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I once it heard proposed that Adonalsium was made of opposites, like Ruin and Preservation. Obviously not true, because math. But Shards don't need to be direct opposites to oppose each other, if indirectly. We see all the Shardic conflict going on around, and few of those Shards are in direct conflict of intent. Ati, the vessel of Ruin himself says to Preservation, "Anything you do, I counter." Being composed of so many individual parts on conflict, it might have been difficult for Adonalsium to do anything. It's like a plate made of different glass fragments, it still functions, but may not do it as well or look as good. A solid, one color plate, is much nicer to eat off of. Of course, that depends on the color. I don't want to really eat off of a Ruin colored plate. This is why I think the Shattering was necessary. Adonalsium, while probably a decent deity, was not as functional as he could have been. Without the future sight of a Shard, those who Shattered him probably decided that breaking it up was necessary to get some stuff going in the universe. And as we can read, there is a lot of stuff happening with the Shards running loose.

So when the shards were taken up by the vessels, did they know which shard they took up? Did Ati know he had chosen Ruin? Did Uli-da choose to take up ambition or was it random?

We seem to have some numerical trends seen across the cosmere, is there a reason for this, and how will this be incorporated in the future?

Why specifically do the shards of Adonalsium embody those particular aspects? Are they supposed to be axiomatic aspects of the universe? Of people? What makes Ambition, Honor, and Odium a shard but not something like Apathy, Deception, or Ecstasy?

I'm not sure that this is confirmed, but I'm pretty sure that I heard on Shardcast that Adonalsium was Shattered because the Vessels and Hoid were afraid of/trying to prevent some danger or disaster from happening. So, crackpot theory: Is Odium actually a hero on a mission to ensure that the above mentioned disaster never comes to pass. And therefore he has committed himself to a goal of killing as many shards as he can in order to ensure that Adonalsium is never reconstructed.

Whilst pondering who Hoid could be, and what his place in the Cosmere might be, other than being a wanderer and researcher, I came upon an interesting thought that I'm sure has been thought of before, but I wanted to see what everyone else thinks about it. Did Hoid Shatter Adonalsium? Hoid always has been a secretive fellow, popping up at seemingly random moments in the Cosmere, and somehow knowledgeable of facts that even the people of the same world do not know. He was even said to have been offered a Shard after the Shattering. But could he be the villain of the Cosmere, the one no one saw coming, yet was in opposition to and powerful enough to destroy Adonalsium. It sounds ridiculous at first glance, but then, you never can tell with Hoid. Here are my thoughts on the matter... 1. Hoid has been seen gaining one or more spren on Roshar, which could possibly mean he is trying to gain power. 2. He is involved with not just one or two worlds, as some Worldhoppers are, but is involved in pretty much EVERY one. Could he be keeping track of the Cosmere in order to know what he was dealing with if/when he rose back to power? 3. How could he know so much about all of the magic systems, sometimes even aware of things inhabitants of the involved world don't know, and he sometimes mentions the Shards as if he knows them like friends. Is there a reason for this? Anyhow, I just wanted to se what you guys thought, as it was an idea I'd long pondered but finally wanted to put some evidence together just to se what you guys thought. Crush my theory. PLEASE!!! I really don't want Hoid to be evil!!!

So I happened to be randomly reading about Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) and I noticed it talked about the idea of creation being a part of the "Shattering of Divinity" into 10 vessels. I wonder if that was at all an inspiration for Adonalsium and the shattering. Not really going anywhere with this, I just thought it was kind of cool https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sefirot#Lurianic_Shevirah_(Shattering)_and_Tikun_(Rectification)

Is Trell a piece of Adonalsium? Or is he a splinter of one of the gods that Odium has killed? I am really confused about this. Oh and is the person in Whitesand related named Trell. Trell is the being who is fighting Harmony currently if you aren't familiar with who he is. The fact that Miles worships him and that he has Faceless Immortals means he has some power right?

I think I have a grasp on this but I want some help with it. At the battle of Thaylen Field Dalinar held Honor and used the power when he united the 3 realms and created Honor's Perpendicularity. The Coppermind says that any person that does this (holds the power of a Shard) becomes a Sliver. It also says that a Sliver knows it is a Sliver. Does this mean that Dalinar has gained knowledge of the Cosmere? Does he now have a better understanding of what the 3 realms are, and what happened to Ashyn, and the presence of other Slivers & Shards through the Cosmere? And if so, how does everyone think he will he use this info in the fight against Odium?

