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  1. So I figure that the Selish magic systems would cease to exist, and be replaced by something new, as the location based stuff is the whole foundation, and I feel it just couldn't work without that. It is possible, though unlikely, that the systems will still work, but anywhere, and maybe have different symbols used, I don't really know. Any other ideas?
  2. I recently had a particular part of a WoB pointed out to me by @therunner; Before, I took this to mean that the reason Savants are so much more efficient with their Investiture because the warping of their Spiritwebs brought them closer to the SR, but now I think diferently; I believe the reason why Savants are more efficient with and have more control over their powers is because they have greater Connection to the Shard in question. The negative side-effects of their Savantism may not be necessary to get that extra power- perhaps only the Connection matters and Savantism is only one rout to obtaining it. This makes a lot more sense to me now, as we can actually see Connection working like this with other magic systems. Awakening requires less Breath to Awaken something with the more Breaths in total the Awakener possesses. Additionally, the Awakener gains a greater inherent knowledge of how to use their powers, much like how Allomantic Savants have a greater ability to control their powers. Radiants require less and less Stormlight to fuel their Surgebinding the stronger their Bond- which is mostly just an extra strong Connection to a Spren- grows. This would also help explain why Kaladin's embodiment of Honor's ideals made him stronger and therefore more resistant to Urithiru's corrupted suppression field- he not only had his Spren's natural Connection to the magic system, but he also had quite a few other more mundane Connections that drew him closer and granted him slightly more power as a result (WoB). The uses of artificially increasing Connection (such as through F-duralumin) could be interesting to see interact with different Invested systems; A Connector Ferring could potentially Awaken with fewer Breaths or learn more complex Commands, almost as if they possessed a higher Heightening. They could also possibly Surgebind more efficiently, though their Spren may not approve. It's also possible that F-duralumin could grant an Allomancer the benefits of Savantism without the downsides. Perhaps Connecting to a Metalmind's Investiture could help a Feruchemist tap it more efficiently, particularly if tapping it at an accelerated rate. In fact, the quote makes me think we'll see this in era 3 of Mistborn; And of course, I think that an aspiring Hemalurgist could gain a more comprehensive knowledge of and use for Hemalurgic Bindpoints, particularly if they can Compound duralumin.
  3. In Oathbringer, Kaladin sees a vision of Dalinar in danger when he touches the Rii Oracle's Invested sphere. This seems something akin to an Allomancer burning Duralumin plus Atium. That got me thinking, maybe a gold or electrum Misting can see wholly into the Spiritual realm by burning their metal while in a Highstorm, or maybe while huddled inside a Perpendicularity, since the Spiritual realm would already be pretty close.
  4. So if you're reading this post you're aware kelsier is most likely back (haven't finished TLM yet) in the cosmere as a result of being pinned to a body by a hemalurgic spike, as is suggested in the BOM end scene My friend and I had a discussion a while ago about giving sentient weapons a body in some way like that However we came across an issue. Kelsier (assumedly) still has an imprint in the spiritual realm, and so his body changes to match that. We're unsure if a sentient weapon would have one of those given it's a new personality yes, but we're unsure if it's a new 'life' And there's also the fact of you can't really spike a sentient weapon...... Is there any way you *could* give a sentient weapon a body? Maybe some configuration of aons?
