Could Mother Frond be Cultivation?

[Aekiel2]

So I was rereading Isles the other day and I got to the part where Mother Frond tells the story of Cakoban to Dusk and a bunch of kids. I don't know why it didn't twig the first time through, but there's a lot of symbolism in her introduction that is heavily reminiscent of Cultivation and I wanted to get you guys' take on it.

 

First is obviously the name. Frond refers to the leaf or leaflike part of a plant and Cultivation is obviously very associated with plants and greenery. It's also not her real name, only one that people have taken to calling her.

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He started off through the park immediately, winding past natural plant displays, which were too cultivated for his taste. He kept telling them to let weeds grow, but they were resistant—a life on the homeisles seemed to make everyone want to manicure everything. Cut the wildness from it, men as well as gardens.

Second is that Mother Frond is introduced to us in a park that is described as 'too cultivated for [Dusk's] taste.', which I think is a not so subtle hint that Brandon is throwing at us here.

Also mentioned is that the homeisles are becoming less wild both in nature and in the inhabitants. That feels like an effect Cultivation would have on a population to me, though that's very much speculation on my part.

 

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Frond was a heavyset older woman—a loremother who had come in from one of the outer isles last year—with a deeper brown skin than even Dusk, whose skin tone was browner than many homeislers’. She wore feathers after the traditional style, though many loremothers adopted modern costumes. He didn’t mind either way. People and society changed, sometimes for the better. He would not have wanted to go trapping shirtless, as had been traditional, but there was something about the headdress and cloak of feathers.

 

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He spun, but found that Colot the guardsman had already stepped between him and the speaker. She was a shorter woman, Makabaki, in brown clothing. Black hair in tight curls, heavyset build. Dark brown eyes that shimmered with something he couldn’t define.

 

 

Third, and this is the least convincing piece of evidence to me, is that Mother Frond is both much darker skinned than even Dusk, wearing traditional clothing of the worldspinners. In Wind and Truth, Cultivation is described in much the same vein, though there's no mention of her eye colour.

 

Those are the context clues that I'm seeing when I read through this passage, but I'm also seeing a very Cultivation-esque set of mannerisms at play here. When she talks to Dalinar in Wind and Truth, she tells him the information he needs to take up Honor, focuses on the stories of the past as a way to guide future action, and in doing so manipulates him into taking the actions he needs/she wants him to. I get the same feeling from Mother Frond during this sequence, and we know that Shards can appear basically as they wish but they do tend to prefer ones that remind them of their mortal forms (such as when Taravangian appeared to El in Wind and Truth and Cultivation looking the same in old murals as she does in modern times).

 

Combining all these together, I think they suggest in not very subtle ways that Cultivation was present on First of the Sun during this time period, has the same Vessel, and is still doing her thing in quietly manipulating the future to one that she wants.

Thoughts?

[Onironte he/him]

I like the theory. It makes too much sense to dismiss. The only problem I can think of Mother Frond herself being Cultivation. An important part of the role of perpendicularity is that it is not caused by a Shard. But that doesn't negate Mother Frond's Cultivation-ish aura. I hadn't noticed the similarities, but now that you point them out, they're quite obvious. Perhaps Mother Frond is an avatar of Cultivation? That way, it wouldn't contradict the whole idea of Shardless perpendicularity.

[ChillPenguin]

Patji and the islands always had an autonomy/avatar sort of feel to me. I suspect that if the perpendicularity was due to a shard being present it would be more obvious to the Cosmere and easier to find so I don’t think the perpendicularity is hers.

She COULD be there. We don’t know how long it takes for a shardpool to move and maybe there’s some intent related to that. I completely missed this reference and I give it a pretty good likelihood that she’s there hiding from something.

[Aekiel2]

5 minutes ago, ChillPenguin said:

Patji and the islands always had an autonomy/avatar sort of feel to me. I suspect that if the perpendicularity was due to a shard being present it would be more obvious to the Cosmere and easier to find so I don’t think the perpendicularity is hers.

She COULD be there. We don’t know how long it takes for a shardpool to move and maybe there’s some intent related to that. I completely missed this reference and I give it a pretty good likelihood that she’s there hiding from something.

It's possible that perpendicularities only form after the Shard Invests the system, which Cultivation may not have done at this point.

[alder24]

We have WoBs confirming that there is no Shard present on the First of the Sun, except for Patji who is the Avatar of Autonomy. Plus, the Arcanum Unbounded essey states there is no Shard in the Drominad system and we know the perpendicularly on the planet is of Autonomy.

Moreover, her behavior doesn't fit Cultivation at all. Cultivation avoids meeting people as much as possible, we know only of 3 people whom she met with and that was only when they came to her. Her meeting with Dalinar in WaT was so secretive that not even the Sibling could sense her. She's not the kind of person who's gonna sit around park whole year telling stories to people. Mother Frond also lacks the feeling of infinity in her eyes that Cultivation had, something that Dusk wouldn't have missed. I highly doubt she's Cultivation.

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Questioner

What differentiates a minor Shardworld like First of the Sun?

Brandon Sanderson

The amount of Investiture, and whether there is actually a Shard in presence.

