Vax

[Meridas Amaram]

Is it possible that Leras is not the original vessel for preservation? In Mistborn: Secret History the last thing that Ruin(or Ati) says is "Vax(?)". This is indubitably the name of another Vessel, the question being who. I believe that it is possible that when Preservation locked Ruin up, the power was not being held by Leras. I believe that Vax bore it, and when he attempted to imprison Ruin, Ati relinquished control to the Shard itself, going dormant. then, when Ruin wounded Preservation, Vax gave the power to Leras, in an attempt to vgive the power more time to lock away Ruin. Then, when Ruin was defeated, Ati awoke, and was confused when he saw that it was not Vax that wielded Preservation, but Leras.

[Weltall]

Vax is a planet (or at least a place on a currently unknown planet) confirmed in the Elantris 10th Anniversary Ars Arcanum where Khriss mentions it as a world where Initiation works differently than on Sel. Approaching it from a different angle, Mistborn Secret History also makes it very clear that Leras was the original Vessel of Preservation; he knows Hoid by the same alias that other Vessels do (Cephandrius) and refers to the same 'rejection' by Hoid of the Vessels and of Ascension which requires him to have been among the original sixteen.

There were theories for a while that Vax could be the setting for The Dark One, but Brandon has since indicated that it's not going to be a Cosmere work so that can't be the case any longer. He's RAFO'd questions about it so we know very little more than 'it exists'. My own thinking is that it could be a new name for the setting of the eventual rewrite of Aether of Night, which would be a cute nod to the fact that the conflict between Preservation and Ruin in Mistborn was cannibalized from the earlier work. But it could also be something completely unrelated and until Brandon gives us more to work with, all we can do is guess.

Edited January 31, 2018 by Weltall

[Strifelover]

It's worth mentioning that there's this WOB where somebody asks him about Vax. After the person says OK so Vax is a place Brandon makes sure to reiterate it's HEAVILY IMPLIED that it's a place, not that it is. May just be a distinction just for drama's sake, like the Man who calls himself Taln type thing, but there could be something to that.

[Weltall]

Well, it has to be a place (whether it's the name of a planet or just a place on one) since Khriss mentions it in the context of Initiation into a magic system. That she mentions it in the same breath as Initiation into Taldain's system (and one sentence after mentioning two other planets by name) heavily implies that it's the name of a planet specifically. This is likely to be one of those RAFOs intended to just keep us giessing since it has to be a place-designator of some sort. It's clear that whatever Vax is, Brandon doesn't want to reveal any more about it than he absolutely has to right now.

[Meridas Amaram]

Oof. I feel as though I have just begun reading from the cosmere. I'll try to refrain from posting things like this again. Thank you for clarifying this for me.

Edited February 9, 2018 by Meridas Amaram
embarrassment

[Weltall]

Don't worry about it, this happens to everyone sooner or later.

There's always another secret and nobody expects anyone to know every single thing Brandon has said in the books, everything he's said outside the books and everything we've said in trying to figure things out. Especially in a case like this where the only published references are the ambiguous reference Ati makes and one slipped into an Ars Arcanum entry in a reprint of a completely different book. Doubly-especially people who are new to the series, to the Shard or both. So please, keep posting. You never know when you'll see something from an angle everyone else has missed unless you try.