Adonalsium's Four Aspects

[Pagerunner he/him]

There's a quick little line in Wind and Truth that you might miss that talks about something pretty fundamental to Shattering lore. While Honor and the Heralds are planning to abandon Taln, and they're trying to figure out how many Heralds actually need to go back, there's this tidbit:

"Perhaps four would work. The number of Adonalsium's four aspects."

I think we saw a hint of the aspects in the Shattering mural from Dawnshard. Adonalsium, split into four, each of which was split into four more. I know it's been a pretty popular interpretation to take the first four sections as the Dawnshards themselves, but I've always said that they're more like "super-Shards," broader characteristics of Adonalsium that each encompass four Shards. (I'm guessing that the Shattering was originally intended for four new Vessels, each of which held a Dawnshard, but the aspects were still too much for a single vessel and had to get broken again and bring in 12 more Vessels as backup. But that's not really important to the topic at hand.)

So, with the last Shard name revealed and a bigger clue to what the Shard groups are, who wants to take another crack at it?

I've never really found a setup I like; I've gone through a lot of these in the past, and nothing is ever too clean. Here's an example I threw together at the moment, but I could easily get talked out of it:

• Relational: Ambition, Devotion, Mercy, Endowment
• Influential: Ruin, Preservation, Cultivation, Autonomy
• Personality: Reason, Invention, Whimsy, Virtuosity
• Deific: Odium, Dominion, Honor, Valor

[Argenti he/him]

14 hours ago, Pagerunner said:

There's a quick little line in Wind and Truth that you might miss that talks about something pretty fundamental to Shattering lore. While Honor and the Heralds are planning to abandon Taln, and they're trying to figure out how many Heralds actually need to go back, there's this tidbit:

"Perhaps four would work. The number of Adonalsium's four aspects."

I think we saw a hint of the aspects in the Shattering mural from Dawnshard. Adonalsium, split into four, each of which was split into four more. I know it's been a pretty popular interpretation to take the first four sections as the Dawnshards themselves, but I've always said that they're more like "super-Shards," broader characteristics of Adonalsium that each encompass four Shards. (I'm guessing that the Shattering was originally intended for four new Vessels, each of which held a Dawnshard, but the aspects were still too much for a single vessel and had to get broken again and bring in 12 more Vessels as backup. But that's not really important to the topic at hand.)

So, with the last Shard name revealed and a bigger clue to what the Shard groups are, who wants to take another crack at it?

I've never really found a setup I like; I've gone through a lot of these in the past, and nothing is ever too clean. Here's an example I threw together at the moment, but I could easily get talked out of it:

• Relational: Ambition, Devotion, Mercy, Endowment
• Influential: Ruin, Preservation, Cultivation, Autonomy
• Personality: Reason, Invention, Whimsy, Virtuosity
• Deific: Odium, Dominion, Honor, Valor

I would just assume it's the Dawnshards, there are 4 of them. What makes Odium or  Honor not Relational? Hatred and oaths connect people. Why is valor not an aspect of your personality? It's courage in the face of battle. Devotion is like mercy, why is that not with Odium?

 

Edited December 7, 2024 by Argenti

[Alumínio he/him]

13 hours ago, Pagerunner said:

There's a quick little line in Wind and Truth that you might miss that talks about something pretty fundamental to Shattering lore. While Honor and the Heralds are planning to abandon Taln, and they're trying to figure out how many Heralds actually need to go back, there's this tidbit:

"Perhaps four would work. The number of Adonalsium's four aspects."

I think we saw a hint of the aspects in the Shattering mural from Dawnshard. Adonalsium, split into four, each of which was split into four more. I know it's been a pretty popular interpretation to take the first four sections as the Dawnshards themselves, but I've always said that they're more like "super-Shards," broader characteristics of Adonalsium that each encompass four Shards. (I'm guessing that the Shattering was originally intended for four new Vessels, each of which held a Dawnshard, but the aspects were still too much for a single vessel and had to get broken again and bring in 12 more Vessels as backup. But that's not really important to the topic at hand.)

So, with the last Shard name revealed and a bigger clue to what the Shard groups are, who wants to take another crack at it?

I've never really found a setup I like; I've gone through a lot of these in the past, and nothing is ever too clean. Here's an example I threw together at the moment, but I could easily get talked out of it:

• Relational: Ambition, Devotion, Mercy, Endowment
• Influential: Ruin, Preservation, Cultivation, Autonomy
• Personality: Reason, Invention, Whimsy, Virtuosity
• Deific: Odium, Dominion, Honor, Valor

now we know that the other dawnshard is called exist, Would it be possible to align this in a creation block?

[Ookla she/her]

Exist could fit well with Preservation, Invention, Cultivation, and Virtuosity. But I don't know the names of the other Dawnshards besides Change, so I don't know if there's a better grouping. If there's a Dawnshard called Creation, then at least 2 of those4 would fit better there. 

[Moirne she/her]

I’d throw Cultivation in with Change, personally. And maybe Endowment, Ambition and Ruin.

Edited December 8, 2024 by Moirne

[PrestigiousOwl]

It does seem most logical to start from the idea that the four groupings are the same as the Dawnshards, even if you don't think the actual "super-groups" are the Shards themselves. I.e. even in OP's theory, Adonalsium is broken into four aspects, theyre too big, so each aspect is broken into four more. But each of those original four Vessels was intended to wield one of the Dawnshards, and therefore relatively aligned to it.

I think the best evidence for this is trying to apply it to what we know. We know two Dawnshards: Change & Exist. We can definitely find certain shards that clearly correlate with these.

• Change: Cultivation, Ruin, Invention all fit really well.
  • I could probably see Ambition as the 4th here (changing one's position) or Endowment (changing others through gift?)
• Exist: 3 fit super well. Preservation is super obvious. Mercy (as VERY similar to Hoid's "thou shalt not harm"). Honor ("i.e. do not break your agreements and oaths").
  • If I had to fit a 4th here, I could see this being Devotion - again, the idea of long term commitment to shelter and protection. 

Interestingly, the Change and Exist shards also seem to fit into a clear opposition with one another. That could be the same for the remaining two, though it might not be (we know something is different about one of the 4 shards, though we also don't know what - it might not have to do with that shards Command). 

If the above is broadly correct, that leaves us with 7 shards with no clear home (plus one of the maybe's from above).

• Dominion, Autonomy, Reason, Odium, Whimsy, Virtuosity, Valor

I personally don't take much from looking at this batch. I do feel like there's kind of a "self/virtues" theme and a "relationship to others" theme, not totally different from the "relational/personality" categories, but I'm putting very different things in there compared to OP. That might look like:

• Virtues/Personality: Reason, Whimsy, Valor, Virtuosity
• Relations: Dominion, Odium, Autonomy, Endowment/Ambition (whichever isn't above - Ambition fits more with them all seeming kinda villianous, while Endowment is nice for switching things up)

[TheoreticalMagic]

Well, not to toot my own horn too much lol, but I did call Exist being a Dawnshard awhile back and I think I was on to something with my whole theory as outlined below....I haven't finished reading the book yet and need to think about things a bit more now that we know Reason is the 16th, and reconfigure which ones I think fall into which grouping.

 

 

[Argenti he/him]

14 hours ago, PrestigiousOwl said:

It does seem most logical to start from the idea that the four groupings are the same as the Dawnshards, even if you don't think the actual "super-groups" are the Shards themselves. I.e. even in OP's theory, Adonalsium is broken into four aspects, theyre too big, so each aspect is broken into four more. But each of those original four Vessels was intended to wield one of the Dawnshards, and therefore relatively aligned to it.

I think the best evidence for this is trying to apply it to what we know. We know two Dawnshards: Change & Exist. We can definitely find certain shards that clearly correlate with these.

• Change: Cultivation, Ruin, Invention all fit really well.
  • I could probably see Ambition as the 4th here (changing one's position) or Endowment (changing others through gift?)
• Exist: 3 fit super well. Preservation is super obvious. Mercy (as VERY similar to Hoid's "thou shalt not harm"). Honor ("i.e. do not break your agreements and oaths").
  • If I had to fit a 4th here, I could see this being Devotion - again, the idea of long term commitment to shelter and protection. 

Interestingly, the Change and Exist shards also seem to fit into a clear opposition with one another. That could be the same for the remaining two, though it might not be (we know something is different about one of the 4 shards, though we also don't know what - it might not have to do with that shards Command). 

One quick issue, Mercy's inntent, as far as I can tell is NOT "do no harm" it's "End Suffering" which results in things like her putting down Ambition. Devotion is the healer, not mercy.

