Nalthis Star Chart Cognitive Anomaly. Rampant Speculation(but not too rampant).

[Honorless]

13 hours ago, Karger said:

I think that everything else is mostly covered.

Include:

I) Part of Nalthis' Cognitive Realm

J) Part of Endowment herself (just to be thorough) Brandon would probably slip away with "spare bit of Investiture" and say we gave him "a lot of wiggle room"

 

@Nnatel

Quote

Well, the phrasing 'spare Investiture' made me thinking of the opposite -  something like a hole in the CR due to the lack of Investiture. You may want to add it to that list just to include all options we thought of.

Hole between the Realms is only possible through excess Investiture, not no Investiture

Also, if there were no Investiture in a part of the Cognitive Realm, which can't really happen since it is Investiture that allows it to exist, it wouldn't be on a map of the Physical Realm

Edited November 9, 2019 by Honorless

[Karger]

2 minutes ago, Honorless said:

Include:

Alright then.

18 minutes ago, Karger said:

Is the CR anomaly closest to.

A. A death star

B. A battery

C. An old science experiment.

D. A corpse

E. A fortess

F. Some spare Investature

G. A secret planet

Of H. Some giant spren that Endowment keeps around as a pet

 

2 minutes ago, Honorless said:

I) Part of Nalthis' Cognitive Realm

That is strange for some other reason.

Edited November 8, 2019 by Karger

[Honorless]

4 minutes ago, Karger said:

 

Quote

Part of Nalthis' Cognitive Realm

That is strange for some other reason.

"Anomaly", don't forget. Khriss wouldn't use that word lightly.

Edited November 8, 2019 by Honorless

[Toaster Retribution]

First off, what does anomaly mean in this context? The word itself means unusual, and so, this particular anomaly has to be something unusual for the CR. Seeing as the anomaly is a pretty large area in empty space, where no humans are alive, my guess would be that it is a large area inside the CR, which would be unusual considering how the size of places in the CR is affected by how important the areas are in the PR. So this anomaly would just be a large area, instead of a small one, which it should be. This should mean that the CR around Nalthis is a lot bigger than it should be, and also that travel to and from the planet takes more time (doesnt mean that it is more or less dangerous though). 
 

Now I’ll wait for @Calderis to come and tell me a realmatic fact that will prove me wrong :-D

[What's a Seawolf?]

As far as I know, the only cognitive things to show up in the physical realm are spren, which are bits of a Shards power.

I think it stands to reason that something that would appear in the physical realm to a significant enough degree to show up on a space chart is likewise a Shard or part of a Shard.

I'm pretty sure Endowment has strong foresight abilities, which to any Cosmere Big Bad would be a major problem to any master plans.

So what if the anomaly is just a Shard, part of a Shard, or some Shard designed means of spying on Endowment and the Nalthis system.  It could be just to gather information or a means of striking at an opportune time. 

[Elegy]

It's a planet size blur that Nalthis seems to pass through anually. That doesn't seem like a Shard or spren to me.

It has to have something to do with something that happened on Nalthis, I think. If there is no life, there is no cognitive manifestation because it's not thought about, i.e. it doesn't exist is Shadesmar. So it's likely that the anomaly was created as Nalthis was on that point of its path around the sun, since there has actually been thought (and therefore Shadesmar) at that place. And somehow, it stayed there while the planet went on.

A planet's Shadesmar spins along with the physical planet yet remains stagnant in relation to the other planets' Shadesmars which move along with their respective planets. It hurts my brain.

Edited November 8, 2019 by Elegy

[Calderis]

1 hour ago, Toaster Retribution said:

First off, what does anomaly mean in this context? The word itself means unusual, and so, this particular anomaly has to be something unusual for the CR. Seeing as the anomaly is a pretty large area in empty space, where no humans are alive, my guess would be that it is a large area inside the CR, which would be unusual considering how the size of places in the CR is affected by how important the areas are in the PR. So this anomaly would just be a large area, instead of a small one, which it should be. This should mean that the CR around Nalthis is a lot bigger than it should be, and also that travel to and from the planet takes more time (doesnt mean that it is more or less dangerous though). 
 

