Relative Cosmere Awareness, Steelhunt Considered

[GreyPilgrim]

The Lift Interlude has had me thinking about the level of awareness of the cosmere, namely Realmatics and Investiture, among the separate Shardworlds. While Way of Kings had a few hints at the cosmere, (it's been a while since I read through it, but the only instances that really stick out in my mind are in the Geranid interlude and Shadesmar), it did not seem to indicate that Roshar was heavily aware of its underlying principles. Jasnah does not really seem to understand the full ramifications of what Shadesmar is, and the ardents seem to only haver a very general sense of what the separate Realms are. There was no real hint of anyone on Roshar having knowledge Shards and/or Investiture.

 

Lift's Interlude (at least for me) seems to change this dramatically. Wyndle and his "people" clearly have a much more thorough comprehension. (I'm sure this has been pointed out already, but I only briefly perused this subforum before writing this.)

 

“I can’t affect the Physical Realm except in minor ways,” Wyndle said. “This means that you will need to use Investiture to–”

 

 

“They can’t see me,” Wyndle said, growing up beside her to create another line of handholds, “because I exist mostly in the Cognitive Realm, even though I’ve moved my consciousness to this Realm. I can make myself visible to anyone, should I desire, though it’s not easy for me. Other spren are more skilled at it, while some have the opposite trouble. Of course, no matter how I manifest, nobody can touch me, as I barely have any substance in this Realm.”

 

 

“Somehow, you are partly in the Cognitive realm,” Wyndle said, coiling beside her and raising a twisting mesh of vines that could make a face. “It is the only way we can imagine this being possible. You can touch spren. And you can metabolize food directlyinto Stormlight.”

 

 

 

Darkness also has this knowledge:

 

“Keep all spheres from her,” Darkness said. “She must not be allowed to Invest.”

 

 

If he is Nalan, as many, myself included, believe, this means that the Heralds have/had a very thorough understanding also of the cosmere.

 

That Wyndle (a spren) has this knowledge means that other sentient spren, i.e. honorspren and other bonding spren, likely also have it. How they have it is a mystery to me, one that I hope will be solved some day. Regardless, this could have great ramifications.

 

As we see more and more new Surgebinders, something also shown by this interlude (I had sort of assumed that they would continue to be extremely rare but this may not be the case), it is likely that this information will be passed on in full to them. Roshar could this become a fully cosmere aware planet. Very fascinating.

 

This excites me because it means that we may soon be given more thorough cosmere knowledge from the books themselves rather than directly from Brandon. I know that he has said that he will always try to keep this kind of stuff in low quantity in the books, it seems inevitable that the amount will increase over time.

 

Thus do I come to my point: What level of awareness do the Shardworlds that we have seen have currently and which are likely to increase drastically in the near future?

 

Roshar: Apparent from what I have just said, it appears that Roshar right now has the potential to have the most thorough comprehension beginning in the near future. Spren understand Realmatics and know of Shards, the Heralds (may) understand Investiture, Vorin ardents (likely other religious figures too) generally get Realmatis, and some Surgebinders can travel directly to the Cognitive Realm. Maybe it was obvious that Roshar would be the most heavily involved as it appears the Stormlight Archive will be Brandon's magnum opus and (in-world) that Odium, the biggest threat to the cosmere (so far) is focused on it. Regardless, there is some pretty big evidence.

 

Sel: In my mind, Sel is second. In fact, I had thought (until now) that it was first. I have in my mind somewhere that Brandon had said that Sel was the most cosmere-aware. It is possible that it is most cosmere aware among the general human population, but Roshar seems to win by far considering other entities. It has been forever since I read Elantris, so I'm really rusty (I actually didn't know of the cosmere when I read it, so this is likely totally unfounded) but it gave us virtually nothing about the cosmere. This is not surprising, however, as it was the first book. The Emperor's Soul, however, gives us more than any other book so far, with its knowledge about the Cognitive Realm and the way objects view themselves. Plus, on Sel, we have (Kurkistan will be happy) forms in abundance.

