Search the Community

So I was actually introduced to Brandon Sanderson through the Reckoners, so it had been a while since I had actually read it. Now that I've literally read the entire cosmere save for the prime novels, I decided that it would probably be nice to reread the Reckoners series to see how it feels now that I'm more familiar with Brandon's writing style. So I've finished my reread and I can't help but notice how similar some of the things in the Reckoners are to the Cosmere. Even though epic powers are a little too random to be an MoI, they still have some similarities. The connection to Calamity is a big one, the fiddling with connection feels very cosmerey to me and I can't help but think about how similar it is to spiritual connection. There's also the whole thing about taking the power for yourself and how the powers and weaknesses are so dependent on perception. Also Calamity is just a shard, Larcener is a terrible vessel and the intent has overtaken him. What intent does he have? No idea, but he is overflowing with shardic behavior. Now all that's left is for Kelsier to randomly show up in front of David and invite him into the ghost bloods, then we'll see him running a ship or something in shadesmar in Stormlight 8 or some crap like that. I hope you all found my joke rant entertaining, this has been brewing in the back of my mind since I finished rereading Calamity and I thought it was pretty funny.

So I was thinking about the time Sazed (as Harmony) offered to put Elend and Vin back in their bodies, after fixing up their bodies. If he had done this, I wonder if this would be similar to making a Returned, and if so, what piece of Investiture would be glueing the Cognitive Shadow to the body? Also if so, would all Shards be able to do this, or just some? I theorize that Ruin can, but not Preservation, since Kelsier pins his Shadow to a body by using a Hemalurgic spike, which uses Ruin's power. Theories on this?

Instead of sleeping, I had an idea for a question for the Shard. What is the community’s answer?

. All cosmere spoilers. I was going to make a post asking what society is the most technologically advanced, with Scadrial on top and Threnody or Lumar on the bottom. But then I realized- where has inventions people? The simplest answer is- they don’t exist yet. Brandon hasn’t written the book yet. (though some theories think Sunlit man is set on one of invention’s experiments). But what’s going to be the explanation? We see that Scadrians poke their noses in everywhere in the space stage. We see Elantrians in Tress. We also see a Rosharan interfering in SOTD 2. So all of these societies are out there in the space stage. But where are the inventors? So i’d like to hear your theories about what’s keeping them from the space stage Some of my theories: Invention doesn't rule over humans, Invention made too many awakened machines, Invention did an Ashyn, Invention is building something bigger than the death star, etc.

As of right now, we know of 15 of the 16 Shards. I have a theory about the last Shard's Intent. We know from WOB that there's a shard that "just wants to survive." There are also WOBs that could contradict my theory for sure. "Survive" sounds like it could be an Intent but we know that it's not. Shardic intents seem to sometimes go to extremes of their areas: "odium" could be considered extreme hatred, "ruin" could be extreme decay/destruction, etc. So what if "survive" is the less-extreme version of this shard? The Shard I propose is Ferocity. When I think of something that just wants to survive, I think of a cornered animal. A cornered animal is ferocious, but not malicious. They'll do anything they possibly can to survive, maybe even escape. But there's no malicious intent. Just a need to survive. An aluminum-foil hat for sure, but what do people think?

So, here's what we know about the Shard Mercy: They fought with Odium and Ambition Mercy "worries" Sazed/Harmony. Originally, when I read about Mercy's part in the fight between Odium and Ambition, I had originally assumed that they had been defending Uli Da from Odium, as Odium is a serial killer and the prime antagonist of the Stormlight Archive, whereas Mercy has exclusively good connotations. However, some time ago, it was brought to my attention that Mercy could have been fighting with Odium, against Ambition. Their role in the fight is left ambiguous, so it could definitely be possible, especially given that at least Endowment has an extreme dislike of Uli Da, and Odium generally targeted Shards he could argue had broken the rules of their pact or were otherwise disliked. In that context, Sazed's "Mercy worries me" becomes far more ominous. Has Mercy settled on a more Taravangian-esque "I'll save them all" type of plan of action?

Could all the Shards and Splinters be held by a single person to remake the being Adonulsium? Is it theoretically possible? And could you remake a Shard with all its different Splinters?

