How the Vessels Killed and Shattered Adonalsium

[Confused]

The Shattering is the singular event in cosmere history. Brandon says, “The great writing question of the cosmere, the underlying theme is, what do men do when given the Power of the Gods? How do they act? What do they do?” This post speculates how the Shattering might have happened mechanically. It is another in my periodic series, “A Theory of Cosmere Magic.”

Unlike splintering, which leaves an indeterminate number of differently sized splinters, the Shattering produced precisely 16 Shards of originally equal Power. Khriss says the Vessels “divided [Adonalsium’s] essence between them.” (M:SH, Part 3-2, Kindle Loc. 938.) Brandon uses the word “essence” to mean the Physical Realm manifestation of “the godly powers.” (I use the term “Powers” to describe the “godly powers” – Spiritual Realm Investiture that isn’t part of a Spiritweb.)

The Vessels could easily divide Adonalsium’s liquid “essence” if he had a “godpool.” Shards leave perpendicularities on planets they Invest. I think Adonalsium left a single “godpool” at the place he Invested the entire cosmere. That place was Yolen.

“Killing” Adonalsium meant erasing his mind, his capacity to direct the Powers. His godpool gave the Vessels access to his mind.

I speculate the Vessels dropped an aluminum “bomb” into the godpool. Aluminum is “magically inert” and acts as an “Investiture sink.” The aluminum neutralized Adonalsium’s Cognitive Realm Investiture – his mind – making him “brain dead.” The Spiritual Realm Investiture – the Powers – survived undamaged.

After the aluminum “bomb” killed Adonalsium, his liquid “essence” lay in the godpool. The Vessels quickly sluiced his essence to 16 separate pools of equal volume. The Vessels entered their pools and ascended, emerging as Shards of equal Power.

When Rashek and Vin immersed themselves in the Well, their ascensions were partial and temporary. The Vessels’ ascensions were full and permanent. I attribute this difference to the fact that Adonalsium was dead when the Vessels entered their pools, but Preservation was still alive when Rashek and Vin entered the Well. The Well also didn’t represent all of Preservation’s power, since he created it from his own mind to trap Ruin’s consciousness. After Preservation died, Vin did fully ascend by absorbing the mists, the “condensed ‘essence’ of [Preservation’s] godly powers.”

Did the Shards hide Yolen to prevent someone like Vin from using the godpool when it replenishes? That’s why Rashek hid the Well. In an accompanying post, I speculate Mistborn foreshadows Dragonsteel.

Perhaps Odium wants to kill the other Vessels to become the “one god” when the godpool is full again…16,000 years after the Shattering? Is this what Hoid fears?

Edited May 3, 2017 by Confused

[Darkness]

something that might be added to this theory is the appearance of the shards Ruin and Preservation when Sazed first saw them. There could be quite a bit of data oin how the shards appeared when they weren't held. If memory serves, the shards were lying in a field, and Sazed went and thrust his coppermind-bound arms at / into? Them. I dont really remember a lot of descriptive details though. I dont think that they appeared as pools at that point, though they were 'undirected' as of Ati and Vin's deaths, I guess another variable is that the shards weren't whole... Parts of them were invested in Scadrial and its people.

Overall I like your proposal, but I'm a little sceptical that Adonalsium would allow himself to be maneuvered into vulnerable and accessible position unless he wanted to be.

edit: I am in no way indicating that I believe Adonalsium to have been male... It was the automatic way I wrote it haha

Edited May 3, 2017 by Darkness

[Knight Oblivion]

I don't know about the splitting of an Adonalsium pool of Investiture to get the Shards. Seems overly complex as they would have to measure the pool and create an entire method to precisely pump the liquid Investiture to different locations. Maybe it could have been done with some Yolish magic besides Lightweaving that we haven't been made aware of but I doubt it.

[Thunder_93]

On the topic how Adonalsium was "killed":

I like the theory that it was somehow done with Aluminium (in which form, however, is open). Might be the "weapon" that was used to kill it. I personally can't think of another weapon for such a purpose.

About the splitting the power into 16 even parts:

I don't think this was done like that by the 16 original holders. The 16 parts aren't just even powers. Each power has it's own purpose, it's own intent. I doubt that they could split the whole power of Adonalsium up into this 16 parts, each with an own intent. I find it more likely that this was kind of something natural, like it just happened when killing Adonalsium.

[Thanatos]

The shards of Preservation was a white mist:

'And then, he felt something. He looked down. Vin's body was smoking slightly. Not from the heat. It seemed to be leaking something . . . or, no. It was connected to something. The twists of mist he saw, they led to a vast white light. He could just barely see it. He reached out and touched the mist, and felt an awesome power. A power of stability.