  5. Something that's cropped up every so often in the Stormlight Archives is that Singers have a much harder time bonding higher spren than humans. In WoR, Syl flat out says that Parshendi can't become surgebinders. Before RoW, I didn't really have any ideas as to why this was. But during RoW we got a clue that helped me come up with my first theory, and I recently came up with another. The first theory is suggested by Rhabonial. During her conversation with Venli on the way to Uritheru, she mentions how humans are much more externally focused, while singers are internally focused. This might be part of why Singers line up better with Odium's power while humans can bond with Honor's more easily. Emotions are more of an internal concept, while Honor is more external. These matchups may explain why both races can synch up with each Shard's power, but each race favors one or the other. But I think there might be a better explanation. I think that the Singers might have sturdier souls than humans do, thanks to their stronger connection to the Spiritual realm. In a WoB, Sanderson confirmed that the ability to hear the Rhythms is basically a connection to the Spiritual realm. And while Navani proved it's possible to humans to perceive the tones, and likely rhythms, Singers have a much stronger connection. I think it's likely that this stronger connection results in a stronger spirit web and soul than a humans would normally be. Less easily damaged and cracked. And since spren bond with humans by filling in the cracks of their spirit webs with power, it makes sense that they have a harder time bonding with a race that don't have as many cracks in their souls. Of course, we know of three singers who have bonded higher spren; Eshonai, Venli and Rain. But two of them swore the first ideal after taking a Regal form, and Rlain bonded a spren touched by Jah-Anat, likely making it easier for him to form a bond. All three had Odium's power in the mix. Of course, singers bond lesser spren to take different forms, such as war form, work form, and so on. But since those are more basic spren, like gravity spren or pain spren, it makes sense that they'd be able to bond them more easily. Part of why I like this idea is that it means that the Singers having stronger souls actually prevents them from gaining the same kind of bond that humans can as easily. It puts part of the first radiant ideal, Strength before Weakness, into new perspective. Thoughts?
  6. So we know that Adhesion can be used by Dalinar and Ishar to mess with Connection, and when that happens its described as Spiritual Adhesion. But something I was thinking about recently is a scene in WoR, where Shallan convinces Vathah and Red and the others to stop being deserters and to be good soldiers again. Pattern says that she Soulcast them, which Shallan is confused and disagrees about. Maybe Pattern is right and Shallan did Soulcast them, but not in the Physical Realm. She Transformed their Spiritual selves, just slightly. Once I made that connection I started thinking about the other Surges. When Venli uses Stoneshaping she was able to communicate with the stone of Ur, something which seems like not normal Stoneahaping. But maybe she was using Spiritual Stoneshaping, rather than Physical Stoneshaping, making a Connection between her and the stone. Do all Surges have Physical and Spiritual versions? Do they have Cognitive versions?! Please help me here hahaha
  7. What is the difference between holding investiture in the physical realm and having it in you spiritweb? Would there be much of a difference if you could hold Bio-Chromatic Breaths in your spiritweb rather than in the physical realm, aside from them becoming stealable via Hemalurgy? Would your descendants be affected if this were the case? Would you start to develop invested powers rather than just gaining the heightenings?
  8. Can you teleport through the spiritual realm via perpendicularity use, since time and space have no meaning there? If you could teleport using this method, would you be limited to where you could travel by what you have a strong enough Connection to? I haven't seen any proof of this yet in the books, but it feels weird that even though people can enter the spiritual realm to see the future, we haven't seen anyone use it to teleport long distances either.
  9. Spren live primarily in the cognitive realm, but when they bond a radiant, they manifest mostly in the physical realm. Is there a spren, or spren like creature that lives primarily in the spiritual realm? (Aside from shards, that is)
  10. So time and distance are irrelevant in the Spiritual Realm. But Shards (except the remains of Devotion and Dominion) exist primarily in the Spiritual Realm. So how can a Shard be Splintered at all? If it exists in a timeless way, shouldn't it's pre Splintered state still be there in the Spiritual Realm, since it once existed that way? Similarly, even to Shards the future is imperfectly defined... Does this mean that the timelessness of the Spiritual really means that "relationships between things in the Spiritual are defined by Connection, not physical dimensions of time and space" - not that the Spiritual Realm is truly eternal? So Splintering a Shard would be a matter of destroying the Connections among its Investiture (or between its Investiture and its Intent)?
