The Dawnshards are a timeline (Theory)

[Roscoe Any Pronouns]

In the process of being bored, sitting down, and deciding to make a 25-centric (opposed to 16-centric) Cosmere AU, I realized this would have to include a fifth Dawnshard most likely, so I sat down and decided to theorize on what the other two in-canon were, when I arrived at an idea that made me branch out into another idea.

Assuming the Dawnshards were the four commands used to create the Cosmere...

I don't think they were used all at once. I think Adonalsium instead laid out a set of four "steps" for the Cosmere to follow, with the final Dawnshard marking the "End"

first of all; the Dawnshards I think exist, and in order. (As well as the four Shards I believe would be associated)

EXIST - To be, to be unbothered, to be unharmed, or to be untouched. (Autonomy, Reason, Mercy, Preservation)

CHANGE - To grow, to break, to be elsewhere, to become new. (Cultivation, Ruin, Endowment, Invention)

BEAR - To feel the extreme, to bear the pain, to laugh it off, or to seek an escape of it. (Valor, Odium, Whimsy, Ambition)

RETURN - To unite, to become one, to live under one, and a fourth reason I cannot figure out. (Honor, Dominion, Devotion, Virtuosity)

I believe in these four being the Dawnshards, and this is exactly how I think they'll play out according to Adonalsium's plan;

Adonalsium uses the Dawnshards, causing things to Exist, untouched for a period, and unchanging, these people being the Yolish. After some years, life will come to Change, along the way finding new ideas and motives that would lead to the Shattering. After the death of Adonalsium, life would come to Bear the burden of the choice, some regret, some pain. Years, and years would go by, until the Cosmere becomes so intertwined that things begin to Return, Shards fusing into Hybrid Shards upon Hybrids Shards, until all that's left is a single neo-Adonalsium-Shard.

Edited March 4, 2025 by Roscoe
Edit to change the order of Shards to match the order of "to be this"

[Hoids4thApprentice he/him]

The idea that the Dawnshards could represent powers to be used in sequence during the progress of the Cosmere is a new idea for me. It was definitely an idea I enjoyed thinking about.

Having thought on it though, now that we have two of the Dawnshards confirmed and that all 16 Shardic intents are confirmed, I'm finding it difficult to get behind this theory because (as far as I can see) it requires abandoning the train that the shards are likely to match into groups of 4 that align to 1 of each of the Dawnshards.

As I see it, if the Dawnshards were designed (by Andalosium) for use in different periods of the Cosmere, rather than being created by Andalosium for the creation of the Cosmere in one action and later (without Andalosium's design or consent) causing the shattering of Andalosium, this would make much less sense. For one part, the idea of a God's discarded tools being turned against them rather than a God designing its own destruction and resurrection seems to make more sense to me as an authorly construct (that said, I can see that that the sequential theory of Dawnshards matches the Iriali religious beliefs about the One quite well). 

For me essentially, I think that the idea behind trying to come up with a grouping the shards is based on the idea that the 16 individual intentions are a direct result of the  4 Dawnshard Commands (that were used by Andalosium to create the Cosemere) being turned against Andalosium to split his design (and very being) into  its individual parts (something we are increasingly seeing form exposure to the different Shardic intents - including apparently benign and heroic ones, may not have been the best idea!). My own thoughts about the last two Dawnshards based on that would likely be Join (or Unity, Consolidate or something like that) on one side,  and Divide (or Multiply or Expand or something like that) at the other.

[Roscoe Any Pronouns]

16 hours ago, Hoids4thApprentice said:

. . . it requires abandoning the train that the shards are likely to match into groups of 4 that align to 1 of each of the Dawnshards.

I grouped the 16 Shards into four groups after the Bolded Dawnshard names, I'm a firm believer in the idea that the 16 fit into four categories named after the Dawnshards

"EXIST - To be, to be unbothered, to be unharmed, or to be untouched. (Autonomy, Reason, Mercy, Preservation)"

16 hours ago, Hoids4thApprentice said:

As I see it, if the Dawnshards were designed (by Andalosium) for use in different periods of the Cosmere, rather than being created by Andalosium for the creation of the Cosmere in one action and later (without Andalosium's design or consent) causing the shattering of Andalosium, this would make much less sense. For one part, the idea of a God's discarded tools being turned against them rather than a God designing its own destruction and resurrection seems to make more sense to me as an authorly construct (that said, I can see that that the sequential theory of Dawnshards matches the Iriali religious beliefs about the One quite well). 

