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So I've been mulling this theory over for a few days now and decided to post it to get some feedback. After rereading BoM, I think I've talked myself into Leras and Ati being gay lovers on Yolen (and pre-contract breaking on Scadrial). I first thought of the idea when the Allik mentioned that that Southern Scadrians believed that Ruin and Preservation were married. Now that in an of itself doesn't say much; they could very easily be just plain wrong. However, the more spitballing I did, the more it made sense: · Despite going against both of their Shardic intents, Leras and Ati created life out of nothing, literally combining pieces of themselves to create a new human. They are the only ones to create their planet wholesale. Doesn’t this fit with the idea of a gay couple, who could never have biological children of their own, finally being given the ability to create life themselves, literally mixing parts across all three realms of each person? It also appears as if Leras still cares about Ati, despite the war between them. Leras frequently appears at Ruin's prison, and not merely to speak to Kelsier. The first time he comes, he doesn't even acknowledge Kelsier, just stares into the Well and paces back and forth. Indeed, Leras describes his betrayal of Ruin as death; I always assumed that referred to how he knew he was weaker than Ruin now (and it could still mean that to an extent) but it could also refer to the literal betrayal of the person you love the most, a death of the soul, so to speak. Finally, and probably weakest, we have only seen three planets with multiple Shards: Scadrial, Roshar, and Sel. On Roshar, we have a confirmation of the two shards being lovers. On Sel, it's more tenuous but I believe they were lovers as well. IIRC, there was a recent WoB where he said that Odium splintered D+D early because he was more worried about them than all but Ambition. Why would he be most worried about two people with opposite Shards; we saw how that would play out with L+A. He could have simply left them alone and they would have inevitably attacked each other eventually. There had to be something that united them enough to make him think they wouldn't attack each other: love. Also, when asked about the relationship between Aona and Skai in February of last year, he gave a RAFO as opposed to a denial. So we have three dishardic planets, one of which is confirmed to have lovers, one of which it makes sense that the two were lovers, and Scadrial, where the two people literally created life by mixing their essences, their cosmeric DNA, so to speak. · What if Leras and Ati were married in their Yolen days and wanted to stay together after the Shattering? They created a home and children and lived well together for awhile. However, the Shards began to change them drastically and separate them. As Hoid says, “Ati was once a kind and generous man.” Ati descended into Ruin until Leras felt he had to betray his lover in order to protect their children. That leads us to the Well and Rashek and Vin releasing him, etc. etc.

Hi guys, i've got two theories (not mutually exclusive) for why Odium can Splinter other Shards. 1.Odium is more powerful than the other Shards. While i've constantly seen references to Adonalsium shattering into sixteen pieces, i don't think i've ever heard mention ofthose pieces being equal in size. Maybe when the Vessels were taking the power Rayse took a bigger chunk of Mr A's corpse. This would enable him to overpower other Shards and kill them whilst still having enough power to survive. 2.Odium's Intent causes the Splintering Odium means extreme hatred and dislike, and also the state of being hated. Hate also causes people to turn away from one another, to divide. What if this applies on a Shardic level as well? What if Odium can infect a Shard with hatred? Self hatred to be exact. Similar to a virus turning a body's immune system against itself, what if it does the same to the Shard, which causes it to fracture and essentially self-splinter. It would also make sense why we haven't seen other Shards do this. For example, Dominion and Devotion, while seemingly different are in the end both about unity. They couldn't Splinter others even if they tried. The same goes for Preservation, Honor and probably Cultivation. This gives Odium a major advantage. Ruin may be able to do it but remember that he was imprisoned by Preservation for millenia and couldn't find enough opportunity to practise. Also, while Rayse was a nasty fellow even before becoming Odium and thus naturally inclined to find a way to kill the others, Ati was supposedly a pretty nice guy. It wouldn't be in his nature to practise this. That's it guys, could be on to something or it could be a load of crem Thanks anyway, interested to hear what you think.

