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I've been think about counterfactual shard combinations. How things might be if the story takes a different direction. Odium+Ambition seems like a really dangerous combination. They are not at cross purposes, so there is not the tendency towards inaction that Harmony experiences. Of all the known shards, it seems like this would be the one that would dilute Odium's intent the least. (So as an aside, maybe Rayse' disinclination to pick up other shards isn't just his own desire, but is also an expression of odium's antipathy of other shards.) Anyway, back to Odium+Ambition, I was trying to think of a single other shard that if added to these 2 would make the combination less malign towards the rest of the cosmere. Ruin: This would be a very, very bad addition. Preservation: I think that this is also a bad combination. You end up with a shard that hates changes and is highly motivated to make sure it never happens. This is a shard that probably concludes that life shouldn't exist. Dominion: This would be a bad addition. Devotion: Maybe a good addition. Devotion seems like the most diametrically opposed shard to odium, so it should temper the shard, and maybe lead it to inaction. Endowment: Maybe a good addition. This is also a somewhat opposed shard to odium, so it might temper the shard. Honor: Not a good addition. Honor is how you achieve your ends, but says nothing about what those ends are. Adding this shard just adds to the shard's power. Cultivation: Maybe a good addition. Takes the long view and encourages growth. What do you think?

I'm sure this has been pointed out before, but I just came across the fact that the Greek Goddess of Ruin/ Downfall is called Ate (Ati's sister from another mister perhaps ?) Hence this passage from "Julius Caesar" (Mark Antony speaking) - And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge, with Ate by his side, come hot from Hell, shall in these confines with a monarch's voice, cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war... Here's hoping that dog Odium doesn't get hold of Ati's old Shard or we may all have a problem !

Do you guys have a idea of what is odium's end goal.As he is not Ruin who just wants to destroy, he is personification of hatred so me must have a goal. I know he wants to free himself but what then. I don't think that is all he wants on Roshar also he seems to Harbor some kind of grudge against Human as they left him and sided with Honor What do you guys think?..

Is there any other series Brandon have yet to announce? Because, I am curious where will he introduce rest of the shards. So far we have names of eleven of them- 1.Ruin 2.Preservation 3.Honor 4.Cultivation 5.Odium 6.Endowment 7.Autonomy 8.Dominion 9.Devotion 10.Ambition And the one mentioned by Brandon as the shard which only wants to survive 11.The survival shard So, Anyone have any idea how is he going to introduce rest of the shards...

There are 10 out of the 16 Shards that we have encountered or at least seen the effects of, but what order did they come in? I have 3 worked out: Honor was 10, Odium 9, and Preservation 16.

I'm writing a series of Shakespearean sonnets derived from the powers and personalities of the 16 shards. Check them out!

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?

Probably another question that we’ll never get any kind of canonical answer to, but I was wondering whether or not it would at least in principle be possible to damage or even splinter a Shard using what might be called ‘conventional’ means? For example, Brandon has said that the island Patji on First of the Sun is in some sense a Shard, presumably one of Autonomy’s avatars. So what would happen if you physically obliterated the whole island? If the Ones Above for whatever reason decided to drop a micro quantum buster on it or something. Or probably more reasonably, if you somehow managed to catch a Shard’s physical manifestation (which incidentally is what the term ‘avatar’ probably should actually mean in this context) by surprise. If Szeth managed to impale Odium’s ‘avatar’ with Nightblood or a Shardblade, or again someone just dropped a doomsday bomb on it. Is it possible for a purely physical attack of any kind to harm a Shard, do we think? Or is it an “only a god can kill another god” type of situation?

I admit I have only comepleted books 1 and 2 . Perhaps book 3 will provide something that will change my theory . But , it seems to me that it would be simple to add this trilogy to Cosmere. In my opinion Calamity is similar to a shard. The gifted abilities are like investiture granted by shard. All we would need is for him to write era 2 reckoners , create a perpindicularity , and have Hoid visit for some Unkown reason and Tada , Reckoners is part of Cosmere . Why do we need this . For a long time I avoided this series’s because it wasn’t cosmere. Big mistake as it is very good and feels the same . What do u guys think. Would you like to see the reckoners join the cosmere

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.

No theory, just speculation. So, we know that a Shard cannot deny access to a user of its magic system per WOB. Basically as long as the user is following the rules a Shard and/or its Vessel cannot intervene. That got me thinking about Vin's Ascension in HOA. She took up all the mists and became Preservation for a time. Leras was already dead though so there was no conflict. My question is can a being ascend if the Vessel still lives? The power of a Shard is infinite after all. We know a being can weild 2 Shards (and probably more than that). We know that the power seeks a mind to guide or contain it. Can one Shard have multiple Vessels and what would it look like if so? Is Autonomy/Badvadin doing this? Last, if it is possible for one Shard to have multiple Vessels and those people are in conflict, say one isn't particularly suited for the Shard they hold, then how are conflicts resolved?