[Pagerunner he/him]

All right, I'm back from Nexus and almost caught up on my life, so I can get back to this thread. I see everybody is still looking at aligning Shards with Dawnshards. (Which I guess I can understand somewhat, now that we have a new Command revealed, and that is very exciting.) But I feel the need to reiterate the reasons I had after the novella released that the Dawnshards are not the Shard groups shown on the Shattering mural.

Timing

The four super-Shards did not exist concurrently with either Adonalsium (because they are the four pieces that comprise his power) or the sixteen Shards (since the Shards are each a quarter of the super-Shards). Dawnshards, however, exist concurrently with both Adonalsium (since he used them to create the cosmere) and sixteen Shards (since they exist in modern time).

The aspects and then Intents were broken from Adonalsium during the Shattering. But individuals still became Dawnshards prior to the Shattering.

Intent vs Command

There's an incredibly important distinction to understand. Shard vs Dawnshard; Tone vs Rhythm; and Intent vs Command; they're all different sides of the same underlying principle. Intent is what to accomplish; Command is how it is accomplished. The two are complementary, but neither is a subset of the other.

Adonalsium and Investiture are referred to as the Power of Creation; that can be understood as the Intent of Adonalsium, to create the cosmere and actively influence it. But the Dawnshards are specific Commands, ways that Investiture can manifest. Adonalsium Intends to create, and by using the Dawnshards he Commanded Investiture to manifest to accomplish that (by making things exist, by changing them, and by two other broad ways yet to be revealed).

Shards, with their subset of Adonalsium's nature, look to accomplish specific goals aligned with that particular Intent. But they still seek Dawnshards (Hoid gives it to Sigzil to keep Odium from obtaining it), because their infinite power is still limited in how they can use it.

Relationship to Adonalsium

Dawnshards are external to Adonalsium. They are things he used to create the Cosmere. They are not Splinters; they aren't bonded, but individuals can become Dawnshards by taking the Dawnshard into themselves. The aspects, on the other hand, are internal to Adonalsium; they are properties of the deity itself. We get even more explanation in Wind and Truth that the Intents are akin to personality traits of Adonalsium, and that the sum of them is Adonalsium's nature. The aspects are merely the intermediate step between one God and sixteen deific Intents.

The word itself "aspect" appeals to Adonalsium's nature. This is what I was trying to get at with some suggested aspects, essentially broader versions of the Intents, because they are inherent traits of Adonalsium.

 

As far as the specific aspects go, the ones at the beginning are just intended to give an example of how to approach the aspects from scratch, rather than starting erroneously from the Dawnshards. What are the four key traits of a deity's nature?

 

 

[Argenti he/him]

2 hours ago, Pagerunner said:

All right, I'm back from Nexus and almost caught up on my life, so I can get back to this thread. I see everybody is still looking at aligning Shards with Dawnshards. (Which I guess I can understand somewhat, now that we have a new Command revealed, and that is very exciting.) But I feel the need to reiterate the reasons I had after the novella released that the Dawnshards are not the Shard groups shown on the Shattering mural.

Timing

The four super-Shards did not exist concurrently with either Adonalsium (because they are the four pieces that comprise his power) or the sixteen Shards (since the Shards are each a quarter of the super-Shards). Dawnshards, however, exist concurrently with both Adonalsium (since he used them to create the cosmere) and sixteen Shards (since they exist in modern time).

The aspects and then Intents were broken from Adonalsium during the Shattering. But individuals still became Dawnshards prior to the Shattering.

Intent vs Command

There's an incredibly important distinction to understand. Shard vs Dawnshard; Tone vs Rhythm; and Intent vs Command; they're all different sides of the same underlying principle. Intent is what to accomplish; Command is how it is accomplished. The two are complementary, but neither is a subset of the other.

Adonalsium and Investiture are referred to as the Power of Creation; that can be understood as the Intent of Adonalsium, to create the cosmere and actively influence it. But the Dawnshards are specific Commands, ways that Investiture can manifest. Adonalsium Intends to create, and by using the Dawnshards he Commanded Investiture to manifest to accomplish that (by making things exist, by changing them, and by two other broad ways yet to be revealed).

Shards, with their subset of Adonalsium's nature, look to accomplish specific goals aligned with that particular Intent. But they still seek Dawnshards (Hoid gives it to Sigzil to keep Odium from obtaining it), because their infinite power is still limited in how they can use it.