I have been meaning to write this for a while, but recent threads made me decide to make time for this. I will try to be brief on a deep topic. Many readers misunderstand what is meant by the Intents of the Shards. Specifically, they misunderstand what an Intent is without the context of having other Intents with it. An isolated Intent can be very unpredictable and even seem to work against itself. I will give some examples, but will leave you to extrapolate and contemplate what the means for all the other Intents. Ruin's Intent has also been described by himself as progression, change, aging, entropy, and nesessary for anything to evolve. But without Cultivation, entropy is stronger than progression. Without Preservation, passing forms that are desirable do not remain, so even good changes are passing and only statistically useful. Without Honor, the changes will never be tied to an agreement or morals, so they cannot be counted on. Without Autonomy, Ruin becomes dependent on controlling others to achieve its ends. Etc. Cultivation may indeed be controlled growth, but no Ruin means seasons and withering of your project does not happen. Do you care about the feelings of your creations without the intent of Love? How do you keep your creations without Preservation? Honor without Love, Autonomy, Forgiveness, and Preservation is hard to imagine. The list goes on. A single intent ( like Odium, or divine hatred), without its opposite or other binding Intents is a radical to even itself. I think more pondering on an untempered Intent would give us a better idea of what to expect, and might keep us from simplifying our judgments to a Good Shard and an Evil Shard.

Hello everyone, new guy here with plenty of questions!!! I was perusing the forums when something struck me. A Shard's Intent limits what they are capable of. For example Ruin can't create things, and Preservation can't destroy. But, what if it makes them better at what they can do? When comparing Ruin to, say, Dominion or Odium, is Ruin the same at destroying stuff as them, or is he better because of his Intent? Also, if a Shard came along with no Intent, would it be capable of doing everything the other Shards can do, such as create and destroy, dominate and be autonomous? Thanks in advance.

So I've been wondering why the people of Roshar call Shardblades and plate it the way they do? The speak of having "shards", but I haven't found out why they do this. Who named them like this, and was this person aware of the Shards of Adonalsium? If the language from when the Knights Radiant is no longer around, then a word like Shardblade wouldn't be the same either. So it has to be a more modern word. Is it just a coincidence or is there an actual meaning to it related to the Shards, and if so, how?

So first off, lets talk about the chosen of the shards. I do not mean just people who can use in vesture, because the shards don't always consciously choose them. I'm talking about the next level of magic users... And so far, that consists of the Returned(Warbreaker) and the Heralds(StormLight). we know these guys were conscious decisions because Honor refers to them as "My heralds" and Lightsong remembers Endowment giving him life. So the question remains... What exactly are the Heralds and Returned? How do they differ from other magic Users?

Does Sazed (Harmony) have a weaker 'power set' compared to Leras and Atium? He obtained the power after Leras and Ati passed. Technically, he doesn't hold the complete power of the Shards since all/most of the Atium/Lerasium was burned away by Humans in Scadria. What does this mean for Sazed as a god? What implications do you see for the future of the series? It seems like the power of the Shards is slowly deteriorated across each planet... I have read The Stormlight Archives, Mistborn Era 1 and am now starting the Shadows of Self. Also, am I right to assume that Ati's/Ruin's complete power would have given him the power to see the future? If so, what would have been Leras'/Preservation's? Vin was able to 'remember' how Preservation's power was used in the past by Rashek... Lerasium is able to give the power of Allomancy to humans but Vin was able to use all metals to kill the Inquisitors once she took upon herself the mists...

I've seen a lot of people saying that Honor was shattered after the Recreance, but is there any evidence for this besides that Dalinar sees it in one of the visions?

So I was thinking, and I decided to put to this community two questions: 1. What would it be called when all the Shards have been gathered? I mean, it's no longer a shard! What is it? And 2. If you were a shard, what shard would you be? To build on that, what would your world be like? What magic system or systems would you have? the one rule for the second question is that you can't copy Brandon's work. You can be cultivation or honor, but you can't be on Roshar. Personally, I'd be the shard of cultivation, though my interpretation is causing growth in others. My world would be water-based with small islands in archipelagos all over the planet. The magic would involve diving into the ocean to retrieve pearls that grant you two abilities. One is either pyro-kineses or hydro-kineses, the other is always the dormant ability to enhance other people's powers. Every once in a while, a child will be born with a pearl, and the color of the pearl determines the abilities he/she has.what about you guys?

