Featured Theories: Shardic Sentience and the Three Parts of Magic

Welcome back to our “regular” Featured Theories column. We’re still working our way through a backlog of great older theories, that we think people should understand before we start moving into more complex topics. Today, as the observant reader will have guessed, we’ll be talking about Shardic Sentience and The Three Parts of Magic.

Shardic Sentience

So it’s a pretty safe bet that all things in the Cosmere are present in all of the Three Realms. (If you don’t know what those are check out Shardcast Episode 2: Unforgotten Realms) So that means that everything has a Cognitive aspect, the ability to think. So why is this ability only visible (for the most part) in humans? What makes them any different from a table, or a cloud, or a star? The main point of “Shardic Sentience”, a theory by emeralis, is that spiritual energy can be used to enhance the Cognitive aspect of items in the Cosmere. So it may well be that originally on many, or possibly all, the Shardworlds’s humans were hominids granted the power of thought by one or multiple Shards giving a small piece of the spiritual energy they are composed of.

The Three Parts of Magic

Now, we talk about one of my personal favorite theories, “The Three Parts of Magic”. It was written by our member Cuiiar and it explains some aspects of systems that no one has really been able to understand before, such as the color requirement of Awakening. The basic concept, like many great ideas, is simple. Magic systems have aspects that fall into the Three Realms as well. A Physical requirement, a Cognitive attempt to use the magic and a Spiritual source of energy. Deciding what attributes of each system fall into what categories is a bit more murky once we get into less explained magic systems, like Surgebinding. I’ll also do some speculation that may contradict what Cuiiar thinks, or is on systems that he did not originally speculate on. We’ll start with the one that Cuiiar first caught.

Awakening

Physical:

The Physical aspect of Awakening is fairly obviously color. This theory neatly explains why Awakening drains color, something that appears almost unimportant for the operation of the magic system.

Color isn’t the only Physical bit of Awakening though. It has some interesting interactions with other Physical things, like the form and composition of the object being Awakened. The closer the object is to the form of some sort of life, the fewer Breaths it takes. Ichor-alcohol also makes the Awakening of Lifeless a lot easier. Whether this too is an effect of the object becoming closer to living form (standing in for blood) is as of yet unknown.

Some may point out that people must be in physical contact with the item they are Awakening. I don’t believe this is the Physical part of Awakening, as this requirement is circumvented when someone reaches the Ninth Heightening, and can perform Audible Commands. It seems to me that under every regular circumstance (i.e. not being powered directly by a Shard) all of the requirements would be necessary for performing the magic. As physical touch isn’t always necessary, I don’t believe it could be the Physical part of Awakening.

Cognitive:

The Cognitive aspect of Awakening seems to be the Command. While it must be Physically spoken aloud, the thought portion of this process is indubitably more important. This is shown by the fact that, even though the Commands themselves are easy to remember phrases, many Awakeners have difficulty getting the visualization quite right, so the Awakened object fails to act as Commanded. This idea that the Cognitive thought is more important than the spoken words is reinforced by the Mental Command ability, by those of the Tenth Heightening

Spiritual:

I think the most likely, and perhaps the only, candidate for the Spiritual source of energy for Awakening, is the Biochromatic Breath itself. It seems to be the power source for all sources of Awakening, even Nightblood when it has been unsheathed.

The question of what, precisely, Breath is and where it derives its spiritual energy is a complex one, with no clear answers. Many people believe that it arises as an effect of Endowment’s interaction with the people of Nalthis. There is however dissent one whether or not regular Breath is actually of Endowment. I personally believe it is, as the effects of gathering enough regular Breath is identical to the ones granted by Divine Breath which is confirmed to be a Splinter of Endowment itself. The evidence against this argument is that the Divine Breath cannot be used for Awakening in the regular way. The source of power for the Breath is also in question. The majority believe that Breath recharges after a while, while the minority think it draws power from Endowment.

Allomancy

Physical:

The Physical portion of Allomancy is metal. The various shapes of the molecules formed by the metals and their alloys draw the spiritual energy through the metal in various ways, vaporizing the metal in the process.

It is worth noting that as metal is the focus of Allomancy, specific metals and alloy proportions must be utilized for maximum effectiveness.of this Investiture. The form of the structure of these metals focuses the power to specific powers, much as the Aons focus the Dor.

Cognitive:

The Cognitive portion of Allomancy is the thought to “burn” the metals. It’s what activates the process and determines how fast the reaction occurs.

Spiritual:

The Spiritual power source of Allomancy is subject to some debate. Brandon has said that Allomancy is powered by the Shard Preservation, taccessing the “Powers of Creation”. Some people think this means the body (power) of Preservation, which they think counts one-sixteenth of the Power of Creation. Others think that these “Powers of Creation” are merely channeled through Preservation, coming from an even larger well of infinite power beyond. Which is true is yet to be confirmed.

