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So after listening to some excellent podcasts from Shardcast and their musings on the weirder things in the cosmere, I was struck by a theory about the term "Vax". There have been other posts here about Vax and various explanations, but the comments were closed, so here goes. I believe that Vax IS a location...in the Beyond/Spiritual Realm. Going off of Ati's last words before he goes to the beyond, he dies, shows up in the cognitive realm, looks around, and asks (mostly to himself) "Vax?", gets suckerpunched by our pal Kelsier, and stretches away to infinity. I think he was expecting to be in the beyond, and that it is possible for some, probably just shards, to travel there and back. Adonalsium could probably do it, so why not the shards? Brandon has said in the Arcanum that investiture works differently in Vax than other places, and considering the spiritual realm is the source of all investiture, I can't help but think it makes sense. Your thoughts?

Hi all, I was thinking about how when someone dies in the cosmere, their souls passes to the CR and from there to the beyond. Does this mechanic apply to people who die by a shardblade? If I understand correctly shardblades sever souls, so, is this soul able to go to the CR and the beyond? Additionally, Nightblood functions differently, it (he?) consumes and destroys the investiture of one handling him unsheathed, and eventually consumes the life force (soul?) of the person and kills him. Is this soul also able to pass to the beyond? Thanks!

Purely just a fun post, since Brandon has said outright that fans are free to assume whatever they like about precisely what the Beyond is since there's no canonically 'correct' or 'incorrect' answer regarding it, but what's everyone's favourite pet-theory regarding precisely what the Beyond is? Personally, I like to think that it's something like the afterlife scenario in Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy. Basically, when a sapient being dies, and they are able to accept and embrace their own mortal end, their soul's 'travel' through a non-place also known as the Beyond to the end-point of the universe (the time the universe 'ends'), the Omega Point, where all souls merge together to effectively become the God of the next universe to be created by them. Incidentally, if they aren't able to let go of life, they effectively stay trapped in the Beyond, leeching off of each other's memories and experiences until they reach the Omega Point the long way... unless a breach into the Beyond is accidentally made, then they basically become the Fused. Great series by the way, though in my opinion not as good as his Commonwealth Saga. Obviously I don't think this is what Brandon has in mind, though given the implied cyclic nature of the Cosmere universe, I think it would have a certain fittingness to it, that and it's just such a clever idea of what happens in the afterlife. Anyone else have any novel ideas of the Beyond they'd like to share? Like I said, purely just for fun. @NeutroniumAlchemist, you'll appreciate this I'm sure.

UPDATE: Also, tl;dr: "Investiture is sticky" - Shards are prone to getting tied to places, Cognitive Shadows and entities are hard to move offworld etc. So, first off: You probably remember that Mistborn are not Invested when not burning metals. That's no longer true. They're as Invested as Knights Radiant (WoB): My theory is that it's not specifically Investiture keeping you in Cognitive Realm, but Connections that come out of that Investiture keep you like a chain to the anchor. In that case, the Connections probably go to Shards (like Allomancers)... or other things? Gonna discuss it below. Anyway, we know some Connections break the moment you die - vide Shardblades dropping - but some are kept (like Kelsier's Connection to Preservation as he was a Mistborn). And that are the anchors that take longer to break and result in longer transition time to Beyond. Now I'm gonna discuss various types of Investment and how would those act upon death: Allomancers: Connection to Preservation, pretty straightforward. Feruchemists: No idea as we don't know how Feruchemy works Realmatically. Maybe Connection to both Preservation and Ruin? But wouldn't it mean longer transtion time as you are anchored to two Shards? Hemalurgists: It doesn't include Ruin's Investiture, so probably Connections to the Shards that the stolen abilities are of. Surgebinders are weird: Connection to the spren is broken at the time of death - vide dropping Shardblades - but we don't know how it works with living spren Awakeners: having a lot of Breath would tie you to Endowment but on the other hand there is (I'm not sure) a WoB stating that Breaths are not part of the soul? Selish people: Elantrians do have Connection to the Dor (as it flows through them all the time) but there's that thing with stronger Connections to the land... And now, for really weird - Cognitive Realm on Sel is packed full of Investiture they're Connected to. What if... what if Invested people on Sel don't go to the Beyond at all?! And just hang on in the Dor?

The concept of the God Beyond has been bugging me for some time, and I finally got a sharable answer from Brandon via Reddit message: I think this clarifies the relatinship between the God Beyond and the Beyond. A problem solved!

Hi guys, I just recived some interesting WoB from Brandon in his Oathbringer's update, I wanted to post them under the already opened topic in Stormlight's subforum...But some of this are from books other than Stormlight, therefore I think it's better to put them here (some mod may change or delete it, if I am wrong). Maybe a better format is required: Scadrial: Q: Can a Misting hurt himself burning the wrong metals or a bad alloy ? A: Not really, but they can swallow something they can't burn and end up with metal poisoning. Kind of similar. Q: Thanks for the answers...So we may tell that a Misting's Allomancy is "safer" than a Mistborn's one. Maybe because it's the original/natural way how Allomancy manifest itself (without godlike interferences) A: Sure, you could potentially say that. You can still make yourself sick, though, so I'm not sure. I guess it comes down to your definition of "hurt." But I'd call it safer, yes. Q: When someone Ascended with the Well, if He don't use the power and neither release it...Would He keep his status for long time ? A: No, unfortunately. Realmatic mechanisms: Q: Once someone refuses the call of the Beyond, may it change idea later ? (and reach the Beyond) Or is a one shot possibility ? A: It may change later Cosmere Timeline: Q: What is the event showed in the books, that are earlier in the Cosmere's Timeline ? (just to understand if WoK's prologue is before or after Elantris's event) A: I believe WoK prologue is before everything else you've seen. Some of the Dalinar flashbacks show scenes pretty early as well.