Shattered Posted March 2, 2015 Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 So we have a pretty good idea of the Heralds and the Honorblades now, but what information do we have of the Dawnsingers and Dawnshards? What were they? My best guess is that they're actually Shardbearers that do manual labor rather than fight Voidbringers. I think the Dawnsingers were servants of Honor, like the Heralds, but they used their Dawnshards (Shardtools, maybe?) to help the general populace. If I remember correctly, the Palanaeum in Kharbranth was reportedly built by the Dawnsingers. This would make sense, then. Does anyone else have other theories or information that I missed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoser Posted March 2, 2015 Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 (edited) The Dawnshards are a sort of Rorschach test for 17th Sharders. What people project onto the concept tells you more about the person than about Roshar . Seriously, though (but ignorant speculation): One theory is that the Listeners were originally the Dawnsingers (before being corrupted by Odiumspren). Dawnshards seem more awesome than just more Shardblades. The way Tanavast refers to them in his last vision (without the Dawnshards ...) suggests to me that they are more important than the Shardblades (which can already become any kind of tool). There are hundreds to thousands of Shardblades. I don't see how a few more would make a difference. I can imagine something that was a significant part of a Shard that could have helped carve (or harmonically vibrate) out the huge rock formations around the Dawncites. Edited March 3, 2015 by hoser 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdogpete Posted March 3, 2015 Report Share Posted March 3, 2015 Wait, there were hundreds of thousands of shardblades? In a flashback, didn't two orders of KR # under a thousand? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skaa Posted March 3, 2015 Report Share Posted March 3, 2015 (edited) I have an old theory that Dawnshards are magical musical instruments. To answer your question, here's what we know about the Dawnshards: They can "bind any creature, voidish or mortal" (this is from the Poem of Ista) They disappeared some time before Tanavast recorded his "journal" Tanavast believes that they would have been a great help in fighting Odium As for the Dawnsingers, Kabsal believes they are a type of spren. Given that the Ghostbloods seem to know a lot of important secrets, he might be correct about that. But we're not sure. Edited March 3, 2015 by skaa 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoser Posted March 3, 2015 Report Share Posted March 3, 2015 Wait, there were hundreds of thousands of shardblades? In a flashback, didn't two orders of KR # under a thousand? Hundreds (300 in the Recreance vision) to thousands (10 orders times about 150 = 1500, loosely thousands) =/= hundreds of thousands Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natc Posted March 3, 2015 Report Share Posted March 3, 2015 Really makes one wonder what happened to them when the currently catalogued shardblades barely reach 10% of that. Though note that there would only be close to three bondsmiths and they might lack blades like Dalinar, if they really are bonded to the Stormfather. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoser Posted March 3, 2015 Report Share Posted March 3, 2015 All of this. Totally. Really makes one wonder what happened to them when the currently catalogued shardblades barely reach 10% of that.Though note that there would only be close to three bondsmiths and they might lack blades like Dalinar, if they really are bonded to the Stormfather. I don't know of any order more numerous than the Windrunners and Stonewards. As the apparent shock troops of the Radiants, they could have been the most numerous. How the listeners got their blades is interesting to think about. Renegade Knights? Captured Knights forced to betray their oaths? But it doesn't seem like they had very many. Even if there are no more than a three hundred blades, I don't see how a few more would make a difference, so I imagine Dawnshards must be more powerful somehow. It does seem likely that there are caches of Shardblades around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shattered Posted March 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2015 Wait, there were hundreds of thousands of shardblades? In a flashback, didn't two orders of KR # under a thousand? That was only the Stonewards and the Windrunners, and maybe not even all of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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