Feruchemy

Physical:

The Physical portion of Feruchemy is metal, this time though it isn’t burned. It is instead “charged” with some kind of energy. The metal isn’t used but rather serves as a sort of battery, or a method of moving energy through time. The condition of the metalmind isn’t very important, as power can still be drawn from it, regardless of whether the metalmind has been damaged or not. The amount of power that can be stored in a metalmind is proportionate to mass of the metalmind itself.

It is not confirmed if the metals of the metalminds must have the level of purity or specificity of proportion that their Allomantic counterparts demand but it seems likely. The best theory for the negative effect of imperfect metalminds is that they are unable to store as much a charge, as a properly alloyed metalmind of the same size would be able to.

Cognitive:

The Cognitive part of Feruchemy seems to be the mental commands to respectively “tap” and “store” attributes. These mental commands allow the Feruchemist to increase the flow of power either coming in, similar to flaring in Allomancy (although with theoretically no upper limit) or being stored.

Spiritual:

The Spiritual source of energy for Feruchemy is fairly unique, considering that, unlike every other magic system we’ve seen, it has no external source of power. All of the spiritual energy used by the Feruchemist comes directly from their own body. So it is currently unknown whether this energy is of Preservation, Ruin, both, or just generalized spiritual energy, devoid of any intent whatsoever. Regardless of that, the stores of energy in the Spiritual Realm are the most likely candidate for the source of spiritual energy for Feruchemy.

The powers of Feruchemy itself are based Realmatically as well. The reason for this is unclear. It could simply be some effect of Feruchemy being a balance magic,it could have just happened, or it could occur for reasons unknown. In Feruchemy, iron, steel, tin, and pewter are in the Physical quadrant. In the Cognitive quadrant are zinc, brass, bronze, and copper. Aluminum, duralumin, chromium, and nicrosil. Gold, electrum, cadmium, and bendally make up the last quadrant, called the Hybrid metals. They are seemingly unrelated to any Realm.

Hemalurgy

Physical:

The Physical portion of Hemalurgy, like all of the Metallic Arts is the metals themselves. Like Feruchemy, the metals themselves aren’t lost in the process but rather charged with the a portion of the spiritual aspect, or Spiritweb, of the person who was used to create the spike.

Cognitive:

The Cognitive part of Hemalurgy is quite a bit more difficult to pin down then the rest of the Metallic Arts. The most obvious answer is that similar to how Hemalurgy steals the powers of Allomancy and Feruchemy, it also steals their respective Cognitive parts, burning, storing, and tapping. But there’s a clear reason that this cannot be the answer. As we see when TenSoon is using his Blessings, the human attributes are always active, no Cognitive switch needs to be thrown to get them to function. So I’ve concluded the answer is something far more subtle.

It’s my opinion that the Cognitive portion of Hemalurgy is where the spikes are placed in the recipient. The location of the spike determines how the receiver is twisted, and whether or not the spike has any affect on them at all. It takes Cognitive thought, to place the spikes in the right location, so I think that is why it doesn’t require a Cognitive “switch” on and off. The spikes are always in the same place, so the attribute is always functioning.I don’t think that where a spike is placed to steal the power is nearly as important, because no matter how you get an attribute, it is still identical to the same attribute being stolen from a different point on the Spiritweb.

Spiritual:

The Spiritual source of energy for Hemalurgy is the piece of someone’s Spiritweb that’s stuck to the spike. This is typically of Preservation but some of Ruin may be there if a Feruchemical attribute is being stolen.

AonDor

Physical:

I think the Physical portion of AonDor is fairly self evident. The Aons themselves are the most likely candidate, being physical shapes that are reflections of the shape of the land in the Physical realm, that must be Physically drawn. Everything points to this.

Some people may think that being an Elantrian counts as the Physical requirement for AonDor. I’ll admit this was even my original belief. But being an Elantrian means you can access AonDor, which makes it no different then needing to be an Allomancer to access Allomancy, and the Physical attribute of Allomancy is metal, not being an Allomancer. So I think the Aons are the better solution.

Cognitive:

If the Aons are not the Cognitive part of AonDor, then it leaves precious few candidates for the Cognitive portion. The best that I’ve got is that it takes a cognitive effort to begin drawing the Aons. It’s interesting to note that Aon Omi requires another mental component. The Elantrian who draws it must feel a sincere affection for those around him, or the Aon will be ineffective. Why this separate Cognitive requirement is necessary, I have no idea.

Spiritual:

The source of spiritual energy in AonDor is easily answered, it is the Dor of course. What the Dor is, is another question entirely. Some people think it’s that same infinite “Power of Creation”. Other people think it’s simply a Shard. The problem with this theory is that Dakhor, presumably of Dominion rather than AonDor’s Devotion, still draws from the Dor, and these two Shards are separate powers.

Dakhor

Physical:

I realize that we know very little about Dakhor, and every magic system from here onward for that matter. I will still give it my best shot on picking out the right portions of the systems, but from here on out I have a much higher likelihood of being wrong, and much less evidence. As we figure this stuff out, I’ll come back through here and fix the errors I will indubitable make fromt this point onward.

