Jofwu

This makes sense to me, and I like what you wrote for Cognitive Realm. The one caveat is that I think we need to pay attention to how Brandon uses "Shadesmar" in the future. He has used the term for the Cognitive Realm in general on occasion, from what I've seen. If that happens more and more (and especially if it starts to happen in the text) then this probably isn't a good solution. As it stands now--from what we've seen so far--I think there's definitely a distinction to be made. The unique situation on Roshar makes the local Cognitive Realm worthy of its own article. I say go ahead and create the page. I think it's got enough substance to at least start with.

There's also at least one other notable case of character "resurrection" elsewhere in the cosmere. So that kinda carries over. For Helaran, I agree it could be pretty lame. But the fact that he's more minor helps, and it would all boil down to how it's handled. I think it could be done well. It could be used to do some really fun things with Shallan's story, I think. Particularly if they're pitted against one another.

Just as @BlackYeti says, the theory is the Shardbearer wasn't Helaran. If Helaran DID have a bond at the time (and somehow managed to wield a dead blade) then presumably being stabbed through the head with a spear would be enough to kill him. Surebinders aren't invincible. But that's not the theory. The theory is that IF Helaran was bonded to a spren, then it seems very doubtul he can be the man Kaladin killed. It doesn't fit for him to still be carrying around that Blade. And this is supported by further evidence--particularly concerning is connection to the Ghostbloods. The only strong evidence we have to the contrary that the man was actually Helaran is the physical description. But that could very well be a... *ahem*... red hair-ing. (I'll see myself out.)

I agree that intent fits conceptually. But I still have two problems with it: 1) Kelsier hardly seems to have much intent. He knows that he's looking for the Ire, so that helps... But why doesn't he get there after just a few steps? Does he have to get away from human society first, where the Cognitive Realm is less... defined? That wouldn't work in planets that are more populated. Intent very well may be involved, but there's got to be MORE than just that, I think. 2) The Shadesmar map suggests that the different expanses ARE in certain directions. So you can't just walk out into the ocean and then just "Intend" to go somewhere. You, seemingly, need to be going the right direction as well. Same here. There's got to be more than just Intent, right?

Unlikely as it may be, I think this is a fun theory and I want to put my thoughts in one place. Others have talked about the idea before, so I don't mean to claim the idea as my own. But I'm not going to directly cite anyone else's reasoning here. What we know: It's pretty clear that the Shardbearer Kaladin killed was a Veden man. The stormwarden also suggests that he's not a particularly important figure, though it's hard to draw many conclusions from this. We also have pretty good reason to believe he is a Ghostblood. Amaram seems pretty certain that the Ghostbloods sent the man to kill him. While it's possible Amaram had some other reason to think this, I think that a simpler explanation makes more sense here: the man probably had a Ghostbloods tatoo. The Shardbearer certainly had possession of Helaran's Blade. The same Shardblade is described in each case. Not only was the Shardbearer a Veden man, but he was a younger man with red hair. This, tied with the blade description, leaves little doubt in Shallan's mind that her brother is dead. Helaran is also believed to be dead by quite a few people. Lin has received news of his death, which implies others knows. And Taravangian himself has heard of it. However, we still haven't encountered indisputable evidence that Helaran is dead, or that he was the Shardbearer defeated by Kaladin. Support for the idea that Helaran is alive: Mraize's comment suggests that Helaran was not a Ghostblood. Indeed, it seems unlikely that Helaran would join the Ghostbloods given his father had. This doesn't fit well with the notion that Amaram believed the Surgebinder was a Ghostblood. We have reason to believe that Helaran was a Surgebinder. Mraize claims that Helaran sought out the Skybreakers and Taravangian seems certain that he was advanced enough to offer training to his little sister. This strongly suggests that Helaran has advanced far enough to have formed a Nahel bond. (Note: evidence in Edgedancer indicates that this is plausible) Brandon was asked in 2014 if Helaran had bonded with a spren. While taken at face value, Brandon's words suggest that he had not. But his initial dance around the question followed by an indirect answer don't rule out the possibility. If Helaran is a Surgebinder, it seems highly unlikely that he would hang on to his original Shardblade. He would be hearing screams every time he used it. Renarin's experience suggests Helaran would be unable to keep and use it. Besides, it's entirely possible that he has advanced far enough to have no need of a "dead" blade. Lastly, I'd like to point out that Helaran is never seen with Shardplate. If he wanted to intimidate his father, why not bring that up as well? While it's possible his benefactors may have supplied it later, or that he wanted to keep his full capabilities a secret, the easiest explanation is that he didn't have Shardplate. Conclusion: Helaran is alive. After successfully seeking out the Skybreakers and joining their ranks, he rid himself of the Shardblade he was known to carry. The Blade ended up in the hands of another man--a Ghostblood--who was defeated by Kaladin on the battlefield. Reports that Helaran died are incorrect. There's too much mystery to the man's identity for this to be surprising. It doesn't matter how lowly Helaran may have been in Veden society. A Shardbearer on the battlefield would normally be well-known, and Amaram would have discovered the man's identity without much effort. The fact that the history of the Blade (and it's former bearer) is so shrouded suggests there's something to the story that people aren't seeing. In fact, it's possible that Helaran intentionally faked his death for one reason or another. Crackpot? Yes. I'm fully aware that the support for this is flimsy. But until proven false beyond a doubt, I think it's a fun conspiracy theory! Addendum: @Bcknight2 points out a notable WoB here, which strongly suggests Amaram knew the Shardbearer's name at the time he spoke with Shallan about the man. Based on that interaction, I think there's a strong case to be made that it wasn't Helaran. The gist is that he wouldn't have acted so casually or provided key details unless he had no reason to believe the details would be meaningful. And that doesn't work if the name he has is Helaran Davar. My full analysis and conclusions are here.

