The four Dawnshards and their current and past vessels

[+Crossen]

The following is just a theory.

I think that a Dawnshard is somewhat of a concentrator of investiture. Like the difference between a flashlight and a laser. A laser is more “powerful” since all the light is beamed to a single point while a flashlight spreads the light out. The Command in more concentrated when using a Dawnshard. I think this is why Rysn as a Dawnshard is not deemed dangerous by the sleepless because she does not have access to any Investiture to concentrate.

My guess on what the commands of the Dawnshards are:
1.    Change
2.    Destroy
3.    Stay
4.    Bind (Unite)

Change Dawnshard
Current Vessel – Rysn
Past Vessel(s) – Unknown

This Dawnshard was recently taken up by Rysn in the Dawnshard Novella and this is the only confirmed sighting of a Dawnshard. It is unclear how this Dawnshard got to Aimia, but a logical guess is that somehow the sleepless hid it there or found it. It is not clear to me if this Dawnshard has been used in the past.

Destroy Dawnshard
Current Vessel – Nightblood (maybe Vasher)
Past Vessel(s) – Unknown

I think that it is very possible that Nightblood is itself a Dawnshard or was at least created by using a Dawnshard with the command DESTROY evil. It has been stated that Nightblood is a lot stronger than other objects with investiture. Brandon has stated that pretty much the only thing more powerful than Nightblood is a Shard itself. How would it get this powerful? It seems to me that being a Dawnshard or being made by using a Dawnshard is the only way.

Stay Dawnshard
Current Vessel – Frost
Past Vessel(s) – None

I think that Frost is the current vessel of the Stay Dawnshard and that it has always been that way since they were first used against Adonalsium. I think it is clear from their letters that both Frost and Hoid were at the Shattering of Adolalsium or at least a part of it:

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"He is what WE made him to be, old friend."

This leaves Frost as a likely candidate for a Dawnshard. He also seems to currently be really into the status quo or keeping things as they are (or just staying the same over time):

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“Now, look what you've made me say. You've always been able to bring out the most extreme in me, old friend. And I do still name you a friend, for all that you weary me. Yes, I'm disappointed. Perpetually, as you put it.”

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“You, however, have never been a force for equilibrium. You tow chaos behind you like a corpse dragged by one leg through the snow. Please, hearken to my plea. Leave that place and join me in my oath of nonintervention.”

Bind Dawnshard
Current Vessel – Unknown, maybe splintered or trapped/locked up
Past Vessel(s) – Hoid, Honor, Ba-Ado-Mishram

My idea for this Dawnshard comes from the Poem of Ista:

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“Taking the Dawnshard, known to bind any creature voidish or mortal, he crawled up the steps crafted for Heralds, ten strides tall apiece, toward the grand temple above.”

To me this Dawnshard does not sound like the Change Dawnshard, so it must be a separate Dawnshard. Brandon loves to leave hints in the way he names things similarly (can be seen with the Worldbringers and Worldsingers, with the name Zahel along with Nahel bonds and with Dawnshards, Dawnsingers and Dawncities). I think that he has done the same with the Bind Dawnshard and Surgebinding.

We know that something with very powerful Surgebinding (probably with the help of the concentration of a Dawnshard) helped to destroy most of Ashyn. I think that it is logical to conclude that the magic of Surgebinding was created with the use of a Dawnshard. This could have been used as a weapon against Odium when he arrived at the system, but the power had no limits and blew up in their face.

It seems to me that the logical first holder of the Bind Dawnshard would be Hoid. He wanted to get rid of Odium, but could not do so directly because of his pact, so he helped the humans on Ashyn create a new type of magic, Surgebinding, to defeat Odium. After that blew up in their faces, he led the humans to Roshar and came up with a plan to defeat Odium with Honor. 
I think after this Hoid or Honor or both used the Bind Dawnshard to bind Odium to the Rosharan system with the Oathpact. Later, Surgebinding was brought back with the Nahel bonds and oaths providing limits on the dangerous powers of the magic system. In the books there are a lot of questions brought up on if Adhesion(binding) is a “true” surge and Bondsmiths have always been the odd order out of the Knights Radiant. There are only 9 types of true spren, with Bondsmiths being different, so it seems to me like Bondsmithing was kind of made after the fact and is not a “true” surge of Honor, but only created using the Bind Dawnshard.

