AonDor

[Yumiya]

I am a little confused about the AonDor, or more specificlly the nature of Dominion and Devotion's confinement. We have a WOB describing it in detail:

 

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Brandon Sanderson

So on Sel, we have AonDor. AonDor is based on the fact that the Dor, which is an amalgamation of Dominion and Devotion, has been pressed together and stuffed into the Cognitive Realm by Odium who didn't want it to gain sentience, as Investiture will do if it is left alone. It will either seek someone to be its Vessel or it will gain sentience. He pressed it in there; he pressed it together, which creates the violent reaction, because those two intents are opposed. And that is the foundation of the magic. Because it's stuck in the Cognitive Realm rather than the Spiritual Realm (the Spiritual Realm is location-independent; Cognitive Realm is location-dependent), it makes the magic on Sel only work in close proximity to what is keyed through there to the location they're keyed to. This has to do with Identity and Connection. Mostly Connection. So that means you can't do AonDor on another planet, but you can do other magics works anywhere, because they're drawing the magics specifically through either the place, or they're end-neutral, like Breath is, and you don't need any extra power.

Arcanum Unbounded Chicago signing (Dec. 6, 2016)

We know that there are worldhoppers from Sel. So humans are going into the Cognitive Realm there. Why cannot one of them become the vessel(s)?
Why would putting investiture in the COGNITIVE realm, prevent it from gaining sentience. I would think it would gain it faster there. Thinking of spren who lose sentience in the physical but are perfectly fine in the cognitive.

Khriss claims that the landscape itself has become Invested to the point that it has a growing self-awareness, in a way unseen on other planets in the cosmere. 

Anyone want to bet that the planet becomes sentient enough to become the vessel for a new combined shard?

[stonehand]

13 minutes ago, Yumiya said:

Anyone want to bet that the planet becomes sentient enough to become the vessel for a new combined shard?

This would be so cool.

[Quantus he/him]

To take up a shard you need to have a massive, overriding Connection to it, which is a Spiritual Realm thing.  Shoving it all in the Cognitive is closer to shoving a bunch of Investiture into the Well or in a godmetal, it takes some more specific form and becomes more limited by doing so. 

In the case of the Dor it became a massive Plasma storm that you have to be able to survive and navigate to Worldhop there.  And because it's in the Location-Matters Cognitive Realm, it Connected to a bunch of different Lands/Nations which will make it very hard to Connect to it all (which as far as we can tell would be required to UnShatter the two Shards).  

If someone were to actually Conquer the whole World of Sel though, and bring it under one Nation in the minds of the population....

[Yumiya]

1 minute ago, Quantus said:

Connected to a bunch of different Lands/Nations which will make it very hard to Connect to it all

Wouldn't the planet be connected to all those lands regardless of borders? 

[Quantus he/him]

Just now, Yumiya said:

Wouldn't the planet be connected to all those lands regardless of borders? 

No, they are different Homelands to different people in the Minds of those people, so the boundaries are metaphysically relevant (and currently mutually exclusive for the most part).  But (and this part is more speculation) if the whole planet became more unified and the people intermixed, they might see themselves as a Single people and see more cross-over in the Dor magics and users. In the Space era where there are whole other worlds for them to Unite against, I think it might become more likely.  

[Yumiya]

3 minutes ago, Quantus said:

In the Space era where there are whole other worlds for them to Unite against, I think it might become more likely.  

I wonder if a shard that has a planet as a Vessel could use the entire planet as a spaceship to "world hop".

[Quantus he/him]

5 minutes ago, Yumiya said:

I wonder if a shard that has a planet as a Vessel could use the entire planet as a spaceship to "world hop".

For what its worth, it's in-world debatable whether the Planet (or any inanimate physical object) can feasibly serve as a Vessel in the first place.  But if a Shard can make a new planet whole and move them around in their solar systems and whatnot, I think a full relocation would be possible, if absurdly disruptive in unfathomable realmic ways.  

 

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Questioner

Would it be possible for an inanimate object that was invested to the point of sentience Ascend to Shardhood?

Brandon Sanderson

To become a Vessel of Adonalsium, or become a Shard through...? This is a tricky question because the power left alone will become sapient. And at that point, the distinction between being a Shard and a Vessel is fine but still extant. And I would say the power could not become a Vessel in the same way because it's defined as something different. But it is possible for the power to be left alone and to gain sapience on its own.

Questioner

The example we were thinking of was Sel. It was stated in Arcanum that the landscape itself was invested to the point of.. Could the planet of Sel be the Vessel of Devotion?

Brandon Sanderson

At this point, it's playing semantics, and I would say no. But there are people in-Cosmere that would argue that the semantic distinction is irrelevant and that it is the same.

Legion Release Party (Sept. 19, 2018)

 

[Yumiya]

1 hour ago, Quantus said:

the power left alone will become sapient.

Ok, so the planet is not the sapience, just the investiture infusing the planet is becoming sapient.

I would agree with Sanderson that it is semantic.

Edited August 11, 2022 by Yumiya