  11. Spaceships in Shadesmar! I asked Brandon at FanX about how FTL could be achieved on minor shardworlds, without the help of major investiture systems. And he actually gave me a straightforward answer, talking about using spaceships through shadesmar. In that way, they can go faster than light, because the cognitive realm is more compressed than the physical realm. I am still fairly certain allomantic and fabrial FTL will involve primarily interacting with the physical realm, but this opens up a whole new world of FTL that I had never thought about before. To those who might seem a bit confused by this idea, all we have to do is look at Star Wars and Star Trek, which utilize the idea of hyperspace and warpspace, a version of space that is much more compressed than normal, physical space. So, basically Shadesmar. I honestly am shocked I never thought about this before. It’s even possible allomantic drives and gravitational drives will simply be means of propulsion, and the primary route will be through Shadesmar. So now we have a much clearer idea of what Space Cosmere will look like. So, that brings me to the point of my discussion, and the other thing Brandon brought up in relation to this. That the main issue with achieving this is getting easy access to the Cognitive Realm. So let’s go ahead and dive into some Realmatics, and some ways that I can forsee the future of the cosmere going based on this wonderful WoB. In the current era of the cosmere, there are only 4 ways into the cognitive realm that we are aware of. Dying, Elsecalling, Oathgates, and the perpendicularities of the Shards, (plus some other weird perpendicularities we don’t really know all the details about, like on Threnody). Death is (usually) permanent, Elsecalling seems to struggle with returning to the physical realm for reasons we don’t fully understand, and perpendicularities aren’t exactly placed conveniently, and most of them aren’t even safe, and are under the watch of fickle shards. Oathgates are honestly the most convenient method, but as of RoW last we heard not all of the Oathgate spren were even willing to allow travel into the Cognitive Realm. So in other words, travel between realms is not convenient at the moment. So putting aside methods of propulsion, I think solving the problem of easy travel to the cognitive realm is probably the most relevant issue to figuring out the future of the Cosmere, and that’s pretty much what Brandon said as well. So, how do we get easy access to and from the cognitive realm? Probably the best comparisons to make would be to Elsecalling. As I mentioned earlier, the only Radiant we’ve actually seen is Jasnah, and Brandon has stated that while she should be able to get back to the physical realm without finding a perpendicularity, she hasn’t figured out how to do it yet. He also says that it’s more difficult to do than getting in, even if you do have Stormlight. On the other hand we have the Oathgates, but those are fabrials likely directly created by spren (although I have to wonder what kind of spren the oathgate spren are). The oathgates seem to be fairly easy to operate, but it requires willing spren, it stays in one place, and it can require quite a bit of stormlight. Oh, and it requires you to have a Knight Radiant. Pretty inconvenient. Additionally, spren are connected to Roshar, so that could be an issue as well. Another relevant point is the shardpools, or perpendicularities of the shards. When a shard invests in a planet, they (usually) create a perpendicularity. Some are stable, and some are not. Even dead and shattered shards retain their perpendicularities. But shards are fickle and die sometimes, and sometimes they are placed REALLY inconveniently. Like on First of the Sun. And sometimes shards say nope to having one, like Autonomy (or Bavadin?) on Taldain, cutting it off from the rest of the cosmere. The reason they form is due to a large amount of investiture pooling in one place. I’m going to call this a brute force method, because no matter what, if you pool enough investiture into one place, you can make a perpendicularity to cross realms. But that amount of investiture is highly unusual to have access to, and I doubt every spaceship will be able to do that. So we need a more efficient method. Therefore, Oathgates and Elsecalling are a better example of efficient travel between realms. Oathgates, we honestly don’t know as much about they work, but I’d assume they function on the surge of Transportation, like Elsecalling. I feel like there’s a lot more to this surge than what we’ve been told, because right now it feels really underpowered, compared to how the Pursuer uses it. I was hoping we would learn more about it in the Willshapers book… but it looks like we might need to wait until Jasnah’s book to learn about it. And last time I heard about when Jasnah’s book was placed, it was 9 or 10. *sigh* Point of the matter is, elsecalling is in essence puncturing through the realms, making a very small perpendicularity that you can pass through. This, compared to the Brute Force method, utilizes a magic system in order to be a lot more efficient with investiture. Incidentally, I’d like to briefly point out that Dalinar uses the brute force method, I’m pretty sure. Being connected to the broken pieces of Honor has its benefits. After all this discussion of surgebinding, it is time to tear ourselves away from what we know from the books, into the realm of