip one breath below 5th heightening, you might agree slightly faster than a normal person at that point to catch up but I don't think it would be noticeably faster.

[garlick]

Functionally immortal means they won't die of old age, but can still be killed. 

[+robardin he/him]

On 10/25/2020 at 8:11 AM, MasterK-Bob said:

My head canon, derived from this unsure WOB and the fact that the heightenings aren't exactly plateaus but more a linear progression, is the amount of breaths lost would matter to this. I think rapid ag aging would happen if you go from 5th heightening to drab, but if you dip one breath below 5th heightening, you might agree slightly faster than a normal person at that point to catch up but I don't think it would be noticeably faster.

I agree with this - Breath and Heightening are not exact figures for exact, discrete, quantum power levels. It's more a sliding scale, you start to see effects similar to the next Heightening as you approach it, and different people or different quality of Breath may get you the full Heightening slightly sooner than another person's stockpile would. So going in the other direction I'd think it was the same - you gradually lose the effects of a Heightening if you used to have it, but have dropped in Breaths.

That's summarized in the Coppermind entry on Heightenings thusly:

Quote

The Heightenings, while commonly thought of as discrete levels, are in fact merely markers of a continuous progression. Each Breath gathered increases an Awakener's power. For example, although perfect color recognition is reached upon the Third Heightening, every additional Breath gathered before then will incrementally increase an Awakener's ability to distinguish between colors. Reaching a new level of Heightening merely marks the point at which these abilities reach their full potential. ...

The number of Breaths needed to reach a particular Heightening is not exact. Achieving a given Heightening may require fewer or more Breaths, depending on circumstances and the strength of the Breaths which the Awakener has gathered.

And so, dropping below the Fifth Heightening would indeed resume the aging process that that much (quality/quantity) of Breath had prevented, but not so quickly as TLR "snapped back" to his proper age when he basically dropped to zero on the anti-aging dial.

Besides which, the immortality mechanisms are very different. Rashek was constantly tapping an atiummind with a steady draw of youth, which is like constantly revving a car engine in reverse gear backing up on an increasingly steep slope, and where losing his metalmind would be like having the ignition of the car cut out (followed by a rapid descent down the slope).

But the way the Breath is preventing the aging is essentially through syncing the Spiritual and Physical selves with the Cognitive version via a very large staple made of Investiture (enough to grant the Fifth Heightening, whether a single Divine Breath or a large stockpile of ordinary Breaths). And if you picture a staple starting to weaken, what it was stapling together starts releasing a few sheets here and there, but it would take some time to fully release what was bound. (Though maybe having a LOT of years behind the "staple" would have a weight or a pressure effect that would make the aging speed up as the "staple gap" got wider and wider.)

Edited December 4, 2020 by robardin