Shadows for Silence Theory: The Evil, Forests of Hell And Shades

[Adamir]

They thought they had escaped the Evil. A new land, inhospitable, perhaps, but free from what they fled from.

 

They were wrong.

 

I propose that the Evil is, in fact, the Survival Shard - a Shard with no benevolent intent. We know nothing about what it does, except for a single, cryptic WoB (emphasis mine).

 

 

 

Responding to the question "Give us the name of a Shard's intent we have not seen before,"  (Brandon) wrote, "there is one who just wants to hide and survive."

 

This was in answer to the question "Give us the intent of a Shard we have never seen before." And so, I conclude that the Intent is in the answer; I propose the Evil is the Shard of Deception. A Shard which hides from even its own people, both to avoid Odium and because it is in the Shard's nature.

 

Allow me to go on to my suspicions. Thousands of years trying to stay off the grid, hiding from Odium, and this is a Shard who doesn't have some overarching goal to keep the Shardholder sane. He doesn't intend to destroy everything, like Ruin. He doesn't intend to unite the Cosmere, like Dominion. Here, the man behind the Shard who just wants to hide, and who experiences untold centuries with nothing, nothing to do. Wouldn't that leave you unhinged?

 

And so, he amuses himself with the people he created on Threnody. What would happen if he brought back a few of the dead as Shades, small Splinters of himself to anchor them. Of course, this isn't a Shard whose powers focus on creating/endowing, such as Endowment. And so we get the Shade, rather than the Returned. They are pushed away from people because they are Splinters of Deception. Deception cannot tolerate being identified.

 

If we assume for clustered population centers and less than two hundred years since the first arrivals in the Forests of Hell, there are just too many Shades near people. If we take them to be the mindless creatures they are portrayed as, then they should wander at random, dispersing themselves across a wide enough area to make finding a Shade something remarkable, rather than something mundane.

 

But they don't. Because even the Returned on Nalthis carry a few things back with them. Skills, the occasional memory. I believe the Shades are the same; they try to approach people because they remember what it was like being someone, but Deception rebels against being seen. They can never get too close... unless the Simple Rules are broken.

 

If we assume that thousands of years left Deception mentally unhinged, we can also assume for paranoia. After all, Odium could stroll in at the slightest noise, splinter Deception and walk away. And so his fear manifests itself in the Shades. The Simple Rules.

 

Never start a fire. Light, as logic dictates, can attract unwelcome persons.

 

Never run at night. Sound, once again, alerts others to your presence.

 

And finally, never spill blood in anger. This is, to me, the most significant of the Simple Rules, and the one clearly directed towards Odium. Anger and hatred, those are his domain. Entering it by spilling blood in anger could alert him to Deception's presence. Why else do Shades kill bloodlessly? They evaporate the blood, leaving only dust and their victim's skull behind.

Edited August 1, 2015 by Adamir

[Oudeis]

Threnody does not have a Shard.