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It's said that shardblades are modelled after honourblades however it seems that shardblades are just what happens when a cognitive shadow (spren) manifest fully in the physical realm. It is the same material as in Honorblades. Investiture made manifest. So that being true it seems less that the bond is modelled after the herald honor bond and more that it was just inspired. So if that's the case then why is it that shardblades form as swords.

So shardblades and Honorblades are essentially investiture manifesting as a solid in the physical realm. So assuming that they are both of honor then what is the difference between the actual metal of honorblades and shardblades. Is it the fact that the sprens investiture had a different intent.

So when the shards were taken up by the vessels, did they know which shard they took up? Did Ati know he had chosen Ruin? Did Uli-da choose to take up ambition or was it random?

In Oathbringer, we get numerous instances of Odium and the unmade influencing people to either give in to passion or give up responsibility. According to this WoB, we know that Odium is not the name that Rayse would have chosen for his shard, and would have instead preferred Passion. This implies that the shards don't get to choose their own names. This is somewhat backed up by this WoB, which suggests that Sazed did get to choose what he called himself, but that the Intent of the new shard influenced the decision. Taking the example of Odium specifically, he seems to expend a not-insignificant amount of effort on trying to convince people that he's not what the name Odium would imply (God's divine hatred without the virtues to give it context) but instead the more neutral-if-still-dangerous Passion. There is the obvious reasoning for trying to make this distinction, that convincing people to follow or work for someone whose name is only a short step away from "I am evil" but it seems to be mostly the case that Odium just prefers the association with Passion. The characters' knowledge of the name Odium comes primarily from Honor himself and from Honor's cognitive shadow, but some of the fused refer to him by that name as well, and he uses it himself. The fact that a godlike entity can't simply change his name and call himself whatever he wants would indicate that he's stuck with the name Odium by some mechanism. So we know that the name Odium is not derived from the Intent of the shard, because if that were the case then after so much time Odium would not still be trying to be Passion, and we also know that for some reason the name Odium is indelible. That begs the question of who named the original shards (let's be honest, it's probably Hoid), and what form of power prevents the shards from changing their names to match their Intent or their perception of it? Is it as simple as Hoid passing out name cards at the Shattering? Why would Rayse and his closest agents use the name given to him by his enemies if he prefers a different one?

Not sure if this is just me or my computer... But does the 17th Shard logo look a little bit off to anyone else??? Am I going crazy here cause I could swear something looks wrong!

Hi! I am pretty new to the Cosmere, but I think that I have read all of the published works, and I have been listening to the Shardcast (which is great). I have heard the hosts mention several times that we know Vessels can abdicate. I am guessing the this is from a WoB, but I haven’t been able to find the source. Can anyone direct me to where this information originated?

Ok so new to the forums and not sure if this has been covered or not, Spoilers for Secret History Stormlight and Mistborn. So after reading secret history I found one line that makes me think Laras was not a great dude back on Yolen. Now i know that each of the 16 got shards, we do not know if they picked shards or was random or whatever. But we do know that Ati was a good guy before he became Ruin and Ryse was a dick before Odium. Now when Laras was at the well of Ascension and Kelsier was trying to get him to kill Elend. Laras pulls out a dagger and says "Hello old friend". Is it just me or does that kinda sound like something a Serial Killer or Murderer would say to their weapon? If it was a sword or axe I'd be inclined to think Laras was kinda like a kelsier antihero and just grew attached to his weapon. And I like the idea that Laras either chose Preservation because of some kind of weird obsession or was given it because he tended to destroy things or even better a regretful killer who now only wants to preserve life instead of destroying it. Thoughts?

I know that I'm fixating on this sort of topic - what would happen if you were to create a hemalurgic spike out of a shard (the material that makes up shardblade/plate in the SA)? Assuming everything else works, even with the investiture and intent and whatever else I'm missing.

