Retan10101

So, this is a theory that I've been mulling over in my head for a while, and the other day I finally figured out how to put it into words, so I figured I'd de-lurk and post it here where people who care can see it. The basic idea is that all Shards of Adonalsium are evil, twisted, or in some way amoral—not just the obvious ones like Odium or Ruin, but all of them. I have compiled a list of evidence against each Shard to prove this: Devotion: Most people see Devotion as being good, like a symbol of love. I have never interpreted her Intent this way; I’ve always seen Devotion as being more of a religious type of thing. This might explain why the Fjordell are so fanatically devoted to Shu-Dereth—even though they’re definitely more focused on Dominion than Devotion, the two are so mixed together at this point there’s got to be a little bit of her influence there, right? Tenuous evidence: "Devotion" is mentioned in regard to Shu-Dereth fairly often in Elantris. Also, and possibly more convincing than baseless conjecture, consider that the one and only thing we’ve seen Devotion do in her time onscreen is mercy-kill people. She doesn't heal them, like you might expect a god whose only drive is love to do. She doesn't reward Raoden for his dedication to his cause, which could be another interpretation of Devotion. Nope, she just tries to kill him. This does not speak of good things in my opinion. Dominion: Shu-Dereth. Dakhor. Brandon Sanderson himself referring to Skaze as “evil Seons.” And I think we’ve heard enough from Dominion. Endowment: Endowment was a tough case to make, partly because she’s my favorite Shard so I'm a little biased, partly because we know so little about her, and partly because the only thing we’ve seen her do is resurrect people in order to stop a war. But I eventually came up with a case for Endowment’s amorality. Consider, for a moment, the way her magic system works. Everybody is born with something inside them that connects them to the world—something that lets them appreciate the beauty of things around them, that lets them sense when other people are nearby, that is so important to their mental state that people without it are considered to have lost their soul. And the magic system consists of forcing large numbers of people to give this vital part of themselves up so that you can use it to do random stuff like singing better (which the large numbers of people are now less able to appreciate) or making more efficient soldiers to kill things. Pretty cruel there, Endowment. Pretty cruel. Ruin: I don’t think I need to make a case for “I’m the voice in your head that tells you to kill people and I’m going to start the apocalypse as soon as possible” Ruin. Preservation: The only reason Preservation works as a force of good in the Mistborn trilogy is because he’s opposed to a much more immediate force of evil. If Ruin hadn’t been there to destroy things, Preservation’s Intent would, rather than save the world, cause him to turn it into basically a museum exhibit where nobody can do anything ever because they might get hurt. Honor: A subset of this theory that Honor might actually have been Adonalsium’s moral compass, especially considering that he’s the one to keep Odium (AKA The Wrath Of God) in check*, and that him being a separate Shard is why all the other ones are evil. So I’m going to give Honor exception status for now. But I’m watching him. Cultivation: She messes with the genetics of things, which is amoral from a human perspective but not necessarily a divine one. However, as far as I can interpret Brandon’s comments**, she's the reason Parshendi have multiple forms and therefore is responsible for Odium being able to turn them demonic, so we can be pretty sure she doesn’t have a divine morality making sure all these mutations are okay. (Also she hates Hoid) Odium: I already mentioned he’s The Wrath Of God, but for a complete list of Odium's crimes, he’s been responsible for the death of at least four gods, the isolation of Sel from the rest of the Cosmere for a while, countless apocalypses on the same planet over and over, the repeated murder and endless torture of ten people, and the unwilling corruption of an entire race of sentient beings. Odium is not a good guy. (Also Hoid hates him) Autonomy: She apparently helped Odium screw over Sel when he killed Devotion and Dominion, so that doesn’t put her in the best light. Not to mention she’s completely walled off Taldain from the rest of the Cosmere, thus preventing Khriss, who seems to be one of the most awesome Worldhoppers, from going home. (Also Hoid hates her too) Ambition: We don’t know much of anything about Ambition besides the fact that they lived on Threnody for a while. Ambition may not be responsible for how messed up Threnody is at the moment, but I’m going to say that they probably have something to do with at least some of the weirdness going on there. *So this is the way I've always understood Odium's imprisonment in Greater Roshar to be—it was basically Honor's last act before Odium killed him. However, here on the Shard, I've seen some indication that it might have actually been Cultivation who did it. Can somebody elaborate on this for me? **I don't know where the WoB is for this, but I remember reading that somebody asked if the Parshendi were of Honor or Odium and Brandon said "Not originally" for both, and then they asked about Cultivation and the indication was that they'd existed before she showed up but then she messed with them somehow.