How do we know what Ambition was?

[Spike eye]

Okay I could not for the life of me find where this information was first provided, but how do we know that Ambition was one of the Sho Len? I understand or the third species on Yolen but how do we know one took up a shard. Not to get overly into the lore 

[Treamayne]

Welcome to the Forums

4 hours ago, Spike eye said:

Okay I could not for the life of me find where this information was first provided, but how do we know that Ambition was one of the Sho Del? I understand or the third species on Yolen but how do we know one took up a shard. Not to get overly into the lore 

Check out the Ambition article at the Coppermind, it's annotated and each source is linked. I would imagine these are the sources you are asking for:

Spoiler

Quote

Questioner

Are any of the Shards we have seen nonhuman?

Brandon Sanderson

There were three races on Yolen.

Questioner

And all the Shards we've seen, you're not gonna answer?

Brandon Sanderson

I'm not gonna answer, but there are three races on Yolen. There's humans, there's Sho Del, and there's dragons.

Quote

FirstSelector

Is Uli Da Ambition?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes... That one's pretty obvious, though, right?

Oathbringer San Francisco signing (Nov. 15, 2017)

Quote

Chaos

Is Uli Da a Sho Del?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah.

Chaos

Can we post that?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah you can go ahead and post that. That's fine.

Chaos

I figured that from the...

Brandon Sanderson

Right, the naming convention makes it really obvious.

Salt Lake City signing (Dec. 16, 2017)

 

 

Edited October 18, 2023 by Treamayne

[alder24]

4 hours ago, Spike eye said:

Okay I could not for the life of me find where this information was first provided, but how do we know that Ambition was one of the Sho Len? I understand or the third species on Yolen but how do we know one took up a shard. Not to get overly into the lore 

Her name is very different, very non-human. And this was confirmed by Brandon in this WoB:

Spoiler

Chaos

Is Uli Da a Sho Del?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah.

Chaos

Can we post that?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah you can go ahead and post that. That's fine.

Chaos

I figured that from the...

Brandon Sanderson

Right, the naming convention makes it really obvious. 

Chaos

But that's not posted on the Dragonsteel sample so...

Brandon Sanderson

Right. But that's canon. It's pretty obvious to me... And so it's fine with me canonizing it. I mean, I've been coy with it for years. But when I say there are Shards that aren't human. There are three races on Yolen... Adding the math together is going to get you a pretty obvious answer.

Salt Lake City signing (Dec. 16, 2017)

 

The best place to look for such information is Coppermind wiki and look at the sources provided, which are often WoBs, or book chapters. Look out for spoilers, if you haven't read some books. You can use Time Machine to hide spoilers from recently released books, like Secret Projects.

Edit: @Treamayne 

Edited October 18, 2023 by alder24