The Number Two

[Aashyma she/her]

I have a very confused theory regarding the Cosmere-well not so much of a theory as an interpretation and I'd like to hear your thoughts on it.

1. On Scardial, there are sixteen allomantric metals (not counting God metals and their alloys) and these are arranged in groups of four. Each group consists of two pairs.

2. We know that Aona and Skai were on Sel. Assuming that Aon Dor is fuelled/created by Aona, we could similarly say that the Durathi magic was fuelled/created by Skai. This lead me to think that the Dor on Sel is like the metal on Scardial-naturally occurring and merely a fuel rather than having been created by a Shard.

3. Roshar too has two Shards that seem to be diametric opposites-Odium and Honour.

So my thinking is: what if the Shards exist in four groups of four, each group consisting of two pairs?

You'd have four Physical Shards: Preservation and Ruin+ Cultivation and X.

Mental Shards: Honour and Odium+an unknown pair-perhaps Aona and Skai's Shards.

Temporal Shards: One of these may power the magic system that allows Hoid to timehop/dilate time.

Enhancement Shards: I am tempted to insert Endowment here-assuming that s/he grants Breaths.

This would also fit in with the whole "Every Push has a Pull" idea.

Thoughts? Critiques?

Edit: The idea sparked during yesterday's Q&A:

I'm curious whether there is a deeper significance here than Preservation simply needing to be Ruin's opposite.

Brandon: Yes, there is, but I can't talk about it now.

Edit 2: On further thought I am tempted to place Endowment in Temporal: It's highly magnified Breath allows the Returned to see the future-both in dreams and in paintings-the colours of which are derived from the Tears of Edgli, which are supposed to be Endowment's body.

Edited September 1, 2011 by Aashyma

[Musicspren he/him]

I have a very confused theory regarding the Cosmere-well not so much of a theory as an interpretation and I'd like to hear your thoughts on it.

1. On Scardial, there are sixteen allomantric metals (not counting God metals and their alloys) and these are arranged in groups of four. Each group consists of two pairs.

2. We know that Aona and Skai were on Sel. Assuming that Aon Dor is fuelled/created by Aona, we could similarly say that the Durathi magic was fuelled/created by Skai. This lead me to think that the Dor on Sel is like the metal on Scardial-naturally occurring and merely a fuel rather than having been created by a Shard.

I like this part a lot; I had thought something similar. I suspect the Dor is somehow tied to the land on Sel, thus why the Aons are like "maps" of Arelon, while I suspect (although I have no confirmation of this) that the characters in the Dakhor's bones might look like maps of Fjorden. Breath might be the naturally-occurring medium on Nalthis.

The latter part seems similar to this theory: , except that you have applied allomantic quadrants, while they applied more realmatic quadrants. I'm not convinced on the idea that shards come in sets of two and four yet, but it would make some sense. Clearly 2 and its exponents are important, as they appear in other things like the Well of Ascension filling every 1024 years (2¹⁰). I would say that, to a lesser extent, are 10 and 3 are also important. (10 being particularly evident on Roshar, 3 because of realmatics).

[Aashyma she/her]

vThe latter part seems similar to this theory: http://www.17thshard...e-of-16-shards/ , except that you have applied allomantic quadrants, while they applied more realmatic quadrants.

I didn't notice that :/

I like my classification better-they seem to fall naturally into the four allomantric quadrants.

I am of course prejudiced.

Clearly 2 and its exponents are important, as they appear in other things like the Well of Ascension filling every 1024 years (210). I would say that, to a lesser extent, are 10 and 3 are also important. (10 being particularly evident on Roshar, 3 because of realmatics).

Three also keeps showing up because each Shardpair has three possible arts: one positive (Allomancy, Aon Dor, Surgebinding (?)) one negative (The Dakhor priest's arts, Hemalurgy) and one balanced (Feruchemy, the Jindo dance).

I like this part a lot; I had thought something similar. I suspect the Dor is somehow tied to the land on Sel, thus why the Aons are like "maps" of Arelon, while I suspect (although I have no confirmation of this) that the characters in the Dakhor's bones might look like maps of Fjorden. Breath might be the naturally-occurring medium on Nalthis.

That is what I was thinking

Edited September 1, 2011 by Aashyma

[happyman he/him]

I like this part a lot; I had thought something similar. I suspect the Dor is somehow tied to the land on Sel, thus why the Aons are like "maps" of Arelon, while I suspect (although I have no confirmation of this) that the characters in the Dakhor's bones might look like maps of Fjorden. Breath might be the naturally-occurring medium on Nalthis.

The latter part seems similar to this theory: , except that you have applied allomantic quadrants, while they applied more realmatic quadrants. I'm not convinced on the idea that shards come in sets of two and four yet, but it would make some sense. Clearly 2 and its exponents are important, as they appear in other things like the Well of Ascension filling every 1024 years (2¹⁰). I would say that, to a lesser extent, are 10 and 3 are also important. (10 being particularly evident on Roshar, 3 because of realmatics).

That the Well of Ascension fills up every 2^10 years says that both 10 and 2 are important on Scandrial. They just don't know it there!

And, of course, 16 is 2^(2^2). Two exponentiated three times. Coincidence? I really, seriously, doubt it.

[Musicspren he/him]

Three also keeps showing up because each Shardpair has three possible arts: one positive (Allomancy, Aon Dor, Surgebinding (?)) one negative (The Dakhor priest's arts, Hemalurgy) and one balanced (Feruchemy, the Jindo dance).

What I like about this idea is that it makes sense (particularly on Sel, and it could be extended to Awakening (positive), Returned and Nightblood (negative), Innate Breath (balanced) on Nalthis). What I don't like is that it feels a lot like what we read in Mistborn, and I don't think Sanderson would want to repeat himself on something like that. The three realmatic aspects of everything are essential in the Cosmere, but I don't know that the positive/negative/balanced trio is.

[Aashyma she/her]

What I like about this idea is that it makes sense (particularly on Sel, and it could be extended to Awakening (positive), Returned and Nightblood (negative), Innate Breath (balanced) on Nalthis). What I don't like is that it feels a lot like what we read in Mistborn, and I don't think Sanderson would want to repeat himself on something like that. The three realmatic aspects of everything are essential in the Cosmere, but I don't know that the positive/negative/balanced trio is.

It'd apply to planets with two Shards only and we don't know if there are two on Nathis.

As for BranSan having already used it-surely some themes will overlap espeicially as it is the same universe.

Edited September 1, 2011 by Aashyma

[Ari he/him]

I'd be wary of assuming just become we've encountered two pairs of shards that all shards pair up, or at least pair up the same way. We've encountered at least two shards that we know for sure have no partner on their world, (Endowment and Cultivation) and two where we don't know how they interact (Aona's and Skai's shards) and Brandon warned us in the past that not all shards will have as neatly opposed a relationship as Preservation and Ruin had, back when we were assuming that shards were eight pairs of diametric opposites.

It's entirely possible that shards do pair, but not all of them pair up in opposition. With one pair that oppose each other and another that seem to, there's still room for there to be up to three other types of pairings between shards if we assume that there's some pattern going on.