Hello friends. I've been thinking a lot about Shards over the last month or so, especially in advent of the upcoming Q&A on Reddit. It's been a while since I've seen one of these, so I figure there's no harm in putting this out there again (especially in light of new reveals in AU). I want to think about Shards, and possibly narrow down the six remaining Shards, and I would love some input from you guys (I've been driving my family crazy with questions on their thoughts in the last couple days). Firstly, here's what we know. We know ten of the sixteen Shards of Adonalsuim. Listed in order of reveal/publicity, they are Devotion, Dominion, Preservation, Ruin, Endowment, Honor, Cultivation, Odium, Autonomy, and Ambition. We know that Odium Splintered at least four Shards. We now know all four: Ambition, Devotion, Dominion, and Honor. Odium had a 'hit-list', and Ambition was #1. There is a Shard that just wants to hide and survive, but that Shard's intent is not 'Survival'. There is a Shard that is not on a planet. (This could refer to Ambition, depending on where it was finished off.) There are two Shards that aren't on a planet, Ambition, and one other. Here's some stuff we're I'm pretty sure about/think we know. (Please let me know if any of these suppositions were confirmed) Shards are based somewhat on "divine attributes" of a god figure. Shards have an opposite pairing, but most are not clear opposites.* * There's been a lot of discussion involving this, and it's looking more and more unlikely that there are pairings of Shards. However, since it's somewhat simple to use that supposition as a format for now, if nothing else. Here's some supposition/speculation I make on the information above. If the sixteen Shards of Adonalsium were all combined, the result would be a god figure. Because of this, we can assume that there are likely no duplicates (for example, there wouldn't be a Shard of Immutability, as Preservation already fills that role). Now onto the Big List. I'm going to attempt to fill in this list of Shards and their pairings, and I will update this list with our guesses. Confirmed Shards will be in Red, guesses will be green. Confirmed pairing will be bold, highly likely will be italicized, and unsure I will leave plain. Here goes. Preservation Ruin Dominion Autonomy Odium Devotion* Endowment Ambition** Honor Absolution?*** Cultivation Tribulation Enlightenment Enigma Purity**** Synthesis? * On the Odium/Devotion pairing. I put this one up because Odium is defined by hatred and jealousy, whereas Devotion is stuff like love and service. I find it to be a likely pair, but a good argument can be made for and Honor/Odium mashup as well. ** On the Endowment/Ambition pair, I find this one a bit of a stretch, I'll admit. It comes from the thought process of Endowment being giving to others, and Ambition looking to receive. It's a tenuous connection, but I'll leave it here for the time being until we find a better candidate. *** One of the possible Shards my family came up with is Mercy (or forgiveness) EDIT: Absolution involves both of these, also, you can be absolved of burdens and Oaths. It's also a God attribute so I like it better. I'm still not too sure I like it as a whole. I like the idea that it's a possible opposite to Honor, because the way we've seen Honor act sounds like a Judgement type, dealing heavily with Oaths. Forgiveness and Mercy sometimes happens in Honorable people in SA, but I haven't seen it represented in a Shard (though there is a case to be made that Endowment or Cultivation could involve it). **** Purity seems like a likely Shard to me. We haven't seen a Shard that represents the righteousness or holiness of god, and I think there's an argument to be made that Purity could fill those shoes. There is also a planet named Purity in the Threnodite System that breaks the pattern of funeral songs like the other planets. Now, let's discuss. Please bring forward an idea of the remaining six shards. Even feel free to argue my pairings if you like. Please keep in mind these things on looking for Shard possibilities. Divine attributes separated from the virtues that give them context (as Hoid would say). Attributes that aren't shared in another Shard. Shards that wouldn't logically be higher on Odium's hit-list that Ambition. Otherwise he would have targeted them first. Edit 1: Added Tribulation, added confirmed information about Ambition and the other Shard without a home. Edit 2: Absolution instead of Mercy, added Synthesis as an opposite of Purity.

ok this is gonna sound insane, but I think the big twist of the cosmere is that there are beings similar or even above adonalsium, or even adonalsium was just one aspect of a larger god. If you think about it, it does follow the theme of Gods above Gods that you find in the cosmere. Edit: I have actually found more concrete evidence while looking at the coppermind. There is a mention of the "God beyond" , mentioned by different characters over multiple shardworlds.

