Cognitive Realm

[skaa he/him]

Now that we know a bit more about the Cognitive Realm beyond just Shadesmar, I think it's time to make a separate Cognitive Realm article (currently it just redirects to Realmatic Theory). I have taken the liberty of making a draft in my user space. It still needs some work, and there is a bunch of references still left to be cited, but I am going on a four-day vacation and I don't have time to research those references.

If anyone wants to take over, feel free to do so. Otherwise, I'll continue my work on the article next week.

[Windrunner he/him]

To clarify, Shadesmar is just a name for the Cognitive Realm, the two are synonymous.

[skaa he/him]

I know. I apologize for the unclear language, but in-world the word Shadesmar is a Rosharan word, so I sometimes use it to refer to the Cognitive Realm on Roshar. Of course, the fact that it's just a word for the Cognitive Realm is stated in my draft (though maybe I should make it clearer).

In any case, @Windrunner, the Shadesmar article contains a lot of detail about the Cognitive Realm on Roshar, and some of that stuff (e.g. the ardents' awareness of Shadesmar, the need for Stormlight, "truths", etc.) will seem unnecessary in an article about the Cognitive Realm in general. I propose that we keep the Shadesmar article Roshar-specific (e.g. remove the references to Secret History, Sel, etc.) and put all the general Cognitive Realm stuff in a separate article, as I plan to do.

 

Edit: I found some free time to create another draft, this time of my proposed Roshar-centric version of the Shadesmar article. I think it's definitely an improvement readability-wise.

I just feel that, when more information from various non-Roshar regions of the Cognitive Realm arrives, it would be unwise to try and fit all of those in the same space as all the Shadesmar information that we got from the Stormlight Archive. The special familiarity that Rosharan scholars and Surgebinders (both historical and modern) have with their side of the Cognitive woods makes their knowledge worthy of its own page, I believe. So please, I ask that we create a separate page for the general Cognitive Realm, and leave the Shadesmar article be Roshar-centric.

If the Coppermind admins agree to this proposal, I will replace the Shadesmar article with my version and create the Cognitive Realm article based on my draft.

Edited December 7, 2016 by skaa

[Jofwu he/him]

This makes sense to me, and I like what you wrote for Cognitive Realm. The one caveat is that I think we need to pay attention to how Brandon uses "Shadesmar" in the future. He has used the term for the Cognitive Realm in general on occasion, from what I've seen. If that happens more and more (and especially if it starts to happen in the text) then this probably isn't a good solution.

As it stands now--from what we've seen so far--I think there's definitely a distinction to be made. The unique situation on Roshar makes the local Cognitive Realm worthy of its own article.

I say go ahead and create the page. I think it's got enough substance to at least start with.

Edited December 7, 2016 by jofwu

[BeskarKomrk he/him]

One solution could be to have a statement at the top of the Shadesmar page, e.g. "This page is about the Cognitive Realm on Roshar and the local cultural interactions. Shadesmar is also used to refer to the Cognitive Realm in general; for more information, see [[Cognitive Realm]]" or whatever.

[skaa he/him]

Done. @BeskarKomrk's suggestion made sense so I added a note like that in the Shadesmar article. I feel that there is still a lot to improve on both articles, but I'll let you guys work on them for today.

Edited December 7, 2016 by skaa