I have been particularly interested in the alternate ending to Well of Ascension for quite some time. In the explanation for why he changed it, Brandon explicitly mentions that there are hints of Shards. In the original ending (which I should stress is non-canon), the Well is in the mountains and Sazed is attacked by Marsh at the Conventical of Seran, before he can read the plate. The key scene happens just before Marsh kills Sazed with his own Coppermind: I have long thought that this was the aforementioned hint. Now, previously I had asked Brandon if we had seen these other mist spirits, with the implication that they were Shards. He was a bit non-committal the first time. This time I was more direct. He confirmed that those spirits were three other Shards, and I asked him to put the name of one of them into my book. He hesitated until I pointed out that it wasn't canon anymore. So, in this alternate ending, Endowment was there* to stop Marsh from killing Sazed. The asterisk is from Brandon, which I take to mean both that it is not canon and that there is some weirdness. This raises all sorts of interesting questions. Did those three Shards arrive because they had particularly good foresight? Who else was there? Did they actually travel all the way across the galaxy, or did they somehow project themselves? How often do the Shards actually intercede in cosmere-scale events on other planets? In retrospect, it makes sense that Endowment has very good foresight. She specifically sends Returned back with a purpose, even if they don't see why until it is right upon them. I also would suspect that Cultivation was there, which makes me wonder if Odium killed Honor when she left (in this alternate universe).

The Taldain essay reveals some pretty interesting information about Bavadin and Autonomy, even beyond the specifics of sand mastery and the solar system. First, the way Khriss describes Bavadin makes me think that she has a lot of control over her Shard. It appears she made a conscious decision to prevent travel to/from Taldain after Khriss and Baon left, and Khriss seemed to imply it wasn't impossible that she might restore the perpedicularity. Second, Autonomy interfering with other planets despite the contradiction with her isolationist policy seems to fit nicely into an old theory of mine, which was that Odium recruited her to take down Sazed. These two taken together raise several interesting questions. Are Rayse and Bavadin related/involved together? What was their role in splintering Adonalsium? Do they share any of the same goals and plans?

So I was just looking at the Google excerpt from Arcanum Unbounded's section on Scadrial, and I noticed this from Khris's description of the system: "...the Shards undoubtedly used humans from Yolen as a model (indeed, both of the Vessels for these Shards were human before their Ascensions) in creating life." Mostly this isn't anything new, but the way it's worded makes me think that some of the original Vessels weren't human, or at least that some of the current ones aren't. Any thoughts on the implications of that? Has anyone heard or seen any theories about the possibility of non-human Vessels?

Seriously. As I look through some of the Ars Arcanum for each book, I have trouble comprehending certain concepts, such as the use for Aluminum holding identity. What sort of uses to the more minuscule abilities in the Cosmere have?

so i've always been curious about this in the mistborn novels it is a theme that "metal is power " and this applies to both shards residing in scadrial but this doesnt seem to be true for any of the other shards (you could say that Honor's shardplates and blades are "metal" but i think that it's a stretch) If it was only one i would had assumed that it is only normal , diferent aspects of god draw their powers fron diferent sources, but both ? (it could be becouse they are opposites but then that would require more of the shards to be paired) i understand that writing with a goal of unifying stories is hard and that propably some books were published before the idea of the cosmere developed into a plan Do you have any theories for why that happens ? also sidequestion: why is it that Leras said that he couldnt create a world alone ,even though many other shards created worlds on there own ?

Ok, so I was just reading about Silence Divine and read this post with a WoB and he mentions that if there was Shard with Talents it would be Betrayal. Do you think that is another shard that we haven't heard of yet or do you think he is just making something up to go along with Alcatraz series? It sounds like it kind of goes along with the Shards we know. Does anyone else have any additional hints to other possible Shards?

I recently completed a re-read through Mistborn:Secret history. During the re-read, I noticed a vague reference to a potential 11th shard. Initially, due to my copy being an eBook, I assumed was a typo in the formatting of the book. Obviously if you haven't read the book by now this could give away something minor in the terms of plot. It has occured to me since that this is a reference to another possible shard. The theory behind this is that the names of shards is always capitalized wherever they appear in cosmere novels.