The Alloy of Law Ars Arcanum says that all the Investitures of Sel are based on form. So I’d say that it’s a fairly safe bet that the Dakhor bone growths are what determines the powers they can use. This again runs into the same problem between the ability to use a magic and the Physical portion, so I may be off-base, or it could be due to a lack of information.

Cognitive:

The Cognitive part of Dakhor is the most difficult question I’ve had to think about for this article. The real problem with Dakhor is it gets very little screen time and no characters who we see use Dakhor while we’re in their point of view. Also, unlike ChayShan (which gets even less mention) we don’t have someone explaining anything to us. Along with the fact that, as a religious ritual, this magic system could be full of mysticism. This makes it difficult to separate what is necessary to use the magic system from all the unnecessary rituals the Dakhor could be performing

The most obvious answer for Dakhor’s Cognitive portion is the chanting that Hrathen remembers from his younger days at the monastery. Unfortunately, this doesn’t make much sense to me. The chanting is never shown in the present, even when the Dakhor are teleporting. If this was truly the Cognitive part of the magic, then there would have been mentions of chanting as the monks ran around with their super strength slaughtering everyone. To use an Allomancy metaphor, I think the chanting is much more akin to snapping then it is to burning a metal. Once you’ve been chanted over and your bones are twisted, then you never have to do any chanting again.

This left me in a difficult place. What could it be? I decided to look at the other two Investitures we’ve seen on Sel so far. In both AonDor and ChayShan, the actions that draw the magic can be performed without actually drawing the Dor. Aons can be drawn without accessing the Dor and Shuden shows that ChayShan can be performed without it as well. When the magic is being accessed though, the sign in both magics is glowing. So it stands to reason that when a Dakhor monk is drawing the Dor, his bone twists will glow too. So I looked at the only two scenes where the Dakhor bones are specifically described as glowing. They are during the teleportation scene and when Hrathen strangles Dilaf. Both scenes show no sign of chanting but no sign of any other Cognitive part either. So the only conclusion that I can draw is that there must be some sort of mental command going on here, where the Dakhor monk chooses to draw upon the Dor. I feel reasonably confident about this prediction because it has been seen in the cosmere before, in both AonDor’s requirement that you must intend to use it and in Awakening’s Command visualization.

Spiritual:

Raoden senses that Dakhor draws on the Dor when Dilaf uses it, so I’ll trust his judgement.

ChayShan

Physical:

Sticking with the form-based Investitures, I’d say that the Physical fighting forms of the ChayShan determine what abilities are used, if ChayShan even has separate abilities. If it does not, the forms must be necessary to maintain the unnatural grace and strength the users of this system show.

Cognitive:

Shuden mentions often the focus and calm that is required in order to properly perform ChayShan, it is possible that this is the Cognitive portion of this magic. It also might require some sort of mental intention to draw the Dor like AonDor and possibly Dakhor. However, there hasn’t been any indication of that yet.

Spiritual:

I think the Dor remains the most likely candidate for the Spiritual source of energy and Raoden agrees with me.

Forgery

Physical:

The Physical portion of the Forgery seems to be the Soulseals, the form of which, from what we understand, determines how the item they are placed on changes.

Cognitive:

We’ve also heard that you need a certain amount of determination and knowledge of the item’s past in order to craft a good Forgery of it, so I’d say it’s a pretty good prediction that those are the Cognitive part.

Spiritual:

I’m sticking with the Dor again.

Surgebinding

Physical:

Here we go, Surgebinding is really cloudy right now. Gems seem to be the Physical portion in fabrials, and even for Jasnah and Shallan’s Soulcastings. But for Kaladin they seem to be nothing more than glorified Stormlight purses.

The Body Focuses in the Ars Arcanum of The Way of Kings may offer some answers. Kaladin has to inhale Stormlight after all. But this time Jasnah and Shallan are the exception, they don’t seem to be tied to any others when they Soulcast.

Cognitive:

Again no easy answers. Kaladin has to intentionally look at something to Lash it. But Jasnah and Shallan don’t seem to do anything like this, as a matter of fact, Shallan Soulcasts by accident. You could perhaps throw the truth requirement in there, but it seems more in line with forming a bond with the spren, rather than using the power. After all, it would get pretty clunky having to have to call up the spren and give them a whole new truth every time you want to Soulcast something, especially if you’re in the middle of a battle.

Spiritual:

The Spiritual aspect of Surgebinding is the one easy answer. The Stormlight seems to provide the spiritual fuel for the magic to work. Now what Shard or Shards provide the spiritual energy for Stormlight is a whole different question.

Well, I'm going to steer clear of Lightweaving, as we have so little information about it that trying to theorize would be ridiculous. I know that in the years to come many of these concepts will become outdated as we learn more. I'll keep this article updated and let people know if and when anything changes. Thanks for reading, and I promise that future installments won't have quite so much of a gap between them.