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Okay so, time for my first real crackpot theory. We know, from the AU essays that Sel has been gaining a bit of sapience. What if the planet Sel itself caused the Reod, being unhappy with the Elantrians, and the way they were using their power? It would give the Reod more cosmere significance, and it would be interesting, compared to the few things we know about the humans who left Ashyn. As a planet, I could understand Sel not wanting to have something happen to it, and it might have intervened.

What can we infer about the skaze, which are barely mentioned at all in Elantris, yet somehow are very relevant to the parts of the story we do not yet know? Brandon refers to skaze as "evil seons" in the annotations of Elantris. They are related to Skai (via WoB). They have a large amount of influence on most politics and most workings in Fjordell (via WoB). Dilaf had information from the skaze that the Elantrians were not indestructible (Elantris chapter 62). They can speak, they are "a hovering dark sphere, the size of a melon," they suck in light, have undefined edges that warp the light around them, they are ringed with a pattern of misty symbols, "running like a hoop from its top down the side to its bottom," have a wide range of emotions, and are a synthetic race (Elantris postscript) I've seen it mentioned that we assume they are splinters of Dominion, but I'm not so certain. We don't read that anywhere and if there is a relevant WoB on the subject, I haven't seen it either. I understand that they seem similar to seons, which contain splinters of Devotion (aons), but how can something "synthetic" like a skaze be a splinter anyway (unless seons are artificially created too)? Are the misty symbols aons? It would be odd to not refer to them as so, unless they weren't. We know from Elantris that the Fjordell Empire has changed significantly over the centuries. "Wyrn the King" was edited significantly to add in modern understandings of Shu-Dereth, and Jaddeth was originally a minior god in their culture that cared for rocks under the earth, not this super god they claim him to be now. The skaze seem to be creating a "Dominion" like influence on Fjordell, but for what purpose? What do you think about the skaze? (also, please don't be that one person who only posts a correction to something I say, but don't actually answer the question :-P)

Ok, this theory might seem a little crazy, but if it turns out to actually be true, it would have a huge impact on the Cosmere! so, starting off: Devotion and Dominion were splintered, and their power was moved into the Cognitive Realm. in the Arcanim Unbounded essay about Sel, it says: Now, we have seen evidence that a self-aware Splinter could pick up a Shard, like [SH spoilers] Since Dominion and Devotion are already somewhat Reunited, they could potentially be picked up by a person, or a Seon, or a Skaze, or whatever. EXCEPT! this United Shard could already have been picked up, by the PLANET ITSELF(!), because it has ties to all three realms, enabling it to use the full power of the Shard, Connection to both of the shards, enabling it to pick it up easily, and a self-awareness, which could allow the Planet of Sel to choose for itself. This could be that something that might be happening on Sel that Khriss speculates about. What do you guys think? Could it be true, or has the taint on Saidin affected me more than I think?

Hypothetically let's say a Duralumin Ferring from Scardrial stored connection for years and had a lot of metal minds. If he became a world hopper and ended up on Sel, could he potentially tap all that connection and "attract" the Sheod becoming an Elantrian? Side question: assuming there just happened to be an Elantrian who could store connection, if they traveled to Roshar, could they tap the connection and potentially figure out how to alter the Aons to work with that geography? (For the sake of theoretical argument, let's assume that either distance from the shards Devotion and Dominion doesn't matter or the potential of tapping connection also maybe figuring out how to hack the local investiture or shard energy)

