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Hey guys, don't know if this thread has already been done but i wanted to make a new Topic all about the Easter eggs in each of the Cosmere books. I've been doing a great reread of all the Cosmere books and thought it would be a good idea to have them easily accessible for everybody, So if you find a Easter Egg please feel free to post

It seems that all worlds share similarities of end positive, neutral, and negative or some other versions of them such as creating, transferring, and destroying. The most prominent example that comes to mind is Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy. However on Roshar and Sel there are examples of this too. On Sel the end negative is the Drakhor i.e. to transport themselves they kill one of their own, an example of end neutral is when at the very end one character uses motion in shapes to do things (I can't properly quote now), and end positive would be the Aons where very little is needed on the users part. On Roshar it can be broken down also with Honor being the positive/creating and Odium as negative/destroying. Personally, I think that the Nightwatcher is the end neutral with her boon and curse which supports her being a form of Cultivation. The difficulty is in Warbreaker but it still seems that end neutral is where you can put Breath into an object and retrieve it, end negative if you create a Lifeless because you can't retrieve the Breath back. I can't think of anything end positive for it. It may be that end positive is actually when you create a Lifeless since that's only 1 Breath and end negative if it's inanimate as that would be 1000. Also, I looked on the forums and it didn't seem like anyone made the comparison so if you see something please refer me to it.

"Shardpool is a non-canon termused to describe a liquid essence of Shard. It is characterized by a Shard's Cognitive aspect." - coppermind.net/wiki/shardpool From what I can tell, for every Shard, there seems to be a Shardpool. I don't think I've seen a list, however, of the "known" Shardpools. Here's a list of Shardpools and their locations from what I can theorize. Feel free to give your thoughts and/or additions. Nalthis (Warbreaker) Shard: Endowment Shardpool: Beneath Hallandren? (Something to do with the Tears of Edgli?) Scadrial (Mistborn) Shards: Ruin, Preservation, [Harmony] Shardpools: Ruin: Dark lake beneath the Pits of Hathsin || Preservation: The Well of Ascension || Harmony: N/A (Not one of the original Shards, and relatively new) Sel (Elantris, The Emperor's Soul) Shards: Devotion, Dominion Shardpools: Devotion: The Lake (The Pool) || Dominion: Swamps of Dzhamar Roshar (The Stormlight Archives) Shards: Honor, Cultivation Shardpools: Honor: Emerald Pools (Horneater Peaks) || Cultivation: The Purelake

(This thread is mainly for the discussion of the hint and trying to use it to figure out the Elantris worldhopping puzzle...) I was going to revive the Sel worldhopping topic http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/2515-sel-and-worldhopping/ , but since it was last posted in way back in January of 2013, I thought that perhaps it might not be wise... Sometimes necromatic powers don't work that well, I guess (or I need to learn the one-Breath command for Lifeless again)! --- So, a few days ago, Brandon revealed that apparently Raoden had misinterpreted one of the Aons. (source) On page two of this topic, Argent mentions that he thinks that it's related to the Aon Tia, and that Aon Tia doesn't need distance, only a destination. This is based on an old theory of his (one I've read, but, at the moment, can't remember where the link is), and might explain why this is such an important hint and will help us to better understand worldhopping...(and yes, worldhopping might be my major. I have three topics somewhat related to it!) I think that the Aon misinterpreted is either Aon Rao (kind of was the idea behind my one ill-thought out theory a few weeks back) or Aon Tia. Perhaps, even a combination of the two. I agree with Argent that it is probably Aon Tia, though, here are my reasons: 1. Aon Tia is one of the few Aons that Raoden really takes time to interpret/explain to the readers. This is first done in Chapter 25 (343-346) and later on when he travels to rescue Sarene. Both times, he added modifiers that specify location and the person himself. What Raoden says specific is this: The book he was getting this information (on the AonDor) only really gave him hints on what to do and how Aons (like Tia) worked. Now, if it is Tia, it might be just destination that is needed (as Argent suggests), but it might also be modification based. If it's modification based...we have to consider what modifiers Raoden thinks he needs. He thinks he needs one that specified that it only should work on him (which seems right) and distance specification. But, Aon Tia means travel, what would happen if one just drew Aon Tia without a specific destination (where would you go, it seems unlikely to be nowhere), or, if one added different modifiers that programmed Tia to bring one into the Cognitive Realm/Across the Cosmere a certain distance. Really, if one wanted to have fun with Tia, you could even use the distance modifiers to travel LIGHT YEARS, if you could just figure out the correct distance and some other things of the sort! If it is Aon Tia, the modifiers could be another Aon...such as Aon Rao or the Aon related to cognitive things, Aon Mea. However, what ever the specific modifiers would have to be for this to work is still unknown at best, if this is even the one Brandon was talking about... 2. It could also be Aon Rao. However, despite it's prevalence in the book (since Elantris and the surrounding landscape is AonDor), I feel that it's still unlikely. If you can think about it, Raoden doesn't understand it well or how it works though, so there is that, I guess... 3. It could also be the two Aons that are on the device they used to enter the area where the Pool is. However, it's Galladon who sees these Aons (Aon Rao, perhaps, and Aon Tae [352]). The later, Aon Tae, is the one they push to open the "secret" passage. Anyway, while this could be it and Raoden could've misinterpreted what Aon Tae really meant in this instance and what effect it could have on the pool (or even as a modifier of Aon Rao), I don't think this is the secret, and the only reason I even brought it up was because it was related to the Pool... Anyway, those are just some suggestions about what this WoB could mean... Since this was only a clue (and really, one that isn't that obvious...I think), but now, we can prove how good we are at figuring stuff out! I trust that now we can figure this out...perhaps in less than a month!

