Hey Internet; it's me, Steve. Welcome to RAFO.
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Investiture.
It's not what stockbrokers work with nor is it the act of wearing a waistcoat.
It's the third ingredient that makes up Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere, apart from matter
and energy. Investiture is everywhere. It's the power by which the Cosmere was
created. It's the life force found in every living thing. Natural investiture
includes the souls of all sentient life. My last video talked about the systems
of investiture associated with shards: magic systems like allomancy or
awakening or surgebinding. However it's important to note that all investiture
originally came from Adonalsium. And when Adonalsium was shattered, that
investiture naturally became associated with each respective shard. For example
all investiture in the Cosmere that has to do with preserving something is
naturally associated with Preservation, even though they may not be aware of or
even use it at all. Where this gets tricky is investiture
systems that existed before the shattering. Threnody has no shard, or at
least not a whole one, but there is a large amount of investiture there.
Soon after the shattering, Odium followed Ambition to the Threnody system. They
fought in the space between worlds and chunks of Ambition's power were torn off
and they landed on at least Threnody. Ambition then ran away mortally wounded
and died and was splintered somewhere else.
Those chunks of Ambition eventually, I think, coalesced and became the Evil,
but there's a lot going on there that actually isn't associated with any shard.
Threnody has two main continents: a big one and a little one.
Humanity originated on the large continent, but even then
the smaller continent was known as Hell: populated by the spirits of what
were believed to be the Damned. With the arrival of the Evil - a mysterious being
or force that decimated most of the population of the continent -
humanity fled to live amongst these shades.
So what are shades? Basically, cognitive shadows:
minds that have been disconnected from their physical bodies.
We've seen cognitive shadows in the Cosmere before, but the ones on Threnody
are different. Shades are more heavily invested than normal
souls so they stick around - similar to a certain individual from Scadrial.
However, that extra investiture is not present in the normal human population
of the planet; only those killed by shades have the potential for their
cognitive shadows to linger - not just anyone will turn into a shade upon death -
meaning shades somehow charge the soul with enough investiture to overcome the
natural pull into the spiritual realm. Basically they're like ghost-zombies:
you only turn into one if you get "bit," and then withered, and turned to dust.
From what we know of other cognitive shadows, the shades on Threnody behave
differently. For one, they seem to have lost most, if not all, of their memories
and personality. This wouldn't be a problem if not for the fact that they,
unlike other cognitive shadows, can directly interact with the physical form
of other humans. And by interact we mean attack and wither, eventually turning the
body into dust. For some reason shades on Threnody will
only attack if one of the Three Simple Rules are broken. One: Don't Run at Night.
Fast movement will draw the attention of the shades and their forms will shift
from white to black, their eyes changing green as they activate their "Earthsight."
Two: Don't Kindle Flame. After a short disorienting period
the shades will enrage and attack the nearest fast motion.
And 3: Don't Shed the Blood of Another. Their eyes turn crimson and they
swarm the person who did the shedding, moving on to slaughter everyone in the area.
These were originally based on the Jewish laws of the Sabbath.
Is that why shades tend to avoid pigs as well?
These rules also tie in with the planetary symbol for Threnody:
This signifies purity, this stands for silver, this means
"Do Not Run," and this represents both blood and the red stars that can be seen
in the Threnodite sky. The only way to combat and protect yourself from
shades is through the use of silver, which creates a shower of sparks
whenever shades come into contact with it. However, that contact changes the
silver on both a chemical and spiritual level, rendering it useless. Silver dust
is also used to reverse the effect of a shades withering touch. Either poured
directly onto the skin, or mixed with a liquid and drunk in more extreme cases,
this restores the skin to its original pink and hale state. If the
withering has gone too far the silver will stop that progress but it'll leave
the affected body parts shriveled and blackened. We don't know if silver on
Threnody is invested in any way, but Brandon has said that silver does have a
Cosmere-wide significance. Because of the lack of shard on Threnody, there is
no stable perpendicularity: no bridge between the physical and cognitive
realms. It's known that any perpendicularities that do form are
morbid in nature, so they probably have something to do with the shades. Now,
Theory Time. Obvious spoilers for Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell as
well as the Stormlight Archive. We know the shades of Threnody are more invested
than normal human souls, so I think the perpendicularities form when a large
group of shades attacks a large population of humans: that would create a
large amount of investiture in a fairly small concentrated area, forming that
cognitive/physical bridge. Also, I think that extra investiture is the reason why
shades become shades: it forces the cognitive shadows of those killed by
shades from the cognitive realm back into the physical, which causes a similar
effect as what happens to spren, or at least Syl, on Roshar - the loss of
memory and, basically, sapience. That's why a cognitive shadow or splinter from
another world wouldn't immediately become a shade on Threnody; that investiture doesn't have the right intent.
Another thing similar to Rosharan spren is the possibility for bonding. We see in the Stormlight Archive
that a bond with a human eventually allows the memory and personality of the
spren to return. I argue that Silence actually has a similar bond with the
cognitive shadow of her grandmother. Old Grandmommy's shade has retained some of
her memories because of that bond, so she doesn't do the normal shade thing and
just murder everybody. The deeper you dig into the Cosmere, like by watching my
videos, the more you recognize the importance of connection and bonds.
Be sure to subscribe because my next video will be going into this in more detail,
specifically the bonds that we see on another shardless planet. If you're
curious, check out Sixth of the Dusk so you can Read and Find Out.