skaa

It has taken a while, but I've finally decided to delve into the inner workings of the Cosmere and immerse myself in Realmatic Theory. I've already read both Kurkistan's and Satsuoni's impressively thorough musings on the matter, and I think I'm ready to share my thoughts. Inspirations behind this theory include the MEC, Satsuoni's Realmatic theory, Wan ShaiLu's Realmatic lectures in TES, and... the object-oriented programming (OOP) paradigm. You see, this lowly skaa is also a lowly code monkey in real life. I read and write code everyday, so it can't be helped that certain programming concepts intrude in my mind even when I'm not thinking about work. I've found that this can sometimes help me understand strange and alien concepts using terms I'm familiar with. So, here I will try to use OOP as an analogy to help fellow programmers understand Brandon's fictional cosmology. It will not be a perfect analogy, I know, but I'm gonna have to work with what I have. Alright! Here we go! *crosses fingers* Table of Contents Part I: Objects and the Three Realms Part II: Investiture, Shadesmar, and Metaprogramming Part III: Realmatic Integration Testing Appendix I: Realmatic Interactions Part I: Objects and the Three Realms Summary: In OOP terms, the Spiritual aspect is the set of an object's methods the class definition[1] of the object, the Cognitive aspect is the set of values of an object's runtime attributes, and the Physical aspect is the set of an object's publicly accessible members (i.e. its public interface). Everything in the Cosmere is made up of "objects". By "object", I mean an entity that has both a set of constituent parts and a set of instructions detailing its behavior. Brandon is probably more familiar with the philosophical definition of the word, but since I'm just a code monkey and not a philosopher, I'll stick to my somewhat oversimplified OOP-based definition. The behavioral specification (In OOP, the "class definition"[1]) of an object allows it to interact with itself and with others, and is basically the Spiritual aspect of the object, its soul. This jives with Satsuoni's theory that the Spiritual Realm is responsible for connections and interactions, as well as with Kurkistan's idea of "motive force". Now, when we talk of an object "interacting with itself", what do we mean by that? The "Self" (or Spiritual Identity) exists because the different parts of the object (which are themselves objects) have started grouping their spiritual aspects into a single unit. In OOP, defining the identity of the object is the job of the constructor and setter methods. Identity determines what is in the object and what is outside of it, and in the Cosmere, this separation between "self" and "others" creates consciousness. This coming together of separate objects to view themselves as a single conscious entity was already described by Shai, and she also explains that how an object views itself is basically its Cognitive aspect. In OOP, objects can have fields containing other objects that act as its attributes and properties. The Cognitive aspect would encompass everything that the object views in itself: its attributes, its constituent components, its thoughts, its sensory perceptions, etc. Speaking of the senses, normal objects can only sense other objects in a limited way. In Realmatic terms, Object A can only sense Object B if Object B's Spiritual aspect specifies the possibility of interacting with Object A. In OOP terms, this involves two things: Object B needs to have public methods or attributes. Object A must be in a position to access those public members (i.e. Object B should be within its scope). The sum total of all the publicly accessible methods and attributes of all the objects in the Cosmere is what we call the Physical realm. This includes the fundamental forces of nature like gravity and electromagnetism that all objects use to interact with each other, as