ROSHtafARian Posted May 28, 2012 Report Share Posted May 28, 2012 (edited) My apologies if some eagle-eyed board member spotted this long ago and this is common knowledge, but I was rereading TWoK the other day and my high school Latin classes reared their head. Now granted, there's no Latin in the cosmere so this has no instory bearing, but I was thinking....mar is the Latin for sea or ocean, and shades in Roman mythology were the spirits or souls of the dead....and since we've seen from TWoK maps that Shadesmar is basically an inverse reflection of the physical world, with seas instead of land...Shadesmar essentially means Sea of Souls itself. (In addition to that being the name of one of the individual 'seas' on the maps). Just seemed like a cool little Easter egg, and possible insight into how Brandon views it (or did at least, at the time he named it). Edited May 28, 2012 by ROSHtafARian 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stellgod Posted May 28, 2012 Report Share Posted May 28, 2012 Could be. I would think it's simpler than that though. Mar: to damage or spoil to a certain extent; render less perfect, attractive, useful, etc.; impair or spoil: Shadesmar reminds me of The Ways in The Wheel of Time in a way, but that will most certainly change as we learn more about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Telcontar Posted May 28, 2012 Report Share Posted May 28, 2012 I can only speak for myself of course, but if I made that connection with mar meaning sea (which I did, but it's not that astonishing if you're german and sea is translated by 'Meer', or if you know french where it's 'mer'). Yet I hadn't thought of the meaning of 'Shadesmar' until now. I agree with it being the 'Sea of Shades' Only that 'Shade' as a realmatic term is the cognitive aspect of something. The little beads are the 'shade' as in the cognitive representation of everything and not only people in the physical realm. And the beads form a sea. So, Sea of Shades. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aethling Posted May 28, 2012 Report Share Posted May 28, 2012 Well, throughout literature and fantasy writing "Shade" has essentially been a spirit or ghost type manifestation, so this make really good sense. This is something that is so obvious now that you have laid it out that it is a wonder this has not been noticed before. Good catch there.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dros Posted May 31, 2012 Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 Good eye! It might follow that each sphere in Shadesmar represents a corresponding person or thing in the physical realm. What the sphere actually holds might be a bigger Cosmere question, as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zas678 Posted June 2, 2012 Report Share Posted June 2, 2012 So then, if the beads each represent something, then why is there solid land where the sea is? Easy: the body of water is all considered one object. As one object, it only has one 'mind' to it (the Stormfather??) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyRioter Posted June 2, 2012 Report Share Posted June 2, 2012 Maybe that giant spren is connected with the cognitive aspect of the sea? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windrunner Posted June 2, 2012 Report Share Posted June 2, 2012 Yeah, that's my current best idea for what Cusicesh is, I mentioned it in a different topic. Since oceans are typically one big body of water, its possible they would need only one spren. My only hesitation is the weird face thing, which doesn't seem to be connected with the ocean at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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