JesterLavorre

Well, It has been a bit, but I have finished! (I actually finished it two months ago, but I moved countries so I've been a little distracted) Work in Progress Pics: And here's the final animation and videos of it running (hey, look, highstorms have a perfectly straight back edge. Who would have thought?) Some still shots of the final thing, projector setup and all!

I was about to make a post similar to this, before I saw it already existed! My original layout for the Dawnshards, before reading this thread, was this: I like and dislike some of both layouts. Making my list, I went more in the direction of "laws of investiture", inspired by how the likely Unite/Bind Dawnshard lines up with connection being important. The two other investiture laws I came up with for the other Dawnshards were the fact that Investiture when left alone seeks sentience (the "life" Dawnshard), and something along the lines of identity and/or shardic intent. That one I'm less sure about, but there being two Dawnshards tied to sentience and life does line up with how almost exactly half the shards' intents are tied closely to human attributes. I also quite like the duality of Wisdom and Invention and of Odium and Mercy. Like I said, that Dawnshard I like a lot more than Desire/Choose, which is more just me not knowing what to do with the remaining shards and looking for uniting themes in them. Also, with my layout, I decided to put the shard that was the absence/opposite of the Dawnshard in that Dawnshard. So Preservation is in Change, and Whimsy is in Bind. Essentially, the idea is that Change doesn't only make things change, it controls all aspects of change, including stopping change. Same goes for Unite being able to break bonds as well as make them. As for your layout, I like it quite a bit. I don't love Odium in change. To me, Whimsy or Endowment fit much better. I do like Ambition in change, as Hodor mentioned. I like the idea of Ambition being in Unite as well, as a sort of "I swear I will reach this goal". Though, to me that sounds maybe a little too close to Valor. I will say, I have never really liked the idea of a Survive or Stasis Dawnshard. It seems too close to the intent of Preservation for me, and from a writerly perspective doesn't seem especially interesting to delve into. Something like Protect I personally like better, but I don't see protection as one of the four powers of creation that were used to make (everything in?) the Cosmere. I think Live fills a similar role, and I like it better as a force of creation. To me it just doesn't make a ton of sense to have "not changing" be a full quarter of the power that was used to create the Cosmere, but that's pure unsupported opinion. Lastly, I didn't realize until you pointed it out the synergy between the three "creation" shards, which is the most convincing point I have seen in the idea of a Creation Dawnshard. It does rub me the wrong way a bit that Investiture shouldn't be able to be created or destroyed, but phrasing it along the lines of creativity or the creation of ideas or more ephemeral concepts makes me like it a lot more.

Sylvia saw her roommate finally come walking to the seats. She sat there already herself, hoping she looked composed and calm when on the inside she was a bundle of nerves. She almost convinced herself.

Sylvia had already been up for an hour before Instance woke, running through her morning routine. Eating, washing, stretching. She considered waking the other girl, but decided against it. I don’t want her angry at me already. Promptly at 6:45, Sylvia quietly slipped out her and Instance’s door and made her way to orientation.

“Syliva.” She slung her bag onto a hook near the door, “and lunch sounds good.”

“Ah, that’s good. Same here. I had to when my mother was out… which was always.” Sylvia realized she was dumping her problems onto this random girl and quickly pivoted, “so, um, do you know your parents?”

“Depends on what you would define as ‘cooking’. Anyway, I expect there must be restaurants nearby if needed. Why? Do you know how to cook?”

“Hmm?” Sylvia glanced up as her roommate entered, and managed to spy the form of Genoro making his may back down the hall. So this was the person who had a personal servant just to arrange their things for them. Sylvia stood and looked the girl up and down. “Hi.” She paused for a moment, unsure what to say next. Gods, I hope the whole year isn’t like this. “I’m Sylvia, What’s you’re name?”

“Oh, sorry. Well, have a good day, then.” What kind of person had a personal… butler? To set up their room for them.

“Oh, hello.” Sylvia pulled up to a halt. “I think you’re, um… in the wrong dorms?”

Sylvia steeped off the bus with a flood of other new students and their parents. Parents, willing to take a whole bus ride just to see their child off at school? She had to admit she was a little jealous. She slung her bag over her shoulder and glanced at the surrounding signage, pinpointing the way to Korolai. She took a moment to breath in the fresh air after freeing herself from the mingling crowd and took off toward her dorm.