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As the title says, I am planning a short story set on Monody, first planet in the Threnodite system. Is this something you guys would want to see posted, or should I keep it to myself? Also I am not sure about Dragonsteel's stance on unapproved derivative works, does anyone know if they would have a problem with me posting a story set in their IP? I've got some pretty decent brainstorming done and I think I came up with very interesting ideas. I wanted to hear your opinions on this before I started though.

I just posted this to my Youtube channel, but I figured I'd type this up fully here, maybe additionally clarify some of the points TL;DR at the bottom The central question of this theory: Where did the Thrill originally come from, was it truly of Odium in the very beginning? My theory is that Nergaoul was actually a splinter of Ambition to start with and Odium Unmade the Thrill into what it is today on Roshar. The Thrill is characterized as a red mist, so The Threnody system So we know that Odium mortally sliced and diced Ambition while in the Threnody system (and also Mercy was there doing who knows what). Chunks of Ambition rained down, and something arose from the ashes: The Evil. The Evil was described by Nazh as "a creeping darkness, a terrible force that consumed the entirety of the continent, feasting upon the souls of men." Khriss also states that she does "not know how much of this is metaphoric, and how much literal." I think this was mostly metaphorical. Being a Splinter of Ambition, I think the Evil entered the hearts of men and inflamed their ambitious desires to the utmost, similarly to what the Thrill does with battle rage or Ashtermarn with gluttony. This "devoured their souls" by inciting them to pursue their greatest ambitions to the loss of all else. Thus, the continent was consumed by madness and those strangely unaffected fled to the smaller, shade-filled continent. Then, I think Odium came back. He had just dispatched Ambition and was inspecting the scene of the crime just to double check there aren't any powerful splinters that could rise up and gather up Ambition's power again. And on Threnody, he finds a new toy. Odium corrupts the Thrill, through the process of Unmaking and this fundamentally changes the nature of the Thrill into something similar, but different. Now, the main objection that I see to this theory: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/100/#e1672 How does this fit with the theory? Well, primarily, I think this could tell us about the nature of Unmaking. This form of corruption has to fundamentally change the nature of the Splinter such that it is either A: a Splinter of both Shards, or B: A Splinter completely of Odium through a process of substitution, where Odium's investiture replaces Ambition's, but still retaining the vague shape of what the thing is. I think the first is the most likely, but I have been unable to find if this question has been asked before about the nature of Unmaking. TL;DR The Thrill was originally a splinter of Ambition called the Evil, Odium saw a new toy, Unmade it into a Splinter of Odium, and then tossed it onto Roshar for it to go buck wild.