speculation and theories. The essence of my question was to address the fact that most shardworlds do not have magic systems that seem inclined towards FTL tech, or easy transportation between realms. Obviously all investiture draws the realms closer together, but using just pure investiture to accomplish it is a brute force method, and is not efficient enough. Additionally, only Roshar features the surge of Transportation, so minor shardworlds need to be able to develop a technology similar to it, without actually utilizing rosharian (or allomantic) tech. Honestly I’m not sure how allomancy will allow for travel between realms, but that’s beside the point at the moment. So our requirements for this technology are as such: 1. It is efficient in terms of investiture 2. It is possible even on minor shardworlds, without a need for allomantic or rosharian tech. 3. It is mechanizable. 4. It needs to be capable of both entering and exiting the cognitive realm. 5. It needs to be able to store investiture, so as to be able to make it portable and useful over long periods of time. Let’s get to it. The last one is easiest to understand if we look at Taldain. Despite their lack of high-investiture system, they do have one wonderful substance: the white sand. It stores investiture. (or at least the stuff that grows on it does). This, properly utilized, could probably act as an investiture battery. I’d assume many worlds have flora or fauna that absorb investiture, but the sand is really easy to transport. Because, well, it’s sand, and there’s a lot of it. The problem then, lies in where would they get their investiture? I think that answer will come from when they solve the “how do we get stormlight off of Roshar” issue. Stormlight is by far the easiest to access free investiture in the cosmere. It is not at all hard to imagine it being used to refuel ships. Another battery method would be nicrosil. I’m pretty sure Nicrosil investiture batteries are really easy to make. Now as you are reading this, you may be thinking, but all of these technologies are inherent to their own shardworld. How would it be possible for a minor shardworld to independently develop this kind of technology? Somehow, this kind of technology has to become universal. And so, it’s time for my crazy speculation of the day. A speculation that takes into account how Taldain could still achieve FTL, and how they would definitely develop it faster if they were connected to the rest of the cosmere. Something that loops all my crazy spiritual realm speculation together. What if a world could design their own investiture keys? Context. The reason magic systems exist is due to certain applications of investiture, usually set up by the resident Shard. In regards to allomancy and feruchemy, and probably surgebinding too, there is a key in the spirit web, that once you fulfill certain conditions and run investiture through it, you get an effect. It’s a bit more complicated than just that, but my point is, particular spirit web “genes,” or “shapes” allow you to purpose investiture to do particular things. Now, usually that would be achieved through inheritance on Scadrial, or through spren bonds on Roshar. But what if you could alter, or even design an independent spirit web to have these keys without said inheritance or spren bond? If the shape of the web is what determines it, it should work no matter what form it takes in the physical realm. This would be distinctly a mechanical use of investiture. This makes sense in a couple ways; with enough cosmere knowledge to know about the various applications of investiture, and the associated spirit web types that produce the investiture effects, as long as you have a viable way to construct or alter spirit webs, you should then be able to make technology that can do the exact same thing. (Actually, if you think about it, once this… I’m going to call it “Spiritual CRISPR” exists, it would probably be able to alter living people’s spirit webs as well. I bet that would create a massive ethical debate, but as a scientist type, I’m not as concerned about that). Now, it could still be developed without access to the cosmere, as I’m assuming these shapes are totally universal, but it would be a LOT more difficult. It would require independent discovery of “Spiritual CRISPR” and then a lot of trial and error. And intent. So based on that… I’m going to take a leap and say that Taldain will not be the first to figure this out. I’d place my money on Scadrial, but who knows. Roshar and Nalthis are also viable options as well. Scadrial, because they already have some identity and universal metalmind shenangians going on, which seem to point towards that sort of eventual end. All this to say, you then design a machine that can Elsecall, stick it in a super slick spaceship, run some investiture through it, and pop into the cognitive realm. Whee. Well, that’s all the speculation I have on that subject. I have no idea what this Spiritual CRISPR could be (maybe breath?), and it’s very likely brandon just won’t tell us about how this could be accomplished until at least Era 3 Mistborn, more likely Era 4. I could also be totally wrong. But the fundamental principle remains: the key to universal FTL is figuring out a way to easily slip in between realms. I just came up with one way it might possibly occur. Feel free to provide any further insights that I might not have thought about as to how this could be achieved.
