Scadrial and the Shattering

[Ripheus23]

I put my subconscious on Cosmere-analysis autopilot this morning and came up with the framework for a theory of how to Shatter a being like Adonalsium. Since there are too many unknown variables for a full theory, I want to emphasize the "framework" in all this.

So, first off. Magic systems, in some sense of the concept, depend on the Intent of the Shard and the planet being Invested in. It's not just the Shard, it's not just the planet, it's both. Now, that being said, Scadrial was designed, to some extent, based on Yolen. So the first premise of my theory is that there is a very special analogy between Adonalsium's magic system on Yolen (supposing there was such a thing) and the Metallic Arts. Scadrial's 16-ness factors into this fact(!) too, at least as an indicator.

So, my supposition is that one step in the original process of becoming a Shard was doing something like ingesting a bead of... Adonalsium. To become "Shardborn" let's say (and for lack of a better term!). I doubt Adonalsium deliberately made 16 beads of his essence and then gave one to each Vessel just so they could Shatter him. He Shattered because he was killed, so I'm guessing he was a self-Vessel (again for lack of a better term) and this personage was directly killed, and when his soul went to the Beyond (if it did) his corpse divided into the 16 Shards (like there was one force field for him that decoupled into 16 force fields spanning the Cosmere/possibly the universe). Nevertheless, something like "becoming Shardborn" was, I suspect, involved in the Shattering, at least in the sense of equipping the future Vessels with the power needed to kill their God.

I also think that there's something to there being fourteen lands on pre-TLR Scadrial (IIRC it's said there were fourteen). My guess is that the fourteen nations mapped onto the Shards minus Ruin and Preservation, onto whom the entire planet mapped. This doesn't pertain to the Shattering unless we find out some complex historical Connection-shenanigans that at least allow some reverse-engineering of information about the Shattering from relations between the Shards being similar to relations between the fourteen lands.

Finally, though this takes some of the potential explanatory power from Scadrial, I think the full process of the Shattering might have involved analogues to different "spells" in all the major future magic systems (again, in some sense of the term). Like let's say Adonalsium's essence could be condensed into a metallic form (via some snazzy proto-Lightweaving or what) that was then "Awakened" with the "Command," "Kill yourself," or as I suggested in another post Adonalsium was able to become a bonded Shardweapon-like object, the bond being broken (and Adonalsium killed in the process) when the Vessels betrayed God somehow, or whatever.

[Bigmikey357 he/him]

Adding some credence to your theory (although I don't know how much it adds) we have some evidence that there were analogues to the magic systems we've seen so far pre-Shattering. Hoid has used proto-Lightweaving or Yolen style Lightweaving in the narrative, at least it's been speculated that his Wondersail story in WOK is evidence of the ability. So if one example of the abilities we've seen so far existed before Uncle Addie split up then others should exist as well. Add to the fact that the one world with a magic system that has an ability that alligns closely to what was seen in the past was designed by the very being that broke up.

Whether our big 16 used some form of magic to kill God and we see traces of that magic in the current timeline is a different question but a plausible one. After all, killing Gods cannot be easy. We've seen 2 die onscreen and neither went down easily despite not being at full strength. In fact, they were both killed by a God (Ruin strangled Preservation over a couple millennia; an ascendant Vin sacrificed her life and godhood to kill Ati). Uncle Addie was more than 16 times more powerful than the Shards we know. He's not going down without use of some type of magical intervention