Time Perception of Vessels

[DangerousPants]

It seems from Tanavast's visions to Dalinar that as the Vessel he doesn't experience time at a normal human pace.

Blinks of an eye for the shards are described as months for everyone else, when Honor is sizing up against Odium.  Honor constantly loses track of how long its been, and even new Retribution has to spend months of real time before getting back to Roshar right after ascension. 

They can obviously create avatars and process things in real time when they decide to, but it seems like an enormous weakness that a large part of their vessel's functional consciousness is just running a different speed.  

Is this because they're an enormous concentration of investiture, and that acts the same way a high concentration of gravity (e.g. black hole) slows down local time?  

Edited December 18, 2024 by DangerousPants

[Argenti he/him]

On 12/17/2024 at 11:44 PM, DangerousPants said:

It seems from Tanavast's visions to Dalinar that as the Vessel he doesn't experience time at a normal human pace.

Blinks of an eye for the shards are described as months for everyone else, when Honor is sizing up against Odium.  Honor constantly loses track of how long its been, and even new Retribution has to spend months of real time before getting back to Roshar right after ascension. 

They can obviously create avatars and process things in real time when they decide to, but it seems like an enormous weakness that a large part of their vessel's functional consciousness is just running a different speed.  

Is this because they're an enormous concentration of investiture, and that acts the same way a high concentration of gravity (e.g. black hole) slows down local time?  

It's not due to the time distortion. The spiritual realm, where most of the shardic Investiture is, is immune to time stuff. All times and all places are one, so spacetime warping doesn't do much. I assume it's mostly cus they're just that "big"

It's easy for you as a human to miss the day to day life of ants, they're just kinda beneath you.

[NameIess]

On 12/17/2024 at 11:44 PM, DangerousPants said:

It seems from Tanavast's visions to Dalinar that as the Vessel he doesn't experience time at a normal human pace.

Blinks of an eye for the shards are described as months for everyone else, when Honor is sizing up against Odium.  Honor constantly loses track of how long its been, and even new Retribution has to spend months of real time before getting back to Roshar right after ascension. 

They can obviously create avatars and process things in real time when they decide to, but it seems like an enormous weakness that a large part of their vessel's functional consciousness is just running a different speed.  

Is this because they're an enormous concentration of investiture, and that acts the same way a high concentration of gravity (e.g. black hole) slows down local time?  

On the contrary, it's an advantage. As long as they're paying attention, Shards are capable of experiencing time at just about any speed they wish. It can be a disadvantage, but only if they let it.