[OB] Why Did Dominion and Devotion Pair Up?

[ROSHtaFARian2.0]

One thing I'm curious about (and unsure where else to wonder about it) is what made Dominion and Devotion settle on Sel together in the first place? We know now that there was a kind of pact or agreement that Shards would stay away from each other, thanks to the Part 2 Epigraphs, and we know Ruin and Preservation paired off in part because they thought they could counterbalance each other and mitigate Ati's eventual corruption by his Intent, while Honor and Cultivation's vessels had a romantic connection. Autonomy seems to just like to meddle, and Odium seeks out other Shards to kill them.

But why did Aona and Skai break the pact? Dominion and Devotion in some ways oppose each other but in other ways almost complement each other (ie the sense of nationalistic identity that fuels many of the magics on Sel can be seen as Devotion to one's Dominion or empire). So they're not an obvious counter to each other in such a way that they could balance or cancel each other out the way that Ruin and Preservation sought to, but neither are they an easy or obvious complement of Intents. Additionally, we have inklings that Skai was not such a great guy, so it would seem unlikely that he and Aona had anything like Honor and Cultivation's personal connection....unless Skai was corrupted by his Intent of Dominion similar to Ati's devolution into Ruin.

So honestly, I'm at a loss as to what drew them together if its being near each other and violating this pact that put them on Odium's hit list in the first place. It's likely we simply just don't have enough information yet to draw any kind of actual conclusions, but Sel and its history and its Shards remains one of the most mysterious aspects of the cosmere to me, so this pact (albeit one that seems rather informal and more of 'guidelines' for Shards to follow rather than a hard and fast rule) and the fact that they broke it feels significant to me. Anyone else have any theories why?

[Fezzik]

Maybe siblings? Longtime platonic friends?

[The One Who Connects]

We have two WoBs that give us a little insight into the Vessels. (1) , (2)

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VirtuousTraveller

Have any other Shards--if the Shards were split, for some reason, to I guess protect, why is it that some of them clumped together, like Ruin and Preservation, and Honor and Cultivation?

Brandon Sanderson

Some are more naturally like that, but at the same time they also had personalities driving them, and it’s mostly the personalities.

VirtuousTraveller

Friends would have gotten together in the same place kinda sorta?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, or business associates how are “We can do something cool together”. Before Odium just hunted them done and y’know… But the personalities are driving most of that.

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Wetlander

Were any of the original Shardholders related? We know that Honor and Cultivation were romantically involved, but were any of them brother and sister or child/parent?

Brandon Sanderson

There was at least one relationship of that style.

H&C were lovers. R&P were of the "lets do something cool together" variety(kind of). I'm leaning towards Aona and Skai being siblings, if only because "rule the galaxy as father and son" comes to mind with the other option

[Yata]

Why did you say Skai wasn't a great guy?

We know nothing of him or Aona.

[Not a Voidbringer]

Brief thought: What if they didn't settle down together initially?

Suppose that Devotion settled down on Sel first.  Then Dominion, wishing perhaps to dominate that world, invaded.  Devotion, who may have developed a close bond with the planet and the people there, as she would be inclined to do, probably would refuse to leave.  Then, there is a possibility of an uneasy partnership of sorts, where neither is willing to leave after Investing.  

This does still leave Domination's initial motivation as somewhat flimsy, though.

[Sol Invictus]

Dominion likes to lead. Devotion likes to follow. Psychologically, them cooperating should have been obvious from the very start.

[The One Who Connects]

56 minutes ago, Sol Invictus said:

Dominion likes to lead. Devotion likes to follow. Psychologically, them cooperating should have been obvious from the very start.

The problem with that is that the other name Devotion had was "Love" rather than "Faith/Belief," which implies something a little different.

Edit: That was an interpretation that has since fallen into disuse, so it's not as solid of a fan-theory anymore. Even Dominion has been taken differently recently, with more of an emphasis on Sovereignty than Control. Add to that the Passion Debate from OB, and it's a whole jumble of incomplete viewpoints

Edited November 28, 2017 by The One Who Connects
Incomplete Thought

[Sol Invictus]

Ah! Thanks!

[Aleph-Naught]

On 11/24/2017 at 6:10 PM, ROSHtaFARian2.0 said:

...So honestly, I'm at a loss as to what drew them together if its being near each other and violating this pact that put them on Odium's hit list in the first place...

If I had to guess, I wouldn't say it was their violation of the pact that put them close to the top of the hit list but the intent of Skai's shard. Going after Ambition first makes a whole lot of sense and I can see Dominion being a good follow-up; it worked out for Rayse that there was a 2 for 1 deal on splintering shards at Sel that day.