Rhyzoor Posted March 29, 2014 Report Share Posted March 29, 2014 What is Adonalsium? I've been reading a lot of forums and it pops up a lot but I can't find out is Adonalsium a person an object? Like why's what are shards do they have a description? If this all been covered before sorry ( can you point me int right direction) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levian Posted March 29, 2014 Report Share Posted March 29, 2014 I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable as 99% of the people on this forum, but from what I understand... We don't really know what Shards, or Adonalsium are. What I DO know is that the Shard holders are - or in some cases were at one point - humans holding on to a power called a Shard, which is one of 16 pieces of a shattered Adonalsium. Each shard has a different intent, independent of the person who hold it, but it can influence the person holding it and the person holding it can actively resist that Shard's intent. I'm not sure how to define it properly, but each Shard has a different form of Investiture (like a power source) for their magic system. Sanderson has said it is possible for the Investiture of one shardworld to be used to power a different magic on another shardworld through some unknown process. Each of the magic systems are different, but they all seem to follow the same laws and have similarities. I'm not sure how much of Sanderson's Cosmere books you've read and how much of this is old news to you but I figured it's worth typing. I'm probably wrong about a lot of this, and the technical details are a little over my head until I decide to do a fair bit of reading and research. Anyways hope this helps, I'm sure some more knowledgeable people will be able to give a much better answer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Observer Posted March 29, 2014 Report Share Posted March 29, 2014 For questions like this, I highly recommend the Q&A section of the forums, and probably the Cosmere Theories area instead of WoR Discussion. Shards are sixteen pieces of a thing called Adonalsium. Shards are wells of enormous power, allowing whoever controls them to be nearly godlike omnipotents, with the abilities to create and destroy life, and a lot of other cool stuff. Those who hold shards lose their physical form and become mostly all-seeing. For more on Shards, try reading MIstborn. Problem is, each Shard has an "intent", such as Ruin, or Honor, or Odium. Whoever holds the Shard will have their personality and temperament slowly stripped away by their own power, until nothing but the need to follow the intent is left. This keeps the Shards from being too powerful, but makes them no less of a threat. As for Adonalsiu, we know it resided on a planet called Yolen, long before any of the books. For some reason it broke into sixteen pieces of power and intent, and sixteen people took up the pieces and left Yolen. Hoid was there when it happened, but beyond that, we know very little about the big Ado. I recommend finishing the Mistborn trilogy, and hanging around the Cosmere 101 thread for more answers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nepene Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 Adonalsium is a super god thing that may or may not have been a person, with some enemy. In the distant past of the cosmere it was intentionally shattered. It's godlike body was split into 16 powerful shards, each composed of one emotion of Adonalsium and a tremendous amount of power. People from Yolen, another shardworld where the to be written dragonsteel book series will be set, picked up each fragment and fused with the shards. They then meandered around the cosmere doing shardy things. Hoid has some mission that is connected with Adonalsium in some manner. He is worldhopping from world to world collecting powers from each. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Star Posted March 31, 2014 Report Share Posted March 31, 2014 It's actually pretty obvious what Adonalsium is... IT IS A STICK!!! Seriously though, I always envisioned it as more of a gem than a rock. Maybe a large conglomeration? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rade Posted March 31, 2014 Report Share Posted March 31, 2014 One of the popular theories about Adonalsium is that it was either a conduit between a large power source of unknown origin (dark matter, etc., take your pick, we don't know.), or it is a power source. These theories refer to it as a "Shardic Lens", and many people envision it as a sheet of colored glass which all the different Shards used to be part of. Personally, my theory is that it was like these other shards except kind of an archtype of all the magics, and that Hoid was the...not sure how to put it. Spiritual aspect of Adonalsium maybe? Kind of if Adonalsium got shattered, but if Hoid is some kind of remnant of the intent that people imposed on it. (Like how Stormfather is shadow of the Almighty, and the spren are created by human thoughts/belief. A mix of those.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyPilgrim Posted March 31, 2014 Report Share Posted March 31, 2014 I don't personally feel that Hoid is something like that, rather that he is an individual who got wrapped up in Adonalsium and the later Shardholders, and Hoid happened to become very powerful by alternate means (traveling to the Shardworlds and obtaining access to their Investitures). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts