[The Sunlit Man/SP4 full/Cosmere] I'm certain I know.
Canticle is a dragon or other powerful being's egg. The entire planet is an evenly rotating massive investiture sink. I can easily seeing that being a major part of the development of a dragon, both heating and sustaining the embryo. The hostility of the planet is also likely in part a defense mechanism.
I'm not sure it's even intentionally hostile, it's just what you get when you have a massive channel of Investiture and people trying to live next to it. But the theory is certainly interesting. Also, could the persistent mountains be the early signs of the egg hatching on that side, then?
I was just thinking of it like the point on an egg but that could well be, too. Since it's in space the traditional egg shape doesn't really confer many benefits.
My line of thought was: it was mentioned that the mountains were formed relatively recently. So it's unlikely it's because of the shape of the egg. And even if it was egg-shaped, it wouldn't make sense for the point to not be at the poles, so that its axis of rotation is the same as its axis of symmetry
I'm much more in the camp that it's something Whimsy created. I wouldn't be surprised if era 4 timeframe we see a bunch of weird space things in the cosmere that were done by Whimsy.
That's a pretty good idea too. I suppose jumping to certainty that it's an egg birthing a new being was hasty but it definitely seems egg-like, even if it's to nurture a being back to strength.
Interesting idea. I wonder what the Sun is then? Since that’s where the investiture is seeming to come from.
I also wonder why there isn’t any area on the ground that is in sunlight but not the full scale, investiture-fueled firestorm. Nomad experienced it at the peak of the mountain, but that same phenomenon had to exist elsewhere on the planet, wouldn’t it? Maybe the smallness of the planet is the reason for that but it just got me thinking.