Ruin shard is...

'To the side, the other corpse—the one he didn't recognize—was also leaking something. A deep black smoke. Sazed reached out with his other hand, touching the smoke, and felt a different power—more violent. The power of change.'

On absorbing them it is described as..

'He slammed his arms into the twin mists and seized the powers offered to him. He drew them in, feeling them infuse his body, making him burn. His flesh and bones evaporated, but as they did, he tapped his copperminds, dumping their entire contents into his expanding consciousness.'

So the powers/shards are a misty smoky like substance.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Thanatos

[Modal Seoul]

Well, they probably got super ticked with Adonalsium, and were like, "Okay, enough of this crap." Then they all took out their power tools and snuck up behind the God while he was shaving.

[Thanatos]

Remember Yolan was the planet where the Gods died. From their corpes the Fain Life grew.

I think Adonalsium was the last God and the 16+ decided it was better that Adonalsium died to help kill or slow down the fainlife spread of corruption. 

[Andy92]

The main problem I have with this theory is that it seems like 16 smaller pools of Adonalsium's power would simply give one access to the power of a "mini- Adonalsium." The probability of that liquid separating into 16 unique intents seems unlikely to happen by random chance.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Andy92

[Darkness]

7 hours ago, Andy92 said:

The main problem I have with this theory is that it seems like 16 smaller pools of Adonalsium's power would simply give one access to the power of a "mini- Adonalsium." The probability of that liquid separating into 16 unique intents seems unlikely to happen by random chance.

It probably wasn't random. And by probably I mean Brandon would have a tough time justifying this:

Interview: Nov 16th, 2013

Steelheart Signing Report - askthepaperclip (Verbatim)

askthepaperclip

If Adonalsium were to shatter in a parallel universe, would it divide into the same 16 intents?

Brandon Sanderson
Um...it...Adonalsium could have been shattered in other ways.

askthepaperclip

Was there a force determining which way it shattered?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes!

[thegatorgirl00]

On May 3, 2017 at 1:21 AM, Confused said:

After the aluminum “bomb” killed Adonalsium, his liquid “essence” lay in the godpool. The Vessels quickly sluiced his essence to 16 separate pools of equal volume. The Vessels entered their pools and ascended, emerging as Shards of equal Power.

Rather than actively trying to separate the power, what if they simply stepped into the shardpool at the same time. Then, the power was naturally drawn to the person with the strongest Connection to it at that moment, leaving sixteen different Shards. 

[Farnsworth]

There was a WOB that somebody got on their book saying that Adonalsium was shattered because he was killed.

[Massik]

Shards..   ...crystal, no?  To me it makes sense it would be a frequency related split.  

Imagine a perfect harmony with all of the vessels singing their part on the register.  It creates a harmony shattering Adonalsium.  The part of the harmony "sung" dictates the attribute the vessel is imbued with.  

 

Ok, so maybe not al of it.  But with crystals involved, frequency seems highly viable for the shattering itself.  

[Steeldancer]

8 hours ago, Massik said:

Shards..   ...crystal, no?  To me it makes sense it would be a frequency related split.  

Imagine a perfect harmony with all of the vessels singing their part on the register.  It creates a harmony shattering Adonalsium.  The part of the harmony "sung" dictates the attribute the vessel is imbued with.  

 

Ok, so maybe not al of it.  But with crystals involved, frequency seems highly viable for the shattering itself.  

As cool as an idea that is... shards ain't crystals. They're beings of vast invested power who are basically gods. Not crystals.

[The One Who Connects]

9 hours ago, Massik said:

Shards..   ...crystal, no?  To me it makes sense it would be a frequency related split.  

Imagine a perfect harmony with all of the vessels singing their part on the register.  It creates a harmony shattering Adonalsium.  The part of the harmony "sung" dictates the attribute the vessel is imbued with. 

Not exactly. My best analogy likens them to Shards of Glass, but we all struggle to quantify raw power as a physical item since it isn't one.

Picture a Mirror, and throw a rock at it. The Mirror splits into 16 equal pieces(because of magic) and they each pick one up. Each piece holds a Fragment, or Shard if you wish to call it that, of the overall Power.

---

Long story short, this topic exists because we have no idea what the metaphorical "rock" was or how it managed to break a magical item.
That said, I won't discount some sort of frequency related thing as the why Adonalsium broke so evenly, rather than a whole bunch of mismatched pieces. It's akin to the Cymatics discussion on Roshar, which gives precedent