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  1. The idea that the 16 Shards can be categorized in groups of 4 (a la Mistborn metals) is not a new one, and I think Dawnshard is going to further support that theory. The mural that seems to depict The Shattering of Adonalsium and imbues Rysn with her Command is described as having 16 "mostly symmetrical pieces" grouped into fours. So let's make groups of 4! I'm sure there's going to be tons of different theories on how the Shards are organized. Even when trying to find commonalities between all the Shards, there's bound to be people who see different patterns than others. Let's start with what we know, or at least what we think we know... About the Dawnshards in general: The Dawnshards are "the four primal Commands that created all things" The Dawnshards were used to undo Adonalsium itself Both a Command and Intent are required to use "the most powerful forms of Surgebinding [Magic]" that ordinarily "transcends traditional mortal understanding." These are demands "on a level no person could ever manage alone" -- a single person would not be able to handle wielding this combined power. So the Dawnshards predate the Shattering of Adonalsium and thus cannot have been created by the Shattering. They were used to create all things -- the power of creation, potentially wielded by Adoalsium, who is a deity. The people (Dragon, Human, mortal or immortal, but otherwise just people, not deities) who Shattered Adonalsium would have been incapable of using a Command on their own, even with the proper Intent. -- Could they have been required to work in groups of four? I think perhaps four people with similar Intents likely were needed to use each Command, and then the four Commands must have been used together to kill God. Four groups of four, with each person having a specific Intent that somewhat related to the Command they were helping to wield. And what do we know about the Commands specifically: Rysn's Command seems to have a theme, which is Change. "Accept it. Know it. CHANGE." "It was then that she grasped, in the smallest way, the nature of the Command inside her. The will of a god to remake things, to demand they be better. The power to change." Rysn seems to be able to appreciate colors and tastes much more clearly after being imbued with the Command, which is similar to the effects of investiture created by Endowment (Breaths, Nalthis) "Storms. Was it her, or did this tea taste extra good? She inspected it, then glanced at the sunlight pouring through the porthole. Was it . . . brighter than usual? Why did the colors in her room look so exceptionally vivid all of a sudden?" Rysn also appreciates the musicality in Drlwan's voice -- is this another effect similar to that of a Heightening? Or is Rysn potentially hearing the Rhythms of Roshar? "Strange, how she saw the contrast of shadows much more starkly now. And . . . why did Drlwan’s voice sound more musical?" The Command agrees(?) with Rysn's decision to let Cord keep her Shardplate out of tradition. Because it's the honorable thing to do? Because it's a gift that Rysn has endowed to Cord? Tradition, doing something because it has been done before, actually seems to be somewhat in opposition to the theme of "Change," so I feel this is important to explore. "'Cord discovered it,' Rysn said. 'It’s traditional to let the one who first claims a Shard keep it.' The Command pulsed with warmth as she said that." So based on this information, I feel pretty sure that we can at least begin to categorize the Shards. Everything that follows here is just my best guess at a grouping. CHANGE -- "The will of a god to remake things, to demand they be better. The power to change." Endowment -- Must be, based on the changes Rysn is experiencing. Even though I personally feel like it's a stretch to put this here. Advancement? The addition of things, or gaining of new things, to improve or grow? Cultivation -- Growth, personal improvement, etc. Could be the source of Rysn beginning to hear the Rhythms. Definitely belongs in this category. Ruin -- Entropy, decay, mortality. Definitely belongs in this category. ? SURVIVE -- The will of a god to create enduring life, that extends itself into infinity even beyond it's own death. The power to survive. Preservation -- Stability, safety, unchanging. Definitely belongs in this category, and really the basis for why I think "SURVIVE" or "LIVE" must be a command -- because Kelsier certainly hears the Command to SURVIVE in Mistborn, and it is not coming from Leras. Autonomy -- Self-reliance, individualism, independence. The ability to survive while depending on only yourself. Definitely belongs in this category. The unknown shard "who just wants to hide and survive." -- Obviously belongs in this category even though we don't know what the true intent is. ? UNITE -- The will of a god to bind things, to conncet people with eachother and with the land and life around them. The power to unite. Honor -- Oaths, connecting people to eachother, binding them to their words and traditions. Obviously belongs in this category, and the basis for why I think "UNITE" or "CONNECT" must be a command -- because Dalinar certainly hears the Command to UNITE all throughout SA, and it is not the Stormfather, nor is it Tanavast. Dominion -- Connecting people to the land, and to eachother with political power and territory. This one may be a stretch, but it's my best guess. I think it probably belongs in this category. ? ? CARE -- The will of a god to create meaning and purpose, to demand that life exists for a reason. The power to care. Odium -- Pasion, love, hatred, emotion, motivation (though "Motivation" would be a great Shard name on its own). Definitely belongs in this category. Devotion -- Purpose, worship, crusades/quests. This one is also a stretch; honestly I have the hardest time with the Selish Shards because their Intents are confusing to me. But I believe this one belongs here. You devote yourself to a mission or a purpose in life, whatever that may be.. Ambition -- Personal goals, enthusiasm, striving to achieve. If devotion belongs here then Ambition certainly does as well. ? If Wisdom is the Shard that just wants to "hide and survive" then it belongs under the SURVIVE Command. But if Wisdom is a completely different shard, then I would want to probably put it under the CHANGE command, because knowledge changes you. Actually... now that I think about it, I think there may be two Shards here. "Wisdom" is a thing that you have whereas "Knowledge" is something that you gain with time and experience and experimentation. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that "Wisdom" is the shard that wants to survive and hide, and keep its secrets, and just study the world as it is without affecting the outcome, and that there is another shard along the lines of "Knowledge" or "Discovery" that is about change through experiences. Anyway, just had to write down my own thoughts. I'm really interested to see how other people categorize the shards. And I'm also interested in thoughts on my categorizations and would love for people to poke holes in it or improve it or change it around so it fits better. What do you guys think?