I feel that there are some very important things connected to those visions, particularly if you notice some... subtleties on pages 1136 and 1139 of OB. Something big is happening, and I'm wondering whether Hoid would have liked to be in Dalinar's place there. This is such an intense thing that I don't really want to put all of it out there, but also I might be very wrong.

So, Odium being a part of Adonalsium and "God's own wrath" and all that got me thinking. Odium trying his best to splinter the other shards is sort of like Adonalsium inflicting self-harm. Man, that god must have had some issues. The original sixteen must have gotten real tired of his sh*t and probably decided to shatter him just to stop his edginess. Sorry for spoiling the cosmere endgame reveal folks and you're welcome! ** tips hat Just to be crystal, this is a joke post and I mean no disrespect to people actually in depression, please get help!

So, I've been thinking about this since I knew about Lerasium and Atium. You can see the resemblance. But I didn't give it much real thought, until I found out there's WoB saying that Sharblades are also God metal: Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased) I also got confirmed that the metal that spren turn into is god metal. Footnote: Unspecified question by yulerule. Arcanum Unbounded Hoboken signing (Dec. 3, 2016) And that that metal is being called (informally as of yet) Tanavastium. Moreover, there's confirmation that there's now Harmonium on Scadrial: youshallnotpass Will there be a metal called harmonium in the mistborn world? Brandon Sanderson RAFO. But good question. WeiryWriter Just an fyi but you have confirmed the existence of harmonium before. (And this is probably a RAFO, but is there a reason you didn't follow the convention of the other "god metals" and call it something like sazedium? "Harmonium" just seems out of place.) Brandon Sanderson Sazed didn't like the sound of Sazedium. /r/books AMA 2015 (July 6, 2015) Which also lets us know that there is a conscious decision from the shards in the naming of the God metals. But the part that actually got me thinking was this WoB: Questioner [PENDING REVIEW] Did Adonalsium have a god metal? Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW] RAFO. Skyward Chicago signing (Nov. 16, 2018) I always visualized the Shattering of Adonalsium as the breaking of something solid. I don't know why. But this makes me think I'm not that far from something important.

Hemalurgy has been mentioned as having special importance with regard to the Cosmere. It's made me wonder about the possibility of a reforging of Adonalsium through the use of hemalurgy. As hemalurgy can imbue the "spiked" with powers accessed through other shards, it seems an appropriate (albeit gruesome) method to create/imbue an individual with all the original powers of Adonalsium. Hopefully this would restore a greater balance throughout the Cosmere as the aspects of each Shard appear to work best in concert (Preservation and Ruin as a simple example). In talking with a friend, we concluded that perhaps the optimal way to carry out something like this would have to be through the sacrifice of each existing Shard-holder. This makes it rather obstructed since that would be quite a sacrifice, though perhaps it would add a thematic element to the story. Any insight in this regard? Could hemalurgy be used to create a being with all the original abilities of Adonalsium? Is it reasonable that anyone would want to achieve this for the good of the Cosmere?

I was thinking this morning and somehow got here... Pre-shattering, was Hoid originally for or against shattering Adonalsium? It would put a new perspective on things if he wasn't wouldn't it? Anyways, I hope someone has asked Brandon so they know the answer to this!

***Spoilers for the Mistborn series, Words of Radiance, Wax and Wayne series, and Mistborn: Secret History.*** So my friend and I (who host a nerd podcast and talk about Branderson's work about once a month) have talked for a while about this theory: Kelsier is the missing shard. He is the shard Survival/ Immortatlity/ Endlessness or whatever Sanderson is going to call that aspect of god. When Adonalsium was shattered, Survival tore memories of him from the other shards AND FROM HIMSELF, then he hid himself on another invested planet to hide his powers should they manifest. He chose to hide with Preservation and Ruin because he knew they would be in conflict, and that would help hide him. Kelsier's survival is too continual. Life on the streets. Fighting the inquisitor. Literal DEATH at The Lord Ruler's hands (pun pun pun). The Well of Ascension. His final appearance at the end of The Bands of Mourning. PLUS: "There's always another secret." I mean COME ON. Sanderson loves to use the narration trope of "The Unreliable Narrator" (see Writing Excuses episode 13.45) or just look at EVERY TIME HE USED A CHARACTERS THOUGHTS OR WORDS TO CONVINCE YOU OF AN UNTRUTH. MY favorite example is Shallan Davar thinking [paraphrase] "They must have dragged Jasnah's body up onto the deck." I think most of us bought that as truth and were shocked when Jasnah appeared at the end of the book. Anyway, what do you think? is Survival/ immortality a shard? is that shard kelsier? is that Brandon's deepest secret? HIT ME WITH YOU FACTS AND THEORIES.

