theory Re-Vin-carnation

[The Invested Beard]

But Preservation can't "talk" to you, He may just listen your thought. Harmony itself can't talk to anybody without using Ruin's power.

 

But is he really talking to her? Or is he prompting an inner monologue and nudging her with feelings to do or not do things?

[AndrewStirlingMacDonald he/him]

We also have barely scratched the surface of the spiritual realm. However, what we have seen strongly indicates that it interacts with the fourth dimension in a very different way than either the physical or cognitive realms do. Both Saze and Rashek are able to make massive changes happen instantaneously - in Sazed's case, all the way up to the point of writing basically a giant encyclopedia and dropping it off for Spook and the others to browse at their leisure, all in the blink of an eye.

 

Two other things are more telling, however - first is a WOB I received in my signed copy of Alloy of Law - he said "The Cognitive realm is tied to location, the Spitiual realm is not. This impacts the magics..."

This is interesting because location and time are, respectively, the third and fourth dimensions, and would practically be really difficult to separate from one another. If the Spiritual realm is not tied to location, it's pretty likely that it also is not tied to time.

​There is another big hint that the spiritual realm somehow exists outside of time - Lightsong's vision (and, presumably, the entire nature and purpose of Returned on Nalthis). Lightsong isn't shown a vague "maybe," or a Taravangian-style "Here are some extremely educated guesses about the future." He was shown a specific future, and the way he could intervene in that future to make it a better place.

 

I'm not going to discount the reincarnation thing entirely, there are really compelling arguments here. But if it is NOT reincarnation, perhaps it could have something to do with the spiritual realm - I'm certain that there are rules (and probably even logistical issues) regarding interacting with your own physical/cognitive timeline once you become fully spiritually conscious. But maybe, just maybe, Vin subverts these rules and and restrictions somehow.

[Pagerunner he/him]

Okay, time for an update to incorporate Secret History learnings. Obviously, Secret History spoilers ahead, and a few Bands of Mourning spoilers as well. I'll also be adding this text to my original post.

 

Not gonna lie, Secret History blows some pretty major holes in my original idea: that Vin's instincts and experience come from a dead noblewoman. But some parts turned out pretty well. An analysis:

 

Loss: Vin's experiences are from a dead noblewoman, hanging around like Kelsier. Fuzz explicitly tells Kelsier that no one else has stuck around like he has. We also see that some of her instincts (i.e. about Hoid) come from Kelsier, so her instincts aren't all from the same source; I thought that Vin's past life had to be a Mistborn noblewoman to incorporate all of Vin's different kinds of instincts.

 

Win: Vin's instincts are not her own. We see Kelsier utilize his Connection with Vin (and later Spook) to communicate with her, something Vin interprets as her instincts. We also learn that Vin had a strong Connection to Preservation in order to take the Shard, from which we can deduce that Leras's Cognitive Shadow also passed along "instincts" related to Allomancy. So, while I posited that it was a dead noblewoman, it was actually a dead Shardholder (and, for a portion, a dead Kelsier) that gave Vin her instincts.

 

Loss: Her Allomantic tactics are from her previous life's experience. It appears that Preservation gave her knowledge of Allomancy ad how to use it as part of preparing her to take his power.

 

Win: Vin's instincts aren't all due to being Preservation's successor. Obviously, her interactions with Hoid are from Kelsier, not Fuzz. I think that leaves an opening for some of the other things I identified as being Mary-Sue-ish; namely, how quickly she adapted to nobility and how she had good handwriting when performing her research. I said (and still say) that it doesn't make sense for those to come from Preservation, and Secret History raises the possibility of others passing along "instincts."

 

Loss: Why she was afraid of Hoid. I thought it was her memories, but it was actually just Kelsier warning her. Surprisingly close - I just had the wrong dead person. But, still, very far - it wasn't because of what Hoid was humming, or buried memories within Vin. But I acknowledged that it was a lot of speculation, so I'm not too sad about this loss.

 

Win/Loss: Kelsier. So, Kelsier actually followed exactly what I predicted he would do: pass along his experience as instincts after he was dead. (In the specific instance of communicating about his experiences with Hoid to Vin.) However, I'm not gonna call it as a win - it looks like Kelsier is trying to return in the flesh, not pass along his experience to another. Yeah, I could probably make a good argument that I predicted Kelsier's reincarnation, but it would miss the point of what I originally said, so I view Kelsier's future as a loss for this theory.

 

So, if I want to move forward with this theory, (and I do), I need to revise some pieces. The big revision: Multiple people utilized their Connection to Vin to pass along her "instincts" about about Allomancy and nobility. To revisit the points from my original theory:

1) Vin's Unearned Experience. Vin gets her Allomantic experience and tactics from Preservation. However, points 3, 6, 10, 18, 19, and 22 all indicate a proficiency that I don't think Preservation could give to her: the instincts to be a noblewoman.

2) Vin vs Valette. Unchanged.

3) Deja Vu. Unchanged, but not that important to the overall framework.

4) Guess Who? It can't be a dead Mistborn noblewoman; however, it could be a Cognitive Shadow from elsewhere, or even someone still alive and floating around in Shadesmar. Secret History gives us some cool possibilities, but no clear frontrunners with regards to Means, Motive, and Opportunity.

