[OB] Shattering

[Kered]

Hey guys this is my first big theory, but it's a lot of wild speculation. This just started clicking in my head so I'd thought I'd post here for your guy's thoughts, or just to tell me I'm crazy.

This theory is assuming that it was Adonal Odium was referring to when he said "We killed you!)

 

So I'll start off by saying outside of the Shards, there is still a piece of Adonalsium(calling him "Adon" in this post) alive in the Spirtual Realm, a significant piece. So let me explain my thought process on this. In OB we know from the Stormfather that all things experience two deaths( I'll get to actually analogy he uses in a bit). The psychical and then the second death when people view you as dead. I'll call the second death, thought death.

So here's my wild speculation on how the Shattering happened, sorry if it's been thought of already. My theory is that Adonal experienced thought death. The 16 who shattered him no longer viewed him as a God, but a God of 16 separate parts. Odium/hate, Honor/honorable, etc. So the 16 got together, thought of Adonal as not one being but of 16 different shards each representing a attribute they thought a god should have. After the 16 pieces were created the shards went to the vessel that was closest to their Inent. Rayse was hateful and selfish, maybe the most passionate. Tanavast had a strict sense of honor and ones word. Ati, even though being regarded as "kind", he still had a sense that logically all things must end. Bavadin was the vessel that most wanted to shatter Adonal and believed autonomy was a right to all peoples. Aona believed that all things would be made better through devotion. Skai believe that to in order for the world to be civilized there needed to be dominion to prevent chaos. Leras that it was duty to preserve things that were important in life. Edgli believed that sharing with one another was the most important thing a man could do, thinking that generosity was a gift to be cherished. Uli Da is fairly simple to explain, she believed in ambition, realizing your goals and completing them. Cultivation was probably very attuned to nature and growth of it. Each thought that they would be better god than Adonal and each believed their personal idea of what a god should be was more important than the others.  This must have taken real willpower to do this. I know the hole in this is that there was more than likely more people that thought of Adonal as one, and I have to solutions for this. One, the 16's will overpowered everyone's will that viewed Adonal as a whole. Second, maybe the weapon we know of was used to make everyone else think of Adonal as 16 parts. And in OB I think we have a analogy that might be a hint that Adonal experienced a thought death. The Stormfather use the analogy of the vase to teach Dalinar about the two deaths. "When a vase is broken, it is still alive. But when people stop thinking of it as a whole and focuses on the pieces'. What if this a clue about the shattering, and Brandon slipped in their as a "was kinda under your nose the whole time". People viewing the vase as whole= Adonal, people few Adonal as pieces= the 16 shards? 

 

Adonal is still somewhat alive as Adonal, not just loose investiture. This is because one of Hoid's possible plans. He's seeking out people with very strong wills in the hopes to some how bring Adonal fully back. Maybe there's evidence in the fact that Hoid approached Dalinar(Dalinar having tremendous willpower)  in WoK, and just said Adonal. Two things to note here is that scene was the first one we see where Wiit wasn't his witty self and appeared troubled and distracted (maybe he had just learned about Adonal still being around somewhat). Second, why would Hoid, if he's trying to get people to see Adonal as whole, not tell Dalinar the specifics. 

This leads up my next thought. We obviously know that the 16 shattered him on purpose. Assuming that reason was because Adonal was doing or going to do something unspeakable(told ya, wild speculation). And maybe the reason for the shard isolation rule mentioned in the OB epigraphs, is that they were afraid that Adonal could be brought back if two shards investiture mixed. Then once they saw that they could give life with each other and interact with another without reviving Adonal, they no longer enforced the rule. This is also maybe why Odium is attacking the shards, he doesn't want Adonal to come back and he wants to be the sole god. This is why Odium first attacked worlds with two shards(we don't know if Ambition was alone), he see's as the bigger threat to a re-birth of the god he hates. 

Odium tells Dalinar that he can see now why he has to destroy the remaining splinters of Honor. He says he can see it becoming trouble. Could he be talking about Honor the shard still surviving and piece itself back together, maybe the help with a Bondsmith, they bind the splinters together using Spiritual Cohesion. I don't think the only reason why Odium would destroy the splinters is because he want's to be the only god. I think that Odium thinks that if Honor does reform, it could be proof that Adonal can and will return if allowed, albeit on a smaller scale cus he's missing some of the shards due to the fact that there "dead".

 

*removes tinfoil hat*

Edits and pieces of ideas I most believe in will be in bold. After coming back and re-reading this for the first time I realize how unorganized and sporadic this post is. I'll find time soon to clean up a bit and make it clearer.  

Edited December 21, 2017 by Kered

[Brightlord M. Alhstrom]

First off, amazing theory. I don't think I've seen anything quite like it on here yet. However, cool as it is, I doubt it.

2 hours ago, Kered said:

Each of the 16 each had their own personal strength trait prior to the shattering.