I think I have a theory as to how shards work. I'm sure this has been spoken about, but I don't know where. Shards, blades specifically, are solid stormlight/investiture. Spren can become shardblades, and the common theory as to shardplate is that spren form it, like by Kaladin, windspren by the hundreds surrounded him. Spren are bits of stormlight/investiture given sentience. Therefore, Shards are stormlight. They could cut, I suppose, by separating the sould of the object, but I think Brandon mentioned it in one of the the books. Shardblades can be summoned because of the sentience. It would explain why shardplate cannot be summoned and dismissed - there is no sentience. Because that's the only difference between the two. In theory, then, if one could find a way to make stormlight solid, one could make virtually indestructable objects.

What would happen if a mistborn burnt shard-material? iron that was messed with by a forger and turned into steel?

Would it be possible for multiple gems to be put on a shardblade, then have multiple people bond the same shardblade?

What is the worst possible match of a vessel and shard that you could think of assuming that the person connects with the shard no problem and takes it up ? Like worst in a sense that it causes the most weirdness, chaos and just absolute despair for people. Only from the existing pool of characters in Cosmere. I'll mention the most obvious of them all. Kelsier(before meeting Vin) as Ambition.

Could the 16 shards of Adonalsium be put back together somehow? I know it is not likley but I thought that it might be worth looking into.

(Some Spoilers from Stormlight Archive and Mistborn ahead) I'll start off by saying that the entity comprised of the unity of Rayse and the Shard he holds can best be described as Odium. However, the actual nature of the Shard itself isn't. I believe it would be best to describe it instead as Passion. I have been thinking for a long time that Odium seemed an odd intent for a piece of God. It never made sense to me. Then we get to see Sazed as Harmony and I realized the intention of the being could be different based on who the holder is. For inatance, if the Lord Ruled had obtained Preservation and Ruin, he would likely have been a far more strict balance of intentions whereas Sazed is a balance promoting growth, leaning more toward Preservation. The next hint we had before we even see Odium's name printed in WoK. Vorinism preaches the "Passions" as the source of sin. This coupled with Vorinism being the result of casting aside Odium and taking up Honor as their Almighty serves as an extra piece of evidence to me. My last clue was the Unmade. Most likely Slivers of Odium, they should directly portray aspects of the Shard. However, instead of being entirely hate filled beings as you would expect of Odium's strongest servants, you instead see beings representing different passions. Because they don't represent Odium, they represent the Shared Rayse holds, Passion. *edit* I should have clarified this in my initial posting, this is not a fully fledged theory. It's an idea that's been rumbling around in my head that I would love input on.

I've been thinking that Moash and Kaladin are maybe a bit like opposites; they were in a similar situation -- being in the bridge crews after tragedy befalling them or their families -- and Moash clings to revenge and he has that singular focus, while Kaladin turns away from revenge and arrives at the realization "I will protect even those I hate." (Speaking of which; isn't that such a totally mind-blowing statement?? I don't know if I could do that.) It seemed to me like they arrived at a similar crossroads and took opposite paths. Turning aside from selfish concerns to selfless ones. Thoughts?

***Spoilers for the Mistborn series, Words of Radiance, Wax and Wayne series, and Mistborn: Secret History.*** So my friend and I (who host a nerd podcast and talk about Branderson's work about once a month) have talked for a while about this theory: Kelsier is the missing shard. He is the shard Survival/ Immortatlity/ Endlessness or whatever Sanderson is going to call that aspect of god. When Adonalsium was shattered, Survival tore memories of him from the other shards AND FROM HIMSELF, then he hid himself on another invested planet to hide his powers should they manifest. He chose to hide with Preservation and Ruin because he knew they would be in conflict, and that would help hide him. Kelsier's survival is too continual. Life on the streets. Fighting the inquisitor. Literal DEATH at The Lord Ruler's hands (pun pun pun). The Well of Ascension. His final appearance at the end of The Bands of Mourning. PLUS: "There's always another secret." I mean COME ON. Sanderson loves to use the narration trope of "The Unreliable Narrator" (see Writing Excuses episode 13.45) or just look at EVERY TIME HE USED A CHARACTERS THOUGHTS OR WORDS TO CONVINCE YOU OF AN UNTRUTH. MY favorite example is Shallan Davar thinking [paraphrase] "They must have dragged Jasnah's body up onto the deck." I think most of us bought that as truth and were shocked when Jasnah appeared at the end of the book. Anyway, what do you think? is Survival/ immortality a shard? is that shard kelsier? is that Brandon's deepest secret? HIT ME WITH YOU FACTS AND THEORIES.