Theory: After Ambition was wounded in the Threnodite System by Odium and Mercy, she fled to another point in space. This point either was, or became, the Rosharan system. Here, Ambition was killed. Her death created the Barrier Storm in the Cognitive Realm around the planet Braize. This storm was later Invested by Odium to create the proto-Everstorm that was pulled through into the Physical on Roshar at the Battle of Narak. Ambition's death also created a wound in the Spiritual Realm in the Rosharan System similar to that which exists on Threnody. This is the reason there are spren on Roshar. Datapoints: I group this into two categories, Spren and Storms. SPREN: From Shadows for Silence in the Forest of Hell, we know that the wounding of Ambition in the Threnodite System created Shades: cognitive beings which manifest in the Physical Realm. We do not see similar manifestations in the Mistborn novels or the White Sand graphic novels. We know there are no Splintered Shards in the Scadrian or Taldain systems at the time these stories are set. We see similar manifestations in Elantris and Emperor's Soul (Seons and Skaze). We know there are Splintered Shards in the Selish system at this time. We see similar manifestations in The Stormlight Archive (spren on Roshar) (and voidspren on Braize). STORMS: From Khriss's statements in Arcanum Unbounded, we know that the Dor around Sel is a whorl of free Investiture created when Odium Splintered Dominion and Devotion there. From statements from Nazh and Hoid, we know that travel to/from Sel through the Cognitive Realm is very difficult and dangerous due to the presence there of the Dor. From statements by Nazh, we know that that travel to/from Braize through the Cognitive Realm was difficult due to the presence of this Barrier Storm. A possible chronology: 1) The Shattering of Adonalsium. 2) Odium and Mercy clash with Ambition in the Threnodite System. Ambition is wounded. 3) Odium (and possibly others) clash with Ambition in the Rosharan system. Ambition is killed, creating the Barrier Storm, and spren. 4) Odium goes to the Selish system. He clashes with Dominion and Devotion. They are both killed, creating the Dor. 5) Odium returns to the Rosharan system, and begins whispering in the ears of the Ashynites. 6) The Ashynites devastate their planet using Dawnshards. They are taken in as refugees by Honor and Cultivation on Roshar. Their God, Odium, comes with them. 7) Honor, Cultivation, and Odium make a deal that they think will allow them to live in harmony on Roshar. This is the Oathpact. 8) Odium intentionally goes against the Oathpact, triggering its punishment prohibitions. He is exiled to Braize, on the far side of the Barrier Storm. The cycle of Desolations begins. 9) Honor is Splintered. 10) Honor's Cognitive Shadow is bound to the spren of the Highstorm. 11) Several millennia pass. 12) Odium invests a not-insignificant amount of Investiture into the Barrier Storm, creating the proto-Everstorm in the Cognitive Realm. This process takes several centuries. 13) Finally, the Everstorm is pulled through into the Physical Realm on Roshar, creating a direct passage between Braize and Roshar. Questions: A] Why is this wrong? B] Were other Shards involved in the death of Ambition? Did Mercy join Odium for the final clash? Did Ambition? Did Endowment (who we know is relatively new to the Nalthian system)? Indeed... were Honor and/or Cultivation in on the kill? C] Did the death of Aona and Skai occur before the initial conflict with Uli Da in the Threnodite system; after this initial conflict but before the final conflict in the Rosharan system; or after the Rosharan conflict? D] When on this timeline did Honor and/or Cultivation arrive on Roshar? E] When was Odium's first contact with the humans on Ashyn?

Okay so I’ve been really digging into the whole creation of Nightblood. Could a splinter of Ambition be involved someone how? Thus amplifying it’s “destroy evil” intent? I also believe the theories that this was apart of Ruins involvement as well.

Could Mercy have spared Uli Da while splintering Ambition? I think it is in line with Mercy's intent and a logical guess with the minimal information that we have. Ambition is separate from Uli Da and I think that it could be shattered while. Also could Uli Da being Fain mean that The Evil is Fainlife created from a piece of her? --This was a discussion from 2017 that got closed and I want to re-discuss. Honestly, I want to discuss anything vaguely Threnody--Shard--Cosmere related...

