Shardblade gangrene

[Stormgate he/him]

We know that when a limb is severed by a Shardblade, it goes dead, and is usually amputated. If it isn't amputated, would it cause gangrene? 

The reason this isn't a "No duh" in my mind is because of what a Shardblade actually is doing. It's basically cutting off the arm on a cognitive level, making your body think it no longer has an arm there. That being the case, would blood flow stop to that limb as a result, preventing the spread of gangrene? Or is that not how gangrene works? 

[Weltall]

Yeah, limbs rendered inert by shardblade wounds don't rot and the whole thing works because of Cosmere metaphysics.

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Excelsius

What's the biological reaction of a limb cut by a Shardblade, because they don't start to rot after being cut?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah they don't start to rot, so the bloodflow is still happening. The limb is still attached, it's not going to rot off, but the soul is dead. This is a thing that can happen in the cosmere that can't happen here. Because you have Spiritual, [Cognitive], and Physical DNA. Your soul's been severed in that part, and it just flops around. You can't feel it, you can't control it. It's something that, again, couldn't happen here.

Bonn Signing (May 15, 2019)

 

[NameIess]

5 minutes ago, Stormgate said:

We know that when a limb is severed by a Shardblade, it goes dead, and is usually amputated. If it isn't amputated, would it cause gangrene? 

The reason this isn't a "No duh" in my mind is because of what a Shardblade actually is doing. It's basically cutting off the arm on a cognitive level, making your body think it no longer has an arm there. That being the case, would blood flow stop to that limb as a result, preventing the spread of gangrene? Or is that not how gangrene works? 

I don't think it would cause gangrene, as I don't believe that Hobber's legs were ever amputated. I think that your body continues to upkeep your limb as it would normally, but you just can't move it.

[Stormgate he/him]

Thank you for the answers, it seems that I was slightly mistaken on what exactly a Shardblade is doing. 

[Chinkoln he/him]

On 1/8/2021 at 2:56 PM, Stormgate said:

We know that when a limb is severed by a Shardblade, it goes dead, and is usually amputated. If it isn't amputated, would it cause gangrene? 

The reason this isn't a "No duh" in my mind is because of what a Shardblade actually is doing. It's basically cutting off the arm on a cognitive level, making your body think it no longer has an arm there. That being the case, would blood flow stop to that limb as a result, preventing the spread of gangrene? Or is that not how gangrene works? 

I thought that is severed the real world correlate would be that someone had their nerves severed. In the book, the body seems to keep them alive, just not functioning. In real life, people that have been paralyzed or have some other condition that harms their nerves are unable to move their limbs, but the body continues to give nutrients to the unusable section.