In this post, I use “nature,” to describe Vessel-independent Shard behavior and “expression” to describe Vessel-influenced Shard behavior. @Jofwu first suggested this distinction and nomenclature. IMO, “intent” and “mandate” muddle this distinction, since their meaning varies with usage. Summary Brandon says each Shard combines personality with a “primal force.” Consensus agrees Vessel personality determines Shard expression: how the Vessels choose to direct their Shards’ Investiture. IMO, a Shard’s “primal force” defines its immutable nature. This primal force Connects the Vessel to its Shard. I believe magic system mechanics show us each Shard’s primal force Connection. Theory Spiritual Realm Investiture is the same for all Shards. Shards differ only in how they access this Investiture and how they grant it to mortals: “The 'role' of the Shard has to do with the WAY the magic is obtained, not what it can do,” and “The means of getting powers…are related to the Shards, but not the powers themselves.” Brandon tells us Connection is not Investiture: “Connection is, like, the equivalent of a quantum connection in our world, so it's more like a force than something comprised of something.” If Spiritual Realm Investiture is the same for all Shards, then Shards differ only in their Connection to their Vessel. I believe each Shard’s primal force IS this unique Connection. Magic users draw Investiture from the Spiritual Realm through their Shard’s primal force Connection. Magic systems IMO supply the best evidence of each Shard’s primal force Connection. Here are Brandon’s three examples from the WoB I quote in full below. Ruin – Primal Force Connection: Entropy. “Ruin is a charged term for” entropy. Ruin’s magic system gives Investiture to mortals through an act of entropy – spiking. Any Ruin Vessel IMO would deliver its Investiture via entropy. Personality: “Kind and generous” Ati chose decay to express entropy. He was the best Ruin possible. Another Vessel might have chosen cataclysm. Preservation - Primal Force Connection: Stasis. “Preservation is a charged term for stasis.” Any Preservation Vessel IMO would deliver Investiture to mortals through metal’s static molecular structure. Personality: Leras created the Terris Prophecies and imprisoned Ruin. Other Vessels might have acted differently. Honor - Primal Force Connection: Connects People. “Honor is the sense of being bound by rules, even when those rules, you wouldn't have to be bound by.” I think any Honor Vessel would deliver Investiture to mortals through a person-to-person Connection like the Nahel bond. Personality: Tanavast’s Honor chose oaths to create binding rules. Another Vessel (Dalinar’s Unity?) might favor other means to bind people. Tanavast’s personality gives “this sense that [‘honor’] is noble,” though “there's also something not honorable about Honor if taken from the other [primal force] direction.” I speculate about other Shards’ primal forces in other posts, but these are the only three Shard natures Brandon confirms. I believe, for example, Odium gives his Investiture through broken “people” Connections. When mortals eschew emotional pain (“I’m not to blame”), they isolate themselves from others. The resulting void lets hate in. Mechanically, Odium’s Investiture flows through the cracks in the soul left by the broken Connections. Breaking people Connections seems to be Odium’s nature, its primal force. A different Vessel than Rayse, who chose this repulsive force for his Shard, might break people Connections in a way that doesn’t generate violent passion. Shards eventually compel Vessels to conform to their Shard’s nature. Vessels succumb IMO because they draw all their power through their primal force Connection. Entropy made Ati more destructive. Stasis made Leras unable to harm Elend. The compulsion to Connect with others made Tanavast rely on bare oaths devoid of meaning. Analysis Two WoBs give guidance on Shard natures and Vessel expressions. Theorists have picked over the first the past year. The second WoB asks if Connection or “intent” attracts a Shard to its Vessel. I think at minimum this WoB says Shards reflect both personality and primal force. From his examples, I believe Brandon refers to Vessel personalities plus primal force. Here’s the second WoB about Connection and “intent”: This WoB distinguishes between “general intent/mindset” and Connection. I read “general intent/mindset” to mean Vessel temperament. Brandon says temperament alignment is unnecessary, though it makes ascension “easier.” Instead, the Vessels needed to “create Connection” to assume their Shards: “there was a lot going on with” Connection creation at the Shattering. Brandon’s answer shows personality is not part of Shard nature. Otherwise, temperament alignment would be necessary. Based on the first WoB, I believe the Vessels created a separate primal force Connection to each Shard. Sixteen different means to draw Investiture enabled the Vessels to divide Adonalsium’s power into sixteen equal parts. The “Adonalsium Personality Trait” Theory of Shard Natures @Calderis proposes the alternative “Adonalsium Personality Trait” theory of Shard origin. Because Shards are both personality and primal force, I don’t think it matters which origin theory is correct. The two quoted WoBs are mushy enough to allow either interpretation. But I know Cal will mention his theory if I don’t, so I summarize and respond to it in this Spoiler. Conclusion I think each Vessel Connects to its Shard by a different primal force. I believe that primal force Connection defines their Shard’s nature. Shards deliver their Investiture to magic users by the same primal force Connection. That mechanic appears immutable. Everything else IMO is the Vessel’s expression of its Shard’s nature, until nature ultimately overcomes expression.