I only recently noticed I hadn't updated my favourite Story-theory yet with the new Dawnshard/RoW Knowledge, so here goes. TL; DR: Kelsier will try to reforge and become Ambition. Collecting enough of Ambitions Investiture will enable him to ascend to Shardhood. So, RoW answered atleast some of my thoughts about what Kel would get up to. It also fed into my theory, so it's time to dig that up again. First, the arguments that still hold: (New Arguments at the bottom) - He tasted Ascension with Preservation. And now that he knows that's a thing that is possible, it seems like a worthy goal to keep himself busy with. - Hoid seems to be interested in keeping the Shards from gaining too much power and keeping them seperated. Kelsier hates him. Would be fun to have them square off in that kind of way, especially with Hoid as the MC of Mistborn Era 4 You might ask: But why specifically Ambition? - At the end of Secret History, Vin asks Kelsier an important question about his motivation. We're lead to believe that Kelsier will look inside himself and realize that she was right and his vendetta against the Lord Ruler was more about himself than the Skaa or Scadrial. From RoW, we can gather that he probably accepted that and doubled down on it - see Thaidakar. We saw that Preservations Intent and Kelsier's personality were too different. Of all the shards we know, Ambition would fit him really well. He's insanely ambitious, going so far as to think up a way to overthrow an - as far as he knew - immortal Emperor. He punched multiple gods. And he created a multiple-world-spanning secret Organisation. If that isn't ambitious, I don't know what is. - Additionally, according to my Understanding, Ambition is one of the, if not the, least limiting Intents. With all we've read about Ruin corrupting Ati, Odium and Honor and Preservation etc limiting their Vessels, Ambition is... not really like that. I'm sure there some zany stuff there, but I doubt becoming Ambition would hinder Kelsiers Megalomania, if anything it would further increase it. And it wouldn't bind him to anything stupid like Oaths or whatever, which he definitely wouldn't want. But there's more hints towards my theory. - Foreshadowing (pun intended). When Kelsier encountered the Ire, they mentioned Threnody Shades. As Kelsier is a Cognitive Shadow, their Alerter Fabrial picked up on him. I believe that this might be more than fanservice for those of us who read Shadows for Silence. Threnody is the one planet we know where Investiture from Ambition "landed" in large chunks. It's already connected to Cognitive Shadows, and the names of the planets in the Threnodite system are all the names of Songs of Mourning - and Kelsier is dead ( also as in "The Bands of Mourning", which Kelsier used) - Threnody and Sel are the only other two planets that Kelsier canonically knew as of the end of secret history. Putting himself in opposition of the Ire, it wouldn't be too far fetched that he would have investigated what it is that these very knowledgable people are trying to contain that they confused him with. Not a far stretch imho. It seems that on Roshar, the Ghostbloods already have plan and directive, so I assume Kelsier already has had some kind of plan by the time they set up on Roshar. - Ambition was splintered, but unlike Dominion and Devotion. While we know that Odium stuffed those two in the Cognitive Realm to make sure they wouldn't be picked up again, as far as we know he didn't know how to do that yet when he finished off Ambition outside the Threnodite system. So while Ambition is probably spread out in dead chunks of Investiture, someone ambitious enough with a lot of time could try to collect those. - Additionally, Edgli (Endowment) seemed to think that Ambitions last Vessel would've been trouble, and seems glad that she's gone. From different WoB's we know that Sazed's ascension has caused quite a stir, so Kelsier could definitely take up the troublemaking mantle of Uli Da very well. Alright, time for the new arguments and thoughts: Two things are majorly important: - The Ghostbloods are looking for ways to transport Investiture. Ba-Ado-Mishram, Gems, Stormlight... Aside from trying to find a way for their Master to actually move beyond Scadrial, they are looking for ways to transport Investiture. Sure, Money and Power are good motivators, but I think there's a second reason for that: Moving Chunks of Ambition. What would this do for them? Well... Douglas What about a lerasium savant? Or would that require so much lerasium that the person attempting it would ascend to become a new Shardholder? Brandon Sanderson Basically, this is what Ascension is. 17th Shard Forum Q&A (Sept. 27, 2012) I imagine the Plan to go something like this: Step 1: Find a way to store most of the big chunks of Ambition's Investiture. I assume it's not all in the form of Shades, so imagine Gems and whatever stuffed full of Investiture - if necessary, Step 2: Convert it into a Form Thaidakar can use. If Raboniel and Navani can figure out Light physics, I'm sure people in Silverlight or other Scholars somewhere are able to do so too. I'd be surprised if the Ghostbloods didn't have some smart Cosmere Scientists on their Payroll. Convert all that Investiture into solid form: a metal. Uli Dum/Ambitium - Step 3: Kelsier burns massive amounts of Ambitium or an Ambitium/Lerasium Alloy, preferrably physically close to Threnody, somewhere in the system. Once he has burnt enough of it, Kelsier ascends to Ambition. The Investiture that hasn't been collected hopefully realigns itself to its new Vessel, and Kel is a Shard now. Aside from those reasons, just think of how absolutely fitting this would be for Kelsiers Story, both in-universe and Meta, for us readers. Kelsier, the Survivor, survives the most deadly place on Scadrial, the pits of Hathsin, under the rule of an "immortal god-emperor", spiting said Emperor. He goes on to challenge that Emperor, and while dying in the Process, deifies himself as The Survivor, sparking both the Revolt that finally took down the Lord Ruler and a Religion around himself. He Survives Death, and goes on to help out at the other very deadly part of Scadrial, the South, and also kinda becomes the god of the people there after helping them survive. Notice a pattern? What better than to do this a third time? The Survivor, a kinda-ghost kinda-god, focusses his attention on the deadliest planet in the known universe, Threnody. If any one people in the Cosmere is doing more surviving than the South Scadrians, it's definitely the people on Threnody. (Try to tell me Kelsier wouldn't like Silence Montane.) After the disaster of Ruin and Preservation and the prophecy, Scadrial needed a god like Harmony to rest and stabilize under. Threnodys woes aren't over, however. What they need is a fighter god, someone able to take on the Evil. Someone who embodies the Will to Survive that Threnodians need, and the Ambition to pull through with it, to take up a fight this hopeless. a ghost-god that's already fought one immortal evil fits into Threnody well, and it would fit so well into Kelsiers story to do his shtick a third time: Help people survive and become their god. Only this time, it would actually be true, and he'd ascend to Shardhood.

