Shards, Shardpools, Investiture, etc.

[TheProphet19]

I would simply like to present a simple framework for the manifestations of each Shard with regard to their respective planets, especially the question of shardpools. I would love to contradicted or pointed to prior discussion with heavy relevance to my guesses/conclusion. This may contain mild words of radiance spoilers, but there are no quotes or specific references to anything unpublished, but I have read the sample chapters and it influences my thoughts on the Roshar section, so skip that part if you are avoid spoilers. I did not use spoiler tags because I don't think there are any direct ones, just general impressions. Can change that if needed.

Devotion and Dominion, post splintering, are merged as the Dor, resulting in region based magic, as well as sentient splinters in the form Seons and Skaze.

A. Devotion's Shardpool The Pond in outside Elantris that Raoden goes to. I believe it is actually the Shardpool (or one of many) for the Dor itself. With no mind to regulate the levels of shardic power that float free in Shadesmar, it bursts out via soulstamps, the shaod, etc. The pool is simply a way to return that investiture to Shadesmar, resulting in the death of a willing Elantrian. In other words, this is what happens to a Shard's shardpool or physical aspect when a shard splinters. There might be varying iterations, such as if this happened to Odium the pool might take your life and investiture without consent. Moving on...

A.Preservation's Shardpool: A way to become a splinter, to absorb some of the power and knowledge of Preservation. This is not a constant in the Cosmere the situation is unique. Preservation left a huge amount of his power in one spot, acting as a &quotbattery&quot for Ruin's cage (Ruin's conciousness/power being the ominous black smoke near the Shardpool).

B. Lerasium formed near the Shardpool either due to The Lord Ruler solidifying bits of preservation's power or just a kind of natural radiation of power from being near to the supercharged-shardic battery that is The Well of Ascension. I lean towards the 2nd idea.

C. The mists and the Pits of Hathsin are similar. These are the result of an unsplintered shard with a limited cognitive aspect, the leftover, mindless, finds a physical form invests directly into the planet itself. More on Shards invested a planet later...But this is why the mists get more forceful after Vin releases the power of the Well of Ascension. The unguided power of Preservation becomes slightly more guided and a good deal more powerful, to the point where Vin ascends by burning the mists. Ruin had a lot more power, but his mind was imprisoned, so it formed in the Pits of Hathsin as atium, automatically recycling when burned similar to how a believe the power to be an Elantrian is recycled via the pond.

2b. Sazed's Scadrial

A. A large amount of investiture is invested in Elendel, sustaining it as a basin for life. This is a concious form of investing in a world. Sazed is not constantly micro-managing the city, but invested it with the right amount of Ruin's and Preservation's power such that it because extremely livable and thriving. The probable extra ruin is probably siphoned off to the Roughs to maintain Harmony.

A. Endowment retains herself (is gender known?) solely as a mind, an observer, capable of seeing possible futures. This is because a mind and knowledge are needed to endow with wisdom. But due to her intent she invests as much power as possible into Nalthis.

B. She invests MORE STRONGLY in people than the norm (extra Preservation in humans on Scadrial, etc.) resulting in Breaths.

C. She invests into Hallandren, creating the Tears of Edgli to encourage her breaths to be endowed via awakening, which requires color. A side effect is creating a fertile jungle in a world that might otherwise lack such a climate. Idris's placement with regard to Hallandren seems to me like Russia being just north of the Congo.

D. She gives large chunks of her power to the Returned. Each is a personal choice by Endowment, based on what she believes the individual may be deserving of/able to contribute. They need to consume Breaths to stay alive, and these consumed breaths return to endowment, allowing her to sustain the system of endowing and re-endowing. Thus, I suspect that Vasher hoarding breaths is having an interesting effect on the Shard. Holding enough at once might just cause you to steal Endowments shard.

E. Nightblood does not receive breath as a gift, he takes by force it and uses it to destroy. This is contradictory to Endowment's intent, and this possible destroys the investiture, not fully returning to endowment due to its taint. This is theoretically why endowment returned people who prevented a potential Lifeless vs. Sentient Weaponry show down, as it would severely weaken Endowment and prevent her from continuing to endow.

4.Roshar (aka the difficult one)
A. Spren are a natural tendency of the world, dating back to Adonalsium's prior wholeness, feeding on investiture of give physical form to concepts from Shadesmar. Much like how metal would have likely been Scadrial's magic-focus regardless of which shard's came there.

