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45 minutes ago, A Simple Pilgrim said:

If the total Cosmere only has 50-100 stars, and Khriss is right that Drominad system has the most settled planets around a single star at 3, then that means that Sizgil has probably skipped to the majority of all the inhabited worlds of the Cosmere!

Hmm, good point! I wonder if he's actually Skipped to the same planets multiple times, but different regions with more unique forms of Investiture (eg ChayShan vs the Aons on Sel). Would be hard for him to confirm, since his Linguistic Connection would likely link him only to the region if the planet was sufficiently large. 

27 minutes ago, A Simple Pilgrim said:

I've always been interested in demographics and populations, and have tried (often fruitlessly) to calculate the population of worlds in the Cosmere, how they are distributed, and the economies associated with that. 

For a while, I've been wondering what sort of scale of space opera the Cosmere would develop into. It could have been very small, like that of the The Expanse with 2 major planets in a Cold War, and a dozen or so minor worlds struggling to find their place between or away from them. Or it could be a very large scale like Star Wars, 40k, Dune, or Foundation. 

Now, the fact that the events of the Cosmere would be so influenced by a few significant planets and their empires implies a size smaller than some of the listed settings, but the exact scale remained unclear. Now we have a pretty good guess. 

In the first chapter of Sunlit Man, Nomad reflects on his inability to prevent deaths as 'millions, or maybe billions, die every day'. That number actually says a lot, as currently on Earth we have a population of 8 billion, yet only suffer 150,000 deaths per day. With this we can do simple calculations for population based on some variables we can manipulate. If the total number of deaths were 10 million for instance, and the Cosmere was twice as deadly as Earth today, that would give us a Cosmere with about 270 billion people in it. Personally I'm inclined to a higher number, as I don't think Nomad would be off by 2 orders of magnitude, after having been to tens of different worlds. 200 million deaths a day would imply a population between 5-10 trillion for example. 

As it seems unlikely we will get planets with 100s of billions of people, the ease of travel off world would probably prevent that level of density, that implies that the Cosmere probably has a number of inhabited worlds in the thousands, perhaps a bit over 10,000. That would give you a setting of about equal size to the first Dune novel, or Star Trek. The question we will have to see in more future books is how many of these worlds have fallen into one of the factions, and just what scale of galactic war could the Rosharans and Scadrians unleash?

It's an interesting question for sure, one I think (and hope) we'll see explored as more of the world maps' get revealed. 

However, regarding Siggy's perspective on deaths in the cosmere, Brandon did have this to say last year:

Quote

VeryNiceName16

Sigzil mentions that perhaps billions of people die every day in the Cosmere. This would require about 6000 modern earths. Was this a mistake, or has the scale dramatically increased from the 50-100 stars you mentioned?

Brandon Sanderson

Nah, it's Sigzil exaggerating. He's Hoid's apprentice, he has dramatic license and hyperbole as a tool that he can use at will. He has no idea how many people actually die, he's not gonna run the- well, he could run the math, he's that type of person, but he has not run that math.

Secret Project #4 Reveal and Livestream (March 29, 2022)

Edit: I also found the WOB where he mentions the rough size of the cosmere. See below:

Quote

Questioner

Is there a center to the cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

There isn't a center in the cosmere... I keep calling it a dwarf galaxy but I think they decided it's a cluster, instead of a dwarf galaxy.

Overlord Jebus

Even a dwarf galaxy is still really big.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, still too big. So we had to call it a cluster. Because we only wanted like what, we came up with 50 or 100 stars? So it's a cluster. Or a really dwarf galaxy.

Emerald City Comic Con 2018 (March 1, 2018)

One thought I had is that the manacle had some kind of Allomantic property - ie, Ironpulling. It was actively pulling Nomad towards the ground, maybe working in conjunction with it's Feruchemical property. How exactly that works, I'm not sure, but it sounds somewhat plausible I feel. 

On 10/2/2023 at 11:29 AM, Johnny Silverlight said:

The Sunlit Man offers us our first tantalizing hints about the nature of the Evil that slew most of the humans on Threnody. The relevant passage occurs on Page 140:

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“We came from another world,” she said around bites of her food. Odd, how they even ate with gloves on. “Chased by an ancient force known as the Evil.”