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  2. So the non-spoiler reviews for Rythm of War have started popping out and 2 that I was expecting were Daniel's Greene & Merphy's Napier. From what they say here I am a bit worried that I will have the same issues with RoW, as I had with Oathbringer. Daniel says it very well, something along the lines of "liking the meat, but not the bone". For me Oathbringer had a lot of specific moments that were my favourites in the series, but as a whole didn't deliver on all the fronts I was hoping for. The reviews are mostly non spoilery, but just to be extra cautious I addes in "spoiler" what I thought might be considered one. . What makes you even more excited after listening to their reviews? Also, I don't know the indepth policies of the forum, so if putting the links to their reviews in this ,it is considered promotion of some sort, I am sorry. Hope that it's ok though Daniel Greene - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxAQ3ufxgJM&ab_channel=DanielGreene Merphy Napier - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t47XN5Lf0hY&t=499s&ab_channel=DanielGreeneDanielGreene
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  4. Ok so people are getting the book weeks before the release I'm now considering the possibility of becoming an Youtuber dedicated to books. I will work hard for the next 3 years to become sufessful and get many subscribers. After that I will finally get a copy of SA5 for myself 20 days before anyone else and shut down my channel right after that
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  5. I noticed this in the annotations for Dawnshard: Emphasis on the fact that he can’t eat meat. What!? Since when!? Does his curse to not be able to physically harm people also extend to animals, and therefore he cannot eat them? the most alarming and depressing part of this is this fact we have known for a while, quote: I know someone brought this up on the Reddit q and a already, but I needed to get this off my chest
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  6. Here's my spoiler-free review: There's also a written version:
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  7. It’s not being a vegetarian that’s the issue, there’s nothing wrong with being a vegetarian, it’s that he isn’t really doing it by choice. He’s a vegetarian because he’s incapable of doing otherwise; even though he loves the taste of bacon, he’s incapable of actually eating it. It’s more similar to someone who loves the taste of peanut butter being allergic to peanuts. Being incapable of eating your favorite food would really suck.
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  8. I suspect, after reading this, that the Third Ideal is less about hatred, per se, and more about not letting yourself get in the way of protecting others--or perhaps, rather, to not let your personal desires stop you from protecting others. As such, selflessness is the key principle of the Third Ideal. I think. "I will protect even those I hate, so long as it is right." - Kaladin had to let go of his hatred of others and not allow it to determine his willingness to protect others, even those who arguably didn't deserve his protection, like Elhokar. "I will protect even those I hate, even if the one I hate most is myself." - Teft had to let go of his self-hatred, which was spiraling him downwards into self-pity, self-rejection, and self-torment. He had to be able to look outwards and focus on protecting those who need protection, notwithstanding his own failings. "I will protect those who hurt me." - Huio had to look past the way in which his cousin aggravates him. We get a small sense of how annoyed he gets by Lopen in this story. Can you imagine having to live with Lopen? For your whole life? There's probably a lot of hurt there that Lopen didn't necessarily mean, but it sounds like it was enough to be an obstacle for Huio to overcome to reject his emotional wounds in order to protect. "I will protect others from myself." - Again, it's the self that's getting in the way. Lopen wants to protect but his own personality, the one he's chosen, is getting between him and that ideal. In each of these, the primary element is not hatred, or some interpretation of hatred, but an interpretation of the character's focus on the self, and the need to set aside that self-centeredness in order to fulfill the Ideal. That Kaladin and Teft's interpretations of it deal with hatred is not endemic to the Third Ideal itself, but are instead manifestations of their strongly hateful character arcs at that point in time. The point is to give up the self.
