[Secret History Spoilers] Unifying theory of Investiture and Realmatics

[Blightsong]

I would like to preface this post by saying that this theory is not original to me, but was first thought up by u/Kabsal on Reddit. I thought it was very interesting and deserved to be shared here. Ive cut out some spoilers from the recent Mistborn books, you can check out the unedited version here (  https://www.reddit.com/r/brandonsanderson/comments/44kfg3/spoilers_all_cosmere_a_unifying_theory_of/) but beware, major spoilers for SH and BoM are included there. Here is the post:

 

 

With the recent Mistborn releases, Sanderson has pulled back the curtain a good amount and given us a plethora of new tantalizing hints about the underlying rules of all magic systems in the Cosmere. Armed with this new information, my friend and I have put together a grand theory that explains the mechanisms of all Cosmere magic in a way that ends up being simple and elegant. This theory consists of one part information given straight-up in the novels, one part Word of Brandon, one part reading between the lines, and one part pure speculation. We make no attempt to distinguish which is which, which means is nothing in this post can be considered canon unless sourced elsewhere, but it does hold together rather well. Obviously, from this point on, the explanation will have major spoilers for all published work, and expect you to be solidly familiar with much of it.

TL;DR: Investiture works simply by allowing you to propagate the rules of one realm to another, allowing magic to occur.

The first piece of necessary background is a basic understanding of Realmatics. All things in the Cosmere exist in three realms. The first is the Physical Realm, which consists the bodies of all things. Most of what we see in the books takes place in the Physical Realm; it is analogous to the real world, and the same laws of physics apply. The second realm is the Cognitive Realm, which consists of the minds of all things. This realm deals with how objects and people are perceived, and even how they perceive themselves. In the Stormlight Archive, the Cognitive Realm is called Shadesmar, and Shallan and Jasnah see into it on a few occasions in the two books. Spren are native inhabitants of the Cognitive Realm. Finally, we have the Spiritual Realm, which consists of the souls of all things. We've seen the least of this realm so far, but the hints that have started to come through suggest that this realm shows Connection and Identity (more on these later) in their truest form, while also allowing limited vision into the future. Distance and time have no meaning in this realm - only the essences of things matter. In addition to the three realms, there is also the concept of Investiture, which serves as the magical analogue of energy in our physics. Investiture is never created nor destroyed, but it can be changed in form to something unusable. Investiture manifests itself differently on each Shardworld based on the Shard that Invested said world. Stormlight, Breath, the Dor, and Allomantic metals are examples of Investiture. In each case, these sources represent a Shard's power bleeding into the realms in a manipulable form. Stormlight and metals have been seen to glow in the Cognitive Realm, demonstrating them as conduits for the raw powers of creation coming from the Shards.

Next, we look to the known magic systems of the Cosmere. We note that performing most all magic requires a component from each realm - a physical reagent, a cognitive intent, and a spiritual connection, plus a source of Investiture. The importance of each to the magic varies by system, but they're usually each present in some form. First is the reagent. This is usually (though not always) consumed as part of performing the magic. For Allomancers, the reagent is metal. For Awakeners, it's color. For Sand Masters, it's the body's water. It is less clear for Surgebinding; two possibilities are either the intake of breath to draw in Stormlight, or the fact that Spren pull their consciousness into the Physical Realm as part of forming the Nahel bond. The next component is the intent. Magic in the Cosmere does not occur by accident. A conscious mind needs to direct the power in some form. Even when characters like Vin or Kaladin draw upon their power without fully understanding what they are doing, they still channel their will or defiance as a catalyst. Intent is particularly important for Selish magic; you need to know exactly what you are doing and draw the symbols incredibly precisely to get any effect. The necessity of intent also explains why characters in Bands of Mourning are unable to sense the power contained in their unkeyed metalminds until they consider the possibility that the objects are metalminds (this happens on no less than four occasions in the book). Lastly, there is the spiritual connection. This is the one we're least sure about; the spiritual component could very well be something different. However, we do see that the soul needs to be somewhat broken for power to seep in, whether Snapping for Allomancers, the utterly crushing backstory needed for Surgebinders, or the Shaod for Elantrians. Once the soul is cracked, a connection can be formed to the source of power, which is usually a Shard (albeit often indirectly). In some cases, this connection is referred to as a bond, especially when it is formed to a tangible being such as a Spren, Aviar, or even Nightblood.