In the Greater Cosmere there are 4 major magic systems I'd like to discuss and make comparisons. My purpose is not to theorize who'd win a fight between magic users of different systems, more a comparison of the nature of the magics themselves. Note that I'm not including White Sand, Aether of Night or Shadows of Threnody. The first isn't fully published, the 2nd may not quite be canon yet and the third we don't know nearly enough to evaluate. So, first the Planet and the systems. Sel-AonDor/Dakhor Scadrial-Metallic Arts Nalthis-Awakening/Chromatics Roshar-Surgebinding/Voidbinding Granted this list is of course incomplete. As Brandon writes more books and opens up more of the Cosmere we will potentially see more planetary systems and more magic. Up to this point the 4 major magic systems of the Cosmere are the ones listed above. Easiest Entry Point: That title goes to Awakening. Everybody in the system is born with a seed of the magic in Breath. It's not terribly difficult to get more, at least in comparison to the other systems. And if one gets enough Breath you get the magic handbook. In fact the only restrictions come when you make it to Cognitive Shadow territory and even that's not onerous. 1 Breath a week, substituted for any raw Investiture if breath isn't available. Most Mobile: The Metallic Arts take the cake on this one. If your sDNA allows for metal manipulation then you can do it anywhere in the Cosmere. It's not location dependant like on the other Shard worlds because the doorway to the power is already incorporated into your spiritweb. Most Investiture: This is obviously Roshar. Two living Vessels and a shattered third are all in system. Raw Power circles the globe on a semi-regular basis. That raw power can be harnessed by practitioners of different magic systems with a simple hack. Probably a different hack for each system but it's probably not terribly difficult. Unlike say Scadrial where the hack into their system involves material that no longer exists (lerassium) or finding someone with the appropriate spiritweb and ripping a piece from their soul. On Roshar all you gotta do is stand out in a storm with a kite. I'm sure there are more but that's all I could come up with for now. I'm sure there are others. I tried to stay away from the more subjective comparisons like Most Useful or Most OP but feel free to explore.

Soo Nightblood sucks up a persons spark when it kills, innate Investiture an all, and erases them on all three realms. What happens to Investiture which Nightblood sucked in, does it go to the user, does it stay in Nightblood, does it go to Endowment.. I'm quite confused on this. For that matter, what happens to soul sucked by Nightblood? I would imagine a Cognitive Shadow out of the picture

In Scadrial books Shadesmar is one of Mists and in Roshar it is full of Spren and countless connections to the physical world rolled up in little spheres. Are these difference defined by the collectivve minds of the people or is it more defined by the Investiture/Shard in charge (Roshar was originally Adonalsium's world so the spheres and most of the spren are probably his and not specifically Honor, Cultivation, or Odium's). Is the only constant to Shadesmar the beyond. Is the inverse landscape a constant? How much can a Shard change the landscape. Brandon has said that Sel is a dangerous place in the Cognitive realm because of the Shattered shards power residing mainly in the cognitive realm so how far can the cognitive realm be twisted by Investiture. Perhaps there is a splinter of Ambition causing the cognitive realm to be twisted on threnody.

I am doing a reread of Elantris and i am wondering how log was Hoid on Sel. Do you think he was there for the whole time the reod was going on? did the reod affect the difficulty of getting to Sel with the cognitive realm?

I had this random idea while reading the theory about Wayne being a Kandra. We know very little about the Set's Faceless Immortals. They are presumed, by the characters on Scadrial, to be Kandra. This is presumably because the Scadrians know them to be shapeshifters, and the only shapeshifters they know about are Kandra. However. These Faceless Immortals have red eyes. What other shapeshifting species do we know of that has red eyes? The Parshendi. That is, the Voidspren-bonded Parshendi. "But they all have marbled black/white and red skin!" Yes. They do, that we've seen so far. BUT. "Smokeform for hiding and slipping between men." The obvious assumption for that is that they'd look like Parshmen, but that makes no sense. They've got Dullform for that, which is definitely NOT a form of power, and Dullform would be extremely conspicuous anywhere that wasn't used to Parshmen. So. My final theory: the Faceless Immortals with red eyes are Parshendi in Smokeform. If you've any evidence for or against it, please tell me.

