How many shards are there?[Hero of Ages Spoiler]

[Chinkoln]

How many shards? Originally there were 16. Some were splintered so that nobody held their power, but the Investiture that was unique to each shard remained. On Scadrial, Ruin and Preservation were each a shard. They died and were taken up by Sazed, becoming Harmony. Does that mean there are now 15 shards?

[Karger]

6 hours ago, Chinkoln said:

How many shards? Originally there were 16. Some were splintered so that nobody held their power, but the Investiture that was unique to each shard remained. On Scadrial, Ruin and Preservation were each a shard. They died and were taken up by Sazed, becoming Harmony. Does that mean there are now 15 shards?

Dominion, Devotion, Ambition, Honor and one other shard has been splintered IIRC.  Odium has tried various tactics to make this permanent.  Harmony is of course Ruin and Preservation combined.  WoBs indicate that around half of all shards are whole.

[Dunkum]

Depends on how you'd define it I suppose.  I'm not searching out WOBs right now, but Brandon has said that Ruin and Preservation are fairly intertwined at this point, so it would probably be pretty reasonable to consider Harmony to be a single shard, or supershard i guess, and that they would probably drop together as a single thing if Sazed were killed.  on the other hand, at least 4 shards have been splintered by Odium, so do they still count anymore?  it would take an enormous amount of effort to pick up their pieces and pull them back together, if you even could at this point.  Plus Autonomy seems to be splitting himself (herself?  not sure it was ever clear) into multiple avatars, which might or might not be similar to splintering - I don't think we have a lot of information on that.

[Brgst13]

It appears that the answer is unclear:

Quote

/r/fantasy AMA 2013 (April 23, 2013)
#16April 23, 2013 

 

 

Thanatos17901

If Sazed were to die, would he drop the Shards Ruin and Preservation, or would he drop the Shard Harmony?

Brandon Sanderson

Excellent question. The shards are now intermingled, and would take effort to split apart. He would drop Harmony. (This is what Odium feared would happen, by the way.)

 

 

The shards are intermingled, but could be separated with effort.

[GoWibble]

timeline: (spoilers for cosmere...)

1: Adonalsium

Then 16 Shards

Then 15 + wounded Uli Da

Then 13 (Aona and Skai died) + Wounded Uli Da

Then 13 (Uli Da dies)

Then 11 + deceased Ruin and Preservation

Then 12 (Harmony is formed) 

Quote

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Sazed is a Shard. Just like a king of two countries is still a king, a holder of two Shards is a Shard.

Alloy of Law 17th Shard Q&A (Nov. 5, 2011)

Then 11 (Honor dies)

 

This might be a little wrong with Uli Da and when it(?) dies

Edited August 15, 2020 by GoWibble

[Dunkum]

58 minutes ago, GoWibble said:

timeline: (spoilers for cosmere...)

1: Adonalsium

Then 16 Shards

Then 15 + wounded Uli Da

Then 13 (Aona and Skai died) + Wounded Uli Da

Then 13 (Uli Da dies)

Then 11 (Ruin and Preservation die)

Then 12 (Harmony is formed) 

Then 11 (Honor dies)

 

This might be a little wrong with Uli Da and when it(?) dies

I would say its still 13 when ruin and preservation die.  the shards are still there and still whole, they just arent being held by anyone.  this is distinct from the others that die, because their shards are torn apart by Odium.

[Chinkoln]

3 hours ago, Dunkum said:

on the other hand, at least 4 shards have been splintered by Odium, so do they still count anymore? 

Quote

Chaos

Is Splintering a Shard permanent?

Brandon Sanderson

No.

17th Shard Forum Q&A (Sept. 25, 2012)

 

[StanLemon]

I'd say 11 Shards. Splintered Shards aren't really Shards anymore, they are their own packets of Investiture. Sure they probably could be put back together into a Shard, but that doesn't mean the Shard is still their. The same way Adonalsium no longer exists. And as others have pointed out, Sazed now holds Harmony

Edited August 14, 2020 by StanLemon

[Eternal Khol]

31 minutes ago, Karger said:

Honor and one other shard has been splintered IIRC

is it one of the Shards we dont know?