We finally reach the crux of the theory. Once you've assembled components from the three realms, all magic works by using Investiture to break down the barriers between the realms, effecting changes in one by modifying another in accordance with its rules. This can be most directly seen in Soulcasting or Forgery; in these systems, power is used to manipulate the non-physical selves of things. For Soulcasting, the cognitive self is persuaded to change, while in Forgery, the object's history (an aspect of its spiritual self) is rewritten. Both cause the object's physical form to change in reaction. Another clear example is Atium Feruchemy; an aspect of one's spiritual Identity (age) is partially modified, causing the body to adjust. Hemalurgy works in the reverse; by making physical changes with spikes, one alters the soul and its Connections, which is how it can be used to grant powers to recipients. If you squint hard enough, all magic that we have seen can be interpreted to fit this framework. Key to the breaking of realm boundaries is the use of Investiture. Much like energy in chemical reactions, Investiture powers the melding of realms and in so doing is consumed into a higher-entropy, unusable form.

This theory has the elegance of simplicity, while simultaneously having tremendous explanatory power for some of the unanswered questions of the Cosmere. For example, the reason tapping Zinc for mental speed makes you hungry (mentioned in BoM) is the necessity of a physical cost to a cognitive power. It also explains how Perpendicularities work - in places where a Shard's Investiture is pooled, the boundary between realms is particularly weak, allowing one to move their physical self entirely into or out of the Cognitive Realm. Another major free corollary is the reason why different sources of magic tend to resist one another. Magic is already stretching the realms away from their normal state, and much like a spring or rubber band, the force needed to pull it further increases with distance. There are two additional categories that are worth discussing, however. We must look at death and Investiture as well as Invested technology.

Death in the Cosmere is not so much an ending as a point of transition. When one dies, they are not immediately gone, but rather split apart across the realms and linger for a short time as they unravel. Preservation lets slip that Allomancers and Feruchemists last longer. This makes sense under our theory; they are more tightly tied to the realms so it takes more time for them to unwind and let go. From here, most do take the Next Step. As Harmony puts it, their bodies return to the earth, their minds to the Cosmere, and their souls go... Beyond. However, for a special few, there are other options. If the body is healed in time, it is possible for the recently deceased to pull themselves back together and resume living. This is what happened for Szeth. There exists one more possibility than that. If a Shard intervenes, they can pour enough Connection into the recently deceased to keep them held to the realms. The Returned do this, and it is our guess that Elantrians and Heralds do so as well. Beings who exist in this state are granted tremendous power, but require a steady stream of Investiture to remain tethered. This is why Returned consume Breath weekly.

Finally, Invested technology. We've seen a few cases (and we're starting to see more and more) of people figuring out how to build devices based off Realmatic Theory. Examples include Fabrials, , Nightblood. We freely admit that the above theory doesn't cover these as perfectly as the direct uses of magic. Some details remain the same, such as the powering by Investiture. However, the need for Realmatic components seems to be diminished in some cases. We're not yet sure how this works, but still firmly believe that there exist explanations consistent with our theory. For example, we posit Nightblood to be an artificially created soul, pumped full of enough Investiture to develop a spiritweb and Identity, but of course more information is still needed to support this.

In short, we believe this theory at least is consistent with everything we've seen so far. It serves as a good framework going forward, both to direct what questions to ask Brandon and to form new predictions about how future systems might work. We had to glaze over some details in the above post, so feel free to ask for clarifications or additional examples, or point out all the different places we're so obviously wrong.