I also firmly believe that Adonalsium either knew its death was coming and was either fine or had to accept it. Two Shards fighting (Honor and Odium) causes damage enough to destroy a civilization if the power of a Hybrid shard could be quantified, I'd assume it would be multiplicative if not exponential. Apply that to the full front of Adonalsium, a being who at LEAST held the power of the 16 Shards, if not infinitely more, I think Adonalsium knew its death would come as it couldn't fight back without the force of the confrontation destroying the Cosmere.

Also, just for clarity, I think the Dawnshards were "used" at once but weren't put into effect all at once. I think all four were used by Adonalsium, and designed by it, but ultimately reflected the four hypothetical "Stages" of the Cosmere.

Fortune exists, and while it isn't an exact match, a being of Adonalsium's caliber was likely capable of seeing most, if not all outcomes. There is a chance that in doing this it purposefully designed the Dawnshards so that every outcome would have the same effect, regardless of the smaller details. 

16 hours ago, Hoids4thApprentice said:

My own thoughts about the last two Dawnshards based on that would likely be Join (or Unity, Consolidate or something like that) on one side,  and Divide (or Multiply or Expand or something like that) at the other.

I see the reason why a Divide or Destroy Dawnshard is popular, but to me, that feels too much like Change... which people tend to put Ruin under, despite it-in itself-being the destruction Shard. Unity I can agree with, I just liked the name Return.

[Roscoe Any Pronouns]

Small note;

I've gained a little better understanding on Fortune, so I now fully think it makes sense for Adonalsium to have simply 'used' Fortune to be drawn to whatever the 'right' decision would've been, the exact Intent or Commands needed for its plan to go how it wanted.

[Ripheus23]

17 hours ago, Hoids4thApprentice said:

For one part, the idea of a God's discarded tools being turned against them rather than a God designing its own destruction and resurrection seems to make more sense to me as an authorly construct

Ah, but Sanderson has drawn much on his Christian heritage throughout his cosmere and other writing, and in this culture we precisely have an order of divine providence in which the Creator plans for Its own (embodied) destruction and re-creation...

[Hoids4thApprentice he/him]

3 hours ago, Roscoe said:

I grouped the 16 Shards into four groups after the Bolded Dawnshard names, I'm a firm believer in the idea that the 16 fit into four categories named after the Dawnshards

"EXIST - To be, to be unbothered, to be unharmed, or to be untouched. (Autonomy, Reason, Mercy, Preservation)"

 

Thanks Roscoe for the response. When I said that:  

19 hours ago, Hoids4thApprentice said:

I'm finding it difficult to get behind this theory because (as far as I can see) it requires abandoning the train that the shards are likely to match into groups of 4 that align to 1 of each of the Dawnshards.

I wasn't ignoring the fact that you had provided a grouping of each Dawnshard with 4 Shards. The point I was trying to make is that the reason I have personally reasoned that there should be some mathematical grouping or relationship between the Dawnshards and the 16 Shards is that I have believed that the 4 Dawnshards together were used to shatter Andalosium and that this effects the nature of the Shards the Shattering left behind.

I can see from the part of your original post that mentions fortune:

3 hours ago, Roscoe said:

Fortune exists, and while it isn't an exact match, a being of Adonalsium's caliber was likely capable of seeing most, if not all outcomes. There is a chance that in doing this it purposefully designed the Dawnshards so that every outcome would have the same effect, regardless of the smaller details. 

And the follow up: 

2 hours ago, Roscoe said:

Small note;

I've gained a little better understanding on Fortune, so I now fully think it makes sense for Adonalsium to have simply 'used' Fortune to be drawn to whatever the 'right' decision would've been, the exact Intent or Commands needed for its plan to go how it wanted.

