Selish Time Dilation

[Stormblessed0421 he/him]

On Sel, specifically near Elantris, the Dor sits in the cognitive realm. The Dor is a massive body of investiture left over from not one but two shards. And I have this WoB:

Quote

Jeremy

If vast amounts of Investiture can distort time in a similar manner as a black hole, [...] does that include Shards? Would time dilation be greater on Roshar than on Nalthis?

Brandon Sanderson

No, because the Shard is contained almost entirely in the Spiritual Realm. In the Spiritual Realm, time and distance have no meaning. So, what this means is: Large piles of Investiture that somehow make it into the Cognitive Realm or the Physical Realm are going to cause time dilation, but the Spiritual Realm—where it belongs—it's not going to do that.

That's gonna make some exclamation points raise above the heads of some people.

So does that mean that on Sel, there’s a massive amount of time dilation caused by the enormous quantity of investiture outside the SR?

[Honorless he/him]

It should. Brandon certainly seems to be going for that. As for what that means for Sel... accelerated technological development, I should think... but Taldain and Scadrial are ahead of them apparently.

 

Though that's not the only interesting thing about Sel's unique situation with its Cognitive Realm

When people die, their mind appears on the Cognitive Realm. We see this with Kelsier, with Eshonai, with Wax (don't be alarmed, remember Bands of Mourning). So what does the Investiture plasma mean for the Selish?

An even shorter afterlife? Or... Apparently Investiture can allow these Cognitive aspects of people to turn into Cognitive Shadows... Well, there's a lot of Investiture in Sel's Cognitive. And there are legends of the Svrakiss, the dead whose spirits got rejected by Jaddeth

 

Lots of interesting stuff on Sel

Edited May 28, 2022 by Honorless

[Treamayne]

3 hours ago, Stormblessed0421 said:

On Sel, specifically near Elantris, the Dor sits in the cognitive realm

I think this is a false assumption. Do  you have any reference that says there is "more" Dor near Elantris than other areas of Sel?

The Dor permeates the cognitive for all of Sel. AFAIK the Elantris "Fabrial" only makes AonDor used near it more efficient at pulling the Dor from the Cognitive.

So, I could see a time dilation for all of Sel (as opposed to outside the Selish system), but not just near Elantris.

 

[Weltall]

2 hours ago, Honorless said:

An even shorter afterlife? Or... Apparently Investiture can allow these Cognitive aspects of people to turn into Cognitive Shadows... Well, there's a lot of Investiture in Sel's Cognitive. And there are legends of the Svrakiss, the dead whose spirits got rejected by Jaddeth

Based on this WoB, the former seems to be the most likely case. When you show up in the Cognitive if you're not prepared or you don't have help on the other side, you get quickly shredded by the Dor plasma storm and get to find out what the Beyond is faster than you normally would.

That said, the Svrakiss are probably going to become relevant down the line so we'll find out what's up with them at some point. Brandon has of course RAFO'd questions concerning them, including whether they're a type of Cognitive Shadow.

Edited May 28, 2022 by Weltall

[Stormblessed0421 he/him]

3 hours ago, Treamayne said:

I think this is a false assumption. Do  you have any reference that says there is "more" Dor near Elantris than other areas of Sel?

I could be wrong about that. I think I misunderstood the geographically locked nature of AonDor to mean that most of the Dor is around Elantris. Now that I think about it, though, the proximity probably has more to do with the location of the Aon Rao that powers the city than with the location of the Dor in the Cognitive Realm. However, even if I’m wrong, time dilation should still happen, and on an even more massive scale.

[Treamayne]

8 minutes ago, Stormblessed0421 said:

I could be wrong about that. I think I misunderstood the geographically locked nature of AonDor to mean that most of the Dor is around Elantris. Now that I think about it, though, the proximity probably has more to do with the location of the Aon Rao that powers the city than with the location of the Dor in the Cognitive Realm. However, even if I’m wrong, time dilation should still happen, and on an even more massive scale.

AFAIK, what is happening is this:

• The Dor fills the cognitive realm of Sel
• The Cognitive is already location based
• 1/2 of the Dor is Dominion, which further strengthens the population tied to region connection which means:
  • AonDor is tied to Arelon and Arelish people
  • Dakhor is tied to Fjorden and Fjordell people
  • ChayShen is tied to JinDo and JinDo people
  • Forgery is tied to MaiPon and MaiPon people
• The Dor is the source of power for all of the above - only the region dictates the form the investiture can be expressed