cognative shadow Cognitive shadows and shardblades.

[Entr0pic He/him]

so, this may be a stupid question, but i was wondering nonetheless. Can a cognitive shadow become a shardblade?

we know that spren, seons, and skaze can all become a shardblade if they have something pulling them into the physical realm. We know for spren, thats the nahel bond.

so i was wondering. If you had something to pull a cognitive shadow into the physical realm, like some kind of fabrial, can they form a shardblade?

Edited February 24, 2025 by Entr0pic
grammatical errors

[Treamayne]

5 hours ago, Entr0pic said:

Can a cognitive shadow become a shardblade?

The only WoB on the subject is:

Spoiler

Questioner

Could a shadow from Threnody be manifested as a Shardblade?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

JordanCon 2018 (April 21, 2018)

That said - one of the primary reasons Spren, Seons and Skaze could become a Shardblade is because they are not just Sapient Investiture - but Sapient investiture entirely of their Shard(s) (Seons - splinters of Devotion, Skaze - splinters of Dominion, True Spren - Splinters of Honor and Cultivation (plus Odium for Enlightened True Spren).
Cognitive Shadows do not have that. They are the remains of a sapient entity (disregarding the fossil arguement, as that does not really matter here) that is still around, either in Shadesmar (no link to the Physical) or in a Body (Returned get their own, Heralds a new body made of Investiture, Fused by coopting a Singer Body). In all cases, they are not a pure Splinter of any one shard or combination of Shards. 

So, it's unlikely (but not impossible, until we get more data or confirmation either way) that they could become a Shardblade.

Hope that helps.

[ChickenBonanza]

Ordinarily, I do not see a standard-fare Cognitive Shadow forming into a Godmetal like Truespren do for Radiants. Truespren accomplish that by purposefully mimicking the Honorblades through the Nahel Bond and possibly other methods. There is a question of how easily bonds with non-Truespren can achieve those functions, like if Godmetal-forming is part of the system designed by Honor and Ishar.

Another outcome I could see as a more ‘default’ option would be the Shadow existing in an intangible state, like bondless spren do. Or, if a physical body is formed for them like in Ishar’s experiments, they could be fully ‘alive’ again.

[Entr0pic He/him]

22 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

The only WoB on the subject is:

  Reveal hidden contents

Questioner

Could a shadow from Threnody be manifested as a Shardblade?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

JordanCon 2018 (April 21, 2018)

That said - one of the primary reasons Spren, Seons and Skaze could become a Shardblade is because they are not just Sapient Investiture - but Sapient investiture entirely of their Shard(s) (Seons - splinters of Devotion, Skaze - splinters of Dominion, True Spren - Splinters of Honor and Cultivation (plus Odium for Enlightened True Spren).
Cognitive Shadows do not have that. They are the remains of a sapient entity (disregarding the fossil arguement, as that does not really matter here) that is still around, either in Shadesmar (no link to the Physical) or in a Body (Returned get their own, Heralds a new body made of Investiture, Fused by coopting a Singer Body). In all cases, they are not a pure Splinter of any one shard or combination of Shards. 

So, it's unlikely (but not impossible, until we get more data or confirmation either way) that they could become a Shardblade.

Hope that helps.

Do you think if a person was/is highly invested( ie mistborn, yoki-hijo, aetherbound), that would make the process more feasible?

Edited February 25, 2025 by Entr0pic

[Treamayne]

9 minutes ago, Entr0pic said:

Do you think if a person was/is highly invested( ie mistborn, yoki-hijo, aetherbound), that would make the process more feasible?

Objectively, we don't have enough data. 

Personally, no - because it's not how invested they were before becoming a Cognitive Shadow (or while a Cognitive Shadow - like Kelsier and Yumi) their soul is still not a Splinter.  It is, at best, a Sliver - and based on known data Splinters can manifest as Blades, not Shadows or Slivers.

Some Shadows do have a Splinter (Yumi has a Splinter of Virtuosity, Each Returned has a Splinter of Endowment) - so it may be possible to manifest that Splinter as a Blade (except the whole dies if the Splinter is removed thing - at least for Returned and their Divine Breath)

Edited February 25, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG

[Entr0pic He/him]

4 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

Objectively, we don't have enough data. 

Personally, no - because it's not how invested they were before becoming a Cognitive Shadow (or while a Cognitive Shadow - like Kelsier and Yumi) their soul is still not a Splinter.  It is, at best, a Sliver - and based on known data Splinters can manifest as Blades, not Shadows or Slivers.

Some Shadows do have a Splinter (Yumi has a Splinter of Virtuosity, Each Returned has a Splinter of Endowment) - so it may be possible to manifest that Splinter as a Blade (except the whole dies if the Splinter is removed thing - at least for Returned and their Divine Breath)

Thx man. I appreciate your help.

[CognitiveShadow he/him]

Tangential, but related. Brandon has been cagey about whether someone like Kelsier could be bonded and what that would do. But here's the best WoB I've seen on the topic. I would imagine that if a true Nahel bond was replicated there would be some way to manifest the cognitive shadow, though who knows if it would be as a shardblade... ? 

The Stormfather does not manifest as a shardblade though, and when Dalinar uses him to open the oathgate it gets pretty spicy. So I redact my earlier thought and suggest that a cognitive shadow would (if anything) manifest more along the same lines as the Stormfather would/did for Dalinar. I.E. not really at all but sort of when absolutely demanded by the 'radiant' in order to do something like open an oathgate. But that always seemed to me less of like forming the key to use the oath gate and more like dousing the oathgate with investiture and willing it to work lol

Quote

WeiryWriter

Can a person who dies but somehow hasn't passed Beyond the Three Realms (a la Kelsier) serve in place of a spren for Radiant purposes?

Brandon Sanderson

This is theoretically possible, but it would require an unusual sequence of events.

WeiryWriter

We know that the Stormfather is a Cognitive Shadow and is also acting as a spren for Dalinar but is he able to do that because the "unusual sequence of events" took place or is there something else going on specific to the nature of the Stormfather?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Carluun

If Kelsier became a "spren" for a Radiant, would he grant Surgebinding or Allomancy?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Worldbuilders AMA (Dec. 3, 2015)