theory Shard and World Count

[18th Shard he/him]

Just wanted an updated count, so here it is.

 

So according to this WOB: 

 

 

Q. Can you tell me something about the Cosmere that you haven't told anyone before?
A. "There are inhabited planets in the Cosmere that don't have any Shards there. There may be inhabited planets that only have a Splinter of a Shard. There are 10 Core Cosmere planets, which tell the overarching story of the Cosmere."

and this:

 

 

Q. Are there any of the 10 core worlds without a shard?
A. "All 10 core worlds have significant Shardic Influence."

 

there are 10 shardworlds. We also know there are 16 Shards. I made a table with all of these and noticed the following:

Shardworld : Shards

Scadrial : Ruin/Preservation (plus Trell?)

Sel : Devotion/Dominion

Nalthis : Endowment

Roshar : Honor/Cultivation

Braize: Odium

Taldain : Autonomy

None : Unnamed Shard (Possible Survival Shard)

 

Now this is 10 shards with 6 worlds. However, we can add a few more in.

 

Yolen (Dragonsteel) is clearly part of the saga, a core world, and thus probably has a shard based on the quotes above. Shards: 11, Worlds: 7.

 

Aether of Night also fits in this category by the same logic as Yolen.

12:8(?)

 

The Dark One also may have a shard and is a shardworld, albeit it is unknown if it is major.

13:9(?)

 

And of course, the mysterious Vax.

14?:10

 

That may be all the shardworlds, though I admit, some may be wrong.

Also, between these worlds are 2 more Shards. The Survival Shard may be one. Odium has Shattered at least one more.

 

Any WOB's that can add to this would be appreciated.

Edited March 17, 2016 by 18th Shard

[TwelfthOfSnackTime he/him]

I believe there was a WoB somewhere that said that Odium has splintered another shard off screen. That would leave an extra two if we don't count the Survival shard has a world bound shard. my guess would be that one or two of those worlds have more than one Shard on them.

[Pagerunner he/him]

Ashyn may be considered a major Shardworld, although its Shardic influence is probably from either Honor, Cultivation, or Autonomy.

 

Aether of Night is in a bit of flux; elements have been taken for Mistborn, and the magic system was borrowed for Liar of Partinel (although it probably won't stay there). So, its world may not be part of the canon list. One of its Shards was Decay, which turned into Ruin in Mistborn, so that might be throwing off your Shard count, as well.

 

Dark One may or may not be Cosmere; it's been referred to both ways in various State of the Sandersons over the years. That leads me to believe it's not set on a major Shardworld.

 

According to WoB, Odium has splintered at least one Shard that we haven't seen.

 

Also, you added two worlds when talking about Yolen (10/6 to 11/8, when it should have been to 11/7).

 

I suspect Vax is another major Shardworld, based on how Khriss refers to it alongside other major planets in the Elantris Ars Arcanum.

 

There's also Iyatil's homeworld, which we have not seen yet. It might be Vax, it might not be.

[18th Shard he/him]

Thank you, I will fix/add those.

[Bowiespoon he/him]

in one WoB, he states that one shard is nomadic, and has no planet. Don't know if its Odium (because odium didn't invest in the early days) or what

[Rasarr she/her]

in one WoB, he states that one shard is nomadic, and has no planet. Don't know if its Odium (because odium didn't invest in the early days) or what

 

I don't think it's Odium. Uninvested as it is, it's still trapped on Braize.

 

I wonder, what would a nomadic Shard look like in Physical? A moving nebula? Flying star? And what about the Cognitive, does the Shard remake the Cognitive area around it as it passes through? Is it a bulb of light carrying the Vessel inside? 

I'd sure take the opportunity to take a look at this Shard. Probably isn't going to happen until Mistborn Space, though.

[Bowiespoon he/him]

I don't think it's Odium. Uninvested as it is, it's still trapped on Braize.

 

I wonder, what would a nomadic Shard look like in Physical? A moving nebula? Flying star? And what about the Cognitive, does the Shard remake the Cognitive area around it as it passes through? Is it a bulb of light carrying the Vessel inside? 