... that you are saying that the groupings and intents of the Dawnshards would have been part of Andalosiums design all along. You may be right that that is how Brandon ends the Cosmere and explains that the Shards and Dawnshards became what they did and had the relationships they did because Andalosium designed them that way as part of a grand plan. As I say, for me, that is not as compelling as the idea that the Shards came out as they did because of the use of the Dawnshards in shattering Andalosium. 

Just one point of clarity on where you say:

3 hours ago, Roscoe said:

I see the reason why a Divide or Destroy Dawnshard is popular, but to me, that feels too much like Change... which people tend to put Ruin under, despite it-in itself-being the destruction Shard. Unity I can agree with, I just liked the name Return.

The reason I proposed Join and Divide (but was adding different words to try and clarify what I was getting at) as the remaining Dawnshards is that for me: Exist creates something out of nothing; Change allows something that already exists to become something else. However, it does not (on its own) allow something that exists to change into more than one thing or combine with something else to become something greater than it could change into on its own. So, for me, both Join and Divide enable different elements of creation that change on its own does not. The way I was thinking of Divide was very much in terms allowing for multiple growth rather than singular change and not as a form of destruction or something that is just another form of change.

Edited March 4, 2025 by Hoids4thApprentice
typo

[AltonicKeys he/him]

On 2/27/2025 at 2:21 AM, Roscoe said:

BEAR - To feel the extreme, to bear the pain, to laugh it off, or to seek an escape of it. (Valor, Odium, Whimsy, Ambition)

RETURN - To unite, to become one, to live under one, and a fourth reason I cannot figure out. (Honor, Dominion, Devotion, Virtuosity)

I like this theory a lot, but I'm not too sure on Bear and Return. Bear doesn't seem quite right in contrast to Exist and Change, it almost feels like a subset of Exist? But the grouping of emotion Shards does seem right.

Return's grouping seems kinda weak, but it could work. I can see why they could be "uniting" concepts, but I don't think that's their associated command? Promises, morals, to rule, and to follow, I don't really see them being the "end goal" of this progression. I guess they could be related to "Purpose" or something like that.
In that vein, if "Purpose" is one, maybe Bear could be the end? Exist, Change, "Purpose" and Bear. To be, to evolve, to have a reason to be, and to carry that existence? idk just throwing it out there

I'm also not solid on Adonalsium creating or designing the Dawnshards. I feel like they're a more primordial force, related to but separate from Adonalsium's power. Not sure how to explain that

[TheStormcrafter he/him]

On 2/27/2025 at 11:21 AM, Roscoe said:

I don't think they were used all at once. I think Adonalsium instead laid out a set of four "steps" for the Cosmere to follow,

I like the idea of the dawnshards having an order to them. Though I don´t quite agree with the shards you came up with thought the groupings make sense.
I think going with a blatant "FEEL" could actually work better for the emotion dawnshard. And I would also rename the fourth one.

I also wouldn´t focus so much on them being the names of stages of the cosmere, I´d much more think of it Adonalsium slowly using these in sequence, first commanding the world to be, then for it to change, for it to feel and well ... to have a society I guess? That is the link I see between your last groupings. I guess "RULE" could be the last dawnshard then.

53 minutes ago, AltonicKeys said:

I'm also not solid on Adonalsium creating or designing the Dawnshards. I feel like they're a more primordial force, related to but separate from Adonalsium's power. Not sure how to explain that

I think Ado using "the most primal powers" to channel his power into creating a world would fit nicely. That the dawnshards are not a thing Ado created but a concept Ado used (and then became a thing in Ados creation i guess?).

[Roscoe Any Pronouns]

1 hour ago, AltonicKeys said:

I like this theory a lot, but I'm not too sure on Bear and Return. Bear doesn't seem quite right in contrast to Exist and Change, it almost feels like a subset of Exist? But the grouping of emotion Shards does seem right.

