Why do people split Shards under Dawnshards?

[Argenti he/him]

I'm curious, why do people think that the existence of Dawnshards implies Shards are split into quartets? I'm not saying I disagree, but just because 4*4= 16 doesn't mean they need to be connected, not everything has to always fit into boxes, especially not fragments of god's personality.

[alder24]

9 hours ago, Argenti said:

I'm curious, why do people think that the existence of Dawnshards implies Shards are split into quartets? I'm not saying I disagree, but just because 4*4= 16 doesn't mean they need to be connected, not everything has to always fit into boxes, especially not fragments of god's personality.

Mural in Akinah suggests those groupings exists. And this WoB confirmed this and said it's relevant, at least for us, nerds.

Spoiler

Questioner

How much should we be thinking about possible logical groupings of Shards? For instance, as pairs or groups of four.

Brandon Sanderson

Go ahead, knock yourselves out. This is relevant, but only in a sort of Cosmerenaut sort of way, people who like theorizing on these things and what not. It's not going to be hugely relevant to the narrative, but Dawnshard does indicate that these groupings are a place you can go.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/470/#e14821

 

 

 

[ftl]

Here's the quote from Dawnshard that nudged people even more in this direction, from the description of the mural that held/was the Dawnshard:

Quote

 

The peculiar letters were art themselves, curling around the outside of the exploding sun—which was divided into mostly symmetrical pieces. Four of them, each in turn broken into four smaller sections.

It seems to be a pretty natural guess that that's a representation of the shattering, which then has Adonalsium split into four groups of four.

[+Invocation]

Brandon called it a "Nice theory" at point.

Spoiler

ArgentSun

Now, I can share the Dawnshard theory I am currently running with, and you can super RAFO it (while also providing a cryptic teasing hint that will frustrate for years?). But before that, thank you for this book. It's not quite Secret History level stuff, but it's fantastic in a very similar way, and I am genuinely happy, and giddy, and also not a small amount of confused

But theory. So, I am thinking that the Dawnshards are Commands in the way "Let there be light" is a command, and the four of them are enough to explain everything. If one of them is Change (something into something else), then other plausible options might be Create (something from nothing), some form of Destroy (something into nothing), and... Stasis? Maintain? Remain? something like that.

Brandon Sanderson

Super RAFO! Nice theory.

trimeta

Ooh, another "identity of the Dawnshards" theory, triggered by OP's "Let there be light" comment: I don't suppose the Dawnshards are in any way related to Maxwell's Equations (of which there are four), which govern electromagnetism? I used to have a t-shirt that said "And God said: <Maxwell's Equations>. And there was light," which is what got me thinking.

Brandon Sanderson

That's a big old RAFO, but mostly because I'm trying to stay tight lipped on the subject of Dawnshards.

Dawnshard Annotations Reddit Q&A (Nov. 6, 2020)

And Brandon has said that there was Dawnshard influence on the Shards.

Spoiler

LewsTherinTelescope

You've said before that, while the Ten Surges arose due to perception of what things are fundamental forces, there were "seeds" that influenced what people perceived as fundamental. Is knowledge of the Rosharan Shards and Dawnshards the "seed" referenced here?

Brandon Sanderson

The Shards yes, but I wouldn't say the Dawnshards were involved directly--but the Shards were influenced by the Dawnshards, so... It gets muddy.

General Reddit 2021 (March 11, 2021)

It kind of snowballed from there.

[Argenti he/him]

10 minutes ago, alder24 said:

Mural in Akinah suggests those groupings exists. And this WoB confirmed this and said it's relevant, at least for us, nerds.

  Reveal hidden contents

Questioner

How much should we be thinking about possible logical groupings of Shards? For instance, as pairs or groups of four.

Brandon Sanderson

Go ahead, knock yourselves out. This is relevant, but only in a sort of Cosmerenaut sort of way, people who like theorizing on these things and what not. It's not going to be hugely relevant to the narrative, but Dawnshard does indicate that these groupings are a place you can go.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/470/#e14821

 

 

 

Ahh, that makes sense 

[Argenti he/him]

56 minutes ago, ftl said:

Here's the quote from Dawnshard that nudged people even more in this direction, from the description of the mural that held/was the Dawnshard:

It seems to be a pretty natural guess that that's a representation of the shattering, which then has Adonalsium split into four groups of four.

That's fascinating, I wonder if Rysn was more cosmere aware, she would have understood what it implied