Shards are dropping like flies, and I think I know why...

[hotdogdaniel]

I've been thinking - post WaT, Retribution is running around the Cosmere making enemies all over while Honor can no longer grant Surges to the Knights Radiant. Meanwhile, the other 14 Shards have been dwindling in number... down to exactly 10.... 

• Preservation and Ruin have turned into Harmony (-1 Shard) 
• Devotion and Dominion are dead and turned into the Dor (-2 Shards) 
• Ambition is dead (-1 Shard) 

I find it curious that each remaining Shard lines up pretty closely with the ideals and philosophies of a Radiant order: 

• Bondsmiths - Harmony (uniting people)
• Windrunners - Valor (protecting others) 
• Skybreakers - Mercy (current Skybreakers have lost it a bit but originally I imagine a big part of their order was knowing when to administer the law and when to show Mercy) 
• Dustbringers - Autonomy (all about Self-Mastery)
• Edgedancers - Cultivation (speaks for itself)
• Truthwatchers - Reason (all the ideals relate to learning truths about existence)
• Lightweavers - Virtuosity (confirmed to be not about Virtue but about being a Virtuoso, i.e. artistic talent)
• Elsecallers - Invention (Self-Improvement, or creating the ideal self) 
• Willshapers - Whimsy (all about pure freedom)
• Stonewards - Endowment (the "gift" of being dependable, giving people your effort, dedication, support)

How likely do we think it is that each order of Knights Radiant receives their Investiture and surges from a different Shard? As they Unite to take on Retribution, each chooses an order to act as their soldiers in the war to come. What do you think? 

 

[Xanpheon]

It's unlikely. Radiant orders and the surges are the result of the Rosharan system's manifestation of Investiture, and the orders specifically are the result of Honor's influence on the method of accessing said MoI. After the result of unbound surges and the urging of Odium/Honor burnt Ashyn, Honor imposed very strict limits on what Surgebinders could do within the limits of the Radiant Orders/the Herald's capabilities.

Just because the bounds Honor set on Surgebinders have started to loosen in the wake of his death, doesn't mean that they're going to change who grants those powers.

[ThroughTheLivingIlliterate He/Him]

17 hours ago, hotdogdaniel said:

I find it curious that each remaining Shard lines up pretty closely with the ideals and philosophies of a Radiant order: 

• Bondsmiths - Harmony (uniting people)
• Windrunners - Valor (protecting others) 
• Skybreakers - Mercy (current Skybreakers have lost it a bit but originally I imagine a big part of their order was knowing when to administer the law and when to show Mercy) 
• Dustbringers - Autonomy (all about Self-Mastery)
• Edgedancers - Cultivation (speaks for itself)
• Truthwatchers - Reason (all the ideals relate to learning truths about existence)
• Lightweavers - Virtuosity (confirmed to be not about Virtue but about being a Virtuoso, i.e. artistic talent)
• Elsecallers - Invention (Self-Improvement, or creating the ideal self) 
• Willshapers - Whimsy (all about pure freedom)
• Stonewards - Endowment (the "gift" of being dependable, giving people your effort, dedication, support)

 

There are definitely some connections here, but Brandon consistently ties in those specific traits in most of his magic systems. I think that it may not be foreshadowing, but more probably the bonds of the spren deal with those same intents because they are such a big part of the cosmere.

Nice find.

[Use the Falchion]

Interesting! I saw a YouTube video (I think it was by Lightcallers, but I can't remember) that basically asserted that each of the Knights Radiant (or maybe it was the main forms of Investiture) also related to a Shard, with some of the missing Shards being stand-ins for either potential combinations or maybe Surges from Ashyn. It was a really cool theory!