How did time pass for Vin?

[Ale the Metallic Conjurer]

Disclaimer: Haven't yet read Secret History, currently on Alloy of Law chapter 10

I knew that Shards experience time at a really weird pace. Rashek experienced minutes of mortal time as hours, and Ruin said time means nothing to Shards. But looking at HoA chapters 73 and 74, it’s now even weirder.

Chapters 72 and 73 of The Hero of Ages take place during nighttime. It was nighttime when Vin arrived at Luthadel, and several characters react to the convergence of Mists during nighttime. She loses to the Inquisitors, gets Invested with the Mists, booty smacks them into the Beyond, and Ascends to her rightful place as the god of stasis.

Then chapter 74 opens during sunrise, I think. Early morning before noon. Elend and Ham commented that the environment felt hot like never before. Yet the ash nearly buried the koloss corpses.

In chapter 76, Vin has her first moment as Preservation. She understood "things" (what does that even mean?) and quested out with the power without using it. I believe Sanderson was trying to convey time was passing as a few “hours” in the Physical Realm, but I'm not certain. She plugged the ashmounts and erased all atmospheric ash, within, as paraphrased by the text: “a matter of instants, no more than five minutes would’ve passed in the world." The world burned immediately, and she rotated Scadrial like 180 degrees. Crap happened during her questing, and she saw Elend fast traveling to Luthadel.

Chapter 77 comes. Elend made it to Luthadel and jumped around. To him, the ash was slowly trickling away, the sun blazed for a few moments in ch 74, and I think day becoming night happened not too long ago. Or.. maybe it happened while he’s in Kredik Shaw?

I remember reading the text as Vin’s rotation happening in chapter 77. Did I remember it wrong?

How long did Vin wield the Shard of Preservation, and how the rust did time pass for her?

[Treamayne]

Let's see if we can piece this together.

Countdown Chronology:

Spoiler

• Day -3 - Dusk - Vin arrives at Luthadel (Ch 72)
• Day -3 - Vin loses to the Inquisitors and is tortured by Marsh (Ch 72)
• Day -2 - Marsh rips out Vin's Spike (Earring) (Ch 72)
• Day -2 - The Mists Recede, noticed by TenSoon, Allrianne, and Elend (Ch 73)
• Day -2 - Vin fights and destroys the inquisitors with mist-fueled allomancy (Ch 73)
• Day -2 - Elend discovers the Deepness was snapping people into Mistings, leaves for Luthadel (Ch 74)
• Day -2 - KanPaar stages a Revolutin (Ch 75)
• Day -2 - Vin Awakens as Preservation (Ch 76)
• Day -1 - Dawn - Vin plugs the Ashmounts, wipes the ash from the sky and, when the continent burns, spins the planet back to dusk (Ch 76)
• Day -1 - Dusk - Elend notes that he passed a lava flow nead Mt Tyrian at dawn before the sun flashed across the sky and it became night again right before arriving at Luthadel (Ch 77)
• Day -1 - Tensoon rescues Sazed (Ch 78)
• Day -1 - Ruin notices KanPaar trying to sell Atium (Ch 79)
• Day -1 - Elends travles to the Terris Refugees at the Pits (Ch 79) He notes the night is almost half over.
• Day -1 - Ruin takes control of the Kandra (Ch 79)
• Day -1 - Vin Leads Elend to the Kandra Homeland (Ch 80)
• Day 0 - Vin fuels Elends Allomancy directly (Ch 81)
• Day 0 - Marsh Kills Elend (CH 81)
• Day 0 - Vin attacks Ruin, both Perish (Ch 81)
• Day 0 - Dawn - Sazed Ascends to Harmony (Ch 82)

So, Vin held Preservation for about 2 days of real time (and slightly more subjective Spiritual Realm "time" - since there is no time or location in the Spiritual Realm)

[alder24]

5 hours ago, Ale the Metallic Conjurer said:

Then chapter 74 opens during sunrise, I think. Early morning before noon. Elend and Ham commented that the environment felt hot like never before. Yet the ash nearly buried the koloss corpses.

 

I remember reading the text as Vin’s rotation happening in chapter 77. Did I remember it wrong?

