Cosmere 101

[Catchfraze]

Each of the 'Shardworlds' I've written in (Mistborn, Elantris, Warbreaker, Way of Kings) exists with the same cosmology. All things exist on three realms--the spiritual, the cognitive, and the physical. What's going on here is an interaction between the three realms. I don't to bore you with my made up philosophy, but I do have a cohesive metaphysical reasoning for how my worlds and magic works. And there is a single plane of existence--called Shadesmar, the Cognative Realm--which connects them all.

I took this quote from the Brandonology site. Reading the above, I get the impression that some of the stories or rather, some of the worlds Brandon has already written about take place on a different plane of existence from each other (I.E some of the worlds could be in the physical and some of them could be in the spiritual).

Assuming on the right track, and given my crippling inability to proper express myself, I'll try and focus on my main points/questions instead of rambling:

Mistborn could possibly take place in physical realm (This is just supposition without supporting facts. You could replace physical with spiritual if you wanted I suppose, just not cognitive since apparently Shadesmar takes up all of that).

Elantris could possibly take place in the spiritual realm (Same as what's in parenthesis above).

Since Roshar is the first world where we are introduced to Shadesmar, is the current consensus that if we were to see maps of Shadesmar in other books, Shadesmar would form a mirror of the world/plane you access Shadesmar from? So if you try to access Shadesmar from the Physical plane, Shadesmar is a mirror of the physical plane and if you access it from the spiritual, it's a mirror of the spiritual plane?

Are the physical and spiritual planes able to interact without Shadesmar, or is Shadesmar required for either one to affect the other?

Assuming that the physical and spiritual planes can't interact with each other, but require Shadesmar as a intermediary, how likely is it that the shattering of the Shards of Adonalsium took place in Shadesmar? I haven't read the books that aren't canon that Mr. Sanderson have wrote, so I have no knowledge on this subject.

Lastly, do changes in the physical realm affect shadesmar with the same going for what happens in the spiritual? I'm under the impression that the Shadesmar can affect either one of them, but if the physical and spiritual can't directly interact with each other without Shadesmar, does this mean that changes which occur to Shadesmar as a result of one or the other don't transmit to the respective plane of existence?

I realize that a lot of the answers to my questions don't exist and that some of what I said is probably flat out wrong. If there are any theories on the subjects though, I would greatly be interested in reading them.

[Chicken]

Mayhaps I should shoot some questions into the dark since I'm already here. I'm pretty certain none of these have definite answers at the moment, but at least there could be some interesting tidbits that I'm unaware of.

1) Shard Powah!!! Are all Shards equally powerful? Ruin and Preservation were quite evenly matched but that doesn't really prove anything about others.

2) Shard Angry. Shard SMASH! The way I gathered from HoA, Shards are like balloons full of water floating around a planet. They can smash into and hurt each other. Since Ruin and Preservation were filled with equal amounts of "water", they destroyed each other's "drivers" in a full on crash. But if one had significantly more "water" would it kill the other? Seems logical to me, but who knows?

3) Shard pairs? Ruin and Preservation were quite neatly paired. I know Sanderson said not all Shards are so neat opposites, but that doesn't mean there aren't other pairs. Like Aona-Rayse. They seem opposite just like R&P to me, so would that mean their Shards are equally large? For all we know, 14 of the Shards are paired with last two different. Very unlikely, but possible. Therefore, are there other paired Shards like R&P?

4) Shardicide. Rayse has a pretty high bodycount among Shards. If my "water balloon idea" is correct, that'd mean his Shard is bigger than Aona, Skai and Tanavast's. But if it's not correct, there must be other ways to kill a Shard's mind than brute force smashing. What could that be?

5) Smash Hit! How does one go about Shattering a Shard? Do you have to kill its mind first then "violate the corpse" so to speak, or is hitting them hard is enough? Or maybe there's some way to trick and manipulate a Shard into Shattering?