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  9. I'm going under the knife for shoulder surgery November 16th at 1pm! I don't know when RoW will arrive from Wellers, but here's hoping I'm lucid enough to start reading RoW immediately and until I have to be back at work Thursday!
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  10. Beautiful volumes. Kudos Team Dragonsteel!
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  11. I’m very sorry if this is the wrong place, but, Dawnshard memes! (I think it’s self explanatory) Here are a few that I have made: (Dawnshard spoilers)
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  12. I wonder if Rysn now had some passive benefits of 4 shard investiture? She notices Endiwnment, but I wonder what else might be in there (or maybe all 4 shards in that team can grant that somehow). I am thinking the team is based in the “Accept it Know it CHANGE”, so Endowment - change through gift Cultivation - change through grown Ambition - change through will Maybe Ruin? - Change through time? Dalinar had also seen words that glow and give off light. Is Unite one of the Dawnshards (maybe a splintered one Odium thought he destroyed or Unmade?) Honour Dominion Devotion Preservation?
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  13. OK so tidbits I picked up so far. Sleepless The Sleepless are few in number and seem to age and reproduce slowly. Their reproduction method apparently happens when one swarm splits off another grouping. This particular group of sleepless numbers only 24. It is unclear how many more there are on Roshar but no more are known. They have spied on and are worried about our radiants. Also apparenty the one Lift met is something of a maverick. We don't really know why but apparently they think Dalinar making the right choices is more dangerous then playing into the enemy's plans(I no idea why). Hoid warned the horneaters two generations ago that they could not fight the sleepless. Fabrails Huio is a genius and he invented the aluminum method that the Azish take credit for. It seems that it works by making it so that only some motions matter circular motion = back and forth as only lateral movement matters. I am really interested for Rysn to star Prof Xing around on a floating chair. Dawnshard Aimia's undersea caverns contain a DAWNSHARD that the sleepless are guarding. There are apparently four and they were used to shatter adonalsium. Sharders speculate that each made four of the four shads. Rysn has the one that makes things improve, change, grow and possibly learn(Endowment, Ruin, Cultivation, Wisdom?). According to Cord it came through Cultivation's perpendicularity. Hoid was effected by (another?) Dawnshard that turned him vegan under principles similar to savantism. Horneaters The Horneaters are awesome. More importantly the Horneaters have a sacred duty to control access to the perpendicularity which explains a little about RoW Perhaps the Horneaters were given sanctuary in exchange for this duty? I also wonder how old they are as a people. Did a group of singers do this ahead of time? Maybe they interbred with the humans specifically so that they could stick around? They apparently have a whole group of people who work in diplomacy/worship of the spren. Rock's enhanced strength comes from Mandras or luckspren. We still don't know what kind of spren they are but they apparently guard wealth so maybe prosperityspren? The Lopen Lopen and Huio leveled up! We got Lopen's third ideal. An interesting twist about self knowledge. Larkin Ancient Guardians, Larkin or Lanceryn as they originally were called were tasked perhaps even created to guard the dawnshard. They bond a particular kind of luckspen only found on Aimia. Eight soulcasters were found on Aimia. They were offerings to the larkin. It is unclear why they would want any. The sleepless managed to interbreed with the Larkin and took over their task of gaurding. Apparently Chiri-Chiri will in fact grow big enough to ride(can't wait). They are also a sapient species. I wonder what other abilities they might have? The Reshi The Reshi King Rysn met seems to have transitioned as of becoming a Dustbringer! The Reshi greatshells can communicate intelligent and important information? They also come to agreements about how to act? They have a "government" and uphold ideologies and causes? What else have we learned?