So I recently finished Secret History; apart from RoW I am up to date with everything. I loved Secret History and wanted to share my Theory about Kelsier's future. I think Kelsier will try to reform Ambition. Here's my thoughts and arguments. TL;DR: I think once he knows how to leave Scadrial, it's possible that Kelsier will try to collect the chunks of Ambition and reform the shard, becoming its new Vessel. Of all the shards, Ambition fits him the best, and he would fit the Shard well too. Additionally, the one system we know of that's somewhat associated with Ambition is Threnody. SH mentions a similarity between Kelsier and the Shades of Threnody, one of three planets that Kelsier definitely knows of. The Threnodite Systems close connection to death offers itself for stories including a ghost. Not Long Enough; Want To Read: - Kelsier is beginning to become Cosmere aware and he will try to learn more and more. - He tasted Ascension with Preservation. And now that he knows that's a thing that is possible, it seems like a worthy goal to keep himself busy with. - Hoid seems to be interested in keeping the Shards from gaining too much power and keeping them seperated. Kelsier hates him. Would be fun to have them square off in that kind of way, especially with Hoid as the MC of Mistborn Era 4 Why specifically Ambition? - At the end of Secret History, Vin asks Kelsier an important question about his motivation. We're lead to believe that Kelsier will look inside himself and realize that she was right and his vendetta against the Lord Ruler was more about himself than the Skaa or Scadrial. However, I believe that unlike what you might expect in other books, Kelsier will accept this and go all in on it rather than backing down. That's who he is. A megalomaniac, a madman. Scadrial was just lucky that he was on the side of the Skaa. We saw that Preservations Intent and Kelsier's personality were too different. Of all the shards we know, Ambition would fit him really well. He's insanely ambitious, going so far as to think up a way to overthrow an - as far as he knew - immortal Emperor. He punched multiple gods. If that isn't ambitious, I don't know what is. But there's more hints towards my theory. - Foreshadowing (pun intended). When Kelsier encountered the Ire, they mentioned Threnody Shades. As Kelsier is a Cognitive Shadow, their Alerter Fabrial picked up on him. I believe that this might be more than fanservice for those of us who read Shadows for Silence. Threnody is the one planet we know where Investiture from Ambition "landed" in large chunks. It's already connected to Cognitive Shadows, and the names of the planets in the Threnodite system are all the names of Songs of Mourning - and Kelsier is dead ( also as in "The Bands of Mourning", which Kelsier used) - Threnody and Sel are the only other two planets that Kelsier canonically knows of so far. Putting himself in opposition of the Ire, it wouldn't be too far fetched that he would want to investigate what it is that these very knowledgable people are trying to contain that they confused him with. Not a far stretch imho. - Ambition was splintered before Dominion and Devotion. While we know that Odium stuffed those two in the Cognitive Realm to make sure they wouldn't be picked up again, as far as we know he didn't know how to do that yet when he finished off Ambition outside the Threnodite system. So while Ambition is probably spread out in dead chunks of Investiture, someone ambitious enough with a lot of time could try to collect those. - Additionally, Edgli (Endowment) seemed to think that Ambitions last Vessel would've been trouble, and seems glad that she's gone. From different WoB's we know that Sazed's ascension has caused quite a stir, so Kelsier could definitely take up the troublemaking mantle of Uli Da very well. That's what I have so far.