I just finished a reread of Elantris, and something caught my attention. Hrathen mentions how Jaddeth accepts devotion as much as ambition, and I started wondering if Dakhor monks actually access the Dor through Devotion as much as through Dominion. After all, those most devoted to Shu-Dereth gain the most power. Anyway, it got me thinking about the interpretations of Dominion-and how it possibly is relates to the "boundaries" of each version of Selish magic (as in you need to be in or from a "Domain" to get a particular system to work). This could be why Elantrian magic gets weaker the farther away from Arelon you get, the finishing symbol in Forging looks like MaiPon, and could even explain the Dakhor's ancient Fjordell symblos and the moves of ChayShan, all of which are supposed to be part of a single system. Are there any WoB's that state Dominion's Intent is to "Dominate others" or the like?

i was contemplating on how Brandon Sanderson said that magic systems on Sel, were a mixture of Devotion and Dominion. It occurred to me that Dominion's intent isn't to control or govern but talking about an area where certain lands or domains are subject to sovereignty or control. All of the magic systems on Sel, are focused on Devotion. Elantrians/AonDor, it is devotion to an ideal. Dakhor monks its about devotion to obedience and/or their country. Chayshan users devote time and energy, they devote themselves to it. Forgery takes a lot of devotion to master, Bloodsealing, i don't really know a lot about bloodsealing, but i'm guessing that it takes some devotion to something. The aspect where dominion comes into play is that each Magic system is based on its dominion or central area. AonDar gets weaker the farther from Elantris, i think i remember reading something that Forgery doesn't work as well the farther away you get from their spot. Bloodsealers powers don't seem to have a farther away you get weakness, but they also have to renew their seals everyday, and its more of a location that is "sealed" rather than everywhere. For Dakhor and Chayshan i really don't know how it would work, but i think that because the investiture of these systems is focused more on their bodies, Dakhor mutates their bodies and Chaysan focuses their bodies. I hope this makes sense its my first post and its kind of hard to put into words. Ceskykure

For the longest time, prior to stumbling upon this forum, I had a theory that Elantris and the Mistborn series were set on the same planet. The reason being, the mention of people on another continent that the main characters did not know about in Mistborn. I thought that these people were the people in Elantris, and furthermore, that the chasm that suddenly appeared and ruined everything in Elantris was caused by the Lord Ruler moving and reshaping the world. I now know this is wrong, but I still think that the two could be related. The way I see it, when the Lord Ruler was moving the planet itself around the solar system, this would have had effects on other planets, and if Scadrial and Sel are in the same solar system, then Sel could have been affected. By moving Scadrial past Sel, its gravitational pull could have affected the other planet, causing an earthquake, and therefore the creation of the chasm. It couldn't be caused by Sazed or Vin from when they held the power, because the Mistborn series takes place after Elantris, but the Lord Ruler would have effected the world one thousand years before, which could put it, chronologically, when the chasm was formed. We also know that Odium did not cause the chasm, and that it did not occur naturally. This might be easily disproved, however, if Sel and Scadrial aren't in the same solar system, but I haven't found anything to against this being a possibility. Thoughts?