  12. My understanding is that the spiritual realm is a source of perpetual energy that decreases the entropy of the physical realm through certain investitures (ie. Stormlight) and shards. Do the laws of entropy apply to the spiritual realm? I studied chemical engineering in college so conservation of energy is something that i have thought a lot about while reading cosmere books. Is it possible for the energy of the spiritual realm to reach equilibrium with that of the physical realm? I guess my question boils down to: is there a finite amount of energy in the spiritual realm, or does it somehow break the laws of thermodynamics by constantly adding energy to the physical realm from an infinite source?
  13. I've been thinking how weird it is how bondsmith spren can just make or conduct various forms of investiture come into the physical realm. I think they might be Spren of the spiritual realm, first off the investiture itself is of the spiritual realm so them manipulating something not of the cognitive realm is weird. Second the Nightwatcher can do some kind of trickery with connection though I may be wrong since it seems everything attributed by the Nightwatcher was actually cultivation. I have feeling that when the gods of Roshar made bondsmith spren and unmade the took creatures from the spiritual realm and made them or unmade them so that they could experience the physical and cognitive realms. what do you think? Also since all things in the spiritual ream exist as one, it isn't weird for them to be as different as they are as bondsmith spren because the are probably like given more individual identity out of the spiritual realm.
  14. So I checked some WoBs, and a few different posts and didn't see an answer to this (I could be wrong which seems to happen every other time I come up with a "new" or "cool" idea) Could the instantaneous travel from the Oathgates be because they go through the Spiritual Realm? If all things are everywhere, maybe the OG platforms do their little switcheroo there.
  15. How does the Spiritual Realm store sDNA or the Spiritweb? I have a theory regarding that which also connects to bronze Allomancy and the Rhythms: ripples. Matter, energy and Investiture are the trifecta constituents of the Cosmere. We know that it shares some of its characteristics with its mundane counterparts, like states of matter: solid, liquid and gas and also plasma (the Dor) so it can be assumed that it may also ripple or vibrate like matter and energy, going by the Quantum Field Theory. These rippling may cause Investiture to vibrate at certain frequencies which may be what bronze Allomancy and the Singers can hear to a certain degree. These ripple patterns might be how data is recorded in the Spiritual Realm to form Spiritwebs. This also meshes with the fact that a person's Spiritual aspect lingers on in the Spiritual Realm after their death for a while, till the ripple pattern fizzles out. Thoughts?
  16. So when Dalinar unites the Realms, he refers to the Spiritual Realm not as a place, but all places at once. Since it seems that Bondsmiths are able to join the Realms and create portals between them, could one theoretically travel through a Bondsmith’s perpendicularity and use the Spiritual Realm for instantaneous travel? I don’t think this would work for going anywhere, as the rift only connects to one place in the Physical Realm, but one might be able to travel to a different perpendicularity, as that path to the Physical/Cognitive Realm already exists. If this is possible, however, that would make Bondsmiths extremely powerful. It actually makes me wonder how Radiants with the Transportation Surge travel, though I’m pretty sure this isn’t it.