well as the attributes changed by such interactions. Remember that in the Cosmere, physical forces (e.g. gravity) are actually dictated by the Spiritual realm, while physical attributes (e.g. position, shape, structure, etc.) are stored in the Cognitive realm. The Physical realm therefore comes from the interaction between the Spiritual and Cognitive realms. I suppose I ought to give some examples. Certain objects like bowling balls, jagged shards of glass, and human body parts have the ability to exert force (in the Newtonian sense of the word). In the Cosmere, these forces originate from the Spiritual realm (in OOP, the class definition)[1]. Such objects also have special kinds of properties like shape, color, structure, momentum, position in spacetime, etc., that are affected by forces exerted on them. The interaction of those forces (Spiritual) and those properties (Cognitive) is called Physics, which is why we call these objects Physical entities. Another example would be thoughts and perceptions. These things would not have Spiritual methods to exert physical force. In fact they would just have the minimal amount of Spiritual presence to allow conscious objects to store, retrieve, analyze, or destroy them. Other than that, thoughts and perceptions would be mostly composed of attributes, like "truth-value". "clarity", "usefulness" etc., making these objects Cognitive entities. Lastly, there would be objects that have behavioral instructions but have very few (if any) perceivable attributes. Examples are forces and spirits. They may "do things", but they have very little in terms of defining characteristics. These would be what we call Spiritual entities. Here is how an object gains presence in all three realms: An object must always have a Spiritual aspect, even if it's just a tiny one, for the simple reason that all objects must manifest at least one behavior: the action of existence. As long as an object exists, it is in the Spiritual realm. The more actions an object can perform, and the more complex those actions are, the stronger its Spiritual aspect. Complex lifeforms have a strong Spiritual presence, but so do cosmic forces like the Shards of Adonalsium. Objects with the strongest Spiritual presence might be called omnipotent. An object gains a Cognitive aspect the moment it achieves Spiritual Identity (i.e. the moment it sees itself as a separate entity). The more distinctly this identity can be sensed by itself and others, the stronger the Cognitive aspect. This is usually achieved by increasing its number of unique attributes, especially attributes related to sensory perception (e.g. sensory organs). Intelligent beings have a strong Cognitive presence, and omniscient beings have the strongest Cognitive presence of all. An object gains a Physical aspect when it allows its attributes to potentially become affected by the actions of other objects. Objects with a bigger number of attributes exposed to outside influence have a stronger Physical aspect. Mass is one of these attributes, so massive objects have a strong Physical presence, especially super-massive black holes. (To be continued in Part II: Investiture, Shadesmar, and Metaprogramming) Edit (Footnote [1]): Satsuoni and Kurkistan (who both inspired this theory) have convinced me in the discussion below that "methods" are the wrong analogy to use for the Spiritual realm. Rather, "classes" would be better. Note the corrections I made above to reflect this change in the theory. Update(2016-12-31): Fixed the links in the table of contents. Reading this again after three and a half years, and knowing what we know now about the cosmere, I now find this to be little more than an amusing attempt to frame Realmatics in programming terms. Serious Cosmere theorists are better off speculating on what the Realms are, rather than what they can be compared to. For a more serious theory, consider this other one, instead.

