The Secret To Why Bodies of Water Are Solid in the Cognitive Realm

[Blightsong he/him]

I have been developing a theory on why bodies of water in the cognitive realms of the planets we have seen seem to manifest as solid bodies while everything else seems to be incorporeal. I think that Leras actually gave us the answer.

 

When Kelsier approaches the lake where he meets Khriss and Nazh he is weirded out by the fact that the mists seem to "congeal" where the lake begins. Leras remarks that this is because of the way men think and "where they are likely to pass." I think that what he is saying here is that bodies of water congeal like this because of how we observe things and specifically how we perceive bodies of water, especially how we think of them in terms of how we move through them. I think that as humans we think of bodies of water as one entity. When I say "The Atlantic Ocean" we don't think of the individual atoms of water, or even individual different regions of the land, but rather we think of it as one mass. One entity. However, when I'm walking down a sidewalk I think of every block of concrete, every rock and blade of grass. So when human ideas shape these different things bodies of water are shaped into one mass, while land is seen as many different things at once.

 

Let me know what you guys think.

[Nyali she/her]

Yeah, that's pretty much how I've been seeing it. So, my theory is that only the thoughts of sapient creatures create cognitive representations beyond one's own. A human thinking of a campfire can create a campfire spirit, but that spirit wouldn't exist without the human to think it into being. In the physical oceans, there are just fish. If the fish were sentient, then maybe water would be water there, but they're not, so only the actual creatures generate cognitive representations, and those are small because the creatures have low intelligence/sapience. I have a feeling that most of the cognitive representations that land-based sapient creatures generate about the ocean and what lives there appears on the shores, not in the ocean itself. Unless they like, lived in boats in the middle of the ocean.

 

However, on the physical land, there are tons of cognitive representations. Even if there are none at present in a location, there might have been some in the past that are still lingering. All of those cognitive representations, some of which are large, form a vast sea of investiture that is deep enough to drown in. Not because they're actually water, but because there's so many cognitive representations there all stacked on top of one another that it behaves just like water would.

[Cruxer he/him]

I concur, my friend. As for why things grow there, I'm still unsure. 

[Pathfinder]

So if I understand what you both are saying, then what happens when one body of water meets another? A river flowing into a sea? What happens when the Gulf of Mexico meets the Caribbean Sea, and when the Caribbean Sea meets The Atlantic Ocean? We delineate them on maps, so they are separate in our minds. Not stating this to say you guys are wrong. I am asking based on your theory, what you think happens at those locations. I am genuinely curious to learn more. Are there spaces between the solid chunks? Is there a change in color? Is one larger? Like is the Gulf of Mexico a large hill while the Atlantic ocean becomes a mountain?

Edited May 19, 2016 by Pathfinder

[Blightsong he/him]

This is a completely wild guess, but maybe the things growing out of the lake were representations of how people either view the lake or view life within the lake? So different bodies of water would have different representation like this?

[Nyali she/her]

So if I understand what you both are saying, then what happens when one body of water meets another? A river flowing into a sea?

 

Well, each of those is a single cognitive entity, right? So there'd be one modestly sized sphere at the center (or shore, if I'm right) of each distinct body of water, and the rest would be land with tiny bits of cognitive reps in it for the sea life there.