  17. **Warning: This post contains MASSIVE spoilers for Oathbringer. Proceed either with caution, or not at all.** Hi guys! This is my first post here, and I want to talk about Dalinar. Near the end of Oathbringer, Dalinar is able to recreate Honor’s perpendicularity by joining the 3 Realms. I was wondering what the extent of these powers are. Could Dalinar travel to the Spiritual Realm? What would happen if he did? Does this require Stormlight? At the end of Oathbringer, Kaladin said that Dalinar was able to renew gemstones for his trip, which indicates that Dalinar is able to combine the Realms at any time. Can Dalinar do this because he is a Bondsmith, or is it something else entirely? We know that Bondsmiths are somewhat special among Radiants, as there can only be three, and the order was founded by Ishar, who (I think) Ash said was the only Herald that didn’t lose his mind. Dalinar seemed able to do something similar when he operated the Oathgate, despite having no Shardblade. This power is surely the same as the one Dalinar used later on to unite the Realms, but this quote makes it sound less like a Bondsmith power, as opening the Oathgate seemed to hurt the Stormfather, or at least bother him deeply. This probably wouldn’t happen had this been typical Bondsmith behavior. This raises a question: if it’s not a Bondsmith ability, then where did this power come from?
  18. We know that the day when mr. T. wrote Diagram was his most perfect day. Because of that, he was very close to his perfect self. And that's s. realm stuff. So I think that he literally saw future in some kind of way. Saw future without access to Fortune. Remarkable. Ideas?
  19. Did Roshar originally have Spren? Sylphrena indicates 4 genders of spren. 2 for the Parsh, 2 for the human. I don't think Roshar was formed like other Shardic worlds. No other Cosmere world has spren like Roshar, so far. It would seem that the Parsh thought of their objects being Malen and Femalen, voila SPREN! Perhaps? Maybe? Did the way they think or sing create the spren way back then? Shard worlds seem to have the 3 realms setup. Roshar wasn't created by a Shard (that I'm aware of.) The way I understand the history is that Odium saw the existing native Parsh and decided to become their god. He got invested to that Solar System. Along comes the human Voidbringers to settle around Shinovar (initially.) Honor and Cultivation either settled with them or decided to call it home at a later time. Introducing Honor's high storms, Odium's Everstorm (old in design) and the Cultivation's/Nightwatcher's Old Magic. When I read TWoK, I assumed Honors' death and Splintering brought about the spren. I have now been proven false. So, I suspect Roshar was similar to an Earth like world and topography. The Parsh evolved naturally and all was pleasant until Odium rolled on in. My question is HOW and WHEN do you think Roshar got spren? A certified timeline of these early events would be great to read. Thank you.
  20. If nightblood destroys things in all three realms, and the spiritual realm is all places and all times, shouldn’t Nightblood make it so it’s as if people never existed? I might just not understand how the spiritual realm works though. Thanks!
  21. Hello all! Not quite sure how to start this off so I'll just jump right in. First of all, I am very interested in philosophy. Currently, I have a class about ancient Greek philosophy. When we were going over Plato's forms, it struck me that this idea is incredibly similar to the Cognitive Realm. If you're not familiar with the idea, Plato essentially believed that the Forms were what was most real about an object. If you break down a table, it it just made out of wood. However; there is some sort of thing about a table that makes it a table. That "tableness" is distinct from the wood, stone or metal that makes it up. For Plato, there is another realm, a real of ideals, where things such as Justice, Table, Triangle, ect. all exist at their most real. This sounds incredibly similar to the Cognitive realm and I think that may have been a major source of inspiration for Brandon Sanderson. I'm curious to see if he has said anything on the matter. Additionally, it seems this is not the only thing that he has drawn from ancient Greek philosophy. Now, I haven't read all the Cosmere literature at this time, so this may be completely wrong, but here goes. Heraclitus believed that all things were constantly changing. Sanderson has mentioned that Hemalurgic spikes need contact with the blood in order to actually steal power. He mentioned in a Q&A that it has something to do with the blood being in motion. Motion was tied with life for many pre-Socratic philosophers. This idea is still somewhat half-formed, but I think a discussion on it is warranted. It is possible that the spiritual realm is tied with how objects and people change through time. Something else was incredibly important to the pre-Socratic and some post Socratic philosophers. That was the notion of Arkae, or, roughly, what it means to exist. To me, no unifying theory can be complete without asking this question of the Cosmere. Clearly, for something to exist, it needs at least a Cognitive aspect. However; for something to be sentient, it needs a Spiritual aspect. Motion is life. This is supported by how we see Investiture work on Roshar. The Stormlight encourages those who hold it to move. Investiture is the stuff of life. This also follows from what we know of humanity, Investiture is necessary for the existence of humanity. In fact, I would argue that Investiture is Sanderson's Arkae. Without that, there is no connection between the Cognitive and Spiritual realms, and no impact on the physical realm. In this way then, it would seem that actual magic is largely incidental to the way that reality itself exists in the Cosmere. Thank you, if you read through the fruits of my procrastinatory ramblings. I probably got some things wrong, in fact, I hope I did so those can be pointed out and I can learn something new about the Cosmere! I appreciate any thoughts that you have on this mass of a post! Thank you so much!