After this I think sometime around the False Desolation Ba-Ado-Mishram somehow stole the Bind Dawnshard or somehow got its power (maybe after Honor had become weakened enough). This is how she was able to connect with the Singers and give them forms of power. After the False Desolation she was locked away with “unintended consequences”. The Bind Dawnshard now resides with her or is broken somehow.

I also think that at some point in time that the Bind Dawnshard could have also been used to bind Ruin to the Well of Ascension. It seems unusual to me that cognitive shadows from systems that have not had one of their Shards trapped or bound in some way can freely move about the Cosmere, but those from Scadrial or Roshar cannot leave their system. I think that it has to do with the use of the Bind Dawnshard and its lingering effects on the system.

I think that the Ghostbloods’ true intentions are to get their hands on this Bind Dawnshard to try and free Kelsier, which is why they want Ba-Ado-Mishram. They also can possibly use the Dawnshard to bind Investiture for easy transportation.

 

That’s my theory. I know I went into the weeds a little. Any thoughts?

[Weltall]

3 hours ago, CROSSENuUP said:

It seems unusual to me that cognitive shadows from systems that have not had one of their Shards trapped or bound in some way can freely move about the Cosmere, but those from Scadrial or Roshar cannot leave their system. I think that it has to do with the use of the Bind Dawnshard and its lingering effects on the system.

While interesting and there are some possible hints that there could be more involved in Scadrial's backstory than we currently know, it should be pointed out that Nalthian Cognitive Shadows are bound just like Kelsier and the Heralds; there are ways to get around that binding and what separates Vasher from the others is simply that he knows how to do it. Hoid also apparently learns the trick because we see him on Scadrial during Era 2 and that means that (unless something happens to Design in Book 5) he's figured out how to get a Splinter offworld. They're bound to Physical/Cognitive regions exactly like Cognitive Shadows are, so for Hoid to leave the system while still bonded to her means learning the trick involved.

Edited April 27, 2021 by Weltall

[Honorless]

Well, Nightblood being a Dawnshard idea is fresh! If it helps, Dragonsteel Prime's main character was the holder of a Dawnshard whose Command seemed to have been related to Destroy. (You can check Brandon's site if you want to know more, there's some chapters available there). Do note that Brandon might've changed things

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Gary

I was wondering if Dawnshards were created at the same time that Adonalsium was.

Brandon Sanderson

Dawnshards, I’ll have to RAFO that, mostly because my timeline for all the Yolen stuff, with the Adonalsium stuff, is going to depend on writing Dragonsteel. And right now, I intend those to be post-Adonalsium but pre-Shattering. But I can’t canonize that until I’ve actually written that mythology and lore. Because the original intent of the Dawnshards, when you read Dragonsteel Prime (which we’ll release with the Words of Radiance leatherbound), you will find two Dawnshards in there. And their original intent has changed a great deal as I’ve canonized things and really, really dug into building the cosmere. And you’ll see what my kind of original intent for those was. (Or at least I can talk about it.) And it’s changed since then. The way that they were in that book (and have remained so far) is that they are younger than Adonalsium.

Dragonmount Zoom Call (Dec. 10, 2020)

Hoid having the Unite or Bind Dawnshard doesn't make a lot of sense. Hoid's immortality as well as inability to eat meat or hurt others comes from his the prev host of a Dawnshard. In Dragonsteel Prime his ability seemed kinda like the Surge of Progression. I don't see how all that might relate to Uniting or Binding. Perhaps the theorized Survive Dawnshard of Preservation's or Grow (same as Change?)

Edited April 29, 2021 by Honorless

[+Crossen]

38 minutes ago, Honorless said:

Hoid having the Unite or Bind Dawnshard doesn't make a lot of sense. Hoid's immortality as well as inability to eat meat or hurt others comes from his the prev host of a Dawnshard. In Dragonsteel Prime his ability seemed kinda like the Surge of Progression. I don't see how all that might relate to Uniting or Binding. Perhaps the theorized Survive Dawnshard of Preservation's or Grow (same as Change?)

