Colors in Magic the Gathering and Shard Categories

[Guest Parallax]

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SoupOrMan692: What colors are the known shards?

Brandon Sanderson: Ruin: Black. Odium: Red. Honor: White. Preservation: White. Cultivation: Green. Devotion: Green/red. Dominion: Black/White. Autonomy: It's complicated.

SoupOrMan692: What about Endowment and Ambition?

Brandon Sanderson: Ambition is mono-black, and endowment is probably mono-green. Some of the blue shards are ones we haven't seen as much from yet.

I have not read Dawnshard nor played Magic the Gathering (MTG) but based on the WoB and the MTG Wiki we can group the shards into the following four categories:

1. Individualist: Autonomy, Ambition, Odium, Ruin. 

2. Authoritarian: Honor, Preservation, Dominion, [Unknown Shard].

3. Naturalist: Cultivation, Endowment, Devotion, [Unknown Shard].

4. Rationalist: Wisdom, Ingenuity, [Unknown Shard], [Unknown Shard].

Odium and Autonomy are grouped with Ruin and Ambition based on the info on MTG Wiki, for example the Red-Black color combination is described as the most individualistic in the game. Red is about passion and chaos but large parts of the entry on black match Odium nearly perfectly. Dominion is easy to place, as is Devotion (Green in MTG is described as the least confrontational of colors).

Edited November 8, 2020 by Parallax

[Ashbringer]

Ooh. If only there were 4 MTG colors instead of 5 and I would be all over this.

As it stands, Red and Black would probably be easiest to combine (Dominion, Ruin, Odium, Ambition). It feels a little on-the-nose for Brandon, but those shards feel interconnected (future sight and Passion, mostly. Ambition’s an asterisk but I feel like she fits decently well.).

But that leaves out Autonomy... maybe they and Dominion switch.

[Personification]

Counterpoint:

Brandon isn't always perfect at color pie stuff. I would honestly put Cultivation as Simic (though I'm not perfect at color pie stuff either, so take it with a grain of salt).

Also, as has been pointed out, their are five colors in magic.

I do have one though:

Adonalsium: WUBRG

Also, on a more serious note, the groupings don't work as well for the purposes of categorizing Shards in a way that might reflect the actual Cosmere. The types of divisions don't align. For example, Ambition is Black because that is one of the personality types that defines Black mana, Odium is Red because Red is emotions, not because of the freedom/individualist side of Red, Ruin is Black because the power set fits into Black's color pie, not for ideological reasons (Ruin arguably has no ideology by the time tFE is happening, he is just a force), and Autonomy is honestly probably WUBRG because the word is ambiguous and Avatar nonsense.

Also, Wisdom and Ingenuity haven't been confirmed, have they?

[Personification]

Oh, also, does Navani being Mother of Machines confirm a return to New Phyrexia?

[Ashbringer]

Wisdom and Ingenuity have not been confirmed, per say, but it’s been confirmed there are shards with similar Intents. Of course, they could be the same shard, or wrapped up with our other hints to unknown shards.

And going back to my above post, I’m a little hesitant to group all the “bad” shards together. It seems like that’s not how the Shattering would work.

[Guest Parallax]

@Ashbringer @Personification I know there are five colors in MTG. I am using the colors and the themes associated with them as guides to divide the shards into 4 groups. For example if Cultivation was Green-Blue (e.g. Simic) instead of mono Green it would not change her grouping. Devotion is Green-Red and she goes in the second group. 

I would not characterize the first group of shards as "bad". What is bad about Ambition or Autonomy? What makes Preservation good? 

To me the oddest one in the first group is Ruin, but in addition to the MTG colors we also have a WoB that connect him to Odium:

Quote

Valhalla: Ruin and Odium, they both talked about their passion, and it was italicized both times. Would any other Shards talk about passion in that same italicized way?

Brandon Sanderson: Yes they would.

Valhalla: Would any of them not talk about it that way?

Brandon Sanderson: Yes. Excellent, good questions.

Wisdom might be called Prudence but we can be reasonably sure that a shard with a very similar intent exists. Ingenuity is not something fans came up with, it was Brandon's response to the question: "If you were entrusted with a Shard of Adonalsium, which Shard?"