“It’s still there,” he said. “On your homeworld. I’ve seen it. Well, the manifestations of it.” Wild, unchained Investiture, come to life with its own alien will—forming mountain-sized figures with impossible, unnerving features and unknowable motivations. Threnody was not a place one visited to relax.

This comment finally threw her for a loop. She almost dropped her sandwich as he said it.

 

 

It's tantalizing for sure! Can't wait to see some Awakened Jaegers going toe to toe with these fellas. 

Just now, Firesong said:

What do you mean? Latter only works in a list of two, so I am curious if you meant the second, or were using an expanded abstraction of the term to mean "The ending element in a list"

Sorry, was referring to your last point; that being similar to the 15th Shard. 

29 minutes ago, Firesong said:

I do wonder if he is holding it off as there is something special about that Shard, or if he didn't find a chance to bring it up, or if it was like a Shard 15 scenario where he is taking a while to find the right name for it. 

I feel like it's more the later. I've always liked the fanon name 'Prudence', though 'Caution', 'Cunning' and 'Guile' are also some good ones. 

Will be interesting to see whenever they revel themselves. 

I'm not a part of the Discord, but I imagine they're waiting for the public release of the book; for those who didn't manage to catch the Kickstarter?

1 hour ago, Atlas333 said:

 

Hmm, what an interesting theory! Still a lot of uncertainty around the Spiritual metals, but this does seem somewhat plausible. Wouldn't be nearly as effective as an Essence Mark, as those require a ton of research, false memories and exact stamps to work. I could see a Twinborn 'locking' a specific goldshadow that you could access again (as goldshadows change depending on your current situation).

I don't know about tapping your own 'memory' though; I feel that's more of a copper thing. You could maybe tap that other version of you for perspective on a given situation though.

Regarding storing Identity, we really haven't seen what that looks like in terms of the Ferring themselves. I don't think it would give you access to alternative lives though; when you fill an aluminummind, you're blanking your Identity, not replacing it with another. You would be much easier to Forge though.

1 hour ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

I believe that the gold would work similarly to stormlight healing in that it returns you to your spiritual ideal.  But we see kaladin who has internalized being blind and it doesn't work for his scars.  

Would a person who was born blind and lived that life for 20 years be able to heal their blindness with F gold if they jusy became a ferring?  

Most healing in the cosmere is based on restoring you to your spiritual ideal, but that restoration is filtered through the cognitive aspect. Kaladin (until ROW) saw his scars as part of himself, so they weren't healed. I imagine that healing from blindness would be the same - some individuals might heal, some might not; it depends on the individual and how they 'see' that part of themselves. Think of Renarin - his eyes healed to the point he didn't need glasses.

1 hour ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Would hemalurgically granted F gold work differently if it was taken from a person whos spiritual ideal was a seeing individual due to having that persons spirit web infused with your own?  

I don't believe that's the case - I believe hemalurgy steals the ability to use the power, not the Identity associated with it. So you can now store healing in a metalmind, but you can't use the former Ferring's metalminds (though I could be wrong on this - please correct me if I am fellow Shardgoers)

1 hour ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Would a person born blind gifted a returns single blessing recieve sight or would it only heal injuries?  Say your body never grew eyes... weird for sure but for discussions sake.  We saw the god king get his tongue back but that was healing an injury.  Can the most powerful healing spell in the game make someone who was never born with eyes in the first place suddenly grow them and be able to see?  

Yes, I believe it could. We know that the gift of a Returned's Divine Breath is some of the strongest in the Cosmere. We also know that it's a 'giving' act (Endowment) and therefore partially based on the Returned's perception of the individual they are healing. The Divine Breath healing also goes deeper than some other magics - we know that Lightsong's sacrifice didn't only heal Susebron's tongue, but also gave him the knowledge of how to speak and how to use it to Awaken things. 

6 hours ago, Frustration said:

Awakeners already pair nicely with Returned so we don't need to consider them.

Radiants are in many ways similar to Yoki-hijo so I feel relatively confident placing oath 5 Radiants near them, if not equal to, though the Heralds being lower than them does make me hesitant to do so.

Mistborn and Feruchemists I would probably place in the same spot, and well below Returned.

Sandmasters I would place just below them.

I'm still not sure where to place Aetherbound.

