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Shadesmar beads and identity


BinarySecond

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So it's pretty well established that entities in the physical realm have a bead that represents them in Shadesmar. And they have some level of persona, e.g. "I am a stick", at some point that stick would have viewed itself as part of a tree rather than just a stick.

Is there any clear indication as to how long entities retain their identity, for example the individual planks of wood that make up Bridge 4. Is there one bead that represents Bridge 4 or one for each disparate piece that comprises it? At this point I'm sure it's all coalesced into a single bead given how the members of Bridge 4 (The team, not the bridge itself) have treated it.

This leads me to my next thought: What will happen to that bead and the ones for the entities that comprise the Fourth Bridge. If Bridge 4 is thought of more strongly would it become the dominant aspect of the whole? I'd love to see Shallan or Jasnah observe Bridge 4 in Shadesmar. We saw the Wind's Pleasure strongly desire to continue carrying the crew, would the Fourth Bridge respond more strongly to member of Bridge 4? Or just treat all passengers the same?

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Inanimate objects are represented by Beads (in the rosharan region of the Cognitive realm only) while living people are represented by individual Flames.   The timeframe that represents the Identity shift from a Single entity to pieces of it is the timeframe that Dalinar can repair it, more or less by reminding it of it's past self and giving it Investiture to "heal".  There is a catch in that the Identity of inanimate objects is strongly affected by the perceptions of those that consider and/or interact with it, which will affect how long it's seen as a Broken whole vs separate Pieces, or individual materials as a single crafted Object for that matter.

 

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I think it's probably a bit hand wavey but "As long as a person would recognise it as separate/part of a whole"

To use your Dalinar example, as long as everyone would view the pieces of the temple as just that, pieces of a whole, they would be one "grouping".

I wonder about Bridge 4 and the Forth Bridge as they've been joined physically, but Bridge 4 at least consider Bridge 4 still itself. I wonder how they would respond to soul casting requests.

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15 minutes ago, BinarySecond said:

I think it's probably a bit hand wavey but "As long as a person would recognise it as separate/part of a whole"

To use your Dalinar example, as long as everyone would view the pieces of the temple as just that, pieces of a whole, they would be one "grouping".

I dont know about that,or at least there seems to be some limit to it. There seems to be a more short-term reaction similar to the Healing time-limit that external Regrowth seems to have but basic (internal) radiant healing does not.  The people around the statue might recognize them as pieces of a whole for generations, but after a relatively short time they would also probably accept the Pieces as the new state of things (especially for those that had never even seen the original)

15 minutes ago, BinarySecond said:

I wonder about Bridge 4 and the Forth Bridge as they've been joined physically, but Bridge 4 at least consider Bridge 4 still itself. I wonder how they would respond to soul casting requests.

I think they accept it's new place as the heart of the Fourth Bridge, as an extension of the original rather than a replacement.  Beyond that though, it likely becomes an Argo question.  

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I imagine with enough focus you could split or perceive individual beads from a single object

 

This happens with a certain characters steelpushes in Wax and Wayne

There been several comments around soulcasting that suggest it's possible, that soulcasters prefer rocks cut up first, because it makes it easier (not impossible)

Jasnah soulcasting air describes something similar

 

 

 

 

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