6) Voidbringers, IN SPACE!!! Is there a need for mortal agents for Shattering or killing Shards and if so, did Rayse carry Voidbringers in his back pocket to Sel? If he didn't carry them, did he make more on Sel and where did those go when he was done? If he doesn't actually need mortal agents, why use them against Tanavast? We know for certain he defeated Tanavast after he stopped sending waves of his mooks upon Roshar, so a) He's always been "bigger" than Honor and finally killed Tanavast b ) Honor "deflated" after Heralds and Knights Radiant broke their oaths allowing Rayse to win c) Rayse "inflated" after his visit to Sel/broken oaths on Roshar d) Sanderson will surprise us. Considering Ruin's demise, mortal mooks don't really seem to do anything against Shards themselves. Whatever the case, Voidbringers being carried through the cosmere dangling from an ethereal hand as in Dungeon Keeper is too amusing to contemplate. (this one is rather full of random rambling)

7) Uncle Rayse's Shard Shattering Shop. Or could Shattering be a speciality of Rayse thanks to his Shard's nature? Now I know you'd say this looks like a job for Ruin, but I think if Ruin would have a speciality when it comes to Shards, it'd be completely disintegrating the power instead of just breaking it. Being "shattered" would presumably be a painful thing, so it's more Odiumy than Ruiny, especially if they're alive during it. Not that there's any proof individual Shards have such specialities of course. It's a slim justification anyway, just looking for an excuse to write URSSS.

8) Do we know how many more books there'll be until the end of "Cosmere Saga"? I know of 9 more Stormlight Archive, 6 more Mistborn, one Elantris, one Warbreaker and 7 Dragonsteel. That makes a minimum of 24 years. Does Sanderson have an ETA? I'm not in a great hurry, but I'd really love to see it finished before I kick the bucket. I don't wanna think how many people following various long running series passed away while waiting for their story to end, and it'd be nice if I didn't join them.

Edited October 23, 2011 by Chicken

[CrazyRioter]

I took this quote from the Brandonology site. Reading the above, I get the impression that some of the stories or rather, some of the worlds Brandon has already written about take place on a different plane of existence from each other (I.E some of the worlds could be in the physical and some of them could be in the spiritual)

the main action of the books that we see all takes place in the Physical Realm, the only bit we've seen that takes place in another realm is Shallan's visits to Shadesmar in WoK. The cognitive and spiritual realms are both overlays of sorts on the physical. Or at least that's the way I understand it.

Mayhaps I should shoot some questions into the dark since I'm already here. I'm pretty certain none of these have definite answers at the moment, but at least there could be some interesting tidbits that I'm unaware of.

1) Shard Powah!!! Are all Shards equally powerful? Ruin and Preservation were quite evenly matched but that doesn't really prove anything about others.

it's generally assumed that all Shards started out with the same amount of raw power, though some are weaker now due to having split of part of there power.

2) Shard Angry. Shard SMASH! The way I gathered from HoA, Shards are like balloons full of water floating around a planet. They can smash into and hurt each other. Since Ruin and Preservation were filled with equal amounts of "water", they destroyed each other's "drivers" in a full on crash. But if one had significantly more "water" would it kill the other? Seems logical to me, but who knows?

I believe it's explicitly stated that once preservation had given up part of himself to create sentient life, Ruin would eventually have been able to kill him, without being killed himself, but Preservation trapped him, and split off part of his power into the atium. which made him equal in power to preservation, and trapped, until he got free, and was able to kill Preservation because Preservation's mind was weakened, when Vin took the power they were equal in strength because some of Ruin's power was still trapped in the atium reserve, so they killed each other.

3) Shard pairs? Ruin and Preservation were quite neatly paired. I know Sanderson said not all Shards are so neat opposites, but that doesn't mean there aren't other pairs. Like Aona-Rayse. They seem opposite just like R&P to me, so would that mean their Shards are equally large? For all we know, 14 of the Shards are paired with last two different. Very unlikely, but possible. Therefore, are there other paired Shards like R&P?

Brandon has said that not all Shards are paired off as perfectly as Ruin and Preservation.

4) Shardicide. Rayse has a pretty high bodycount among Shards. If my "water balloon idea" is correct, that'd mean his Shard is bigger than Aona, Skai and Tanavast's. But if it's not correct, there must be other ways to kill a Shard's mind than brute force smashing. What could that be?

who knows if there is more then one way to off a Shard, well Brandon does, but we don't.

