Civis

@KythisThe E-book, too, has a starchart of the Cosmere. If for some reason yours doesn't, you can check tor.com: they've published a review of Arcanum Unbounded and have put up the chart. Or at least part of it. http://www.tor.com/2016/11/25/arcanum-unbounded-the-cosmere-collection-spoiler-review/ PS I've just had a look at my Kindle: the starchart is on page 14, right before the beginning of the Selish section.

If I remember correctly, Brandon's annotations to Warbreaker also say that Yesteel might know how to create Type IV Biochromatic entities... I think there was a hint in the annotations but I am not sure.

I am sorry, Ari, I should have explained it right away. By accidents I mean non-essential attribute of something. To cite an example, let us take a table: it can be made of wood, marble or plastic, it can be round, oval or rectangular, it can be tall or low, it can have many legs or just one, but all that is insignificant in that it remains a table regardless. In like manner, God's wrath or love, His preserving the world or, contrariwise, razing it to the ground, do not determine or even affect His godhood as they are not their essence. I see the point you are making about the interrelation between a Shard's intent and its holders personality, but I am afraid I was not speaking about that exactly. What I was trying to say is that, regardless of who holds these Shards now, initially they were just attributes of Adonalsium and as such should be regarded together. Within Adonalsium they were different, as they were nothing but derivatives of its nature (which I presume is generally good). When Adonalsium was shattered, however, these intents gained a purpose of their own and, separated, started to act in a different fashion. Imagine a good person: say they care about someone and because of that are angry with them for some reason, wishing them nothing but good. What if all of a sudden, this love and this anger became beings instead of accidents? Anger would presumably be just a wish to destroy or hurt, not tempered by love or understanding, or the good nature of the person who felt that anger in the first place. I understand this might not be as clear an explanation as I would like it to be.

Hello everyone! To start with, I would like to say that though it is my first post I have been following many a discussion on these forums with keen interest. I would also like to express my admiration to all of you devoted readers of Brandon's works for how diligently you have been going through every book of Brandon's and how brilliant and true many of your theories and guesses have turned out to be. I am afraid I cannot pride myself on vast knowledge in natural sciences and so I cannot participate in more technical discussions on the Metallic Arts etc., but there is one subject I have given a lot of thought and that is the nature of Adonalsium and what its Shards represent. I hope this theory of mine merits your consideration. First, let me lay the foundations. There has been a lot of speculation on Adodalsium's nature, origins, ends as well as the reasons for its Shattering. From what little we know of these matters it can be inferred that Adonalsium is an extremely powerful being, created or not, of godlike power. I have seen it named the power of creation, a god even. It is clear however, that it cannot be taken in the sense that is attached to God in monotheistic religions, for if it were so, then Adonalsium could not have been shattered, assuming it is omnipotent. Hence, seeing that Adonalsium is neither omnipotent nor indestructible, it can be understood to be a god at best, i.e. an immensely powerful being. I have also assumed it is also more of a positive force, even though evidence of that as of now remains to be seen. It has been pointed out that etymologically Adonalsium might be derived from Adonai, a Hebrew word denoting God. The -ium suffix, I believe, signifies resemblance, meaning that Adonalsium might be either God's creation, or be named after Him, or else be fashioned after Him. In other words, I presume that this Adonalsium is a lesser version of God, either created by someone or emerged spontaneously, and possessed of all God's accidents though to a lesser degree. When Adonalsium was shattered, Shards emerged representing these accidents, as in Preservation, Ruin, Endowment etc. And that is when I come to the nature of the Shards: it has been suggested on many occasions that all Shards come in pairs, representing opposing intents. If that were so, however, how can Adonalsium be possibly supposed to be anything but an inert being composed of opposite intents nullifying one another? I hold that the dichotomy we are witnessing in Ruin-Preservation, Dominion-Autonomy, Devotion-Odium is false, if specious. It only appears to us in this light as all these intents have been taken out of their context (it says somewhere in the Letter that Odium is but a god's wrath devoid of the other tempering qualities). Let me briefly talk about each Shard. If we start with the Shards that do not yet have an apparent pair, we shall see that Endowment is the representation of God's (or a god's rather) giving nature as He is the source of all grace. Cultivation is God's life-giving force, the pinnacle of His creative potential. Honour might, however, be viewed as something of a difficulty as this Shard's name is purely a secular virtue that has no place in theology. The Oxford dictionary's definition may give us a clue: to act with honour implies to do what is morally right, in other words it is more about justice and doing the right thing. Is it not what Kaladin, Tanavast's child, speaking figuratively, struggles to do? Now to the pairings. Let us start with Devotion, which is God's love, and Odium, which as I have mentioned, is God's wrath rather than pure hatred. Quite frankly, I do not think love's opposite is hatred, I would say it would rather be apathy, affectlessness, lack of any feeling, or, quite simply, indifference. In the Old Testament God's love of the people of Israel and His wrath against them are often closely intertwines, for the God of Israel is jealous of His people. He vents His divine wrath upon them out of love, feeling betrayed, e.g. when Israelites ask Samuel to select them a king after the fashion of neighbouring nations thereby effectively denying God's sovereignty over them. That aside, I feel Devotion and Odium are not exactly opposite, I am confident there interrelationship must be more complicated that that. As to Dominion and Autonomy, I see them as representations of God's sovereignty over the world (or in this case Adodalsium's sovereignty over the comer until shattered) and His self-sufficiency or independence respectively. These are not necessarily opposite but rather they imply one another: if you are the supreme lord of all being you have to be absolutely independent, i.e. autonomous. Granted, however, that when separated, these Shards might conflict with each other. Lastly, to the opposition of Preservation and Ruin. Preservation, in my view, embodies God's wish for the world to continue: there is a school of theology that maintains that the world only exists through God's will holding it together. Ruin, on the other hand, might be God's wish for the world to move towards the ends He has in mind, thereby fulfilling God's economy. Ruin is not just decay, it is a necessary condition for change. Still, I would like to repeat that when separated from Adodalsium's essence, these Shards might have had their original nature distorted and that is likely what has happened. That is about all I had to say. I think Brandon's being a Christian might have had a certain influence upon his ideas and his writings. But after all that may be in another way that I assume. I do hope that there is at least a grain of truth in the ideas I have put forward (I think I have seen other posts to the same effect and I would be glad if you could direct me to them).