One thing I'm curious about (and unsure where else to wonder about it) is what made Dominion and Devotion settle on Sel together in the first place? We know now that there was a kind of pact or agreement that Shards would stay away from each other, thanks to the Part 2 Epigraphs, and we know Ruin and Preservation paired off in part because they thought they could counterbalance each other and mitigate Ati's eventual corruption by his Intent, while Honor and Cultivation's vessels had a romantic connection. Autonomy seems to just like to meddle, and Odium seeks out other Shards to kill them. But why did Aona and Skai break the pact? Dominion and Devotion in some ways oppose each other but in other ways almost complement each other (ie the sense of nationalistic identity that fuels many of the magics on Sel can be seen as Devotion to one's Dominion or empire). So they're not an obvious counter to each other in such a way that they could balance or cancel each other out the way that Ruin and Preservation sought to, but neither are they an easy or obvious complement of Intents. Additionally, we have inklings that Skai was not such a great guy, so it would seem unlikely that he and Aona had anything like Honor and Cultivation's personal connection....unless Skai was corrupted by his Intent of Dominion similar to Ati's devolution into Ruin. So honestly, I'm at a loss as to what drew them together if its being near each other and violating this pact that put them on Odium's hit list in the first place. It's likely we simply just don't have enough information yet to draw any kind of actual conclusions, but Sel and its history and its Shards remains one of the most mysterious aspects of the cosmere to me, so this pact (albeit one that seems rather informal and more of 'guidelines' for Shards to follow rather than a hard and fast rule) and the fact that they broke it feels significant to me. Anyone else have any theories why?

Devotion and Dominion are actually a "Spintered Shard" This post is a theory about the current situation of the Sel’s Shards. Maybe the title is a bit confusing but follow my thoughs. Let’s begin to some Cosmere’s “facts” wide accepted by everyone: Sel had two Shards: Devotion held by Aona and Dominion held by Skai Odium came to Sel, killed the Holders and Splintered the Shards. A little part of the Spinters gained sentience and became Seon and Skaze. The remain (massive) splinters of the two Shards merged together and became the Dor. The Dor is the core part of the Jesker religion, who see the Dor like an “overspirit” Another religion Shu-keseg workship the “unity of mind” From Shu-keseg came two branches: Shu-Dereth and Shu-Korath Shu-Dereth involves about “unity through control” Shu-Korag involves about “unity through love” the religion derivated from Shu-keseg have as mantra quite the intent of the two Sel’s shards. Now after this (maybe too long) introduction, I will explain my theory: Now on Sel there aren't two different shards but only one. Devotion or Dominiom are gone, now we have only a new Shard, I like to call it “Unity” but we could call with the neutral name of DorShard. The problem is that DorShard is actually Splintered. This is my explanation: When Odium came to Sel, he killed both of Shardholders and then spintered twe two Shards. A little of the Shards’s Splinters gained sentience and now they are know as Seon and Skaze. The unsentient part of the Spinters from both Shards then began to merge together. Why Did they merge ? Becouse the Devotion and Dominion's intents (or mandates if you prefer) are quite similar, they both were focused about bring Unity but using different methods. If you find this interpretation already heard, it is because it’s quite the same story of Shu-Keseg (but from the ending to the beginning) and I think that Keshu was inspired by this truth and his disciples’s shism was about the previous Shards’ situation. Now the DorShard is actually an unique Shard (like Harmony) but without host and probably Splintered (if the merging doesn’t put the Shard together). If now somebody “pick up the Dor” (and I don't know how it could be made), he will ascend to became a “Double Class” Shard like Harmony. EDIT: For the lazy sharder the main point in few words is: The Dor is a corpse of a new shard, not the patchwork of two corpse of shards

This may have been asked elsewhere, but if it has I haven't found it. How does someone become a forger? Is it hereditary to people from MaiPon, do people gain the ability to forge randomly, does everyone from MaiPon have the ability to forge, or is it something completely different?

Hi everyone, I've been looking for some timeline details. I've found some broad strokes timeline info on the Coppermind here: https://coppermind.net/wiki/Cosmere#Chronological_Order I've also read through the Cosmere timeline topic thread on the forums: But I'm looking for a nitty-gritty little detail, and I'm not seeing anything really conclusive, so I'm hoping to tap into the collective memory of the 17th Sharders, and hopefully see if any one can confirm or shoot down my thought. My question is: Did the Reod and the Recreance happen more or less around the same time? We know Elantris takes place before Way of Kings, by a couple of hundred years. We know the Reod happened 10 years before Elantris, and was likely unrelated to the shattering of Skaai or Aona, as their splinters, the Seons and the Skaze, were already present. We also know that the Day of Recreance happened before the events of the Way of kings, by at least a few hundred years, giving society enough time to bounce back from that event and the sudden influx of shards into the hands of the general population. So here is where I'm weak, as I don't have the exact timelines on hand for the Recreance, or the timeline difference between Elantris and The Stormlight Archive, but what if they happened around the same time? Is that conceivable? Has anyone else had thoughts along a similar vein? And to take it a step further - what if one caused the other? What if the death of so many Spren in the physical realm echoed across the Cognitive realm and left its mark on other worlds? A kind of "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened." only felt by the entire planet of Sel (which has geographically diverse investiture), and maybe others. Or is it possible that a different event somewhere else echoed accross one the realms and caused effects across the Physical realm - rending the earth in Sel and causing the Radiants to relinquish their Oaths on Roshar? Am I grasping at straws? I know I haven't formulated my thoughts very well.