B.Spren form as a sink for power for all of the shards. Any free-floating energy is able to be used by spren who coincide with a shard's intent in some way. In the cognitive realm this is easier, but in the physical realm a bond with a human is usually necessary. The Nightwatcher is likely Cultivation's attempt at a Returned-On-Nalthis level of investiture into a single spren. So an intentional splinter I suppose.

C.Honor invested into the Herald's in a similar way, using them to fight a proxy war with Odium (who, as others have theorized, likely uses spren-bonding to create Thunderclasts, etc.) The Herald's and Knight's Radiant abandonment, while both potentially understandable, resulted in Honor (who had a larger amount of investment due to the Herald's, honorblades, etc.) shattering of at least weakening because his investiture was used against its intent. Cultivation was not shattered but has turned away from humans, and her spren followed.

D. Highstorms...this is heavily speculative, but the storms are in my mind the result of all three shards. They likely existed in some form naturally previous to direct shardic involvement. But I believe stormlight can be used by any magic user on Roshar, Voidbringer, Herald, etc. It is raw investiture on the planet. Why are the storms so harsh and dangerous? Odium. The fact an &quotEverstorm&quot is mentioned whenever impending doom is occurring also suggest to me that Odium has some level of investment in the storms. Why is Stormwater good for plants? Why so much crem? Why is life so well adapted? Why is Shinovar as safe haven? Cultivation. Her influence in the storm likely makes in more like the flooding of a river dangerous, but almost necessary. I almost think she has a part in the Weepings, as gentle rain for weeks could be seen as a cultivating respite from destruction. Honor? I think that a large amount of the power from Stormlight is his, though it can power surges given by more cultivation based spren and possibly Odium-magic as well. This is because he is the only splintered Shard, and Odium is technically off-world, so that much raw power being his makes sense.The Stormfather is the Storm's Spren, a large splinter of honor that gives conciousness and power to the highstorm's spren, much like the Nightwatcher or the one with a C name (Cucueish?) that Axies the Collector sees. It is possible that Jezrien has taken up a large enough chunk of Honor that his conciousness is the &quotsplinter-holder&quot, which would perhaps work because he already has a big chunk of Honor's investiture, is immortal, and could have potentially bonded with the spren of the storm, giving a consciousness the power of Honor present in the storm. However, that is solely based on Rosharan lore concerning Jezrien as the Stormfather, and I think it is more likely just an really big splinter in the form of a Storm spren.

5. Shadows for Silence (Unnamed Planet?)
A. Honestly, I have no clue.
B. Best idea I have seen though is a theory on the Cosmere short-story board that proposed that "Justice died in the homeland" was literal, as in a shard called Justice was splintered and the result (or cause?) was "the Evil" and the shades are unguided Justice-spirit-splinter-spren-things. I love the idea, but I doubt that Justice is a shard because Brandon likely sees it as a "part" of Honor, from what we know of Roshar's shardic intent-dynamics.

Sorry for rambling, but I really do feel like I've got it all mostly figured out here. Just wait to WoR comes out and I have to change my opinion about everything the Cosmere...
Okay! Read if you have the time! Comment! Complain! Nitpick!
And if you like my theories but there is a Shardic topic I failed to discuss, I would love to be reminded.

 

[gjustice99]

A. Endowment retains herself (is gender known?) solely as a mind, an observer, capable of seeing possible futures. This is because a mind and knowledge are needed to endow with wisdom. But due to her intent she invests as much power as possible into Nalthis.

5. Shadows for Silence (Unnamed Planet?)

A. Honestly, I have no clue.

B. Best idea I have seen though is a theory on the Cosmere short-story board that proposed that "Justice died in the homeland" was literal, as in a shard called Justice was splintered and the result (or cause?) was "the Evil" and the shades are unguided Justice-spirit-splinter-spren-things. I love the idea, but I doubt that Justice is a shard because Brandon likely sees it as a "part" of Honor, from what we know of Roshar's shardic intent-dynamics.

I dont think we have WOB on Endowment's gender, but it is likely male as that is the pronoun used to refer to Austre (who is probably what the humans think of Endowment). There is a discussion about this topic here.

 

Shadows for Silence is on Threnody, which has no shard.

[Lord Pifferdoo]

Any thoughts on the shard on First of the Sun, the Sixth of the Dusk world?

Maybe something worm related? Or murderous island related?

[WeiryWriter]

First of the Sun does not have a Shard.

[hoidhunter]

Maybe somewhere that cultivation has gone wrong. The shard isn't there anymore...so things have gotten a little effed up. The animals are running the zoo.