Return's grouping seems kinda weak, but it could work. I can see why they could be "uniting" concepts, but I don't think that's their associated command? Promises, morals, to rule, and to follow, I don't really see them being the "end goal" of this progression. I guess they could be related to "Purpose" or something like that.
In that vein, if "Purpose" is one, maybe Bear could be the end? Exist, Change, "Purpose" and Bear. To be, to evolve, to have a reason to be, and to carry that existence? idk just throwing it out there

I'm also not solid on Adonalsium creating or designing the Dawnshards. I feel like they're a more primordial force, related to but separate from Adonalsium's power. Not sure how to explain that

To be completely and utterly honest, I just went with what sounded the coolest in my head lol, "Bear" is just the standard "Feel", but I do have to stick with "Return" as I don't think it's a 'Unite' Dawnshard as much as it is everything coming together where it all started.

30 minutes ago, TheStormcrafter said:

I also wouldn´t focus so much on them being the names of stages of the cosmere, I´d much more think of it Adonalsium slowly using these in sequence, first commanding the world to be, then for it to change, for it to feel and well ... to have a society I guess? That is the link I see between your last groupings. I guess "RULE" could be the last dawnshard then.

Rule does seem to be a better fit for that I suppose, if "Return" isn't 

 

It is still an infant theory, made again--literally as a result of a Cosmere AU, though I would like to make it more concrete, something I still can't do until I read more on the WoBs

[TheStormcrafter he/him]

1 hour ago, Roscoe said:

It is still an infant theory, made again--literally as a result of a Cosmere AU, though I would like to make it more concrete, something I still can't do until I read more on the WoBs

Where is your AU to be found?

[TheStormcrafter he/him]

2 hours ago, Roscoe said:

To be completely and utterly honest, I just went with what sounded the coolest in my head lol, "Bear" is just the standard "Feel", but I do have to stick with "Return" as I don't think it's a 'Unite' Dawnshard as much as it is everything coming together where it all started.

I tend towards „FEEL“ as it is the much simpler term and I think the dawnshards are like the most primal, most fundamental ideas basically.

Though I also saw „EXPERIENCE“ in another thread.

[Hoids4thApprentice he/him]

5 hours ago, Ripheus23 said:

Ah, but Sanderson has drawn much on his Christian heritage throughout his cosmere and other writing, and in this culture we precisely have an order of divine providence in which the Creator plans for Its own (embodied) destruction and re-creation...

Thank you Ripheus23 for the reply.

I do see that Brandon's writing is influenced by his religious heritage, and as a person of faith myself (though a Buddhist here) I have a huge amount of respect for anyone who actively  practices the tenants of their faith in a world where doing so is not always easy. On the other hand, all of the works I have read (to date) seem to indicate that (in his writing) Brandon is more interested in exploring religion as a mechanism in effecting the motivations and actions of characters, and subsequently, how this can have a knock on effect on a world's politics and history rather than trying to express his own religious belief and tradition within his stories. 

When I first read the comment, I thought I remembered Branndon and Dan on Intentionally Blank talking about how they preferred Tolkien's ambiguousness in whether his religion was expressed in Middle Earth story rather than C. S. Lewis' conclusion to Narnia where (and I am abridging and simplifying here) everything in the story was all "God's plan" all along and the reader is expected to accept Lewis' religious faith in the Divine Plan as a result. I do not see the same readiness in Brandon to use storytelling to convince his readers of the validity of his own belief system in the way I believe Lewis did (and again, I know I am oversimplifying and that there is a lot of nuance and complexity in Lewis' work that I am not explicitly engaging with, at the end of the day though this is  Sanderson forum not a C S Lewis forum).

While I did not find the Intentionally Blank conversation, I thought I remembered, I did find the below:

 

Brandon Sanderson

So the question is: I use a lot of religion in my books how do I balance that with my own personal beliefs?

So, I'm a religious person and what this has done to me in specific is make me really interested in how religion affects people or how the lack of religion affects people. I find that the real fun of reading and writing, raising interesting questions, and approaching a topic from lots of different directions, is a thing that is really fascinating to me. I ascribe to a school of thought that I kind of-- this is a little unfair to these gentlemen but I kind of divide it among the Tolkien and C.S. Lewis line of those two were famously in a writing group together, and if you don't know Tolkien actually converted C.S. Lewis to Christianity, which is very interesting, and they were both deeply religious people, and they approached it very differently in their fiction. C.S. Lewis felt that fiction should be didactic and teach you a lesson and Tolkien repeatedly refused to tell people what he thought the themes in his books were. When they would come up to him and say "It's a metaphor for World War II, isn't it?" he would say "No, it's a story." And I am more a Tolkien than a C.S. Lewis.  I like with fiction-- I consider myself a storyteller primarily, and I hope that a good story is going to raise interesting questions but that has to be focused around what the characters are passionate about and what they are thinking about. And so I try to populate my books with people who are asking interesting questions from a variety of different perspectives.

