Oltux72

While in Cosmere a mind with sufficient Investiture can exist without a brain, there is no evidence coupling this to sentience or sapience. plants need two cuts from a Shardblade, as do animals animals and plants can do telepathy animals also have spren bonds animals can be made lifeless fish show soul flames The essential point in all cases is life.

Yes, that is indeed the answer. So hemalurgy damages your cognitive aspect (if you are the donor). In light of this WoB I cannot understand this conclusion. As you are affected in the CR, it is strongly implied that hemalurgy destroys your mind, which is made of Investiture, which you subsequenly lack in the ghost state.

The alumiunm trick. We are fairly sure of that, as the Set can make them. Unsealed metalminds are another thing. They are making unsealed metalminds, not unkeyed metalminds They are not faced with making the first one of them. The Sovereign did that. They have harmonium. But not for Trueself abilities. The Lord Ruler had really no reason to make those. Nor would they really have a good means to identify them, even if they had them. Nor would a lifeless from Kelsiers bone be a feruchemist. You'd need full medaillions. Ehm, we have no idea on which continent the medaillions were developed.

I see. We have never observed that. I'd say that questio boils down to the exact nature of the spiritweb about which we know even less.

I am afraid that answers a factual question with an ethical or philosophical interpretation. A Kandra is a modified Mistwraith. The memories and personality reside in the body. The spirit and mind of the Mistwraith are altered, not replaced or a new one created. Even plants have a spiritual and cognitive aspect. There is just a living being.

According to Harmony Lessie wished Waxillium all the best in her last moments when he met her before she went to the Beyond. Unfortunately this cannot be true. We saw Koloss die in Secret History. They revert back to human. Hence Paalm would be turned into a mistwraith. They seem to be fairly intelligent animals, but still animals. So did Harmony tell a white lie?

But we have seen the death of many hemalurgic constructs from the Cognite Realm in Secret History. The hemalurgy is reversed.

We know that pre-Evil Threnody used certain rites to make Cognitive Shadows they used for some purposes among them warfare and travel in the Cognitive Realm. Now, as rites are apparently necessary, we have to ask what happens if you mess them up. The answer may very well be: you make shades. If that happens, you have a problem on your hands. They are quite dangerous and nothing you could tolerate around you if you want to sustain an industrialized (or even bronze age) way of life. Outright killing them with silver would be murder. So I would propose that they put them on ships and let them sail without a crew. Or, if you are nicer, you have a priesthood or secret society whose task is to transfer them to that useless continent they are keeping secret. Until those repugnant fanatic Forescouts messed everything up.

But the other side breeds. Yes, humans can with weapons hunt large animals, who breed slowly, into extinction. But something of rabbit size?

Very well. I think a great part of the problem here is terminology. So please let me define it. Every biologically living being has three components: a body - pretty much selfexplanatory a cognitive component - I would call that the mind. It does the thinking, holds memories and cognitive shadows, unless meddled with, have continuity of thought a spiritual component - I would call that the soul. It goes to the Beyond some time after you die. Do we agree so far? Your death is a two stage process Your brain stops working -> Your mind and soul persist together for a time in the Cognitive Realm Your Investiture runs out (or goes below a threshold - details unclear) -> Your soul goes to the Beyond So far with me? I would call anybody in between stages #1 and #2 a ghost. They can be reincorporated without ill realmatic consequences This happened to Waxillium and Gaux and they are clearly themselves and not Cognitive Shadows. Right. But what happened in the Well? If we take Brandon's explanation, RoW a Cognitive Shadow is not simply that ghost stage prolonged to infinity. You are changed into basically a spren that was a living being. Hence the question, is that change instantaneous and if not, what are you while the change is in progress and what will happen if the process is interrupted?