Now I’ll wait for @Calderis to come and tell me a realmatic fact that will prove me wrong :-D

Actually, there is a WoB that I remember, that I've been unable to find anywhere for a good year or more, that mentioned a Cognitive "dead zone" where space was expanded, but there wasn't anything there.... I had a theory that this was the place that the "survival" shard was hiding but never bothered writing anything up about it because I couldn't find the WoB. 

If this "anomaly" is the place that my mystery WoB referred to... 

[Toaster Retribution]

1 hour ago, Calderis said:

Actually, there is a WoB that I remember, that I've been unable to find anywhere for a good year or more, that mentioned a Cognitive "dead zone" where space was expanded, but there wasn't anything there.... I had a theory that this was the place that the "survival" shard was hiding but never bothered writing anything up about it because I couldn't find the WoB. 

If this "anomaly" is the place that my mystery WoB referred to... 

Oh, shoots, my theory is plausible? Yay! And I recognize that WoB. I think I might have seen it long ago too.

[Honorless]

11 hours ago, Elegy said:

It's a planet size blur that Nalthis seems to pass through anually. That doesn't seem like a Shard or spren to me.

It has to have something to do with something that happened on Nalthis, I think. If there is no life, there is no cognitive manifestation because it's not thought about, i.e. it doesn't exist is Shadesmar. So it's likely that the anomaly was created as Nalthis was on that point of its path around the sun, since there has actually been thought (and therefore Shadesmar) at that place. And somehow, it stayed there while the planet went on.

A planet's Shadesmar spins along with the physical planet yet remains stagnant in relation to the other planets' Shadesmars which move along with their respective planets. It hurts my brain.

The anomaly might also maintain the same relative distance with Nalthis, therefore the two might never pass through one another. They might also move at different speeds and that would mean that they do pass through one another. But I think that would have some visible effects on Nalthis and we would have heard about it in Warbreaker. It remaining (relatively) stationary (because nothing in space can be truly stationary) would also result in the same problem.

Ugh! Brain freeze! Ye-yeah, let's just look at the Three Realms as completely different planes of existence, the Cognitive only cares about perception and everything is one to the Spiritual.

[Aon Tia]

It would be very interesting if the planet does pass through the cognitive anomaly. Imagine all the weird stuff that might happen every year once in Nalthis? Some weird festival to mark the occasion...

more weird visions? more returned during that time? 

[Calderis]

1 hour ago, The traveller said:

It would be very interesting if the planet does pass through the cognitive anomaly. Imagine all the weird stuff that might happen every year once in Nalthis? Some weird festival to mark the occasion...

more weird visions? more returned during that time? 

"and at this time every year, Nalthians engage in the purge" 

Edited November 9, 2019 by Calderis

[Honorless]

24 minutes ago, Calderis said:

"and at this time every year, Nalthians engage in the purge" 

Did you just make a The Purge reference? 

[Aon Tia]

4 hours ago, Calderis said:

"and at this time every year, Nalthians engage in the purge" 

Now I want nightblood...

[Ciridae]

I like the idea that it has something to do with Ambitions death. We know Ambition died in another system, and we know Edgli did not think highly of Uli Da and knew she would have to be dealt with sooner or later. She even says good riddance about her passing. 
I could see a scenario where a wounded Ambition fled to Nalthis in hope of getting help from Endowment, but Edgli sees it as a violation of the pact and finishes her off. 

Another idea I had is that it is an avatar of Autonomy beginning to manifest. A large enough pocket of investiture slowly gaining sapience could be seen as a cognitive anomaly I suppose. I’m not sure how long it takes for Autonomy to create an Avatar, but if Trell is an avatar it seems like it can be done within 300 years. Long enough to be considered a part of the system and not just an event that happens. 
I’m not super convinced myself, it’s just an idea. 