Hmm, I feel like it depends a little on what we mean by Invested. Haven't we been told that Radiants aren't specifically that highly Invested in and of themselves, but the higher the Oath the more efficient they are with Stormlight?

If so, I don't believe they'd be close to Elantrian level in terms of 'being Invested'; they may be able to hold that much Investiture, but it's not conjoined with their spiritweb in the same way that the Dor and Breaths are. And if we say it's the bond of a single spren specifically that takes you to that Investiture level, then we should also consider those bonded to a seon to be at the same level. 

I could be wrong about that though; feel free to correct me if that's the case.

That being said, I reckon @alder24 's list would be pretty close in a general sense - not considering specific characters and investiture storage. 

4 hours ago, Atlas333 said:

My question is, if spirits can seemingly form into anything (provided they're willing), could they form a shardblade? 

This is theoretically possible, as the hijo are basically the same as the spren, the seon and the skaze. We have the following WOB's talking about this, with a direct line about needing something pulling them into the Physical Realm.

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paperstones

Could a seon or a skaze turn into some sort of Shardblade on their home planet?

Brandon Sanderson

That is theoretically possible.  They work under the same fundamentals but they would need to have something to pull them more into the Physical Realm.  

Words of Radiance Omaha signing (March 13, 2014)

Quote

Questioner

[Spren] are used to Invest a lot of things, fabrials, they turn into Shardblades. Are we ever going to see something similar with the seons, from Sel?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, they are basically the same thing. They're a little more formalized, a little more structured but they are basically the exact same thing so yes. Some of the things you see spren doing seons are capable of, some things that seons do spren will be capable of.

Shadows of Self release party (Oct. 5, 2015)

So yeah, I reckon it's possible, given that the hijo already have a method of transitioning into the Physical Realm; through the Yoki-hijo (and as the hion, but I feel that's already a 'creation' so to speak). 

Would they be the exact same as the Radiant Shardblades? Hard to say. I like your theory though; that they'd be locked in the single form, but manifest as two different weapons or parts of a weapon. A sword and scabbard, or spear and shield etc, seems fairly reasonable to me. 

13 minutes ago, KaladinWorldsinger said:

The text specifically implies that they were beings of incredible willpower first, refusing to be controlled, and then mentions that they were highly invested. It doesn't specify how important that was.

While this is true, it's also a bit subjective on how important it is. It's the same section of text.

14 minutes ago, KaladinWorldsinger said:

I definitely think that the yoko-hijo are strong willed as in self-disciplined, self-controlled. They are incredible hard workers. That's what they choose to do after all.

But self-discipline has nothing to do with assertiveness. They are very different skillsets. In fact I think the yoko-hijo should be very low on that scale and be completely unable to resist the machine, more than even the average person. 

Yumi is really, really scared to ask for a visit to the festival on her birthday. How can someone like that 'refuse to be controlled' when no one else on the planet could? For an accommodating person, it is hard to switch the other way and be assertive all of a sudden. I think all pushovers would agree, it is hard to stand up for yourself. She has momentum in being accommodating (borrowing the idea from tress), it would be very hard to change course.

Yes, I agree with this. Being assertive and being self-disciplined are different skillsets. It takes Yumi much of the book to stand up for herself and her station. 

However, I feel most of that isn't due to Yumi being a pushover by personality; it's being a slave to society and expectation. The text actually says this on page 73 "Yumi wasn't weak. She wasn't a pushover. Don't assume fragility where you should see patience." 

She wants to be seen as worthy by the spirits. More than that, she wants to do what she sees is right. It just happens that so much of that has been hamstrung with tradition, expectation and guilt. Yumi, and probably the other yoki-hijo, are choosing to be submissive, because they've been taught that being free and assertive aren't the right thing for a yoki-hijo to do and will offend the spirits. And, if they offend the spirits, they can't do their job and the people suffer and die.  

To me, it feels more like the 'anger of a gentle man' thing for Yumi. We see what happens when Nikaro pushes her too far and she gets in his face, staring him down. She does have a backbone, she's just afraid that using it will offend the hijo and those that depend on her work.

A Machine that literally shredded the souls of those same people would certainly induce some anger, I reckon. Bear in mind, the soul that reformed was her spiritual aspect; the most perfect, ideal version of herself. That aspect of Yumi had that assertive nature within it, even if she didn't know about it (cognitively speaking).