5) Smash Hit! How does one go about Shattering a Shard? Do you have to kill its mind first then "violate the corpse" so to speak, or is hitting them hard is enough? Or maybe there's some way to trick and manipulate a Shard into Shattering?

We generally assume they have to killed first before they get Splintered, but again, we don't know how Splintering works.

6) Voidbringers, IN SPACE!!! Is there a need for mortal agents for Shattering or killing Shards and if so, did Rayse carry Voidbringers in his back pocket to Sel? If he didn't carry them, did he make more on Sel and where did those go when he was done? If he doesn't actually need mortal agents, why use them against Tanavast? We know for certain he defeated Tanavast after he stopped sending waves of his mooks upon Roshar, so a) He's always been "bigger" than Honor and finally killed Tanavast b ) Honor "deflated" after Heralds and Knights Radiant broke their oaths allowing Rayse to win c) Rayse "inflated" after his visit to Sel/broken oaths on Roshar d) Sanderson will surprise us. Considering Ruin's demise, mortal mooks don't really seem to do anything against Shards themselves. Whatever the case, Voidbringers being carried through the cosmere dangling from an ethereal hand as in Dungeon Keeper is too amusing to contemplate. (this one is rather full of random rambling)

There must be some benefit to mortal agents in Shard-fights, as they seem to use them a lot, but we don't know the details of what happened between Honor and Odium, so.....

7) Uncle Rayse's Shard Shattering Shop. Or could Shattering be a speciality of Rayse thanks to his Shard's nature? Now I know you'd say this looks like a job for Ruin, but I think if Ruin would have a speciality when it comes to Shards, it'd be completely disintegrating the power instead of just breaking it. Being "shattered" would presumably be a painful thing, so it's more Odiumy than Ruiny, especially if they're alive during it. Not that there's any proof individual Shards have such specialities of course. It's a slim justification anyway, just looking for an excuse to write URSSS.

It's been theorized before that Splintering Shards is a power unique to Odium, and it may be, seeing as Ruin didn't Splinter Preservation after offing Leras. But then we don't know how Splintering works, it could take more time then Ruin had before Vin took the Shard. Or maybe Ruin figured he'd destroy the world first, then finish off the Shard. Which turned out to be dumb, if it's true.

8) Do we know how many more books there'll be until the end of "Cosmere Saga"? I know of 9 more Stormlight Archive, 6 more Mistborn, one Elantris, one Warbreaker and 7 Dragonsteel. That makes a minimum of 24 years. Does Sanderson have an ETA? I'm not in a great hurry, but I'd really love to see it finished before I kick the bucket. I don't wanna think how many people following various long running series passed away while waiting for their story to end, and it'd be nice if I didn't join them.

I think there's supposed to be 36 or 38 total Cosmere books.

[Zas678]

CrazyRioter answered all the questions really really well.

I think what the Shard questions boil down to is that we haven't seen a Splintering before. Ruin's death (Shard SMASH!) was a Cognitive Death of the person who was holding a shard. We haven't seen a Spiritual Death of a Shard itself. (which is what I imagine what happens when a Shard Splinters).

As for Realmantic theory, there are three realms.

The Physical, which is where we live is where we talk and eat and kill each other. The Pools (and mists and other "Bodies" of shards) are examples of the physical forms of a Shard.

The Cognitive, or Shadesmar, which is where we think and dream. Vin, when she "becomes" Preservation actually becomes the Cognitive aspect of the Shard. Hoid does something funky with Shadesmar to get around.

The Spiritual Realm is where the power is. The Power of Creation, which powers Allomancy, is here.

[azith28]

Preservation - Leras (Dead) - MB

Ruin - Ati (Dead) - MB

Q:

Where are you getting the names Leras, and Ati from?

Q: When did Keiser become a silver in HoA?

[CrazyRioter]

Preservation - Leras (Dead) - MB

Ruin - Ati (Dead) - MB

Q:

Where are you getting the names Leras, and Ati from?

Q: When did Keiser become a silver in HoA?