It feels hot because the Mists are gone, and Mists helped to cool the planet down a little bit, like an additional layer of clouds. It's not because Vin rotated the planet, that form Elend's PoV comes later in ch 77.

5 hours ago, Ale the Metallic Conjurer said:

How long did Vin wield the Shard of Preservation, and how the rust did time pass for her?

There is definitely some kind of time dilation involved when you're a Shard - Shards can do it both ways, as they can perceive it both slower or faster depending on their desire, kind of. Shards perceive the passage of time differently, as Shards exist mainly in the Spiritual Realm, which is timeless.

From Vin's perspective - only a short conversation with Ruin, and a few devine actions, took place during the same time that Elend needed to journey from Fadrex to Luthadel. Elend left Fardrex in the morning (Vin fought with Inquisitors in Luthadel during the night before this morning), and arrived at Luthadel in the "afternoon", but in the meantime Vin moved the planet, so there was a night again. 

ch 72:

Quote

It began raining just before Vin reached Luthadel. A quiet, cold drizzle that wetted the night, but did not banish the mists.
[...]
The flames defied the rain, illuminating the various slums and other neighborhoods like watch fires in the night.
[...]
She landed with a splash atop a building, then leaped again, bounding over the city. She wasn't certain if it was poetic or ominous that it was raining this night. There had been another night when she had visited Kredik Shaw in the rain. A part of her still thought she should have died that night

ch 77:

Quote

He jumped from building to building. He kicked up ash with each leap. Things were happening. The ash was slowly trickling away—in fact, it had mostly stopped falling. That was good, but he remembered well a short time ago when the sun had suddenly blazed with an amazing intensity. Those few moments had burned him so that his face still hurt.

Then, the sun had . . . dropped. It had fallen below the horizon in less than a second, the ground lurching beneath Elend's feet. Part of him assumed that he was going mad. Yet, he could not deny that it was now nighttime, even if his body—and one of the city clocks he had visited—indicated that it should have been afternoon.

It took him some time to arrive at the Pits, and when he got there he estimated that this night was half through, by the end of this night he and his soldiers ate all of Atium and fought the Koloss army, with him dying as the sun was rising. But remember, because Vin rotated the planet, this sunrise was 6-12 h earlier than normally. From my estimates it looks like Vin held Preservation for around 1.5 days. ch 77:

Quote

Elend glanced up at the night sky, speckled with stars. Some time had passed during his travel to the Pits from Luthadel. If time were now passing normally, the night was halfway through. What would happen when the sun rose again?

ch 80:

Quote

"Scout's report, my lord," Demoux said, face illuminated by a pole-top torch flickering in the night breeze. "Those koloss you saw, they are heading this way. Moving quickly. Scouts saw them approaching in the distance from a hilltop. They . . . could be here before the night is over."

ch 81:

Quote

The sun crested the horizon in the east. It started to grow hotter.
They had been fighting for hours, yet the army of koloss still seemed endless. Elend slew another koloss, but his motions were beginning to feel sluggish.

ch 82, after Vin and Ati's death:

Quote

Outside, the sun rose into the sky. The heat was incredible, like an oven. Cries of pain echoed from deep within the cavern behind Sazed. Koloss were inside.

 

Edit: Elend arrived during the afternoon to Luthadel, a short time before he arrived he witnessed the Sun dropping below the horizon, as Vin rotated the planet back by around 12h ("spinning the world quickly so that the sun moved to its other side"). The night was back (from the afternoon back 12h, that would be between midnight and late night, closer to the dawn than dusk) and before it ended, he and Vin died - I feel like it would be somewhere around the evening/midnight if Vin didn't rotate the planet. So it would mean Vin held Preservation for around 24h, but that depends when during the previous night she Ascended - if closer to dawn then less than 24h, if closer to dusk then a bit more.  Vin left Fadrex in ch 67, but we don't know if the entire day passed or not (probably not as Elend could make it to Luthadel before the afternoon, and he was worse at horseshou trick than Vin) - that would mean Vin Ascended closer to the dawn than dusk, so less then 24h had passed with Vin as Preservation. 

What season did HoA take place? Winter? 