So I am in the camp that Odium is not Passion and is hatred or some related term. Assuming that is true I think that based on the known shards a logical choice for one of the unknown shards is Love or Kindness. I don't think any of the other shards can encompass these ideals. These seem like traits that would be a part of a larger being. Opinions? I feel like Love is the stronger option but likely under a different name.

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.

In the old, pre-Lord Ruler religion centered on him he was supposed to be the god of night, right? And his showy brother was god of the day. But his followers loved his humble ways more than those of his brash brother. Trell works quitely. Whereas Ruin and Preservation had a full-blown war in full view of everyone, Trell moves quietly in the background. His (ostensible) followers in The Set do too. It may be that in Warbreaker the god Austre is actually Trell. Austre seems to have very little connection to Endowment, and Austre teaches his followers to share Trell's quiet, self-effacing ways. So Trell is the shard Modesty (that is, opposite of ostentatiousness). Do you agree?

So my little pet theory I have, or at least hope will be the case, is that Dalinar will eventually take up the Shard once held by Honour. Honour is dead yes, but when a Shard dies their power doesn't just disappear (unless that is what Odium did to Honour but I doubt that as honours power is still available to those on Roshar = stormlight), and so presumably someone could still accept the power of Honour. As Dalinar and the Stormfather are doing some whack things, I imagine that there is something special going on. I don't think Dalinar will become Honour but instead Unity, as he is doing more than even the Bondsmiths of old were capable, according to the Stormfather, and his face-off with Odium in OB is full of Unity stuff. Anyway, I welcome your thoughts.

I didn't really find this as a topic but I'm sure it's come up before. What are people's theories on the other shards that have yet to be identified. Every time I think about the possibilities get excited, but at the same time there are so many options speculations gets difficult. Do you think that there is always a complimentary nature to the shards. Ruin vs Preservation, Dominion v Devotion etc. What are your shard theories??? Some shards I think about possibly existing are Wisdom Creation(not sure about this but it would be cool) might go along with Ingenuity like Brandon suggested Love(if Odium or hatred is one then it seems logical that this could be one as well but maybe a different name) Apathy

What do you guys think about the identity of one of the remaining six Shards being 'Apathy' or 'Indifference'? The way I see it, it would at least make thematic sense for there to be one of that Intent, since we already have ones for both extreme ends of the passion spectrum - love (Devotion) and hatred (Odium) - and Apathy would be in the middle of that spectrum, much as Preservation (stasis) was in between Ruin (net regression/decay/disorder) and Cultivation (net progression/growth/refinement) in the 'change' spectrum, that and I think it has a nice ring to it as a Shard name. The only real issue I have with it is what kind of role a Shard whose reaction to anything is 'meh, who cares?' could really have in the Cosmere. So it seems to me that there should be a Shard with the intent of Apathy or at least something similar to it, but I don't know whether it would be good for the overall Cosmere story for Brandon to make that one of the remaining six. Anyone have any thoughts?

So bear with me here it's my first post on this site, I was thinking of possible shard intents and the idea of regret came to me, I've no evidence or WOB to back this up I just like the idea and think it could make for a very interesting magic system

I was just wondering, would it be possible to trap a full Shard in a gem the way you can trap Spren and Splinters? Obviously this is purely academic, since I think it’s probably safe to say that even if it is possible it would probably require a perfect gemstone the size of a mountain or larger, but would it at least be possible in principle? Or are Shards sufficiently different from Spren and Splinters to make it impossible? Are there any WOBs relevant to this?