Brandon gave us those names, and in the annotations for HoA he mentions that Kelsier managed to piggyback his mind onto Preservation's power for a bit between the time Leras died and the time Vin took the power, he talks to Spook a couple of times after Spook pulls out the spike.

[Zas678]

A lot of the original Trilogy cosmere stuff we learned about from the HoA Q&A, which you can find here.

[Windrunner]

Hi, I know bout the Cosmere and Shards and everything but I had a question about Hoid, and I figured that this would be the best place to ask it, rather then starting up a new topic.

My question is, where specifically, is Hoid in WoA? I know he left the footprints in Kredik Shaw and took the Lerasium from the Well of Ascension. However, I heard that Hoid disguises himself as a Terrisman, and overhears, Vin or Elend or someone else, talking about the Well and he gets a hint that helps him figure out where it is before them. I've combed the book and missed it every time, so can anyone help me out here?

[Zas678]

Sure. It took us FOREVER to find it, but Peter finally said that he was the leader of the Terris refugees that Elend talks to on his way back to Luthadel after Vin goes and saves the city.

Here he is:

Spook glanced back the way he had come. "You should come look at this."

"The army?" Elend asked, frowning.

Spook shook his head. "No. The refugees."

-----

"The Keepers are dead, my lord," the old man said, sitting across from Elend. He didn't have a tent, only a blanket stretched between several poles. "Either dead, or captured."

Another man brought Elend a cup of warm tea, his demeanor servile. Both wore the robes of stewards, and while their eyes bespoke exhaustion, their robes and hands were clean.

Old habits, Elend thought, nodding thankfully and taking a sip of the tea. Terris's people might have declared themselves independent, but a thousand years of servitude cannot be so easily thrown off.

The camp was an odd place. Spook said he counted nearly a thousand people in it—a nightmare of a number to care for, feed, and organize in the cold winter. Many were elderly, and the men were mostly stewards: eunuchs bred for genteel service, with no experience in hunting.

"Tell me what happened," Elend said.

The elderly steward nodded, his head shaking. He didn't seem particularly frail—actually, he had that same air of controlled dignity that most stewards exhibited—but his body had a slow, chronic tremble.

"The Synod came out into the open, my lord, once the empire fell." He accepted a cup of his own, but Elend noticed that it was only half full—a precaution that proved wise as the elderly steward's shaking nearly spilled its contents. "They became our rulers. Perhaps it was not wise to reveal themselves so soon."

Not all Terrismen were Feruchemists; in fact, very few were. The Keepers—people like Sazed and Tindwyl—had been forced into hiding long ago by the Lord Ruler. His paranoia that Feruchemical and Allomantic lines might mix—thereby potentially producing a person with his same powers—had led him to try and destroy all Feruchemists.

"I've known Keepers, friend," Elend said softly. "I find it hard to believe that they could have been easily defeated. Who did this?"

"Steel Inquisitors, my lord," the old man said.

Elend shivered. So that's where they've been.

"There were dozens of them, my lord," the old man said. "They attacked Ththingdwen with an army of koloss brutes. But, that was just a distraction, I think. Their real goal as the Synod and the Keepers themselves. While our army, such as it was, fought the beasts, the Inquisitors themselves struck at the Keepers."

Lord Ruler . . . Elend thought, stomach twisting. So, what do we do with the book Sazed told us to deliver to the Synod? Do we pass it on to these men, or keep it?

"They took the bodies with them, my lord," the old man said. "Terris is in ruins, and that is why we are going south. You said you know King Venture?"

"I . . . have met him," Elend said. "He ruled Luthadel, where I am from."

"Will he take us in, do you think?" the old man asked. "We have little hope anymore. Tathingdwen was the Terris capital, but even it wasn't large. We are few, these days—the Lord Ruler saw to that."

"I . . . do not know if Luthadel can help you, friend."

"We can serve well," the old man promised. "We were prideful to declare ourselves free, I think. We struggled to survive even before the Inquisitors attacked. Perhaps they did us a favor by casting us out."

