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Theory: Space Travel Between Shardworlds


Deus Ex Biotica

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This is my first Theory post. I spend relatively little time in this forum, but I have checked and do not believe it was posted before.

So, Brandon Sanderson has said that Hoid is getting to be somewhat more active in The Stormlight Archive, but we won't really get to see his main story until the third Mistborn trilogy. He has also confirmed ten core Shardworlds, the story of which will basically be told by the so-called "core" Cosmere books.

On the surface, both statements seem a little confusing: whatever else may be the case with Hoid, his interest span the affairs of multiple worlds and Shards, which makes it seem odd that his biggest involvement will be with the now-stable (Shard-wise, at least) matters in Scadrial. And there's a thread dedicted to pointing out that we might not even be able to account for half of the Ten Worlds, and certainly not all of them, in a rough schedule of writing which extended a decade or two into the future.

But, of course, that all assumes that the later Mistborn books will all focus on Scadrial.

We know that the stated goal of the Mistborn meta-trilogy is to step outside the usual assumptions of "Fantasy," by showing a fantasy world grow to a spacefaring civilization. And we know that, for all its magic and wonder, Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere is largely a place of physical laws functioning as they do on Earth - Scadrial in particular has issues with its orbit and relationships to other celestial bodies.

So, maybe Shadesmar (or whatever Hoid is using) is not the only way to travel among the worlds. Maybe a faster-than-light ship will serve just as well, and the final Mistborn trilogy will be a sort of space opera - but, instead of finding strange new alien civilizations, the interstellar travelers will seek out other Shardworlds, with their own variants on humanity (possibly the best explanation for shockingly human-looking aliens ever), and native magics. With travel among the worlds suddenly less restricted than before, Hoid's true agenda would finally be drawn into the light, and a bunch of new corners of the Cosmere shown to us within one series (though there would always be the chance for prequel or sequel novels focused on them, later).

What do you think?

-- Deus Ex Biotica

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I've been assuming for ages that FTL travel could be used to shine light in corners of the Cosmere that we haven't seen before (or making crossovers between established worlds), making everybody's counting of books/planets to be off. In fact, I think I said that in the "10 Core Cosmere Worlds" thread.

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You wouldn't necessarily need FTL travel. Just lots of Cadmium and Pulsers.

Does anyone know if the the spacefarers will be refugees from Scandrial or if they will be explorers? I like the idea of explorers finding new worlds and new magic systems.

Hey, maybe Hoid could get stranded aboard the spaceship?

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wouldn't happen, Hoid doesn't need a spaceship to travel, he'd just hop into Shadesmar and hop out somewhere else.

But is shadesmar accessible if you aren't on a Shardplanet?

So here would be the scenario:

Hoid needs to interact with some people on the spaceship. As he is doing so the ship leaves orbit of the planet. Hoid then cannot jump back into shadesmar until the ship comes close to another shardplanet.

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But is shadesmar accessible if you aren't on a Shardplanet?

So here would be the scenario:

Hoid needs to interact with some people on the spaceship. As he is doing so the ship leaves orbit of the planet. Hoid then cannot jump back into shadesmar until the ship comes close to another shardplanet.

I dont like it, we have no evidence you need to be near a shardworld to enter shadesmar and I can't think of a single logical reason why you would need to be there. If anything it would make it more difficult because there would be more disruption in shadesmar due to the larger amounts of cognitive energy from all the sentient and potentially cognitively enhanced beings around.

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I dont like it, we have no evidence you need to be near a shardworld to enter shadesmar and I can't think of a single logical reason why you would need to be there. If anything it would make it more difficult because there would be more disruption in shadesmar due to the larger amounts of cognitive energy from all the sentient and potentially cognitively enhanced beings around.

Personally I agree that it probably isn't the case - but objectively it is possible. Shadesmar is the cognitive realm. Would there be a link between the cognitive aspects of a random group of people in space and the main cognitive realm? I think so but I could also logically argue that there wouldn't be.

In any case moving back to the actual subject of the thread: I had always assumed that the final mistborn books would be about planets other then scadrial too.

Edited by discipleofhoid
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You wouldn't necessarily need FTL travel. Just lots of Cadmium and Pulsers.

Does anyone know if the the spacefarers will be refugees from Scandrial or if they will be explorers? I like the idea of explorers finding new worlds and new magic systems.