I've been intrigued by this WoB for a very long time. I had two theories but i kinda gets crushed with some thoughts as well. Theory #1 : Sazed didn't actually reclaim the rest of Ruin and left the Atium so that both Shards are balanced. Problem with this theory is that its clearly stated(WoB) that Marsh has the last set of Atium. And we would've heard about the Atium after his ascension but we didn't(or he just hid it really well). Theory #2 : Sazed using that extra chunk of Ruin's power outside of Scadrial. We know shards can poke around things and stuff (we know that Sazed has some knowledge over This post has been reported for attempting to skirt the rules is going on in Roshar(WoB) since it happened after his ascension ) and that a Shard could possibly influence outside his domain(Mr. Sanderson prolly just meant that through his agents not actually from his touch ) Theory #3: Could also count as theory 2 but to be more specific Sazed is using that part of Ruin's power to test out doing Hemalurgic testing on other cosmere planets. We know this is happening(WoB). I mean he's trying to learn about the Cosmere and he must be spiking people or trying to to infiltrate better and stuff. Theory #4 : It could also be that in a WoB it is mentioned that Sazed is not the seventeenth shard(the one where demoux and those dudes who are chasing) BUT whether he's a member of the organization is another question. Thoughts ? : )

SPOILER ALL COSMERE related possibly Shards are considered as "gods" and most powerful thing in the cosmere as of the moment but out of all the shards that have been revealed through the cosmere novels Mistborn, Stormlight Archives, Elantris, Warbreaker, White Sand, even WoB's and whatever form of story that i missed that Mr. Sanderson produced that is cosmere related. So out of the limited information and exposure we had with the shards who did you find most interesting whether it'd be due to the intent, the vessel behind it, the shardworld he/she/it resides or interaction with the other shards, even the ire from Hoid counts too and/or just the things that shard has done so far ? Also some questions i'm curious about Do you guys think Odium has a big opposite shard not Honor and doesn't have to be like perfect opposite kinda like preservation/ruin ? Apparently Bavadin(Autonomy) is Mr. Sanderson's favorite shard, thoughts on the dude especially for White Sand readers ? Do you agree that he's a menace like Hoid suggests in his letter grouping him up with Rayse ? Would you count him as ally or enemy in general ? It seems that Tanavast mentioned in one of Dalinar's dreams that Odium tasted defeat too many times and would not wanna taste defeat again. Do you think that means that Rayse was actually losing between him and Tanavast before Honor got rekt ? Or it was just a stalemate. How many other malevolent shards are there apart from Ruin and Odium ? Possibly Chaos maybe Though we have limited knowledge about shards my favorite is probably Ruin, he seems earnestly thinking he could help people by ending them lol . I would've said Harmony but if only the dude acts more like Ruin than preservation, he feels like a caretaker more than somebody who is actually half Ruin tbh, i wish he was more malevolent since he still represents enthrophy/change/death/destruction. Well that's all . Thoughts?

The shattering of Adonalsium has been to me some kind of given backstory that I learned of very quickly after beginning to read Brandon's books. But where is the backstory and when/how was it given? I don't mean the obvious "no one knows, RAFO" answer, I mean where did the information we DO have about it come from? Just a series of WoB's that someone strung together, asked him about, and he gave a brief explanation, which is the source of most of our knowledge? If so, where is it? The most I have seen in books is in Secret History, which is quite recent. The information has been public for a lot longer than that, except for the tidbit SH adds. Is it all tidbits? If so, where are they? Just a fun note: Brandon clearly got the name Adonalsium from the name Adonai, which is a Hebrew word for "Lord" (and yes it is sacred so be mindful of how you use it)