This specific aspect falls apart when you look at Vessels like Ati, who was severely corrupted by Ruin's intent. Ruin definitely wasn't a "personal strength trait" for Ati. You can find other examples.

[Jace21]

12 hours ago, Ookla the Altruist said:

This specific aspect falls apart when you look at Vessels like Ati, who was severely corrupted by Ruin's intent. Ruin definitely wasn't a "personal strength trait" for Ati. You can find other examples.

Actually if I remember correcrly in M:SH it is stated that Ati always believed in the importance and inevitibility of change.

I personally doubt a connection between the original 16 shardholders and the intents of their shards but from what little we know of their pre-shattering personalities, it could work.

[Kered]

17 hours ago, Ookla the Altruist said:

First off, amazing theory. I don't think I've seen anything quite like it on here yet. However, cool as it is, I doubt it.

This specific aspect falls apart when you look at Vessels like Ati, who was severely corrupted by Ruin's intent. Ruin definitely wasn't a "personal strength trait" for Ati. You can find other examples.

Thanks!

5 hours ago, Ookla the Fashionably Late said:

Actually if I remember correcrly in M:SH it is stated that Ati always believed in the importance and inevitibility of change.

I personally doubt a connection between the original 16 shardholders and the intents of their shards but from what little we know of their pre-shattering personalities, it could work.

I'll admit the matching intents might be a stretch, but as Fashionably said, Ati could just have strongly believed in the inevitability of change. 

The the real point I was trying to make is that the 16 all just strongly willed to believe that Adonal was made of 16 separate parts, not one whole being. They then used the "weapon" to reinforce their will or to bend others will to the same thought This caused Adonal's spiritual and cognitive identity to "shatter". We also know from a WoB that what Odium did to the Shards he's splintered is a smaller version of what happened to Adonal. This could be alluding to the fact that Odium just has a stronger will than the other shards or somehow "corrupts" the shards into thinking of themselves as different pieces and not one whole one. Basically splinting there intents up until they're just ambient investiture.   

 

But like I said, I'll be the first to admit that this is far fetched. I just thought of it and saw some of the pieces fit together so I thought I'd post it. The biggest thing is the vase analogy from the Stormfather. I think that there's more to that than we think, a clue to splintering/shattering. 

Edited December 5, 2017 by Kered

[+Hoiditthroughthegrapevine]

On 12/4/2017 at 2:56 PM, Kered said:

The Stormfather use the analogy of the vase to teach Dalinar about the two deaths. "When a vase is broken, it is still alive. But when people stop thinking of it as a whole and focuses on the pieces'. What if this a clue about the shattering, and Brandon slipped in their as a "was kinda under your nose the whole time". People viewing the vase as whole= Adonal, people few Adonal as pieces= the 16 shards?

I think your theory is really interesting, how do you destroy a God? The vase analogy parallel is a nice supporting detail, but I always read this as the SF giving Dalinar an insight into how Honor slowly died.

Interesting to think about, I thought that the one big problem with this theory is that there is a WoB that show a vessel is possibly able to influence the Intent of their shard, but not to the point where they can change the definition of the intent, but they could push it to synonym:

Quote

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

We know Ati chose how Ruin was interpreted, in that he was a card-cackling maniac. Could someone so differently interpret a Shard as to change its name to be something different? Could someone pick up the Shard of Ruin and think I'm the Shard of Change? Or could someone pick up the Shard of Honor and think--

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

*hesitantly* Yes. To an extent. The interpretation, what you call a thing-- I think it would be arguable either way in-world, regardless of what they call themselves. There are those who would say the core intent is still there and you can't shift it that far, and others would argue you can shift it far enough to change the definition to a synonym. You see evidence of someone claiming this in the books. I'm not gonna confirm or deny for you whether that is actually a thing or not.

The WoB actually implies that the core intent is very inflexible (as if it was set at the time of Shattering). I'll have to think about this some more, but very interesting idea @Kered.

[Ishar]

This is a very interesting theory, and we know so little about Adonal that we can't rule anything as impossible yet. I kinda doubt this is what happened exactly, although it is possible that something similar is what occurred and we are simply missing details. I do find it unlikely though that 16 individuals would be able to "think" of Adonal as 16 pieces and make it happen, even with a super weapon of sorts. Another major thing that I think this theory is missing is Hoid. Where does he fall into this?

[Ashspren]

2 hours ago, Ishar said:

...even with a super weapon of sorts. Another major thing that I think this theory is missing is Hoid. Where does he fall into this?

Hoid might be the “superweapon” you speak of, @Ishar. Maybe they used Hoid to shatter Adonalsium, either physically or mentally. 

Mentally actually could work, if we’re continuing with the “Hoid is the weapon” theory. Hoid is know notoriously for his insults, which could be something that “shatters” someone’s mind or pride. Maybe his iconic position as the King’s Wit is him referencing towards his old role.