[OB] Questions

[Lepth]

In Oathbringer when caladen goes to the light house the person there first swears on domi which is from the elantris book then asks what heightening caladen is which is from war breaker so does that mean they get a lot of people from those worlds passing through that area?

[Calderis]

Riino (the man in the lighthouse) has been confirmed to be an Elantrian, hence his use of the word "Domi."

And the device which Kaladin used is something that requires investiture to access. In a realm of worldhoppers, Breath is probably one of the easier methods to gain investiture, as all you need to do is buy it.

[Sallin Zeras]

Yes, Shadesmar is where Worldhoppers go from one World to another. Btw, do you listen to the audiobook?

[Lepth]

Yes and read but I am not a great speller 

[Lepth]

Is it easier to get to shadesmar or the spiritual realm and then how would someone travel from world to world through shadesmar if it is cognitive do they just think it or do they hike through the stars ?

[Calderis]

2 minutes ago, Lepth said:

Is it easier to get to shadesmar or the spiritual realm and then how would someone travel from world to world through shadesmar if it is cognitive do they just think it or do they hike through the stars ?

They walk, or use a vehicle. Space in the Cognitive Realm is not the same as physical space. 

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Questioner

So like as far as distance traveled in Shadesmar. 

Brandon Sanderson

Mhm

Questioner

So when Kelsier...

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah.

Questioner

...in Shadesmar. He meets the Ire, who are presumably Elantrian.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

Like how far did he travel? Is that still within Scadrial's realm of the Cognitive Realm?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, that's within-- he has s-- By the time he meets them he has slipped right to the edge of the Cognitive Realm on Scadrial and into kind of the darkness between planets. 

Questioner

Okay.

Brandon Sanderson

He's close enough that he can get there. But he's kind of suffused with Scadrian Investiture then, to a point that it would be harder--you saw in there--for him to get further. I would say that he's like... He has entered space between planets, but he's not out of the solar system.

Questioner

Okay, so he's <still there> in the Scadrian system, just...

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, yep.

Questioner

Okay, just edging it there.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, mhm. That's what I'd say if I had to actually point <at> him. I would get really fuzzy though, because it wouldn't be too much longer before he enters another solar system. Like he would pass lightyears in steps as he starts getting further, if that makes any sense.

Questioner

That makes sense, because, I mean, with worldhopping in general it's like... You can only... I mean it's... I don't know how the time dilation works per se, but...

Brandon Sanderson

It's not-- there's not much time dilation. What you've got going on is... Things that people aren't around to think about, things without minds or any sort of life, don't manifest on Shadesmar very much at all. And so the space between planets gets really small, unless there's another planet out there with thinking beings or at least some sort of life on it. Like even lower lifeforms, you'll get something manifesting on Shadesmar. But yeah.

Questioner

Okay. So the Cognitive Realm, in Shadesmar...

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah.

Questioner

...in the Cognitive Realm... It's kind of the... Any kind of sentient or cognitive life-- that's what is building Shadesmar?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, yeah.

Questioner

So like anything where there's blackness... is like... condensed or--

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, yes. Particularly if no one's thinking about it? If people are thinking about it.. like, for instance, an island in the ocean that was scoured of all life and even bacteria would still manifest in Shadesmar on that planet because people are aware of it and things like this. But one on the other side of the planet, that no one ever knew about it, probably wouldn't.

Questioner

So that same island, if people just stopped thinking about it or like stopped being aware it's *inaudible* would it...

Brandon Sanderson

It could slowly vanish, yes. And so-- But that's more of a thought experiment. You're never gonna have a planet that that happens to, you know cause...

Questioner

Right.

Brandon Sanderson

But thought experiment wise, yes, that would eventually kind of get consumed by Shadesmar and vanish. The same thing would happen to a planet that you strip the atmosphere from--all the bacteria and life dies on it--you know, slowly going to vanish. But a moon will still manifest because people are thinking about it. It'll just not-- it won't-- it'll be hoakie, it'll be weird--the moon will be. Like you might find a little patch that represents the moon. Something like that.

Questioner

That's interesting.

Brandon Sanderson

You're not gonna find the full landscape of the moon until people start visiting it. And it's gonna grow on Shadesmar.

source

Areas that are not inhabited/thought of are nearly nonexistent, so travel can happen much much faster. 

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Questioner

I want to know how Hoid travels between worlds. Or, if you're not going to tell me right now, will we ever find out?

