[OB] Soulcast just one time!

[Head Crabs]

So shallan is running around urithiru looking for whatever this thing is. (Presumably an unmade) She's got an abundance of stormlight now considering that she put on a play by herself. It should be much safer for her to attempt soulcasting now (pattern mentions that it is much more dangerous when she only had a little stormlight after the shipwreck) 

 

The cognitive realm for urithiru would presumably be oceanish since that's the weird way it works on roshar, but im guessing that the solution will become more clear to shallan once she attempts to soulcast again and sees what's really going on over in the cognitive realm. 

 

Perhaps some giant manifestation of this spren that is only partially in the physical realm?! And she slashes it a thousand times with pattern. No clue, but i bet it's going to be weird. 

[Alderant]

3 minutes ago, Head Crabs said:

The cognitive realm for urithiru would presumably be oceanish since that's the weird way it works on roshar

That's the weird way it works across the Cosmere, to my knowledge. Even on Scadrial. It has to do with

A) the vast amount of cognitive elements on the continent (creating that "sea" of glass balls or the "sea" of mists on Scadrial),

B) the perceptive fluidity of the continent (humanity and other sentience moves back and forth, across boundaries, as though the continent itself weren't significant),

C) the perceptive permanence of a barrier like the ocean (thus its appearance as solid ground), and

D) the lack of cognition in the void of space between the planets.

If you've read the Wheel of Time, you can see how Shadesmar/the Cognitive Realm was influenced by RJ's Tel'Aran'Rhiod, where objects that were ephemeral (such as human possessions) had a much weaker presence in the world of dreams than object that had existed for a very long time (such as castles).

[Head Crabs]

Yeah, i was mostly thinking about how it acted a little differently during Secret History,

Spoiler

but that was mainly because kelsier was a cognitive shadow, hoid did have to ride around on a corpse. 

 

I still have to imagine that some pretty weird stuff is going on in the cognitive realm at urithiru. 

[Alderant]

4 minutes ago, Head Crabs said:

Yeah, i was mostly thinking about how it acted a little differently during Secret History,

  Reveal hidden contents

but that was mainly because kelsier was a cognitive shadow, hoid did have to ride around on a corpse. 

 

I still have to imagine that some pretty weird stuff is going on in the cognitive realm at urithiru.

I don't know about that. Not yet.

As a side note, I'm not even sold that what Shallan saw was a spren. We haven't had any evidence of spren able to do what it's doing (i.e., murdering, lifting a knife, picking up a person or even pushing them, changing its form and coloring). Syl is considered a one of the more "into-the-physical-realm" spren we know of and she struggles with picking up small, lightweight objects on her own, and when she changes form she is still bluish-white. And this thing somehow is replicating entire crime scenes on its own. And finally, most spren don't appear to be bound by physical restraints, yet this thing was. I'm just not sold on it.

[hoidhunter]

I'm fairly certain it is one of the creations of the unmade referred to as the midnight mother or Re-shephir. Like the midnight essence we see in one of Dalinar's visions.

Edited November 3, 2017 by hoidhunter

[Alderant]

46 minutes ago, hoidhunter said:

I'm fairly certain it is one of the creations of the unmade referred to as the midnight mother or Re-shephir.

I thought she (Re-Shephir) was one of the Unmade?

[Calderis]

3 minutes ago, Alderant said:

I thought she (Re-Shephir) was one of the Unmade?

She is. The midnight essence aren't. It's speculated that she creates the Midnight Essence, as she's called the "Midnight Mother" 

[hoidhunter]

That's kind of what I meant. I guess my statement was poorly worded.

[Alderant]

@Calderis Thanks.

 

@hoidhunter I think I just misread your comment. I read it as “one of the creations of the unmade (which was) known as the midnight mother” As in Re-shephir was the creation. It makes more sense now, haha. 

[Head Crabs]

Well, as none of us can be certain about the identity of the creature until brandon bestows that coveted knowledge upon us. I still think shallan would have an easier time figuring this out if she started practicing her soulcasting abilities and popped over to the CR with her abundance of stormlight. 

[Yata]

2 hours ago, Head Crabs said:

Well, as none of us can be certain about the identity of the creature until brandon bestows that coveted knowledge upon us. I still think shallan would have an easier time figuring this out if she started practicing her soulcasting abilities and popped over to the CR with her abundance of stormlight. 

Shallan didn't experiment too much with Soulcasting as it's really dangerous. I am waiting for her to start asking training sections with the Ardent Soulcasters...they know a lot of more on the CR and how to performe safety Soulcasting. She could learn a lot...I hope their actual relationship with te KR will be not an obstacle

[DocHoliday]

I've been wondering for awhile why Shallon or Dalinar havnt had the Ardents come chat with Shallon about Soul Casting and Shadesmar in general.

Not only would this have the obvious benefit of training a KR in her Surges, this would go miles for Dalinar's political situation in the Ardentia and indeed the world. The Ardents obviously are having a hard time accepting the Desolation has returned; the KR have returned; The Almighty is dead; the list goes on.

Even Kadash practically begged Dalinar: "Give me something to take back to them."!

All of Vorinism has been flipped onto it's head with these claims, and they all originate from Dalinar the Blasphemous Charlatan (in the eyes of Ardents). 

Dalinar needs to gain some measure of credibility with these religious/political heads, and I can think of no method more expedient than an undeniable demonstration of Soul Casting without the need of a fabrial. 

Is it groundbreaking? No. Undeniable evidence? No.

But it's a good place to start the long work of changing minds.

[kari-no-sugata]

2 hours ago, DocHoliday said:

I've been wondering for awhile why Shallon or Dalinar havnt had the Ardents come chat with Shallon about Soul Casting and Shadesmar in general.

Not only would this have the obvious benefit of training a KR in her Surges, this would go miles for Dalinar's political situation in the Ardentia and indeed the world. The Ardents obviously are having a hard time accepting the Desolation has returned; the KR have returned; The Almighty is dead; the list goes on.

Even Kadash practically begged Dalinar: "Give me something to take back to them."!

All of Vorinism has been flipped onto it's head with these claims, and they all originate from Dalinar the Blasphemous Charlatan (in the eyes of Ardents). 

Dalinar needs to gain some measure of credibility with these religious/political heads, and I can think of no method more expedient than an undeniable demonstration of Soul Casting without the need of a fabrial. 

Is it groundbreaking? No. Undeniable evidence? No.

But it's a good place to start the long work of changing minds.

I'm not sure how much Shallan (without an o) doing Soulcasting and chatting about Shadesmar would help Dalinar with his problems with the ardents. I agree it would likely help Shallan. Dalinar's "orders" to Shallan and Renarin to investigate their powers was rather vague and it feels a bit of a shame that we're not seeing any real discussion about Radiants and their powers now that it's all in the open. Maybe such things are happening and there are some suggestions that general knowledge about Radiants is spreading. Brandon is trying to pack quite a lot into Part 1 and the viewpoints focus much more on things happening rather than meetings but the various characters seem rather disconnected for the most part. Is this because such things aren't happening or because they needed to be trimmed from Part 1 to keep the plot moving along at a fast enough pace?

 

PS Part of me wonders if Shallan deliberately decided not to investigate Soulcasting to spite the Ghostbloods...