• A member of the Ire. They have techniques to produce temporary artificial Connections. Don't see why they'd be helping Vin out, though, since they don't want her to take up Preservation. Means, but no Motive or Opportunity.
• Khriss. She was there in Scadrial up through the end of the second book, and that's where Vin's instincts about being a noblewoman stopped being mentioned (see the list in Point 1). We see her, ironically enough, at a ball in Bands of Mourning (showing that Khriss knows how to act like a noble), and Vin's brief foray into researching the Deepness could have also been Khriss's influence. But, again, no idea why she'd be helping Vin; she seems more like an observer, not an active player. Opportunity, but no Means or Motive.
• Senna. All we know about her is she's someone Leras knew. She could have been a Cognitive Shadow from early Cosmere history sticking around (maybe another dead Shard), she could have been a mortal in Shadesmar who had been working with Preservation. Among myriad other opportunities, but she was definitely involved with Preservation. She could have been influencing Vin throughout the first two books, but was killed (for real) by Ruin when he escaped, which again goes to explain why my list in Point 1 has very few entries from the third book. Motive, but no Means or Opportunity.

5) Hoid. Discarded.

6) Kelsier. Discarded. Kelsier is trying to return to a body, not reincarnate as someone else. Unless he is trying to leverage his Connection with Spook to take over his body (not something I think Kelsier would do to someone he called "friend"), it will follow a different mechanism than what happened with Vin.

[Bugsy he/him]

I love this theory, even though I personally don't believe it. I upvoted for how well thought out it was, though

As Dalinar bonded with the Stormfather, he received visions, memories given to him from the Almighty. Even within the Mistborn trilogy, we see burning Atium (pure investiture, the body of Ruin) expands the mind of the user. So, investiture has been seen to interact quite strongly with humans before, and since cognitive shadows are comprised of investiture, they might be able to do some crazy things to people if they know how.

Just a nitpick here, but I was under the impression that the Stormfather was "instructed" to deliver the messages to Dalinar by Honor himself, which would mean that the cognitive shadow (The Stormfather) was not actually providing the visions but rather serving as a sort of conductor from the source (Honor) to the endpoint (Dalinar). Also, keep in mind that spren are only visible in the physical realm due to abnormally high investiture levels, as each is a piece of a shard. The Stormfather appears to be a substantial chunk of Honor, large enough to have developed a mind of its own. Whatever cognitive shadow we are theorizing was Vin is unlikely to have levels of investiture that are even remotely comparable. Similarly, Atium was the investiture that made a significant portion of a shard (enough to counterbalance the extra preservation in every person). These beads likely had much more investiture than a cognitive aspect, but they still could only expand the mind, not control it

ETA: reply to SH spoiler

For all we know, the person who died and was reborn in Vin could have done so in a place with high metal concentration, providing an anchor of investiture to prevent from being pulled beyond and blocking the view of Fuzz. Your theory isn't entirely invalidated

Edited March 7, 2016 by Bugsy6912

[Stormgate he/him]

What if it was Lutha, Rashek's daughter? (Or am I just delusional and he had no daughter and didn't name Luthadel after her?)

[Kingsdaughter613 she/her]

It should be noted that Vin was being used by Ruin as well, at least until book three, and even then to an extent. And Ruin CAN speak to people.

I also don't think Vin learned as quickly as she seems. I'm rereading the first book and I noticed something important. During her first party she barely interacts, giving off something close to a learned response when asked to dance. True, Sazed compliments her on it, but that felt more like 'you need confidence; ill give any boost I can.'The only person she really talks to is Elend and that is a weird situation. SOMETHING is clearly making her trust him.

It's at the second party that she begins to shine. But the second party comes after 4 MONTHS on bedrest, where the only thing she had to do was practice being a noblewoman, an act that was almost constant. Of course she's much better at it, she's had practice. But not enough to bow gracefully out of Shan's questioning; also, rather tellingly, she fails to realize that she is being rioted as well as soothed. (Which is very interesting to me... Opera's 'lessons' are not infallible.) She may be complimented on her grace, but it is by someone who is obviously awful and nervous. So I'm not convinced that there was something so extreme about her abilities here.

[IndigoAjah he/him]

It should be noted that Vin was being used by Ruin as well, at least until book three, and even then to an extent. And Ruin CAN speak to people.

I also don't think Vin learned as quickly as she seems. I'm rereading the first book and I noticed something important. During her first party she barely interacts, giving off something close to a learned response when asked to dance. True, Sazed compliments her on it, but that felt more like 'you need confidence; ill give any boost I can.'The only person she really talks to is Elend and that is a weird situation. SOMETHING is clearly making her trust him.

It's at the second party that she begins to shine. But the second party comes after 4 MONTHS on bedrest, where the only thing she had to do was practice being a noblewoman, an act that was almost constant. Of course she's much better at it, she's had practice. But not enough to bow gracefully out of Shan's questioning; also, rather tellingly, she fails to realize that she is being rioted as well as soothed. (Which is very interesting to me... Opera's 'lessons' are not infallible.) She may be complimented on her grace, but it is by someone who is obviously awful and nervous. So I'm not convinced that there was something so extreme about her abilities here.

 

Also, being Mistborn seems to automatically instil grace, based on Vin's thoughts when dancing with Elend in HoA

[Eki]

Also, being Mistborn seems to automatically instil grace, based on Vin's thoughts when dancing with Elend in HoA

I think that may have been them burning pewter, enhancing their sense of balance. (In combination with the type of training required to be good at Mistborning, perhaps)