Possible early hint regarding Realmatics

[trendkill he/him]

I'm working on my latest reread of Mistborn, and something caught my eye. In TFE, the chapter 19 has this line, referring to Kwann:

When we first met, he was studying one of his ridiculous interests in the great Khlenni library -- I believe he was trying to determine whether or not trees could think.

This also happens to be the chapter where Kelsier meets Hoid. I'm sure that's a coincidence, but it makes you think.

Does anyone else think that Kwann may have been learning about the Cognitive Realm? If so, it makes you wonder just how much Cosmere awareness Scadrial lost after the Ascension.

What other small hints have people noticed before the in-your-face explanations in The Emperor's Soul and WoR?

[Kobold King he/him]

I love this idea. I always thought that pre-Ascension Scadrial had a lot of pertinent knowledge that was lost over time.I seem to remember a WoB that stated that they had just invented the steam engine when the Deepness came.

 

Though just FYI, trees do think. They each think to themselves "I am a stick" all day and night.

 

EDIT: Wait, why the downvote? This wasn't a nonsensical reply, I just threw in a little reference while I was posting.

Edited March 29, 2014 by Kobold King

[SirVarrock he/him]

I upvoted the downvote.  I would have upvoted anyhow, because I just came from the church of the stick thread, and had that in my head.

[trendkill he/him]

I thought about adding some stickiness to my post, but thought I would leave that to better men.

[Aonar he/him]

We know that the Terris Worldbringers were Realmatically aware to some degree:

 

(Source)

NESH

Was Realmatic theory known to Kwaan or his people?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Realmatic theory was part of the ancient Terris religion.

So Kwaan may well have been researching the Cognitive Realm.

[trendkill he/him]

Hadn't seen that WoB before. Looks like I'm a little late to the game.

This hint was in the second Cosmere story released. What other subtle clues have we missed? Now that we know more about things, it should be easier to find them. This particular one just happened to jump out at me tonight, especially since it was a Hoid chapter.

[Odium's_Shard]

I have always felt that the ability of Bronze to sense an Allomantic 'pulse' was a hint to things happening behind the Physical world, and the bright lines leading to metal that iron and steel allow. I can't think of anything right now that was exactly explicit in implying that there were two other Realms.

 

Odium's_Shard

[happyman he/him]

Ah, yes, this subject.

 

You missed some of the, ah,  excitement, trendkill.  When this was first proposed (that trees can think in the Cosmere and that Kwaan was honestly studying it), it apparently became a bit of an argument, for reasons I've never understood.  Apparently real life philosophies got intermingled.

 

But yes, with the Stormlight Archive and Emperor's soul for background, trees thinking (or at least, having a cognitive aspect, which isn't really the same thing, but could easily be seen as such by a non-scholar such as Alendi) suddenly became a lot less ridiculous.  It became obvious, even without WoB, that Kwaan was honestly studying aspects of Realmantics.

 

There are some earlier hints if you look for them, but easily the biggest are in the Annotations for Elantris where Brandon describes some of the background behind the meaning of the Aons.

[Tempus]

Might be of interest to you, there's also a WoB that Worldsingers and Worldbringers are not of a similar name by mere coincidence. What has Hoid been up to, eh?

 

Elantris has a lot of realmatic goodies - The bit about Seons pulsing, the bit about the Dor having pressure, the bit about the Dor being describable as a wave form with frequencies, the bit about how the Aons are like funnels that transform, the picture on the wall regarding the shardpool as a kind of gate are ones I can recall offhand.