I'd sure take the opportunity to take a look at this Shard. Probably isn't going to happen until Mistborn Space, though.

I didn't think it was Odium either, but until I have more information I don't want to rule it out.......

[ROSHtaFARian2.0]

Unfortunately, I think you're making too many assumptions here, as much as I too would love to have a definitive count of all these.

 

For instance, major Shardic influence doesn't actually have to mean a Shard presence. So Yolen doesn't have to have an actual Shard anymore, given that it literally being the birthplace of the Shards could easily be taken as a heavy Shardic influence. I personally would be very surprised if Yolen does have a Shard. Call it a gut feeling, but I don't think it does. (Although if it does have a Shard, I suspect it's the Shard that just wants to hide and survive).

 

Similarly, we know Braize is relevant to things, but I don't think it can be taken for granted it's one of the ten core Shardworlds. There's every possibility that there's next to no actual civilization on Braize. It might be a place that's visited during the Stormlight Archives, and its connection to the Heralds and Odium makes it significant, but if it's not actually inhabited the way Roshar, Nalthis, Scadrial and others are, I don't know that we can take it for granted that Brandon was including it in his count of ten core Shardworlds.

 

As far as Vax goes, I personally believe it to be a Shardworld, but we don't know that for sure, and if it is, it could be the name of Dark One's Shardworld.

 

So really, aside from Scadrial, Nalthis, Sel and Roshar, the only major Shardworlds we can be sure of at this point are Bavadin's world, Taldain, and Yolen - which I feel has to be a core Shardworld, but not necessarily one with Shards itself at this point. So that's only six of ten core Shardworlds. Threnody and the world of Sixth of Dusk are confirmed as minor Shardworlds, and Braize and Vax are likely all relevant to the greater cosmere story and potential core Shardworlds, but far from confirmed as such. Same with Ashyn, it could be major or minor, but my bet is minor.

 

Personally, I think Vax is the seventh core Shardworld, but I think there's a potential three more yet to be seen aside from that.

 

We know nine Shards linked to specific worlds or systems - Ruin, Preservation, Endowment, Dominion, Devotion, Honor, Cultivation, Odium and Autonomy. We know a tenth Shard isn't attached to any planet. We know at least one more Shard is Splintered by Odium - but that could be the tenth Shard, or one that was Invested in another Shardworld and whose influence is still felt the way Honor's is on Roshar, etc. 

 

So I'm expecting to see the remaining six Shards (discounting the one unattached to a world) to be spread amongst Vax and three other worlds, with one of those Shards possibly Splintered like Devotion/Dominion. I wouldn't be surprised if there are two more core Shardworlds with one Shard each, like Nalthis or Taldain, and two more with two Shards each, like Scadrial and Sel.

 

Although again, to be fair, its only an assumption that Taldain only has one Shard. I don't believe we actually have Word of Brandon that Bavadin is the only Shard there.

[18th Shard he/him]

Oh, I agree. The table was more of what we know, the rest was pure speculation. I just wanted to see if there was anything more definite out there.

[Master Elodin]

I though odium was Braizes shard.

[AnikoliNightmareVision she/her]

in one WoB, he states that one shard is nomadic, and has no planet. Don't know if its Odium (because odium didn't invest in the early days) or what

Maybe the nomadic shard is survival shard who only wants to hide+ survive

[Dragon314 he/him]

it mentions "core" worlds. Are there more?

[Jondesu he/him]

it mentions "core" worlds. Are there more?

Yeah, there are a number of lesser Shardworlds like the ones from Sixth of the Dust and Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell (I forget the names of the first, the second is Threnody).  They don't have a Shard on them (at least currently), and we're not really sure if the magics there are naturally arisen without Shardic influence, or if a Shard or Shards is affecting those without being present.  I would bet there's quite a few other planets we haven't seen yet, and probably some we'll never see (but will find out exist).

 

jW

[Pagerunner he/him]

Minor Secret History Spoiler:

We learn there are dozens of inhabited worlds in the Cosmere, but many do not have Shards.