  22. So I was doing some readings on WOBs and I found this one: I thought it was interesting because I would have thought that Taravangian's smart days would be days in which he is closer in alignment with the cognitive realm. I think I have seen that theory before and now it is debunked. We know that beings that can see the future, such as shards and atium burners, often achieve this through connection with the spiritual realm. However, I thought that this connection is the "fortune" that Odium speaks of, and we know from him that Taravangian didn't use Fortune to create the diagram. This must mean that Taravangian uses some other means of prediction. My first thought would be that Taravangian is closer to the Spiritual realm and therefore closer to his perfect intellectual form, like an intelligence gold Ferring. Also, a lot of people seem to think that on smart days Taravangian is closer aligned with one realm and on dumb days he is aligned with another. Could that mean that on his smart days he is closer to the person he truly is? Maybe his Machiavellian tendencies are the real Taravangian and the smart days just emphasize it. Or it could be that on his dumb days he is closer to the cognitive realm and therefore becomes more like how he thinks of himself? That would make sense because a man that thought of himself as truly intelligent likely wouldn't ask for capacity. Not really sure, but I thought it would be a good discussion.
  23. In ch. 119 of OB Taln became lucid as soon as Dalinar released Honor's Perpendicularity, and in ch. 121 we find out that he regressed before the fighting started i.e. when the Perpendicularity disappeared. Could there be a connection between Honor's power and Taln's soul? Is Tanavast's madness related to this?
  24. No shipping business here folks, keep your gonadcanons under control. This is mostly a crack theory because Surges and how they manifest in different realms are murky topics, but 'Spiritual Adhesion', this WoB, and the note on Lightweaving in WoR Ars Arcanum have convinced me that Szeth's screams and Shallan's fractured psyche are the results of their reckless use of Adhesion and Illumination respectively.
  25. The Cognitive Realm is one of the best-kept secrets of the Cosmere. Sometimes it almost feels crowded considering how little people know about it. Between the Physical and Spiritual Realms, the thoughts and ideas of intelligent beings take shape in this dimension. Worldhoppers use Perpindicularities to enter this realm physically and take shortcuts to other worlds. It is also the home of the spren of Roshar. In this Letters from the Cosmere Elsric takes a solid look at the Realmatic Theory about the Cognitive Realm and how its rules work for a Worldhopper. Here is this episode's transcript: I wonder if writing two letters back to back for the same person makes me conceded, or desperate. It seems haughty that I would already have something apparently so important to inform you about. Yet I waste your time with frivolous sentences about what I happen to be thinking at any given moment. The fact that I am enjoying the thought of you forcing yourself to read this right now seems to establish the point quite nicely. Well now that we have that out of the way, you must understand that the scholar in me cannot simply let my first letter be whisked away with only a generalized version of “The Cosmere.” I mean the fact that you found me in my little Manor on Nalthis proves that you understand that much about the Cosmere already. But I needed to start somewhere and I cannot help but think that someday someone will be reading these words who has never learned Realmatic Theory before. So, to you my future reader, turn back now before the insatiable curiosity grabs you by the throat and drags you away screaming. It will be easier for you to just move on, living your life. Now that I have your attention, dear reader, and your annoyance dear recipient, I wish to better define the Cognitive Realm and its import on my life. I first discovered a perpendicularity by accident. I had been delving into the secrets my rivals were trying very hard to keep. Let me remind you that a perpendicularity is a location or event where concentrated investiture creates a hole between dimentions. I like to think of them as Shard Pools. Call me simple minded, but they are places where investiture pools together all at once. I have thought long and hard about this. We exist in three (known) levels of existance simultaneously. We are very familure with the physical nature of our existance for it is the one we we are born interacting with directly. We are also existant in the spiritual