Personally, I feel the 'refuse to be controlled' line is also more specifically about the yoki-hijo refusing the Machine's control (rather than control in general), as it went against everything they'd been taught to live for. It killed the people, trapped the spirits and darkened their world. If you were one of the pillars of your entire society, and then something killed most of that society, I feel that even the most passive and submissive person wouldn't take that lying down. 

45 minutes ago, KaladinWorldsinger said:

Oh no, I am happy to discuss. My initial post was angry because I needed to let that out(a lot of the book rubs me the wrong way), but I definitely want to understand why some people love this so much when I don't.

Well, I can't stop the book from not sitting right with you. Hopefully I'm able to pass on some understanding from my end 

2 hours ago, KaladinWorldsinger said:

Then shouldn't there be more people who were able to resist the shroud? What makes the yoko-hijo special? And if the other 13 had better living conditions, then where did yumi get her willpower from? Was she just born with it?

I believe that much of their resistance is due to the nature of their highly Invested spiritwebs. As Design says, Yumi's Elantrian level in terms of Investiture - that's what makes them special. That Investiture is tied to their sense of Identity, which everyone in the cosmere has. It was a combination of both of those things that re-forged their souls. 

2 hours ago, KaladinWorldsinger said:

They don't get to meet and interact with people much, they don't get to make choices for themselves, nearly every day of their life is very similar. That is why I don't think they could have well developed senses of identity. What other way is there to gain it?  

Again, we've seen all of this from Yumi's perspective, so it's hard to say for certain what the lives of the other thirteen looked like. If they were granted more independence, that would certainly help establish a stronger sense of identity.

However, in terms of where Yumi specifically got her willpower from...where does willpower come from, empirically speaking? 

One idea is that willpower comes from, or is linked with, self-control and endurance; denying more pleasurable/ easier paths for ones more painful, but more beneficial. An athlete with a lot of willpower will have a greater sense of discipline in keeping consistent with a workout schedule, even if they don't feel like working out. A firefighter with a lot of willpower will be able to push through the pain to save somebody, or (alternatively) be able to recognize when somebody cannot be saved and not let that break them.

From what we know about Yumi, her sense of self-control at enduring through hardship, not breaking through the war, is pretty well developed, and likely comes from a lifetime of serving others. Look at her first scene of stacking stones - she pushes herself to exhaustion, fingers made bloody. Now, you could say she was 'forced' to do that, but the text implies that she kept going not for the onlookers, but to be worthy for the spirits. In fact, despite her work, she still thinks of herself as unworthy, as she secretly yearns for freedom. 

I feel what she lacks is independence and perspective. All she knows is her own life, devoid of freedom, so once Nikaro comes in and starts questioning things, starts breaking down those social boundaries (even if unintentionally at first), Yumi starts to shift that sense of willpower on to the good things she was missing in her life. And we see, at the end of the book, that sense of willpower was enough for her to pull herself back together, with Nikaro's help. Our world, our rules. As Hoid said, "she was as real as anyone else, because she wanted to be."

2 hours ago, KaladinWorldsinger said:

I think there is direct thought from Yumi about how she didn't know what she exactly wanted anymore, but I can't find it.

I could be wrong here, but there is a quote right at the end of the book when she says this : "I'm losing myself, Nikaro", she thought. "No one knows me anymore. I don't even know myself. I'm sorry. It was always a dream."  I feel that's more so to do with her accepting that she was dispersing with the shroud, and her willingness to sacrifice herself so that Nikaro and her friends may live. And again, once Nikaro is able to Connect her back and convince her to stay, she chooses to. 

May not be the quote you mentioned though.

Again though, this is just my perspective on things. I'm not trying to invalidate yours, and I apologize if that's what came across. 

5 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

FTFY

OB Ch: 120

  Hide contents

“I made you! I forged you!” He leaped at Kaladin, propelling himself off the ground, hanging in the air.

And in so doing, he entered Kaladin’s domain.

Kaladin launched at Amaram. The highprince swung, but the winds themselves curled around Kaladin, and he anticipated the attack. He Lashed himself to the side, narrowly avoiding one Blade. Windspren streaked past him as he dodged the other by a hair’s width.

