Are the Realms perpendicular to each other?

[Ripheus23]

Or to some independent super-axis?

In the first case, the relation between Realms is like that between the real and the complex numbers, with a third axis of the origin reflected up to another dimension (the Spiritual). In the second case, all the Realms are perpendicular to the Beyond (presumably), into which we cannot voyage as mortals.

IDK what the sum of the texts say though the light-ray analogy suggests general perpendicularity with the Beyond, but the ability to jump over Shadesmar, through the Spiritual Realm, or vice versa, and so on, seems to relate the Realms more directly.

[Quantus he/him]

Given that each of the three seem to have wildly different Typologies, Im not sure it's a question that can really be Answered.  A Line going through a Circle is both Parallel and Perpendicular to it, depending on your frame of reference.  The Cognitive Realm is stretched and flat even when the Planet it reflects is spherical, and "all places are one" in the Spiritual.  You could call them Perpendicular to each other, or go with the more traditional Parallel Worlds, or as wildly different Planes of existence (which I always sort of think as Parallel too), or mixed together and overlaid on top of each other.

[Karger he/him]

Like quantus said.  Physical dimensions are of dubious value in the CR and SR.

[+King of Herdaz he/him]

2 hours ago, Karger said:

Like quantus said.  Physical dimensions are of dubious value in the CR and SR.

For example, illogically, the cognitive realm is flat while the worlds it reflects are all round. (grumble grumble, it's a pet peeve of mine. There's a topic i started on the subject)

[Ixthos he/him]

I will note that the idea of perpendicularities indicates that the abstract view of them is to be parallel - not that they are parallel worlds, or not necessarily parallel at any rate, in the same way you could argue that the internet is a parallel world to ours, as it is separate to normal life, but touches at computers and runs through it in wires and waves, embedded within ours, part of the physical structure of ours, yet still distinct and inaccessible without those terminals - parallel in the abstract, embedded in the literal. But thinking of them as parallel, not that they are, gives the idea of perpendicularities their meaning, the worlds floating above one another and a spike driven through them all, tying them together, perpendicular to all and bridging them, the direction "space" is bent in each making those bent parts touch.

[+TheFoxQR]

They've been described in WoBs as planes of existence. Think of them as layers of Reality.

Quote

focoma

Is there a quantum of Investiture? Just as how the photon (the quantum of light) is the force carrier particle of electromagnetism, is there a force carrier particle for Investiture, and do you have a name for it? (My follow up question would involve string theory, but I'll leave that one for later.)

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, there is a quantum of Investiture, though it acts very oddly in the cosmere.

True Investiture is a purely Spiritual Realm thing. In the cosmere, there are two alternate planes of existence, with their own specific laws. Some of them, as you've undoubtedly notice, behave similar to ideas in String Theory.

/r/books AMA 2015 (May 24, 2015)

 

While I can't find the WoB in question atm, there is a WoB out there the implies that the Spritual is like a point source of investiture, which then gets filtered through the cognitive, and falls on the Physical brane. It doesn't say that in those terms specifically though.

Think a candle burning in the middle of a room. The flame is the spiritual. Everything between the flame and the walls-ceiling-floors is the cognitive. The Physical is the surface of the walls, ceiling and floors. Depending on what you have in the room, the shadows and patterns will on that surface will change. Also depends on the candle, which could be some other extremely complicated point source. Thus, a "Perpendicularity" is then you moving perpendicular to this surface, towards the direction of the flame.

Or maybe think of it is a layered sphere. The spiritual is the point at centre of the sphere. The physical, on the surface. The cognitive in between. A perpendicularity is you going from the surface towards the center, "perpendicular" to the surface at any point.

Edited July 11, 2019 by TheFoxQR

[cometaryorbit]

7 hours ago, TheFoxQR said:

Or maybe think of it is a layered sphere. The spiritual is the point at centre of the sphere. The physical, on the surface. The cognitive in between. A perpendicularity is you going from the surface towards the center, "perpendicular" to the surface at any point.

That seems to be what's implied by Leras/Preservation's sun/light ray/spot of light on the floor analogy from Secret History, combined with the WOBs that there's no real location in the Spiritual Realm.

Since the Spiritual Realm doesn't have any physical "space", no dimensions in the space/time sense, the Realms can't be literally parallel or perpendicular in the "planes in a higher dimensional space" sense. But a Perpendicularity is a point of transition between Realms which is (in a somewhat looser sense) "perpendicular" to travel within a Realm.

[Quantus he/him]

I never really liked/got Leras's Light on the floor explanation.

I tend to think of it in a more computer model:  The Spiritual Realm (and/or Spiritweb) is a frequency vibration-based computer made out of Investiture harp-strings (ie Connections), the Cognitive is the energy/machine level it is operating on, and the Physical Realm is the Software Program it's running.