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  14. So this is a tidbit that I haven't seen discussed yet. We've known they exist on other planets, but this is confirmation that they're not Roshar natives: At the same time, we learned something new about their biology; the really big centipede-like hordlings that Lopen fights have violet blood. In addition, hordlings are often distinguishable from cremlings by an external violet coloring. The first time we ever saw one was that purple "cremling" that Kaladin noticed while he was enslaved. Here's the quotes: Who else has violet carapace? Chiri-chiri: Now, I can't prove definitely that violet carapace corresponds with violet blood, but I have another reason to believe that larkin blood is violet: chasmfiend blood is also violet. Given the descriptions of Chiri-chiri "trumping" I don't think it's a stretch to say that they might be related. Why am I hung up over the violet blood? Because of what it might imply about which life is native to Roshar. The Listeners have orange blood, and they are the only known native Rosharans. Are all the creatures with violet blood invasive? Are they from the same planet as the Sleepless? However, I have reasons to believe that creatures with violet blood are native. First of all comes anatomy. Creatures from off-world would not have gemhearts with which they can bond spren. The very fact that they're large crustaceans who require Roshar's higher oxygen level, lighter gravity, and spren bonds to survive seems to indicate that they are native to the planet. In addition, violet blood is found in axehounds, who don't really have any ties to the Larkin or Sleepless as far as I can tell: The largest reason I think these creatures are native, however, is coevolution. Spren bonds on Roshar are a form of mutualistic symbiosis—when organisms of different species interact closely for mutual benefit. The most well-known example of this in our world is pollinating insects. Many of these insects are fairly indiscriminate. European honeybees happily pollinate flowers found in North America, even though those species did not evolve together. The same seems to be true for most of the Mandra on Roshar, who bond with all sorts of creatures from skyeels to chasmfiends to santhids. Some of these creatures did not necessarily need to evolve alongside the Mandra in order to interact with them now. Theoretically, you could drop a brand-new massive creature into Roshar, and if it had a gemheart, these Mandra might be able to bond it. However, symbiosis can be much, much more specific. There's a lot of bacteria that are specific to the digestive tracts of different animals species, but there's also examples of specific pollinators. Perhaps the coolest is the Darwin's moth: Look at that tongue! This moth is the result of coevolution, and it can only pollinate a specific flower in the Galapagos. Likewise, the flower can only be pollinated by this moth. Such a specific interaction is a clear indicator that these two species evolved together. In fact, Darwin first predicted the existence of this moth when he examined the flower which it pollinates. The first specimen of the moth wasn't found until years after his death. Now let's look at the Larkin. They can't just bond with any Mandras, but with a subspecies found only in Akinah. Chiri-chiri hasn't reached a size yet where the greater potency of the Akinah Mandra should be necessary for her survival. Normal Mandra can hold up chasmfiends, for goodness sake. Instead, by some biological or magical mechanism, I think Chiri-chiri is incapable of bonding other Mandra. Part of the definition of coevolution is that it must be reciprocal. Both species must be evolving in response to the other. Why would Mandras exist on Roshar which meet the exact needs of the Larkin/Laceryn? How could the Larkin/Laceryn ever exist before these Mandra did, or vice versa? The answer is that they didn't. This was, undoubtedly, coevolution taking place. It is a clear sign that these species are native to Roshar. Either they've lived on Roshar for thousands of generations, or they were created by Adonalsium in this state (in which case they would also be native). Therefore, I think that the purple-ness of the hordelings is from interbreeding with native Rosharan life. Nikli mentions that their hordelings can breed with the Larkin. And we also know that Adonalsium made species like Humans and Parshendi biologically compatible. Interbreeding like this would likely be the quickest way for the Sleepless to have blended in to Roshar when they first arrived. The weird purple hordelings probably look different from cremlings because they're part-Larkin. I don't have much of a theory here, I guess. TL;DR: I got hung up over the color of some blood and carapace, but in the end I'm concluding that the Sleepless are the only invasive species and they've blended in by breeding hordelings with native Rosharan life. EDIT: Well, somehow I wrote this whole thing without realizing there was an extremely pertinent WoB: I think this generally supports my interpretation, although it doesn't specifically address the origins of the Larkin. Also this WoB, which is mostly tangential to my theory but is still cool:
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  15. Perhaps so, but I'm leaning more towards the immortality and inability to cause harm probably had something to do with the type of Dawnshard Hoid had. I think Rysn has a different one, and that any effects will be different. Immortality and inability to cause harm to living things reminds me a lot of Preservation, and what Rysn has seems to be the opposite of that. So instead of immortality, short life? Either way, she didn't know what she was signing up for.
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  16. Sounds to me like Rysn just got "soul-casted." At least, that's how the target of a soulcast must feel right? You have this entity pushing itself into your perception, asking you to change. Convincing you that you've already done it, that you're capable of doing it. Do it again. One more time. The cosmere functions on Investiture, Command, Intent, and Connection. The Dawnshard just used three of those on Rysn. And if it can 'bond any creature mortal or voidish' maybe it doesn't have a problem with connecting either. "Change" is just another surge, just another manifestation of investiture—a force of magic that gained classification from people's perspective. No better than Gravitation or Division. Big-A was shattered and its power split up among the first wielders of the Shards right? God's power of Preservation, Ruin, etc. Investiture imprints and interacts with sapience, so the Shards of Hatred, Honor, Ambition probably got their intent from Ado right? After all Investiture will form Sapience if given the chance as well. The power sits in the Spiritual and is classified and keyed by cognitive thought: even the big capital-S Shards are bound by the intent keyed to their investiture. And in some cases we see unbound investiture pursue its intent and grow sapience. But sapience also shapes investiture—intent is hard-coded into the cosmere and it came from some intellect with these concepts. But we've seen Ado's investiture! It's the Shards. There's sixteen of them, they can be splintered or merged further, but we're familiar. Almost intimately with some of them. Why call these Dawnshards? Why are they different? Seems silly that only just now Brando would introduce us to some "Super Shards" that are somewhere between a Shard and Adonalsium itself? What happened to Adonalsium's mind? After all, what is a Command except a manifestation of someone's will.
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  17. I have a Missionary story real quick: So my family had guy over for dinner (pre-COVID) And this guy had a brother. This brother was... an...interesting person. He went on a mission & while he was on it he bought knives from a knife-store that was closing down. Short time later, this guy was carrying around a knife with him into a grocery store, (as I said he was an interesting guy.) His companion had to go to the bathroom, so while his companion was in the bathroom, this guy starts throwing the knife up, spinning it, and catching it. It hits the ceiling fan and IMPALES his thigh. (that's not the craziest part yet.) Short while later their mission president in a zone meeting starts chewing them out and got this guy really frustrated. So frustrated that on the way home he has his companion stop the car at every snowman so that this guy could tackle it. He keeps doing this until they're almost at the apartment and he tackles yet another snowman, this lady comes out of the house and asks him what he was doing. He replied that he was sorry and he was having a really hard day. She invites him and his companion inside for hot chocolate and about a month later she's converted and baptized by the guy and his companion. This remains my favorite conversion story ever.
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  18. is that a Sleepless could probably form a creature the size of a Chasmfiend. We also need to consider the size of the monsters at the end. It's difficult to get an exact size estimate, but we do get descriptors. First, they are able to fit Huio in their mouth while he stands. Two, their legs are described as spindly compared to the body, but the legs are also the thickness of tree trunks. I get the impression that these creatures are much larger than Santhids. However, it's interesting that there are a total of seven of these monsters; one originally, then six more followed. We also know that there are 20 Sleepless following the First, making there a total of 21 Sleepless actively guarding Akinah. We don't know for sure that all of them were present on Akinah, but considering how important they consider its defense and the presence of a large group of people containing multiple Windrunners, it's not unreasonable to assume they went all out and all the Sleepless were present on Akinah at the end of Dawnshard. This could imply that each monster was comprised of three distinct Sleepless hordes, which would mean hordelings from different Sleepless are capable of working in conjoint to form larger masses. It's definitely a stretch to say we know absolutely that the monsters were comprise of multiple Sleepless, but the numbers divide by each other, and I can't think of any reasoning for why Sleepless would not be able to combine hordes to create larger creatures. ... I think each of those monsters WAS a Hordeling... a single Hordeling. If they were composed of a bunch of small Hordelings, Huio wouldn't have been able to kill one with a Shardspear. It would only kill the Hordelings it hit. And I think Nikli would have a different form of combat if he had a giant mass of Hordelings instead of a set of big ones. ... which implies that what we saw in the battle was just Nikli. The youngest Sleepless.
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  19. I know the ebook release was up in the air a bit with the news being it would be out a few days later than the Kickstarter, but it looks like it will be available on Tuesday and you can preorder it now. Here is a link to one major ebook vendor. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MXXWYT7/ref=mp_s_a_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=dawnshard+sanderson&qid=1604765357&sprefix=dawnsh&sr=8-7
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  20. Not certain I agree. When he was conversing with the other Sleepless, he said he had one more idea to deter the expedition, but he needed help.
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  21. Kind of ironic that a species that is symbiotic with luckspren would be hunted nearly to extinction...
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  22. We're recording Sunday, then it'll be a mad dash for me to edit the podcast! I'll get them out ASAP! It's very exciting!
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  23. Thank you! Hear that everyone? I got big guns! Git gud noobs
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  24. "The element" has been confirmed to be lerasium, so not a Dawnshard: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/245/#e5483 There were some relevant WoBs given out yesterday: So Hoid was a Dawnshard, but he's not anymore. I believe he gave up his Dawnshard before the Shattering; that was his opportunity to particpate, and he declined it, and somebody else got his Dawnshard (either freely given or forcibly taken; might that be part of Hoid's grudge against Rayse or Bavadin?) and used it in the Shattering. But he had held it long enough that its effects on his spirit still lingered.
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  25. So basically it's a Cosmere version of this?
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  26. I think it may have been something like “I will protect even those who hurt me most.” Because he truly doesn’t hate his cousin, but the Lopen has hurt him deeply. So hate doesn’t really make sense, but hurt does.
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  27. My guess is that has to do with being able to look at them from Shadesmar and see their Cognitive aspect as different.