When Raoden falls into the pool in elantris he hears a voice. If the two shards on Sel are shattered than who is the voice he's hearing?

So, about a week ago, I posted a theory about Raoden holding the Dual-Shard of Devotion and Dominion, which I'm fairly sure has been shut down, though I think it could possibly still happen. Here I want to discuss the process of rebuilding a splintered shard. It includes a minor theory as to how the splintering of those two shards happened. As a side note, up till now I've been referring to a Dominion/Devotion blend as Benevolence. I'm not longer sure. Maybe Mastery? I'd chosen Benevolence, because that was the Devotion/Dominion blend I saw in AonDor and Raoden, but after looking at all of the Selish magic systems, I think Mastery applies more. Devotion to developing the system so as to get greater Dominion. At the same time, it might depend on how this shard was created. Ruin and Preservation became Harmony under Sazed, but could have become something else under different circumstances. At least, I think I remember a WoB saying that Ruin+Preservation could have become Contention, or some other equivalent. To begin, here is what I believe to Dominion and Devotion (I think it is mostly head-cannon, though there is some WoB support): Odium killed the two vessels, separated the investiture from the shards and shoved it into the CR (forming the Dor, then splintered what was left of the shard into as many pieces as he could, which were then scattered. These pieces slowly gained consciousness, and became the Seons and Skaze that we see on Sel. This is based on a couple WoBs. One that says that shards without vessels will try to get a vessel, or will slowly reform a consciousness. And another one confirming that the Seons/Skaze are splinters of Devotion/Dominion respectively. So, I see a few processes that would work to recombine these shards. 1. Compressing Seons and Skaze to kill them and picking up the remaining power. If pressing Preservation and Ruin up against each other kills the two different vessels (see Vin and Ati's deaths) because they are opposite, then I think that compressing a Seon and a Skaze together would kill them both, leaving behind the shard pieces from each. Left alone, they would reform into a Seon and a Skaze. However, someone who was attuned to both Dominion and Devotion (like how Sazed was attuned to both Preservation and Ruin) was nerby, that person might be able to draw in the splinters. Do this enough times and you'd ascend. There would still be splinters, but once you ascended, it would be easier to regain the other pieces. Once you have the Shards reunited, but with the Investiture still in the CR, then I think the new dual-shard (Mastery/Benevolence) would be able to go to the CR and scoop it back up. It hasn't happened because since the Dor was made, there hasn't ever been enough shard splinters together with a consciousness for it to do so. 2. Merging Seons and Skaze pair by pair, then merging the different pairs into one. However, if compressing a Seon and a Skaze doesn't kill them, but instead merges them, then you could create a ton of splinters of Mastery/Benevolence, in the which each splinter has equal parts Dominion and Devotion. Once most of the splinters have been turned from Seons/Skaze into the new dual-splinter, then you could take the new splinters and merge them together, thus forming a Shard. Unlike the last one, it doesn't involve a human becoming a vessel, but instead relies on the consciousness that a shard makes if left alone. However, the process of reclaiming the Dor would be very similar to that of step 1. 3. Merging each shard individually. However, if you can't merge Seons and Skaze at all, then you might need to use a more roundabout method. I'd attempt to find a way to combine two Seons into one, and two Skaze into one. Over time, you'd end up with the two shard back, without the portion of their investiture that is locked in the Dor. Here it is more complex. The investiture in the Dor is equal parts Dominion and Devotion. However, that power is merged. I suspect that you'd need a temporary alliance between Devotion and Dominion where they work together to separate the Dor into their respective pieces. Then, if you wanted to merge them, you'd have the Vin suicide assault and a new vessel taking both (HoA plot all over again). Or if you want things simpler, use the suicide assault first, then reclaim the Dor as a single piece. Mastery or Benevolence. If you use method 1, then which one came out would depend on who the new vessel was. Take someone like Raoden, and I think you'd get Benevolence. Take someone like Wan ShaiLu, and you'd get something closer to Mastery. Method 2 would probably yield Mastery. And Method 3 Would yeild the seperate shards, which if killed and merged a la Sazed, would have the same result as method 1.

