A Cognitive Shadow is the continuance of a person to act even after it has died; a spirit that has not yet moved on.[1] It is a force of mind, holding one's spirit together, preventing it from diffusing.[2]
“ | "Cognitive shadows are basically ghosts, which can take a lot of different forms in the cosmere, but follow general rules." | ” |
“ | "Cognitive Shadow" is a very ambiguous term in the cosmere. It means, basically your soul - It's the same thing with petrification, right? 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 with that, traveling is going to be very difficult, unless you know how to do it. | ” |
–Brandon Sanderson[4] |
Khriss declines to comment on whether the nature of a Cognitive Shadow is actually the soul of a person who died; she believes this to be a question for a theologian or philosopher.[5]
She does, however, explain what is happening magically:
“ |
A spirit infused with extra Investiture will often imprint upon that very power. Much as the spren of Roshar become self-aware over time because of people's focus on the Surges as being alive, this excess Investiture can attain the ability to remain sapient after being separated from its Physical form.[6] |
” |
On Threnody, the people think of these entities as ghosts, though they're really instantiations of self-aware (though, barely) Investiture.[7]
“ | "So, Cognitive Shadows maintain a person's memory. And your Cognitive aspect, your Invested self, maintains your memory in the cosmere. This is why you will also see people's memory being edited by accessing some of the Investiture. You'll see this in Warbreaker; you saw this in the end of Rhythm of War. Your Cognitive self, your Invested self, keeps a duplicate of all your memories. So this allows very significant trauma to the Physical sense; as long as the Cognitive sense is still attached to that body, those memories will be reimplanted in the Physical self, or will be accessed. And this was just necessary for me to even have things like what happened with Raoden in the beginning of Elantris, and for ghosts to exist, and things like that. It actually works pretty well, because it lets me use it to edit people's memories by accessing their Investiture.
|
” |
–Brandon Sanderson[8] |
Known Cognitive Shadows[]
- Kelsier from Mistborn[9]
- Leras from Mistborn[10]
- Shades from Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
- Stormfather from The Stormlight Archive[11]
- Vasher from Warbreaker.*[12]
Notes[]
*Returned are Cognitive Shadows. In the cosmere, there is no way to bring someone back to life, other than normal medical resuscitation, without using a Cognitive Shadow.[13]
Brandon has said that he would call most Cognitive Shadows Splinters in some ways.[14]
The longer a Cognitive Shadow exists, the more likely problems such as devolving mental health occurs.[15]
According to Brandon, if one throws some anti-Investiture at a Cognitive Shadow, that Shadow will be killed.[16]
Also according to Brandon, some of the non-Returned Cognitive Shadows have had children.[17]
Additionally according to Brandon, if one wants to end up as a Cognitive Shadow, one needs to draw forth the power of a Shard, or be endowed with the power of a Shard, or a certain number of Breaths could do it. There is a threshold that one could get, and one would end up as a Cognitive Shadow.[18]
Again, according to Brandon, if there was a kandra who somehow persisted as a Cognitive Shadow, they would have certain advantages over people who had not trained in perception the way they have.[19]
Q&A with Brandon[]
Q. Are the Cognitive Shadows on Braize the Shades of the Knights Radiant?
A. *RAFO card* There you are, there you are![20]
Q. When someone dies on Nalthis, their Breaths go away with the soul, or remain in the corpse?
A. Breaths return to Endowment.
Q. Together with the soul? Or remain in the corpse?
A. The soul ...
Q. Passes away?
A. Yes, unless it turns into a Cognitive Shadow. Then, the soul goes into the Beyond. And so the actual essence of the soul, the Investiture of it, does return to Endowment.[21]
Q. I think there's a flaw in my understanding of Cognitive Shadows. I assume that ... they would have more visibility into the Cognitive Realm, like a Herald would be able to see spren more easily, that kind of thing. Is that incorrect?
A. That is incorrect. A Cognitive Shadow simply means a copy of the Cognitive side made by a deep amount of Investiture. And everybody has a Cognitive side. Basically it's a fake soul. Or, fake is the wrong term. Fake is the wrong term. Even in-world they don't know if it's really them or not. It is Investiture has replaced the Investiture that is fleeing from them as they die, or enhancing it in some way to keep it around. So some Cognitive Shadows trapped on the Cognitive Realm are going to be - have a lot of Cognitive - I mean, they're there, right? But some Cognitive Shadows inhabiting a body in the same way that your mind inhabits your body, the way the cosmere works ... . So a Herald is going to feel like they are alive just like - but their soul has been somehow transformed. It's not really transformed, it's been reproduced or copied by an injection of Investiture ...
And I'll say for the purpose of the recordings, I haven't canonized any of that terminology that I just used about Cognitive Shadows. I'm just talking about it, I'm not necessarily saying that this is how you are supposed to refer to it. You can refer to it however you want. I've often used the metaphor of how fossils get made. When a fossil is made there is a pattern and it is slowly replaced with another substance that is stronger and more endurant, and has the shape of it, but is it still the bone? When you have a fossil bone is it the dinosaur bone? In most cases no, but yes. It's the ship of Theseus sort of thing again. Is this the bone or is it not? Is this the soul? Is this the person or is it not? That's the same sort of thing is happening with Cognitive Shadows. And it's happening on all three Realms to an extent, though of course the body is not. The body stays. It's happening on two Realms. It's happening Spiritually, mostly Cognitively.[22]
References[]
- ↑ Release party interview, 9/24/13
- ↑ Arcanum Unbounded, pg. 226
- ↑ Reddit AMA, 3/12/15
- ↑ Book signing, Chicago, IL, 12/6/16
- ↑ Arcanum Unbounded, pg. 418
- ↑ Arcanum Unbounded, pg. 418
- ↑ Arcanum Unbounded, pg. 418
- ↑ Dragonsteel Mini-Con 2021, 11/23/21
- ↑ Release party interview, 9/24/13
- ↑ Book signing, San Francisco, CA, 3/6/14
- ↑ r/books AMA, 3/12/15
- ↑ Rhythm of War Preview Q&As, 7/28/20
- ↑ Rhythm of War Preview Q&As, 7/28/20
- ↑ Book signing, Leeds, UK, 12/1/17
- ↑ Rhythm of War Preview Q&As, 7/28/20
- ↑ Shardcast Interview, 1/23/21
- ↑ JordanCon 2021, Atlanta, GA, 7/16/21
- ↑ FanX 2021, 9/16/21
- ↑ Dragonsteel Mini-Con 2021, 11/22/21
- ↑ Book signing, Hoboken, NJ, 12/3/16
- ↑ Book signing, Leeds, UK, 11/28/17
- ↑ Book signing, Orem, UT, 3/10/18
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