Edited October 22, 2023 by alder24

[Ale the Metallic Conjurer]

50 minutes ago, alder24 said:

t feels hot because the Mists are gone, and Mists helped to cool the planet down a little bit, like an additional layer of clouds. It's not because Vin rotated the planet, that form Elend's PoV comes later in ch 77.

The ash cooled the planet down, and the ashfalls were substantially increasing after Ruin's liberation. We know for sure that when Vin plugged the Ashmounts and wiped the atmosphere, the world became hotter. The Mists only came out at nighttime before Preservation triggered his plan with the Deepness.

@Treamayne@alder24 Thanks for the always appreciated insight! I also have questions about what "things" Vin learned during her time as Preservation. Her Ascension page time went by very quick, and Brandon didn't go into detail about Shardic plans or scientific feats like he did Rashek and Harmony.

Edited October 22, 2023 by Ale the Metallic Conjurer

[alder24]

2 minutes ago, Ale the Metallic Conjurer said:

The ash cooled the planet down, and the ashfalls were substantially increasing after Ruin's liberation. We know for sure that when Vin plugged the Ashmounts and wiped the atmosphere, the world became hotter. The Mists only came out at nighttime before Preservation triggered his plan with the Deepness.

Yes, but during HoA the Mists were present all day long, and without them the day felt hotter, not unbearably hot, but still a bit hotter, enough for Yomen to notice. Ashfall was still happening in ch 74. After Vin cleared the skies the temperature rises so much that within a second it burned Elend's face, and later when Sazed was Ascending, the sun burned his skin, burned Koloss alive, and was hot enough for trees to self-ignite (that's around 450-600 degrees C, hard to say from just a quick google search) - so yes, like a literal oven. ch 82:

Quote

He glanced upward. The sun was rising. It was getting hard to breathe for the heat. He felt his skin burning. By the time the sun reached its zenith, it would likely be so hot the land would burn.
[...]
Koloss cried out in pain from the burning. The heat was terrible, and around Sazed, trees began to pop and burst into flames.

 

15 minutes ago, Ale the Metallic Conjurer said:

I also have questions about what "things" Vin learned during her time as Preservation. Her Ascension page time went by very quick, and Brandon didn't go into detail about the scientific feats like he did Rashek and Harmony.

I don't think we have the answer for that. She most likely learned some general Cosmere knowledge, history of the Shard she held, knowledge of what she can do with the power etc, as this comes with the power, but it comes over some period of time. However Vin didn't focus on this too much, so likely she didn't realize about her new gained knowledge, and likely didn't hold the power long enough for all of this knowledge to get to her. And because Ruin was opposing every single action Vin took, she didn't have many opportunities to learn more. She didn't do much outside of plugging the Ashmounts, clearing the sky, rotating the planet and killing Ruin. 

Spoiler

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Forty-Four - Part One

Subtlety with the Power

The Lord Ruler created koloss, kandra, and Inquisitors during his time holding the power. This took some practice and experimentation, however. As has been explained, holding the power granted some intuitive understanding of how to use it. For instance, he knew how to make Hemalurgic creatures—but he wasn't practiced enough with the specifics at first to know exactly what he wanted to make or what the results of his experimentations would be.

In a similar way, he knew that he could move a planet—and did. With practice, he could have figured out how to shove the planet the right way to place it correctly in orbit. Unfortunately, you can't really experiment with moving a planet around without causing a whole lot of damage.

And so, he could do something as subtle as create three new races—and, with that practice in biology, redesign the world's plants and animals slightly—but could be so far off in the way he shoved the planet about the first time.

The Hero of Ages Annotations (Dec. 4, 2009)

 

[Ale the Metallic Conjurer]

30 minutes ago, alder24 said:

I don't think we have the answer for that. She most likely learned some general Cosmere knowledge, history of the Shard she held, knowledge of what she can do with the power etc, as this comes with the power, but it comes over some period of time. However Vin didn't focus on this too much, so likely she didn't realize about her new gained knowledge, and likely didn't hold the power long enough for all of this knowledge to get to her. And because Ruin was opposing every single action Vin took, she didn't have many opportunities to learn more. She didn't do much outside of plugging the Ashmounts, clearing the sky, rotating the planet and killing Ruin. 

