Dawnshards = Early Fabrials?

[cometaryorbit]

Thinking about this epigraph quote:

Quote

Taking the Dawnshard, known to bind any creature voidish or mortal, he crawled up the steps crafted for Heralds, ten strides tall apiece, toward the grand temple above.

The word 'bind' suggests this isn't something like a Shardblade, a weapon in the normal sense. It sounds more like how spren are trapped in a fabrial.

Now, there doesn't seem to be any way to bind 'mortal' people or animals into a fabrial, but this quote seems pretty mythified given the "steps crafted for Heralds, ten strides tall apiece" - we know that Heralds are actually normal-human-sized.

So maybe the Dawnshards are a vague, mythical memory of a fabrial that could trap either normal or void spren - with the 'normal' spren being turned into "mortal creatures" as the details were forgotten?

Alternately, maybe the Dawnshard created a two-way bond -- maybe it was something like a Meta-Fabrial that could create and control bonds between spren and Physical realm life. The Ryshadium don't seem to be true Roshar natives, yet they have inherent spren bonds - maybe they were created with a Dawnshard.

[Calderis]

31 minutes ago, cometaryorbit said:

The word 'bind' suggests this isn't something like a Shardblade, a weapon in the normal sense. It sounds more like how spren are trapped in a fabrial.

Bind does seem to imply trapping, much like gemstones. I think this is why people assume the black sphere is one. 

31 minutes ago, cometaryorbit said:

So maybe the Dawnshards are a vague, mythical memory of a fabrial that could trap either normal or void spren - with the 'normal' spren being turned into "mortal creatures" as the details were forgotten?

Maybe. I think the "binding" mechanism is the gemstones themselves and fabrials harness an already existing power set. "Voidspren" are already similar enough to spren to be trapped in a regular gem. We saw it when Eshonai took on stormform. 

31 minutes ago, cometaryorbit said:

So maybe the Dawnshards are a vague, mythical memory of a fabrial that could trap either normal or void spren - with the 'normal' spren being turned into "mortal creatures" as the details were forgotten?

I personally think that the Dawnshards are connected to the Dawnsingers. The Dawnsingers are what I believe was "Unmade" and so if the Dawnshards still exist, they are corrupted by association and part of what make the Unmade a threat. 

31 minutes ago, cometaryorbit said:

Alternately, maybe the Dawnshard created a two-way bond -- maybe it was something like a Meta-Fabrial that could create and control bonds between spren and Physical realm life. The Ryshadium don't seem to be true Roshar natives, yet they have inherent spren bonds - maybe they were created with a Dawnshard.

As for this, maybe? I don't think the Ryshadium are all that amazing really. They are a non-native species bonded to native spren (speculation) in much the same way native creatures do. 

The Radiants do almost the same thing, just with a higher tier of spren. 

While I don't agree, we don't exactly have a trove of information on the Dawnshards, so you could as easily be correct as me. 

[teknopathetic]

I would love the Dawnshards to be related to the 10 Gas Giants in the outer solar system. Those look suspiciously like jails to me. Maybe the way of accessing them has been lost?