We know that there are 16 shards in total, and we know that Odium has killed 4 of them (Ambition, Honor, Devotion, and Dominion). Devotion and Dominion have been left in the Cognitive Realm, and are the force of Dor . We know that Odium battled Ambition in the Threnodite system, and that Ambition was fatally wounded. We know Odium doesn't want to take up Honor's shard because taking on a Shard can change you (I can't find the reference for this, I think it was a WOB in the Skyward tour). I suspect that Odium is actually the power of at least 2 shards, possibly Hate and Ambition. Are there strong thoughts for or against this theory of mine?

Ok so why aren't Spren more common in the Cosmere ? I understand they are like bits of shards namely honor and cultivation. But why only roshar ? Sure seons and skaze are basically Spren but they aren't nearly as diverse as Spren , not to mention Spren have entire ecosystems in the cognitive realm. Hmmm could if be that Spren could exist on Sel as well , but the dor is dangerous to them too , like sel's cognitive realm is the magical equivalent of a nuclear wasteland from what I've read and so could it be that only the seons and skaze which reside completely in the physical realm survived ?? Also are Spren present on Ashyn ? Khriss says they are present on braize too but idk. I'm pretty sure braise is only inhabited by parshendi ghosts . And it's stated that Highstorms were phenomenon that existed before the Shattering , albeit in a less magical way . So could Spren have existed pre shattering as well ? Maybe they would all be non sentient and very less diverse and rarer but could they exist without Shardic investiture . If that's the case , then again why only Roshar or the greater Rosharan system as the case maybe ??? Also there's the ambiguity about ambition. Like we know she was splintered but don't know if her investiture was contained into the cognitive realm like the dor , but I guess it probably wasn't. So could Spren also exist somewhere in the threnodite system or the hypothetical planet where ambition went to die ?

So I finally got my copy of Skyward from the US today, and as per, I will always ask Brandon for some information about a shard we haven't seen yet, and he gave me the following info this year... I have two possible ideas with this, feel free to pick at them though! 1) Brandon is referencing Bavadin, and possibly suggesting that there are six separate entities or aspects to Autonomy 2) It's the eyes, nostrils and front fangs of a Dragon SPECULATE!

Lately I was thinking, what exactly would the effect of holding the Shard Ambition be on a person? Or if hypothetically the remnants of Ambition re-coalesced into a sentient, Vessel-less Shard? Because ambition is not something that can really exist in a vacuum, it’s a relational attribute. Ambition in the absence of anything to be ambitious about is effectively meaningless I think. So what exactly does the term mean in the context of the Shard? I would guess that if one were to hold Ambition in addition to another Shard, it would likely have a similar effect to a Blue Lantern Corps member being near a member of another Corps, namely it would act as an amplifier of whatever that Intent is and effectively make them even more fanatical about it (or at least I think that’s a plausible hypothesis), but what about if one was just holding Ambition? It seems like the landscape of possible ways that particular Shard could be channelled is effectively endless, depending on what its Vessel happened to be ambitious about.

I've been think about counterfactual shard combinations. How things might be if the story takes a different direction. Odium+Ambition seems like a really dangerous combination. They are not at cross purposes, so there is not the tendency towards inaction that Harmony experiences. Of all the known shards, it seems like this would be the one that would dilute Odium's intent the least. (So as an aside, maybe Rayse' disinclination to pick up other shards isn't just his own desire, but is also an expression of odium's antipathy of other shards.) Anyway, back to Odium+Ambition, I was trying to think of a single other shard that if added to these 2 would make the combination less malign towards the rest of the cosmere. Ruin: This would be a very, very bad addition. Preservation: I think that this is also a bad combination. You end up with a shard that hates changes and is highly motivated to make sure it never happens. This is a shard that probably concludes that life shouldn't exist. Dominion: This would be a bad addition. Devotion: Maybe a good addition. Devotion seems like the most diametrically opposed shard to odium, so it should temper the shard, and maybe lead it to inaction. Endowment: Maybe a good addition. This is also a somewhat opposed shard to odium, so it might temper the shard. Honor: Not a good addition. Honor is how you achieve your ends, but says nothing about what those ends are. Adding this shard just adds to the shard's power. Cultivation: Maybe a good addition. Takes the long view and encourages growth. What do you think?