Yeah, I think they would be "magic wave"-producing devices. My theory was partly inspired by the "waveforms are Roshar's focus" theory, which I currently espouse (see my sig). From what we've seen so far, music is involved in at least a few of Roshar's magic systems. I just thought that combining music with the waveforms theory seemed like an obvious fit. And since we do not yet know what kind of objects the Dawnshards were, I decided to provide my own theory based on the magical music idea and the naming coincidences I mentioned (Dawnshards, Dawnsingers, etc.).

Thanks for the comment, Meg! Yeah, I remembered that part while I was writing the theory, which is why I added a bit of uncertainty in my statement about who exactly used the Dawnshards. If the Dawnsingers really were spren (though I doubt it), then perhaps they were bonded to those who used the Dawnshards back in ancient times, whoever they were.

So, this is just a quick theory about Dawnshards. First of all, here's what we know about them: They can "bind any creature, voidish or mortal" They disappeared some time before Tanavast recorded his "journal" Tanavast believes that they can be of great help in fighting Odium There is also this tidbit: Analyzing the Poem of Ista, I propose that Dawnshards were held in the user's hands when being used, as opposed to being worn like Shardplate, but of course we're not sure. Next, let's look at all the other terms on Roshar that contain the word "dawn": Dawnsingers Dawnchant (an ancient language that now survives only in the Vanrial song) Dawncities (which, as Kabsal showed, feature cymatic patterns) It's already obvious where I'm getting at: I think the Dawnshards were magical musical instruments used by certain heroes of the Heraldic epochs (perhaps the Dawnsingers, or perhaps some other group entirely). There! I've said it. Now that I read that, it almost seems rather silly in its simplicity ("Dawnsingers and Dawnshards both have 'dawn' in them, so they must be related? LOL, you silly skaa..."). But it does shine a new light on Kaladin's encounter with Hoid. While I don't necessarilty think that Hoid's flute is a Dawnshard nor that Kaladin will become a Dawnsinger, I do think that Hoid might be preparing Kaladin to one day rediscover these magical artifacts so that he may "return to men the Shards they once bore". Also, magical music sounds more likely to "bind" creatures than, say, slashing at them with magical swords. (As you can see, I am highly skeptical of the idea that the Dawnshards were some sort of Shardblade.) Edit: Given what we've seen in Words of Radiance, I now also suspect that these musical instruments called Dawnshards are also spren, and somehow these spren (Dawnsingers?) have "died", or at least have disappeared for some reason.

@EmanEmal: Honestly, I'm starting to move away from this theory and towards the slightly different theory that Shardblades are objects powered by odiumspren inside the gemstone attached to them. That could probably still jive with the rest of my theory regarding Voidbringers and the Knights Radiant, so I'm not too bummed out. It would have its own problems (e.g. how could Shardblades work without Stormlight?), but at least it's less controversial than the "Shardblades are spren" idea.

Yeah, that makes sense. Still, we know that Sunraiser (Elhokar's Shardblade) is thin... So, thin Shardblades are a thing among the Lighteyes, and Brandon might prefer to give something similar to Shallan (perhaps for aesthetic purposes). But that aside, thanks for the correction, Windrunner! I note with much hesitation that if Shardblades have actual diamonds attached to them (and not just something with a gemstone-like appearance), then they are probably not spren, and so my theory about them is wrong. Well, that's a bummer. I guess I'll have to go with the "A Shardblade's gemstone contains odiumspren" alternative theory, which is a cross between Shardlet's theory and mine. I still don't think any of the Shardblades were of Honor. The main uses of Shardblades all have something to do with death and destruction; even the Knights and the Heralds used it for that, except their targets were Voidbringers and other creatures of Odium. I still can't reconcile this fact with the Shardic Intent of either Honor or Cultivation, and so I still have to conclude that Shardblades use Odium's system. Here's another reason why I think even Honorblades are of Odium. From Kalak's description of his torturous experiences in between Desolations, we know that part of the Heralds' torture involves "hooks, digging into their flesh anew each day". This suggests that the place of torture was more than just a place of pain in the abstract, and that they had actual torturers who physically assaulted them. Given how Shardblades could destroy even Odium's creatures, it makes one wonder why the Heralds didn't just fight off their torturers using their Honorblades. They certainly could have sliced the hooks away, at least. I can think of a couple of possible reasons why this is so, but the one I find most fitting is that they were incapable of using their Honorblades in that place for the simple reason that their torturers and the spren in their Honorblades were one and the same: odiumspren.