I definitely don't think the endsheets are showing the entire night sky, for a few reasons. Something that hasn't been mentioned is that I don't think the scale would feel right. If you wrapped this around into a 360 degree view of the night sky the constellations would be totally distorted. Heck, the knight would stretch from horizon to horizon. Artwork in Brandon's books is pretty much always in-world artwork. Presumably this isn't just a pretty picture for us, but a piece of art created by somebody in the cosmere. I like to think that this was drawn by somebody from Yolen or some other planet who is cosmere-aware. This has been bothering me for some time! The Cognitive Realm seems to be a flat place, so how does that work with... reality? Some Mistborn: Secret History spoilers: For places like Roshar and Scadrial it kind of works, I figure, because you've got most everybody on one part of the planet. But what about planets where the whole world is inhabited? How does Taldain work? If I'm on Dayside and I want to go to Darkside, if I head out across the ocean do I end up out in space somewhere or do I circle the planet? My best guess is that your intent matters, but that feels pretty weak.

Interesting question... If there's a distinction between "Physical Surgebinding" and "Cognitive Surgebinding", is the same true of every other magic system? Does Allomancy also work differently in the Cognitive Realm, for example?

That would make a lot of sense, considering it represents Damnation to many Rosharans?

I don't think we can be sure of this. Soulcasters clearly require certain types of gems. But then that's not really a surprise because they are fancy fabrials, and fabrials always require certain gems to do certain things. We don't have any clear evidence that the same holds true for surgebinding. There are two examples where a surgebinder intentionally makes use of a specific gem when soulcasting--both are Jasnah while she wears her soulcaster in public. To be fair, there aren't a whole lot of other cases to work with, and in most of them there are a variety of gem types at hand. But there's one case which, I think, suggests the type doesn't matter. When Shallan first soulcasts in her room, she turns a crystal goblet into blood apparently using the stormlight from three diamond marks. There are no other gems mentioned. It's possible (maybe?) that having stormlight from a diamond allows her to change crystal into any other essence? But that doesn't fit with the two Jasnah examples, where she uses a stone of what she wants the thing to turn into-- not the other way around. It's possible that the gem does matter, but only to a certain degree... Like they can use any stormlight, but you can't control the result unless you take it from the right source, for example. But this is really just speculation. Seems much more likely to me that Jasnah felt the delay in getting the garnet was worth the risk. Heck, perhaps she knew there would be a suitable garnet nearby. She could always go ahead and blow her "cover" if she felt it was taking too long, or if nobody produced one quickly. Can't hurt to ask, right?