(The following are based on the possibility if Intents were not blank at first when Shattering. Here we go) In the Second Letter, we can see It could be interpreted as that Rayse "purified" the initial Intent of his Shard, and somehow distort it into merely hatred, thus become Odium. Most would agree that Vessels' mind would be affected by the Intent. What if, vice versa, the Vessels can change Intents to some extent? And I believe there are some friends had the same following question: Why Honor and Ruin, and such, are parts of the Force of Creation? If the Vessels are truly able to change the Intents, then the problem could be easily solved. In one WoB we know that Ruin actually means "pursuing the entropy maximum in the universe". Entropy is related to a progression that energy or information goes from regular to irregular and chaos, and finally the balance of energy. It's an inevitable process of the nature. And most importantly, it's neutral. Maybe Ruin is just kinda easy interpretation. The original Intent is Entropy. Same, So "Honor" might be an added context Tanavast gave, the original Intent was Bond. Dominion could originally mean Occupancy, and so on. Conclusion: if the Intents were designed when Shattering happened, then the original Intents might be neutral. Does that make sense? Surely there might get some flaws or my ignorance. Show me some new perspectives, thx:)

In the "Child of Tanavast" chapter in WoK, the Stormfather, Jezerezeh calls Kaladin the child of Honor, then the child of Tanavast. What if Tanavast was Honor's host?

Now hear me out, this actually makes sense. Also Spoiler Alert!!!!! This will have lots of spoilers for the three Dragon Age games. They are great games so play them and come back when you are done please! Okay, so let me get into this. I was playing Dragon Age Inquisition and I started noticing some things. Maybe its all the Sanderson books I've been reading lately but I couldn't help seeing the similarities. the more I played, the more I thought they are similar. But toward the end of the game, I realized that the similarities are strong enough that I wouldn't be surprised to see Hoid showing up in Skyhold to impart some wisdom upon the inquisitor and tell tales with Varric. Dragon Age is a fantasy series, sometimes called "dark fantasy" but the world is vibrant and super enjoyable. The world has Humans, Elves who used to be immortal but are now second class citizens, Dwarves, and Qunari who are grey skinned people with horns. Now I could go on forever but I wanna get right to the meat of things. First of all, the nature of the world is strongly influenced by the interaction between the physical world and the Fade. the Fade is a place where people's minds go when they dream. It's a place shaped by the thoughts and emotions of the dreamers, and has spirits who represent a aspect or emotion of humanity (anger, sloth, wisdom, justice, ect) I think that there are a lot of parallels to the Fade and the Cognitive Realm. In the Fade, it is an unstable version of the real world that has different rules, but is tied to the world. The beings who live in the Fade embody a pure ideal, and can grant strength to men who uphold their ideal. However they cannot go against their nature without becoming corrupted. Now this is reminiscent of the Spren of Roshar, except that the spirits of the Fade don't just break, but they become the negative version of their ideal and become hostile and powerful. Imagine if the pain spren could enter the world and start causing pain to keep themselves alive. But the similarities are apparent. The next thing I noticed that was very Cosmere-ish was magic. Instead of just learning spells, the castor needs to access the power that flows from the Fade, and the ability to use magic is a genetic ability. There is also a way to enhance magic power with fresh blood, using the life force of a person to fuel magic. This is reminiscent of Bloodscealing or Hemalergy. The idea that living energy can be used to enhance abilities feels like it fits with the workings of the Cosmere. They also can use magic to trap spirits and use them by creating a bond, but this is dangerous because the spirits are forced to change their nature. Sometimes however, a person exhibits a specific trait or need so powerfully that a spirit that resonates with another person can forma bond with that person, often saving them and granting them powers. There is even an example of a man who bonds with a spirit of Justice, but as the man changes from seeking justice to vengeance, he starts to slowly destroy the spirit that bonded to him to help him. Once again, similar to spren in execution, but different enough. And Finally the biggest thing that made me want to make this post, there was a shard pool in the game! Toward the end of Dragon Age Inquisition, there is an ancient eleven temple that you are racing your enemies to reach before they do. They seek a power hidden in the Temple called the Well of Sorrows. The guardians of the temple are ancient elves from the old times who sleep until someone tries to invade the temple. When you make it to the Well, you find that it is a pool of smoky water that belongs to an old mythical being called Mythal. This being was a God that was worshiped who apparently still lives as a silent force. When your character steps into the pool you absorb the liquid and take it into yourself. your mind expands and fills with knowledge and power, the power you need to defeat your nemesis. As I watched how it was animated, I couldn't help but think about a shard pool. (If you want to see the Well of Sorrows Scene here is the link to a video of it.) Anyway, just thought I'd post this. I'll be surprised if very many people know what I'm talking about. It was just a fun Idea to imagine this as just another part of the wonderful Cosmere. Hope you liked this and I look forward to posting more random thoughts in the days to come! Also if you like "Letters from the Cosmere" I will be releasing a new one very soon!

