Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Does being the donor of a Hemalurgic spike have any implications for your afterlife? Or how about the recipient?

Um, that is actually going to depend on... Okay, yes, it has implications for the afterlife. Yes. Yes.

Lady Radagu

Okay, so are there a bunch of Scadrian souls wandering the afterlife with holes in their personalities or memory or identity? Some with extra parts tacked on?

Brandon Sanderson

So, it has implications, but they're not exactly the ones that you're assuming. In the Cosmere, there is dead, and mostly dead, okay? And this has been shown several times. So, once someone dies, there is a period before they transition. Right? Sazed talks about this in Mistborn 3 and so most of the implications are before transition. Does that makes sense? Post transition, you're going to have to ask the philosophers, and the theologians, who are the ones that, that talk about the.. that. So there's an afterlife, and there's an after-afterlife. Not as many implications for the after-afterlife. Middle? Yes.

hemalurgy

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afterlife

What exactly was Shai's Soulforging of Ashravan comparing itself to to see how well it sticks? His Spiritual aspect? His Cognitive aspect?

It's more Spiritual. Much more Spiritual.

forgery

If Shai were to gain a Shardblade, then she gave it up, could she create an Essence Mark that represented the history where she still had the Blade? If she then applied the Essence Mark could she summon the Shardblade or a copy of it?

So doing that sort of thing, like rewriting herself even to be an Allomancer, or something like this.... This is possible, but, in order to gain the Investiture she wants to have, she will have to input that much in Investiture, which her current magic system is not capable of doing. Okay? Alright, so, a rewrite so that I have a Shardblade would require some sort of hacking of her magic system, which is currently impossible to her in her current situation.

Lady Radagu

So, if she had had a Shardblade and gave it up, she could not rewrite herself to have that back without more input?

Brandon Sanderson

Um, she could... Yes, exactly. Now rewriting-- yes, that would be a lot easier than just rewriting herself so that she had a Shardblade.

Lady Radagu

That's what I was asking.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, but what you're asking about would be much easier and that probably is within her power, but what that would do is-- Yeah, that's totally within her power. It would create some weird implications where she's summoning it, and someone else summons it back from her, cause the Shardblade thinks it's held by two people.

Lady Radagu

So it wouldn't be a copy, it would be the same Blade.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. Mmhmm.

forgery

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shardblades