So I've been wondering, what exactly would a radiant bonding an honorblade entail? For one, would a radiant actually be able to bond an honourblade in the first place? Yes they can hold it without the screams but does their bond with a spren interfere here. But if they could and were to do so, then presumably they would gain the ability to use the surges associated with that honorblade. Once they have done this, would they still face the issues Szeth did with Jezrien's honorblade? Where stormlight would leak more quickly and such? Or would those things be overcome by their status as a radiant and the powers which come with that. Further, if this were possible, then how many could one person bond? Would it be possible to have a Windrunner say who then bonds all the honorblades and becomes a mega radiant? Or would the bonds interfere and get all confused? I welcome any input.

So my little pet theory I have, or at least hope will be the case, is that Dalinar will eventually take up the Shard once held by Honour. Honour is dead yes, but when a Shard dies their power doesn't just disappear (unless that is what Odium did to Honour but I doubt that as honours power is still available to those on Roshar = stormlight), and so presumably someone could still accept the power of Honour. As Dalinar and the Stormfather are doing some whack things, I imagine that there is something special going on. I don't think Dalinar will become Honour but instead Unity, as he is doing more than even the Bondsmiths of old were capable, according to the Stormfather, and his face-off with Odium in OB is full of Unity stuff. Anyway, I welcome your thoughts.

We have some new WoBs from the Legion release party. One concerns the pact the Vessels made to settle on the same world together and why Honor of all Shards would disobey it. Is it as simple as Honor technically "settled" on Roshar first and Cultivation came after (maybe RIGHT after), so Cultivation was the one technically breaking it? I think generally the WoBs have indicated that H&C settled on Roshar together, but one may have come just before the other. We don't know the exact phrasing of the pact in order to determine what violates it or why they could break this one when Oathbringer stresses how Shards can't break their word. Maybe they made it before they held the Shards.

Ok, so this post will discuss Oathbringer, Mistborn, shards, and other things in general. I think this is the right place. I don't want to do anything wrong by omitting any spoilers, so please be patient. I am still figuring things out on this site. I can't get this out of my head, so you my fellow Seventeenth Sharders will have to listen to this verbal vomit. ;p Anyways on to the meat of this topic here. As I am rereading Stormlight and the rest of cosmere stories in general, I have noticed as I am sure many others have as well that Odium is in fact the biggest threat to the Cosmere at large. So how to get rid of this threat? Odium needs to be splintered really good. I don't think that he should be restored and than combined with another shard. It would only be feasible if you combined all of the shards into one again, which I don't know if it is possible. I guess we might have a better idea how two opposing shards combined into one react in the next Mistborn series and we get inside Sazed's head. Is he still Harmony? Have the shards started to conflict with each other? This I feel is important, we need to know this. So how to deal with Odium. I feel there are some key players, Hoid, Kelsier, Jasnah, Shallan, Dalinar, the Ghostbloods, and perhaps the Ire. Hoid needs someone to help him, as I have a sneaking suspicion that is Hoid's quest, stop Odium. He probably has many more secret plots and quests of his own, but I feel this is the main one. We see this in the letter he writes to presumably Frost. So who would Hoid get help from, as the Seventeenth Shard holds a policy of non-intervention, they are virtually useless unless they change their policies. They would be the ideal candidates as they have a wealth of cosmere knowledge at their fingertips. So, I believe that Hoid has to rely on the Rosharans, namely the newly refounded Knights Radiants. After all, Odium is stuck in the Rosharan system for now. Hoid had mentioned Adonalsium briefly to Dalinar and he didn't understand what that meant. However, that doesn't mean he won't further investigate what that is. This is unlikely, but possible. So Jasnah or Shallan, if any were a candidate for Silverlight University, I feel it would be one or both of them. We don't know what Jasnah knows, she has a Herald now, so if she asks the right questions, she may find vital information not only about the Oathpact, but maybe what a shard is and how to splinter it. She also traveled with Hoid for a while after everyone thought that Jasnah was dead, who knows what they talked about. Again, with the right questions... Shallan has basically become a Ghostblood at this point. We know there are world hoppers in the organization, so at some point she is bound to come across important cosmere information as well. I read a post on here about Kelsier being the leader of the Ghostbloods and I can't get it out of my head. We know that Kelsier met with Khriss and Nazh so he certainly knows more now that he has been 'alive' for a very long time. He also witnessed the almost destruction of the shard Preservation. He also held the shard Preservation for a time to give it to Vin, so he was bound to gain even more cosmic awareness while Ascended. He also witnessed the merging of the shards Ruin and Preservation as well. And he 'retrieved' that device from the Ire (what other devices do the Ire have?). Now I'm not saying that just because Kelsier saw all of this, he immediately understood how to destroy a shard or 'heal' it, but he has seen firsthand which is more than most people can say. So, going off the premise that Kelsier is the leader of the Ghostbloods, this whole stop Odium thing is right up his alley. He has a Radiant, Shallan, to help and Shallan has access to other Radiants, i.e. Kaladin, Dalinar, etc. If anyone can destroy a god, it's Kelsier. The Fused are definitely a threat, but if you somehow found a way to kill them tomorrow, you would still have Odium, who is absolutely at this point filled with divine hatred. It has consumed the shard and its vessel, Rayse. So, the Parshendi, who are rightfully angry at the humans, and the humans need to team up, unite against Odium. So in conclusion, I feel that Odium is the biggest threat to the Cosmere at large, I could totally see him trying to turn the Cosmere at large into a dystopian future where everything an everyone looks bleak. We need people from all cosmere worlds to come together and help the Rosharans in this Final Desolation and splinter Odium, destroy Rayse's body once and for all. Only then can the Cosmere be relatively safe.