Alrighty so this theory does not hold much water but I have not seen it anywhere else and I would like to spark discussion. So we know from a recent wob that Ambition’s Vessel was a Sho Del. I for one had always speculated this was the case as the name seemed atypical compared to most of the vessels who have been name dropped. That said it occurred to me, whilst I reminisced on my hunt for the Sho Del shard or shards, that perhaps Aona and Skai were Sho Del by no other reason than my warped perception of their names and the fact that Rayse wanted them out of the way along with Uli Da. So the theory is that Odium is hunting the Sho Del shards for reasons unknown. I’d love to hear your thoughts and criticisms!

I had posted this idea in another topic, but it had apparently necro’d so no one saw it, link below. It had gone into the nature of shades as cognitive entities. Could what makes the shades different from other cognitive entities be that they are partial avatars? I know we don’t know a lot about avatars yet, but it is assumed they have access to the shard’s shardpool, correct? When a shade kills someone therefore, it suffuses them not just with investiture, but the shardpool of Ambition, connecting with the dormant parts of Ambition already in the spiritweb of natives from Threnody. Death separates the physical body, but the cognitive entity is forced back into the physical realm with the same pressure of the dor from Sel, because the investiture is trying to find purchase in the physical realm. Cognitive entity loses its mind during the transition from cognitive to physical like spren from Roshar. If this is true, could shades be avatars missing their bodies?

Recently I received a comment on my Oathbringer Lore video that started me down this particular rabbit hole. “I don’t get why Odium doesn’t take the power of the shards he kills.” (VREODe) Initially, this seemed easy to answer. Odium already has a purpose and intent that goes so well in line with the Vessel’s own intent and incorporating other shards would only muddle that intent further. But as I thought about the implications I realized that there is something that I was overlooking about the nature of Odium and the potential union that we might have overlooked. The power and intent of Ambition. [Credit to Botanica Xu who created Grandpa Odium, please follow the link and follow her on Tumbler] First let’s review why Odium would willingly pass up the power of a shattered shard. Harmony is the perfect example of the danger combining shards poses. While Harmony likely wields the greatest collective power in the Cosmere at the moment, he is also the most severely limited. In his letter to Hoid he expresses the growing struggles he has in acting upon the greater Cosmere due to the need to maintain the balance between two opposing shards. This seems to restrict him far more than the single shards ever were. His immense power might destroy him if he is not careful. It's easy to see that such a conflicting nature would be incredibly unappealing to a shard like Odium. He obviously has plans and intent to destroy or at least subdue the other powers of the Cosmere for his own ends. Perhaps he is just paranoid that he will fall like Adonalsium and seeks to eliminate any potential threats who have the investiture or knowledge to destroy him. In fact, the nature of events on Scadrial, where mortals ascend and destroy an established shard, likely haunt his dreams. This would explain Odium’s apparent terror when Dalinar created a perpendicularity. At that moment Dalinar became a sliver of something Odium thought destroyed and he fled. It seems clear to me that Odium fears to lose his power, and that fear motivates his actions. But what does this have to do with the death of Ambition? Brandon has said that the moment the shards scattered across the stars, Odium was targeting Ambition. Likely he foresaw Ambition as the most likely to challenge his rule and thus needed to be eliminated. Ambition wasn’t the first shard to fall, but eventually, Odium took her out. There are scraps of power left behind from that encounter, so we know the fight was figuratively bloody. After the downfall and splintering of Dominion and Devotion Odium left quite a mess of their investiture and the effects of his decision to lock the investiture in the Cognitive Realm has resulted in some unintended consequences. Perhaps he has refined his ability to kill shards since then, and he had another opportunity with Ambition. It is likely then to assume that the shattering of Ambition was far cleaner, and perhaps it will be difficult to determine what exactly happened until the events of that fight are canonized. But as I answered this question some small thoughts that had been floating around in my mind came back to me. Core questions that I couldn’t shake off. How was Odium able to fight and kill two shards that were united? Would the power of Ambition resonate with a man like Rayse who already had so much natural ambition? Has it ever been stated officially that Odium is just one shard? Devotion and Dominion were likely pitted against each other allowing Odium to bring them down due to their opposing natures. But Honor and Cultivation are not so opposed. The nature of their relationship was likely complicated but it didn’t seem as openly hostel as other pairings thus far. It seems odd that another equal albeit aggressive shard could sweep in and kill Honor. In fact, it seems to me that Honor and Cultivation sought to trap Odium to prevent his future rampaging. So, what happened? How did one defeat two? I think Odium secretly holds more than his share of power. What reason does he have to abandon the power of a defeated shard that matches his own intent so well? In physics, there are some curious effects that we can observe in the nature of sound waves. If you have two sound waves that have the same amplitude but inverted phase (antiphase), they will cancel each other out leaving a strange silence behind. This is observably similar to the nature of Ruin and Preservation, two similar yet opposing forces that cancel each other out. However, if you have two wavelengths of equal strength that are in phase they amplify into one more powerful wave. This is likely a parallel that can be drawn between two different shards. If opposed they cancel each other out. If in phase they can amplify. Based on the observed Cosmere, I doubt that Odium completely took all of Ambition’s power, it seems there were large splinters left behind at least on one world. But I sincerely doubt Odium would leave behind the power that would only bolster his intent and nature. It would explain why he has become such a danger to the Cosmere that Hoid seeks to gather the other shards against him. Remember Odium destroyed Honor and seeks to destroy Cultivation so he can break free of the Rosharian system. The other shards might only be safe currently because Odium has been trapped on Roshar for so long. Naturally, there is little support for this theory, and I’m likely wrong about this. Perhaps Odium would be too paranoid of corrupting his own power base to incorporate even a portion of another shard. Yet there are some observations that I can make that imply that I might be right about this. For instance, it is interesting that on Threnody the fragment of ambition seems to create cognitive shadows of the deceased that can act of their own accord, something that seems prevalent in the forces of Odium and the fused. Is it hard to believe that the power to infuse the remains of the dead into service is a power that Odium acquired rather than developed? To me, it seems far too likely to be a coincidence and the temptation of Ambition’s power far too great to be ignored.