[Moogle]

A number of things I noted which I think are wrong:

 

Investiture manifests itself differently on each Shardworld based on the Shard that Invested said world. Stormlight, Breath, the Dor, and Allomantic metals are examples of Investiture.

 

Allomantic metals aren't Invested.

 

First is the reagent. This is usually (though not always) consumed as part of performing the magic. For Allomancers, the reagent is metal. For Awakeners, it's color.

 

Color is associated with the Spiritual; I doubt it's a Physical change to the objects.

 

Intent is particularly important for Selish magic; you need to know exactly what you are doing and draw the symbols incredibly precisely to get any effect.

 

Intent is the least important thing in Selish magic, beyond the fact you need it to draw an Aon. "Drawing symbols precisely" has nothing to do with willpower. You don't even need to know what you're doing in AonDor, you could just copy Aons from a textbook.

 

Compare to Awakening, where a precise mental visualization is required.
 

For example, the reason tapping Zinc for mental speed makes you hungry (mentioned in BoM) is the necessity of a physical cost to a cognitive power.

 

Or... because zinc causes you to think faster, so your brain needs more sugar? I don't think being hungry is a "cost" to using a zincmind in the way you need to consume metals or drain color or drain heat. Most Feruchemy has no similar need for fuel. For example, this theory predicts that tapping Connection should require something to change in the Physical... I highly doubt it will.
 

If a Shard intervenes, they can pour enough Connection into the recently deceased to keep them held to the realms. The Returned do this, and it is our guess that Elantrians and Heralds do so as well. Beings who exist in this state are granted tremendous power, but require a steady stream of Investiture to remain tethered. This is why Returned consume Breath weekly.

 

I don't see how this follows from the given theory at all. I don't see why Connection needs to be involved, or why a constant stream of Investiture would be needed to keep them tethered.
 

---

On the theory itself, I believe it is trying to extrapolate from the example of the soul having a "pushback" which can cause Physical changes (in the style of atium Feruchemy). I think it extrapolates way too much.
 
One example: Soothing/Rioting. You're not trying to change the Cognitive through a Spiritual or Physical change.
 

Q: Does that 'inside a body' thing work on most magics?
For instance, if Han stuck Luke into a Mistborn Tauntaun (a distant and unlucky relative of the mistborn llama), would Luke be protected from both the cold and emotional allomancy?
A: Emotional Allomancy, for example, works by lapping against the outsides of someone's cognitive self, influencing you the way music might stir your soul. So being inside a living body wouldn't necessarily stop it--you'd just have more interference. Kind of like how you can still hear music outside if it's loud enough.
(source)

[Blightsong]

A number of things I noted which I think are wrong:

 

 

Allomantic metals aren't Invested.

 

 

Color is associated with the Spiritual; I doubt it's a Physical change to the objects.

 

 

Intent is the least important thing in Selish magic, beyond the fact you need it to draw an Aon. "Drawing symbols precisely" has nothing to do with willpower. You don't even need to know what you're doing in AonDor, you could just copy Aons from a textbook.

 

Compare to Awakening, where a precise mental visualization is required.

 

 

Or... because zinc causes you to think faster, so your brain needs more sugar? I don't think being hungry is a "cost" to using a zincmind in the way you need to consume metals or drain color or drain heat. Most Feruchemy has no similar need for fuel. For example, this theory predicts that tapping Connection should require something to change in the Physical... I highly doubt it will.

 

 

I don't see how this follows from the given theory at all. I don't see why Connection needs to be involved, or why a constant stream of Investiture would be needed to keep them tethered.

 

---

On the theory itself, I believe it is trying to extrapolate from the example of the soul having a "pushback" which can cause Physical changes (in the style of atium Feruchemy). I think it extrapolates way too much.

 

One example: Soothing/Rioting. You're not trying to change the Cognitive through a Spiritual or Physical change.

I agree, metals are not invested. I think the original author later cleared up that that was a typo.

Color is a physical property. In chemistry color is used to determine chemical changes and whatnot so I assume a color change would count as a physical property in the Cosmere. I think that color is just also a way that spiritual traits are represented, or maybe translated, in the physical realm.