That’s all true. Though an interesting thing to note is that she was capable of parsing Leras’ Plan for Everything - that he created humanity with the intent of using them as a weapon to counteract Ruin. She parsed Rashek’s actions and emotions while wielding the Well, along with Ruin teaching him Hemalurgy. IIRC she learned some other things, though I’m not sure if they came from Leras’ history/memory/thought banks, or from the Shard instinctively analyzing the world and Ruin’s words. I think it’s likely they came from an awesome combination of both.

Hmm. This makes me wonder if Vin parsed the Terris Prophecies and Leras’ true intentions with them.

30 minutes ago, alder24 said:

Yes, but during HoA the Mists were present all day long, and without them the day felt hotter, not unbearably hot, but still a bit hotter, enough for Yomen to notice. Ashfall was still happening in ch 74. After Vin cleared the skies the temperature rises so much that within a second it burned Elend's face, and later when Sazed was Ascending, the sun burned his skin, burned Koloss alive, and was hot enough for trees to self-ignite (that's around 450-600 degrees C, hard to say from just a quick google search) - so yes, like a literal oven. ch 82:

Oh damn. I did not catch that sequence with Yomen, I thought they were interconnected! Thanks! Also fun fact: Sazed merely touching but not taking the Shards made him immune to the Sun’s heat, and he felt they superseded the Sun’s heat. Shards are terrifying.

[Treamayne]

2 hours ago, alder24 said:

What season did HoA take place? Winter? 

Late Spring, Early Summer. I mapped out the Era 1 Timeline here.

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

1 hour ago, Ale the Metallic Conjurer said:

I also have questions about what "things" Vin learned during her time as Preservation

She most likely learned some general Cosmere knowledge, history of the Shard she held, knowledge of what she can do with the power etc, as this comes with the power

On screen, she has mostly learned about the nature of the Spiritual realm. Ch 78 and 81:

Spoiler

Quote

Vin arose from her contemplation of the world. Something important was happening. She didn’t have enough experience to tell what it was immediately, but she did see Ruin’s nexus suddenly shoot away.

She followed. Speed wasn’t an issue. In fact, she didn’t even really feel like she was moving. She “followed” because that was how her mind interpreted the experience of instantly moving her consciousness to the place where Ruin had focused his.

She recognized the area. The Pits of Hathsin

Quote

It would be like the tsunami deaths on the coast, only worse.

For these were people she knew. People she loved.

She turned back toward the entrance. She didn’t want to watch, but she wouldn’t be able to do anything else. Her self was everywhere. Even if she pulled her nexus away, she knew that she’d still feel the deaths—that they would make her tremble and weep.

From within the cavern, echoing, she sensed a familiar voice.

 

41 minutes ago, Ale the Metallic Conjurer said:

Though an interesting thing to note is that she was capable of parsing Leras’ Plan for Everything

It's not parsing so much as recognizing innate knowledge. As @alder24 said, the Power will instinctively know the history of itself. Since Leras used the Shard to make the plan - the Shard remembers the plan.

Ch 76:

Spoiler

However, she could see the history of the power she held. She could see when Rashek had taken it, and she could see him, frustrated, trying to pull the planet into a proper orbit. Yet, he pulled it too far, leaving the world cold and freezing.

 

[alder24]

49 minutes ago, Ale the Metallic Conjurer said:

That’s all true. Though an interesting thing to note is that she was capable of parsing Leras’ Plan for Everything - that he created humanity with the intent of using them as a weapon to counteract Ruin. She parsed Rashek’s actions and emotions while wielding the Well, along with Ruin teaching him Hemalurgy. IIRC she learned some other things, though I’m not sure if they came from Leras’ history/memory/thought banks, or from the Shard instinctively analyzing the world and Ruin’s words. I think it’s likely they came from an awesome combination of both.