I am curious about the timeline for these maps. Do we know when they were created? I think I remember it was said that they were created sometime after MB era 2 and before Sixth of the Dusk but I can’t back that up. Would be interesting to know if the cognitive anomaly is something that already existed during Warbreaker and it just didnt come up during the story, or if it is due to something caused by an event that happens further in the future, maybe during the events of Nightblood. 

Also, does anybody know if we can expect to get an essay to go along with this at some point? That would be so amazing. 

[Karger]

Perhaps this is another manifestation of Endowment's intent.  She gives a power boost once a year?

[teknopathetic]

My guess is that it’s literally an endowment of investiture. The shard is storing a large amount that could eventually be used by someone for a great purpose. 
 

 

[Nnatel]

It took me quite a long time to find a better way of explaining what I meant but here it goes. @Karger and @Honorless as you were the ones who commented. It can still make no sense and the longer I think about it the more unlikely it gets but I still want to try putting it differently. 

Well, "hole" wasn't probably the best word for what I meant, I just tried imagining something different to all things we have seen before. And, I imagine CR with a certain density of Investiture (I am not taking into consideration any sentient beings, just the core 'landscape' of this realm). While we have seen places accumulating Investiture - Perpependicularities - the opposite is quite hard to imagine, I know. And while distances between planets or star systems are shortened - it's like a standard amount of Investiture in a place in CR is the same but the equivalent in PR is bigger. And here we go to what I was trying to say earlier. What would happen if there would exist a place in CR where this density would be smaller than usually? I might be completely wrong but I just got this feeling that anything unusal enough should exist in other realms as well (or at least sth unusual in CR has to exist in SR but if the cause was in PR than it would exist in all three).
But I guess Nalthians wouldn't spot this thing unless it moves and the planet goes through it once a year (I just realized that it can be very important to know whether it moves or not, but I'm drifting away from my idea).

[Truthless of Shinovar]

So the idea of Nalthis passing through the anomaly once every year has been tossed around, but what if the case is something like the cognitive anomaly moves only slightly slower than Nalthis does, so once every, say, 100 years, Nalthis passed through the anomaly, and some crazy stuff goes on, depending on whatever the heck the anomaly even is?

[Karger]

1 hour ago, Truthless of Shinovar said:

So the idea of Nalthis passing through the anomaly once every year has been tossed around, but what if the case is something like the cognitive anomaly moves only slightly slower than Nalthis does, so once every, say, 100 years, Nalthis passed through the anomaly, and some crazy stuff goes on, depending on whatever the heck the anomaly even is?

A distinct possibility.

3 hours ago, Nnatel said:

While we have seen places accumulating Investiture - Perpependicularities - the opposite is quite hard to imagine

In the real world certain places accumulate mass like stars or planets or black holes.  The opposite does not really exist.

[teknopathetic]

1 hour ago, Truthless of Shinovar said:

So the idea of Nalthis passing through the anomaly once every year has been tossed around, but what if the case is something like the cognitive anomaly moves only slightly slower than Nalthis does, so once every, say, 100 years, Nalthis passed through the anomaly, and some crazy stuff goes on, depending on whatever the heck the anomaly even is?

This could explain why the returned are so new; maybe this magic system started when something major happened on the planet just as the planet went through the anomaly. Maybe Vo had been doing something at the exact moment the planet went through the anomaly. 

[KandraAllomancer]

I think there could have been a planet with a separate Shard there once. In the First Letter in Oathbringer, Endowment claims that

Quote

No good can come of two Shards settling in one location.

Note that it says location, not planet. Maybe she's speaking from experience? Whatever happened there, ended with some Threnody-class disaster and left an anomaly in the Cognitive Realm (some Cognitive Shadows maybe?). The second Shard (Wisdom or Survival Shard maybe?) was chased off by Endowment (and probably fear of Odium) and left with the whole planet. The name of another planet (Farkeeper) implies some kind of guard - against the return of the Shard/planet maybe? It would explain why Endowment got worried about catastrophes on her own world and started creating the Returned

[Pagerunner]

I got my physical copy in the mail. Got a chance to get a good look at the Farkept moons. (Or whatever the appropriate "Jovian" analogue term would be.) They do indeed have blue and green in the shape of continents, unlike the other gas giant moons on the other star charts (which are all monocolored). Other planets that share the same color scheme? The four inhabitable Drominad worlds. And Coronach, the named moon of Elegy in the Threnodite system (which has also been theorized to be habitable).