Hi! I've been searching for a timeline without any further success, but then i thought, what if the worlds yearcounting differ from world to world like that of a year on Earth and a year on Saturn Is it possible that Brandon has made this so complicated that one year on ex. Scaldrial is more/less than a year on Sel ? if someone has some knowledge about this, please enlighten me

This quote, to me, must refer to the Shards. Honor's focus is on the sky when he says them. This is then accentuated by the fact he says that 'he' (Odium) is coming for him (Honor). So the first they is the Shards. I would assume then that the lights disappearing are Shards being shattered by Odium, before coming for Honor. However, we've only seen one shardworld where Shards have been shattered (Sel). I'd say one light would be from Sel. Though there were two shards shattered on Sel, I would have thought that the lights would be of shard worlds. Thoughts? Are there any WoB on this?

So I'm (almost) done on my Elantris re-read and I've noticed one or two things (which I'll probably add in later because I don't remember right away) but still: Aons and constellations. There's at least one incidence of people looking at the constellations, which themselves form Aons. Does anyone know if this is a case of people just arbitrarily defining star-groups (as we do on Earth) or if the constellations are clearly and un-arguable aons? If the latter, then why? After all, AonDor is specific to Arelon, and other magic-systems use their local region as a base symbol. Perhaps there are other constellations relating to MaiPon and Fjorden? It's unlikely that they would only be viewable from their respective regions, but perhaps people in those countries never made the connection? I know there's more I wanted to discuss, but I'll have to go over my Kindle clippings to refresh my memory.

Maybe more baseless speculation, than theory, since we don't have much evidence available here, but I've always wondered how Odium was responsible for the splintering of at least 3 shards. Honor, you can kind of understand, in that Odium spent a lot of time in the Rosharan system, and probably invested less of himself in the population than Honor did, or somehow got the better of Honor with the Oathpact. I guess we will find out in the Stormlight Archive. But Devotion and Dominion? He managed to splinter both of them, despite not being long on Sel (in relationship to his time in the Rosharan system, anyway). You would think Devotion and Dominion together could've beat Odium on their home turf. The most logical conclusion I can make is that Odium somehow was able to pit Devotion and Dominion against each other. They are not opposites in the manner of Ruin and Preservation, and may have some natural conflict, but I think that Odium (perhaps by his very nature, and/or by clever manipulation of world events) somehow amplified and/or set them against each other. Hoid's letter says that Aona and Skai are both dead, not that Odium killed them, which Hoid probably would've said outright, if it was true. Odium was responsible, but did not act directly against them (as he could not have overcome them directly, especially in so short a time on their homeground, given how long it took him to kill Honor). This could also have led to the split between Shu-Korath and Shu-Dereth. I realize that split occurred after the splintering, but the societal forces that Odium set in motion earlier could have made such a split inevitable, even far later in the timeline.

I had a quick scout of the forum, and couldn't find anything related to this, so I thought I'd give it a shot. For starters, all Forgery Shai performs includes something that appears like MaiPon (her homeland) as its basic form. This is in the same way that the Elantrians have the basic lines that make up their Arelon (their homeland) as the basic form of their work. So it is this basic symbology - the shape of their homeland - which I would be assuming all magic on Sel includes. Then there is this quote from Brandon and Viper from this thread. The first thing I would be suggesting from this is that the magic would regionally-drawn. What I mean by this is that it is drawn from a particular country - nation - according to the basic symbol used in the magic form (in the case of both AonDor and Forgery, drawn/stamped). This would mean that using Arelon as the base form instead of MaiPon would make the power for Forgery drawn in Arelon, meaning that the Forgery would be stronger in Arelon than using the base form of MaiPon. This got me thinking of why on earth the shape of a nation would be important to a magic system (a nation to me is a group of individuals living in an area of land) ie. Why would we draw Arelon, and not half of Arelon and half of the nation next to it? Or just half of Arelon - or my proof that this cannot be done - all of Arelon except the area where the scar is. Which really, I believe is the point. These base forms - the reason that it is important for it to be a nation rather than just an area of land - is due to peoples understanding of the invisible boundaries that make nations - the cognitive aspect of a nation as it were - what the nation believes it is, due to what the people of that nation believe it is. eg. The people of Arelon believe that their nation runs from here to here and includes Elantris, the scar etc. So that is what must be drawn - as a whole - to draw magic from that area. My reasoning behind it not just being having to use the base form of an area of land is due to the scar itself. If they just needed to include major landmarks from the area they were drawing the power from, excluding the scar would not have mattered - because the magic system would have just drawn it from all the land, exuding the area where the scar was - which is where the cognitive identity of the land as a nation comes into play. That probably wasn't very well worded, but to me makes sense. What do people think?