Huh, I've seen that before but didn't remember. I'm a bit hesitant to assume he's a Feruchemist/Ferring. It's a genetic thing and, unlike Allomancy, we don't know of another way for somebody to get the power. Not to say it isn't possible-- just that it requires a bit of a leap. Brandon said that Hoid USES Feruchemy-- not that he is a Feruchemist. Now that we know about "unkeyed" metalminds, the [only slightly] simpler explanation of this WoB is that he's hacking the magic system rather than using it himself.

We're pretty sure that he's been spotted using Allomancy at least once. Which heavily implies he's a mistborn. But I suppose he could ALSO be a Ferring/Feruchemist.

What do you mean "the Realmatic-centric approach"? My understanding is that you'll summarize the current "Physical Realm" page into a section on the "Cosmere" page. I don't know if we need a Physical Realm page (about the nature of the physical realm) after that... It feels strange not to have one, but maybe it should just redirect to the Physical Realm section on the Realmatic Theory page? I don't know if there's enough to be said about the Physical Realm to support a whole article or not...

I was imagining a "cosmere astronomy" page; basically what's already there, but renamed so that there's room for some kind of actual Physical Realm page. But this makes way more sense. With all of the system pages, a detailed overview of them all in one page doesn't make sense. The cosmere article would bridge that gap well I think.

I'm pretty sure this is referring to "regular" scholars, not the Five Scholars.

This is what I'm referring to: He required the organization and threatened their destruction because of an understanding of something deeper about Surgebinding. I definitely think the Recreance is connected, but I could have sworn there's a WoB suggesting that Honor died quite a bit before the Recreance. No clue where it is unfortunately...

Huh? What does "Expanse of the Broken Sky" have to do with Taldain's orbital physics?

Ha! I don't know how I got down here without reading the top. Sorry and thanks! My gut tells me that Ishar is just lying to himself. His concern back when the KR were founded seems to be consistent with the argument for why they can't be allowed to return. Unless he was bad all the way back then, I think we have to accept that there's merit to his argument. Right? Something about the nahel bond truly risks creating a scenario that allows for voidbringers to return and start a Desolation. This makes me think it's more likely that his denial is rooted in desperate fear. He denies the Desolation has come not because he's a traitor trying to hide the truth but simply because the truth would be unbearable. However... Nale describes going to Ishar with his concerns and leaving certain that Ishar told him the truth. This all seems to imply that Nale believe Ishar SHOULD know the truth. Why else would Nale go to the man for answers? He must have reason to believe that Ishar knows what's going on better than he does. Nale being a Herald himself, that's saying something. And if Nale's acknowledgement of this is well-founded... It implies that Ishar IS lying after all. I dunno... Just feels odd how he says "Ishar wouldn't LIE," rather than something more like "Ishar can't be wrong."

What's this theory about Ishar being a traitor? I missed it. Link please? :-)

Side question... It's weird to me that the physical realm article is basically all astronomy. I know there's probably not a whole lot of interesting things to say about the Physical Realm, but I feel like it should focus more on what that term means and how it relates to the other realms. With maybe a brief astronomy section. Anyone else agree?

"The following short story contains minor spoilers for Words of Radiance" Important question: what would Stick's chapter icon be? Can someone please make this?

Arcanum Unbound, just to screw with everyone.

http://www.theoryland.com/ Click "WoT Interview Search" on the left and then you can search for terms. Or click "Interview Database" at the top to get things sorted by event.

@Joe ST, can you clarify? The giant image as you have it on the Mashe page feels really awkward to me. I scaled up the image on the Taldain System page just a bit and added a line to link it directly to the full size, so that it's only one click away. How do you feel about that approach? Just need to add a "link=" to the image code. The little button in the bottom right corner gets you to the file page.

Ah, thanks for the catch on terminology! I disagree on article/system names though. First because we don't have names for many stars (and may never have all of them). Second because that's not how Khriss does it (or Brandon for that matter). Third because it's less intuitive to all but the most hardcore fans, who are primarily going to be using world names for reference. Curious to hear what others think though.

Hm, that's interesting. My take on it is that his position did actually have some truth to it. It's just that another Desolation has happened anyways. Perhaps from some unforseen or misunderstood reason. He had a hard time accepting the truth not because he had been lying to himself all along, but because all of his effort was a waste. Not to say he isn't crazy. ;-)