After the shattering, Odium splintered and killed the holders of (at least) three shards before arriving on Roshar. In the various timelines for the Cosmere I have seen constructed, Odium is always said to have splintered Devotion and Dominion on Sel first, and then mortally wounded Ambition in the Threnodite system before Ambition was fully splintered, almost certainly by Odium, elsewhere (see, e.g. here, for example). Is there any WOB or anything that substantiates this order, because, based on the system overviews in AU, I presumed Odium went after and splintered Ambition before he went to Sel. Concerning Ambition, the Thredodite System overview says: Concerning Devotion and Dominion, the Selish System overview says: The Selish System article, also suggests that there was a fairly substantial period of time that Devotion and Dominion were on Sel before being destroyed, at least in human terms. There is no such suggestion in in the Threnodite Sytem article, though the coppermind article on Ambition makes it sound as though this was the case, or at least that there had been significant enough investiture once on Threnody to suggest it, all albeit without citations backing it up. It sounds to me, all told, that Odium went after Ambition first, soon after the shattering, and then went to Sel after Devotion and Dominion had been there for a fairly significant amount of time, at least from a human perspective. I think this is reinforced by the fact that Odium didn't defeat and Splinter Ambition outright, and that she was able to run away first after being mortally wounded. This suggests to me that Odium was still just figuring out how to splinter and not just kill the holders of other shards. I think Mistborn Secret history also suggested that splintering other shards was something shards had to learn, and that Ruin hadn't learned it, which was what allowed Kelsier, then Vin, then Sazed to take up preservation. Is there a reason to believe Odium went to Sel before going after Ambition, rather than after? If so, can you please share it? Thanks

So this is theory is just completely out there and a wild guess without much evidence to go on. Basically I theorize that "What If Obrodai is the planet where Dark One takes place?". We don't know much about Dark One other than that it's cosmere and the main character is destined to destroy the world. Based on the evidence from the second letter Obrodai is a shardworld or at least has a splinter of a shard/shardic presence. Due to its correlation with a shard that makes it a candidate for future books and stories and I really don't have anymore evidence than that. It's mostly just intuition honestly, not really a true theory. Well let me know what you think, and if you have any counter arguments or other ideas to add.