I was reading the Derethil thread when I finally realized how much "Derethil" looks like "Dereth" and decided to connect some impossible dots. Urithiru is in the West some people think Urithiru is in Shadesmar Roshar suffers a lot of physical effects from shard interference. So what if there's a physical way to enter Shadesmar west of the Roshar supercontinent? What if this is where Derethil sailed, and somehow found himself on Sel, sitting right on the X in Aon Mea (thoughtfulness, no less). Two physical entry points to Shadesmar. Two planets with dead gods. Sel becomes all the more realmatically aware because of his talks with a little guy named Keshu. Naturally, Hoid would've been their milkman or something. Shoot, he could've been Korath. Regardless, he'd know the tale. Can anyone pick anything useful out of this wild conjecture?

While getting my books signed by Brandon today at Phoenix Comicon, he asked me if I had any questions for him. I, of course, had a notepad of carefully worded questions for him to answer but they were buried deep in my bag. Rather than fumble around like a fool, I blurted the two questions that I could remember off the top of my head. Me: Did Seons exist before Odium visited Sel? Sanderson: (Mind you, he actually stopped signing my book mid-autograph when I asked him this) Wow! That's an awesome question! No! No they did not! Me: So, as a follow up question, are Splinters, then, fragments of killed Shards (I was trying to ask an underlying question here on whether or not Odium had visited Nalthis)? Sanderson: Yes and no. Most of them, but not all of them. Not necessarily. I SWEAR I had more questions to ask based around some theories I have. I had a list. Hidden. Deep in my bag. I looked at it and came across two in particular that I have been DYING to ask him. Based on other information, I believe we may have seen or been near Endowment's Shardpool on Nalthis and was going to ask him about that. My other question revolved around whether Vin got spooked by Hoid was due to the fact that Hoid was one of the guards earlier in the chapter complaining about the cold and--since her senses are heightened from tin--if she picked up on that guard's voice and recognized it when Hoid was humming. On a subconscious level. Who knows though? Anyway, I think the first question really helps out some!

Two theories in one night? Why not? This theory has to do with Identity, particularly as it ties in to region-specific magics. It uses some of the same quotes as my other theory regarding this topic, and relies on the same basic principle, but hopefully won't be nearly as long-winded. To start with, let me toss you a couple quotes. First we have this one: And then, this one (emphasis mine): Now, these two things tell us a lot about Identity and regional magic: namely, if I'm reading and interpreting these quotes correctly, that they are very much interdependent. I talk at length about that in my other theory, so for the sake of brevity I'll just say here that I believe this to be the case, and that the rest of this theory builds on that belief. So, we have on our hands a magic - or set of magics, depending on your perspective - that very strongly depends on Identity. What else do we know about Identity? That it's a Feruchemical attribute, of course! Now, we've debated on this forum about the use of Feruchemical Identity before, but the discussions that I was a part of at least focused primarily on its use on Scadrial specifically. But wait, you ask, who else was just confirmed to have Feruchemy? Oh yes, that's right. None other than Hoid himself. Now things are getting interesting. Suddenly we've gone from exploring the use of Identity solely on Scadrial, to applying its potential benefits to a known worldhopper with significant knowledge of the Cosmere and the worlds he visits. Dangerous indeed. Now, the canon is very clear that there isn't much in-world knowledge about Feruchemical Identity yet, or if there is, it's a closely guarded secret. So we don't have much to go off of here. But given the quotes pasted above, I'm comfortable proposing that Feruchemy could theoretically be used to swap out regional magics at will. I imagine that the process would go something like this: Store as much of your own "default" Identity as you possibly can. Rewrite yourself a new Identity as part of the region whose magic you want to use. (If my other theory holds true, this could potentially be done by having a skilled Forger rewrite your cultural Identity; other suggestions are also welcome) If you want to create ways to access more magics, repeat the process. Of course, this requires a lot of effort, and being able to Compound would make this process much more efficient, but my theory has less to do with how practical it is and more to do with the implications this would have on our understanding of Realmatics and Identity if it proves to be true. Also, Hoid also has lerasium. Just saying.