Yes, but just look at those parts. She realized what Rashek did, or what was a part of Preservation's plan, the moment she thought of it. Her mind was overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge she gained, and it took her some time to realize all of it - I believe she died before doing so. HoA ch 76:

Quote

Vin remained silent, though she quested out with her power, trying to get a sense of what she could do. Understanding seemed to open to her. It was like before, when she'd taken the power at the Well of Ascension. She immediately knew things. Only this time, the power was so vast—the understanding so great—that it seemed to have shocked her mind. Fortunately, that mind was expanding, and she was growing.
Awakening
[...]
Vin, Vin . . . he said. Do you realize how like the Lord Ruler you are? When he first took the power, he tried to solve everything. All of man's ills.
She saw it. She wasn't omniscient—she couldn't see the entirety of the past. However, she could see the history of the power she held. She could see when Rashek had taken it, and she could see him, frustrated, trying to pull the planet into a proper orbit. Yet, he pulled it too far, leaving the world cold and freezing. He pushed it back again, but his power was too vast—too terrible—for him to control properly at that time. So, he again left the world too hot. All life would have perished.
He opened the ashmounts, clogging the atmosphere, turning the sun red. And, in doing so, he saved the planet—but doomed it as well.

 

59 minutes ago, Ale the Metallic Conjurer said:

Hmm. This makes me wonder if Vin parsed the Terris Prophecies and Leras’ true intentions with them.

At least to the point of her place in those prophecies (after Elend's death), I doubt she saw Sazed's role yet.

 

18 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

Late Spring, Early Summer. I mapped out the Era 1 Timeline here.

Thanks. Looking at quotes in this thread, it's maybe early spring, which isn't bad, early summer would make it much more problematic. The sunrise would happen around 5-6 AM with the sunset at around 7-8 PM (basically April). If the afternoon mentioned by Elend was early, like 1 or 2 PM rather than 5 PM, then Vin rotating the planet back 12h would make the current night time 1-2 AM, almost middle of the night, enough for Elend to arrive at the Pits, arm his soldiers, wait for Koloss and die as the sun was rising. If Vin Ascended closer to the morning (let's say 3 AM), then she held the Shard for around 11h until she rotated the planet 12h back (at 2 PM) and then an additional 3-5 hours until she died as the sun was rising. In total 14-16 hours. Does this make sense?

[Ale the Metallic Conjurer]

It definitely feels like I'm gonna hyperfixate on Sazed's knowledge of his Shards, if he's relevant later on! Ruin's knowledge sounds scary enough with a humble, introspective and intelligent fella like Sazed, but Compunded (pun intended) with Preservation sounds like a horrifying combo. Leras made a good choice grooming him as his true successor. 

[Ale the Metallic Conjurer]

But I wish we knew so much more about Scadrial's history, especially from Ruin's side. I'm really surprised Harmony didn't put that stuff in the Words of Founding.

[Treamayne]

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26 minutes ago, Ale the Metallic Conjurer said:

It definitely feels like I'm gonna hyperfixate on Sazed's knowledge of his Shards, if he's relevant later on! Ruin's knowledge sounds scary enough with a humble, introspective and intelligent fella like Sazed, but Compunded (pun intended) with Preservation sounds like a horrifying combo. Leras made a good choice grooming him as his true successor. 

24 minutes ago, Ale the Metallic Conjurer said:

But I wish we knew so much more about Scadrial's history, especially from Ruin's side. I'm really surprised Harmony didn't put that stuff in the Words of Founding.

Don't forget - the Words of Founding were the contents of his Keeper Copperminds at the time he took the Shards in HoA - so it would only have what the Kepers could discover between Third Century FE and the Catacendre. We-the-readers know a bit more from the books, annotations and WoBs. Any informatoin more than that would be spoilers for the rest of Era 2. 

 

[Ale the Metallic Conjurer]

1 hour ago, Treamayne said:

Don't forget - the Words of Founding were the contents of his Keeper Copperminds at the time he took the Shards in HoA - so it would only have what the Kepers could discover between Third Century FE and the Catacendre. We-the-readers know a bit more from the books, annotations and WoBs. Any informatoin more than that would be spoilers for the rest of Era 2. 

We shouldn't take Sazed's note too literally. The Words of Founding included a lot of information that would've only been gleaned from the history of Scadrial and the Shards themselves - Hemalurgy, Allomantic savants, R&P's many plans and counter-plans, Rashek's actions and emotions while wielding the Well of Ascension etc... For out of universe reasons, I don't think it's a stretch to say that Sanderson didn't think about this lore during the writing process. Or maybe there are in universe reasons. Either Harmony didn't learn about the info yet, or for some reason didn't want to share history from before Alendi's era. 