Questioner

I'm assuming there is not one there?

Brandon Sanderson

There is not one there.

Questioner

So it's like a Splintered one from something else?

Brandon Sanderson

No what you'll find is that the worlds were all created with a level of-- a little bit of sort of ambient magic. What you'll find in worlds like that is things like, Shadows for Silence and things like this, the magic, it's not necessarily "people with magic" it's you can interact with nature...

Questioner

So there is inherent Investiture...

Brandon Sanderson

There is inherent investiture in every world created but you are going to see-- You aren't going to find Mistborn on a world like that but what you might find is a way there are magic aspects to the setting. Spren could exist on a world like that but they would be like the minor spren, you wouldn't find Syl, but you would find something like lifespren.

Salt Lake City Comic-Con 2014 (Sept. 4, 2014)

 

Spoiler

Questioner

I guess... At what point or which book will Sixth of the Dusk eventually tie in to?

Brandon Sanderson

So... Heh...

Questioner

And if that is unanswerable, then how many years until that book comes out?

Brandon Sanderson

It's not unanswerable, but it's a ways off. The problem is that's a weird planet, and visiting it from Shadesmar is-- it just-- in the Cosmere Collection I'll talk about that, okay? It's a weird planet, and getting to it is interesting. 

Questioner

Okay...

Brandon Sanderson

There's no Shard in residence, but there's a Shardpool. But it's on... one of the most dangerous places... that exists. And so, let's just say it's not going to be relevant until you can regularly travel there somehow that doesn't involve popping up into a giant death trap.

Questioner

Okay, follow-up question though. How many people have tried to pop up, only to find out it was a death trap?

Brandon Sanderson

Go ahead and read what Khriss has to say about it.

White Sand vol.1 release party (June 28, 2016)

 

[Aekiel2]

It should be noted that these wobs were written for Sixth of the Dusk, not Isles of the Emberdark. There's been a few changes made to the story since it was first written and the Mother Frond character was only created for this book.

I'd also point out that Cultivation hid herself on Roshar for a variety of reasons, including Odium being active and present in the system. Her behaviour on one world does not necessarily mean she'll act the same way elsewhere.

Edited October 29, 2025 by Aekiel2

[Eahlendell]

Isn’t an Avatar of a shard also a shard… wouldn’t this mean Patji has enough investiture to prerecord the three realms and create a perpendicularity

[Jult]

This feels possible. Two more tiny things to consider:

First, Koravellium Avast is allegedly very good at predicting the future. Mother Frond told the story of Cakoban around Dusk many, many times AND she told him to look for his "Shooting Star"(ling) right before his adventure really kicked off. These both could just be things a friendly storyteller would do. Or they could be normal foreshadowing from Brandon. But I wouldn't rule out Mother Frond as a possible Fortune user considering how relevant these turned out to be.

Second, there's another time that Mother Frond's name comes up towards the end of the book:

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He was no longer that man. And shockingly, it was being around other people that had urged him to change. Not just Vathi, but Mother Frond and a dozen others he’d come to interact with. Around other people, you couldn’t keep doing the same thing. They forced you to adapt. Grow.

-Chapter 47

Brandon may not have stuck the word "cultivate" directly in this passage, but "change", "adapt", and "grow" all feel pretty Cultivation-adjacent.

[Aekiel2]

On 10/30/2025 at 12:35 AM, Eahlendell said:

Isn’t an Avatar of a shard also a shard… wouldn’t this mean Patji has enough investiture to prerecord the three realms and create a perpendicularity

There is a perpendicularity on Patji... So yes.

[Isilel]

Maybe this is Koravellium, but she is no longer Cultivation?

[Someone]

I think the theory @Isilel posted makes a lot of sense. Mother Frond likely is Koravellium, but not Cultivation anymore. That would keep all existing WoBs intact.

[Jult]

On 12/18/2025 at 5:44 AM, Someone said:

I think the theory @Isilel posted makes a lot of sense. Mother Frond likely is Koravellium, but not Cultivation anymore. That would keep all existing WoBs intact.

The moment we learned about her in WaT, I suspected that Medelantorius somehow gave up Valor. Mainly because there's a WoB stating that only one "current" Shard is a dragon and Koravellium already filled that slot.

Maybe Kory has followed Medelantorius' example?

[Muse]

This is a great theory! 100% agreed that the language very much implies Mother Frond is Cultivation, its hard to disagree with this theory.

However, related to the discussion, hot off the presses (Koloss Head-munching Day spoiler stream, not on Arcanum yet as of now) is that there are exactly 2 dragon Shards, the 1 dragon Shard WoB was always just a mistake he made!

So if this indeed Cultivation, then it's either a drive-by to send Dusk on his IotE path (implying that she believes he can be a major influencer at some point) or she is very new to the neighborhood, maybe not long enough to even generate a pool (while its not impossible, there is strong evidence that this is a pool related to Autonomy since Patji is/was related to Autonomy - https://wob.coppermind.net/events/312/#e8902).

[First of the Tide He/him]

Btw, Brandon has gone back on the one dragon shard WoB recently, so it could still be koravellium as cultivation