We know Slivers can choose to stay Cognitive Shadows for however long they want instead of going to the Beyond. But would this apply to Vin and Ati after they collided Shards? Before Secret History, I thought that their minds had automatically gone to the Beyond after the collision. But Secret History shows this didn’t happen and based on what we know of Slivers, they should retain their powers post collision This also creates another question. Let’s say no one besides Vin and Ati were around Preservation and Ruin post collision. Could they just run over to their Shards and get back in the driver’s seat? If they did, would they be able to replace their missing bodies? Would they be even weaker than other Shards by being bodiless Vessels? And for that matter, if two Shards are of perfectly equal power, can a Vessel with more mass or whatever equivalent in spirt and mind gain an advantage over the other? Kinda like how two people burning pewter cancel out? I’d think that even if you could convert mass, Shards require more to shift their relative power levels. Like having two lakes and saying that adding a cup of water to one makes it bigger.

For some time, I’ve wondered how F-Duralumin would interact with Connection to Shards. We know that allomacers made by Lerasium have a strong Connection to Preservation and I assume Allomacers have a weaker version of the same. We also know that one can ascend to Preservation if they could become a Lerasium savant. But that led me to a question about Lerasium: is it the new Connection that provides their powers in the first place? The metal definitely alters a subject’s spiritwebs, but it’s unclear to me if the Connection grants the new abilities or is simply a side effect. If the former, then that implies the Connection is also the main mechanism for tapping the Shard. Which leads me to my question. Given time and resources could a lerasium-equivalent Compounder like the Lord Ruler mimic lerasium savantism? Could they mimic the Well of Ascension or even just take the Shard altogether? Admittly, j doubt it. When I first came up with the theory, I don’t think I have enough respect for the insane power Shards command and how difficult it is to mimic. Nevertheless, I wanted to throw out the notion to confirm my suspicions. Can you Compound an Allomantic Connection enough to get even temporary Shardic power? Or would it be impossible even as a theoretical model? Edit: Thinking about it, using Compounding to hurt a Shard is like using a hose to drain the ocean. Youd need something truly crazy ti pull it off, not just a Compounder

As of now, we learned quite a bit about Shards in the Cosmere. We’ve seen references to 10 in the books and have the names of four others. We’ve seen the great power they wield at the cost of being changed by the Shard’s Intent. And we’ve seen a hybrid Shard arise. So I ask you. Would you use a Shard? Would you take a hybrid? If so, which ones? How would you use their power (in either the Cosmere or our world)? Why? For those of you who pick hybrid Shards, name the dual Shard’s Intent in the comments below. Bonus points if you can describe a basic concept for what magic system it might form.

I recently had a brain wave, Preservation was unable to destroy anything due to his Shards Intent, could the same be for Cultivation? Could the reason for Cultivation to take such indirect actions for vengeance against Odium and also not simply having his Shard Splintered once Rayse died be because she is only able to Cultivate? Could she be only able to prune, not kill?

