Sazed bubbles, and maybe a third thing.

[Topaz]

So, this theory has been in my head for a while, I was reading the Mistborn books again, I noticed two things, 1; the shards actively influence the world. 2; the shards seem to have created the powers, by that I mean they like decided what metal did what and like how slow bendalloy made time. Ok, so what this means to me is that 1; they are unable to influence the world for most of the book, and relied on slivers and passive things (like the Well) to change anything. 2; the burst of "power" or ability to change things disappears when the intent settles in. These are probably things you already knew.

Part two, bubbles. Ok so here is where it gets speculative. The burst of change ability only comes when the intent hasn't set in. I think that since harmony's intent is.. harmony, if Odium offsets the balance by being odious, harmony would get a burst of power, allowing him to reset the size of bubbles, make allomancey even more powerful, to reset the balance. This is the end of my theory.

Now for that third thing. Something I thought about while writing this; what if the only reason the people are able to worldhop is the fact that people think of the stars as something more like a wall, or something you can get to. Waxillium almost immediately thought of a "ship to the stars" when he saw the allomanticaly powered ship. The worldhoppers are able to use this misconception as a way to "climb to the stars" and get to other places.

[Yata he/him]

The Shards didn't creates the Manifestations of Investiture (what you called "powers"). They simply arose throught the interaction between Shards' investiture and Shardworld.

 

Preservation didn't create the Allomancy (like Ruin didn't create Hemalurgy). That Magic Systems borned alone through their presence on Scadrial. They can influence a bit that Magic System arose from them, but in a very limited way (as far as I can remember the only influences we saw of this kind was the "creation of Seers" and the possibility from Ruin to put himself the Intent to create a Spike).

[Pechvarry]

Yeah but hasn't Brandon said somewhere something about Harmony creating the speed bubble powers to offset the loss of the 2 god metals?

 

I could be wrong, and it was Brandon who made that change and not Harmony (meaning he introduced them as a storytelling tool as opposed to in-world intervention).

[Plaeggs he/him]

I do remember something like that...maybe it was just a misconception of the TFE world. About the Harmony getting a burst of power if harmony was disrupted, that theory is plausible, but why it would translate into speed bubbles I have no idea. I think it is more that Harmony is able to act than that he gets more powerful.

[baby he/him]

Yeah but hasn't Brandon said somewhere something about Harmony creating the speed bubble powers to offset the loss of the 2 god metals?

 

I could be wrong, and it was Brandon who made that change and not Harmony (meaning he introduced them as a storytelling tool as opposed to in-world intervention).

The two powers weren't create after that book, the metals simply weren't available to access the power.

[Voidus]

Other than what's already been mentioned I should point out that Shards aren't intrinsically unable to use their powers just because they're effected by their Intent, that's pretty unique to Scadrial and occurs because Ruin and Preservation both directly opposed each other, it wasn't that they couldn't alter things it's that the other Shard blocked them when they tried.

I'll also point out that while the magic systems do occur naturally the Shards do have some control over it, Preservation just caused the mists to snap Seers and I believe Malatium mistings instead of Pulsers and Sliders but that's arguably a change to the mists themselves not allomancy. However we do know that Sazed has been able to change how Snapping works so changes are definitely possible but it wouldn't be necessary for Odium to interfere to do so.

Not sure I understand your point on Worldhopping but from what we know it's just using the cognitive realm and Shardpools, it has little to nothing to do with peoples perception of stars.

[Yata he/him]

I'll also point out that while the magic systems do occur naturally the Shards do have some control over it, Preservation just caused the mists to snap Seers and I believe Malatium mistings instead of Pulsers and Sliders but that's arguably a change to the mists themselves not allomancy. However we do know that Sazed has been able to change how Snapping works so changes are definitely possible but it wouldn't be necessary for Odium to interfere to do so.

Right Vodius, I forgot the change to the Snapping method, thanks ;-)

[Lindel he/him]

Not sure I understand your point on Worldhopping but from what we know it's just using the cognitive realm and Shardpools, it has little to nothing to do with peoples perception of stars.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure we've gotten confirmation that Worldhopping via the Cognitive Realm utilizes the fact that nothing exists in that Realm except where there're minds to perceive it. Empty distance between inhabited planets is compressed, allowing you to simply walk from one planet to another.

[baby he/him]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure we've gotten confirmation that Worldhopping via the Cognitive Realm utilizes the fact that nothing exists in that Realm except where there're minds to perceive it. Empty distance between inhabited planets is compressed, allowing you to simply walk from one planet to another.

Wait, when have we gotten this confirmation? I know it's been hinted, but I can't recall any hard facts being said.

[Topaz]

Not sure I understand your point on Worldhopping but from what we know it's just using the cognitive realm and Shardpools, it has little to nothing to do with peoples perception of stars.

So basically what I meant is that more primative cultures don't think of space as having the awesome scale that we know it has, I think that worldhoppers are able to use this misconception to essentially just walk through space.

[+Lewis Nethur He/Him]

So basically what I meant is that more primative cultures don't think of space as having the awesome scale that we know it has, I think that worldhoppers are able to use this misconception to essentially just walk through space.

 

I'd support this theory.  If Scadrial hits futuristic tech levels, they could wind up with 10 billion people connected to the cognitive realm who look up at the stars and other shard worlds and think, "Yeah, those are super far away."  Combined with Scadrians actually traveling through and inhabiting that space, I could definitely see Shadesmar being reshaped, at least immediately Surrounding Scadrial, to reflect the vastness of space.  It wouldn't make world hopping to Scadrial through the cognitive realm impossible, just arduous and time-consuming.