[alder24]

14 minutes ago, Ale the Metallic Conjurer said:

We shouldn't take Sazed's note too literally. The Words of Founding included a lot of information that would've only been gleaned from the history of Scadrial and the Shards themselves - Hemalurgy, Allomantic savants, R&P's many plans and counter-plans, Rashek's actions and emotions while wielding the Well of Ascension etc... For out of universe reasons, I don't think it's a stretch to say that Sanderson didn't think about this lore during the writing process. Or maybe there are in universe reasons. Either Harmony didn't learn about the info yet, or for some reason didn't want to share history from before Alendi's era. 

When Sazed created the Words of Founding he still didn't fully realize the knowledge he got, his mind was still overwhelmed by the sudden expansion. 

HoA ch 2&3

Quote

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.

In some ways, having such power was too overwhelming, I think. This was a power that would take millennia to understand. Remaking the world would have been easy, had one been familiar with the power. Yet, I realized the danger inherent in my ignorance. Like a child suddenly given awesome strength, I could have pushed too hard, and left the world a broken toy I could never repair.

HoA ch 39:

Quote

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.

ch 46:

Quote

Ruin's escape deserves some explanation. This is a thing that even I had a problem understanding.

ch 57:

Quote

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.

Epilogue:

Quote

There is much more to this mystery. Perhaps I will tease it out eventually, as my mind grows more and more accustomed to its expanded nature. Perhaps I will determine why I was able to take the powers myself.

 

Spoiler

Ward

When Harmony Ascends, he admits he doesn't have a good view of the Spiritual Realm. Does he develop a better one over time? And are there other Shards that already have a very good view of that?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. But it is still something that is hard to grok, so to speak. In canon-- in science fiction-- hard to understand. But he has a much better understanding, and the other Shards, some of them have a very good understanding. The thing is, the difference between the Spiritual Realm and the Beyond is not something that is immediately obvious.

[...]

Arcanum Unbounded release party (Nov. 22, 2016)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

How does Harmony know about radio?

Brandon Sanderson

There are actually two answers to this. First, Harmony was given a grand understanding of the laws of the universe during his Ascension. Second, Preservation had some limited precognitive abilities. Either one of those can lead you to the answer.

Shadows of Self San Francisco signing (Oct. 9, 2015)

 

[Ale the Metallic Conjurer]

15 hours ago, alder24 said:

When Sazed created the Words of Founding he still didn't fully realize the knowledge he got, his mind was still overwhelmed by the sudden expansion. 

I’m not saying he would’ve learned every bit of the Shards’ knowledge at the time of creating the Words of Founding. But I think at minimum, he should’ve learned everything that happened when the previous Ascendants used the Well of Ascension. Instead of just Rashek and Vin. And it helps that he wasn’t warring with another Shard while crafting the Words.

[alder24]

13 minutes ago, Ale the Metallic Conjurer said:

I’m not saying he would’ve learned every bit of the Shards’ knowledge at the time of creating the Words of Founding. But I think at minimum, he should’ve learned everything that happened when the previous Ascendants used the Well of Ascension. Instead of just Rashek and Vin. And it helps that he wasn’t warring with another Shard while crafting the Words.

He wasn't fighting with another Shard, but he was fighting with time. The planet was burning, people were dying, he had to quickly reverse changes done by Rashek otherwise life on Scadrial would be destroyed. That's why he was focused on him, that's why he knew what Rashek did. He also knew what Vin did as it just happened. I think the in-world explanation, for why there isn’t anything more about previous Ascendants or the whole history of Scadrial, is there. But I wouldn’t mind learning more about that but that would be better as a short story/novella rather than a single paragraph in the book. 

[Treamayne]

6 hours ago, alder24 said:

I think the in-world explanation, for why there isn’t anything more about previous Ascendants or the whole history of Scadrial, is there. But I wouldn’t mind learning more about that but that would be better as a short story/novella rather than a single paragraph in the book. 

Also, we know Sazed kept many things out of the Words of Founding - this could just be more details we will get in Era 3 or 4 and will find out then why Sazed felt it was important to not mention that information sooner. . .