Adonalsium was 4 barbershop quartets in a trench coat

[JohnTMS He/Him]

Hi!! Me again!!! While I actually have a follow up to my prior topic in the works, which hopes to a)deeply simplify many explanations without the use of arcanum-external sources, and b)expand the application of ideas more cleanly to ones already tried, and to 'new' spaces, which will eventually get posted.. SQUIRREL!

 

Quote

yurisses

You once said that Investiture follows its own version of the laws of thermodynamics. The first one is that Investiture is neither created nor destroyed.

Is the second law of Investodynamics that the amount of corrupted Investiture in the Cosmere cannot decrease?

Brandon Sanderson

Basically, the idea is that there is a third item in the equations--matter, energy, and investiture. That's the basis of how they work.

Entropy is not corrupted Investiture. The second law stands as is. However, there is a fourth law that relates to Adonalsium, which I'm not going to talk about at the moment.

/r/books AMA 2015 (July 14, 2015)

I've seen this one so many times at this point that I forgot to even consider it for a while. But the Cosmere operating under 4 Laws of Thermodynamics (I'm not counting the zeroth real-world one, too easy) whatever the 4th Law does and its ties to Adonalsium are, opens up the possibility of mapping Dawnshards onto them.

I can see EXIST mapping either onto the conservation of the 1st Law, or potentially onto the 3rd Law. For the sake of this argument, I'm going with the former.

CHANGE, furthermore, can be rather cleanly mapped to the concept of entropy.

Leaving 2 unknown Dawnshard names, and under this idea 1 unknown function; knowing the 3rd must deal with the 3rd Law of Thermodynamics.


This is where my music brain took over again.

 

I'm not exactly sure how popular of a warmup it is across the hobby and other choral settings, but there was a warmup that a barbershop chorus I sang with for a while did every rehearsal. 4 chords sung on an open vowel, changes directed 'on the sticks', or at the directors' discretion and cue.

In the key of C, the progression with more 'popular music' language, the chords are:

• C
• C7/G
• F
• Ab7/Eb

The exercise then resolving that Ab7 into Db with the same voicing as we began in C, and we continued until we were stopped.

The first two chords in this progression very much act as analogues for EXIST and for CHANGE...

Taking specific notes away, and looking at it through the relationships between not only each chord but between each voice in aggregate, we must then provide the chord structure in Roman Numeral analysis, with brief explainers along the way.

• Ⅰ - Tonic, home base if you will.
• Ⅴ4/3 of Ⅳ - While not a V in the sense of using those chord tones, the intervals between them point your ears in the direction of another chord as if it were a V, in this instance, IV.
• Ⅳ - Another stable base, in line with the 'static' nature of the 3rd Law of Thermodynamics.
• ♭Ⅵ4/3 -Acting as Ⅴ4/3 when put next to:
• Ⅰ, but one half-step higher.

Once I get a recording that I'm proud to share outside of close friends who read the Cosmere and a singular discord, I'll happily edit-in an example of how this sounds strung together for 2 run-throughs!

But now here comes the most speculative portion of all of this, playing 'director makes quartets out of the chorus' so to speak, with the Intents and the chords/voicings I have before me using the incredibly scientific method known as Vibes. The process was messy, yet not as messy as I thought it would be. The end result of which is as follows:

 

	Bass	Baritone	Lead	Tenor
1st Law: EXIST (Ⅰ)	Dominion (1)	Mercy (5)	Devotion  (1)	Preservation (3)
2nd Law: CHANGE (Ⅴ4/3 of Ⅳ)	Virtuosity (5)	Invention (♭7)	Endowment (1)	Ruin (3)
3rd Law: ?? (Ⅳ)	Honor (4)	Autonomy (6)	Reason (1)	Cultivation (4)
4th Law: ??? ♭Ⅵ4/3 AND/OR Ⅴ4/3	Odium (♭3)	Ambition (♭6)	Valor (1)	Whimsy (♭5)

Beside each Intent I also listed out which scale degree in relation to the key of the progression they would consequently sing. This in isolate produces another model to map out and organize the Intents. Rather than bog it down with my own further analysis of it, I'm just going to present it with no further explanation.
 

• 1 - Dominion, Devotion, Endowment, Reason, Valor
• ♭3 - Odium
• 3 - Preservation, Ruin
• 4 - Honor, Cultivation
• Tritone - Whimsy
• 5 - Mercy, Virtuosity
• ♭6 - Ambition
• 6 - Autonomy
• ♭7 - Invention
  
  Shoutouts to Jasonioan for making the joke that became this topic title!

Edited June 21 by JohnTMS
S/o for topic name

[PanLin they/he]

On 6/19/2026 at 3:32 AM, JohnTMS said:

While I actually have a follow up to my prior topic in the works, which hopes to a)deeply simplify many explanations without the use of arcanum-external sources, and b)expand the application of ideas more cleanly to ones already tried, and to 'new' spaces, which will eventually get posted.. SQUIRREL!

I deeply resonate with this 

 

On 6/19/2026 at 3:32 AM, JohnTMS said:

CHANGE, furthermore, can be rather cleanly mapped to the concept of entropy.

I know I just responded to a similar comment of yours in another post, but I really don't think Change relates to entropy, especially when we know part of the Change Dawnshard is about making things better, and we have Shards like Ruin who are all about entropy as an end-state, not as a tool to then remake things differently.

 

On 6/19/2026 at 3:32 AM, JohnTMS said:

• Ⅰ - Tonic, home base if you will.
• Ⅴ4/3 of Ⅳ - While not a V in the sense of using those chord tones, the intervals between them point your ears in the direction of another chord as if it were a V, in this instance, IV.
• Ⅳ - Another stable base, in line with the 'static' nature of the 3rd Law of Thermodynamics.
• ♭Ⅵ4/3 -Acting as Ⅴ4/3 when put next to:
• Ⅰ, but one half-step higher.

