Realmatic Theory

Realmatic Theory refers to the study of the three Realms—Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual—that constitute the fundamental structure of the cosmere. Along with other fundamental properties like space and time, the Realms came to be at the cosmere's creation, before the Shattering of Adonalsium.
== Components ==
=== Physical Realm ===
Of the three Realms, the Physical Realm is the most readily understood as it behaves in accordance with the laws of physics. It is the natural world as we experience it with one's senses, consisting of space and time and adhering to empirical scientific law. Unlike the Cognitive Realm, the Physical Realm is a three-dimensional plane, though is more accurately a four-dimensional space-time structure. Furthermore, the Physical Realm exists independent of the perception of living beings, therefore, perception does not bring about Physical distortions. The two Realms are not mapped perfectly to each other for this reason. 
The cosmere is a single star cluster within the Physical Realm consisting of between fifty and one hundred stars, though at least one person has tried to travel beyond that. Stars are separated by immense distances that cannot be traversed in a reasonable timescale in most circumstances. Due to this, travel between planets within the cluster can be achieved without using either of the other Realms through purely Physical superluminal travel. Various civilizations have developed such Physical Realm interstellar travel, through unknown means. 
Investiture within the Physical Realm will manifest as a solid, liquid, or gas. Solid Investiture in the Physical Realm is metallic. Pushing the entirety of a Shard’s Investiture into the Physical Realm would have disastrous effects. Changes in the Spiritual Realm filter down to and cause changes in the Physical Realm. Perception has a part in those Physical changes. After a person dies, they need a continued tie to the Physical Realm to prevent passing to the Beyond after death. Someone with such a tie could become a Cognitive Shadow.
It is made up of fundamental particles known as axi, which make up matter. Each individual axon has a polarity, and is categorized into one of various elements. Axi are bonded to one another via various fundamental forces referred to as axial interconnection, bonded atoms can create compounds, which display different attributes than their constituent parts. Anti-axi also exist, which interact destructively with standard Axi, converting them into energy.
=== Cognitive Realm ===
The Cognitive Realm is the world of thought and perception, in which the Cognitive aspects of all things become manifest. It is known locally on Roshar as Shadesmar, though at least some academics of Silverlight have taken to using the term to refer to the entire Realm. A planet's reflection in the Cognitive Realm is referred to as a subastral.
The nature and appearance of objects in this Realm are shaped by the views of people and even the objects themselves. The environment itself changes from one world to the next, often exhibiting features characteristic of that world. Investiture, including that within souls, glows visibly within the Cognitive Realm.
While time appears to flow normally, space is warped by perception. Due to this, the Physical and Cognitive Realms do not perfectly align, and vertical distance is significantly contracted. This aspect of the nature of the Realm allows one to walk to outer space, as the distance between worlds is significantly contracted due to the lack of thinking beings within outer space, so that traveling from between worlds by foot is possible. Worldhoppers generally make use of this Realm to move between worlds. Traveling between the Physical and the Cognitive Realms may be accomplished at perpendicularities, among other means.
Planets within the Cognitive Realm are distorted into a flat plane, though it is unclear which projection it makes use of in this distortion.
=== Spiritual Realm ===
The Spiritual Realm exists beyond space and time, and within it all times and places are compounded into one. It is made up entirely of Investiture and Connection. This Realm contains a person's spiritweb, which is a person’s Spiritual aspect. The spiritweb is closely related to a soul, but they are not the same. The soul is a philosophical concept while a spiritweb can be measured and quantified. It also contains information on a thing’s Identity, Connection, and Fortune. Looking into the Spiritual Realm is required in order to see into the future. Most of the Investiture that makes up a Shard’s power exists within the Spiritual Realm.
== Interactions ==
=== Perception ===
Perception is a vital part of how the three versions of a person or an object interact with each other. The Spiritual Realm filters through the Cognitive Realm to get to the Physical Realm. While the Spiritual Realm contains the ideal version of something, the Cognitive filter makes sure the Physical version matches their perception of what should be. One of the ways this manifests is in healing. For example, until he swears his Fourth Ideal, Kaladin feels he deserves his slave brands, so they don’t heal. Lopen, on the other hand, never viewed himself as disabled, so his arm grew back. The application of this can extend to changing the body of a transgender person to match their identity or rejoining Conjoined twins that were separated. 
Perception is also important for how the Invested Arts interact with the three Realms. What a person thinks they can do often limits what they can actually do. For example, Shallan required ten heartbeats to summon Pattern as a Shardblade, despite him being a living blade. Perception makes using a soulstamp on an object easier or more difficult. The more an object is viewed as a whole, the easier it is to soulstamp. Perception of an object can and does change over time. As an object changes owner or various ingredients are combined into a whole, people’s perception of the objects change. The transition does not happen instantaneously. There will be a period of time when the line is fuzzy and multiple perceptions of an object can be true.
