Do Shardholders instantly become aware of the cosmere?

[ruffblade027]

So are all the Shardholders aware of the cosmere, or do some just consider themselves the god of that world. Vin certainly didn't seem to be aware of the cosmere and everything that was going on. And it never mentions if Sazed (I guess we call him Harmony now) is aware of it. However I feel like they would have to at some point.

 

Do you think maybe once a shard changes hands that the Seventeenth Shard swoops in an informs them? It would certainly explain their purpose. Instead of a bunch of random events happening all over the cosmere the Seventeenth Shard links them all together and makes sure everything that happens links together.

[Dellexe he/him]

The knowledge of the Cosmere doesn't come instantly with the Shard. Sazed didn't understand it at first but I think there's a WoB that says he later started looking outwards and discovered it.

 

And both the Lord Ruler (when he used the Well of Ascension) and Vin (when she becomes Preservation) don't realize the Cosmere while they held the power. It's probably that whoever the Shard-holder is just has to look outside of their little sphere of influence to discover the Cosmere, but they didn't do that immediately.

 

Though Sazed does say in one of the Hero of Ages chapter headers that he knows the name Adonalsium, which would indicate some kind of innate Cosmere awareness when holding a Shard.

[ruffblade027]

Oh yeah, didn't he discover the name whilst searching through all the religions? Before he took the Shards?

[Dellexe he/him]

I'm not sure. He only writes that after he becomes Harmony, so it could be either. I don't remember him getting it from one of the religions, though.

[Cstryon he/him]

I'd have to listen to the end of HoA again, but I feel like I got the impression that he became aware fairly quick.

If so it might have something to do with his copperminds, and that he's holding 2 shards... But my memory on the specifics of what he knows is rusty. I'll listen again and get back to you guys after I see whether he mentioned an awareness of more than just Scadrial.

Also, unless the name came from Hoid, or another world hopper, why would his copperminds have the name Adolnasium? Someone in the ancient religions got that name from somewhere.

[snote]

Harmony says at the end of HoA that he was searching for meaning to all that happened and a beginning if I remember right. Then he says that there is a wall he can't see past but was only able to come up with the word Adolnesium. So, he wasn't aware of it until he specifically went looking. I would imagine the same is true for the other shards. They don't focus outside themselves until things get calmed down or they are naturally inquisitive. So, I bet it isn't an innate bit of information that comes with shard possession.

[Green Hoodie Mistborn he/him]

Chapter 2 Epigraph:

 

Holding the power did strange things to my mind. In just a few moments, I became familiar with the power itself, with its history, and with the ways it might be used.

 

Yet, this knowledge was different from experience, or even ability to use that power. For instance, I knew how to move a planet in the sky. Yet, I didn't know where to place it so that it wouldn't be too close, or too far, from the sun.

 

Chapter 39 has the Epigraph talking about Adonalsium... where it came from...? It's unclear if he delved knowledge on Scadrial or sent out "feelers" into the universe

 

Even now, I can barely grasp the scope of all this. The events surrounding the end of the world seem even larger than the Final Empire and the people within it. I sense shards of something from long ago, a fractured presence, something spanning the void.

 

I have delved and searched, and have only been able to come up with a single name: Adonalsium. Who, or what, it was, I do not yet know.

 

Chapter 57 has the Epigraph on Realmatic theory:

 

I have come to see that each power has three aspects: a physical one, which can be seen in the creations made by Ruin and Preservation; a spiritual one in the unseen energy that permeates all of the world; and a cognitive one in the minds which controlled that energy.

 

There is more to this. Much more that even I do not yet comprehend.

 

Chapter 71 epigraph

 

...As for the other aspects of the number . . . well, even I am still investigating that. Suffice it to say that it has great ramifications regarding how the world, and the universe itself, works.

 

Based on these, I would have to say that you get some basic realmatic/cosmere knowledge, but any larger Cosmere knowledge is not instant and requires some deific research, and looking outside of your own Shardworld of influence. Of course for those who took the Shards initially after the Shattering, i would say they were probably already knowledgeable about the Cosmere prior to the Shattering, or at least picking up of the Shards. For those coming to the Shard's power later like Vin/Sazed etc, it looks like work!

Edited June 6, 2014 by Green Hoodie Mistborn

[Gaz he/him]

I would think Harmony got some information on Realmatic Theory, because he was able to change Snapping and the mist.

[The Mad Reader she/her]

It would seem reasonable if a shardholder was granted understanding of how the magic works without finding out about what else is out there or how things came to be the way they are. So Harmony would be able to understand Realmatic Theory, but no cosmere knowledge beyond that.

[happyman he/him]

My personal guess is that the mind is expanded in ways that correspond to the shard's underlying nature, equivalent to human instincts, and that the rest follows from the knowledge and observation.  The two would fit together fairly well, in my opinion.

 

An example from humanity:  There is strong evidence that we are born with an innate practical knowledge of Euclidian geometry, with us learning concepts related to it very quickly.  Among other things, our entire visual system is built around finding and tracking things in three-dimensional space.  Thus we are born with this knowledge.  With this basis of intuition, there are lots of other things we need to learn from experience, but which we learn really, really quickly on this basis, basically just by looking.  (Note that "really quickly" involves months of experience, but compared to how complex the problems really are, including social interaction (!), that's fast.)

 

I expect newly formed shards are much the same way.  They almost instantly get new senses and abilities to understand the world, with much of the stuff they "learn" built-in to their new instincts.  To consciously understand it, though, they need to explore.  However, their newly tuned instincts and mental capacity make things which look really hard to normal humans practically obvious once they think to look.  Hence Sazed's almost instantaneous discovery of the three realms, something not remotely obvious to normal humans.

 

Thus I suspect that Sazed is more cosmere aware just because he's thought to look and because his instincts made hard problems much simpler for him.  However, this gets to the last, and trickiest subject:  motivation.  He's only going to look at things he cares about, and this is the downside to holding shards:  you become monomaniacal on your driving subject.  A normal human may make a connection a shard doesn't, not because the Shard can't, but because it doesn't care.