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While reading Dawnshard, I couldn't help but notice parallels with concepts in Scripture. I wonder even if those concepts are what inspired Brandon. Maybe. Maybe not. But if so, if we digest the concepts from the biblical text, that could potentially help us understand what the Dawnshard is and maybe even where the whole Cosmere narrative is going. Rather than explaining too much of my thoughts on how they relate, I'd like to hear yours. The first concept to grasp is that the Hebrew word for Spirit is Ruah (or Ruach) which is also translated as breath - or breath that gives life. The Holy Spirit (which is often just called the Spirit) in Hebrew is Ruach HaKodesh which basically means the life-giving breath of the Holy One. Now that that's out of the way, check out these passages and see if you can tell how they might relate to the Dawnshard and the Cosmere as a whole. John 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Ephesians 6:17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.(notice here the connection between the Word and the Spirit and it's offensive ability) Genesis 1:1-3 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. (God's Word = Creative Power) (the Spirit hovered over the waters, apparently waiting to act - to become the power behind the Word or the Power that IS the Word) Jesus Praying to the Father in John 17:8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. (WHAAAATTTT!!!!!!!) John 17:14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. John 17:22-23 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: (power of change, of bringing things back to how they were meant to be) Concerning the Shattering of Adonalsium??: Track with me here - this one's a little harder to grasp. 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. (What if the will of Adonalsium was to be broken in order to give us parts of himself that we might then reconcile together to reform him but be now many and yet One?) Romans 8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many Revelation 13:8 speaks of the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world and it is reiterated here: 1 Peter 1:18-20 or you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Isaiah 53:10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

This a quick question following up on Khriss' intro to the Scadrian system in Arcanum Unbound. Specifically, she writes that Scadrial is one of two places in the Cosmere where humankind does not predate the arrival of shards. Do we know what the other places is? Is the second such place just Silverlight, or is there a second planet where humanity arrived with its shard(s)?

Reading the scene in Calamity where David et al showed down with Calamity makes me wonder if Brandon is hinting at how Adonalsium was shattered. Especially this line by Calamity: "I contain the very powers of the universe. Do you understand that? They are all mine. I am what you call a High Epic a thousand times over." I know the shattering will be different from the calamity showdown, and Earth is not part of Cosmere. I just think that there may be many settings in common: The shatterers and later shards of Adonalsium were very highly invested before becoming shards. They may have been invested in different ways and thus had Connections to different facets of Adonalsium's power and was later able to pick up specific Shards. The shattering was mostly because Adonalsium was doing strange things to the highly invested and powerful magic users, or even magic systems themselves. Adonalsium was sent from outside of Cosmere. All the major and minor shardworlds are with stars closely clustered within a dwarf galaxy. It's hard to imagine that only this part of the whole universe has such a magical being as Adonalsium. The God Beyond may not be from the Beyond after all, but from beyond the Cosmere astronomically And I have some further, wilder guesses: The Realms are divided at the shattering. There was only 1 Realm before the shattering, and that's how humans found and slayed Adonalsium. If Adonalsium was in the Spiritual Realm, I don't think people can even be there without shardic powers. Yolen was hidden somewhere outside the Physical Realm, and maybe even within the Spiritual Realm. And that's why someone as cosmere aware and well traveled as Khriss could not find the planet.