Elend shook his head. "Koloss attacked Luthadel just over a week ago," he said quietly. "I am a refugee myself, Master Steward. For all I know, the city itself has fallen."

The old man fell silent. "Ah, I see," he finally said.

"I'm sorry," Elend said. "I was traveling back to see what happened. Tell me—I traveled this way not long ago. How is it that I missed you in my journey north?"

"We didn't come by the canal route, my lord," the old man said. "We cut across country, straight down, so that we could gather supplies at Suringshath. You . . . have no further word of events at Luthadel, then? There was a senior Keeper in residence there. We were hoping, perhaps, to seek her counsel."

"Lady Tindwyl?" Elend asked.

The old man perked up. "Yes. You know her?"

"She was an attendant at the king's court," Elend said.

"Keeper Tindwyl could be considered our leader now, I think," the old man said. "We aren't certain how many traveling Keepers there are, but she is the only known member of the Synod who was out of the city when we were attacked."

"She was still in Luthadel when I left," Elend said.

"Then she might live still," the old man said. "We can hope, I think. I thank you, traveler, for your information. Please, make yourself comfortable in our camp."

Then Elend goes back to speak with Spook, where they talk about how they sent Vin back, and how they want to catch up with her, but maybe she's already taken the power at the Well. Although they're being quiet, I bet that Hoid is listening carefully.

[Windrunner]

Then Elend goes back to speak with Spook, where they talk about how they sent Vin back, and how they want to catch up with her, but maybe she's already taken the power at the Well. Although they're being quiet, I bet that Hoid is listening carefully.

Thank you! I was looking in the wrong spot the whole time. I'm sure you're right about Hoid listening in on them, which is interesting. If he found out so close to when Vin took the power he either hustled to Kredik Shaw with an Allomancer buddy before Vin found the Well, or sneaked in afterward, which suggests that the Well does produce Lerasium every time it refills, or else Vin would have seen the extra bead there.

[CrazyRioter]

actually he somehow got into the area around the Well using manipulation of Shadesmar, or so Brandon has hinted.

[darniil]

actually he somehow got into the area around the Well using manipulation of Shadesmar, or so Brandon has hinted.

Before I read your post, I was thinking the same thing.

And I was also thinking how handy Shadesmar would be for something like that. In the Chronicles of Amber, Amberites can use the Pattern to walk from one dimension to another, but once they arrive in their destination, they can't use it to fast-travel. So, they could easily Shadowwalk from Middle Earth to Scadrial - probably hitting some other worlds in the process - but if the Prince(ss) ended up in Urteau instead of Luthadel, s/he would have to use mundane means to get to Luthadel. In fact, if the Royal ended up hitting some desolate spot on Roshar instead of Scadrial, s/he'd have to use mundane means to get to Scadrial (or try a Patternwalk and risk losing the Shadow).

All in all, Shadesmar seems to be an incredibly handy method of intra-Shadow travel.

[Green Hoodie Mistborn]

Hi, I know bout the Cosmere and Shards and everything but I had a question about Hoid, and I figured that this would be the best place to ask it, rather then starting up a new topic.

My question is, where specifically, is Hoid in WoA? I know he left the footprints in Kredik Shaw and took the Lerasium from the Well of Ascension. However, I heard that Hoid disguises himself as a Terrisman, and overhears, Vin or Elend or someone else, talking about the Well and he gets a hint that helps him figure out where it is before them. I've combed the book and missed it every time, so can anyone help me out here?

Do we have confirmation that Hoid TOOK a piece of Lerasium when he was in the Well of Ascension chambers? Or anything that he actually did in there other than being there?

[Windrunner]

actually he somehow got into the area around the Well using manipulation of Shadesmar, or so Brandon has hinted.

Ah! That makes sense. If you can world-hop with Shadesmar, then I'm sure you can get anywhere you want in the worlds, provided you know where it is.

Do we have confirmation that Hoid TOOK a piece of Lerasium when he was in the Well of Ascension chambers? Or anything that he actually did in there other than being there?

Umm kind of. In the HoA Q&A Peter confirmed that there was at least one other piece of Lerasium at the Well, and the only other person who seems to have any possible motivation to secretly take a piece of Lerasium is Hoid.