Watching the newest WoB shardcast made it apparent to me that there differing views on Shard/Planet Interaction. I want to get people's opinion on how I view it. I would post some of the WoBs supporting but I'm new and can't do links. WOB: asmodeus You've said before that a lot of the magics we see across the cosmere come from an interaction of Shards and their Investiture with the planets they Invest in. What does this mean practically? If Scadrial explodes tomorrow, will Hemalurgy stop working across the cosmere? Brandon Sanderson Hemalurgy wouldn't stop working, most likely, but it could. There are ways that you could make it stop working. I kind of mean that the Shards are an innate part of physics in the cosmere, and the magics that arise are an innate part of physics because of that. Like atium seeped out into the Pits of Hathsin, in the same way, these magics are just gonna leak out, and different places are going to affect them. You'll see Lightweaving happening in different places, and the way the Shard is interacting with the local... The way the Shard is is going to affect how Lightweaving is administrated in the various magics, but it's still gonna be there. Hemalurgy is kind of a similar thing to that. You will see Midnight Essence, you will see some of these recurring ideas popping up, and these are like natural parts of the physics, but they're influenced by the Shards on the local planets. I don't know if that answer, that's gonna be a really fun one for them to transcribe into the Q&A thing, because I go around in circles on that question a ton. Put this part in when you do it. Footnote: It was a really fun one. YouTube Spoiler Stream 4 (June 16, 2022) Other Known things: Rosharan Magics Ashyn Uses similar surges as the Rosharan magic system does today. The magic is now sickness based. The magic was not always sickness based. All of the rosharan system was specifically set up by adonalsium for a specific purpose. Shards can have investiture in parts of the cosmere that they are unaware of until they look for it. When aware of it, they can shape it in a way. "Shards influence and tweak certain Investiture, giving it a kind of spin or magnetism, but all Investiture ever predates the Shattering--and in the cosmere matter, energy, and Investiture are one thing" Scadrial was created by Ruin and Preservation but they didn't create the atoms themselves. My Interpretation: I think my interpretation is much like Argent's was in the recent WoB video, but I don't think he had all of the main points readily available to push this idea forward. While I don't think it's totally accurate, I think it helps understanding to think of all investiture and magic as particles for the sake of this. In any given spot you may have matter, light, gravity, magnetism, electric charge, magic (such as midnight essence or lightweaving particles), ect. With these raw materials from a location, magic systems are formed. I would liken it to how different communities would use stone vs wood vs clay as base building materials for their civilizations based on the materials available and the weather forces they see regularly, except on a galactic scale. While typically not cognizant, the shards (either the power or the vessel or a mix of the two) bring magic systems into being based on what is available in that vicinity and how those magics interplay with the shard. It may be possible for a shard to intentionally bring more materials to in area to allow a specific interaction between themselves and the materials to come forward, but probably don't do things more than that to create a magic system. For Roshar, we know that Adonalsium created the entire system for a specific purpose. While we don't know what that purpose is or how it works, if we think of the system as a singular thing it would make sense that the system has a specific set of raw materials. If all investure is just a part of physics then these magics would be part of the raw materials of the system. That may explain why pre-sickness Ashyn, post-sickness Ashyn, and Roshar all powers relating to those surges. There's something about the area that makes those magics more prevalent. I think it would explain it better than the surges are of Honor/Cultivation. That would mean that Honor/Cultivation had a hand in the creation of the unchecked surgebinding that destroyed Ashyn, and then also mimicking/forbidding it on Roshar. We know that Ruin and Preservation very intentionally made Scadrial by jointly gathering and arranging atoms in a way that subfused every atom with thier... attunement? We know that Lord Ruler and Fuzz at times have tweaked the world to have the magics play in their favor (creating mistwraiths, forming the Pits, or changing the metals used to include Atium). But it makes sense that it would be outside of their abilities to have it be "if you burn iron you can now lightweave", because lightweaving particles don't seem to be one of the materials that are readily available in that system. One of the talking points in the stream was that it could be inherent to the shard and that endowment would likely do breaths wherever she was, but that breaths may look different. I would agree with this based on this model. The breath, the magic endowed to each person at birth and the possibility to come back and be endowed with extra life, is likely an effect of how that shard's essence interplays with the materials around it. We may think of Nalthis as a place with a lot of the magic particles that power Tin at scadrial, and other magic particles that can bring awareness/ect for awakening. If endowment was instead on a planet with a lot of gravitation surge and connection surge maybe instead your breaths would help you fly and you could use them to forge a connection between things, but the mechanic of being born with a little and being able to pass them around would likely stay. Let me know what you think. Feel free to add ideas if you think you can support it or bring up some counter arguments. I just was listening to the podcast and I couldn't help but feel the ideas weren't fully fleshed out when Argent was talking about it, and it didn't sound like the other people that disagreed were necessarily disagreeing with the key points. Thanks all!

Would it be possible, if an inanimate object was given enough Connection, , they would be able to become a Shard? If so, would they basically become their Shard? Objects that people see as something have rudimentary thinking, like Would that be enough to become a Shard? It seems they don’t need a physical body, or at least not once you have enough Connection Would you need to intend to take the shard, or could you just stumble into it on accident and ascend? If you need to consciously take the shard, I doubt an object would have enough Identity to do so, but I don’t know how all the schematics of complicated Cosmere parts fit together on this… Help!

Will Nightblood attempt to absorb the Investiture of any Shard, or only of those his bearer percieves as evil?

What would happen if you caught an Adonalsium Fragment in a Perpendicularity? Could you use a Hemalurgical Nail to "stab" the Fragment?