So bear with me on this one. but it seems to me that with the little we do know about The Evil from Shadows for Silence would suggest that it (if indeed it is an it) is a splinter of the power that was thrown off during Ambition's fight with Odium. Now this comes from my thinking that if the evil is indeed a personification of some of the attributes of Odium and Ambition it is possible that it is an accidental creation of the conflict. What little we do know does tell us that lots of the fight took place in the Cognitive Realm (or maybe Spiritual Realm?) and so the ripples from the conflict seem to have "bled" through to the world of Threnody. This might be a wild card theory, but I think Ambition might have (in an ambitious way) tried to create a piece of herself to survive her fight with Odium. Perhaps that or a failed attempt to escape?

So I finished this shory story in the cosmere collection and I can't help but get this creepy vibe through the whole thing. Was Brandon intentionally trying to show us the aftermath of odiums shattering of ambition and what could possibly occur in some form on Roshar?

So is Ambition actually dead? I though AU stated so, but people's comments now have me confused. Some people are postulating that Ambition is still involved in Cosmere events.

So I have wondered for a while what "The Evil" on Threnody is that ravages the Homeland and first banished the people of that world to the so-called "Forests of Hell". Even in Arcanum Unbounded, Khriss (who seems to know a LOT about the Cosmere and the Shards) states that very little is known of it by anyone. But then, after reading the other things mentioned in Arcanum Unbounded related to Threnody, a theory formed in my head that seems completely logical to me but is very likely a RAFO kind of thing to ask. So here's the backstory: According to the essay written by Khriss/Sanderson in Arcanum Unbounded, Ambition inhabited the Threnodite System shortly after the Shattering, but was eventually found there by Odium, who was on his vendetta to become the most powerful being in the Cosmere. The two Shards clashed violently throughout the three Realms, and their epic battle resulted in the Splintering of Ambition and the death of its vessel. The entire system was affected by it, particularly on the planet Threnody, which has two main continents. The smaller one consists of the Forests of Hell, the normal people, and ghostly creatures called the "shades" while the larger one (the Homeland) is dominated by the Evil. The theory: As seen in the form of the shades, Cognitive Shadows of people exist on Threnody due to the way their world works. What I wonder is if people come back as shades after death, why not a Shard of Adonalsium itself as well? My theory, to put it plain and simple, is that the Evil is the Cognitive Shadow, or shade, of Ambition itself. A Cognitive Shadow made from an entire Shard is not unprecedented, mind you. Take the Stormfather on Roshar, for example. After Odium Splintered the Shard Honor and killed its vessel as he had done to Ambition (and others), an enormously powerful Cognitive Shadow formed out of Honor in the form of its spren, the Stormfather. I believe that the Evil on Threnody is the same thing in regard to Ambition as the Stormfather is to Honor: a really big, really dangerous Cognitive Shadow. After all, what do the shades do on Threnody? They attack those who break the Simple Rules, devouring their souls and dissolving their bodies. Who's to say that the Evil, as a Cognitive Shadow of Ambition, isn't just a shade like all the others? It was a person who died, and on Threnody, those come back as the shades. But seeing as this one was so powerful (a storming Shard of Adonalsium), then wouldn't that make it an immensely powerful and really huge shade that can consume an entire continent and feast upon the souls of men in multitudes (as as it is described doing in Arcanum Unbounded)? So there's my theory. The Evil is Ambition's shade. What do all of you think?

So I am rereading elantris for the first time in probably about 6 years, and I discovered an interesting sentence. I am not sure eif this has been mentioned before so I am sorry if this is old news. On page 41 when Hrathen is talking to Dilaf: He would be Hrathren's slave, if that slavery would carry him higher. It was a very Fjordell thing to do - ambition was the one emotion Jaddeth would accept as readily as devotion. This makes me think that perhaps devotion and ambition aremail connected in some way. Correct me if I am wrong but isn't the Ire worried about shades? This is all over the place and I apologize but I had to post to see if anyone else had caught that before.

Do other types of investiture suffer/benefit (depending on how you want to view it) from overuse of their powers similar to misting savants?