ChickenBonanza

Vague WaT talk. Reminded of something by reading a single line on the Kandra wiki page. Invested beings and their ties to planets. It boils down to one major consideration, in my understanding.

If Investiture is attached to a Physical form, then you are golden and you don’t really have to care about getting trapped in planetary systems. Kandra, Allomancers, Elantrians, Sand Masters, even Returned, they are all chilling. Their sDNA resides in a cozy Physical host they can attach to, and therefor don’t Connect to the planet as a Physical anchor. This consideration gets messy, however, when considering beings whose Physical forms are entirely comprised of Investiture, like the Heralds, and any bindings placed upon the whole of a Shard’s Investiture.

I am uncertain if Heralds were bound solely by the latter binding, or if they were also bound by their status as beings comprised of Investiture. The term ‘Cognitive Shadow’ means nothing to me, here. Only consideration is Physical form. Returned differ from Heralds, in that their bodies are not assembled wholly from Investiture. (And before you say, ‘Breaths can leave because of Endowment blah blah’ I HATE you. That’s a lame explanation when we see other Shardic Investitures casually leave, too.)

For beings without Physical forms, like spren or the vast majority of Cognitive Shadows caused by the death of a person, they are limited by Connection to planets. Become attached to a Physical anchor. I believe spren could get around this by forming a Nahel bond with a Physical being, as they would have replaced a planetary anchor for a mobile one. (Moving too far away from their bondmate would exhibit similar symptoms as attempting to leave a planet. However, this would have not been previously possible for spren specifically, do to the whole extra Shardic binding business. If that bond were to have not existed, but the Shard remained Invested in the planet, then spren would only be able to leave via forming a Nahel bond to a Physical being departing that way. Heralds are once again a weird case.)

Some exceptions exist, with very understandable explanations. Seons can form Nahel bonds, but their composite Shard/Shards are also not present in the Spiritual Realm, and thus technically not Invested upon Sel.

Anyway, that’s my impression. If you are Physical or bonded to a Physical being, you don’t got to worry about much. Only Cognitive beings without an Nahel bond to a Physical form are trapped, I think. (Unless your sire refuses to let your primal essence leave.)

Also, sidebar, hot take, Elantrians aren’t actually ‘very highly’ Invested. They only seem like that because most of them are CONSTANTLY chugging on Dor like there’s no tomorrow. Elantris is just one giant drug den frfr.

and before you ask, YES, i AM an idiot. sources? i have none and i never will.