Taking a premise and going with it and its consequences to the very end. I could have used Dalinar. He evolves into a basically likable, ethical character. A bold choice would have had him turn into a man who sees a need for discipline and planning, but still would consider Rathalas the correct decision. You are correct. I should have put it this way: A man who does in some sense move away from the Shin ways. He was legally sentenced. He did his duty, as Nale recognised, Which would lead us to the next example. Nale is mad. Hence his actions are senseless. A bold choice would have been to show us that he perhaps delayed the Desolation for a few years, but at a horrible cost. The stakes of the Stormlight Archive may be as high as the future of the whole Cosmere. In that sense he is bolder. Mistborn is bolder in the worldbuilding. Aristocrats we see are haughty. In SA we get shown the tenners. Skaa are things. Alethi slaves get wages. Yes, there is a boldness of character. But there is a also a boldness of character and worldbuilding. Rashek is a monster and he saved the world. Contrast that to Dalinar who was a monster and is regretting that now while trying to save mankind. Mistborn took the trope of the ultimately necessary evil and went with it all the way. Stormlight Archive can be seen as a grimmer book, if you will. There is no way to undo the harm done to the Singers without an atrocity. But it is not a bolder series. Concepts are taken mellower.

So you are saying that the part that goes to the Beyond stays until the moment a threshold of Investiture is reached and then the transfer is instantaneous and uninterruptible? If that is so why don't some people stay as they are without anything being replaced by Investiture in the Cognitive Realm?

Exactly. I fact we are told exactly that. But we are talking about a while continent here and if you look at how many small predators there are in a forest, you cannot get that eefect with thousands of shadows. You need really large numbers.

First things first. The Cosmere has ghosts. When you are healed after your physical death, you are fully restored with your spirtual aspect, so you need to be something in between. In order to become a Cognitive Shadow your need your soul be substituted with Investiture. I can see no reason this process has to be instantaneous. This implies that it can be interrupted. What happens in that case?

Well, why are they not Sho Del, Dragon or Sleepless? If that is because these species never traveled to Threnody we need to imply that the shades were created locally. The why was te continent uninhabited? Then why do they still exist in mostly a recognizable form? It needs extreme numbers of them to explain the Forests of Hell. I am afraid this theory needs to be rejected. It fails to explain why the Forests of Hell are empty of animals.

Still what generated the first shades? If you say they were always there, why only on that continent? And if so, why are they human and human only?

OK, maybe I am dense. The shades in the Forests of Hell are definitely ex-humans, aren't they? And shades dissolve slowly, so there is no such thing as a primordial shade. When the Forescouts arrived the forests were full of shades. There is no mention of aboriginies or ruins in the novella. That raises a question. Whose shades are they?

It turns them into Cognitive Shadows. As far as using them is concerned, let me quote Secret History:

Waxiillium shooting Lessi for the second time.

Right, but it would require giving the bands to Waxillium on a permanent basis.

For the next thirty to fourty years. The coming wars may last centuries. Nightblood was created centuries before it was used for its likely design goal.

Other worldhoppers are not Cognitive Shadows, yet they are centuries old. I would call that an unnecessary complication. Most people do know the fundamental rites of their culture. I very much doubt that Nazrilof had contact with a shade at the time of Secret History. The shades were new and shocking. Yet the homelanders used Cognitive Shadows.

I am afraid I don't see the basic premise. The queen of Alethkar knows about worldhopping, the heads of most orders of Knights Radiant know about worldhopping, a high prince knows about worldhopping. Why would there be a relation between secret societies and worldhopping? As far as Roshar is concerned the secret is no longer secret. Granted it is not something the average peasant knows about, but the knowledge is spread too far among the educated and people of power to contain it. For now they have other problems, but unless something truly catastrophic will happen in the very near future on Roshar, I cannot see how they would not try to officially make contact with other worlds, trade and gather intelligence in the medium term future. In fact I guess Jasnah will, if she survives the war build something like a diplomatic and exploratory corps. She now knows about Thaidakar. She is not one to ignore such threats. Neither would Navani or Adolin or Queen Fen. Many ardents have been in Shadesmar. Some of those Radiants and people on the expedition to the Honorspren have seen a lot. They will talk to worldhoppers. House Sadeas had bureaucrats and officers. They all know something. All the monarchs know about the expedition. And the other Rosharans know how to run spy networks. This milk is spilled. There will be official research into other worlds and worldhopping. For the Knights Radiant Shallan is the obvious option for leading such a project.

They know of Southern Scadrial, which has used mechanical Metallic Arts for centuries at the time of SA. Conclusion: The Ghostbloods have medaillions. Was that how Mraize beat Lift? Any more occasions during which Ghostbloods showed capabilities that are very hard to explain? How Iyatil got out of the asylum maybe?