Harmony's Source

[Kered]

I was reading the updated cosmere page on Coppermind when read and was reminded of this quote from Harmony in the Words of Founding. 

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Even now, I can barely grasp the scope of all this. The events surrounding the end of the world seem even larger than the Final Empire and the people within it. I have delved and searched, and have only been able to come up with a single name: Adonalsium. Who, or what, it was, I do not yet know.

Emphasis my own. Harmony is seeking to understand the scope of the cosmere which is obviously understandable. Has it been stated where he's getting his information from? The memories imprinted on Ruin and Preservation? Did he contact the 17th Shard or Silverlight? Has he had contact with another shard? None of these seem like they'd be the right answer. If the Ruin and Preservation did have memories I think they'd have more than just the name of what/who they used to be. Same goes for meeting a shard or secret society, they would have more information than that. The only other answer I could come up with is that he sent his kandra out to gather intel. 

We have this WoB so this could be the answer, but I just wanted to know if anything else has been explicitly said. 

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JordanCon 2014 (April 11, 2014)

Questioner

Are there kandra hiding in any of your books, besides the Mistborn ones?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes there are! Yes there are…

 

[+Extesian]

I think its simply that Shards have access to enormous knowledge through Connection but the Vessels do not have minds capable of understanding it all, they don't just suddenly know everything they can know. I picture it as taking a huge amount of time for the Vessel to explore those Connections to understand what it all means. 

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Overlord Jebus [PENDING REVIEW]

Is all Investiture in the Cosmere associated with a Shard?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

Yes, well, okay. So this is a complicated one. So, Investiture predates the Shattering of Adonalsium, all Investiture was from Adonalsium, all Investiture got assigned to one of the 16 Shards when Adonalsium was Shattered. Some of the Investiture was not on Yolen but location is irrelevant. So Investiture is related to Shards even on planets where none of the Shards are inhabiting. 

Overlord Jebus [PENDING REVIEW]

Are they aware of that Investiture?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

That's part of the whole seeing into the infinite, being beyond even the power of a Shard. So, technically you could make the argument that Harmony could feel the sense of Preservation of every world in the Cosmere, right? Because the building blocks of all life and creation are these things.

Overlord Jebus [PENDING REVIEW]

So the Shard of Preservation embodies all preservation in the Cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

Yes but he just can't do that, right? Like, he's not infinite. The Vessels are not, even if their minds are enormously expanded by holding a Shard, they are not infinite. The Connection is all there in the Spiritual Realm

(Emphasis mine)

Source

 

[Yezrien]

Remember that Ruin and Preservation are shards of Adonalsium, i.e. they were part of him. I think the shards themselves contain some vague memories.

[The One Who Connects]

On 12/22/2017 at 8:34 PM, Kered said:

The only other answer I could come up with is that he sent his kandra out to gather intel. 

Problem. If memory serves, the Words of Founding were given to Spook at the end of HoA. There physically isn't time for Harmony to have gathered information from any outside source: Kandra, Worldhopper, another Shard, or otherwise.

It has to be memories and details gleaned from the essence of Ruin and Preservation. As for why he hasn't found out too much information, he's trying to figure out what the picture on the puzzle pieces is from only two pieces. You can't discern what the larger whole was from only a fraction of the pieces.