I agree that AonDor was a bad example but his point is still there.

While the brain consumes about 300 calories a day, it is estimated that only 20-50 calories actually goes towards active thinking. I think that only tapping for a LOT of thinking speed for a long time would actually cause someone to get hungrier.

I don't think connection has much to do with this, but in the theory investiture weakens the barriers between the realms. If one holds a lot of investiture than their Prescence in those realms would not unravel as quickly, or maybe not at all.

The physical change in all of Allomancy is the disappearance of the metal.

[Moogle]

The physical change in all of Allomancy is the disappearance of the metal.

 

That's not what the theory says. The theory is:

 

Once you've assembled components from the three realms, all magic works by using Investiture to break down the barriers between the realms, effecting changes in one by modifying another in accordance with its rules.

 

According to the theory, emotional Allomancy needs to work by effecting a change in the Physical or Spiritual and having it propagate to the person's Cognitive aspect. No such thing happens as far as I can see.

 

I agree with it that this is one way magic can happen - it definitely works this way for Forgery/Soulcasting (less so in Soulcasting, but close enough) - but I certainly would not call it a "unifying theory of Investiture", and we already knew this could happen so it's not really giving us anything new to use to theorize with.

[Blightsong]

That's not what the theory says. The theory is:

Once you've assembled components from the three realms, all magic works by using Investiture to break down the barriers between the realms, effecting changes in one by modifying another in accordance with its rules.

According to the theory, emotional Allomancy needs to work by effecting a change in the Physical or Spiritual and having it propagate to the person's Cognitive aspect. No such thing happens as far as I can see.

I agree with it that this is one way magic can happen - it definitely works this way for Forgery/Soulcasting (less so in Soulcasting, but close enough) - but I certainly would not call it a "unifying theory of Investiture", and we already knew this could happen so it's not really giving us anything new to use to theorize with.

Eh, I guess your right. I think he did make a good point when it come to death and how shardpools work, however. The whole theory wasn't about how investiture works in relation to magic. Thanks for your thoughts Moogle, if you have any ideas on how to change the theory to make more sense realmatically (especially in the area you thought was weak) feel free to do so. Edited February 8, 2016 by Blightsong

[Moogle]

Eh, I guess your right. I think he did make a good point when it come to death and how shardpools work, however. The whole theory wasn't about how investiture works in relation to magic. Thanks for your thoughts Moogle, if you have any ideas on how to change the theory to make more sense realmatically (especially in the area you thought was weak) feel free to do so.

 

I agree with the speculation Shardpools. I was specifically criticizing the theory on Investiture. I have no idea on what an overarching theory of Investiture should look like, so I can't be of much help in modifying it. Sorry.

[Kabsal]

Howdy! I'm one of the two original authors of the reddit post (I'm gonna go ahead and assume verification of this fact is unnecessary). We considered posting our theory here as well, but until now I've just been a 17th Shard occasional visitor instead of poster, and thus chose to stick to reddit. I'm flattered that someone enjoyed our theory enough to cross-post it, though. I figured I'd drop in and address a few of the concerns brought up above, in order.

 

 

 

Allomantic metals aren't Invested.

First off, you're completely correct that Allomantic metals are not themselves specifically Invested. It was a necessary simplification for the main post body that I ended up addressing in the comments. What really happens, as stated in the most recent AMA, is that burning metal acts as a conduit for the latent power of Preservation. The metal glows in the Cognitive Realm since Preservation's Investiture seeks to flow into the world through it. Thus, we felt okay with simplifying it to "Investiture comes from metal", even with the slight but important distinction as compared to Breath or Stormlight.

 

 

 

Intent is the least important thing in Selish magic, beyond the fact you need it to draw an Aon. "Drawing symbols precisely" has nothing to do with willpower. You don't even need to know what you're doing in AonDor, you could just copy Aons from a textbook.

