Nnatel

I must say I very much like your take on at least three levels: I love this quote about Odium, it pretty much sums up my interpretation of this Shard since I read that; I have been trying to figure out more emotional (more or less, for lack of a better word I can currently think of) Shards - I've been trying to get a full quadrant of Shard connected to feelings, but I am not getting into that here; and lastly, my head hurts from thinking about trying to sort the existing Shards so this is a very nice topic that is not so frustrating. (Also, all the talk of the Shards has finally motivated me to come back on the forums and even write something so that's nice, too.) Anyway, being done with this not really necessary beginning. I find your take really interesting as I have never considered the possibility that Odium is actually better at feeling human emotions that any other Shard. I believed it always to be a thing Rayse says not necessarily even believing that himself. Maybe because I just assumed there are other Shards representing emotions. This may come from an really old WoB that I had in the back of my head: If this interpretation is still valid - one of the Shards you suggested already exists. (But honestly I am wondering if this is not too old to base a theory on because a lot of Brandon's interpretations could have changed since 2011). But anyway Devotion, and also Whimsy, are really hard to talk about without mentioning emotions. I will focus on this part of your theory because this feels the most correct, if I can say so. There is also one thing I would like to add to this point: I can see a world where the actual Shard is all emotions Adonalsium had but the Odium thing happened because of Rayse. There is a mention in one of the letters, I think, that he wasn't a pleasant men, to put it nicely, as I don't remember the exact quote and I don't have a book to actually check it. I am not sure if I actually like it, I think I would prefer them to get split up between different Shards, at least that sound more likely to happen IMO. But on the other hand there is also a quote from RoW: This lists noticeably more emotions that hatred. But it does not mention love, which would go quite well with this attribute (and I mean it as in 'godly' attribute of Adonalsium) being a part of Devotion's Intent. It also leaves me wondering which other emotions are lacking. Sadness is definitely one of them. I could see it being part of Mercy, in a way. Same with compassion. Happiness is one of the ones I would consider important but I don't have a good suggestion for a Shard it could be a part of. Curiosity might be another, this one fits Whimsy for me. Actually, the same might be true for something like boredom. This feels like a basic that is needed to be whimsical. Is determination even an emotion? I am not sure but it definitely is Ambition. I am trying to figure out more emotions that could be listed and I am getting stuck. So I am going to end the list here. So anyway, I guess I came to a conclusion that Odium is the only Shard we currently know that is purely made from Adonalsium's emotions but there are some emotional attributes that can be easily ascribed to Shards we already know and that definitely are not part of Odium. That is not necessarily what I wanted to write but at some point I remembered the RoW quote and it happened. I like it a lot actually. Does somebody agree? Or maybe you can add more emotions or come up with a Shard that goes well with happiness? PS. I can't believe this actually got me to search for this chapter of RoW. I hate it as because it makes me terrified for future books.

If it was already raised in this topic than I'm sorry, I've been reading it in parts and don't really remember what you've discussed already. But here go my thoughts on both Azure's sword and Nightblood. Per this WoB (that has been already quoted) we know, that creation of Nightblood didn't go as it should. And from the Warbreaker Annotations (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/250/#e7357) we know that Yesteel has necessary knowledge on creating a Type Four entity, so for me it is quite justified to make assumptions that it was either him or Vasher who created Azure's sword. Partly it's even a writing reason, I guess - we already have two characters that are able to do this, so why introduce another one? I believe all of the differences between those two weapons come from the unusual thing that happened during Nightblood's creation, and what I mean is that Shashara and Vasher didn't have full control over the process. Here are two WoBs, spoilered for clarity and length, from which I took the idea. I suppose you can say I'm streching this too far from those, but I feel like the fact that at least two Shards were involved more that usually indicates something. Even if it wasn't Ruin's concius intervention, because I'm not really sure it was, this still can be valid if the reason behind Ruin's Investiture is just the Nightblood's command.

King of Ways made me laugh way too much. But both Knights of Worlds and Kingdom of Warriors are awesome. And actually the latter one sounds totally like something concerning Shin, they don't have almost all the Honorblades for nothing. Yes, I remember they don't value warriors as important, if you want to focus on this part, this can be something they say about the Alethkar, obviously in a negative way. @Ookla the Toasted this sounds nice as well, maybe a little change to get Knight of the Winds

I guess, as it generally seems to be a thing with Selish magic - a kandra would also need a Connection to Fjorden. But after getting this to work (and it's not impossible) they should gain the abilities those bones granted. This one is quite simple. But interacting with a Skeletal is probably more difficult, as the they run on Investiture and that would make things much complicated, I guess. Actually, I believe a similar case would occur with Lifeless, as they also have some internal Investiture that would make any interference much more difficult or at least complicated. I'm not sure whether Kalad's Phantoms work exactly the same as Lifeless, though I guess they work on the same base so it shouldn't be relevantly different. Another WoB that might be relevant (sorry for the second quote box, I'm on the mobile so there is no way to delete it).

I love the symmetry option, it fits whole SA so well. And I kind of like 'white' standing for 'w' as it will be Szeth's. And white was rather a big theme for him. Actually, if he uses in-world logic to create the title, there is a chance one of the letters can be changed to 'h'. At least the Alethi would still consider it symmetrical.