Syl became a spear in his grip, matching his motions perfectly. He spun and slammed her against the gemstone at Amaram’s heart. The amethyst cracked, and Amaram faltered in the air—then dropped.

Two Shardblades vanished to mist as the highprince fell some twenty feet to crash into the ground.

Kaladin floated downward toward him. “Ten spears go to battle,” he whispered, “and nine shatter. Did that war forge the one that remained? No, Amaram. All the war did was identify the spear that would not break.”

Amaram climbed to his knees, howling with a bestial sound and clutching the flickering gemstone at his chest, which went out, plunging the area into darkness.

 

Ahh, cheers for that! My apologies.

6 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

On the one hand, I agree with KWS in that he should have apologized before we see it on screen. On the other hand, I also had the impression that as soon as "the clique" found out he was not accepted to the Dreamwatch, they ostracized him and gave him no chance to apologize either.

Yeah, I do agree - he should definitely have apologized first, so long as the gang gave him the opportunity. It's certainly a character flaw, but I don't feel like it's a narrative one. 

5 hours ago, KaladinWorldsinger said:

 

Appreciate the honest thoughts mate, thank you for putting them forth.

My two cents regarding the yoki-hijo and their willpower being able to separate from the Shroud. 

1. We don't know if the other thirteen women where treated inhumanely. We learn that many of them (pre-shroud) were part of a reformist movement that allowed them a lot more freedom and individuality. We also don't know if Liyun is how all the other warden's treated their yoki-hijo, or if she's just the most hardcore version.

2. Separating from the shroud required both strength of Identity and a highly Invested spiritweb. They were Elantrian level Invested, something the machine was only able to shred initially, but that strength of self and amount of Investiture was able to reform itself.

In regards to the pain causing strength, I don't feel like that was the message being put forth here. As Dalinar said "Ten spears go to battle, and nine shatter. Did that war forge the one that remained? No, Amaram. All the war did was identify the spear that would not break."

The yoki-hijo have a lot of expectation on their shoulders - not because of being guilt tripped (though this is often an accompaniment), but because they provide an essential service. They're like firefighters, or nurses. They carry a ton of weight on their shoulders each day, and likely deal with even more abuse. This isn't good, it isn't fair, but it's reality.

Many essential workers face that war each day, and they keep working through it, keep helping people. They have not broken. Why would facing the shroud be any different?

Also, I feel it's a little reductive for us, as readers, to say 'How would they truly know what they want? When they have no real experiences?'

Who are we to decide that someone raised in such a controlling way 'can't know' what they want out of life?

Who are we to say they have no real experiences, when every new day provides nothing but experiences? 

How can we make such a heavy judgement in good faith? Do we know better then them?

I feel that is too personal a question to place a blanket statement over. 

Regarding what Yumi sees in Nikaro, I feel that's a much more subjective topic. 

My personal take was less about what she saw of him, but more about what she saw in him. She could see the potential that he smothered with lies, see the truth beyond the hypocrisy. Saw the hero beneath the failure, which he proved multiple times. Heck, he proved it right near the start by going after the stable nightmare. He IS a liar, he IS blaming himself, he DID do the wrong thing with his friends.

But this doesn't mean he's a failure or a mistake, or incapable of doing better. This doesn't make him hopeless - he just needs to take hold of his own power. I believe that this is what Yumi saw, and what drew her in.

Again, that's a very subjective thing though, and it's going to be different for everyone.  

22 hours ago, Lightspine said:

Actually, I don't think the Nightmare was touching Nikaro in that scene. What you're remembering is when Liyun is feeding from Yumi. Here's the full passage:

However, the Nightmare certainly did need to get closer to Nikaro in order to start feeding on him, and couldn't do it from a significant distance, so I understand your consternation at the machine being able to perform this over a range of (probably) thousands of miles.

My tentative thought here is that the Festival itself probably made it easier. A significant chunk of the Torish population may have been gathered in the capital city at that time, and a crowd of them gathered right up at the machine when it was being activated (Yumi finds the machine in what was once a "grand exhibit hall"). Maybe the large number of nearby souls was able to give the machine the power boost it needed to reach out and gather the more distant ones?

This is a really good point! Hadn't thought about that, but it makes sense.

