Shades of First of the Sun

[+Oltux72]

There are animals using Arcane Arts on the Pantheon islands. So they must be Invested, mustn't they? Hence what happens to them if they die? Is the environment of the perpendicularity in the CR full of animal and plant Shades? Is that the true reason the planet is suicide to travel to?

[Honorless]

Are they Invested enough to turn into Cognitive Shadows though?

It could also be that those mind-hunting creatures manifest on the Cognitive Realm a bit, kinda like how spren on Roshar can manifest a bit of themselves in the Physical Realm based on emotions felt by people nearby.

It could also be that the Cognitive side is inhabited by creatures too.

Khriss might also have meant that people did manage to cross over from the Perpendicularity, they just didn't manage to survive Patji and return. "area around the Perpendicularity" isn't very clear on which side she's talking about exactly.

[+Harrycrapper]

We've seen three situations where Cognitive Shadows occurred. Roshar, where a bunch of Singers were infused with Odium's Investiture. Scadrial, where Kelsier hung out in a full Well of Ascension for enough time for him to persist seemingly until the Mistborn Era 4(at least I'm pretty sure Brandon said he'd be in those?). Also worth noting is that Kelsier only had the time to make that happen because he was a Mistborn, which made him able to persist longer after death than a normal person because he was more Invested. And Threnody, we know less about but can likely deduce some of what's happening based on what we do know. Ambition was Splintered, likely meaning large chunks of Investiture are sitting around and somehow newly dead people absorb enough to become Cognitive Shadows. They don't seem to retain everything like the previously mentioned Cognitive Shadows, but do retain something. 

Given all of that, I don't think First of the Sun has Cognitive Shadows, or at least not ones generated from the wildlife. Someone/something would need to die close enough to the perpendicularity that they'd be able to Invest themselves enough to persist after death before getting sucked into The Beyond. And they'd need the inclination to do, which I doubt many would in the few brief moments they have. Even if someone did think to do that, the Avatar of Autonomy that's running the show might intervene and prevent anyone from doing so. Recall that two out of the three above examples required to permission of or the outright intention of a Shard to make a Cognitive Shadow and in the third example, the resident Shard is dead. I just get the feeling that if there's an actual personality operating the piece of a Shard on First of the Sun, a Cognitive Shadow would need to be approved of by that personality. 

Now, it's possible that there are Cognitive Entities, like spren that the Avatar created to guard the perpendicularity. But, I don't think they would use beings that were once alive to accomplish this, it would be more like spren than the shades on Threnody. Different in origin, but similar in practice. 

[trav]

On 30/06/2021 at 9:45 AM, Oltux72 said:

There are animals using Arcane Arts on the Pantheon islands. So they must be Invested, mustn't they?

Being able to use them does not mean they are invested enough. 

Could they potentially be? I suppose.