Will We Actually See All Sixteen Shards?

[Philomath she/her]

So by the end of the cosmere will we know and see all 16 shards in action? Or know what happened to them at least? We have Dominion and Devotion on Sel. Endowment on Nalthis. Preservation and Ruin on Scadrial. Autonomy on Taldain. Ambition shattered somewhere. And Honor, Cultivation, and Odium on Roshar. Is that all we know for sure so far? So we have 6 left with most of the main cosmere planets already in play correct? With the exception of Dragonsteel are there any big cosmere series planned where other shards could be? Or will some of them only show up in short stories or novellas as a bonus?

[Calderis he/him]

Well, we're going to get the story of the Shattering in Dragonsteel, so I'm sure we'll learn them all. 

See their worlds and the things that have developed because of them? I think we're all stuck with RAFO's there. 

[Philomath she/her]

Thanks @Calderis I had forgotten that Dragonsteel would have all the original vessels as the story of the Shattering. But it makes sense. I really do hope we see or hear of them all at some point in the end too though. And yeah it seems like pretty solid RAFO territory. 

[Jace21 he/him]

I think by MBE4 all the Shards will be known in world and possibly seen, but thats just a guess.

I am guessing we will only ever see some of the Original Vessels in Dragonsteel though.

[goody153]

Around the lategame Cosmere it might not possibly not happen considering alot are splintered, some of them are going through and we don't even know the status of the others. Tho obviously Dragonsteel we will get to learn the vessels and likely see the shards on the same place.

I'm positive that we will get to see all the vessels and shards even if it they don't appear at the same time(at least in dragonsteel we might likely see them)

Edited September 11, 2018 by goody153

[Philomath she/her]

11 minutes ago, goody153 said:

Around the lategame Cosmere it might not possibly not happen considering alot are splintered, some of them are going through and we don't even know the status of the others. Tho obviously Dragonsteel we will get to learn the vessels and likely see the shards on the same place.

I'm positive that we will get to see all the vessels and shards even if it they don't appear at the same time(at least in dragonsteel we might likely see them)

I don’t necessarily want to “see” them all lategame. Just learn what happened to them, where they’ve been, what they’ve been up to. Even if it is a line like “Oh man! *Insert unknown Shard name* totally got wrecked by Autonomy before she took on Harmony...” Then they are accounted for even if they aren’t present. 

[goody153]

Just now, Philomath said:

I don’t necessarily want to “see” them all lategame. Just learn what happened to them, where they’ve been, what they’ve been up to. Even if it is a line like “Oh man! *Insert unknown Shard name* totally got wrecked by Autonomy before she took on Harmony...” Then they are accounted for even if they aren’t present. 

Eventually i suppose we get to learn each of them. Maybe not all kinds of details.

Authors don't always reveal everything to readers(sometimes the air of mystery tends to be better for the story overall)

I wouldn't worry if i were you. As far as we know we are still like early-midgame Cosmere which means that we have like 20-30 years before all kinds of stuff is revealed. Besides we already know the 10 shards and we are still very early in the franchise so i would assume eventually we get to learn who the shards were and what they did in general

[Weltall]

If nothing else, we know that we're going to see the original Vessels and the Shattering in Dragonsteel so we'll know who they were as people pre-Ascension and if there are any Shards that haven't been revealed by that point, we should get a pretty good idea what they are from the big event itself. And with that followed by the Big Cosmere Crossover that is MB Era 4, I imagine that we'll get hints of what the remaining Shards have been up to even if we never see their worlds firsthand. There's also the possibility of reveals via Khriss (as we got with Ambition) or in a manner similar to the Stormlight Archive letters formally introducing Frost and giving us a direct line to Endowment and Autonomy.

[Draginon he/him]

I imagine we'll mostly get our information on them through the letters of Stormlight, Ars Arcanum references from Khriss and whatever they're doing in Dragonsteel (that's going to be neat seeing Aona, Skai and Uli Da before their deaths and seeing what Leras, Ati, Rayse, Tanavast, Edgli, Bavadin and Cultivation (hope we get a name for her in Stormlight 4) before they got their Shards. Would be disappointed if we only met them one chapter before the Shattering)

[Philomath she/her]

Good point about the letters and Ars Arcanums. That would be a great place for information on the other events and places on the cosmere. I would be fine with things in there. 

[Draginon he/him]

I just hope we get an update to the Scadrian Arcanum since the W&W ones haven't updated over the course of the books and if they did it didn't update much