Can a radiant knight be promoted to shard? And if so: what would happen to the spren?

This entire topic is kind of a spoiler so be warned all who have not read Oathbringer and Dawnshard! Oh and by the way their both really good so read them :). Chunky explanation time: Oathbringer Spoilers: Dawnshard Spoilers: SOOO... this weird theory has been kicking about in my head for about a year. Can't remember where I got it from. Theory question: Were the Dawnshards used to shatter Adonalsium by removing/destroying the god-being's 'unity'? What do you wise peoples of the forums say? This is my first actual post so if I've done anything wrong please educate this new user!

This entire topic is kind of a spoiler so be warned all who have not read Oathbringer and Dawnshard! Oh and by the way their both really good so read them :). Chunky explanation time: Oathbringer Spoilers: Dawnshard Spoilers: SOOO... this weird theory has been kicking about in my head for about a year. Can't remember where I got it from. Theory question: Were the Dawnshards used to shatter Adonalsium by removing/destroying the god-being's 'unity'? What do you wise peoples of the forums say? This is my first actual post so if I've done anything wrong please educate this new user!

So we now know that Virtuousity is or was a Shard . If so could it's inverse , Depravity be one. I've been rooting for Depravity to be a Shard since i learned about them so i hope so. What do y'all think ?

There's been a few "sorting the shards into quadrants" "sorting the shards into quadrants and trying to find matching Dawnshards" and similar posts recently, and while I absolutely love reading those, this post is here for less linear thoughts about Adonalsium and the missing shards, but missing shards nonetheless. Let's stop with the preambling and get to what I want to get to: ODIUM and what it means for ADONALSIUM. Let's start by looking at one of the (imho) coolest quote of all the cosmere: Emphasis mine. Source: https://coppermind.net/wiki/Words_of_Radiance/Epigraphs#Chapter_71. Refresher: this is from one of the letters in reply to Hoid, so probably from either a shard or another old, cosmere-aware figure like Frost. So, for the sake of argument, let's assume what they write can be treated as fact. This quote has stuck with me, among others because it makes Odium such an interesting foe and such a cool idea: The hatred of a God, without all the rest of God. I want to talk about this quote some more. Let's reiterate three things: 1. Adonalisum was shattered into 16 pieces. As far as we know, there's no Debris or anything like that left. They're 16 pieces of a whole. Those could have been split up differently, but weren't. It's not a little god with 1/16th of all of Adonalsiums properties, but with ALL of 1 of 16 properties (or 2, in Harmonys case). 2. Rayse Odium calls himself Passion and sais that that's what they are. Passion. Emotion. He even tells Dalinar that he's the only one of the gods that understands human emotion, that knows it. 3. Despite this, everyone else more or less agrees that Odium is first and foremost Hatred. The way he is described in text and in universe is as seething, hating, hot and burning and hateful. Now, what am I trying to say: What does this mean for Adonalsium? Well, one of multiple things. That depends on what the last two shards are. We know almost nothing about Adonalsium, yet, sadly. But here's my thoughts, which I hope to make understandable: I really hope atleast one of the last two shards is an emotion. Something like "Love" is a common guess, but even just something like "Care" or "Charity" (which the ancient greeks would argue was one of multiple forms of love anyway). Seriously. Because if there isn't another Emotion-Shard, then Rayse/Passion is right. In that it isn't just Hate, but all emotions/passions. Or rather, all the emotions/passions Adonalsium was capable of. It's why I refer to it as Passion in the title of this post. Let's look at the quote about it again: Virtues. Not "other emotions." Now, we can argue that Virtues are an emotional thing, but I think the semantics are clear. The letter doesn't say "without the other emotions." or, the very clear thing many religions irl share: "His Love" There's a few conclusion to be drawn from this, and I will list those in a second, but I want to first look at the shards again to underline this. Virtues: Honor, Autonomy, Ambition, Mercy, Valor, (Wisdom, Prudence) Divine Properties: Endowment, Dominion, Devotion, maybe Cultivation? Forces of Creation/Nature: Preservation, Ruin, maybe Cultivation? Uh, no idea: Whimsy, Invention. To be clear: This isn't supposed to be a sorting or anything like that. I don't think this is how the shards are grouped or even if they