Yeah I had the idea that the Destroy and Bind(Unite) Dawnshards could be opposites and could affect Hoid's spiritweb making him unable to be destroyed or to destroy. We also know that one of the Dawnshards is different from the others and that Hoid's Dawnshard (or gem) is "dead". It could be possible that Hoid held the Change Dawnshard and he thought that it was dead, but it really wasn't. Also, Hoid's first letter to Frost does talk a lot about how they are opposites, like Stay and Change would be.

[wordspren]

Ooooh, I really like the idea of Nightblood being a Dawnshard. If you go with the theory that each Dawnshard is attached to four shards, then this WoB seems relevant. 

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Walin

Does Nightblood contain any of Ruin's Investiture? Like, not atium, but...

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, technically; and I'm not wiggling around that, because technically, location in the Cosmere and who belongs to what gets really weird, right? Because Ruin's Investiture is everywhere--but I'm not talking that way. I'm talking the way you actually mean it. 

Of course, most people have associated Ruin with the Change Dawnshard, which seems to fit really well. This is super interesting though. 

[Ba-Ado-Fisherman]

Personally, I think 3 of the Dawnshards correspond with one of each of the realms.  One DS to create the physical, one of the mind, and one of the spirit, with Change being the DS that is "different from the others", possibly the Dawnshard used to set time and existence into motion.  

 

I have absolutely no evidence, other than that the Dawnshards were used, possibly BY Adonalsium, to create all things.  All things in the Cosmere have a body, mind and spirit.    

[+Crossen]

1 hour ago, Ba-Ado-Fisherman said:

Personally, I think 3 of the Dawnshards correspond with one of each of the realms.  One DS to create the physical, one of the mind, and one of the spirit, with Change being the DS that is "different from the others", possibly the Dawnshard used to set time and existence into motion.  

 

I have absolutely no evidence, other than that the Dawnshards were used, possibly BY Adonalsium, to create all things.  All things in the Cosmere have a body, mind and spirit.    

This is a pretty good thought with Change kind of being a time moving forward type of Dawnshard. Increase in entropy sort of. Which one of these would be the one mentioned in the Poem of Ista?

Edited April 29, 2021 by CROSSENuUP

[Ba-Ado-Fisherman]

6 hours ago, CROSSENuUP said:

This is a pretty good thought with Change kind of being a time moving forward type of Dawnshard. Increase in entropy sort of. Which one of these would be the one mentioned in the Poem of Ista?

The poem is odd, because of the description of beings as either "voidish or mortal".  That is a weird way to distinguish two separate groups of beings.  Why would a "voidish" being not be considered mortal, and vice versa.  Also, the fact that it is stated as "the Dawnshard", not "a Dawnshard", confuses me.  Honestly, I have no idea which one is being referenced.  I'm leaning towards Change, simply because it's the only confirmed one we have so far, but who knows.

[mathiau]

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 Destroy Dawnshard

How do you conciliate the idea of a Destroy Dawnshard with the fact Investiture can't be destroyed?

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Bind Dawnshard
Current Vessel – Unknown, maybe splintered or trapped/locked up
Past Vessel(s) – Hoid, Honor, Ba-Ado-Mishram

Why did you put Hoid here and not as a previous holder of Stay? Also there's no chance the initial agreement of the Shards doesn't include "we won't become Dawnshards", Honour with Bind, Ruin with Change or Preservation with Stay are far to scary idea for that

I'd add Nohadon as one of Bind's past Vessels, we know he was considered special among Surgebinders and the way Brandon talks about it makes me think it's not as simple as just "he was a Boundsmith"

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I think that the Ghostbloods’ true intentions are to get their hands on this Bind Dawnshard to try and free Kelsier, which is why they want Ba-Ado-Mishram. They also can possibly use the Dawnshard to bind Investiture for easy transportation.

We know that they wouldn't need that Dawnshard but it's possible they think they need it

15 hours ago, CROSSENuUP said:

This is a pretty good thought with Change kind of being a time moving forward type of Dawnshard. Increase in entropy sort of. Which one of these would be the one mentioned in the Poem of Ista?

The Poem imply some Connection effect so it'd be the Spiritual one

Note that "increase in entropy" is what Ruin is

Edited April 30, 2021 by mathiau