#mic cosmere

[kaladinsspear]

*Sign* You know, I wish somebody had explained the costs of falling into Sandersons work before I read WoK.

I stumbled in here by mistake. My girlfriend at the time was listening to WoK and I overherd the chapter where Kaladin goes on his first bridgerun. I was hooked. I had to know more about the politics of the war and how this seemingly main character would survive.

Now here I am, 20+ books deep and budgeting $30 per paycheck to spend on story deck cards because I need the heralds and nonsence stories. My bosses already know the dates for Dragonsteel 2025. I have merch, I have art, I have a stupid Audible account because it's the only way to listen to the cytoverse. This man has taken over my life.

If only somebody had explained the depth of obsession that I would find myself in. I mean, I still would have dove in head first, but it would have been nice to prepare. 😅

[kaladinsspear]

TLDR: Investature is shockingly comparable with at least one modern magical tradition and I’m curious if Brandon is aware of that.

So my Ex (We’ll call her Jane) is a witch. That’s a word with a lot of nuance, but as simplified as I can get it, she is a Celtic pagan who practices magic as part of her spiritual discipline. I considered myself pagan for a while, but ultimately settled on agnostic. I have seen and felt some things that make it hard to entirely rule out the possibility of magic, and I think there probably is something going on, but I think it is an entirely scientific phenomenon that we just don’t have an explanation for yet. In some cases we do have an explanation! (Ask me about tarot if you’re interested in the logic behind it!)

Point being, You could spend your entire life studying magical practices and you would only be an expert in a very niche topic, but I do have more exposure to modern magical practices than most. This is coming from a more European/Celtic tradition, so don’t take this as universal.

Anyway, a lot of modern magic is based on connection. It’s the idea that sentience is an emergent phenomenon that is brought on by connection. Who I am, my ‘soul’, is the convergence of my biology and environment. In the same way I have a microbiome, I am partly of the microbiome of the earth, which is part of the biome of the universe. Does that make sense? Another way to put it is that if a system gets complicated enough, it starts developing consciousness. My body is developed enough to have a form of consciousness, but consciousness is not limited to me. The earth is a complicated enough system to have a form of consciousness, even if it would be completely alien to me.

There is a lot of fuzziness that comes more from trial and error/tradition than study, but the idea of magic is that I am part of a living system and therefore I have the power to effect it. How to I effect it? My intent. Magic is all about intent.

This makes me think of connection and intent in the cosmere magic system. Specifically the spirit webs and intent of the user. I don’t know nearly as much about it, but having the world split into three realms also feels very pagan.

So yeah. Investature feels a lot like modern magic. Though I wouldn’t say Investature is based off modern magical traditions, it is shockingly compatible. I wonder if Brandon is aware of that.