are grouped. The point of this list is to drive home the point that none of these are emotions. There sure are some Virtues, especially Honor and Mercy and Wisdom stand out as ones that sound like they would give Odium much needed context. But, again, none of these are emotions. (Is bravery an emotion? I wouldn't say so. Semantics, maybe) This leads me to a few possible conclusions: 1: One of the two so far unknown shards is also about emotions. Especially "Love" or one of its derivatives would of course fit a God the way we on earth imagine it well, and would make a good counter to Odium. I know there aren't clear pairs, but another shard of emotion would mean Adonalsium had atleast two different distinct emotions or emotional states. Because otherwise... 2a: (Odium is the only Emotion Shard and Rayse is lying about Odium = Passion) Adonalsium was a deeply hateful being. If it was shattered into 16 Aspects of its being, and only one of them is emotion, and that is pure Odium, Adonalsium must have been hateful in the same fulfilling, allencompassing way that Odium is. If Odium is "Just Adonalsiums Hatred without The Rest" and none of "The Rest" are emotions, then Adonalsium felt basically the same way that Odium does. Hate with a hint of Anger for a rare change. Even the better version of this isn't much better: 2b: (Odium is the only Emotion Shard and Rayse is right about Odium = Passion) Adonalsium was a deeply hateful being anyway. If Odium is the only emotion shard, and is not "God's own Divine Hatred" but rather "God's own Divine complex emotions", then well, Adonalsiums complex emotions must still have been hugely dominated by Hate. 3: Odium is all emotion that Adonalsium could feel and just got the way it is after the Shattering. Maybe "God's Divine Passions/Emotions" is up to interpretation the way Ruin could be slow decay or active Catastrophes, and it got interpreted into Odium. Then again, it sounds like Odium went on his killing spree pretty quickly after the Shattering, so it's not like he started out loving and jolly and became bitter and hateful with lots of time. (4: Adonalisum wasn't a being in the same way that we humans are, its/their emotional state is not really understandable with human understanding of emotion. We don't even know if Adonalsium had a person/vessel/personality/anything, for all we know it could have been a machine or mechanism or a force of nature more than an entity. Does a poisonous plant feel hate when it kills you for eating it? Does a storm, or a robot that was tasked to protect something when it hurts those that try to interfere with its task? Maybe Adonalsium didn't feel much, so much of what it was was Creation, and to argue about Adonalsiums Emotional landscape is futile? The only things we can assume to know are that It experienced bravery, it showed mercy, it cultivated, preserved, and destroyed things, it dominated and was devoted, it invented, it was whimsical, it wanted to survive, it was ambitious, it was autonomous, it endowed things, and: It felt Hate/it hated.) I personally hope for the former for the sake of our heroes and everyone in the cosmere, but let's continue the thoughts based on 2a and 2b for now, because there's some thought that might make these ones more likely. Whether or not Rayse was right is kind of irrelevant. Whether or not Adonalsium felt only Odium or Passion, if that 16th of Adonalsium that was/is Passion was the way back then it is now, well, Adonalsiums emotional landscape was a bad one. Even with the "context", as in "the virtues that gave it context", it doesn't paint the nices picture of the Cosmere's old God. If it's Wisdom keeping Adonalsiums Hate in check then that sounds like they came to the conclusions it's not smart to destroy everything. If it's Honor, then Adonalsiums is sparing lives because of some Oaths or feeling of duty. Cool, I guess. Not kindness, though. Mercy is the biggest candidate for a counterweight, but that to me has bully-vibes still. "I want to kill you tbh but I'm sparing you because I'm so mercyfull" isn't exactly kind either, is it? If that's what Adonalsium was right, then no wonder that a group of people came to conclusion it had to be destroyed. (And if Rayse was an evil leaning person before the Shattering, then no wonder he wanted that Shard in particular. Sounds like one of the few they'd be sure to exist afterwards.) Long, long post. If you read this far, thanks for sticking with it. I'm intrigued if other people thing my argument is conclusive at all, an what your thoughts about this are. Will we get another Emotion Shard? Will we not, and Adonalsium was very hateful? Is it futile to imagine Adonalsiums Emotions the way neurotypical Human Emotions work? Or another possible answer?

