theory Adonalsium's Cognitive Shadow

[Ishar]

So, I was talking with a friend, and she was saying that she thinks Adonalsium has to have a Cognitive Shadow somewhere in the Cosmere. She was convinced by a WOB were Brandon RAFO'd the question of "Does Adonalsium have a Cognitive Shadow in the Cosmere." My first response was doubt. To me it just didn't seem like something that would happen. She asked me why, and I mentioned that Cognitive Shadows were imprints of people's investiture that were left behind, really as an excuse out of an explanation. Looking through the WOB's on this topic, that is just the common in-world theory, and that cognitive shadows are super complicated. Either way, when I told my friend that she said that something with as much investiture as Adonalsium must have left behind a Cognitive Shadow, saying "Where did all that investiture go then?" to which I responded "What do you think the Shards are?" and then I realized... The Shards. What if the Shards are in fact Cognitive Shadows left behind by Adonalsium, or at least the Intents are. According to the Coppermind, a Nahel bond between a Cognitive Shadow and a person is possible, and what if the Vessels are bonding in some strange, or maybe simple, who knows, way with the Cognitive Shadows of Adonalsium. Please let me know your thoughts.

 

[Calderis]

I agree. I've been saying that that's exactly what the intents are for a while. 

I think that Adonalsium was in essence a massive spren. A mind that developed as a part of the power. As such when the Shattering occurred, there was no Vessel to be separated and become a Shadow. The mind was ripped apart with the power it was a part of, and those remnants are the core of each shard that provide the drive we call intents. 

Edited June 18, 2018 by Calderis

[MountainKing]

I feel like the shards have sometime of mental ability, that is really slow, but no one notices it because every shard is binded by the vessels.

[Steeldancer]

I’ve had the idea that the shards are remnants of Adonalsiums mind for a while, and then being a cognitive shadow is a much more concise way of saying that. Pieces of the shadow. Not the mind itself, which is dead. 

[Ethan_sedai]

I like this, but if the cognitive shadow split with the shard, would that mean that Adonalsium was already a cognitive shadow at the time of the shattering? Not that I disagree, this seems to make a lot of sense, and it is entirely possible that he already was a cognitive shadow at the time of the shattering, maybe it had something to do with the failed plan to kill Adonalsium? 

[Calderis]

4 minutes ago, ethan sedai said:

I like this, but if the cognitive shadow split with the shard, would that mean that Adonalsium was already a cognitive shadow at the time of the shattering? Not that I disagree, this seems to make a lot of sense, and it is entirely possible that he already was a cognitive shadow at the time of the shattering, maybe it had something to do with the failed plan to kill Adonalsium? 

It wouldn't have been, or ever become, a Cognitive Shadow. As a sapient mind born of investiture, it would have been a massive spren. 

When the power was ripped apart, the mind would have been split with the power,leaving no "shadow." 

Because of that, I think the "failed plot" was The Shattering itself. They meant to eradicate Adonalsium. Instead, they took pieces of it into themselves.

[Ethan_sedai]

I was about to try to come up with a counter-argument about spren being a huge variety, not just smaller pieces of the Shard's intent or the Vessel's personality, but the spren gaining their own sentience might be different, so you win for now.