Hey Shardlet, you were kind enough to give helpful comments on my own Shardblade theory, so I'll try to give my two cents regarding yours. Your musings about massive Shardblades made me think about Shallan. All we know about Shallan's Shardblade is that it is "long and silvery". I'm pretty sure it's not as massive as Dalinar's or Elhokar's Shardblades, otherwise Shallan would need to be as strong as a man (or wearing Shardplate) to even wield it. So it seems to me that the Shardblades of Lighteyes need not be as massive as what we've seen so far. Next, here's the text showing Syl's hatred of Shardblades: It seems to me that Syl objected to the Shardblade itself, not just how it is used. Of course, that's still compatible with the view that Shardblades have been corrupted, and so are now hated by honorspren. The "created to fight nightmares" line was from Szeth, whose Shardblade at least we both agree is from Odium. I'm thinking that Szeth, just like almost everyone currently living on Roshar, associates Shardblades with the Knights Radiant, and so he'd assume that they were created to fulfill the Knights' honorable mission. He wouldn't really know anything about the Shardblades' origins since that knowledge would have been lost along with many things about the Heraldic epochs. On the other hand, Szeth does know about Surgebinding, just like Jasnah, so he obviously knows more about the Radiants than the average Shardbearer. I think Phantom might be onto something when he connects Shardblades with the Essence Lucentia (diamond and eyes). Of course, Lucentia's Divine attributes are Loving and Healing, which would be the absolute opposite of what people do when they use Shardblades, but I think this might tie in with the theory (I believe it's Isomere's) that Odium can corrupt the magic systems on Roshar to cater to his Shardic Intent. Perhaps an Odium-Invested diamond can produce the opposite effect of Lucentia-based magic (e.g. destruction instead of healing), while still affecting the user's eyes?

It's the same basic power every time. I might decide to include powers that evolve (kind of like secondary mutations in X-Men).

Thanks for your comments, EmanEmal! Have an upvote! Your third point is very good and I'm going to have to put them in the counter evidence list. Instant summoning would require my odiumspren to have more than one kind of "measurement for wavefuntion collapse", and we don't know yet if that's even possible. Your ninth point might also be linked to this issue. As for the rest, we know from Cusicesh that the wavefunction collapse can be brought about by measuring time. The measurement doesn't have to be about an intrinsic attribute of the spren. And yeah, I think Shardblades and Shardplate have completely different natures and origins, though I'm starting to suspect that Shardplate has been touched by Odium somehow during the Recreance. Edit: One counter evidence that hasn't been mentioned yet is that Brandon himself seems fond of Shardblades. In the Acknowledgement section of the book, he muses about giving Shardblades to the people who helped him. That dampened my conviction that Shardblades are of Odium, at least a bit, but we'll see.

Here's another one, this time from Dalinar's viewpoint. This stuff is usually posted in the "Events, Signings, and Stalking" forum, thanks to the cool people here who transcribe Brandon's reading events.

There are powers that allow humans to leave their physical bodies and become, as you say, purely magical beings (I call them spirit beings). Most of these people will authomatically return to their bodies once they run out of magic. I do have one character that is able to subvert this limitation. He can create clones of himself, all of which would be spirit beings and could live on even when the main body runs out of magic. No, that's not possible. The substance needs to undergo a chemical reaction before the magic happens, so to speak. This chemical reaction only naturally happens in the brain, so the plants themselves are immune from magical attacks. Some animals can use it. I haven't thought of a limit yet, but it should work even for birds. Well, I imagine there would be one or two ruins of ancient cities with a good amount of magical debris. Magical walls in this world only act completely solid for spirit beings, and are otherwise semi-permeable to normal magic users (and are, of course, completely permeable to non-magics), so it shouldn't be a big deal.

I agree. The warmongering attitude of the Alethi was helping Odium achieve his plans, and I believe the ardents were warned about this through the prophecies. They tried to lessen the highprinces' bloodlust by imposing religious discipline, but we know how that strategy rarely works even in real life. Fear of God takes a back seat when there is fear of military conquest and execution.

Hi aeromancer! Brandon wrote annotations for all the chapters of the Mistborn trilogy. Here are a couple that talk about what the real Kelsier (not Ruin in disguise) was doing in Hero of Ages: Mistborn 3 Chapter Fifty-Eight Part 3 (click on the "Show Spoilers" link) Mistborn 3 Chapter Sixty-Four (again, click on the "Show Spoilers" link) There's also this interview with Brandon where he says that Kelsier stayed in the Cognitive realm (a.k.a. Shadesmar) after he died.

Here you go, DragonReborn. Welcome to the forums!

From the Ars Arcanum: Again, there might be exceptions (but yeah, this is one of the things that keeps me from accepting that theory).