=== Investiture ===
In addition to having ordinary mass and energy, the cosmere also has a magical power known as Investiture. Investiture is closely tied to the Spiritual Realm, which holds a vast reserve of Investiture, but ultimately transcends the divisions between the three Realms. Over time, Investiture will cycle between the Realms, but ultimately returns to the Spiritual Realm. Like matter and energy, high concentrations of Investiture curve space, but it also affects the geometry of the Realms and brings them closer together rather than merely creating ordinary gravitational effects. At a certain point, this effect will cause a perpendicularity to form.
=== Perpendicularities ===
Under certain circumstances, the Realms will bend to the point where they are no longer separate and are instead connected by a perpendicularity. The most common cause of a perpendicularity is a high concentration of Investiture in either the Physical or Cognitive Realms—though this is harder to achieve in the Cognitive Realm—but other methods work as well. Because they are built out of Investiture, perpendicularities will collapse if Nightblood is used to attack it.
Perpendicularities can be used to see into the Spiritual Realm and to transition between Realms, though someone has to know what the perpendicularity does in order to use it. This requirement gets weird for non-sapient things, but a creature like an Aviar could reasonably transition between Realms with a perpendicularity. Perpendicularities are the most common method worldhoppers use to transition between the Realms, but they are not the only method.
As a large amount of Investiture is generally required to create a perpendicularity, they most often appear when a Shard takes up residence on a world. The process of creating a perpendicularity begins to occur naturally once a Shard arrives on a world, but Shards can control where and how the perpendicularity manifests. They can also choose to create more than one, to create one on a world they do not inhabit, and to share in the creation of one with another Shard. A perpendicularity generated by a Shard will usually remain in place if the Shard's Vessel dies, but not always.
While most perpendicularities are created by Shards, they can also be created by other methods. Some Invested Arts, like the Surge of Transportation, are particularly built to accomplish this. Other methods of creating a perpendicularity include storing a sufficient amount of Investiture in a nicrosilmind, an unknown method of "morbid origin" used on Threnody that creates predictably unstable and hard to predict perpendicularities, and an unspecified ability of Bondsmiths bonded to the Stormfather after Honor's death.
=== Shards ===
While the Shards of Adonalsium exist primarily in the Spiritual Realm, their immense power has notable effects on all three of the Realms. Perhaps most significantly, Realmatic interactions between a Shard and a planet are what define the structure of any Invested Arts associated with that Shard on that planet. Shards can consciously make some changes to this structure, but the extent to which they can interfere is limited. If a Shard used their power to create the planet in the first place (as Preservation and Ruin did with Scadrial), they will be able to exercise more control.
As Shards are composed of a significant amount of Investiture, their presence also bends the local Realmatic geometry. This effect is mostly limited to the Cognitive Realm, where a Shard's presence is partially responsible for the planet's subastral taking up a relatively large space compared to the space between planets. If a Shard remains in a system for some time, this Realmatic bending will generally result in the formation of a perpendicularity. If a Shard wishes, they may also use their Investiture to curve the Realms in a way that creates a body in the Physical Realm.
== Culture ==
=== Nalthis ===
On Nalthis, the Five Scholars stumbled upon Realmatic Theory and the broader cosmere during their studies and are known among the scholars of Silverlight for their discoveries. Subsequent Nalthian scholars appear to have retained some of the Five Scholars' knowledge and, aside from worldhoppers, are probably the most aware of the mechanics of the cosmere. Indeed, the Nalthian perpendicularity has customs, suggesting Nalthis has a sizable population with at least some Realmatic awareness.
=== Roshar ===
On Roshar, the philosopher Gavarah first developed Realmatic Theory some time well before 1173. Since then, her theory appears to have become widely accepted among scholars, who are aware that the Spiritual Realm is a place of pure truth but the Cognitive Realm is more malleable. However, it appears that few, if any, scholars have actually studied it in detail, as Jasnah Kholin was unable to find much information on the Cognitive Realm with six years of research. This difficulty may be compounded by the fact that some religions have integrated aspects of Realmatic Theory into their theology, though the return of the Knights Radiant and the reactivation of the Oathgates may soon lead to new knowledge.