Well, I'm not sure about this. If it was to be a lot of time, than maybe, but I still don't find it likely. I see it's like it'd eat some of the Shard's Investiture than stop and after some time it'd wake up and start eating again. Or at least I feel this is what would happen.

Let's just say I don't find this likely and leave this, I feel like it's only a matter of opinion. I would consider the magic system on the First of the Sun to be a non Shard-based as well. This WoB suggest a strong similarity between Threnody and Fots. And even if there was Investiture between the battle between Shards, I don't feel like back then Threnody would be invested enough to create a CS. I believe that only after Ambition being wounded what resulted in bigger amount of Investiture (with a chance of odious Investiture being there as well, at least that's what I want to believe in). I always felt that after being imprisoned he he decided to Invest because that was the only available option to fight them.

There is only one RAFO on similarity between Shades and the Fused (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/361/#e11288) but per this WoB I suppose we can assume there is another Shard's investiture being in play on Threnody But I find it really unlikely there would be a third Shard on Threnody at some point. So I guess this time red means Odium again. Actually, somebody may once ask Brandon if Svrakiss have red eyes. Although it's probably a RAFO as all about them.

It's quite hard to pick one but I have a list of three that I find more likely than the rest. 1) Kalak - it totally makes sense for me that the Willshaper Herald dies in a Willshaper book. And we have already seen some of him, even if it was only prologues. He is a number one on my list. 2) Chana - I find her less likely just beacuse we haven't seen her yet. But if she is introduced at the very beginning, I definitely see her dying. There is another reason as well, but I'll get to it while talking about Ash. 3) Ash - so, we know she is a flashback character but that doesn't mean she has to survive (but to make her flashbacks interesting it'd be better to see more of her. I want Heralds for flashback characters, so I hope it won't end up the way it did with Eshonai). And mostly because of this WoB (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/364/#e11374) it looks like she will end up as a Dustbringer - so actually Chana being dead before her makes sense. OTOH, I think we will see a lot of parallels in the SA so after death of Jezrien - leaving Kaladin's order without a patron - I feel like a patron of Lightweavers being next just fits in there.

There is this WoB and though the first part of it is contradicted by this https://wob.coppermind.net/events/9/#e7444 (he says they wouldn't change) but I guess the bolded part can mean that they are less self aware because the Shard isn't there. At least I understand it this way. I partly agree, but only partly. I guess shades could've been created by Ambition (or at least with her Investiture) though I feel like some of Odium's Investiture might have stayed in the system. Actually I have this theory where shades are created by dying Ambition on purpose but I still have to think it through, so let's leave this and move more to what you said. I believe that shades can stay around because as a result of the battle between Ambition and Odium Threnody is heavily invested. And Investiture is what you need to get a CS. There is still one think that doesn't really work if I'd stop here. Enraged shades have green eyes but when it comes to spilling blood, they become red. And we well know what red often means as Investiture is concerned. So I like to think that not only Ambition was wounded but maybe Odium too, so there is some of his Investiture on Threnody taking control over the most angry shades (so to say it, I couldn't find better words).

Just want to point out that I am almost 100% certain that on Roshar and as Wit, Hoid has had black hair as his disguise. Yeah, that's definitely true, so at least on Roshar he broke the pattern. Though I guess the way he looks is more of Brandon's way of telling us "look this is Hoid" than Hoid actually looking always the same. Just a storytelling reason. Sometimes you are best hidden in plain sight - I wouldn't be surprised if Odium doesn't expect Hoid to get involved that much with important people. What is more, either his messing with Fortune allows him to avoid any unwanted problems or just using Fortune messes with Futuresight so much that Odium is unable to locate him.

I definitely agree that Odium is aware of Hoid's presence. But with Hoid, I guess, many people know who he is but it might get really hard to recognise him - just every time you see him he looks different. So although knowing that these were his drawings is not hard, I think it would be quite hard for anyone to realise it is him, even talking face to face.

I don't think this is about Cognitive Shadows but I can agree that almost every Shard has some sort of agents. And on Scadrial I would count Kandra as such, though I don't know if threre was anything like that while Ruin and Preservation were still around. But for Harmony they definitely act as such. And I'm not sure if I would count Elantrians or Shades to be something like that as 'their' Shards are dead. Though it would be very interesting if some splintered Shards left some sort of agents behind as they expected Odium to come after them. I really like the idea but does it make any sense?

It took me quite a long time to find a better way of explaining what I meant but here it goes. @Karger and @Honorless as you were the ones who commented. It can still make no sense and the longer I think about it the more unlikely it gets but I still want to try putting it differently. Well, "hole" wasn't probably the best word for what I meant, I just tried imagining something different to all things we have seen before. And, I imagine CR with a certain density of Investiture (I am not taking into consideration any sentient beings, just the core 'landscape' of this realm). While we have seen places accumulating Investiture - Perpependicularities - the opposite is quite hard to imagine, I know. And while distances between planets or star systems are shortened - it's like a standard amount of Investiture in a place in CR is the same but the equivalent in PR is bigger. And here we go to what I was trying to say earlier. What would happen if there would exist a place in CR where this density would be smaller than usually? I might be completely wrong but I just got this feeling that anything unusal enough should exist in other realms as well (or at least sth unusual in CR has to exist in SR but if the cause was in PR than it would exist in all three). But I guess Nalthians wouldn't spot this thing unless it moves and the planet goes through it once a year (I just realized that it can be very important to know whether it moves or not, but I'm drifting away from my idea).