Physical shard theory

[HOID WANTS INSTANT NOODLES]

So, as of now it is know that there are 16 shards which make up adonalsiums spiritual presence and 4 dawnshards that make up it's cognative presence.It seems like a logical jump that there would be some sort of shard that makes up adonalsiums physical presence.  There would probably be 2 as so far we have worked with sqaring shard numbers and 256 physical shards seems like overkill. Are there any wobs pretaining to this.

[Ixthos]

5 hours ago, HOID WANTS INSTANT NOODLES said:

So, as of now it is know that there are 16 shards which make up adonalsiums spiritual presence and 4 dawnshards that make up it's cognative presence.It seems like a logical jump that there would be some sort of shard that makes up adonalsiums physical presence.  There would probably be 2 as so far we have worked with sqaring shard numbers and 256 physical shards seems like overkill. Are there any wobs pretaining to this.

As I recall the Shards are present in all three realms, it is just that their power is mostly in the Spiritual Realm and the concept underlying them is manifest in the Cognitive and Physical Realm, while the Dawnshards are not what I would label as primarily Cognitive - as each was associated with tearing apart a Spiritual Realm being, and Change is a good description of the idea underlying at least two shards (Ruin and Cultivation, and arguably Endowment and - as an antithesis - Preservation), it doesn't seem accurate to think of them as Cognitive Realm elements, or at least not purely Cognitive Realm elements anymore than the Shards are. Why do you suppose the Dawnshards are primarily Cognitive Realm related?

[HOID WANTS INSTANT NOODLES]

Wait.... Yknow when you just took something for granted and it sudenly turns out wrong...

[Ixthos]

7 minutes ago, HOID WANTS INSTANT NOODLES said:

Wait.... Yknow when you just took something for granted and it sudenly turns out wrong...

We've all been there  don't get discouraged - this is exactly the right sort of topic to theorise about here. Keep going! It is a cool theory even if I disagree with it 

[Frustration]

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison

[cometaryorbit]

I do think there's a good argument for Dawnshards (as they are Commands) being primarily Cognitive -- but I don't think they are fragments of Adonalsium's Cognitive Aspect in the way the Shards are fragments of Adonalsium's Investiture, since the Dawnshards existed when Adonalsium was whole. I think they were tools Adonalsium made.

EDIT: however... many Shards we've seen have had a physical manifestation (atium, lerasium, harmonium, Honorblades/Shardblades, raysium, and maybe the Tears of Edgli).

The only Shardworld we have a full novel from that doesn't have something like this is Sel, and it might exist there too and not be seen on-screen. (Or the Cognitive nature of the Dor interferes with the Investiture "condensing" into the Physical?)

With the idea of Investiture "condensing" it seems likely that Adonalsium had a physical aspect or manifestation.

Edited July 12, 2022 by cometaryorbit

[+Harrycrapper]

18 minutes ago, cometaryorbit said:

The only Shardworld we have a full novel from that doesn't have something like this is Sel, and it might exist there too and not be seen on-screen. (Or the Cognitive nature of the Dor interferes with the Investiture "condensing" into the Physical?)

I'm relatively certain perpendicularities are manifestations of the Shards in the physical realm, and we definitely saw one of those in Elantris. There's also Soulstone from Emperor's Soul, but we don't really know much about it other than it makes forgery easier. Probably not a godmetal, but maybe relevant.

[cometaryorbit]

Yeah true the Pool in Elantris is definitely a Perpendicularity... I guess I was thinking of more of a material though - an atium/lerasium analog rather than a Pits/Well analog.

Soulstone.... good point, I know thats been discussed in the past. I thought it was more "this is a really good material for carving" rather than magically better though?

I don't really understand why the Rosharan manifestations are all metal but the Tears of Edgli aren't... unless maybe the Tears aren't the actual manifestation themselves but are flowers that can only grow in an environment that has edglium(?) in the soil and take up the metal into themselves, and the Tears based dyes are like edglium compounds? Like how some plants can "hyperaccumulate" metals from the soil?

[Fezzik]

On 7/12/2022 at 6:25 PM, cometaryorbit said:

I don't really understand why the Rosharan manifestations are all metal but the Tears of Edgli aren't... unless maybe the Tears aren't the actual manifestation themselves but are flowers that can only grow in an environment that has edglium(?) in the soil and take up the metal into themselves, and the Tears based dyes are like edglium compounds? Like how some plants can "hyperaccumulate" metals from the soil?

Alternatively, the flowers just grow near an underground perpendicularity (like the pits of hathsin) and the water the roots draw up is invested from the shardpool.