Shards as (non)fundamental driving forces in the Cosmere

[straits]

I am not fully acquainted with all the available information about the Cosmere from the related books, so I would like to have something cleared up. From what I understand, most or all of the Cosmere has been created at least partially by Adonalsium, as were humans.

Since these Shards of Adonalsium are natural forces with Intent in the Cosmere, I would assume that these Shards are the only (or the main) driving forces for all events associated with them.

For example, all processes that are tied to life, development, decay and death in the entire Cosmere would be influenced by Shards such as Preservation, Cultivation and Ruin. A world like Roshar has life forms that undergo the cycles which are conceptually related to Ruin/Preservation (Harmony) despite the location of the vessel(s) of these Shards.

How is it that these processes can proceed on other worlds like Roshar, while facing fundamental changes on the world hosting the Shard's vessels (Scadrial) during the events of the first Mistborn trilogy? Doesn't that imply that Shards are only secondary factors to reality in all the Realms, and that this reality could exist without the Shards?

Thanks  

[Weltall]

Whether Adonalsium is or is not the actual creator of the entire Cosmere is a big fat RAFO. He's mentioned that some people in-universe would say yes, others would say no and he's not telling us who's correct.

Regardless of whatever Adonalsium is/was, the Shards aren't natural processes in the way you're thinking. They're basically one-sixteenth of Adonalsium's total power, coupled with something called an Intent that shaps how that power can be used (with some leeway for the one who holds the Shard to decide how that Intent should be expressed) but they aren't fundamental forces in and of themselves. Entropy happens throughout the Cosmere without Ruin being directly involved, for example. So yes, 'reality' gets along just fine in the abstract without the direct involvement of the Shards. Note that this can work whether Adonalsium is/was the creator god or not.

[straits]

16 hours ago, Weltall said:

Regardless of whatever Adonalsium is/was, the Shards aren't natural processes in the way you're thinking. They're basically one-sixteenth of Adonalsium's total power, coupled with something called an Intent that shaps how that power can be used (with some leeway for the one who holds the Shard to decide how that Intent should be expressed) but they aren't fundamental forces in and of themselves. Entropy happens throughout the Cosmere without Ruin being directly involved, for example. So yes, 'reality' gets along just fine in the abstract without the direct involvement of the Shards. Note that this can work whether Adonalsium is/was the creator god or not.

Thanks for the clarification!

I recently took a look at some Coppermind info and the way reality functions in the Cosmere was an interesting topic. Would you say Realmatic theory is something that "explains" why things are the way they are in the Cosmere?

To be more specific, the Realms are described as abstraction layers of a program - with the Spiritual realm being the "source code" of perfect souls without uncertainties, where the passage of time has little meaning; whereas the Cognitive realm is the representation of the how sapient minds conceptualize reality and interact with it. The Physical realm seems to be just the outward representation of what is really happening.