Are Roshar's Inanimate Objects extra Aware?

[Trusk'our]

On Roshar, we can see some of the characters speak to inanimate objects, and even reason with them (i.e. Shallan Soulcasting the ship in Words of Radiance). In Mistborn Secret History, we see Kelsier interact with inanimate objects, but they don’t really talk to him, even though they have a small amount of a cognitive presence. Does Roshar have more awareness to its inanimate objects due to the presence of Cultivation, and the relatively high concentration of investiture?

[Quantus]

By the shared realmics of the Cosmere, any and every object is at least a little self-aware (at minimum it's confirmed relevant to both Speed bubbles and Soulcasting), though it takes specific magics/skills to interact with them directly (even for shadesmar natives like spren). 

On the other hand, everything on Roshar is at least a little more invested than most worlds, the highstorm ecosystem make it permeates everything and bleeds through the realms more.  Even the people are a little more Invested, which is why they dont get sick much and thus didnt have any evolved resistance to the Common Cold that world-hoppers introduced recently.  And the more Investiture an object has the further it is along the lines to sapience.  

[Honorless]

Roshar seems close to having "seven gods in every grain of rice", I believe Hesina said something along that Japanese saying to Kaladin at one point too. Not everything is/has a spren but there does seem to be a more developed cognitive aspect to things on Roshar. And it does seem likely that the free Investiture from the Highstorms is responsible for this.

Something to keep in mind though, the people we've seen in Roshar who talked to the Cognitive aspects of things also had access to Surges that interacted with the Cognitive side of objects in some manner. Shallan talking to objects is part of her powers, required for Soulcasting. Similarly Venli talking to stones is part of her Stoneshaping ability. Kelsier didn't really have any ability to interact with the Cognitive aspects of things.

Edited June 10, 2022 by Honorless

[Treamayne]

On 1/3/2022 at 6:56 PM, Trusk'our said:

On Roshar, we can see some of the characters speak to inanimate objects, and even reason with them (i.e. Shallan Soulcasting the ship in Words of Radiance). In Mistborn Secret History, we see Kelsier interact with inanimate objects, but they don’t really talk to him, even though they have a small amount of a cognitive presence. Does Roshar have more awareness to its inanimate objects due to the presence of Cultivation, and the relatively high concentration of investiture?

Also, keep the person/POV in mind. Shallan "speaks" with objects when trying to soulcast them. When Manifesting them (such as in Oathbringer when linking beads to get from the gate to the "river" land or manifesting objects on Notum's ship), her experience is more akin to Kelsier's experience in M:SH. Communication with an object's Cognitive Aspect may be a function of the Surge of Transformation more than a feature of Roshar itself.