That's the fabrial theory once again. It would still require a spren that is aligned to the concept of division, though.I'm trying to figure out if parts 2 and 3 of my theory could survive if Shardblades are fabrials rather than being wholly spren, but I'll wait for the next book before deciding. I really hope that Words of Radiance will have a definitive answer as to the true nature of Shardblades.

Well, they'd definitely need to get atium and lerasium from Scadrial (or at least, from Harmony). Sazed himself said that the very rocks on Scadrial contained Ruin and Preservation; that's where I got that idea. He also said that what makes atium behave the way it does Allomantically is due to it containing Ruin and not Preservation. So, what if a piece of metal had Honor and Cultivation in it? Or Endowment? Or Odium? But hey, if it's not something you guys want to ask Brandon, then I'm fine with that.

For a while Brandon deliberated whether to make Book 2 about Dalinar's story or about Shallan's. He wouldn't have had any difficulty if each book focused on a member of the next Order in the sequence. (Edit: Unless Dalinar and Shallan are in the same Order. ) I also think Book 2 would have Nan embossed on the cover, but perhaps the Nan member will just be introduced. Or if we'd already met him, perhaps he'll be one of the main characters for the book, but not Shallan.

Thanks for reminding me. I never would have thought about that otherwise. It's not like my theory covered that already, or anything. Perhaps. Perhaps not. You haven't really argued your case for that, while I already argued my case several times. I failed to convince you, but you never even tried to convince me. I think I'll stick to my theory for a little while longer.

Yes. Scadrian metal have Ruin and Preservation in them, though. That may or may not be important.

Yeah, as I previously stated, the "fabrial" theory of Shardblades is a valid alternative theory. It's just that I don't want to abandon my theory just yet. By the way, have we seen fabrials that don't require Stormlight? I'm pretty sure Shardblades don't, though they could just be a special type of fabrial powered by something else entirely. It's a possibility. I apologize for the above statement. We're talking about a world where physical laws are broken on a regular basis by physical objects. It's quite possible that Shardblades are simply enchanted, and are perfectly physical otherwise. I was just speculating that they're not, but I wouldn't complain (too much) if we find out that they are.

If Scadrians want to use Allomancy outside of Scadrial, will they need to carry Scadrian metals for them to burn? Does the source planet of the metal matter?

Could you please stop with that drilling to the core thing? I never made such a claim. If a spren can mimic one physical attribute (e.g. tangibility... of sorts) then it might be able to mimic other physical attributes, like the act of clattering on the ground (but only if the owner dies, or if the blade is an Honorblade and the owner doesn't die... doesn't sound much like a physical object now, eh?).If you need to mentally focus on something, or die, or (in the case of Honorblades) not die, for it not to vanish once you let go, that thing is not a Physical object. Physical objects don't have that requirement, Phantom. Shardblades are at best temporarily quasi-physical Cognitive entities. That's why I thought I could speculate that they are spren. I may be wrong, but I'd wait for something a bit more definitive than what I've seen so far. I'm sorry if I seem a bit pissed off and sounding like a jerk (both to shardbearer and Phantom Monstrosity). I've already listed the good counter evidence you guys mentioned there in my first post, and I'll still add any that might follow. I appreciate Phantom's superhuman ability to give helpful quotes, but I get frustrated when my point doesn't get across. Perhaps I just need to improve my writing skills or something.

Except Honorblades. Look, we clearly can't be convinced to agree on something right now. I think we'll just have to wait for Words of Radiance.

That's very interesting, Phantom, but I'm not quite sure I see the relevancy. Did I accidentally imply that it would burrow a hole to the planet's core once the owner dies? Anyway, Honorblades vanish when their owners die, and I've already speculated about why that is so in the second part of my theory. If I'm correct about the Oathpact, normal Odiumspren/Shardblades would have to abandon their holders when they die, so it makes sense that they'd be looking for a new holder to bind to, by allowing someone else to grab them.