While you're correct about the textbook thing, I'd like to back up our source for that argument with the line from the Ars Arcanum published with the Elantris 10th anniversary edition. The author writes "As in other forms of Investiture, intent is very important. An Elantrian can't accidentally draw an Aon. Because of their complexity, this would be highly unlikely, but I have tested it to my satisfaction. One must wish to draw an Aon, and have an inkling of the required shape, before anything will happen". Sure, you could teach someone to draw Aons through rote memorization, but they'd need to be aware of what they're doing, and probably what their intended result would be. Thus, Raoden couldn't draw Aons until he saw Galladon do so and directly attempted to do so.

 

 

 

Or... because zinc causes you to think faster, so your brain needs more sugar? I don't think being hungry is a "cost" to using a zincmind in the way you need to consume metals or drain color or drain heat. Most Feruchemy has no similar need for fuel. 

I'm not certain that it's true that most Feruchemy does not have some costs. It's noted a couple of times that Inquisitors needed to sleep a lot; if I remember correctly it's because tapping speed makes you sleepy. I suspect there are more costs that are as yet unknown. However, I freely admit this is a place where we could be wrong; it might just be that the way Feruchemy works does not require additional connections to the Physical Realm beyond simply the possession of a metalmind.

 

 

 

I don't see how this follows from the given theory at all. I don't see why Connection needs to be involved, or why a constant stream of Investiture would be needed to keep them tethered.

Strictly speaking, the discussion of death is not  a 100% natural consequence of the base theory. It is rather an attempt to expand upon it in correspondence with the additional information we've gotten from Secret History and BoA. Because of the massively spoilerific nature of our original post, the cross-poster (reasonably) removed the direct references we used as evidence here. I recommend looking at the version on reddit for the clearer picture here. The short version is once you die you begin to unravel across the three Realms and approach an Afterlife; it takes Investiture to prevent that "decay" and maintain the Realmatic tethers protecting your body from the worms and your soul from Beyond.

 

 

 

One example: Soothing/Rioting. You're not trying to change the Cognitive through a Spiritual or Physical change.

This one has been tricky for my coauthor and I. I agree it requires the most squinting. Our best attempt to pidgeonhole comes from the fact that you're protected from emotional Allomancy by aluminum-lined hats. If we go by the commonly held theory that aluminum has particularly strong Identity (which is why it can't be Pushed and is un-Forgable) you could possibly make the argument that you're messing with the Spiritual self in order to cause Cognitive changes. The main thing is that brass and zinc don't play by the rules of the Cognitive Realm as we've seen them in Stormlight and Secret History, which is how we get the "realm boundary fuzzing" aspect into it.

 

 

 

On the theory itself, I believe it is trying to extrapolate from the example of the soul having a "pushback" which can cause Physical changes (in the style of atium Feruchemy). I think it extrapolates way too much.

Atium is one of the cornerstone examples we use, yes. However, Soulcasting also works pretty directly via using the Cognitive Rules (as seen by Kelsier's adventures) to cause Physical shifts. Forgery also is a key piece of evidence, since we know it involves reshaping a Spiritual trait (an object's past) in order to manipulate its Physical state. I agree with your claim that this is all a huge amount of extrapolation, though. We did say so right in the opening paragraph . The key thing is that we feel it's consistent with all that we've seen and simple enough in the right ways to subscribe to Sanderson's Laws of writing magic systems, which is why we like it as a baseline theory that can be adapted once new information becomes available.

[Moogle]

Howdy! I'm one of the two original authors of the reddit post (I'm gonna go ahead and assume verification of this fact is unnecessary). We considered posting our theory here as well, but until now I've just been a 17th Shard occasional visitor instead of poster, and thus chose to stick to reddit. I'm flattered that someone enjoyed our theory enough to cross-post it, though. I figured I'd drop in and address a few of the concerns brought up above, in order.

 

Welcome to the forums! It's good to see more people posting nice big theories, even if I don't agree with them. I hope you continue to do so.

