A Reddit comment

[ccstat he/him]

There have been some good responses on Reddit recently, especially as part of the AMA and Oathbringer updates. I don't have time to compile those yet (and some have already been posted here) but one on a separate thread about character deaths jumped out at me. Here is the whole quote, with the important piece in bold.

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Yes, I've been thinking about this. Spoilers below.

The issue is, resurrection is a major theme of the cosmere. The very first line of the first chapter of the first cosmere book starts with someone dying. The story is about his return to life.

The death of Adonalsium, and the questions surrounding the persistence of his power, is THE single pervasive theme of the works. And so, I've returned to this theme multiple times--from Sazed's more metaphorical rebirth in Mistborn Three to Syl's more literal one in Words of Radiance.

At the same time, the more this theme continues, the more it undermines the reader's ability to believe someone is really dead--and therefore their tension at worrying over the safety of characters. So we need a better "Dead is dead" indication, otherwise every death will turn into Sirius Black, with readers being skeptical for years to come.

So, let's just say it's something I'm aware of. Josh, of the 17th Shard, was the first one to raise the issue with me years ago. We need a balance between narrative drama and cosmere themes of rebirth.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stormlight_Archive/comments/5yejj3/comment/derrlv5

I'm pretty sure this is the first official pronoun for Adonalsium besides "it." I take this as unintentional confirmation that Adonalsium was a being/Vessel and (probably) male, something Brandon has been quite evasive about.

Edited March 11, 2017 by ccstat

[Oversleep]

We have known for a quite a time now that Adonalsium was a "He". It was form somebody posting a signed book - question was about Shattering and answer was "Adonalsium Shattered because he was killed".

[ccstat he/him]

Okay, I guess I missed that. Thanks for the correction.

I thought Brandon had continued to be cagey on this point.

[ZenBossanova]

But I like the suggestion that Adonalsium could resurrect, and that the entire cosmere could end with a Eucatastrophe (Tolkien's word for a good kind of catastrophe).

I still suspect Hoid will be important, whether or not he is fully successful. 

[+Extesian he/him]

I'll add a recent addition to this WoB, but focused on the mostly dead issue rather than the Adonalsium issue.

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• •	dce42 • 10h

I figured nightblood was your answer to dead is dead.

 

 

 

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• • •

mistborn Shardbearer • 4h

He's certainly AN answer. But there are way more ways to kill someone in the cosmere--I just need to be more clear on how that works, giving the right indications to readers.

I'm sure we knew that death by Nightblood is final due to severing in all three realms but I thought theexplicit confirmation is good, especially if there's any question of healing from a Nightblood wound.

[Weltall]

Brandon being Brandon, he could have phrased that deliberately so we think he's talking about Adonalsium when he was actually referring to Raoden, who 'dies' at the very beginning of Elantris (sort of) and ends the work 'alive'. Okay, technically there's text before that but it's the prologue rather than the first proper chapter. Yes, there's some hair-splitting going on there but if there's anyone who's a master of tetrapyloctomy it's Brandon. xD

Now, if he intended those sentences to run into one another and by the first sentence he means the first chronological Cosmere work, we have a problem (or an opportunity for really crazy speculation). Because we know that the Shattering is going to happen during Dragonsteel but The Liar of Partinel is going to be set before it, so Adonalsium can't die at the start of Liar unless the entire Liar/Dragonsteel series is told in flashback form. Now, the opportunity for crazy comes from what we know Brandon at one point considered the appropriate beginning of Liar (how much of it will be retained, we don't know). Spoiler for the sample chapters and the usual caveats about how we can't rely on them for much

 

Liar opens with Hoid's death. Or rather, with the mentor of the person we know as Hoid, who later took his master's name in place of his own (Midius). So, if those two sentences on Reddit were meant to run together, was Original!Hoid really Adonalsium?! Probably not because Frost's letter to Hoid draws a distinction between 'your old master' and Adonalsium but if you want to let the crack theorizing begin in earnest, it can be done.

Or if the death of Original!Hoid as we see in the existing draft is still going to be part of the final work, perhaps the original Hoid either literally comes back or Brandon was speaking metaphorically about how he's 'reborn' through the person we know as Hoid.

Edited March 14, 2017 by Weltall