Taking a close look at all the celestial bodies made me notice something else. Nearly all the planets and moons have a white ring around them. I assumed it was the same as the white behind any of the lettering, which would just let things stand out better. But I noticed that Sel's moon, Oem, didn't have it. Is it a mistake? Or does it actually indicate the presence of an atmosphere? (In which case, every planet and moon except Oem would have at least some sort of an atmosphere.) And is it the same atmospheric indication that marks our Cognitive Anomaly? I don't think that it's a Physical Realm phenomenon (or else, why would it be called a "Cognitive" anomaly), but if it is located in the Physical Realm, then it might be something that would sustain its own atmosphere? Seeding for a far-future sci-fi twist in the Nalthian system?

[Honorless]

18 hours ago, Pagerunner said:

I got my physical copy in the mail. Got a chance to get a good look at the Farkept moons. (Or whatever the appropriate "Jovian" analogue term would be.) They do indeed have blue and green in the shape of continents, unlike the other gas giant moons on the other star charts (which are all monocolored). Other planets that share the same color scheme? The four inhabitable Drominad worlds. And Coronach, the named moon of Elegy in the Threnodite system (which has also been theorized to be habitable).

Taking a close look at all the celestial bodies made me notice something else. Nearly all the planets and moons have a white ring around them. I assumed it was the same as the white behind any of the lettering, which would just let things stand out better. But I noticed that Sel's moon, Oem, didn't have it. Is it a mistake? Or does it actually indicate the presence of an atmosphere? (In which case, every planet and moon except Oem would have at least some sort of an atmosphere.) And is it the same atmospheric indication that marks our Cognitive Anomaly? I don't think that it's a Physical Realm phenomenon (or else, why would it be called a "Cognitive" anomaly), but if it is located in the Physical Realm, then it might be something that would sustain its own atmosphere? Seeding for a far-future sci-fi twist in the Nalthian system?

You are right! The Farkeeper moons do seem to depict greens on blues! The atmosphere idea also pans out. I'm not so sure about Coronach though, it looks like it might just be the shading and it looks turquoise rather than blue and green to me.

Edited November 18, 2019 by Honorless

[Jaywalk]

On 11/8/2019 at 8:39 AM, Pathfinder said:

Tinfoil hat theory. The anomaly is the bit of ruin hanging out that when the planet of Nalthis came across it in its rotation around the sun happened to be the moment Vasher and his wife made nightblood. That is why nightblood has some ruin, and why making nightblood seems to be a unique occurrence. This would be especially twisted because it would mean Vasher wouldn't have needed to kill his wife, because nightblood would be unable to be replicated till the planet was in alignment again. 

I know we don’t know much about Vivenna’s sword from Oathbringer, but if this theory is correct, then I could see her sword being Awakened away from the anomaly, unlike Nightblood. Ruin’s investiture would have corrupted Nightblood, in a way, but Vivenna’s sword wouldn’t have been subjected to that.

I’m rambling, and I’m 99% sure it’s not true, but it’s just a thought.

[Karger]

1 hour ago, Jaywalk said:

I know we don’t know much about Vivenna’s sword from Oathbringer, but if this theory is correct, then I could see her sword being Awakened away from the anomaly, unlike Nightblood. Ruin’s investiture would have corrupted Nightblood, in a way, but Vivenna’s sword wouldn’t have been subjected to that.

I’m rambling, and I’m 99% sure it’s not true, but it’s just a thought.

She calls her blade flawed.  I also have a hard time seeing how she could have gotten the 9th heightening required to make something like Nightblood.