After my second reading of Secret History, I have to very different questions. 1. So we know Hoid travelled to the physical realm of Scadrial. What I don't know is how did he get off of the planet? From what I know, both shard pools weren't accessible after he travelled there. Does anyone know? 2. So Kelsier went to visit the people in the IRE in the cognitive realm. Everything described about these people makes it seem that they are from Elantris. The lights and even the descriptions of the people. (They even have light emitting from them). They made a reference to devotion who was on Sel before being splintered. Am I correct on this thought? We know some of them travelled to the cognitive realm via the shard pool, but we just don't know if they died or not when entering the pool. Since Devotion has been splintered, are they trying to get another shard to protect Elantris?

What makes a name an aonic name? I know that it has to have an aon in it somewhere, but are there other requirements? For example, we know Aon Reo exists, so would Oreo be a valid aonic name?

I don't have Elantris on myself now to check and was discussing with a friend about the Reod. I'm quite sure that the passing of Odium through Sel was too long ago, way before the time of Raoden, spintering Devotion and Dominion (people say D&D... I can only think of Dungeons and Dragons with those letters), and creating the AonDor, thus, in a way, creating elantrians that can use it. This is right, isn't it? What caused the earthquake, the Reod? My friend defends that it was Odium's passing that caused the Reod, the earthquake, while splintering the other Shards. In her opinion, Elantrians existed before the splintering, he thinks they would not be randomly created just because a sudden surplus of energy in the Cognitive... And it would be "too bad" that an earthquake just randomly happens to break the focus point of the magic in that world. She kinda has a point... What is exactly the timeline here? Devotion and Dominion get to Sel, Odium breaks them, Elantrians appear to make use of the AonDor, Raod randomly happens Devotion and Dominion get to Sel, Create Elantrians, Odium breaks both the shards and the land, causing the raod. Third option?

Hi, I note a conversation from way back discussing the contents of Mraize's cabinet of curiosities. The discussion settled on reasonable answers for most items but couldn't identify the "branch of a tree with writing on" though there was a general feeling it should probably come from Sel (as all the other worlds were represented). I've been back over Elantris and I think there's a hint there. Here's a description of one of the monks of Dakhor: "arms like knotted tree branches, skin pulled tight over strange ridges and unspoken symbols." Later on Raoden kills one of these monks, leaving "a scattering of smoking bones" and something similar then happens to the entire Dakhor army. Finally, towards the end, Raoden examines one of the bones: "The bone, retrieved from the body of a Dakhor monk, was deformed and twisted [...] It was like a carved piece of ivory, or a bundle of engraved wooden rods all twisted together. Most disturbingly Raoden swore he could make out slightly familiar symbols in the carving [...] - ancient Fjordell characters." Looking at some archaeology sites, it's clear that telling charred bone from wood is actually quite tricky and that's before magical deformities are involved. Given that Shallan was only observing for a moment she could easily have mistaken such a bone for a tree branch. So I reckon it's the charred bone of a Dakhor monk. Any thoughts? LJ.