So let's talk about region-locking of magic on Sel and why Shai can get away with Forging outside of her native region. Background: We know that access the the Dor is "very regionally influenced." We know that Aonics are the only ones taken by the Shaod, but we also know that that is regional more so than any racial restriction, since the Aonics themselves migrated to Elantris. As an aside, I would hazard that the Shaod itself is a consequence of Elantris the city (which was there before the Aonics): Elantris both powers Elantrians and causes them to be taken by the Shaod in the first place. And now I go into crazyland. Crazyland: I hereby propose that the drawing of any "regional" symbol in a magic system is first and foremost a way to get around "region locking" for accessing the Dor. Therefore, Shai draws MaiPon as a "setting mark" on her soulstamp as way to bypass the normal restriction that the Dor can only be accessed for Forgery while in MaiPon. This indicates that Forgery can theoretically be done within Maipon without any need for a setting mark. I would then suggest that all of the "region locked" magic system on Sel work this same way: they function perfectly fine within their home regions, but require the incorporation of some representation of that home region if they are to be used outside of it. Like using a proxy-server to watch Doctor Who without living in Britain. So Dahkor monks have some representation of Fjorden engraved in their skin and ChayShan incorporates the region of Jindo into its movements. Why Elantris (hopefully) Doesn't Totally Disprove This: Things are complicated because Elantrians, essentially, have gamed the system to the maximum extent possible. My theory would simply be pure speculation without some non-Elantrian Selian magic system to study in detail, which TES has given us. I suggest that the original builders of Elantris, be it Devotion or some now-gone people, built Elantris as a way to channel all of the "Dor access" of the entirety to Arelon into one location, and so strengthen that access. In a pre-Elantris Arelon, then, the drawing of Aons would be much more like Forging, and could be done by anyone, although perhaps not out of thin air. Elantris, then, channels all of the power-access of Arelon into a concentrated source and, moreover, chooses only a few individuals to be able to wield that power, further concentrating it. Another leap I'll make is that Elantris also intentionally limits the "reach" of AonDor as a further means of concentrating its power. So Aons no longer represent Arelon, as far as the magic system is concerned, but instead represent Elantris itself, which in turn represents Arelon. Therefor, the reason why Elantrians are become weaker when they go farther away from Elantris is because they are no longer just accessing an entire land (as normal Selian magic systems do), they instead are forced to go through a single conduit which may or may not have restrictions on sending its power far abroad. If Elantris did not exist, then anyone could use AonDor anywhere, just with much-reduced effects. The weaksauce healing that Raoden did while under the Reod might actually be something like the default power level of AonDor (though perhaps weakend by the city siphoning and squandering a large amount of its power). Raoden's complicated, specific Aons worked okay, but a complete Elantris allows the crude, simple stuff to have so much power that they work as well. Without Elantris, then, anyone would be able to use AonDor within Arelon without any need to draw the country itself, and anyone outside of Arelon would be able to use AonDor as long as they incorporated Arelon (Aon Aon) into their Aons. Alternatively, it could just be a "distance=>less power" thing, but I think not, given the Dahkor's strength. So, my first not-obvious theory from the new book. Have fun being mean to it. EDIT: Nevermind! So the truth is, apparently, exactly the opposite of what I say here. Assuming "interesting" means "yes," drawing Arelon as the base for a Forgery would allow it to work in Elantris, while keeping MaiPon as the base would make it stop working. Power-loss is all about distance from the source-country. Source.