Relationship to Adonalsium

Dawnshards are external to Adonalsium. They are things he used to create the Cosmere. They are not Splinters; they aren't bonded, but individuals can become Dawnshards by taking the Dawnshard into themselves. The aspects, on the other hand, are internal to Adonalsium; they are properties of the deity itself. We get even more explanation in Wind and Truth that the Intents are akin to personality traits of Adonalsium, and that the sum of them is Adonalsium's nature. The aspects are merely the intermediate step between one God and sixteen deific Intents.

The word itself "aspect" appeals to Adonalsium's nature. This is what I was trying to get at with some suggested aspects, essentially broader versions of the Intents, because they are inherent traits of Adonalsium.

 

As far as the specific aspects go, the ones at the beginning are just intended to give an example of how to approach the aspects from scratch, rather than starting erroneously from the Dawnshards. What are the four key traits of a deity's nature?

 

 

Well, you can't just separate the dawnshards from the shards, the dawnshards where the weapon that shattered them after all,  it would make sense for them  to effect how the shards for. I honestly think the whole  splitting the shards into categories is silly. It's been made pretty clear that the shards are aspects of Ado's  personality, shredded into parts that match the people that were nearby.  Imagine trying to shove the aspects of your personality into 4 neat boxes, it's pretty difficult right? I would presume a full, complete god is more complex than four key traits, just as much as we are.

[Ripheus23]

One thing about the groupings is that there would be extra headings for groupings of combinations and so on. Like, when two Shards combine as another Intent, well, how many combined Intents could there be? You could have any two Shards combine, any three, etc. This whole mathematical superstructure is available (and per what they indicate in WaT about the design of Roshar, such mathematical intricacy was a signature of Adonalsium's "plan" for Roshar). So the more fundamental fourfold scheme has to be situated in such a way that it "plays into" the greater ensemble of combinations. Little that we know explicitly would allow us to infer what the fourfold basis is, but Sanderson's put "clues" in the general structure of cosmere magic systems, so maybe there's some implicit knowledge that would get us from A to B. here.

From the text-engagement POV, and his religious/intellectual background, I would say that Sanderson would be aware of the traditional three-fold description of deity as all-good, all-powerful, and all-knowing. The other reliable "property" is a special uniqueness, but then one of the Dawnshards, too, is not "like the others" (whatever that means). So in this context, we would have groupings of Adonalsium's nature that were subsumed under the concepts of its power, its goodness, and its knowledge, and then also its uniqueness. However, when it comes to philosophical abstractions, it's often easy to generate fanciful and thoughtful systems of categories and concepts, so even assuming that Adonalsium would be internally diversified according to Sanderson's academic background as such, it would still require too much effort, maybe, in the moment, to show why e.g. Valor goes under this heading and Ruin that one, etc.

So like, there'd be maybe well over a hundred possible pairings of Shards, from the base 16. The total number for all combinations of any number of them, I don't really know, hundreds and hundreds at least I assume. (I don't know what the exact formulas for these questions are...) Then there might be weird provisos about balance and imbalance depending on whether the combination is of an even or an odd number of Shards, etc. 1 is the trivial case of non-combination where an odd-numbered balance occurs, but the expectation would be that tri-Shards, penta-Shards, etc. could not be in the same kind of fundamental equilibrium as di-Shards, tetra-Shards, etc. I.e., that's one of many, many mathematical themes Sanderson can experiment with in his structuring. So, not saying that it's the "real" one here, just saying that there are so many options that I myself kind of can't know which one the author is going with, ultimately. But maybe that's just me

[Szeth Pancakes he/they]

I like some of the theories being brought up, especially the Unified Field Theory one. However, it might be nice to go about this a bit more rigorously.

First, what scenarios are possible here? How does the information stack up?

Scenario 1: The Shard groups on the mural are the aspects of Adonalsium, which are separate from the Dawnshards.

I find this one the most compelling, given Pagerunner's arguments.

Scenario 2: The Shard groups are the aspects of Adonalsium, which are the same as/connected to the Dawnshards.

However, I also like the idea that the Dawnshards are not the same, but connected to the super-shards and aspects.

Scenario 3: The aspects of Adonalsium are the same as/connected to the Dawnshards, but they're not the same as the Shard groups.

This one's less compelling to me -- I think the shard groups should probably be connected to something we already know about Adonalsium.

Scenario 4: Nothing is connected.

I don't think Brandon would do that to us.