[Oversleep]

I don't think the distance in Shadesmar is connected to how it is perceived. I think it's like with gravity bending space-time continuum - minds bend Cognitive Realm, so places with a lot of life (like Shardwolds) have a lot of space, while outer space, void of life, is almost non-existant.

[Lindel he/him]

Either way, the point is that planets with life exist in the Cognitive Realm, but the space between is much smaller. So you use a Shardpool to enter the Cognitive Realm, walk from one planet to another, and use a Shardpool there to switch back.

Here's a WoB, though not what I was thinking of.

THEONEKEA

I asked him if it was possible to enter or exit Shadesmar in interplanetary space.

BRANDON SANDERSON

He laughed nervously for several seconds with a look that suggested "Uh-oh!" and replied (as best as I can remember):

I would say no. The Cognitive Realm does exist there, but Shadesmar is a special case.

http://www.theoryland.com/intvsresults.php?kwt=%27cognitive%20realm%27

(I'm on a tablet, so formatting is difficult.)

EDIT: Wait, I misread that. "The Cognitive Realm DOES exist there". Huh...

Edited February 16, 2016 by Lindel

[Master_Moridin he/him]

Relevant WoB
 

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 Expanse of the Vapors" and it runs into Scadrial . 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.
(source)

[Lindel he/him]

That's the quote I was thinking of. That's very interesting. I had thought of that quote as referring to the Cognitive Realm in general, but in the context of the one I referenced above, it's not quite so clear. Isn't Shadesmar just Roshar's portion of the Cognitive Realm? Why, then, would the distance be compressed from Roshar to Scadrial, but not from Scadrial to Roshar?

Edited February 18, 2016 by Lindel

[Master_Moridin he/him]

That's the quote I was thinking of. That's very interesting. I had thought of that quote as referring to the Cognitive Realm in general, but in the context of the one I referenced above, it's not quite so clear. Isn't Shadesmar just Roshar's portion of the Cognitive Realm? Why, then, would the distance be compressed from Roshar to Scadrial, but not from Scadrial to Roshar?

 

Brandon has a tendency to use Shadesmar to refer to the Cognitive Realm as a whole, even though he's also said it refers specifically to Roshar's part of the Cognitive Realm.

 

And there's nothing in that quote about distance from Scadrial to Roshar not being compressed??

[Lindel he/him]

That's what I'm wondering about. I'm referring to this quote, which I referenced earlier:

THEONEKEA

I asked him if it was possible to enter or exit Shadesmar in interplanetary space.

BRANDON SANDERSON

He laughed nervously for several seconds with a look that suggested "Uh-oh!" and replied (as best as I can remember):

I would say no. The Cognitive Realm does exist there, but Shadesmar is a special case.

Specifically that it says the Cognitive Realm DOES exist in planetary space. That seems in conflict with the other WoB, which talks about the distance between planets being smaller in Shadesmar, because all the extra space in between DOESN'T exist there. The only way I see to reconcile those two quotes is to assume that Shadesmar is different in this way than the rest of the Cognitive Realm, which still doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

[natc]

Well the planets likely do not join completely at the hip. They look completely different and all; Shadesmar has glass beads, what we presume to be Nalthis' Cognitive realm is a mass of color, Scadrial in the Cognitive is apparently made out of mist. This does not good transitions make, unless they're joined at the oceans, which are apparently always obsidian. But what if the planet had no oceans?

There's probably relatively smaller strips of stuff where space would be, and then bleeds into other planets at the edges. The Shadesmar comment confuses me though . . .

[Jondesu he/him]

The Cognitive Realm (Shadesmar) does exist in planetary space (or is it more accurate to say planetary space exists in the Cognitive Realm?), but it's "compressed", so it doesn't line up 1x1 with the amount of space it takes up in the Physical Realm.  There's no minds there, and very little direct cognitive function directed at it exactly, so it takes up far less space than it would otherwise.  That's why you can walk between planets in days/weeks, while taking even a spaceship at near light-speed would take a lot longer I presume.

 

jW

[Ari he/him]

Well the planets likely do not join completely at the hip. They look completely different and all; Shadesmar has glass beads, what we presume to be Nalthis' Cognitive realm is a mass of color, Scadrial in the Cognitive is apparently made out of mist. This does not good transitions make, unless they're joined at the oceans, which are apparently always obsidian. But what if the planet had no oceans?

There's probably relatively smaller strips of stuff where space would be, and then bleeds into other planets at the edges. The Shadesmar comment confuses me though . . .

 

Shadesmar is the Cognitive reflection of Roshar, so technically you can't exit into space from Shadesmar even if it is possible to do so from the Cognitive Realm in general. Probably a better question would be if it's possible to drop out of the Cognitive Realm if you enter it physically without using a perpendicularity.

[Oversleep]

Shadesmar is the Cognitive reflection of Roshar, so technically you can't exit into space from Shadesmar even if it is possible to do so from the Cognitive Realm in general. Probably a better question would be if it's possible to drop out of the Cognitive Realm if you enter it physically without using a perpendicularity.

Wait, is Shadesmar separate thing from Cognitive Realm now?

EDIT: Oh, I assume you're just being a mathematician here. You can't exit into space from Shadesmar because Shadesmar is Cognitive Roshar. So exiting Shadesmar will always result in appearing on Roshar, while exiting Cognitive Realm wouldn't.

Edited February 20, 2016 by Oversleep