In regards to the range question, the way I thought of it is kind of like Radiant's ingesting Stormlight. They don't have to be touching an infused gemstone to breathe in the Stormlight, they just need to be nearby. We can see this relative distance to be re-Invested is at least a few metres, as Kaladin and Szeth were able to fight in front of the stormwall, with their Investiture being renewed as they went. Similar thing with Honor's Perpendicularity. Not country-spanning, but more than the reach of touch. 

For the Machine, I feel that part of its Command was the ability to sense the nature and number of the Hijo present. It would have had to do this through metres and metres of stone. So perhaps that long-range Investiture 'sense' was hardcoded into it? And maybe it was only able to reach out to the more distant towns only because it was so empty upon activation. It couldn't do it in the present day because it was already crammed with Investiture. 

Thank you for this piece mate. Incredibly well written on all fronts, and wonderfully poignant. 

On 7/16/2023 at 1:53 AM, Aon Ati said:

I know that most will disagree strongly with me and this isn't a dig at anyone's opinion, but here's my thoughts on the ending. I LOVED this ending.

Second this. Though I can understand why people aren't a fan, I really enjoyed the ending too. For me, this wasn't a story that needed to end tragically - it ended with both protagonists giving their all to save the ones they loved (and they even did it through art). I also enjoyed how Hoid even mentions this by saying that Nikaro didn't know the story was over - he kept going. Kept trying. That message of hope really struck home with me as well.

On 7/14/2023 at 9:44 AM, Cocoa said:

When you factor in that 'simple' dissolution is a lot less serious than that, then I think who we see at the end is in fact the 'real' Yumi, alive and well. If not the original flesh-and-blood one from seventeen hundred years ago, then at least the same one that we've been following throughout the novel.

Of course, we're in deep deep metaphysics at this point. Vasher, for one, would almost certainly agree with you that we're essentially looking at a double-fossilized soul that mistakenly believes herself to be the original.

On a meta/ narrative level, I agree with you 100% - Cognitive Shadows are the original souls sufficed with Investiture. I also feel like it's the real/ original Yumi too (happier ending woo! )

I was only pointing out that, in the cosmere, that opinion is a perspective. A philosophical divide rather than a physical one, and something that's never going to get a definitive answer (like the nature of the Beyond, or the Ship of Theseus, as you mentioned). 

5 minutes ago, Firesong said:

A bit of a correction on the repelling, we actually see that all Investiture repels each other when in a kinetic form. Like, for instance, Shardplate resists Surgebinding, and Stoneshaping material that is Invested at all gets extremely difficult (and that would basically just be referring to Invested by Honor or Cultivation). So, it is just a general thing. 

Ah, that's a good point! Probably tied into Identity keyed to the Investiture then too.

9 minutes ago, Firesong said:

Unrelated, but I do wonder how different Adonalisum can become when remade, like, we know Shards combining makes Intents change, so like, would (Preservation + Ruin) + Autonomy be different from (Preservation + Autonomy) + Ruin, as one is Harmony + Autonomy, the other is a new Intent + Ruin. And this would basically compound over time to make some radically different Intents. Wonder how that works. 

Hmm, an interesting thought. It's tricky, because we don't know what Intent Adonalsium had (if they even had one to begin with). Did they even have a 'Vessel' or where they just sentient by themselves?

Regarding the shifting Intents for combining Shards, we don't have the greatest example in Harmony, since Sazed's two Intents are imbalanced within him. But I do agree; the order of how you grab the Shards would likely have a different effect on the Vessel and be warped by their own perceptions. Would that effect be resolved if they managed to grab all the Shards? Very hard to say at the moment. 

48 minutes ago, Underwater_Worldhopper said:

 

Just want to highlight your very eloquent response to the practical infinity of Investiture   Well said. 

4 hours ago, Firesong said:

I also believe we have essentially seen these, when we see Sazed pick up Ruin and Preservation and they are basically just balls of essence, I feel these balls are the Cores of the Shards. 

If this is true, it suggests that a Shard can reduce itself to basically nothing, to where it is basically just a Spren, while everything else is a splinter. Which I find an interesting idea. Though, it could be that the Core contains a minimum amount of Investiture that they cannot excise from themselves without causing irreparable damage. 