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  28. Well, looks like I’m not getting any sleep tonight. After a mostly forgettable, low-stakes mild adventure/mystery story, the lore got turned up to 1000%. This seems like a good thread to dump my thoughts in. The mural. It’s obviously referencing the Shattering, what with the sixteen pieces; I think it’s also referencing the four Dawnshards here, too. But these existed before the Shattering of Adonalsium (or else they couldn’t be used to Shatter), so I’m guessing the Commands guided the sixteen Intents, four apiece. This Command feels an awful lot like Cultivation and Endowment, making things change and make things better. (And even Ruin, to a degree.) And Adonalsium had some emotions ascribed to him, as well: “Resignation? Confidence? Understanding?” And lastly, I’m not sure that the gold color is entirely for decoration. We’re learning from fabrial science that metals interact with Investiture in quite a few ways we didn’t anticipate; I wonder if the mural wouldn’t have contained the Dawnshard if it had a different metal. (The “red foil” outlines are somewhat suspicious, as well, for the places we’ve seen red Investiture.) Exactly what Dawnshards are and how they work is a bit of a mystery. We know from Brandon’s annotation that Hoid was a Dawnshard; I assume this is in reference to the “first gem” and how it became worthless for his wearing it. His Dawnshard was contained in a topaz, and then Hoid absorbed it. There are an awful lot of similarities to Breath and Awakening. It’s called a “Command,” Rysn has improved perception of color and pitch at the end of the novella. But while she absorbs it, we see sensations of light and warmth… almost like the mystery light Dalinar has seen a few times. The pieces are there, but I'm not quite sure how to put them together. There are some outstanding mysteries about the larkin and the mandras. It’s one thing if they were leading Chiri-Chiri to start a bond… but why did they guide Cord and Rysn? And then the big old skulls that Rysn thought moved to look at her; I’m thinking that there’s something actually moving in there. Rysn thinks that the Dawnshard has no agency of its own (borne out by the heads moved after Rysn took up the Dawnshard), so it must be whatever was guiding the mandras, whatever let out the big roar right before Chiri-Chiri returned. Mama Larkin, or whoever it is. The Dawnshard refers to Chiri-Chiri as a “Guardian of Ancient Sins.” That implies, to me, that the larkin are, an intelligent race who were tasked with this mission as soon as the Dawnshards needed guarding. The Sleepless say they guard it because they have seen the “end of worlds,” (like what was mentioned in the Oathbringer interlude), so are the “Ancient Sins” the Shattering? Or perhaps the destruction of Ashyn and other planets like it (including, potentially, the Sleepless home world)? So when were the Dawnshards put under guard? After the Shattering? After the destruction of Ashyn? After some point during the Desolations? It must have been prior to the Recreance, but that's a very long amount of time. We’ve only found one Dawnshard; where are the other three? In Way of Kings, Honor references “Dawnshards,” plural, so presumably more of them were on Roshar, if not all of them. What is Honor about to suggest that can’t be done without Dawnshards? Splintering a Shard, I’d guess; he was suggesting they kill Odium. Which, in turn, makes me wonder if Odium has a Dawnshard, and has been using it to Splinter. But the Dawnshards were also used to destroy the Tranquiline Halls (by performing a great feat of magic, as suggested by the novella), so how did they get to Ashyn? Or perhaps the Dawnshards a cosmere-wide “plot point,” and Honor was suggesting that the Radiants track one down, himself oblivious to the fact that one was right under his nose on his very own planet? Who are the enemies who could make full use of a Dawnshard? Are they Shards? Are they powerful magic users? I assume you only need to be a magic user, which is why they won’t let Rysn bond a spren. That's what happened on Ashyn; somebody with a Dawnshard went too far and caused some problems. It also makes me wonder about the “one of them will destroy us” line from the Way of Kings back cover, and maybe the enemies they’re worried about are the Radiants themselves. Neither person in on the secret (Rysn, Cord) are Radiants, after all. If Dalinar looks for a Dawnshard to fight Odium, things could go wrong and destroy Roshar. Lastly, the greatest applications of Surgebinding. If Rysn’s Dawnshard is associated with growth, what we could call Cultivation’s Dawnshard, I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that Ishar used Honor’s Dawnshard to create the Radiants. An extremely powerful Surgebinding to set up the Oaths and the bonds and the Surge associations and all that. He may also have used it to bind the Oathpact. I go a little further and suggest he still has it, although now he doesn’t have Surgebinding to make use of it. Hmm, one more odd line towards the end of the book. Cord knows stories of this Dawnshard coming through the perpendicularity. That implies that the Dawnshards were being moved around separately through the Cosmere. Who brought this one to Roshar? When? And for what purpose (if there is any beyond just hiding it)? Lots to think about. A pleasant surprise, to be sure; I wasn’t expecting this much of a bomb in this story.