[Karger]

12 minutes ago, Eternal Khol said:

is it one of the Shards we dont know?

I think so.

[Eternal Khol]

If that WoB is right(that half the Shards are whole). There should only be 1(maybe two more) Shards that are Splintered, or have splinters

 

my guess is the Aether planet 

[Chinkoln]

Well, there is plenty that we don't know about the Cosmere. There are other planets that exist, other Shards we haven't seen, and possibly other malevolence in the Cosmere. Ruin would have most likely Splintered a few Shards by now if he hadn't been bound to Scadrial and so evenly matched with Preservation. We only know of a few Shards that have been canonized, we need more info.

[GoWibble]

21 hours ago, Chinkoln said:

Chaos

Is Splintering a Shard permanent?

Brandon Sanderson

No.

17th Shard Forum Q&A (Sept. 25, 2012)

So for now, I don't think that Splintered Shards count. They could be theoretically be remade, but they haven't  been. yet

Quote

Little Wilson

You mentioned that half(-ish) Shards are whole at-- during Shadows of Self. Is that counting Splinters?

Brandon Sanderson

Okay, one more time.

Little Wilson

You mentioned that half-- like I think it was at the Bands of Mourning release party-- you said that "half-ish Shards are whole" during Shadows of Self.

Brandon Sanderson

"Half-ish Shards are whole?"

Little Wilson

Yeah, you didn't want to do the math, because it was-- *interrupted*

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, I get it. You're saying-- Okay, so I'm sorry. I'm trying to think of Shards that are half-powered. That's not what you're saying. Half of the existing Shards. 

Little Wilson

Yes, yes.

Brandon Sanderson

Okay, got it. Yeah.

Little Wilson

And does that-- is that counting Splinters? Splintered Shards?

Brandon Sanderson

Zas678

Like completely Splintered as in Dominion and Devotion.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. That's what-- That's the opposite of whole.

Zas678

But having a Splinter, like Endowment...

Little Wilson

Because I-- I was kind of going with "Shattered" <and> "Splintered". So Shattered would be kind of what I was going with Devotion and Dominion. 

Brandon Sanderson

Okay.

Little Wilson

And then Splintered would be more like... You mentioned that Honor kind of Splintered himself off to create the spren before--

Isaac Stewart

Oh, and that's mentioned isn't it?

Brandon Sanderson

Right, but you've got to keep in mind that-- um... So in Scadrial, Ruin and Preservation did the same thing. Their bodies are part of the world. They-- if their exist-- like, the things on the Spiritual Realm don't matter where they are in relation to each other and things like this. All those <piece> spren are still Honor, when he was alive. Does that make sense? Like, yes those are little Splinters of Honor, but they are still Honor. It's not like he's diminished, because his whole essence is the world, right? There is no diminishing that. And so that thing is we're talking about the fracturing of the mind and the killing of the Shard. That's the distinction between whole and not whole as I was making it for you there.

Calamity release party (Feb. 16, 2016)

19 hours ago, Karger said:

Dominion, Devotion, Ambition, Honor and one other shard has been splintered IIRC.

Can you point me to this WoB? I can find one that is not stating that Ambition was splintered, but not an additional one

[Karger]

11 hours ago, GoWibble said:

Can you point me to this WoB

Unfortunately I can't.  Hence my uncertainty.

[GoWibble]

12 hours ago, Karger said:

Unfortunately I can't.  Hence my uncertainty.

I found something:

Quote

Little Wilson

And so are there any Shards that we don't know of that are Shattered?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Zas678's sister

Four, right? Ish?

Brandon Sanderson

Eh... eh... Honor is gone.

Little Wilson

And Devotion and Dominion.

Brandon Sanderson

Devotion and Dominion are gone. There are others. The question is, [is] Cultivation gone or not? I'm not-- I haven't answered that for you. There are others. So this is what I can't-- I'm not gonna <just> share the answer. This is why I'm not gonna give you answers on these things.

Calamity release party (Feb. 16, 2016)

but it might just be referring to Ambition