Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Steelheart Release Party (Verbatim)

At the end of the trilogy Sazed communicates with Kelsier so there is something going on with an afterlife. Is it uniform across the cosmere?

What is happening there is not actually technically an afterlife, well it kind of is, it is what we call a cognitive shadow its when your spirit is not moving on yet. So there is a Beyond but there is a—basically it is what we would call in our world a ghost, and there are actually magic systems based around that. Actually the story I have coming out in George R.R. Martin's next anthology is a ghost story involving this same—yes it is cosmere based. Yes, that would be consistent, they don't all have the same mythology regarding it. But it would be consistent, what happened with Kelsier could have happened on any of the planets.

cosmere, sazed, kelsier,

WoR Signing Report - Bartbug (Verbatim)

If Kelsier's Cognitive Shadow or a Seon went to the Forests of Hell, would they be shades?

Yes, that is the same thing. The people on that planet; their Investiture; the lack of shard means that their cognitive shadows react differently. The ghost of Leras is the same thing too.

threnody, shades, cognitive shadows, seon,

Orem Signing Report - Zas678 (Paraphrased)

So what happens when Shards die?

Well, it depends on how long the Shardholders have held the Shard. After they dies, the Shard is often able to continue acting, a kind of "Cognitive shadow". For example, the mists were able to continue doing what Preservation wished in helping out Vin and snapping people. With the Stormfather, he is that Cognitive shadow, and he's semi sentient. It's that power, but no one is actually holding it. We also see this on Threnody.

In this case, shardholder means vessel.

shards, cognitive shadows, stormfather, vessel,

Brandon Sanderson - /r/books AMA March 2015 (Verbatim)

Hey Brandon! So glad you are doing another AMA!

1. Could you explain a little more about Cognitive shadows? When you first mentioned the name and gave the examples of Kelsier and the Shades from Threnody you kind of gave the impression that they were kind of like ghosts. But this past December at the Orem signing you mentioned that the Stormfather and the mist were also Cognitive shadows. The first makes sense to me, I had an entire theory about that (although I argued he was specifically Tanavast's and not Honor's). The second however really doesn't make sense to me, unless it was actually the mist spirit that is the shadow and that got missed in the report (it wasn't verbatim), but even still Preservation is still alive at that point so how can he have a "ghost"? (Unless him sacrificing his mind to form Ruin's prison counts as "death" in this situation?)

The rest of these feel free to pick and choose which ones you want to answer (I'm finding it difficult to narrow things down, so I figure I'll leave it to you to decide which ones you want answered).

2. Are the Unmade Splinters of Odium?
3. Is the Well of Ascension Preservation's Perpendicularity? Or at least related to it (i.e. one is in the Physical Realm but the other is in the Cognitive but are still essentially different aspects of the same "thing")?
4. What if the Throne of Idris passed to someone who was not the child of the monarch? Like if they were the niece or nephew of the previous monarch. Their parent would not have passed on the Royal Locks to them, but if they gained the throne would they spontaneously manifest the Royal Locks? Would their children if they were born before?
5. Does hair that is still attached to a person's head get cut if a Shardblade passes through it? If not, if that person had the Royal Locks could they change the color of the hair "below" the cut?
6. You've mentioned there is a big Hint in Elantris, and later clarified that the hint is an Aon that Raoden mis-interprets. Is Aon Rao the Aon that Raoden mis-interprets? Is its true meaning something closer to "Investiture"?
7. According to Peter, Mraize is from Thaylenah, does Shallan just never mention his eyebrows or is he not ethnically Thaylen?
8. What are your current plans with regards to the Jasnah novella you wrote last summer?
9. Honorspren and windspren have been described as "cousins"; do Cryptics share a similar relationship with creationspren?

Anyway, thank you so much for answering any of my questions!

On the first question, I did not say the mists themselves were a cognitive shadow. That must have been a misunderstanding. The Stormfather totally is, though. Cognitive shadows are basically ghosts, which can take a lot of different forms in the Cosmere, but follow general rules.

2. Yes. Good guess.
3. You're on the right track.
4. This will be discussed in the Warbreaker sequel, most likely.
5. Yes, hair gets cut. It counts as dead in my mind--but not to someone who has the Royal Locks. They could only change below, as you state, and wouldn't get their hair chopped off. (I'm not 100% sure on this, but I Think I've mentioned in Stormlight before that you can cut things like shells on living animals with a Shardblade, but then it doesn't cut the flesh.)

Lots of questions here. More to come, if I find time.

stormfather, cognitive shadows, well of ascension, perpendicularities, shardpool, royal locks, unmade, shardblades,

Shadows of Self-Oak Brook, IL

When Raoden goes in the lake above Elantris, he hears a voice. Is that a voice of a Cognitive shadow?

That's an excellent question. RAFO.

Raoden, shardpool,

Shadows of Self - San Francisco

Does the spren have to be present for a Surgebinder to have their abilities? Because with Dalinar, the Stormfather won’t be around all the time...

Good Question! Fortunately, the Stormfather is a little more omnipresent. Normally you’re gonna have to have your spren close, but the Stormfather absorbed... is basically Honor’s cognitive shadow, which means he’s got a connection to a lot of different things, so he’s not bound by a lot of the rules that others are.

Dalinar, Stormfather, surgebinding,

Shadows of Self-Newcastle

In Words of Radiance, the Stormfather refers to himself as a Sliver, how is this the case when he is apparently a splinter?

(paraphrased) The stormfather is a cognitive shadow, but he doesn't know the correct terminology. Terms such as splinter and Sliver don't really apply to him.

Stormfather,

Calamity-Seattle

Okay, so when Kelsier is in the-- Which Realm is he in?

He’s in the Cognitive Realm.

OdysseyCon 2016

Is it normal for people to become connected to an area after being there for a bit, like with Kel and wherever he was when he found the Ire, or is something special going on?

It is normal for a cognitive shadow to get stuck to places, because they exist through investiture it is normal for them to get tied to an area. Kelsier was still in Scadrial when he found the Ire. This happened with Odium and the two shards on Roshar, Preservation to Ruin, and the Heralds (To Roshar? Braize?). (I think this is basically what happens with shards when they invest on a planet, so this same thing happens at smaller levels than shards.)

(After about an hour and a half he started answering more questions, so I sat nearby and wrote the gist of the questions and answers he was getting. Thsi next part is going to be paraphrased, but fairly accurate. It wasn't as rapid fire as it had been, as I and other people didn't want to keep interruption him while he was playing magic.)

Kelsier, cognitive shadows, investiture, cognitive realm, Scadrial, IRE, Odium, Cultivation, Honor, Preservation, Ruin, Heralds,

BYU Bookstore (Paraphrased)

So, say you have a gold/gold Twinborn and they worldhop to Roshar and they study the magic and do the whole Khriss and Nazh thing for a while so that they know a lot about the magic, but they've also left themselves a lot of options with what they can do. So then they manage to pull up a gold shadow of them having actually become a Surgebinder and then kind of meld themselves with that shadow a bunch, could they change their Cognitive Identity enough so that they could, like, tap a lot of Gold and grow the spren and actually be a Surgebinder?

Unfortunately, no. It's a good question, but no. That won't work for a couple of reasons. One of which is simply creating Investiture is not something that can happen, right?

Djarskublar

They are a gold Twinborn, so they can tap a lot of gold...

Brandon Sanderson

They can tap a whole bunch, that's true, they can do that, but simply having it is not gonna create a spren because the spren is from a different god, right, a different Shard.

Djarskublar

So if they had Regrowth cast on them, would that do it?

Brandon Sanderson

hems and haws for a second.

Djarskublar

A really, really big Regrowth like in the middle of a Highstorm.

Brandon Sanderson

Hmmm, this, you are getting to the realm of plausibility at that point. I still don't think gold is the way to do it. I think you just get all that Investiture. It would become sapient by you sticking a whole bunch of Investiture, and then you can bond to that. But it's not like people gain what you would have done. Does that make sense? That's just what's going to happen, is you're gonna, you can create a, potentially create a spren that way, but you are more likely to end up with something like Nightblood. But you could potentially create a spren, but I mean you're just gonna end up...

Djarskublar

So there are more optimal ways to do that?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, go bond a spren. (evil grin of course)

Djarskublar

But you can't easily bond multiple, and if you did this you could maybe get multiple.

Brandon Sanderson

Nyeaaahhh... The spren still has to choose. If you want to be a Surgebinder, the choice is being made. You can't fake your way into it. Decision and Honor are too much a part of Surgebinding for you to be able to fake your way into that. Other magics you might be able to do that. Other magics that don't require, like, Surgebinding works because a piece of Honor or Cultivation or a mix has chosen you specifically. There is will from the actual Investiture involved in it in Roshar.

Djarskublar

Okay.

Brandon Sanderson

So it's not something you can cheat your way into, right. But cheating your way into Breath might be easier, right.

twinborn, gold, worldhopping, roshar, spren, identity,

Little City Books-AU Tour (Paraphrased)

In the cosmere, you have matter, mind, and soul. Obviously, the physical world is most well understood (same as ours) and the spiritual is most mysterious. When anybody dies (going off from info in secret history) their soul, which was tied to their body, the connection is broken and the soul/cognitive shadow appears in the cognitive realm then goes on to the spiritual. If healing is applied at any moment while the soul/cognitive shadow is in the cognitive realm, the connection can be reestablished and that is why regrowth can heal recently dead. Type of wound shardblade vs not may determine how fast the shadow is sucked into the Spiritual Realm. Also amount of investiture a soul contains. Souls = investiture or at least all of them contain some?

So that's a RAFO. We'll dig into that a little later.

yulerule

Am I close?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, you're on the right track.

realmatics, souls, investiture,

Harold Washington Library Center-AU Tour (Paraphrased)

Have we seen cameos of Heralds on other Shardworlds?

The Heralds are tied to the system by the magic that permeates them. They could not leave. It’s part of the magic. Some would call them Cognitive Shadows, right? Whether they are or not. ‘Cognitive Shadow’ is a very ambiguous term in the Cosmere. It means, basically your soul-- Investiture replaced your soul, and permeated your soul, and your soul continues to exist, but you are usually Invested with something, that’s tied, and you’re basically like pure Investiture then. You’re tied to the thing you’re Connected to. Most of the things that you’re gonna see like that, traveling is going to be very difficult, unless you know how to do it. You have seen people do it.

Tags

Harold Washington Library Center-AU Tour (Paraphrased)

So, why did Hoid in Secret History have to ride on another person to get to the Well, when that person could float on--

Sooo, what he’s floating on is a Cognitive Shadow, it’s a spirit, it’s not an actual person.

Hoid, worldhopping, Well of Ascension, cognitive shadow,