Shards in Way of Kings

[Nehex he/him]

Maybe I'm just a bit out of the loop (as is my eternal curse), but as I'm reading through the Way of Kings, I find myself wondering how many shards are on Roshar, and what those particular shards do. Does anyone know or have any theories?

[firstRainbowRose she/her]

We know for sure that there are three.  One is cultivation.  For the rest, not a clue.  I know there's a topic on here somewhere about it though.

[Nehex he/him]

Okay, and do we know what Cultivation does? Or the name of the Shard?

[Chaos he/him]

Cultivation is the name of the Shard. We don't know the name of the person holding it, however.

The second Shard is Odium. It is held by Rayse.

The third Shard, we don't know the name of, nor of who holds it, but its pretty obvious that the Almighty that Dalinar talks to is a Shard, which was killed in the same manner as Skai and Aona in Elantris.

[Munin he/him]

The second Shard is Odium. It is held by Rayse.

We think. It might also be Bavadin, or someone else entirely.

[Chaos he/him]

The second Shard is Odium. It is held by Rayse.

We think. It might also be Bavadin, or someone else entirely.

I find the idea that Odium is held by anyone other than Rayse to be patently ridiculous. For one, that means Rayse holds the "most frightening and terrible of all the Shards." If Bavadin held Odium, that means Rayse has something else, even more fearsome, which means everyone is in effect, completely screwed.

Plus, Will asked on my behalf at the Chicago signing, "Did Odium go to Sel before Elantris". He said yes. Unless you want to really complicate things (and hey, that's my job to needlessly complicate things ) and have another Shard go to Sel, instead of obviously associating Rayse with Odium, go ahead. I await that theory topic

[Andrew the Great he/him]

.... I was going to come in and fiercely argue that Bavadin could hold Odium just because it would mean that everyone was screwed, and that would make it interesting, but your logic on that last point is too solid. That's the first argument that I've heard that Rayse is Odium that I've found absolutely convincing (although, to be fair, I did believe so. I just hadn't yet heard an argument that made me think we had really solid proof of it.).

[Glaring at the Survivor he/him]

In what book is Rayse talked about? I don't remember him in tWoK, but I don't think any other books take place on Roshar,

Sorry for not knowing anything.

[Voidus]

Rayse is mentioned in the letter.

[Windrunner he/him]

Rayse holds the Shard Odium. The name is only mentioned in the epigraphs of TWoK, but Brandon has confirmed that Rayse is the Shardholder. It's onerous to go through the chapters one at a time, so here's a link to the wiki where we've compiled them. We refer to these epigraphs collectively as "The Letter" in case you were wondering what we're talking about.

[Glaring at the Survivor he/him]

Ah. Now it makes sense. Thanks.