A “Life” Dawnshard and Awakening

[+JesterLavorre]

OK, So I literally just finished reading and skimmed the first page of the Dawnshard spoiler board to make sure nobody had already posted this exact theory. If I missed it, sorry about that.

Okay, major dawnshard spoilers:

 

Spoiler

 

I think that one of the dawnshards’ commands in something about creating life, and that it’s on Nalthis. Here’s why:

• Rysn seems to have reached something comparable to a heightening in awakening. This draws a parallel between Dawnshards an awakening.
• Creating life is a large part of what makes a god a god. It seems like a pretty big part of the Cosmere. Investiture even seeks out life and becomes sentient on its own.
• A lot of awaking focuses on life. It makes things become alive, and divine breaths heal. Also, awakening is the only other place we have seen the word command used magically.

If this is true, this could explain and hint at a lot:

• This could be the dawnshard Hoid held. From Brandon’s annotation of Dawnshard, we know Hoid ca’t hurt things and is immortal because he once held a dawnshard. It would make perfect sense for that dawnshard to be about creating life. He can’t stop living, and he can’t stop other things from living.
• Nightblood is now very interesting. Brandon has said another sword awakened like Nightblood would not be the same as Nightblood. Something special happened for Nightblood. What if that had something to do with dawnshards?
• As someone from another planet with a dawnshard, this would also make Vasher a lot more important. Maybe this is the reason Brandon put Vasher on Roshar. Vasher was originally designed as a Stormlight character. Maybe his purpose was something to do with dawnshards?

 

Anyway, that’s not really a thought out theory, just something I randomly thought of as I finished the book, and had to write down before I forgot it.

[scm288]

50 minutes ago, JesterLavorre said:

Nightblood is now very interesting. Brandon has said another sword awakened like Nightblood would not be the same as Nightblood. Something special happened for Nightblood. What if that had something to do with dawnshards?

Is it possible that the Command that made Nightblood is, itself, a Dawnshard Command?

Quote

"The most powerful forms of Surgebinding transcend traditional mortal understanding . . . All their greatest applications require Intent and a Command. Demands on a level no person could ever manage alone. To make such Commands, one must have the reasoning--the breadth of understanding--of a deity. And so, the Dawnshards. The four primal Commands that created all things."

Intent and a Command. Sound familiar?

[Ashbringer]

My guess is that Awakening is just a very small-scale version of what a Dawnshard can do: funnel Investiture into fulfiling a Command. Except a Dawnshard’s Command is so versitile that in the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing it becomes world-ending.

I like the theories of Nightblood being (or being heavily influenced by) a Destroy Dawnshard, as it would explain his odd creation and some WoBs - for example, holding Ruin-esque Investiture.

I’m suspecting the Commands are Change, Unite, Divide/Destroy, and Remain; but there have been some others I’ve seen. “Think” and “Feel” are ones I like - it ties to Odium and Ruin’s “passion” and the idea of creating life. And giving something a Command to Think could have... a lot of fun consequences 

[ftl]

21 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

I’m suspecting the Commands are Change, Unite, Divide/Destroy, and Remain;

Instead of Remain.... have it be SURVIVE. (mistborn spoilers)

Spoiler

Callback to Kelsier hearing SURVIVE in the pits of Hathsin, and later from Preservation.

I love your other ones. Change: now with Rysn. Unite: influencing Dalinar. Destroy: involved in the creation of Nightblood, somehow. Survive: influenced Kelsier.

 

Edited November 8, 2020 by ftl

[+JesterLavorre]

I still like “live” better than survive. Mainly because “survive” or “remain” seems a little too close to the shard preservation. Same goes for ruin and the command “destruction”. 
We don’t really know a lot about Dawnshards, though, so it’s definitely possible some stray toward shard intents. It just seems strange to me.

[Kingsdaughter613]

Destruction is a part of change, most likely.

Live or Survive, with the latter currently being more likely due to 

Spoiler

Whatever was going with Kell at the pits.

Unite, because of Dalinar and Unity.

I think the last would be Act, as in ‘perform an action.’

[Fivenames]

12 hours ago, ftl said:

Instead of Remain.... have it be SURVIVE. (mistborn spoilers)

  Reveal hidden contents

Callback to Kelsier hearing SURVIVE in the pits of Hathsin, and later from Preservation.

I love your other ones. Change: now with Rysn. Unite: influencing Dalinar. Destroy: involved in the creation of Nightblood, somehow. Survive: influenced Kelsier.

 

Literally just signed up on 17th shard because I had the same thought as the spoiler here.

I'm also thinking this may be the shard Hoid held. It seems consistent with being unable to physically harm, including eating meat.

Spoiler

Also, I believe Brandon has talked about how Hoid and Kelsier are too similar to be able to get along well.

I'd go further, though. I'm wondering if Kelsier might actually be a SURVIVE dawnshards. Having him and Hoid be the current and former dawnshards of the same command would make a lot of sense, in my mind.

On the other hand, we haven't seen anything from Kelsier to match the changes to Hoid's soul, but we haven't seen that much of Kelsier past Mistborn 1, and in Secret History, Hoid didn't have to obey his rules either---whether that's because he and Kelsier were in the cognitive realm, or perhaps because the rules don't hold for entities with a shared command?

 

Edited November 8, 2020 by Fivenames

[ftl]

In Secret History,

Spoiler

Hoid expressed surprise at being able to "hurt" Kelsier. He then immediately gave an explanation - because Kelsier was a cognitive shadow, nothing Hoid did to him was actually hurting him, it was all just "in his head", so to speak. If Kelsier had simply decided not to feel pain there, he wouldn't have, because nothing Hoid was doing was actually causing any damage. Cognitive-shadow Kelsier didn't actually have nerves to hurt, or cells to break, etc.

 

Edited November 9, 2020 by ftl