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  29. Great catch, I didn't pick up on that. Seems to be in-book confirmation this
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  30. Such good stuff that I finally had to level up from lurker. Looking forward to engaging with you all!
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  31. I replied on this on my review, because some were asking about this being very inconsistent with Daniel Greene. I... definitely think there is a Sanderlanche. I respect Daniel a bunch, but I don't quite understand how he can say that there isn't one. That's all I'll say right now
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  32. Totally shiny *nods approvingly* Sadly they "ended" it with the movie, there is no second season coming, ever ;( I love your comparison between River and baby yoda
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  33. Oooh... that would fit with the suggested “Think” Command quite well.
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  34. Emphasis added. It seems that it takes the combination of a Command and an Intent to wield the power of Creation (and likewise the power of Destruction, judging by what happened to Adonalsim). But this combined power is too much for a single person to handle alone. Adonalsim likely was able to wield this power on its own because it is a deity, a force, a God that "transcends traditional mortal understanding." The people who Shattered Adonalsium were not deities. They were just people. Dragons, humans, mortal or "immortal" (though they all can die), they were just people. And therefore they must have had to work in groups. My theory is that it must have required at least four people, all with similar Intents, to wield a single Command. And thus, four groups of four, 16 Intents, 16 vessels, 16 Shards.
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  35. There is a large difference between being basically made for the order (eg Kaladin) and being able to become a radiant in one (eg Sigzil). Adolin is not far away from being an Edgedancer, as the_archduke pointed out, definitely not to the point that his values don’t align with the order’s in any interpretation. While he may fit other orders better, he still fits the Edgedancers enough, and he’s in a radiant spren hotspot with an Edgedancer spren he’s already really close to. It would feel clunky and weird if Sanderson made him a Stoneward.
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  36. Hello beings of the 17th shard! I am making this post because I think it is nice to know what other people think about you. This is a thread dedicated to giving honest thoughts on what other sharder’s vibes are. I’ll start it off. @Honorless, you were kind of like the big guns of the shard to me when i first joined. A valuable and knowledgeable wizard that can share some of their power or knowledge if you ask them for it right. @Scout_Fox, you seemed like the almighty friendly human of the shard. Someone nice and approachable. @Aspiring Writer, you are like a character off of a typical quest-esque fantasy book. You started with humble beginnings, but quickly made your skill and talent known to the world. @Channelknight Fadran, you are like a merging of honorless and scout fox. You are a friendly human that has plenty of experience within the shard, and is a human worth knowing. this is hopefully a start to some knowing on how other people perceive you on the shard! I hope this will take off because it is useful to know how other people think of you.
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  37. Part of me wonders if there was another 4th Larkin in that cave? It seemed like chiri-chiri couldn’t have been the one to make the loud roar, right? I get there could be echo, but I think something else was for sure in there. How it hides I have no idea.
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  38. Besides the obvious mind-blowing Dawnshard revelations: The Third Ideals of Windrunners keep getting better and better "It’s only a contradiction if you think about it." - finally a Lopen quote I can use in real life I hope Rushu gets to lie on a huge pile of gemstones in the end And the most important question not directly related to Dawnshards: if people got their Soulcasters from Aimia, and Aimia got them as gifts for the Ancient Guardians, then who created them in the first place? And how?
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  39. I've heard a theory that the Poem of Ista was written by a Sleepless and a hordeling was carrying the Dawnshard. We know that the Heralds are normal sized, so the steps would likely be as well. However, to a hordeling they would be huge.
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  40. Yeah, those visions with the warm light he gets that people (myself included) have been speculating or assuming was related to his "pruning" by Cultivation, may be some aspect of this. That would be something, eh? The same man - Dalinar Kholin - not only being an Alethi highprince by birth and a Full Shardbearer in his youth, but eventually becoming a key Investiture Pawn for Honor (Stormfather/Bondsmith), Odium (first choice of Champion), Cultivation (cursed/booned to thwart Odium), and also possibly endowed or involved with a Dawnshard? Ta'veren, I tell you!
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  41. I'm not very far in but so far, Chiri-Chiri feels like Jello if he ate spheres and magical light rather than buttons and pens. Brandon was most definitely inspired by Jello when writing this.
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  42. I just want to thank everyone for helping me with this. Together we will penetrate the deepest mysteries of Dawnshard and emerge victorious with even more questions!