 

A few things on what you posted:

Sure, you could teach someone to draw Aons through rote memorization, but they'd need to be aware of what they're doing, and probably what their intended result would be. Thus, Raoden couldn't draw Aons until he saw Galladon do so and directly attempted to do so.

 

I don't agree that the intended result needs to be known - just that an Aon can be drawn with such and such shape. But my point was that, while AonDor does require intent, it doesn't need very much of it at all. The post specifically said "Intent is particularly important for Selish magics", a point I disagree with - it's important to basically all the systems, and Sel is among the least of them. Intent is specifically most important to Awakening. Brandon himself has specifically said that will and intent are less important on Sel and very important on Nalthis.

 

I'm not certain that it's true that most Feruchemy does not have some costs. It's noted a couple of times that Inquisitors needed to sleep a lot; if I remember correctly it's because tapping speed makes you sleepy.

I suspect there are more costs that are as yet unknown. However, I freely admit this is a place where we could be wrong; it might just be that the way Feruchemy works does not require additional connections to the Physical Realm beyond simply the possession of a metalmind.

 

They had to rest a lot because they were storing up health in goldminds. It's noted in the epigraphs of HoA:

 

“Spikes made from certain other metals steal Feruchemical abilities. For example, all of the original Inquisitors were given a pewter spike, which—after first being pounded through the body of a Feruchemist—gave the Inquisitor the ability to store up healing power. (Though they couldn’t do so as quickly as a real Feruchemist, as per the law of Hemalurgic decay.) This, obviously, is where the Inquisitors got their infamous ability to recover from wounds quickly, and was also why they needed to rest so much.”

 

I see no evidence that most Feruchemical metals have an associated physical cost associated with their use. I point towards Miles tapping from his goldminds all the time, Wax tapping massive amounts of weight without remarking on anything changing, and Sazed from the original novel doing a lot with copperminds without remarking on anything unusual besides the memories degrading.

 

Atium is one of the cornerstone examples we use, yes. However, Soulcasting also works pretty directly via using the Cognitive Rules (as seen by Kelsier's adventures) to cause Physical shifts. Forgery also is a key piece of evidence, since we know it involves reshaping a Spiritual trait (an object's past) in order to manipulate its Physical state. I agree with your claim that this is all a huge amount of extrapolation, though. We did say so right in the opening paragraph . The key thing is that we feel it's consistent with all that we've seen and simple enough in the right ways to subscribe to Sanderson's Laws of writing magic systems, which is why we like it as a baseline theory that can be adapted once new information becomes available.

 

Technically, I would say Soulcasting uses the Cognitive to cause a Spiritual change (the name is literally Soulcasting) which in turn propagates to the Physical, but that's me nitpicking.

 

As I said, I agree with you that it's one way magic can work, but it seems far too simple to explain most of what we've seen in the books. The examples of Feruchemy and Emotional Allomancy to me strongly argue against it.

 

I don't agree with your theory, but please don't let me scare you off. It was well-thought out and interesting, which is mainly what's important. Please do cross-post any future theories here.

[natc]

My personal headcanon is that the spiritual connections of a soulcast object will, after being soulcast, just end up saying "soulcasted into Y thing from X", and progresses normally. If a cognitive change forcibly evokes a physical one, then surely everything that happens to the object in its new form will continue forming Connections as the new form, right? But losing the previous connections would be weird, since you still know where it came from and all. If someone soulcasted your parents into fire your own soul should logically still remember having parents because . . . well, duh.

I also recall being told somewhere on this forum last year that it's easier to Awaken even metal if it was metal soulcasted from a living being instead of nonliving mined metal, which supports that as well.

This is in contrast with soulforging, which instead tries to rewrite the spiritual connections of the entity and its history, effectively faking the "change log" of the object so that it outputs in the physical as something different. It eventually stops taking and needs to be reapplied when the thing finally realizes that something doesn't quite check out. Connection feruchemy is a constant application and can probably keep the changes going until you run out and the errors finally snap back.