On 6/19/2026 at 3:32 AM, JohnTMS said:

• 1 - Dominion, Devotion, Endowment, Reason, Valor
• ♭3 - Odium
• 3 - Preservation, Ruin
• 4 - Honor, Cultivation
• Tritone - Whimsy
• 5 - Mercy, Virtuosity
• ♭6 - Ambition
• 6 - Autonomy
• ♭7 - Invention

Oooh, this is an interesting framing. Reminds me of your other topic talking about Shardic Tones as intervals instead of actual tones. Some questions:

• Shouldn't each interval have either one Shard, or the same number of Shards as every other interval?
• Rather than stuff like simply 'the tonic' and specifically 'flat seventh', how about something like:
  • Exist: fully resolved chords (major, minor, open fifth, maybe octave)
  • Change: directional unresolved chords (suspensions, sevenths, etc)
  • ???: non-directional tension/colour chords (full tones, major sevenths, etc)
  • ???: fully discordant chords (tritones, semitonal clusters, microtones, etc)

(I obviously have my own thoughts on the other two Dawnshards, but I'll avoid bringing my tinfoil hat into contact with yours for this)

I'm sort of extrapolating, but it feels like you're describing the Dawnshards as four 'types' of interval (which I'm fully on board with). Having one Shard be represented by fully discordant chords also satisfies the WoB that one Dawnshard is unlike the others.

 

On 6/19/2026 at 3:32 AM, JohnTMS said:

Once I get a recording that I'm proud to share outside of close friends who read the Cosmere and a singular discord, I'll happily edit-in an example of how this sounds strung together for 2 run-throughs!

Let me know if you need another baritone!

[JohnTMS He/Him]

On 6/23/2026 at 6:17 AM, PanLin said:

Oooh, this is an interesting framing. Reminds me of your other topic talking about Shardic Tones as intervals instead of actual tones. Some questions:

• Shouldn't each interval have either one Shard, or the same number of Shards as every other interval?
• Rather than stuff like simply 'the tonic' and specifically 'flat seventh', how about something like:
  • Exist: fully resolved chords (major, minor, open fifth, maybe octave)
  • Change: directional unresolved chords (suspensions, sevenths, etc)
  • ???: non-directional tension/colour chords (full tones, major sevenths, etc)
  • ???: fully discordant chords (tritones, semitonal clusters, microtones, etc)

(I obviously have my own thoughts on the other two Dawnshards, but I'll avoid bringing my tinfoil hat into contact with yours for this)

I'm sort of extrapolating, but it feels like you're describing the Dawnshards as four 'types' of interval (which I'm fully on board with). Having one Shard be represented by fully discordant chords also satisfies the WoB that one Dawnshard is unlike the others.

The alignment of Shards to scale degrees is separate from that of the Dawnshards, mostly. Categorizing it that way led to similar roadblocks that other Dawnshard mapping ideas get into, too much overlap. Each Chord, or Dawnshard's group of 4, functioning in sequence via voice leading as a secondary axis, is a self-fulfilling loop. It's just that this functional harmony, by consequence of its construction has:

• A third axis (4th, if you take the Thermodynamic Laws into account), by which to categorize everything in scale degrees relative to the Tonic of the progression; one which by its nature, being based in functional Western harmony, is a) asymmetric, and b) not inclusive of all 12 Western tones.
• Shared tones on paper, such as Devotion/Dominion/Endowment/Reason/Valor, and Preservation/Ruin, being microtonally different under Just Intonation.

For instance, Devotion and Dominion share a Chord/Dawnshard, and a relative tone, Dominion being the only one of the 5 on tonic that's an octave lower; being a perfect 2:1 ratio, they're more in tune with one another, and therefore play nice when compressed into the Cognitive Realm (thanks, Odium). Endowment, while being the 'same tone', is now, when placed against the other Shards in its Chord, tuned slightly differently, now tuning against the 5th of the chord in the bass. Just Intonation changes the tuning of chords based on their voicings, not just their raw intervallic content.

The same would apply to Preservation and Ruin, though they lie in different Dawnshards under this mapping. Both the same major 3rd on paper, E for the sake of argument. But the harmonic context of the CHANGE chord presents Ruin as slightly flatter than Preservation, tuning to the 5th in the bass as opposed to the low tonic. Ruin also acting in a dominant chord environment. Combining these two Pure Tones together would lead to the slight discrepancy becoming the main focus-no wonder Sazed's been having so many issues.

On 6/23/2026 at 6:17 AM, PanLin said:

I know I just responded to a similar comment of yours in another post, but I really don't think Change relates to entropy, especially when we know part of the Change Dawnshard is about making things better, and we have Shards like Ruin who are all about entropy as an end-state, not as a tool to then remake things differently.

Well if Ruin is obsessed with an end-state of entropy, I would argue that makes them not obsessed with entropy, but the endpoint of entropy: heat death. Just one concept surrounding the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, not the Law, nor the process that makes it go, which is Entropy. Think of Ruin's arguments:
 

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This process we are engaged in, the end of all things—-it's not a fight, but a simple culmination of inevitability. Can any man make a pocket watch that won't eventually wind down? Can you imagine a lantern that won't eventually burn out? All things end. Think of me as a caretaker—-the one who watches the shop and makes certain that the lights are turned out, that everything is cleaned up, once closing time arrives.
-The Hero of Ages, Chapter 57

Entropy is the engine that makes the clock wind down. Ruin ignores its Journey as it changes hands and lands over its course, focusing only on the moment when it reaches its ultimate Destination. Ruin seems much more interested in when the clock stops, when the lantern is finally snuffed out. Related to CHANGE, but not CHANGE itself.