Hi everyone! First of all, I hope this is the right sub-forum… I am currently visualizing the environments of The Emperor’s Soul, as a base for my next portfolio project. More specifically, I am starting with Shai’s Room(s), Shai’s Wing of the Palace, and the Emperor’s quarters/wing (more to come!). Also vases/urns and other artifacts that are mentioned in the novella. Here’s my problem. I found a visual style to work with (heavily inspired by Asian architecture of course), but the details are giving me problems. I am working of descriptions like these: I have pretty good references what reliefs and inlays in Temples/Palaces can look like (see attachments), but I do not want to just take images of Chinese patterns, dragon reliefs and folklore and put them on the hallways and urns for TES. I would really like the designs to fit the world. But I am also at a loss what kind of imagery would be used in the Rose Empire (except for a phoenix headbord bed), as the novella doesn’t mention too many (visual) things other than the main plotline. So that’s where I would really appreciate your help! It has been a long time since I read Elantris, but if I understand it correctly, Elantris and Rose Empire don’t really share much other than being on the same world. Would the Anchient Lamio / Rose Empire people integrate Aons in their art and designs? There are hills in the city, and (I think) mountains nearby. That’s a starting point for what people might base their decorations on. But it’s also not really unique to Sanderson’s worlds. I’m a bit at a loss here, and if I can find nothing else, I’ll make up something myself to make it look more than a real world mashup of Chinese Architecture. But if you can help me brainstorm something that would fit the Cosmere, I would appreciate it a lot. What do you imagine the reliefs, inlays, and artifacts/urns and other decorations would depict in the setting of TES?

We recently got confirmation that Returned are Cognitive Shadows, and that some people would call the Heralds Cognitive Shadows. This got me to thinking, where have we see Cognitive Shadows before? On Roshar, we have the Stormfather, the Cognitive Shadow of Tanavast/Honor. We have the Heralds*, and we have the throwaway line by Khriss in Arcanum Unbounded saying the Braize is inhabited by Splinters and possibly Cognitive Shadows. On Scadrial, we have Kelsier, who's a bit of an exception, since he tricked Leras into putting him in the Well of Ascension. We also met Spanky, who is presumably a Scadrial native because it is difficult to take Cognitive Entities between worlds. Preservation/Leras might fall into this category as well, since he seems to have died a long time ago in Secret History. In the later era of Scadrial, Wax probably counts now, since Harmony stuck him back into his body. On Nalthis, the Returned are like Wax, Cognitive Shadows who were stapled back into their bodies by Endowment. On Threnody, we have the Shades, obviously. On Sel, now, I theorize that we have the Elantians. When Raoden wakes up as an Elantrian, and gets locked in Elantris, he talks to Galladon and realizes he doesn't have a heartbeat. Galladon is always going "You're dead, Kolo?" This always bothered me, because, how would someone who's body is dead, still obviously retain sentience? This question is answered if we realize that they are Cognitive Shadows that are (like the Returned, and Wax) stapled back into their bodies. Relevant WoBs and quotes: -Arcanum Unbounded. The Rosharan System. Page 535, hardback. Source. Source.

I previously posted this on the Shardcast comments, I don't think there's much to it but I'm curious to hear any thoughts on Sel's land gaining self-awareness. In Arcanum Unbounded Khriss makes the observation that "Indeed, I believe that the very landscape itself has become Invested to the point that it has a growing self-awareness, in a way unseen on other planets in the cosmere". We know the earthquake that caused the Reod was not natural. So this made me think the land itself could have 'deliberately' caused the earthquake (maybe not with a highly intelligent level of awareness, perhaps closer to animal instinct). I see two possibilities. 1) the land is self-aware enough to protect itself and for some reason had a problem with the level of magical advancement (or use of investiture) by Elantrians. 2) that the land on Sel is becoming self-aware but with its 'personality' corresponding to the Shard that has the strongest regional influence there (as the Shards' power was stuffed into the cognitive and while they together made the Dor, perhaps they remain somewhat separate), and that the Dominion-land (hmmm Jaddeth??) wanted to overthrow Elantris (a la two tectonic plates sliding across each other, but in this case one of the plates deliberately moving itself). I see 1 as more likely in reflection, I'm not sure that parts of the land would be Dominion and parts Devotion, as opposed to an roughly even blend across Sel. And to be fair, both are probably unlikely but hey, it's a thought

Eshonai is talking about these new rhythms that came when she assumed Stormform, which seems to be the result of a bond with Odium/Unmade/voidspren. Does this quote sound familiar to anything else in the cosmere? We know Odium was on Sel at one point and the Skaze seem to behave in an evil, influential way in their advisement of the Fjordell Empire, similar to these "new" rhythms Eshonai experiences on Roshar. Coincidence?