Long-Term Plot: Odium as Hero

[LordOfStorms]

Our overall idea is pretty wacky, but it’s an interesting take on the Cosmere:

Base assumptions: Sentient minds naturally produce/gather enormous amounts of Investiture, and that energy may be siphoned off.

With those two assumptions, it makes sense that long, long ago one creature may have started stealing investiture from the minds around it. Using power to steal more power, it quickly ballooned to an enormous size and scope. Perhaps many such creatures formed, each staking out territories the size of a small galaxy and siphoning off energy from the lives within.

One was Adonalsium. Eventually some people on Dragonsteel figured out that Adonalsium was a parasite, using the creatures around it as batteries, and to return the power to the people they figured out how to destroy/shatter it. That wasn’t enough. Even shattered, each Shard instinctively drew upon the life around it. Perhaps the plan involved destroying each Shard further but the Intent of the Shards prevented that (plus who wants to give up godhood?)

Motives:

       Rayse (Odium). Imagine Rayse as a chessmaster on Dragonsteel. He suspects that after the Shattering the Intents of each shard will keep the 16 from completing whatever their plan was. So, he choses the Shard of Odium. With this Intent he will be able to keep alive his hatred of the Shards and their parasitic nature, and eventually complete his task. His plan is to shatter each Shard in turn then commit suicide, possibly after scattering the splinters even further. In doing so he divides the power Adonalsium was siphoning back to the “people.” He may have even planned for the Shardholders to spread life throughout the local galaxy post-shattering, before culling them off.

2.     Hoid. Hoid may have originally agreed with Rayse’s plan. But, eventually he realized that Adonalsium was not alone. The universe is filled with such creatures each with a staked-out territory and each hoping to expand. If the Shards are splintered too much, one of the neighbor siphon creatures might be able to move in, an outcome that Hoid sees as worse than if the power were to be returned to the people. Thus he opposes Rayse.

 

Support: This all tenuous but..

1.     WOB says that “Adonalsium was opposing some force.” Possibly it was holding others of its kind at bay.

2.     Shards tend to be Invested on a planet. We assume that that process gives power to that planet, but it could also be the reverse.

3.     If Adonalsium was similar to God, why would aspects of its personality include Dominion, Odium, and Preservation? (God shouldn’t need to Preserve itself- it just IS) Those only sound useful if Adonalsium is defending a territory from others of its kind.

4.     Braize, Odium’s invested planet, is populated mostly by slivers. Perhaps because Odium hates using lives as a power source?

5.     Odium clashed with Ambition early on, to prevent Ambition from regathering all the shards. Clearly Odium, at the very least, does not want Adonalsium restored.

The next two are mostly thematic-

6.     Sanderson is a very optimistic writer, believing in the potential in people. It would seem to fit his style that, unfettered, every being would have great power.

7.     Sanderson likes to give Big Bads reasonable motives. Even if this theory is wrong, which it almost certainly is, we should examine why exactly Odium wants to destroy everything. Destroying things was Ruin’s job- “Odium” implies that his actions are caused by a specific hate.

 

A possible conclusion to the Cosmere: Odium’s plan on a grand scale. Adonalsium is reforged, but a way is found to add a little more power to it, perhaps by every mind in the local area willingly giving up power to it. This extra investiture allows the new Adonalsium to overpower the other local beings of its kind. This snowballs until there is truly one of those creatures in the universe, which promptly alters the magic system to prevent such creatures from reforming and then commits suicide. The Cosmere ends on a positive note, with each sentient creature regaining their naturally enormous level of Investiture and power.

[Vissy]

If this is true, I'd totally be on Odium's side.

[Oversleep]

1 hour ago, LordOfStorms said:

WOB says that “Adonalsium was opposing some force.” Possibly it was holding others of its kind at bay.

Actually that force is the Sixteen.

1 hour ago, LordOfStorms said:

  If Adonalsium was similar to God, why would aspects of its personality include Dominion, Odium, and Preservation? (God shouldn’t need to Preserve itself- it just IS) Those only sound useful if Adonalsium is defending a territory from others of its kind.

... well, what kind of a god/God are we talking about? The Christian God has all the "vengeful and wrathfull" nailed down, Preservation is about others, not self preservation, so that too and as for the Dominion.

[A Budgie]

Hm...this is certainly an interesting theory. It's possible, I suppose, but a little far-fetched.