Hi, This is my first post in this forum but this topic has been itching me all recently and i cannot keep looking for random WoB and rereading WoTK, WOR about it. Anyways it seems to me that Stormlight Archives has the most crossover between the ones i've read from Sanderson books(or has been spoiled to me by my own fault) So with Harmony also sending his followers (what was it called 13th shard or whatever ) in Roshar as an example. And Nightblood+ Vasher being there. How many other characters from other Sanderson books are there that i might have missed ? except hoid obviously lol I know that the 3 shards that exist in Roshar are Cultivation, Honor and Odium but with Harmony's selected individual in Roshar is it possible that other shards outside Roshar like maybe endowment or other unknown shards have been inserting people or influencing Roshar as well(from the outside of roshar of course) ? Who might they be if i ever missed them? If it's yes with the most meddlers from other worlds and Shards trying to meddle in Stormlight as well. Do you think they are doing it cause Odium is stuck and they just decided move sooner or maybe they have their own motive? Cause with all the Cameo characters from other books it feels like Stormlight is like the big event in the cosmere universe especially since it personally showcases a direct involvement of the portrayed big bad of Cosmere Odium. So thoughts ?

In Mistborn, it is shown that Preservation took a piece of his mind and used it to craft Ruin's prison. However, Preservation's power, in the form of the mists, was still in abundance. Thus, we see that Shards can take a piece of their mind and separate it from itself. Except for a few exceptions, these pieces of the Shards mind are called Splinters. If a piece is large enough, it may gain sentience. This event is not uncommon in the Cosmere, and many Shards do it voluntarily. Endowment regularly gives individuals Splinters, in the form of a Divine Breath. Honor, Cultivation, and Odium have all done this to create spren. Even Adonalsium did it, also creating spren. However, if done by an outside force (often/always another Shard), the pieces become so numerous that there is little in the way of a central mind that can, if necessary, regather the broken pieces. This happened with Devotion, Dominion, and Honor. In all these cases, there is strong evidence that the power of the Shards is still out there and perfectly good to be used, from Roshar's Stormlight-bringing highstorms to the power allowing AonDor, Forgery, Dakhor, etc to be practiced. The pieces of the Shard are seen as Seons, Skaze, and what we call Radiantspren. The primary ability of the Shard's mind is the ability to access the Shard's power. A Shard can, without much error, be called a force of nature. The mind of a Shard accesses that force in abundance, and, if large enough, can control the force. The Seons and Skaze of Sel are so numerous and small pieces that they have no noticeable control over the power of those Shards, leaving them to fight in a highstorm-like fury of Investiture. In fact, I would not be surprised if the Cognitive Realm of Sel resembles the outcome of the Everstorm hitting the Highstorm. And that is, basically, what I think spren, Seons, Skaze, and whatever else is.

Ok, so I just finished rereading Secret History after it was brought up in another thread, and I'm not sure why, but I keep getting kind of vibes that Leras and Ati might have been a thing back on Yolen. I really want this to be true, because then it would be heartbreaking. So, in the letter it talks about Ati being really nice before he was corrupted by Ruin's intent, and I think it would be a really powerful story. We have these two people who loved each other, maybe Ati was given Ruin because they thought he was nice enough to counteract it, he and Leras go off together, but Ati is corrupted further and further by the shard, to the point where Leras had to keep him improsoned. Then, his Cognitive Shadow in secret history is vague enough that all it remembers is that it has to stop ruin. I don't think Brandon would have intentionally written it in, but did anyone else get that vibe? Maybe I'm just insane...