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Theres been a lot of speculation as to what would happen if all 16 combined. the prevailing theory is that when all 16 are joined it will recreate Adonalsium. i dont think thats the case at all Lets get some facts down: - Ado was shattered -when he was shattered, the chunks of his power were locked to a certain Intent -its possible there could’ve been a different number of Shards/Intents when Shattered, each Shard got equal power(or 1/16th of Ado’s total) Now the theory: I believe that, when Ado was alive, he had more Intents and each Intent didnt have a set amount of power(meaning that at any given time, Honor could have more investiture than Autonomy. or vice versa) when Shattered, his power was divided and locked into those 16 Intents.Each getting 6.25% of his power. if someone recombines all those, they’ll have all the investiture recombined, but thats not all Ado was. This “new Ado” will still be more limited, in that certain percentages of his power are locked into certain states now. I.e rather than having a random number of Intents with any given percentage of power in that Intent.(Like the “old Ado”) you now have a being thats power is locked to only 16 Intents and has a defined amount of power set to each Intent(like the new Ado would) So when someone recombines all 16, theyll be like a “Fractional but Whole” God(fractional in that they only have part of Ado’s Intents/potential, but Whole, in that theyll have all of his Investiture) Questioner I was just wondering if a Shard's intent can change over time without changing holders? Brandon Sanderson Without changing holders? The holder can have a slight effect on how the-- a big effect on how the intent is interpreted, but what the intent is stays the same. So it's gonna be filtered. The way it manifests can change, and you'll see that happening, but it is the same intent. When it was broken off, it took a certain thing with it. Salt Lake City ComicCon 2017 (Sept. 21, 2017) Eric If Adonalsium Shattered with intent, would he always Shatter with the same Shards? Brandon Sanderson It is plausible that it could've gone a different way. Eric So it could've been different Shards? Brandon Sanderson Yes, that's plausible. Words of Radiance Chicago signing (March 22, 2014)

Hi everyone. It’s been a long time since I became aware of the “Cosmere”, and I’ve spent most of the time in these forums (though I do not post much, I like to read you all ). There is one thing that always struck me as weird: The Shattering of Adonalsium, it’s said to have been done by an “opposing force”. As far as I know (and I could be terribly wrong) we know nothing about this force, yet everyone seems to think that’s some kind of “anti-adonalsium”. Another entity as mighty and powerful as him that somehow shattered him. But when I first learned about the shards that sixteen people took up the fragments of Adonalsium the first thing that crossed my mind was: “Hey, those 16 broke a god in Shards and are now having fun being godlike”. Couldn’t it be that the “opposing force that shattered Adonalsium” wasn’t an anti-Adonalsium godlike being but the actual 16 shardholders? We don’t know HOW was Adonalsium shattered, so I have no evidence for and against it… But we do know that they mostly chose their shards. It’s implied on a letter (I think in WoR) that they let Rayse take Odiums shard, fully knowing what it was. Also, neither of the 16 is actually in a hurry to restore Adonalsium. If they were ALL THERE, with all the shards in a single place, and before their intents started to influence them… Why didn’t they try to “fix” Adonalsium? Instead they took their shards and started toying with them in the world, creating their own planets, peoples, magics… I think that it’s not out of the realm of possibility that they shattered Adonalsium on purpose, to take its powers or just because some other reason and the shards were a nice spoil of war. The only thing that I think it’s “against” this theory, is the same letter that we assume is from Cultivation, in wich she says something like they should be careful on Roshar, because they tread lands made by Adonalsium, and she seems to respect him/it. (Sorry I don’t have the exact quote). My answer to this is that you can still respect an enemy, and more so if it’s done in hindsight, when you are in the same position that enemy was. What do you think? Is there anything out there that directly denies this theory?