This idea's a tricky one, as @Underwater_Worldhopper also mentioned. You're starting to play with the nature of a Shard's Intent, which is really dense and infuses the Investiture of the entire Shard. That's one of the reasons why different forms of Investiture tend to repel each other, to some degree. Splintering is shaving off some of that power and removing it from the Cognitive Aspect of the Vessel the Shard's tied to, allowing the Investiture to attach itself to a new Cognitive Aspect (Ie Returned) or generate one for itself (ie Spren). 

Personally, I think the line between full Shard and Splinter is less of direct amount, but more about what Intent is given to the pieces. A 'Shard', by definition, is also technically a Splinter of Adonalsium's Investiture; it's just more practical to think about it as it's own entity due to the nature of it's Intent.

12 hours ago, Underwater_Worldhopper said:

I wonder how Yumi would interact with Spren. Could she turn Spren into Hijo-esque Fabrials too?

Ooh, now that would be interesting. Maybe she could by-pass the gemstone aspect of the Rosharan fabirals?

Fascinating stuff.

1 hour ago, Treamayne said:

@Firesong hit the nail. There are six or seven that we have seen on-screen (depending on if Resealing is different from Forgery - in that Forgery uses a MaiPon glyph to close the stamp and Resealing is portrayed as the naitve investiture of the Rose Empire (or at least the home nation of the Grands that eventuallt formed the Rose Empire) and likely closes with a different "nation-based" glyph. At least it certainly does not sound the the Grands of the Rose EMpire would be using stamps that Seal with the national glyph of what they consider a back-water province. . . ). That's not even counting the (likely) third Continent we haven't even seen yet (my bet is MesoAmerica) and who-knows-how -many varieties of investiture we'll find there.

WoBs:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Edit: Ninja'd by WoD/WtA Studios

Ahh, lovely - always good to read some WOB's I haven't seen before! Thank you for passing on  Got me extra excited for the future Sel novels.

53 minutes ago, Firesong said:

Basically, I love maps.  

Ditto. I'm really looking forward to when we have a full map for all the cosmere planets. Really excited!

And yes, still so much to explore on Scadrial. Someone did a great reprojection of the known continents against the Earth, and it goes to show how much we don't know!

3 minutes ago, Firesong said:

The thing is, we don't know how Anti-Investiture interacts with another Investiture, only its own inverse. I think it is implied they won't destroy each other as Navani wasn't hurt by Anti-Voidlight and the Anti-Tone of Odium. 

That's fair. I was looking at this WOB that mentioned an explosion, but you're right - it's not full on annihilation. 

Quote

R'Shara

Does anti-Investiture react to a different Shard’s Investiture in any significant way?

Brandon Sanderson

The answer is kind of a no, kind of a yes. Mostly a no. Anti-Investiture is going to have an explosive reaction. But the thing is, if it’s anti-Investiture of a specific Shard, that explosion is much grander. But you can make that explosion happen in a just antimatter-and-matter same sort of thing. But you can make the explosion bigger.

Dragonsteel 2022 (Nov. 14, 2022)

1 minute ago, Firesong said:

Hmmm... maybe. But I also doubt there are only six systems, I think I actually remember Brandon confirming there are more somewhere, but forgot where or if he even actually did. 

I did find this WOB on this, (one I haven't seen before! Woo!) However, it's still a bit vague - not exact line on how to define a new 'system' I suppose. 

Quote

aneonfoxtribute

Have many magic systems does Sel have?

Brandon Sanderson

It depends on how you define it. I would say over a dozen if you're dividing AonDor versus Forging as different magic systems. They have over a dozen. It depends on what you kind of circumscribe in the same style of magic system with just different ways to access it. It just depends on your definition.

Starsight Release Party (Nov. 26, 2019)

9 hours ago, Firesong said:

To be entirely fair, we haven't seen much about Cultivation, Devotion, Dominion, etc. The numbers for Devotion and Dominion are likely gonna show up in Elantris 2 and 3. 

Now that I think about it, Devotion and Dominion likely have something to do with 6. There's six Selish magic systmes (AonDor, Bloodsealing, ChayShan, Dakhor, Forgery, Potions), six days in a week, six months in a year.

(Shai also has six Essence Marks, but that's probably more coincidence than anything else.)