Random though on Cultivations appearance

[Eternal Khol he/him]

Random late night thoughts before bed lol

I think i just figured out why when in human form, Cultivation wears a dress that iirc is described as being made of twigs/dirt and merging with the ground… i always though she just did that to be very extra…. I mean, there is like no other reason, but i think its actually due to the general populace of Roshar perception of her.

We know mortal perceptions can affect or shape Shards/Cognitive Shadows/Spren/etc….

According to Dalinar, and im going to assume its a pretty good portion of the Rosharan population outside of Alethkar, some pretty much think of Cultivation as Mother Earth or in this case “The Spren of the world itself”…

And that…. is why Cultivations dress merges with the undergrowth… because of how she is perceived as the spirit of Roshar

Edited November 14, 2023 by Eternal Khol

[alder24]

26 minutes ago, Eternal Khol said:

I think i just figured out why when in human form, Cultivation wears a dress that iirc is described as being made of twigs/dirt and merging with the ground… i always though she just did that to be very extra…. I mean, there is like no other reason, but i think its actually due to the general populace of Roshar perception of her.

We know mortal perceptions can affect or shape Shards/Cognitive Shadows/Spren/etc….

According to Dalinar, and im going to assume its a pretty good portion of the Rosharan population outside of Alethkar, some pretty much think of Cultivation as Mother Earth or in this case “The Spren of the world itself”…

And that…. is why Cultivations dress merges with the undergrowth… because of how she is perceived as the spirit of Roshar

Cognitive Shadows or Spren sure, there is some effect of human perception on them. Shards? Not really. It's simply because she wants to look like that, she wants to be viewed and perceived as the Spren of the world. What you saw there isn't Cultivation, nor even her body, but a puppet she made to interact with the Physical Realm, a mask she wears. OB ch 57:

Quote

Dalinar looked at it, baffled, then up at the old man. In Odium’s eyes, he could see that violet-black fire. Deep, deep within. The figure with whom Dalinar spoke was not the god, it was merely a face, a mask.

During the Battle of Thaylen Field, Odium showed himself to his Fused and Venli in the Singer form. But when interacting with Dalinar and Taravangian he always chooses to appear as a human. Shards decide how they look in mortal eyes, either subconsciously or deliberately. I couldn't find any WoB suggesting that human perception can affect the way Shards look like. Cultivation likes to be seen as the spren of the world. OB ch 57:

Quote

“But only three of relevance to you. Me. Honor. Cultivation. You speak of her, don’t you?”
“I suppose,” Dalinar said. “Some people identify her with Roshar, the spren of the world itself.”
“She’d like that,” Odium said.

In RoW, after Taravangian's Ascension, Odium showed himself to Hoid as Rayse, not Taravangian, because he wanted to look like that. Shards can simply use the massive amount of investiture to create an image of themselves as they wish.

[Quantus he/him]

I cant find the exact quote at the moment, but there was a line where somebody described Cultivation as a Mother Nature figure and Hoid said he thought She'd Like that.  With that Im assuming Cultivation herself views here role along those same Mother of Nature. 

Side note is that if she could Create the Nightwatcher to be UnConnected and immune to the formative effects of the population's view of her, and thought it was worth doing, there's a good chance she'd be able to similar protect herself from their influence.  

[Eternal Khol he/him]

3 hours ago, alder24 said:

4 hours ago, Eternal Khol said:

Cognitive Shadows or Spren sure, there is some effect of human perception on them. Shards?

Well there are WoB that say otherwise and one specific one talking about this with Honor.

Brandon has said that Shards can be affected by human perception and has even said that if Honor were alive and made a physical body that it would automatically have weird double pupils because of how he was perceived… not because he wanted to

dont see why the same thing couldnt happen with Cultivation…

 

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/402/#e13420

Edited November 14, 2023 by Eternal Khol

[alder24]

16 minutes ago, Eternal Khol said:

Well there are WoB that say otherwise and one specific one talking about this with Honor.

Brandon has said that Shards can be affected by human perception and has even said that if Honor were alive and made a physical body that it would automatically have weird double pupils because of how he was perceived… not because he wanted to

dont see why the same thing couldnt happen with Cultivation…

 

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/402/#e13420

Interesting WoB, it changes a lot. You might be right, and perception of people did influence Cultivation's appearance.

[Eternal Khol he/him]

1 hour ago, Quantus said:

Side note is that if she could Create the Nightwatcher to be UnConnected and immune to the formative effects of the population's view of her, and thought it was worth doing, there's a good chance she'd be able to similar protect herself from their influence.  

Conversely… Cultivation being affected by perception could be exactly why she made Nightwatcher to not be… because Cultivation knows what thats like. 

 

Shards also just seem so deelply integrated with… everything pretty much, that i wonder if it would be a good idea to cut herself off like that?

 

It prob does just have to do with her liking the “spren of the world” title and leaning into it, but i like to think she cant help it anymore

[Ψιτιsτηε Βεsτ]

This is a really interesting observation.

[+Oltux72 he/him]

On 11/14/2023 at 7:53 PM, Eternal Khol said:

Well there are WoB that say otherwise and one specific one talking about this with Honor.

If you were to see Tanavast now, you'd see a Cognitive Shadow. The Shard of Honor no longer exists. It has been splintered.