iBambam

Great, thank you both!

Anytime!

I think that's an accurate way of looking at it. With a few exceptions, like the stormfather, I'm sure.

I think when he says they can't affect the physical without a bond, I think it's meant in kind of a drastic way, such as being a weapon for a radiant. I think the fact that they can manifest in the physical means that they can subtly manipulate things, such as what wind spren do.

That's just my speculation though, I don't really know for sure tbh.

How would you propose spren involve the Physical?

I think the fact that spren can manifest in the physical is proof that they have some investiture from the physical realm, but they're main source comes from the cognitive and spiritual realms.

There is a Shardwatcher. As far as I know, his name is Peter Ahlstrom.

Peter has had some interesting responses to my tweets, I definitely think he lurks in here to see how close we come to figuring things out.

As far as the original quote from HoA. I think that hardly supports autonomy as being Trell. I still personally believe it's a combination of Odium and Autonomy working against Sazed. In a tweet Brandon told me BoM would have more cosmere relevance, so I'm sure we'll learn more in a week or so.

I would say that it is absolutely necessary for investiture to come from all three realms for sentience to exist. It has to be a combination, I think that you'd have your physical shape from the physical, intelligence from the cognitive, and morality from spiritual(?). All of these combine to make you who you are, and bestowing sentience.

Well that was one of my thoughts but then if you think about it an Aon is essentially the same thing as a Command, just the Selish variant of it.

True, but I feel that there is a big difference between using breath to literally breathe life into something with awakening, and using an Aon to, say, heal someone. Because in the case of awakening, you are literally giving something a simple kind of sentience. While Aons, to my knowledge, do not.

That's an interesting fight for sure. It would definitely make sense that they would be similar. I think that also reinforces the stance that large amounts of investiture don't necessarily mean sentience

I think the biggest difference between Nightblood being sentient versus the Atium cache or Elantris being sentient is that it didn't just receive an enormous amount of investiture, but also a very specific command, in a system where commands are given in awakening.

I think while Elantris has a cognitive presence, and investiture, it's not guided by anything, preventing sentience. Or, you could argue that it is sentient, but only through the Elantrians themselves. Meaning that the city is gaining sentience directly from the Elantrians using the Aon Dor.

Or, it could be argued again that since the investiture chooses who becomes an Elantrian, it is sentient.

As far as the Atium goes, I think it doesn't become sentient because, while there is a lot of investiture there, it's not in one massive geode, but many small ones. Also, the fact that the investiture doesn't pass through the cognitive realm probably has something to do with it. Unlike the gemhearts that are infused with spren (I may be wrong here, it's been a while since I've read SA) which come directly from the cognitive realm and manifest as the giant beasts in the physical.

I just find it to be too big of a coincidence to have the same name for a character in two separate series on different worlds. Brandon isn't the type of author to make a mistake like that on accident, he did it with intent, and for a reason.

I believe we did because of this tweet. But I don't believe the spren would appear in the physical realm on Scadrial, only in the cognitive, which we haven't seen yet on Scadrial to my knowledge.

That could very well be the case. I think we'll just need to get a WoB to get a definite answer, or a RAFO, which sometimes is just as good

We're treading philosophical waters here. It's much like the question "What is fantasy?". I'd like to quote the author of the Witcher series, Andrzej Sapkowski: "Fantasy is what publisher describes as fantasy". So magic is what we call magic.

So for us, everything in the Cosmere may not be magic, if Sanderson considers it science in the Cosmere? At least based on that definition.

I suggested that Drehy could be our kandra worldhopper. I also believe that his name sounds suspiciously tries terris like. However, we don't know enough about the area on Roshar he says he's from, so their names could be similar to terris names.

That being said, I'd like to believe he's kandra.

@Yurisses you are a life saver! I could not for the life of me remember where I read that Hoid would be a major character in era 3.

As far as everything about Vin avoiding him, I'm off the opinion that Ruin definitely nudged her in the direction of being paranoid. I'm looking forward to learning more in Bands of Mourning.

I think to us, in our universe, we call it magic. For the populations of the Cosmere, it may very well be science. In fact, I think that a character on Scadrial studying Allomancy or Feruchemy would call it scientific research, but if said scientist witnessed an awakening or the use of an Aon, or sees someone heading themselves with stormlight, could that scientist not proclaim that to be magic?

@Ninja thank you! I could not remember the term used, junction, but that is a very good point about Hoid knowing right where Jasnah is going to come out of the Shadesmar.

That would be a good question for a WoB though. But back on topic, Kaladin or Kirito?

And Kaneki or Kelsier?

I think there's a scene where Szeth cuts through something he lashed and it keeps falling in the direction it was lashed, but I'm not 100% on that.

So it would be 2-1? I think Kaladin vs Kirito alone would be a pretty even fight, I think Kaladin would still have the edge but idk how fair it would be to have Asuna fighting alongside Kirito, unless Kaladin had Adolin or something as well.

I think Kaladin's access to stormlight and lashing would create problems for Kirito, although Kirito could probably slice through anything he lashes at him. I think it would come down to whether or not Kaladin is faster than Kirito with stormlight and if he can finish the fight before it runs out.

That would definitely be an interesting twist, however I think it's very unlikely to be Taln

To be honest, I think a better fight would be kaladin vs kirito, taking place in ALO

Same here! Although if Kaladin had a shard blade he'd win pretty easily as well. I think an interesting fight would actually be Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul vs Kelsier. Kaneki's abilities at the end of season two would make him a fairly even match in my opinion.

I think it would be incredibly dangerous, especially if attracting more pain spren creates more pain (not sure if it works this way though). I think the mother would probably be killed, but the child may be ok. But it's hard to say either way.

My friend and I have been in a discussion about who would win between various anime characters vs cosmere characters.

So far we've been discussing Kirito (Sword Art Online) vs Kelsier (TFE). I think in this battle Allomancy is the difference, specifically the fact that Kelsier is Mistborn, gives him such a major advantage no sword skill Kirito could muster would overcome. What do you guys think? And if you want to post a new matchup, feel free!

I haven't thought about someone giving birth in the cognitive realm, however using it as a type of hyperspace for lack of a better term is a very interesting thought. I've always thought Hoid uses the different realms to travel throughout the Cosmere, or at the very least quickly travel to different locales on the planet he's on.