[Green Hoodie Mistborn]

Ah! That makes sense. If you can world-hop with Shadesmar, then I'm sure you can get anywhere you want in the worlds, provided you know where it is.

Umm kind of. In the HoA Q&A Peter confirmed that there was at least one other piece of Lerasium at the Well, and the only other person who seems to have any possible motivation to secretly take a piece of Lerasium is Hoid.

Well that is good confirmation indeed. it is interesting that Peter says "at least one more" in his reply.

I hadn't ever read that thread on TWG so that's why I don't remember it For anyone else the info is HERE

I wonder if there were more than 1 additional bead, what Hoid is doing with those fun little beads? I wonder if he used the one that we suspect he did take or not.

[Zarepath]

Cross-Cosmere Questions:

1. Can a Tineye burn tin from Roshar and get the same effect as if he'd burnt Scadrial tin?

2. Can an Awakener use colors on Sel?

3. Do Elantrians have Breath?

4. Could Shallan and Jasnah access Shadesmar if they were on Scadrial? Would there be a Truthspren for Shallan to tell a truth to, or would the lack of spren prevent it?

(4a. Do we know how Jasnah accesses Shadesmar? I get the sense that she doesn't see Truthspren, so does she have a different way of getting there that we have any details on?)

[Joe ST]

3 has been answered recently, only Nalthisians have Breaths they can Breath IIRC

[Zas678]

My original guess to all of these would be yes. But Joe is right that the third one is no. When I asked Brandon if everyone had a breath, he said no. He says that everyone has a life force that is similar, but if someone were to gain the ability of an Awakener and then tried to awaken something, they couldn't use their own life force, they'd have to use a Breath.

As to the others... I'd imagine that one and two would both be yes. A metal is pretty much always going to be a metal no matter what planet it's on. It is the physical properties of the metal, the atomic "gate" that is made that allows the power of creation to come through.

For color, I think it's the same thing. You're taking the color, which is a physical thing and using that to help power the awakening.

For Shadesmar..... I don't know. My gut is that they couldn't do it on Scadrial unless they brought their Spren with them (which may happen), or they find a different way to do it.

And we've assumed that Jasnah is different than Shallan (she says so herself), but we don't know how different it is.

[Aradel]

For all of those questions I'd answer this way:

All shards in the cosmere were originally one. Anywhere where the investiture(shardpower) comes from the user, the user should be able to usde their powers on any other shardworld as long as they meet all their normal requirements.

Tin on Scadrial is the same as tin on Nalthis.

Color on Nalthis is the same as color on Scadrial.

Breaths only occur naturally on Nalthis, although an awakener can take their breaths with them wherever they go.

I'm not sure if the same is true of surgebinders and their spren. Shadesmar exists everywhere in the cosmere, but spren don't occur naturally anywhere but Roshar.

[Sunblesser]

re: spren and planet-hopping - i bet that with a strong enough nahel bond, and skill with the lashings, the ancient windrunners could have taken their spren with them to other planets. it seems like lashings should be able to allow space travel. or maybe fabrials based off of them.

[Tulir]

So I have 2 questions:

1. Where did Kelsier become a Sliver? I don't remember that.

2.I saw in the list of questions for Brandon Sanderson and I saw that it asked how can Wyrn see the future. I didn't see that in the book, so can someone tell me how?

If someone can get quotes that show me either of them I would be really thankful.

[Zas678]

I can show you qutoes for both of those as it happens!

So for the first question, I'll let Brandon talk about Slivers:

Goodreads Q&A

If you hold all the power that makes you a Shard, but the Lord Ruler held a little bit of it and then let it go. From then on they referred to that change in him—the residue, what was left—as a Sliver. When he held it he became the Shard for a short time, and Vin was a Shard for a short time. After Vin gave up the power, what Kelsier is at the end of the trilogy—that's a Sliver of Adonalsium.

You know how in HoA, the mist spirit (Preservation/Leras) dies after talking to Elend? Well from there, it's a good 8 chapters before Vin takes up Preservation. So who's holding the power at that time? It's Kelsier. He speaks to Spook, he's the one who says that Spook has a clue that the others need (after the fire).