realm where our essence is at it’s most pure. Somewhere between these two realms exists the Cognitive realm. This realm exists as a smoky mirror of it’s more substantial counterparts. The Cognitive realm reflects the physical realm in general shape, but is maluble and easily changed with investiture, which essentially is energy from the Spiritual Realm. The three realms exist in states that are fundamentally different from each other, despit the fact that they are intertwined. The physical worlds upon which we live are large planets suspended in around suns. We live on globes where if we travel in a strait line for long enough, we will end up right where we started. These spheres are the separated from others like them by vast distances in space. The Cognitive realm follows a different set of ruls. Everything there essentially exists on a 2 dimentional plane. Now it’s not literally two dimentional, for when you visit it will feel similar to the surface of your homeland. If you think of a planet as a globe, then the cognitive realm is like a map of the globe. Essentially they are same in shape, but the Cognitive Version of the world has edges that extend into the beyond. When you move off the cognitive world, you step into a dark zone where little to nothing exists. This essentially is leaving the planet. In fact, all cognitive realms are connected to every other world populated with intelligent beings. Because the landscape is created and maintained by intelligent, cognitive thought, it means that the gaps between worlds is relatively small. This two-dimensional existence and connection between the various worlds is what allows worldhoppers like myself to travel across the void and into other nations and cultures. One of the great secrets of the Cosmere is not just the fact that there are other worlds with people on them, but that there are more than can currently be visited. In my travels, I have passed over worlds with populations that are isolated from the rest of the Cosmere. Worlds where there are no natural perpendicularities. Someday I hope to visit these worlds somehow, perhaps discover how humans came to live there without the intervention of a Shard. I’d even assume that they have no access to investiture, but that would be presumptuous of me. I also need to note something that I forgot last time. Each world looks different in the Cognitive Realm. Now there are consistencies, like how bodies of water tend to be represented as stable landmasses in the Cognitive Realm while typical landmasses are large churning oceans of thought that can be quite deadly to a worldhopper who is not careful. However, each world’s cognitive realm has it’s own flavor. For instance, much of Scadrial’s Cognitive Realm is made up of massive seas of mist, whereas on Roshar the ocean seems to be made up of tiny glass beads. Naturally I will be able to tell you more about the Rosharian landscape and Cognitive Realm once I get there. Now you need to remember that these oceans are not a natural phenomenon like a lake or river. These swirling depths are manifestations of the millions of minds that live in the Physical Realm. All things that have a name, a concept, or dream are manifested as tiny intelligences in the Cognitive Realm. The more personification or sentimental value that people give their objects in their world create larger, and more powerful cognitive minds. It is the use of these cognitive minds that, make living in this Realm possible for these cognitions can often be enlisted to help you, especially when you have investiture to offer. Lastly, I wish to comment on the freaky pale sun that hangs ever present over the Cognitive realm. Here there is no night or day, it’s just constantly a dull grey. The ball of light that you can see is the Spiritual realm. Honestly I’m not sure how that works but the other worldhoppers I have run into have mentioned that fact. Somehow that is what connects us all together. It’s strange, and I am sure I will have more to say on that eventually. I know I come off bitter in these letters, but you must understand my reluctance to getting involved. I don’t think I am any better at sharing information that you and your kind must be. Yet, your master’s proposal was intriguing to say the least. Besides, I owe him for saving my life. Don’t get too comfortable back there, you’ve reawakened the scholar in me. Once I get to Roshar I will locate and use a perpendicularity to return to the Physical realm. I hear it is quite a place to visit, although the rumors coming from that direction do not bode well. Until the next letter, Elsric
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