Questions about Shadesmar

[Cerulean He/him]

So in Shadesmar, on Roshar the cognitive realm is sort of an inverted version of physical i.e the land being beads "sea" and sea in physical being land in Shadesmar. tell me if Im wrong im not totally sure. On Scadrial i would guess instead of beads "gemstones" it would be mist, so would the land be mist and sea be land? Is that a correct statement. Shadesmar is confusing. I also don't understand if its based on perception no person perceives land as sea and sea as land so i Don't quite understand.

Edited January 2, 2025 by Cerulean

[Treamayne]

8 minutes ago, Cerulean said:

So in Shadesmar, on Roshar the cognitive realm is sort of an inverted version of physical i.e the land being beads "sea" and sea in physical being land in Shadesmar. tell me if Im wrong im not totally sure. On Scadrial i would guess instead of beads "gemstones" it would be mist, so would the land be mist and sea be land? Is that a correct statement. Shadesmar is confusing. I also don't understand if its based on perception no person perceives land as sea and sea as land so i Don't quite understand.

You will get this information in Mistborn: Secret History. (Slight Spoilers):

Spoiler

Yes. Shadesmar for each Shard World is based on the perceptions and importance of the people of that world. Beads on Roshar, Mist on Scadrial. The inversion of land and environment has to do with the nature of Shadesmar and the density of population and how an area is perceived. WoB:

Quote

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Shadesmar- you can WALK to the other planets. It’s a pretty far ways away (at least days, if not more), but you can go to Shadesmar, walk in the directions where it says "The Realm of the Vapors" and it runs into Scadrial (which is confirmed). In Shadesmar all of that empty space doesn't really have any human interaction, so it doesn't really have an aspect in the cognitive realm, so all of that place gets shortened immensely. Whenever a planet has enough thinking life on it that's it's considering it a planet, it drops into Shadesmar.

Eventually, he’ll come out with a Shadesmar map of the Cosmere, and a Starmap as well.

Orem signing 2014 (Dec. 6, 2014)

Quote

Questioner

If a planet has no sentient life, does it have a Cognitive representation? If not, would the Cognitive area generate in Shadesmar whenever sentience appeared there?

Brandon Sanderson

People have started to talk about this, because it is a legit thing. So, if there is no sapient life, or even sentient life, if it's a dead rock out in space and nobody knows it's there, its manifestation in Shadesmar will be basically nothing. I say basically because the Shards are aware of it, so there's probably going to be some bit of something that manifests, but until the attention of sapient beings starts focusing on it, it's not going to manifest very much in Shadesmar. It might be like a patch of ground that is a couple feet wide. It is going to start growing as soon as they do, which distorts space in Shadesmar, and makes routes between planets change and more distance come between them. Which is very very odd, and very very interesting, and it's one of my favorite parts about the whole thing. It should kind of break your brain, and it shouldn't really make sense with our physics.

YouTube Spoiler Stream 4 (June 16, 2022)

Quote

Nesh (paraphrased)

What is the name of the expanse on the Shadesmar map that was covered up by the word Shadesmar? 

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

The Expanse of Vibrance.

Rithmatist Omaha signing (May 17, 2013)

 

So, because there is a lower density of people in the area, or thinking about that area, it "congeals" becoming the obsidian "landmass" that you see in the stories. Which is why one can travel from one world to another through the Cognitive Realm - all of that empty space between planets has condensed allowing travellers and caravans to travel from one planet to another in weeks or months - despite lightyears of distance in the Physical Realm.

Hope that helps

[Cerulean He/him]

Ah, so because people dont understand the amount of space in between planets its shortened. And the inversion is just the nature of shadesmar. i hope Brandon gives us more lore and information on shadesmar, not to say he hasn't.

[Treamayne]

1 hour ago, Cerulean said:

Ah, so because people dont understand the amount of space in between planets its shortened. And the inversion is just the nature of shadesmar. i hope Brandon gives us more lore and information on shadesmar, not to say he hasn't.

Isles of the Emberdark and the eventual (hopeful) Silverlight novella should both add a lot of Shadesmar information.

Spoiler

SP5:

Quote

Brandon Sanderson

What is this book [Isles of the Emberdark]? Well, you might be able to find the word "emberdark" used somewhere in the previous books. It's been around for a little while. I've been imagining this place between populated parts of Shadesmar as a very interesting darkness to explore. And we are going to have a book that maybe looks at that a little bit.

It is a novelization of Sixth of the Dusk, but it includes that story as a flashback sequence. It takes place in the future era, space age of the cosmere. And it has a dual narrative between Starling and Dusk himself. So I hope that you guys will enjoy reading this.

Secret Project #5 Reveal and Livestream (March 21, 2024)

Quote

Questioner

Will you ever make a book based in Shadesmar?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, I will, actually. There's one that I've plotted in Silverlight. Whether I'll be able to write it as a whole book, or whether I'll be able to do it just as a novella I'm not sure yet. But I do actually have a plotted-out story with Khriss as the protagonist in Shadesmar.

Oathbringer London signing (Nov. 28, 2017)

Quote

Pratius

My top (realistic) potential options here:

1) Silverlight novella2) The Silence Divine3) SotD 2

(But seriously, give me that Silverlight novella. PLEASE, Brandon.)

Brandon Sanderson

Silverlight novella probably needs to wait until I've done the Threnody novel, for some connective tissue reasons, but we'll see.

General Reddit 2019 (May 28, 2019)

 

Hope that helps.

[Raven Wilder]

Now, with the whole land/sea inversion thing, what would the world of Tress of the Emerald Sea look like in Shadesmar?

[grahambam he/him]

I think it would be kind of like a desert.

if it was like a roshar shadsmar were it is in a deferent realm.

[grahambam he/him]

if not then mabye the rain or seath is its verson.

[Treamayne]

Please do not double-post - it is against site policy. If you need to add comments and you are still the most-recent post, simply edit your post.

You can find post editing tips (and other helpful hints) in the Sharder FAQ

Quote

Double posting;

• Refers to posting twice in a row if you are the last poster in a thread. Unless new material and a significant amount of time has passed (eg. updating a theory post when new sample chapters are released), please edit your last post.
  • Glitches will sometimes cause posts to directly duplicate. You may remove duplicate posts of yours by pressing the Hide button (next to Quote), or, if it is a duplicate topic, press Moderation Options at the top of the page, and hit Hide. If you see this on another user's post, please let us know if this is the case by reporting it.

 

6 hours ago, grahambam said:

I think it would be kind of like a desert.

if it was like a roshar shadsmar were it is in a deferent realm.

4 hours ago, grahambam said:

if not then mabye the rain or seath is its verson.

The land's cognitive representation tends to be something important to the entire planet's Identity (based on current known data), so I don't know how ground and objects would be represented by Rain - and I don;t see how Desert has anything to do with Lumar, but it's certainly possible the ground is spores under a constant Seethe - though that would not account for objects and souls (mist and glowing metal on Scadrial, Spheres and flames on Roshar).

 

Hope that helps

[grahambam he/him]

ya I am just still trying to learn how to edit. sorry

[Treamayne]

49 minutes ago, grahambam said:

ya I am just still trying to learn how to edit. sorry

no worries, just takes practice (I used to practice on my old posts - so if you run into an old post from pre-covid that has a non-applicable random spoiler. . . this is why)
That's also why we have the Sharder FAQ to give ideas and tips

Edited May 12, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG

[grahambam he/him]

thanks that really helps