=== Scadrial ===
On Scadrial, the ancient Terris were aware of Realmatic Theory and included it in their religion. This knowledge may have come from experimentation with Feruchemy, which organizes its metals into quadrants based on which Realms they affect. Their research into Realmatic Theory appears to have been an ongoing affair; when he met Alendi, the Worldbringer Kwaan was studying the Cognitive aspects of trees. Much of this knowledge appears to have been lost when Rashek destroyed the Terris religion, though at least some of it was retained by the First Generation of the kandra.
Sazed included some basic information on Realmatic Theory in the Words of Founding. Since the Catacendre, the Terris have been experimenting with the Feruchemical metals that store Spiritual properties, but refuse to speak of those powers with non-Terris. The kandra and the Set have also been conducting research and have likewise been keeping it quiet. As a result of this secrecy, the people of the Elendel Basin at-large seem to have little more knowledge of Realmatic Theory than they received in the Words of Founding. However, this situation may soon change as the people of the Basin begin to interact with the Southern Scadrians.
The people of Southern Scadrial have a much more advanced understanding of Realmatic Theory. Ten years after the Catacendre, Kelsier arrived in their lands and gave them the tools and knowledge needed to make unsealed brassminds. After he left, the Southern Scadrians were able to use what they knew to figure out how to make unsealed metalminds for all abilities in the Metallic Arts. They have been unable to create unsealed metalminds that grant more than three abilities, suggesting that the Realmatic principles involved become more complex as more abilities are added to the metalmind.
=== Sel ===
The people of Sel have developed the most advanced knowledge of Realmatic Theory of any planet in the cosmere. The MaiPon learned much about Realmatic Theory and how it relates to Forgery by study and observation and are aware of concepts like Identity and Connection. The Ire, and perhaps other pre-Reod Elantrians, similarly had an advanced understanding of Realmatic Theory.
=== Silverlight ===
Well before the True Desolation, the city of Silverlight was founded. Located entirely in the Cognitive Realm, Silverlight is home to many worldhoppers who have settled down as well as several people who live their entire lives there. Located as it is in the Cognitive Realm, most of Silverlight's residents are aware of the mechanics of the cosmere. Additionally, Silverlight is also home to several universities with scholars who study the cosmere, at least one of which was founded by Khriss.
== Development ==
=== Influences and Inspirations ===
The inspiration for Realmatic Theory comes from a number of real-world philosophies. Those philosophies include Plato’s theory of the forms, Shinto beliefs,, and the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza.
Plato’s theory of forms is the original concept for the Realms. The theory of forms states that the physical world is merely an imitation of the ideal essences of all things, that is, all things merely participate in a higher Form. This true ideal matches up with the Spiritual Realm, and the human perception of ideals matches up with the Cognitive Realm. While Plato’s philosophy only includes two forms, Brandon uses three. Furthermore, Brandon Sanderson diverges from this theory in that he does not posit universal forms in which a genus of objects participate within, but rather that each individual object participates in the Form of itself. This can also be conceptualized by saying that types do not have Forms, each token has its own Form.
The idea that everything has a spren comes from Shinto beliefs. 
Spinoza’s influence is in God being in everything and everything being made of one substance, and the idea that there is nothing in the world that does not possess a mental aspect. Brandon’s interpretation of this is the Shards’ Investiture permeating everything in the cosmere; and in how energy, matter, and Investiture are in essence the same thing and can be converted between one another. Along with how all things have a Cognitive and Physical aspect (Thought and Extension), both still of the same fundamental substance. This reflects Spinoza's belief in all things possessing Thought and Extension, and in how all things are not of separate individual substances, but are instead modifications upon the same substance (in the cosmere's case, Investiture). Though, within the cosmere, Spinoza's ideas of determinism and rejection of trans-attribute causation are both rejected.
Other, more minor influences include Jung in the concept of Connection, along with Idealism,, the ship of Theseus thought experiment, and the Sorites paradox. 
The large number of philosophical influences on Realmatic Theory and the cosmere is because Brandon finds philosophy interesting. He took many philosophy classes in college.
=== History of Development ===
Realmatic Theory was first used in Dragonsteel Prime, Brandon’s second book set in the cosmere. The opening chapters include someone learning about the three Realms in a classroom. As Brandon wrote more cosmere books, he noticed patterns in the themes. He began to create a common energy source for the magic systems to use. Linking the books and creating the cosmere grew naturally from those themes and connections. Within the currently published cosmere, the term Realmatic Theory has only been used three times: once by the Ire, once by Shalash, and once by Design. Khriss has used the phrase "Realmatic Transition" in the Words of Radiance Ars Arcanum to describe the Surge of Transportation. She also used the phrase "Realmic transition" once in the essay on the Taldain system to describe how sand mastery works. The difference, if any, between these two terms is as yet unknown.
== Notes ==
es:Teoría Realmática