Brandon Sanderson

Hoid has travelled between the worlds by getting in one Shardpool in Shadesmar and coming out a different one. *pause* Okay? So that is one method he has used to travel between the worlds. The worlds are connected through Shadesmar. Um, things that people don't think about as much reflect very minorly in Shadesmar, so when you-- all the-- most of the space between planets is cut out, and there's some weird, twisted geography going on there. So that's basically how he does it, Cognitive Realm. source

 

[Weltall]

14 minutes ago, Lepth said:

Is it easier to get to shadesmar or the spiritual realm and then how would someone travel from world to world through shadesmar if it is cognitive do they just think it or do they hike through the stars ?

The Spiritual Realm is... very different. We've seen people 'visit' it before but using it for travel is implied to be impossible for pretty much anything short of a Shard. Secret History shows us what can happen to someone trying to spend too much time looking into the Spiritual without having a mind capable of processing what they see. Trying to fully transition there would probably fry your brain, or cause every atom in your body to decide to take a separate vacation to different parts of time and space.

As for Cognitive Realm travel, yes, it's done manually. If you have a form of Investiture that aids in travel you can use that, or you can hire local transport like the OB crew does with the ship. In all other circumstances, you walk. This works because space in the Cognitive is affected by thought in the Physical; where there's no thought happening (like, say, in the interstellar void) space is so compressed that you can cross light-years in a single step.

Edit: Ninja'd by @Calderis

Edited March 24, 2018 by Weltall

[Lepth]

Ok so you just walk until you are in a new world?

and on the topic aren’t worlds round so if you walked on and on wouldn’t you just walk in circles?

[Calderis]

Just now, Lepth said:

Ok so you just walk until you are in a new world?

and on the topic aren’t worlds round so if you walked on and on wouldn’t you just walk in circles?

The Cognitive Realm functions as a plane. 

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Questioner 1

You said that moving people like that [Cognitive Shadows] or spren off-world, from Roshar is difficult.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner 1

What about physically, say the Ones Above visit them, and they fly away?

Brandon Sanderson

So one of the things you'll have to be asking questions and theorizing on is what happens if you try to carry a spren around the planet. What happens to their Cognitive sense, right? So you're on Roshar, right? So on the Physical Realm what would happen-- Because on Shadesmar, you have a flattened version. So there are questions for you to be theorizing implicit in that.  And one of them is, what happens, you cross a threshold circling the globe, your spren, what happens to them? Because-- Okay? This relates to the question you’re asking.

Questioner 2

Wait wait, you have a three dimensional plain coexisting with a two dimensional plain?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, two dimensional is the wrong term, but basically...

Questioner 3

Can you specify the mathematically projection used to create this? *laughter*

Brandon Sanderson

We'll try to give it to you eventually, but this is the sort of stuff that I do that Peter's like "Oh man..." *laughter* "Alright give me the math Peter." "Ahhh what do you mean? I'm not a mathematician." "Eh, y'know. You're close." It is very convenient to have a physicist and a mathematician in my writing group.

source

 

[Oversleep]

8 hours ago, Lepth said:

and on the topic aren’t worlds round so if you walked on and on wouldn’t you just walk in circles?

Just as Cal said: Cognitive Realm is flat.

No, we're not sure how it works. It's kinda fine with Roshar, which only has one landmass, there's not much trouble to project it onto a flat surface. But if you have a world with both hemishperes inhabited... it breaks our brains to figure it out.

[Lepth]

So could you have like to cities together in the cognitive realm if the are on opposite sides of the world in the physical realm?

[Calderis]

1 hour ago, Lepth said:

So could you have like to cities together in the cognitive realm if the are on opposite sides of the world in the physical realm?

As with the island mentioned I the WoB earlier, I think this would be theoretically possible as a thought experiment, but practically? Not a chance. 

All thinking life would have to be scoured from the land between the two places and you have to have no one thinking of the that area for it to receded in the Cognitive Realm. 

For the most part the map of the Cognitive Realm of a world is going to be oriented much the same as a map of the physical, just flattened out. The land will be sea, and water land. It may not be a 1 to 1 ratio, as less inhabited and thought of places will be smaller, and it's possible that large cities may be larger still in the Cognitive between the number of people, and the amount of people thinking about those specific places. Overall though, it should be very similar other than the land/sea inversion.