Alright, so we know that not all the Shard's vessels were human. We have humans and at least one dragon and at least one Sho Del (based off of the language in the Ars Arcanum Essays, I would guess there is more than just one of each of those). So the question/theory is: does the species of the vessel effect how much they can resist the influence of their Shard's intent? Are there some minds that are naturally stronger just because of which species they belong too? We have a WOB that says some Vessels are still actively resisting the Shardic influence. We also know from WOBs that some individuals are better at resisting than others. I think the species and strength of the mind could have a significant effect on this, what do you think? (I'll post the relevant WOBs below to keep the whole theory together.)

I didn't really find this as a topic but I'm sure it's come up before. What are people's theories on the other shards that have yet to be identified. Every time I think about the possibilities get excited, but at the same time there are so many options speculations gets difficult. Do you think that there is always a complimentary nature to the shards. Ruin vs Preservation, Dominion v Devotion etc. What are your shard theories??? Some shards I think about possibly existing are Wisdom Creation(not sure about this but it would be cool) might go along with Ingenuity like Brandon suggested Love(if Odium or hatred is one then it seems logical that this could be one as well but maybe a different name) Apathy

This might qualify as a tinfoil hat-type idea, but I’ve kinda been wondering whether it might be possible for a Shard to invest enough of their own power into another person to cause that person to ‘Ascend’ into something far less powerful than them but still effectively a post-physical entity like them? I mentioned it in passing on another post the other day, but the closest analogy I can think of would that if we think of the Shard as God, the person they invest would become loosely the equivalent to an angel/archangel. Regardless of whether it will actually happen, and I very much doubt that it will, at least in the way I’ve described here, but is there any reason that a Shard couldn’t do something like this if they wanted to? Or would it be impossible?

I'm going to just say right off the bat that I am by no means convinced that this is even likely to be true much less that it actually is, and it only just finished coming together in my head a few minutes ago in another one of my posts in which Autonomy was brought up. So for all I know, this is demonstrably false, but I thought I'd just put it out there. So for a while now, I've been trying (and failing) to wrap my brain around just what the heck is going on with Autonomy and why she seems to be acting so contrary to at least reasonable conceptions of what her intent would seem to indicate. What we seem to know about her is that 1) she's 'spreading' from planet to planet and installing avatars of her Investiture on them, whatever exactly that means, 2) she tends to discourage if not outright forbid in the case of Taldain any access to or from the planets under her dominion (pun definitely intended), and 3) that she tends to inspire or deliberately set herself or her avatars up as objects of worship among those on her planets. This has always struck me as extremely bizarre behaviour for the Shard of Autonomy, for which really only (2) could be argued as unsurprising. But then I remembered that there was a WOB in which someone had asked Brandon whether Autonomy was involved in the splintering of Devotion and Dominion, and Brandon answered in the affirmative, albeit only after they rephrased the question to be extremely broad to prevent him from RAFOing it on the spot ("was Autonomy involved in any way), which is so vague as to be compatible with practically anything, but oh well, just consider that one of the unproven assumptions of this theory. What occurred to me is that it almost seems like Autonomy is displaying behaviour consistent with and expected by Dominion and Devotion (albeit interpreted in the sense of 'subservience' and 'sycophantism' rather than 'love and compassion' as Aona seems to). That is to say, I don't think any of us would have been at all surprised to have learned that Dominion liked to spread from planet to planet and claim them for itself, or that a less benevolently-interpreted Devotion would like to set themself up as an object of worship and reverence, but that Autonomy would do those things is, at the very least, somewhat more surprising simply by virtue of it not being as expected given that Shardic intent. So my question is this: IF we assume for the sake of argument that Autonomy was in some way involved with the deaths of Devotion and Dominion, or of disposing of their 'remains' afterward so to speak, is there any chance that the uncontained Investiture of Dominion and Devotion could have in some sense 'contaminated' Autonomy's own Investiture (and maybe even Odium too for all we know, since he's really no different, just even worse) to some extent and instilled into her these tendencies that would be more expected for those two Shards? I mean she clearly doesn't hold their full Shards, that's not what I'm suggesting, but it doesn't seem entirely outside the realm of possibility that when the Investiture of two Shards comes into contact, for lack of a better term, some limited degree of melding occurs (it certainly did in Harmony's case, admittedly through completely different means). Looked at in this way, Autonomy's behaviour would no longer seem quite so counter-intuitive. She'd effectively be a single Shard in terms of power, but possess in addition to her primary attribute, a limited extent of two other Shards as well. Though admittedly, an obvious inconsistency with this theory is that Ruin and Preservation's Investiture had clearly been 'in contact' before and yet neither of them displayed any sort of 'intent blending', so clearly if this has any merit at all it would require the additional assumption that something different and possibly unique occurred on Sel that simply hasn't occurred since. Exactly what this is, I don't know. Does anyone have any thoughts?