The upcoming short story collection Arcanum Unbound will have a star map of the Cosmere; I suspect we will see some new names, and hopefully a distinction of which worlds are "Major."

[baby he/him]

So are 'major'/'core' worlds ones that have 2 or more shards, at least 1, or make a significant cosmeric impact?

[Pagerunner he/him]

I don't think we have a clear definition of what Brandon meant when he said there were 10 major Shardworlds. OP defined major Shardworlds as having a Shard on them. I interpreted it as: we will see 10 worlds in the main series of novels. It's possible that they are 10 worlds that will have the most influence in the rest of the Cosmere, like how Roshar has a whole mess of Worldhoppers on it. There are a lot of ways to take the original quote.

 

Needlessly excessive rampant speculation:

As I said, I interpret it as meaning there will be 10 worlds featured in the major novels. So, when we do our accounting:

Stormlight: Roshar, Braize, Ashyn*

Silence Divine: Ashyn*

Mistborn: Scadrial

Elantris: Sel

White Sand: Taldain

Warbreaker: Nalthis

Dragonsteel: Yolen

 

*Not sure if Ashyn will appear in Stormlight; either way, Silence Divine has always been part of Brandon's vision for the Cosmere, and it has significant Shardic influence from the other Shards in the Roshar system. So, I consider it to be a major Shardworld.

 

That gives us 8 Shardworlds as the settings of the 32-36 originally planned Cosmere books. I, personally, suspect that we will see our last two main Shardworlds and Yolen in the Mistborn Space Trilogy. (Each book involves one new planet, the third of which being Yolen.) Because we basically know all the books that Brandon had planned out (10 Stormlight, 7 Dragonsteel, etc.), and there's maybe one book of wiggle room, I think one of the three backbone series (Dragonsteel, Mistborn, Stormlight) will get some additional Shardworlds featured in them. Mistborn is the most natural of the three to take that responsibility.

 

Furthermore, if a Major Shardworld is defined by having a major story set there, then I suspect we can see worlds with a full Shard that are not major Shardworlds. (My off-the-walls speculation is that Homeland is not on Threnody, and the Shard of Justice was killed there by the Evil, resulting in the destruction of the planet and the exodus of its inhabitants to Threnody. "Homeworld" is not a major Shardworld, since we won't see a series set there, but it did have a Shard.) I also think Brandon's willingness to rewrite Aether of Night (which had a shard, Decay, that was reworked into Ruin in Mistborn) means all 16 Shards are not accounted for in his other series; he left himself some room with Shards on minor worlds, which he can spin out into a series that is not one of the major Cosmere sequences.

 

Well, I've already gone this far, I'd might as well keep on spitballing. Assuming each of the other two major Shardworlds we will see in Mistborn has a Shard (so they can have significant Shardic influence), here's the number of Shards as I have accounted them:

 

Roshar/Braize/Ashyn: 3

Scadrial: 2

Sel: 2

Nalthis: 1

Taldain: 1

Extra Mistborn Worlds: 2

Not on a world: 1

Yolen: ???

 

That leaves 4 Shards unaccounted for. Where could they be? I suspect there is at least one shattered Shard on Yolen, the first that Rayse killed, which prompted the rest of the Shards to scatter. The other three might be on Yolen still, or they might have Invested in worlds that will not receive their own series (like Homeworld, or Vax if that isn't one of the Extra Mistborn Worlds).

 

And that goes to show that you can get drastically different ideas based on a different interpretation of Brandon's original post. It might be a good idea to get a new quote, asking if he still has 10 major Shardworlds planned, and what the definition of a major Shardworld is.

[Argel he/him]

I think the problem with "Are there any of the 10 core worlds without a shard?" is that there is is no time frame specified, which probably factors into Brandon's answer, muddying the waters even more. Sel comes to mind. And it's possible that a core world could be one that the nomadic shard visited, but would you say it did/did not have a shard? It might be worth asking if the 10 core worlds either had or will have at least one shard.

Edited March 18, 2016 by Argel