 

Scadrial: This is third. The knowledge given us from Mistborn is that of Shards and Investiture. While it has the most that we can analyze for cosmere benefit, its people know virtually nothing about any of it. Sazed seems to know more than anyone else. The Realms appear to have no recognition by the Scadrians, and they do not know what Investiture is. Scadrial's place is viable to change, though, since we will have a ton more books there with the information expanding in each. I bet by the third trilogy Scadrial will have passed Sel, maybe even Roshar. For the moment, however, it is third.

 

Nalthis: And, last but not least of the major Shardworlds we know, is Nalthis. I haven't much to say here. Warbreaker gives us almost literally NOTHING to analyze. Endowment. That is about it. Oh, we can go into the Realmatic analysis of Awakening, but do the Nalthians really get this. No matter how scientifically defined Awakening is, Nalthis is lowest in cosmere knowledge of all the major Shardworlds seen to date.

 

Anyone have anything to add, or to refute totally?

[bartbug]

When looking at this list, note that their is a lot of time between Elantris and Way of Kings. Even if the protagonists (barring Galadon) are still alive, then their understanding of the cosmere is almost guaranteed to be much greater than it was when we last left off. Also, we have not seen a good portion of Sel, not like how we have seen so much of Roshar through the interludes.

[Shardlet]

I would say that most of the examples you gave indicated Realmatic understanding rather than cosmere awareness.  I don't see much looking outside of their world in any of the books.  We do see and know about 2 worldhoppers from Scadrial and 1 from Sel.  This suggests to me that at the time of WoK that at least portions of Sel and Scadrial are cosmerically aware.  The terminology "cosmere", "investiture", "invest", etc. could easily be sourced from the overseeing Shard(s) of each world without any knowledge of other cosmere worlds and peoples being shared.   

 

So, I see several instances of realmatic awareness, but very limited evidence of cosmere awareness.

[GreyPilgrim]

Bartbug: You're right. I am basing everything off of what we have seen thus far and the potential effects of them.

Shardlet: i guess what i mean is understanding of the mechanics of the cosmere, not just awareness overall.

Edited November 14, 2013 by GreyPilgrim

[Gloom]

I'd say that considering the Ym interlude, Roshar once had a very good understanding of the Cosmere, but that most of it was lost over time through mystification and religion. It's possible that bonding spren, being ageless retained most of this information, or in the case of a bonding spren that has moved to the physical will recover memories of that information in time. So it's possible that bonding spren are more Cosmere aware than most other Splinters, including Aeons since they were created as a result of their Shards being Splintered.

[Kurkistan]

A quote that might be of interest:

 

Jasnah: "[...] Gavarah hadn’t reached her twentieth Weeping when she proposed the theory of the three realms."

 

Why hello Realmatics, how are you doing today?

 

And this from the Geranid Interlude:

 

Ashir: “I wonder if they eat in the Cognitive Realm. Is a food there what it sees itself as being? I’ll have to read and see if anyone has ever eaten while visiting Shadesmar.”

 

And some nice knowledge of the nature of the Cognitive.

[hoser]

A few points relating to what is known. 

• I have this vague memory that the Elantrans had access to something like a library.  Assessing their understanding, as of the end of Elantris could change significantly by the day. 
• Wax is reading a book handed to him by Marsh, who served both TLR and Ruin.  Whatever understanding TLR passed to his Inquisitors could be available.  I guess Marsh knew it already, but we didn't know he knew it, if that makes sense.  We also don't know what the people on the other continent know either. 
• Jasnah knows much that we are not aware of yet.  With the ability to translate Dawnchant, there will be another knowledge explosion.  The societies of apparently ageless spren that interact with the realms seem like an amazing resource as pointed out in the OP.  Add in the fact that there are spren left by Adonalsium that are sentient and the potential revelations are astounding.  During the Radiant era, there is an apparent reference to "Shard of my heart" and the peasant woman in the Starfalls vision makes a reference to "three gods".  The face in the storm knows that "Odium reigns".  Mr. T has been collecting death rattles also.  Not to mention Hoid.  A few sentences from Hoid could change planetary awareness significantly.  And where is he "now"? And Taln.  Presumably Taln will be a source of information along with any other Heralds that crawl out of the woodwork.