So bear with me here it's my first post on this site, I was thinking of possible shard intents and the idea of regret came to me, I've no evidence or WOB to back this up I just like the idea and think it could make for a very interesting magic system

This may well qualify as a 'no duh!' type of a question, but I was just wondering if we have any information on precisely how the Shards relate to the various religions of the Shardworlds? I mean, obviously a few of them are pretty much unambiguously just the Shards by different names, like Jaddeth for Dominion, Domi for Devotion, Austre for Endowment, and of course 'Almighty' for Honor. But what about all the other ones? In Hero of Ages it's implied that most of the Scadrian religions contain common elements related to Ruin and Preservation, so there seems to at least have been influence by the Shards if not actual deification (by the humans at least), but it's a little difficult to tell whether this was deliberate influence on the Shards' part or whether it just sort of happened. Do we have any information relating to this issue?

Just fleshing this one out. Im not very realmatic and I think this pushes the boundaries of what we know so I thought you guys could help (expand, denounce, enjoy, etc). To start with I want to point out the importance of perception in the Cosmere, especially where investiture is invloved. And also consider Odium has already convinced at least one civilization he is Passion - ok, talking about the Fuzed and ancient singers and I known he didnt get all of them, but they are an invested people so maybe this "hack" works better with them.. Also is this the only culture hes integrated with as "Passion" i wonder? Now the big Q: what if Odium is using "Passion" to gain "access" to more investiture? Now im not saying that there's no passion in hatred, but I do want to point out Passion isnt an emotion dedicated to hate alone - especially when looking at other Shards intents. Have a look at the shards Odium has already broken and consider the potential "passion" involved with their intent. Hmmm, i wonder if a Vessaless shard is easier to "access"..? Now back to the question, im not trying to suggest Odium is doing this for more power as it has been stated a few times he does not want anothers intent to influence him. Im thinking more abstractly regarding what this "access" intales. For example if someone invokes passion it gives the big O a window to view them, and knowledge for a General in wartime is quite important. Thats just an example, what do we think? !~ HIF ~!

Theoretically could Harmony split his power in half, both halves with equal parts Preservation and Ruin, and assuming he found someone who fit the power, could he give them half? Effectively creating two piecemeal regular sized shards with the same intent? What could be the outcomes? I wonder if the two Harmonies would end up being symbiotic somehow. Acting together, peacefully, and cooperatively, but always in opposite ways.

So in Kal's fight with Szeth, we saw that Syl was capable of taking many forms, namely as a sword, spear, dagger, and shield. After reading this I got the impression that a spren can take on the form of essentially any weapon for the radiant. But as I thought about this I began to wonder if it is the same for ranged weapons. I'm sure a spren could take the form of a bow, or crossbow or whatever, but if they did how exactly does it work? Does the spren act as the bow and the arrows? Or simply the bow and you have to use regular arrows? Or could you use a regular bow with your spren acting as the arrows? Obviously, the spren being both is the more useful alternative, but I'm dubious as to whether the spren could actually manage it. Anyway, I hope someone knows more about this and can help me out.

We saw when Dalinar bonded the Stormfather that he would not have a shard blade. I wonder whether this is the case for all Bondsmiths, and whether it applies to shardplate as well. Presumably a bondsmith could still wear shardplate without any issues. Also, I always got the impression that the Stormfather refused to be his blade out of pride, is there anything actually stopping the Stormfather from becoming his shardblade? Presumably, if Dalinar could be persuasive enough then the Stormfather may be convinced to become his blade. Feel free to correct me wherever I may be wrong. I welcome your input.