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On the God Beyond


Youngy

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I've been thinking a lot recently about the God Beyond - and who or what it is.
 
The first thing I've found (or rather not found) is that we don't have much to go on.
 
TThe second of course, was this topic about the God Beyond / Unknown God possibly being in opposition to Adonalsium.

But here is what I've gathered:
 

'She was a woman. Good at lying, they are. The God Beyond made’m that way.'

 

- Wayne (AoL)[
 
Silence Montane worships them.
 
Shai refers to the Unknown God and that for her people there is a relationship between it and the rocks that fell from the sky. (And they carved these rocks)
 
Raoden was possibly influenced by the Unknown God when teleporting in the final chapters of Elantris... This is speculation.
 

There is another important element to this teleportation. I thought it important to involve deity in the climax of what has been such an overtly religious book... And so, I took this last moment of the book, and gave Raoden an opportunity to call upon the aid of providence.
Raoden arrives safely, despite the odds against his having gotten the distance, direction, and other factors right. You are free to simply think of this as luck, if you wish.

 
 
So...
 
The God Beyond is known in several planets across the Cosmere - Sel as the Unknown God - Scadrial and [unknown planet] as the God Beyond.
 
The God Beyond may have assisted Raoden for some reason - we cannot truly know why without seeing what he accomplished with the remainder of his life - or whether it was just out of niceness...
 
The God Beyond is known of on Scadrial - this is important, because it means either Sazed/Harmony introduced the religion there - after more scouring of the Cosmere maybe - or it has cropped up without his influence.
 
I'd like to note one other thing... The name. This is getting a little bit speculative... Well, more speculative than the rest of it...

The God Beyond.
 
Now, to me, that could mean one of two things beyond as in beyond the physical realm (which could mean Cognitive or Spiritual)... But I am more inclined to believe that it really means from beyond death.
 
And so it is my theory that the God Beyond is Adonalsium - or what was left of it after it was shattered. What we know of are sixteen shards of this power - each a contained intent - each with no cognitive aspect to direct it. So if there was a 'being' controlling them when Adonalsium was whole - maybe it wasn't completely destroyed in the shattering - and maybe it is still out there, subtly manipulating events where needed - either from the spiritual realm (or beyond - Sazed was pretty convinced that Vin and Elend were still around and well somewhere - which could have actually been in the spiritual realm now that I think of it).
 
Any thoughts?

Edited by Youngy
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And so it is my theory that the God Beyond is Adonalsium - or what was left of it after it was shattered. What we know of are sixteen shards of this power - each a contained intent - each with no cognitive aspect to direct it. So if there was a 'being' controlling them when Adonalsium was whole - maybe it wasn't completely destroyed in the shattering - and maybe it is still out there, subtly manipulating events where needed - either from the spiritual realm (or beyond - Sazed was pretty convinced that Vin and Elend were still around and well somewhere - which could have actually been in the spiritual realm now that I think of it).

 

Any thoughts?

That's an interesting thought. So, you're talking about the consciousness (human, human-like, or other) that directed Adonalsium before the Shattering, right? The (all-the-)Shard(s)holder? It makes sense that such a powerful and important mind would have some kind of place in the Cosmerian afterlife.

My gut feeling on gods above the Shards, be they Unknown or Beyond, was that it was probably a way to preserve the feeling of an ineffable divinity while still having gods that can be characters. Sort of moving the goalposts on the supernatural. It's a pretty common trick for fantasy authors who don't want to write universes that are implicitly atheist. I'd be fine with that, as long as it obeys Sanderson's First Law, but I like your notion better.

Edited by digitalbusker
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There is also speculation moving around out there that the God Beyond is related to the force that opposed Adonalsium (and is still around).

 

I have spent some time wondering if the whole fight with Rayse and Bavadin is just distracting from the real issue - this force or group and their ulterior motives.  Perhaps Rayse is a member of this group?  Perhaps it is an Outsider-style force intent on killing all life in our universe?

 

Much of my basis for these thoughts comes from the fact that there are still six main sequence Cosmere novels after the Stormlight Archive finishes.  I find it hard to believe that if Odium is the "last boss," he will be dealt with by the end of Stormlight 10.  So, either there will be a new big bad Shard, Odium will somehow persist, or there is something bigger and badder still waiting out there...

 

EDIT: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/5839-odium-is-a-mini-boss/

Edited by FirstSelector
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I've always thought that the God Beyond is the Survival Shard that Brandon briefly mentioned. It flits from place to place, leaving as soon as things get bad. That would have put it at when Preservation failed and the age of TLR began, when Odium splintered Dominion and Devotion, and when the catastrophe occurred in SoSiFoH. Of course, it would have to be one of those "no Invest much" shards, but that makes the most sense to me.

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  • 3 years later...

I've definitely thought all along that the god beyond is the consciousness of Adonalsium. Especially the idea that the homesteaders in Shadows for Silence left their homeworld after one of the shards was broken (by Odium) but their faith wasn't shaken by it because they worshipped an even higher deity in the first place.  

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