Dual Realms?

[Mat he/him]

So... this came up during an RP...

What would happen if a Sleepless had some hordelings in an area or with an object that was transported to the Cognitive Realm, but the main body of hordelings was still in the Physical Realm? Would nothing happen, and the Sleepless would just experience both realms at once? Or would they like get ripped into either realm, or messed up in some other way?

[Weltall]

34 minutes ago, Matrim's Dice said:

What would happen if a Sleepless had some hordelings in an area or with an object that was transported to the Cognitive Realm, but the main body of hordelings was still in the Physical Realm

There's actually an interesting WoB on this exact topic. The short version is that the hordelings in the Cognitive would be cut off from the central consciousness.

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Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

If a Dysian Aimian had the Elsecaller honorblade, could just a single hordeling transition to the Cognitive Realm? 'Cause I think I've heard that a person couldn't just transition a single part of their body.

Brandon Sanderson

They could transition a single hordeling, but as it works right now, they would probably lose contact with the host and would become broken-off and no longer part of the hive. It's not truly a hive. But it would be like of your finger got cut off and sent to-- something like that. It would start acting independently.

Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

So would you have to have the preponderance of the Dysian Aimian transition to the Cognitive Realm? And the ones that stayed in the Physical Realm would be cut off?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. It would be bad for half-and-half to go. Let's say that, one thing that they would love to be able to do is to have a little more versatility there. Let's just say that.

Skyward Seattle signing (Nov. 10, 2018)

 

[Chasmgoat he/him]

So if exactly half the hordelings were to be transported, could it become two separate sleepless. if so, after years of being that way, they meet in the same realm. are they still the same one? or has it split into two?

[Weltall]

1 hour ago, Chasmgoat said:

So if exactly half the hordelings were to be transported, could it become two separate sleepless. if so, after years of being that way, they meet in the same realm. are they still the same one? or has it split into two?

This isn't something we can answer definitively because we don't know how many hordelings are needed to form the necessary critical mass (we know the consciousness can persist 'as long as too much of the horde isn't wiped out') so it's possible that dividing them in half would result in too few to maintain their identity and it would essentially kill their personality. Or maybe not, but the point is that we don't have enough information to be sure.

If half of any given Sleepless' horde is still large enough for the personality to survive however, my guess is that they would operate similarly to the case of Cosmere healing where someone is hypothetically divided exactly in half and then healed: The consciousness/soul would randomly jump to one or the other rather than creating two separate beings.

[Chasmgoat he/him]

ok, thank you.