--

Second, I brainstormed a bunch of concepts that could seem like aspects (and put the theoretical Dawnshards in there too), and fit each Shard to a few different concepts -- I think that might give us a jumping off point for selecting possible groups of four. I'm mostly going based on feel, so if you disagree that's perfectly valid.

Possible Aspects:

Determination Intelligence Emotion/Passion Care/Kindness Creation Connection Strength Identity Exist Change Move Weigh Destruction Bravery Wisdom

Shards (first pass):

Spoiler

• Cultivation: Creation Identity Change Emotion/Passion?
• Honor: Bravery Connection Exist Strength Creation?
• Odium: Emotion/Passion Destruction Weigh Change?
• Mercy: Care/Kindness Exist Weigh Emotion/Passion?
• Preservation: Determination Exist Strength? Connection?
• Ambition: Determination Emotion/Passion Move Strength?
• Ruin: Destruction Move Determination? Strength?
• Whimsy: Emotion/Passion Creation Identity Move?
• Reason: Intelligence Wisdom Weigh 
• Devotion: Emotion/Passion Connection Care/Kindness Exist? Weigh?
• Autonomy: Identity Strength Determination Exist Bravery?
• Dominion: Strength Connection Weigh Determination?
• Invention: Change Creation Intelligence Identity?
• Valor: Bravery Strength Determination Move
• Endowment: Connection Care/Kindness Change
• Virtuosity: Determination Creation Change? Exist? Identity?

I think it's safe to remove a few of these: Intelligence, Wisdom, and Bravery barely come up, and Strength almost always gets bundled with Determination. 

Second pass:

Spoiler

• Cultivation: Creation Identity Change Emotion/Passion?
• Honor: Connection Exist Creation?
• Odium: Emotion/Passion Destruction Weigh Change?
• Mercy: Care/Kindness Exist Weigh Emotion/Passion?
• Preservation: Determination Exist Connection?
• Ambition: Determination Emotion/Passion Move
• Ruin: Destruction Move Determination?
• Whimsy: Emotion/Passion Creation Identity Move?
• Reason: Weigh 
• Devotion: Emotion/Passion Connection Care/Kindness Exist? Weigh?
• Autonomy: Identity Determination Exist
• Dominion: Connection Weigh Determination?
• Invention: Change Creation Identity?
• Valor: Determination Move
• Endowment: Connection Care/Kindness Change
• Virtuosity: Determination Creation Change? Exist? Identity?

Possible Groups of 4:

Spoiler

Unified Field Theory (Dawnshards):

Change: Cultivation, Invention, Endowment, Virtuosity?, Odium?,

Weigh: Odium, Reason, Dominion, Devotion?, Mercy?

Move: Ambition, Ruin, Whimsy, Valor

Exist: Honor, Preservation, Autonomy, Mercy?, Devotion?, Virtuosity?

 

Creation: Cultivation, Honor?, Whimsy, Invention, Virtuosity, Reason??

Connection: Honor, Preservation?, Devotion, Dominion, Endowment

Emotion/Passion: Cultivation?, Odium, Mercy?, Ambition, Whimsy, Devotion

Determination: Preservation, Ambition, Ruin?, Autonomy, Dominion?, Valor, Virtuosity

 

I'm not sure how confident I am in the Creation/Connection/Emotion/Determination theory, but it's all I've got for now. If you have any more ideas, feel free to copy paste my stuff and add whatever.

 

[i’m in the details]

I like the idea that the dawnshards are juxtaposed with one another. So Change would be countered by Balance. Order and Chaos. Exist would be countered by Void (destruction). 

[QuantumHarmonix he/him]

We've seen the dawnshard's ability to attract each other. I could see them changing that connection to the aspects of adonalsium to pull them apart. Essentially he was drawn and quartered, pulled apart by the dawnshards. So it would make sense that the four aspects would in some way match the dawnshards. 

[TheoreticalMagic]

I've revised my Unified Field Theory a bit....I think my reasoning for the four different Dawnshards is still sound, but now I think the grouping of the Shards isn't about them falling under different Dawnshard headings, but rather that the groups are the result of each Shard's attempt to fulfill one of the four Dawnshard Commands. Since I do believe the Shattering was the result of all four Primal Commands being wielded on the same being at the same time, rather than as part of a process....the stress of trying to fulfill conflicting Commands (Exist is a command for something to just Be as it is, while Change is a command to become something other than what it already is, for example) led to Adonalsium Shattering along four fracture points, one for each Dawnshard.