On one hand, Sazed says that their power levels are essentially infinite. However, it's strongly implied that as the bearer of two Shards, he is more powerful than any other singular Shard with only one, and that the only reason that Odium did not take up Ambition and Honor after Splintering them was because it would change his Intent. If that's the case, though, Shards' powers are finite, since two times infinity is still infinity, and therefore you could Splinter a Shard by continually draining its Investiture. Think Lashing a rock up into the air so it floats, draining Stormlight but not actually doing anything but countering gravity.

I only recently noticed I hadn't updated my favourite Story-theory yet with the new Dawnshard/RoW Knowledge, so here goes. TL; DR: Kelsier will try to reforge and become Ambition. Collecting enough of Ambitions Investiture will enable him to ascend to Shardhood. So, RoW answered atleast some of my thoughts about what Kel would get up to. It also fed into my theory, so it's time to dig that up again. First, the arguments that still hold: (New Arguments at the bottom) - He tasted Ascension with Preservation. And now that he knows that's a thing that is possible, it seems like a worthy goal to keep himself busy with. - Hoid seems to be interested in keeping the Shards from gaining too much power and keeping them seperated. Kelsier hates him. Would be fun to have them square off in that kind of way, especially with Hoid as the MC of Mistborn Era 4 You might ask: But why specifically Ambition? - At the end of Secret History, Vin asks Kelsier an important question about his motivation. We're lead to believe that Kelsier will look inside himself and realize that she was right and his vendetta against the Lord Ruler was more about himself than the Skaa or Scadrial. From RoW, we can gather that he probably accepted that and doubled down on it - see Thaidakar. We saw that Preservations Intent and Kelsier's personality were too different. Of all the shards we know, Ambition would fit him really well. He's insanely ambitious, going so far as to think up a way to overthrow an - as far as he knew - immortal Emperor. He punched multiple gods. And he created a multiple-world-spanning secret Organisation. If that isn't ambitious, I don't know what is. - Additionally, according to my Understanding, Ambition is one of the, if not the, least limiting Intents. With all we've read about Ruin corrupting Ati, Odium and Honor and Preservation etc limiting their Vessels, Ambition is... not really like that. I'm sure there some zany stuff there, but I doubt becoming Ambition would hinder Kelsiers Megalomania, if anything it would further increase it. And it wouldn't bind him to anything stupid like Oaths or whatever, which he definitely wouldn't want. But there's more hints towards my theory. - Foreshadowing (pun intended). When Kelsier encountered the Ire, they mentioned Threnody Shades. As Kelsier is a Cognitive Shadow, their Alerter Fabrial picked up on him. I believe that this might be more than fanservice for those of us who read Shadows for Silence. Threnody is the one planet we know where Investiture from Ambition "landed" in large chunks. It's already connected to Cognitive Shadows, and the names of the planets in the Threnodite system are all the names of Songs of Mourning - and Kelsier is dead ( also as in "The Bands of Mourning", which Kelsier used) - Threnody and Sel are the only other two planets that Kelsier canonically knew as of the end of secret history. Putting himself in opposition of the Ire, it wouldn't be too far fetched that he would have investigated what it is that these very knowledgable people are trying to contain that they confused him with. Not a far stretch imho. It seems that on Roshar, the Ghostbloods already have plan and directive, so I assume Kelsier already has had some kind of plan by the time they set up on Roshar. - Ambition was splintered, but unlike Dominion and Devotion. While we know that Odium stuffed those two in the Cognitive Realm to make sure they wouldn't be picked up again, as far as we know he didn't know how to do that yet when he finished off Ambition outside the Threnodite system. So while Ambition is probably spread out in dead chunks of Investiture, someone ambitious enough with a lot of time could try to collect those. - Additionally, Edgli (Endowment) seemed to think that Ambitions last Vessel would've been trouble, and seems glad that she's gone. From different WoB's we know that Sazed's ascension has caused quite a stir, so Kelsier could definitely take up the troublemaking mantle of Uli Da very well. Alright, time for the new arguments and thoughts: Two things are majorly important: - The Ghostbloods are looking for ways to transport Investiture. Ba-Ado-Mishram, Gems, Stormlight... Aside from trying to find a way for their Master to actually move beyond Scadrial, they are looking for ways to transport Investiture. Sure, Money and Power are good motivators, but I think there's a second reason for that: Moving Chunks of Ambition. What would this do for them? Well... Douglas What about a lerasium savant? Or would that require so much lerasium that the person attempting it would ascend to become a new Shardholder? Brandon Sanderson Basically, this is what Ascension is. 17th Shard Forum Q&A (Sept. 27, 2012) I imagine the Plan to go something like this: Step 1: Find a way to store most of the big chunks of Ambition's Investiture. I assume it's not all in the form of Shades, so imagine Gems and whatever stuffed full of Investiture - if necessary, Step 2: Convert it into a Form Thaidakar can use. If Raboniel and Navani can figure out Light physics, I'm sure people in Silverlight or other Scholars somewhere are able to do so too. I'd be surprised if the Ghostbloods didn't have some smart Cosmere Scientists on their Payroll. Convert all that Investiture into solid form: a metal. Uli Dum/Ambitium - Step 3: Kelsier burns massive amounts of Ambitium or an Ambitium/Lerasium Alloy, preferrably physically close to Threnody, somewhere in the system. Once he has burnt enough of it, Kelsier ascends to Ambition. The Investiture that hasn't been collected hopefully realigns itself to its new Vessel, and Kel is a Shard now. Aside from those reasons, just think of how absolutely fitting this would be for Kelsiers Story, both in-universe and Meta, for us readers. Kelsier, the Survivor, survives the most deadly place on Scadrial, the pits of Hathsin, under the rule of an "immortal god-emperor", spiting said Emperor. He goes on to challenge that Emperor, and while dying in the Process, deifies himself as The Survivor, sparking both the Revolt that finally took down the Lord Ruler and a Religion around himself. He Survives Death, and goes on to help out at the other very deadly part of Scadrial, the South, and also kinda becomes the god of the people there after helping them survive. Notice a pattern? What better than to do this a third time? The Survivor, a kinda-ghost kinda-god, focusses his attention on the deadliest planet in the known universe, Threnody. If any one people in the Cosmere is doing more surviving than the South Scadrians, it's definitely the people on Threnody. (Try to tell me Kelsier wouldn't like Silence Montane.) After the disaster of Ruin and Preservation and the prophecy, Scadrial needed a god like Harmony to rest and stabilize under. Threnodys woes aren't over, however. What they need is a fighter god, someone able to take on the Evil. Someone who embodies the Will to Survive that Threnodians need, and the Ambition to pull through with it, to take up a fight this hopeless. a ghost-god that's already fought one immortal evil fits into Threnody well, and it would fit so well into Kelsiers story to do his shtick a third time: Help people survive and become their god. Only this time, it would actually be true, and he'd ascend to Shardhood.

