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A shard being shattered on Yolen


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In my reread of warbreaker I found this when Siri asks hoid about his story telling style 

Quote

"I learned it many, many years ago from a man who didn’t know who he was, Your Majesty. It was a distant place where two lands meet and gods have died. But that is unimportant" (emphasis added)

With the use of gods instead of god could that mean that one of the shards was shattered on Yolen. Because Adonalsium is a single thing but could one of the other shards or something with closer power have died on Yolen?

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To be fair, the Returned are viewed as gods in Hallendren. I don't know much about Yolen, but it sounds like it used to be the home to very powerful entities. He may have been talking about Shardic Deities, but he may have been contextualizing to what they are used to seeing on Nalthis.

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The Shattering itself happened on Yolen. And we don't know enough of the culture there to know what they'd consider "gods." I'll bet some of the dragons were considered gods and some of them likely died during or due to the aftermath of the Shattering, or with the advent of fain life and whoever knows what else.

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So this could be referring to powerful entities, but not gods, on Yolen such as the dragons. Beings that are considered gods by the locals. It may also refer to Adonalisium, but Hoid altered it for the context of Hallandren where people think in terms of multiple gods.

Non Canon Dragonsteel Spoiler below

Spoiler

In some of the preview chapters based on Yolen, now non canon, some of the characters were observed to curse "by the Lords". Most of the content from this section was cannibalized for Stormlight archives, notably the main character and the chasm runs. But it does offer insight to the fact that the locals of Yolen may not have knowledge of Adonalisium and worship other things instead, such as the Lords.

 

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To add to this, in addition to the excerpts from Dragonsteel Prime and Liar of Partinel which are interesting but not canonical, we have Words of Brandon which confirm that the pre-Shattering Yolenese believed in multiiple gods and believed that they werre dead. We don't know how Adonalsium relates to them, though given that Brandon has said that all Investiture comes from Adonalsium it's a safe assumption that he is not something like the 'last surviving god of Yolen' but was always something above or apart from them, whatever the reality of these gods was. Hoid is probably refering to these gods (whatever they were) rather than the Shards. Also, (tiny) Oathbringer spoiler.

Spoiler

He mentions to Shallan that on one of the last seven times that he got involved with religion, he ended up with a god worshipping him by mistake. It's practically impossible for him to be referring to a Shard here (they all knew each other and knew Hoid and are aware they're the highest things on the Cosmere Pecking Order) so he's likely to be using 'god' here to refer to some entity that a non-Cosmere aware individual would call a god on their world, like the Nalthians with the Returned or Jaddeth on Sel.

Here's some WoBs for reference on the gods of Yolen:

Quote

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

...I know that a lot of [Dragonsteel] is not canon anymore? How much of it, like, percentage-wise, I don't need specifics. 

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

I would say that all... I consider almost all the worldbuilding to be canon, but the characters to not be.

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

So, anything about Topaz, does that not stand?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

Doesn't really stand. The whole thing with the gods, and stuff like that, is really in flux.

source

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Strumienpola (paraphrased)

Were Yolen dead gods some kind of pre-Adonalsium shards?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

RAFO on Yolen... but no. Before the Shattering there were no Shards, so these gods are something different.

source

 

Edited by Weltall
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