So I am in the camp that Odium is not Passion and is hatred or some related term. Assuming that is true I think that based on the known shards a logical choice for one of the unknown shards is Love or Kindness. I don't think any of the other shards can encompass these ideals. These seem like traits that would be a part of a larger being. Opinions? I feel like Love is the stronger option but likely under a different name.

I haven't read all the WoB's so there's probably one to contradict me this, or the theory may have already been posted once. However, I wanted to put it out there just in case. The theory is that Hoid had some kind of relationship with Adonalsium, or the holder of Adonalsium. Whether this is family, or romantic (we do know he's had multiple love interests in the past), I don't know. Based on Hoid's seemingly wanting to get at least a lot of the different powers, and The Traveler, the very short story Brandon read at a signing a while back, I think this may be possible. He may want to try to hold the powers to get a glimpse of his loved one, or believe that that may bring his loved one back. From The Traveler we do know that The Traveler, who is Hoid, has lost someone dear to him. Potentially the pomegranate is symbolic for this, as in Greek Mythology it's a fruit of the underworld, and eating one of the seeds will force you to stay there, but that's relatively irrelevant. That's basically it. If you have any input, I'd love to hear it

A few years ago Brandon dropped this nugget: there was a plot to "destroy" Adonalsium and it failed. I wonder if this is the same group of people who eventually "killed" Adonalsium and split the power. Adonalsium is mostly if not entirely made of Investiture and as the third WoB below says it cannot be destroyed. The 16 (or a subset of them) wanted to destroy Adonalsium, but they realized it was not possible, so they "killed" the sapience of Adonalsium, splitting it into pieces and picked up those pieces so it could not recombine or gain sapience on it's own again. At first I was thinking it was the same attempt. Like they intended to destroy big A, but they couldn't and the Shattering was the result. But this contradicts what Khriss told Kelsier about the Vessel motives in MB:SH. She says some did it because they wanted the power. She wasn't there, but the letter from Frost to Hoid in WoR indicates Rayse wanted to become Odium. #investiture

Do we have evidence that Adonalsium existed from the beginning? Is it possible that there was a cycle of shatterings and reunifications?

So I can't find it mentioned or talked about anywhere, but I'm about exactly here in an Oathbringer reread and Evi and Dalinar just got done talking about how Dalinar is changing (getting older). We know already Evi's religion has been described as kinda pagan, kinda vorin. Dalinar is talking about getting older and she says he's changing from one aspect to another. He asks her to clarify and she talks about how they worship"the One", all power is his power, the old magic is "an aspect of the One" (Cultivation/Nightwatcher) who grants some of his power, the Almighty is another aspect, there are many aspects to the One, and people can change between aspects at different times in their lives. Sounds like she (her culture) worships Adonalsium and/or the Shards and could even be the closest thing to a "one true religion" of the Cosmere. I've searched Arcanum, the Coppermind, and good ole Google but haven't found anything about this. Any info would be great Edit: I relistened cause it was 45 min in between hearing and being able to post. I definitely paraphrased and used a wrong word (aspect instead of Avatar), but the overall point is the same.

Forgive me if this has been brought up before but I hadn’t encountered it in the forums and it seemed pretty interesting. In a March 10, 2017 WoB, Brandon specifically refers to Adonalsium using the possessive pronoun “his”. The full quote (in response to a question from B-more_freshout reads “The death of Adonalsium, and the questions surrounding the persistence of his power, is THE single pervasive theme of the works”. I was under the impression that we were currently uncertain whether Adonalsium was a being/force/whatever. This quote, however, seems to suggest that Adonalsium was a specifically male being. Please let me know if you have any thoughts/corrections/points I should’ve considered. Thank you!