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  43. My personal theory: the Dawnshards are CHANGE, SURVIVE, UNITE, and UNBOUND CHANGE (the ability to change one thing into another) Current Holder: Rysn Theorized Previous Owner(s): Cultivation who then hid it on Roshar. Connected Shards: Cultivation (change through growth) Ruin (change through inevitable entropy) Endowment (change through gift) SURVIVE/STAY (the ability to keep one thing the same) Current Theorized Holder: Kelsier Hypothetical Previous Owner(s): Mistborn spoilers below Connected Shards: Preservation The Survival Shard? UNITE/BIND (the ability to bond things together) Current Theorized Holder: Dalinar Hypothetical Previous Owner(s): Ishar, Honor, Nohadon Connected Shards: Honor (bound by oaths/contracts) Devotion (bound by shared desire/emotion/belief among people) Dominion (bond to the land) UNBOUND/UNRAVEL/FREE (the ability to break a thing's bonds and limits) Current Theorized Owner: Rayse who used it to destroy multiple Shards with mostly minimal damage to himself. Hypothetical Previous Owner(s): - Connected Shards: Odium (unbounded hatred/passion) Ambition (unbounded will/desire) Autonomy (freedom)
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  44. So I think we have two Dawnshards nailed on the head: Change and Unite. The problem I have with Argent's original schematic is that I don't think something can be created from nothing, or that something can be utterly destroyed into nothing. We should treat the Dawnshards' Commands as pseudoscientific fundamental forces, and Unite and Change already set the template from which we can extrapolate the other two. A lot of other people are hinting at similar Commands, but I'm adding some of my own names for Commands, and I'm also expressing each as a generic chemical reaction to demonstrate how fundamental they are. Change ( A ---> B ) - Something becomes something else. Unite ( A + B ---> C) - Two or more things combine to form less things. Divide ( A ---> B + C ) - Some number of things split into even more things. Remain ( A ---> A ) - Something goes through a process without altering or changing. One last note is that I really like Divide as a Command. It feels very antithetical to Unite. While I think the thematic idea of Stay, or Stasis as it was termed in the OP, is the correct idea, I'm not sure I like the term Stay. Maybe Remain or even just Be would work better? Edit: I changed Stay to Remain in the list of Commands.
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  45. I think you're really onto something with Passion and didn't think of it. Brandon confirmed that there was a significance to the way Odium and Ruin spoke about Passion and he confirmed that there would be Shards who did not refer to it that way. Edit: Found the WoB
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  46. I mostly agree with your first two groupings, but I think Odium fits with the third group, not the fourth. Odium represents not just hate and anger, but also love and passion. I also think the name of the group should be changed from Will to Motivation. Each of the shards in it represent a reason of motivation. Strong feeling, ambition, and autonomy is something to fight for.
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  47. Although I personally like Shallan as a character, I get where people are coming from when they say they don't like her. However, I think there a plenty of reasons why she is kind of cool as a character. A lot of people don't like how Shallan seems to be overly perfect because she never fails at anything. Her flaws aren’t really dwelled upon, which makes her seem like a weaker character. After all, flaws are a good thing in a character not a bad. But I would argue that her flaws are there, just not overtly made clear as they are with, say, Kaladin. For example: Whereas Kaladin dwells on the past so much that it molds his every action, Shallan is completely in denial about most of her past. She refuses to confront it, so she doesn’t learn from her mistakes. So a lot of her arc is about fully confronting her past and becoming self-aware enough to become a Lightweaver. This makes it seem like she is deteriorating as a character instead of growing. But I would argue that she was never very stable to begin with and her so-called de-evolution is the result of facing her past. It may seem like she is perfect and Shallan certainly likes to put up that front. But in reality, she is an utter mess who is only now starting to become self-aware. Just like Kaladin has a somewhat racist view of light eyes, Shallan has a somewhat warped view of dark eyes. Shallan may not be overtly cruel to a darkeyed person, but she repeatadly looks down on them. She repeatedly thinks that light eyes are simply better at ruling and believes that it benefits everyone if those with eye color step in to help others (ahem White Man's Burden). Alot of the time, she kind of assumes that she will get her way by to virtue of being lightened. I'll be honest, when Shallan took the boots off some random dark-eyed captain simply because she knew she could get away with it, I was enraged. But this attitude is a flaw that Shallan can work to overcome, just like how Kaladin can overcome his hatred of lighteyes. I list these flaws to show that the depths of Shallan's character and to show that even though she seems overly perfect, this is more or less an act that she puts on. Shallan has been written as the inverse of Kaladin and the opposite trajectories of their character arcs showcase different paths towards personal growth. It would be annoying if a main character is repeatedly shown to be perfect and never fail. But Shallan is flawed and that makes her more interesting I think.
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  48. I feel like Mando is building his own private army. He has the respect of Cobb, his people, and the sand people. I could easily see him calling on them by the end of the season to help fight Moff and his stormtroopers. and who doesn’t want to see Raiders v Stormtroopers?
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