I said on a panel I was on yesterday "Nothing bothers me more than when reading a book where someone has my perspective, there's only one person, and they're the idiot. Whatever it is that they are an idiot about that I agree with."  And I'm like ahh can't you at least present my side-- I want everyone who reads my books, regardless of their religious affiliation, if they see something like their own belief system in there I want them to say "Yes, he's presenting it correctly." And part of that means that I have to approach my fiction in certain ways, for instance, I like fiction that is ambiguous to the nature of deity, if there is one. I want-- If you can create a book with really cool atheist characters and then go "By the way here's this all powerful, all knowing benevolent god that he's just refusing to acknowledge" that undermines that character completely. And so I create my fiction so that the different people on the sides of the argument, just like in our world, have good arguments on both sides. And I think that if you present characters with interesting choices, making interesting decisions you will-- truth will rise to the top. That's kind of one of the purposes of fiction, is to discuss these issues. So that's kind of a roundabout answer to your question, that as a person of faith how I approach writing my books. I'm not sure if it's the right answer, but it's the answer I've been giving lately.

ConQuest 46 (May 22, 2015) 

I appreciate that this is 10 years old, and that Brandon does change his views and approach over time. It is still my personal opinion that it is unlikely that Brandon will try and resolve the many mysteries that he has created within the Casemore with a simple explanation that Andolosium had a divine plan all along and that no other explanation is needed. I'm not ruling out some kind of element of Andolosium having agency that is played out through the History of the Cosmere, I just think that Brandon would put more thought into it than explaining everything away as Andolosium having planned it that way.

[Roscoe Any Pronouns]

2 hours ago, TheStormcrafter said:

Where is your AU to be found?

Currently limited to an email chain between I and someone else, I'd love to post it eventually (Especially considering I also changed Allo/Feru/Hemalurgy to be 25-centric) but have no clue where It'd go

[Ripheus23]

2 hours ago, Hoids4thApprentice said:

I just think that Brandon would put more thought into it than explaining everything away as Andolosium having planned it that way.

I think you are right, and I also think Ado had to know it was possible to be Shattered, though, and would have some contingency plans in place accordingly.

As for how Sanderson applies his religion to the cosmere, IIRC there is something about the LDS concept of exaltation that has inspired the theme of the Shards in general, and Sazed's "every religion has part of the truth" epiphany was lifted almost verbatim from LDS missionary training.

[TheStormcrafter he/him]

5 hours ago, Roscoe said:

Currently limited to an email chain between I and someone else, I'd love to post it eventually (Especially considering I also changed Allo/Feru/Hemalurgy to be 25-centric) but have no clue where It'd go

I’d love to read through it and give some feedback if you’d like.

[Roscoe Any Pronouns]

15 hours ago, TheStormcrafter said:

I’d love to read through it and give some feedback if you’d like.

I would love to post it but I still don't know where it'd go on these forums

[TheStormcrafter he/him]

10 minutes ago, Roscoe said:

I would love to post it but I still don't know where it'd go on these forums

Well, I don´t know either, I´m new here (I created my account like yesterday), though you could DM it to me, if you want.

[AltonicKeys he/him]

10 minutes ago, Roscoe said:

I would love to post it but I still don't know where it'd go on these forums

You could put it in Sanderson Fan Works, or Creators Corner, either one works.

[Roscoe Any Pronouns]

2 hours ago, AltonicKeys said:

You could put it in Sanderson Fan Works, or Creators Corner, either one works.

Thanks!

[Roscoe Any Pronouns]

On 3/5/2025 at 4:54 PM, TheStormcrafter said:

Well, I don´t know either, I´m new here (I created my account like yesterday), though you could DM it to me, if you want.

it has been made at last, one of my more recent posts on my profile