Adonalsium's Space Plans

[Sherwin94]

Hi guys, from the wob below, I theorize that the magic systems in the cosmere have space travel in built into them, meaning all or at least most magic systems would enable space travel to occur. This is probably part of Adonalsium's plan for the cosmere and he might have wanted the cosmere to eventually attain FTL travel and travel to other planetary systems. I can't figure out exactly why he would want this to happen, but i suspect it is to unite the cosmere against a universal threat, maybe a powerful force from the Scar/outside the cosmere dwarf galaxy, since the Arcanum Unbounded star chart showed the Scar constellation as something malevolent and deep red is a dangerous colour in the cosmere. Moreover we have "word of issac" that some stars in the star chart are from outside the cosmere dwarf galaxy, which could likely be the Scar (or part of it). Therefore, we will probably see more than Scadrial achieving FTL travel when we reach that era of the cosmere

 

 

QUESTION

Would a conventional science fiction society be able to travel between worlds via FTL?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Yes, they definitely could. In fact, built into the system is...you will see space travel. In fact I have several of them plotted, I just can't write them yet. It is going to be really fun. One of my very first ideas for the cosmere was this spaceship going between, and actually, Sixth of the Dusk, which is coming out, the Writing Excuses Anthology one, is cosmere and they mention space travel in it, so...

 

Word of Issac found in this thread:

[Weltall]

Well we know Scadrial's systems do but despite all the ink spilled (or its digital equivalent) we still haven't come to any agreement on how, new revelations in Bands of Mourning just opened up more possibilities. Not sure if proper FTL is within the bounds of Biochroma or any Selish system (if only because of the range issue).but Surgebinding has the elements to definitely make FTL work as long as you could find a way to store enough Stormlight. My guess is that since Mistborn Era 4 is the one he's presenting as the big finale and also the one that will be the biggest crossover story, we probably won't see other possible methods of FTL until then, except maybe in the offscreen sense that the Ones Above provide.

As for the idea that the Scar represents something outside the Cosmere and Adonalsium having a Plan to deal with it, definitely one interesting interpretation of the chart and what we know. A picture may be worth a thousand words but in the case of the Cosmere, it seems more like a couple hundred thousand given how much time we've spent having fun picking it apart. xD

[ZenBossanova]

Just a quick note, I doubt there is only one way, per magic system, to do FTL. There are probably many ways, all with their own advantages, disadvantages and trade offs. Just like on the street, we have several different fuels, kinds of engines and transmissions, and even kinds of cars. Gas, diesel, electric, natural gas, etc. Even bikes. 

Many, many ways to hack the magic. 

[Jondesu he/him]

I could certainly see Fabrials used for spacefaring, especially if they do find a way to store a ton of Stormlight, or hack it to access another source of Investiture.  It's possible they could even figure out a way that didn't require a lot of Stormlight, but the biggest hurdle for them would actually be the return trip, since we know Stormlight leaks out of anything it's stored in, and unless their trip is going to be less than two weeks, it sounds like they'd probably lose any Stormlight they took with them even if it wasn't used.

Biochroma I'd have a much harder time believing, but AonDor and possibly some other Selish systems would be very capable if they could overcome the range issues as @Weltall mentioned.

Sand Mastery, of course, is unlikely at best to be useful for space travel, though I suppose it's theoretically possible someone could figure it out.

I don't think we know of any other specific magic systems (I'm not counting the Aiviar, since they're something different than Shardic magic, and less powerful it seems), but I would guess that there are others that could do it that we just haven't seen.

[kenod]

Selish FTL could perhaps work by creating the Aons at Sel, and using them to create two way portals. That way you just need a communication system to ask for a portal back. Because the portal generation system is on Sel, you would get around the range issues.

[The One Who Connects he/him]

17 hours ago, kenod said:

That way you just need a communication system to ask for a portal back.

For the purpose of cross world cooperation: Spanreeds. They are instant communication to wherever the linked piece is, likely even on other planets, since they ignore curvature of the planet when making both pieces face upright.

But I can fully see them creating their own method of cross-planet co... What am I saying, they have Seons. All they need is to find a way to get them through the portal to the other world and they're set.

Edited March 31, 2017 by The One Who Connects

[Weltall]

I'm suddenly reminded of how the Zhirrzh instantaneous communication works in Timothy Zahn's Conquerors trilogy. And having mentioned that I realize that their name is almost a palindrome... Conquerors is Cosmere!

But more seriously, I don't have my book handy to check and I can't remember exactly but... do we know Aon Tia can create two-way portals? I seem to remember it being a one-way deal but I could be mistaken. Though even if the portals are one-way, AonDor seems flexible enough that I'm sure there are other ways to manage FTL with it.

[Farnsworth]

Sand Mastery would not only be useless for space travel, but Autonomy probably wouldn't let them leave anyways. Talidan is staying quiet in the future Cosmere, I guess. That means no more graphic novels!  (I am not such a fan of White Sand).

[Weltall]

The most I can think with Taldain is that either there's a Darkside application of Investiture that we don't know of which could produce FTL (the AU essay implies some magic system exists but it must be subtle because it's also said it was long assumed only Dayside was Invested) or given that Darkside in particular is noted to be relatively 'high tech' (being the earliest novel to date and they already had gunpowder back then) they develop a more or less mechanical form of faster-than-light travel and at most use the easy access to Investiture on Taldain as a power source. I don't know how much power you could harvest from the sand but it's a plentiful and renewable resource (which you could presumably even recharge in space as long as you can get the star's light to hit the sand) so there's probably some way to make batteries out of it if nothing else.

Admittedly that's a lot of speculation on very little evidence but until we know more about Darkside I don't think we can completely rule out the possibility that Taldain eventually develops some form of interestellar travel not dependent on access to a perpendicularity.

[ZenBossanova]

The magic of Taldain is in the light. That, in and of itself, is already closer to FTL, than any other magic system. 

[DocHoliday he/him]

4 hours ago, ZenBossanova said:

The magic of Taldain is in the light. That, in and of itself, is already closer to FTL, than any other magic system. 

By definition, that'll never be FTL 

[ZenBossanova]

6 minutes ago, DocHoliday said:

By definition, that'll never be FTL 

Touche!

[cometaryorbit]

I wouldn't necessarily rule out BioChroma. As Awakening is commonly understood at the time of Warbreaker, no way -- but Nightblood's abilities seem to have little or nothing to do with 'conventional' Awakening, so a Type IV BioChromatic Entity starship might totally work.