Hero of Ages Chapter 64:

". . . AND THAT'S WHY YOU ABSOLUTELY must get that message sent, Spook. The pieces of this thing are all spinning about, cast to the wind. You have a clue that nobody else does. Send it flying for me."Spook nodded, feeling fuzzy. Where was he? What was going on? And why, suddenly, did everything hurt so much?

"Good lad. You did well, Spook. I'm proud."

As to the second, they're referencing when Wyrn tells the old Arteth of Kae to assassinate Hrathen at a specific spot in Teod. This is what Brandon has to say about it:

Tor.com Q&A

LOCKE219 ()

I know it's a RAFO, but how the eff did Wyrn see into the future? That seems above even a Shardholder's abilities! I bet that sucker's tapping into the Shadesmar. But I digress...

BRANDON SANDERSON ()

Ha, wow, that is indeed a RAFO. Note that we have seen temporal abilities in the Cosmere before. Most of the time these are related directly to the pure essence of a Shard or to a Splinter.

Many have speculated that it's the Skaze (who are evil Seons) that are behind the future sight.

[Windrunner]

If you hold all the power that makes you a Shard, but the Lord Ruler held a little bit of it and then let it go. From then on they referred to that change in him—the residue, what was left—as a Sliver. When he held it he became the Shard for a short time, and Vin was a Shard for a short time. After Vin gave up the power, what Kelsier is at the end of the trilogy—that's a Sliver of Adonalsium.

Do we have any idea of what impact being a Sliver has on a person, after the power is gone? What is this residue of power Brandon talks about?

[Chaos]

Do we have any idea of what impact being a Sliver has on a person, after the power is gone? What is this residue of power Brandon talks about?

Unfortunately, I've never heard what the effects of being a Sliver are.

[Zas678]

Effects of a Sliver. I don't know, but I can guess.

The Lord Ruler and Vin were both Slivers because they took the Well.

After the Well, Vin seemed more in control of herself. I know that it's mostly because she decided who she wanted to be when she married Elend. But I think having the Cognitive Presence of a Shard stays with you a little bit. You have a little better perspective, a little better idea of who you are in the world.

I also think that it helps shape your personality. Look at The Lord Ruler. After taking the Power (and TLR really took the power rather than just holding it momentarily), he conquered the world and kept things the same. He Preserved the Land for thousands of years.

I also think that being a Sliver means that your bond with that shard is stronger. It remembers you somewhat, and that is the "Attuning force" that Sazed speaks about, making Vin ready for actually taking up the Shard.

Here's the full quote for a Sliver. I only did half before.

ZAS678

Also, would the Elantrians and the Lerasium-mistings be considered Slivers? Or is just the Lord Ruler and Vin Slivers(Via the Well)? Or do you need more power to be considered a Sliver?

BRANDON SANDERSON (GOODREADS)

Elantrians are not slivers. Mistborn trilogy spoiler warnings follow! The Lord Ruler was indeed Sliver. So was Vin. For the rest, I would say probably not.

What defines an actual Sliver of Adonalsium is not as clear-cut as you might think. It's a term that in—universe people who study this have applied to various existences and states. Every single person on the world of Scadrial has a bit of Leras in them—a bit of the power of Preservation. Every single person has a bit of Ati in them. There's a certain threshold where these scholars would call you a Sliver of Adonalsium. But I would say that any regular Misting is probably not a Sliver. A full Lerasium Mistborn is getting closer, but people who have held one of the powers are what would probably be termed a Sliver by the definitions. If you hold all the power that makes you a Shard, but the Lord Ruler held a little bit of it and then let it go. From then on they referred to that change in him—the residue, what was left—as a Sliver. When he held it he became the Shard for a short time, and Vin was a Shard for a short time. After Vin gave up the power, what Kelsier is at the end of the trilogy—that's a Sliver of Adonalsium.

Here's another intersting one:

ERI PL ()

Is Jezrien a Sliver?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Jezrien is one of the Heralds, but has never held the power of an entire Shard himself. (So no, not a Sliver.)