Cognitive Shadow

A Cognitive Shadow is the continuance of a person to act even after it has died; a spirit that has not yet moved on.Release party interview, 9/24/13 It is a force of mind, holding one's spirit together, preventing it from diffusing.Arcanum Unbounded, pg. 226
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.Arcanum Unbounded, pg. 418
She does, however, explain what is happening magically:
On Threnody, the people think of these entities as ghosts, though they're really instantiations of self-aware (though, barely) Investiture.Arcanum Unbounded, pg. 418
==Known Cognitive Shadows==
* Kelsier from MistbornRelease party interview, 9/24/13
* Leras from MistbornBook signing, San Francisco, CA, 3/6/14
* Shades from Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
* Stormfather from The Stormlight Archiver/books AMA, 3/12/15
* Vasher from Warbreaker.*Rhythm of War Preview Q&As, 7/28/20
==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.Rhythm of War Preview Q&As, 7/28/20
Brandon has said that he would call most Cognitive Shadows Splinters in some ways.Book signing, Leeds, UK, 12/1/17
The longer a Cognitive Shadow exists, the more likely problems such as devolving mental health occurs.Rhythm of War Preview Q&As, 7/28/20
According to Brandon, if one throws some anti-Investiture at a Cognitive Shadow, that Shadow will be killed.Shardcast Interview, 1/23/21
Also according to Brandon, some of the non-Returned Cognitive Shadows have had children.JordanCon 2021, Atlanta, GA, 7/16/21
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.FanX 2021, 9/16/21
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.Dragonsteel Mini-Con 2021, 11/22/21
==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!Book signing, Hoboken, NJ, 12/3/16
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.Book signing, Leeds, UK, 11/28/17
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.Book signing, Orem, UT, 3/10/18
==References==
Category:Magic System
Category:Magical Creatures