I looked at the "canonical" MtG colors of the Shards, and tried to fill in the gaps while keeping the color-pie balanced and symmetrical. I propose that one of the unknown shards is Mystery. Obviously, I don't think that Sanderson actually designed the Cosmere with a symmetrical color-pie in mind, but hey, check out the results: Looks pretty neat. 1. The Canonical Shard Colors: This imposes some constraints: 2. The New Rhythm of War Shards: In Rhythm of War, we learn of the Shards Invention, Mercy, Valor, and Whimsy. Whimsy is Blue/Red. It just feels right. Mercy has shades of White, Green, and maybe Black. We're told that "Mercy worries [Harmony]", which makes me think of mercy killings. And hey, there actually is a MtG card called "Mercy Killing". It's White/Green, so let's go with that. Valor feels White and/or Red. Valor means Courage and Boldness. It's about taking action, which is very Red-mana. And it's about heroic self-sacrifice, which is very White-mana. Ideally, I'd assign Valor to White/Red, but it's not possible to have White/Red Valor and Blue/Red Whimsy without unbalancing things, and I feel more strongly about the Whimsy Connection. It can't be Mono-White because I already have Mercy taking up the empty White slot. So Valor is Mono-Red. Finally, we have Invention, which is firmly within Blue's slice of the color pie. The act of invention can be all sorts of colors depending on what that invention is being used for. But Invention for it's own sake? That's Mono-Blue. 3. The Two Unknown Shards: Based on the Choices above, we need a Blue/Black Shard, and one more Mono-Blue Shard to complete the set. Blue/Black is the color pair of Cautious Scheming, Shrewdness, and Ruthless Rationality. Sanderson has mentioned that there is a shard which "just wants to hide and survive", and Blue/Black seems like an excellent fit for that pattern of behavior. There is a popular fan-theory-shard that this 'Survival Shard' has an intent that is something like Prudence, which seems to fit Blue/Black well. Another fitting Intent for this shard might be Perfection. Mono-Blue can be taken many different ways. It's the color of formalized learning and systematic perfection. It's the color of illusions and trickery. And it's the color of the cold dark depths of the sea. Remember that the shards of Adonalsium are fragments of the divine. And the incomprehensibility of the divine to mortal minds is an important part of many people's faith. A Shard of Mystery thus seems like a good Mono-Blue option, representing the ineffability of God, but separated from the virtues which make it worth pursuing understanding nonetheless. One of the shards, which explicitly isn't the Survival Shard, isn't on a planet. Whimsy seems like it could fit that description, flitting about from place to place. But a Mono-Blue Mystery Shard also could have thematic ties to the dark depths of space. Such a Shard might also be called Transcendence. 4. Bonus Material Here, I relax the constraints to allow some of the canonically mono-color Shards to be dual-colored. That way, I can match up one Shard with each mono-color and with each color-pair: And here are some templates if you want to make an MtG Shard diagram yourself:

Hey all - I was doing a re-read of Mistborn 1 and came across a passage that I found particularly interesting given Brandon's specific choice of word. I am not sure if this has been brought up before, I couldn't find any note of it in the tags despite the many different topics and discussions of Trell. So wanted to bring the communities attention to this. I am unsure whether this is a purely co-incidental word choice by Brandon, but as we know of our favourite author, very little of what he writes is accidental, which makes me think given our knowledge of new shards, perhaps the truth has been staring us in the face since the first time we heard about Trell. Here is the passage: 'It listed the tenets of the Nelazan people, who had worshipped the god Trell. Sazed had always been partial to this religion because of it's focus on learning and the study of mathematics and the heavens...True, the Nelazan had known a great deal about astronomy, but their teachings of the afterlife were sketchy - almost whimsical. Their doctrine was purposefully vague, they'd taught, allowing all men to discover truth for themselves...What good was a religion without answers? Why believe in something if the response to half it's questions was "Ask Trell, and he will answer?"'. Page 410, Chapter 46 - Hero of Ages. A few points on this: 1. The specific choice of the word whimsical to describe the religion of Trell now takes on a potentially insightful new meaning given that Whimsy is now a confirmed Shard. 2. Brandon specifically notes that the Nelazan had known a great deal about maths and astronomy - if I was to chose two words that would indicate to me that a group of people were Cosmere aware, without being obvious, those two words would be high on my list. They had a religion with it's focus as the study of science and the universe - which sounds very much like a basis understanding of how the Cosmere works. 3. The core worship structure of not having answers to questions, but just a believe that Trell will answer - as opposed to religions that already lay out all the answers upfront in a creed, suggests that they are confident that their god exists, lives, and importantly 'can answer'. While at the same time coming into line with the core concept of Whimsy - 'a sudden wish or idea that cannot be reasonable explained'. They didn't need answers, as they didn't know what all the questions were. They just had faith that their God would answer. 4. Given Trell's involvement in Mistborn 1.5, we can safely say that the Nelazan were onto something with their religion - that it had a grounding in truth. If we draw this all together, then Brandon's use of the word whimsical, in conjunction with describing the Nelazan as seemingly cosmere aware, and the concepts of their faith matching into what could be considered Whimsy. We might have a good argument to state that Trell is of Whimsy. Also - wouldn't it be fun for Trell to be connected to a Shard we know very little about as a way to introduce potentially a new major player into the cosmere game. A trickster Shard inserting himself in small religions across the Cosmere under the noses of other Shards, not bound tightly to one planetary system but working through avatars everywhere. Would love it if anyone gets the chance to ask Brandon if his choice of word in Hero of Ages was important. Also - as always, would love for the community to rip this to pieces and show me some tasty WoB's that disprove me that Trell is linked to Whimsy. Stay positive and negative!