So the determining factor for what Shards are ASSOCIATED with which Dawnshard is which Shard matches up with which Command in the sense that each Shard is one fourth of Adonalsium's attempt to fulfill each Primal Command. So because the Dawnshard "Exist" was used as a Command, four Shards are the pieces of Adonalsium that tried to simply Exist, as Commanded. (With my guesses being they're the four Intents that could represent innate traits that can exist on their own absent of any modifiers: Odium - divine wrath or hatred, Virtuosity - divine artistry or creativity, Valor - divine courage or strength of spirit, Reason - divine logic or deliberation). Thus, in a sense they are the Exist Shards, they fall under a grouping of different traits of Adonalsium that Existed, regardless of context.....but they don't fall under that heading because they're integral or necessary forms of Existence or need to complement or mirror each other in any way....they're simply four different Intents Splintered off of Adonalsium into distinct Shards, due to his attempt to satisfy the directive imposed on him by that Primal Command.

And this is why Brandon's always emphasized that Adonalsium could have Shattered into entirely different Intents....because there are plenty of innate traits that could have Existed within a being like Adonalsium.....if there had been different people wielding the Dawnshards or different Vessels waiting to pick up the Shards of what Adonalsium Shattered into, there could have been entirely different ways in which Adonalsium tried to meet the demands of that Command.

So while I'm still wavering on the proper name or specific wording for the Weigh/Mass/Matter/Connect/Bind Dawnshard I outlined in my earlier theory, I'm as positive about Move being the other remaining one as I was about Exist being a Dawnshard, lol. I just changed my mind on the deciding factors for Shard association with each Dawnshard, as outlined above.

(As I've mentioned in other threads, my latest guesses for Shards resulting from Adonalsium's attempt to obey the Connect/Bind Command are ones that embody ways in which Adonalsium might have Connected with different parts of Creation....or vice versa. Mercy, Honor, Devotion and Dominion. Connections between things that Exist, but that require relative context in order to have meaning, actual weight, to matter. My guesses for the attempts to obey the Move Command are ways in which the Primal Mover might have typically Moved.....Autonomy - self determining, Ruin - progressing things to end states, Preservation - actively acting to forestall entropic progression, Whimsy - moving randomly or without specific consideration or planning. And my guesses for its attempts to fulfill the Change directive, since that Dawnshard has consistently been denoted as being about Commanding something to remake itself in a positive or additive way....Endowment - change through the bequeathing of a gift, Invention - change through the application of genius or new ideas, Ambition - change towards an end goal reliant on advancement, acquisition, gaining or taking more, Cultivation - change derived from planning or nourishment aimed at encouraging growth or evolution).

NOW. The new part for me is that still leaves us with the idea of four Super Shards or original Aspects of Adonalsium. Since I also don't think that these are the Dawnshards themselves at this point, I agree that the Shard groupings of four aren't innately meant to add up or combine into one of each of these Aspects. Instead, my thought now is that the four initial Aspects of Adonalsium were the four Intents that led to issuing the four Primal Commands that became known as the Dawnshards. They're the four 'sides' of Adonalsium's nature that led him to choose these specific four Primal Commands to be the driving mechanism of Creation. The origin points for the Dawnshards, which LIKE the sixteen Shards, had specific Intents that those Dawnshards derived from....much like the various magic systems within the cosmere derive from the Shards' Intents and are the result of how and where they Invest themselves.

Which gives us the end result of four Aspects of Adonalsium that each lead to the choice of a Primal Command that's intended to enact and direct Creation.....and which are then later used by the original Vessels to Shatter Adonalsium....and because there are four of these Commands, that's why the resulting Shards can be sorted into four groupings.....according to which Shards derive from attempts to fulfill one of the four Dawnshard Commands. The symmetry of each of these four groupings having four Shards could theoretically be chalked up to the idea that the four Commands being used in perfect unison meant the stress fractures this applied to Adonalsium were distributed evenly....so it resulted in a symmetrical Shattering in the sense of how many pieces each Command created.

Thus there's a distinct pattern or linkage between the Aspects, Dawnshards and Shards, but the connection isn't quite as direct as its often theorized as having been. And the key to determining the four Aspects is to figure out what four Intents might lead to Adonalsium deciding that these four Commands were what was needed (or preferred) to Create with.

And THAT'S how we get our initial "Super Shards" IMO.

Edited December 11, 2024 by TheoreticalMagic