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I've always been under the impression that throughout the Cosmere there are planets naturally invested through creation by Adonalsium that have local manifestations of magic, and then places that have been directly invested by a Shard of Adonalsium with far greater levels of investiture, perpendicularities and resulting magic systems that people can directly access (see 2014 Salt Lake City Comic-con and 2015 AMA below). So the two worlds we know that match this are First of the Sun and Threnody (perhaps Ashyn but I'm trying to confine this to canon). As Brandon says, it's interacting with nature. But both these worlds have something unusual going on. Threnody has no Shard and no stable perpendicularity (though does have unstable, unpredictable ones of 'morbid origin') but did have its existing magic distorted by the mortal wounding of Ambition. First of the Sun has no Shard but does have a stable perpendicularity. Note that this AU essay pre-dates re events of Sixth of the Dusk and we know there is investiture on FotS, in the form of invested fruit eaten by worms, which are then eaten by Aviar (birds) that develop a magical 'Talent' and bond with a human to share that talent. I believe (maybe it's confirmed) that this is simply the 'pool' of concentrated investiture nourishing the trees, and that it is birds rather than people that have the ability to convert that investiture into usable magic. We also know there's a lot going on in the Cognitive Realm there as predators hunt by sensing thought. So we know that these two minor Shardworlds show extraordinary characteristics, both due to events deep in the past. The distorted and macabre form of natural magic on Threnody makes sense but we still need to explain the large amount of concentrated investiture on FotS. I propose that the link is the (former) Shard Ambition. We know from above that soon after the Shattering Odium mortally wounded Ambition in the Threnodite system and that Ambition was later Splintered in a different location. We also know from a separate WoB that Odium could not find Ambition at first. And finally we don't know where Ambition was finally Splintered, or how, or whether it was by Odium, as Khriss in AU states he did the mortal wounding but excludes Ambition from the list of Shards he definitely Splintered. My theory is this - Ambition has been to the Drominad system; this was where either: A) Ambition was hiding, stuffing him/herself into the Cognitive Realm, prior to Odium briefly giving up and going after Dominion/Devotion, but was desperately avoiding investing in the system to avoid detection. But the Shard's presence was enough to increase localized investiture enough to create the perpendicularity and to shift the existing natural magic more into the Cognitive Realm (hence predation by thought). OR B ) After his/her mortal wounding in the Threnodite system, Ambition escaped to Drominad and, knowing the end was nigh, deliberately self-Splintered into the Cognitive Realm of FotS (though without deliberately interfering with the existing magical system there or creating a new one). The Splinters are the Aviar. The nature of the people, flora and fauna suggests an Ambition theme. I'd love any thoughts, comments, corrections on this long and rambling theory. I'm not exactly committed to either option I just find the magic systems of minor Shardworlds interesting, and the story of Ambition intriguing, and wondered if they could be combined.