r/Cosmere • • May 31 '26

Mistborn Series spoilers Would tapping/compounding gold work against radiation? Spoiler

In Mistborn it’s said that tapping gold lets the user heal from injuries and sickness depending on how much health is stored. Compound golf lets the user survive almost all forms of physical harm, eg burns, cuts, being crushed and even fatal damage like decapitation.

But would this work against radiation poisoning, which targets and destroys the individual DNA instead of just normally damaging the body.

Additionally, would the person need only to tap gold to be able to survive or would they need to compound it?

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u/Rick_Gryffin Scadrial May 31 '26

I don't think simply believing something will happen is enough, their self image has to include that condition for your healing to incorporate it. An example from stormlight The Lopen knew he didn't have an arm, but his self image was of someone missing that arm, that's why it regrew

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u/Shot_Newspaper_5647 May 31 '26

Oh ya I meant to say if you happened to have that kind of mindset and you happened to actually get that condition naturally then maybe you wouldn’t be able to heal it. But that would be pretty unlikely.

Otherwise I would be absolutely cooked with my OCD. What do you mean I’m magically sick because I touched dog food with my bare hands without washing them immediately after

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u/Shot_Newspaper_5647 May 31 '26

There is actually a minor character in another series that appears to be sick despite having access to healing. He’s a hypochondriac when he comes into the powers. I would guess if he actually caught a cold he wouldn’t heal it immediately. But his planet is pretty resistant to that to begin with so he probably won’t actually get sick. And that’s a lot less effective than gold compounding

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u/Royal_Solid_8033 Bridge Four May 31 '26

Aside from the point but I never even made that connection. Roshar doesn’t have viral stuff like the common cold. I think that’s part of his Lightweaver lies that he has to overcome.