Hey, maybe Hoid could get stranded aboard the spaceship?

Maybe not, but Brandon has said specifically that FTL will be a part of the third trilogy.

Hmm... If Scadrial can develop space travel, I wonder if other worlds can...

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Hmm... If Scadrial can develop space travel, I wonder if other worlds can...

There must be a way to do it with AonDor, though you would probably need to build a space ship shaped like Aon Rao.

I do wonder what would happen if you Awakened some sort of metal boat with 1,000 Breaths and the command "Travel the Stars".

-- Deus Ex Biotica

P.S. I am not responsible for the fate of anyone who attempts interstellar travel in a ship which consumes the breaths of its crew for fuel.

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There must be a way to do it with AonDor, though you would probably need to build a space ship shaped like Aon Rao.

I do wonder what would happen if you Awakened some sort of metal boat with 1,000 Breaths and the command "Travel the Stars".

-- Deus Ex Biotica

P.S. I am not responsible for the fate of anyone who attempts interstellar travel in a ship which consumes the breaths of its crew for fuel.

Hahaha. It would probably end up warping the command somehow too. Like only going to suns?

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Problem with using the dor is its all good making an aon rao on sel were shadesmar is permeated with it, but it's not on other worlds so it's even more unlikely to be in space? As there isn't even anything physically! And even shards seem to stick around planets. Isn't there a chance u just can't get enough of it to power ur ship and soon ur too far out and ur just stranded?

Unless ofc in all that time on sel the elantrians(or the fyodel leader guy) go an figure out how to remake the shard or summit and raoden picks them up and then, well I have no idea what effects remaking the shards would have if it were even possible, couldnchange everything could change barely anything!

The reason I say this is Brandon's comments on how you wouldn't want to go I shadesmar on sel and the wy raoden feels when the dor is trying to force its way through him and how little power he has so far away from elantris which is a huuuge aon relatively close and on the same planet!

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Yeah, there's a lot we still don't know about the Dor. Still, everything on Sel seems to involve channeling that power into the world somehow, so I like to think that, given enough time, they could find a way to channel some of it into some sort of battery, which they could carry across the Cosmere to stay at full power (though they might need to revisit Sel semi-regularly to recharge said battery).

Wait... did I just make Elantris into the Green Lantern Corps?

-- Deus Ex Biotica

P.S. And a bunch of people who can alter gravity seems like a solid foundation for a space program - do enough Lashings create a singularity? However, (1) unlike metals, Stormlight is something you could reasonably expect to never find anywhere else in the galaxy, and (2) we know very little about how it all works, so I'm not contemplating how that space travel might work out.

P.P.S. Also, I think the third Mistborn trilogy most likely to focus on new worlds, but where's the fun in speculating on that?

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Errr they wouldn't be? They would be writing it in the air inside the ship? If ur just gonna stroll out into the vacuum why even bother with a ship in the first place :/ hell they have aons that can teleport them they could prob work out a way to just teleport their city to another planet and skip the space part! Lol (that may make a new reod or shaod tho, whichever is the bad one)

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Errr they wouldn't be? They would be writing it in the air inside the ship? If ur just gonna stroll out into the vacuum why even bother with a ship in the first place :/ hell they have aons that can teleport them they could prob work out a way to just teleport their city to another planet and skip the space part! Lol (that may make a new reod or shaod tho, whichever is the bad one)

I didn't say that they would be writing in a vacuum, I was simply asking if they could, assuming they could survive the vacuum of space (which isn't that far fetched either, but that's besides the point.)

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Well, its kinda unimportant as the elantrian who tried would well.. kinda explode in the vacuum, but if we are to discuss it...

Even space isnt 100% empty. There are background radiations and stuff, trace amounts of gas etc. Should work.

Edited by dyring
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Citation needed, but I seem to remember reading that Taldain (the place that White Sand is set on and where Badavin's shard is) is quite near Roshar, and is visible in Roshar's night sky.

Perhaps space travel will first develop between those two. But then again, Scadrial might already be in future-mode by the time Roshar reached the technological level we see in The Way of Kings.

EDIT: It's actually the unnamed planet where The Silence Divine is set. It's on the Wiki page for Roshar, but I can't find a citation elsewhere.

Edited by Commander Spoonface
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