VirtuousTraveller

Thank you for your kind words my friend! How lucky we are to be alive right now! =)

I too wonder if the original Vessels got their shards (intent specific) intentionally - why would someone like Rayse, who seems like a bad guy, be given the most horrific and powerful of the shards? Did Ati get Ruin because they thought he could keep it from becoming to destructive? Did the 16 work together in a unified front with an original purpose for the post-shattering cosmere? As a question, is this whole "fainlife" thing fair game for discussion at this point? I know Khriss mentions it once in AU, but all I know about it is that it was something that existed in some of Brandon's unpublished works. I didn't think we were supposed to talk about that content (since it's not canon). Good food for thought! I'd NEVER considered a connection between Autonomy and Austere, but it's definitely plausible (to be determined true or not). Upvote for you! =)

The Letter: Maybe...this Pokeball is the element Hoid has? And he found a good home for it? Is Hoid the Mistcloak Santa?!?

I just found a WoB from the Dark Talent release party: Not that Sallash couldn't go by a different name, but Eevee (whatever the spelling) doesn't sound like a similar name. WHO WOULD WANT TO FORGET SOMETHING THIS CUTE?!?

Is there a way to look through Theoryland without including all of the WoT information? It's possible I'm not doing it right, but when searching WoBs with tags or keywords, there's a lot of unrelated information (i.e. non-cosmere) that comes through. Thanks in advance for your help! =)

With a Pandora's Box opened with the new information about Autonomy, it made me wonder something about the Vessel-Shard relationship. It doesn't make sense that an individual would ascend to Vesselship, only to hand the shard over to someone else - let alone this happening among a group of temporary Vessels. BUT, do we have any information on the plausibility of a plurality of Vessels holding the same shard? Vessel by committee if you will? I ask this because of the complexity of Autonomy's involvement in the cosmere - male/female manifestations, a multiplicity of personas, entire pantheons, etc. What do we know?

As I'm wondering about Vax being a place, but not necessarily a planet, is it possible that this refers to a location within Shadesmar somewhere? After all, that's where Ati appears before moving on to the Beyond in MB: SH - assuming the atmosphere of the Cognitive Realm has some similarity everywhere, that makes the most sense to me.

Update to the OP here, in light of the AU Essays and some new WoBs: This has been evidence that Trell has to be connected to one of the Shards we've been made aware of to this point in the game. This WoB was before AU was released, so that limited this to Devotion, Dominion, or Honor (unlikely as they've been splintered), Odium or Cultivation (unlikely as they're stuck in Roshar), Preservation/Ruin/Harmony (impossible, as Harmony did not know where this shard came from), or Autonomy, the shard of the Taldain system. We didn't know anything else about Autonomy at the time of this WoB, other than the name of its Vessel, Bavadin. We now can confirm that Autonomy has been engaged in off-world interference with other planets. This supports the idea that Bleeder's motives were influenced by Autonomy, as they were focused on freeing people on Scadrial from oppression. Miles and Suit were involved with a mysterious organization known as The Set, which had a cult-like following of Trell, some kind of demigod that was directing their steps (as evidenced by the Red Eyed Immortals in BoM). So Autonomy has influenced various peoples on various planets via religious pantheons - this leads me to believe (as have others) that the Trell we read about in Mistborn Era 1 may not necessarily be the same Trell we see in Mistborn Era 2, that perhaps something has hijacked this belief system as a way of manipulation/influence on Scadrial that doesn't stand out too much from accepted (or at least recognized) religions there. This fits with the idea that Bavadin has often appeared with many different personas for various purposes over time. This begs the question, why would Autonomy be so engaged in off-world interference, which seems to be in direct opposition with its shardic intent of autonomy? Updated Theory Proposition The Red-Eyed Immortals on Scadrial are of Autonomy, which is not only interfering with the people there, but is doing so with the intentions of making Harmony believe it is Odium doing the interfering. Why do this? Isn't it a roundabout way of interfering on another planet? Yes, but Autonomy has interfered in such a way in the past to create entire pantheons of religious gods on a planet while being the only man/woman behind every mask. Autonomy is acting in self-preservation for its own long-term autonomy - dual/fused shards pose a risk of being more powerful and Odium poses a risk of desiring to be the only shard left unsplintered in the cosmere. First, yes this WoB could be an example of Brandon being Brandon and feeding us a vague answer to a vague question. HOWEVER, if it isn't that, then it would stand to reason that Autonomy, who wouldn't want any fused/combined shards from existing to challenge its own power, would want to help an enemy with a bloodlust and willingness to attack other shards. Even if you don't buy into the idea of Devotion and Dominion being fused together into the fused shard Unity, their Vessels were possibly involved romantically and could be viewed as a unified threat (i.e. the power of two shards) that could risk opposition to Autonomy and challenge Odium's place of dominance in cosmere. After all, The Letter from Hoid doesn't just call out Rayse/Odium: Why would Hoid have a grudge against Rayse AND Bavadin? Sure, there could be two separate grudges for completely different and unrelated reasons, however Hoid refers to his grudge (SINGULAR) against two individuals - the Vessels of Odium and Autonomy. These two (possibly) have targeted planets with two shards that could be working together before (Sel: Dominion/Devotion; Roshar: Honor/Cultivation), why would the pattern be any different now? Autonomy could be baiting Harmony into a conflict with Odium by mimicking Odium's presence (i.e. "red eyes," the death rattle-esk words of Miles, etc). Trick the bully into fighting your fights so they're weaker when the time finally comes for you to fight them (which I believe Odium would do to Autonomy eventually - no way he'd let Autonomy alone). I know that's a lot, but that's my working theory for now! Whew! I was feeling a high after reading through the Tower sequence near the end of TWoK, but I think I just drained myself of all my Stormlight! :-P Let me know what you think!

Granted. The Nightwatcher tells you that she appreciates the references above. Your bane is that everything you see now appears like an inside joke, but you will never be quite "on the inside" enough to understand it.

Gosh, there's nothing like mult-quoting and researching for 10 minutes to craft a response on a thread, only to find that someone said exactly what you were going to say a few posts up! :-P Upvote for you! =)

This is a VERY interesting idea. Using red eyes...influencing Miles' strange "death rattle" like final comments...I could see turning other Shardic powers against Odium as a possible motive of Autonomy's interference. It's possible we've been thinking of Autonomy as something positive (or neutral), but what if Autonomy's shardic intent is actually to prevent any other power in the cosmere from interfering with its own autonomy? In this light, it makes Odium a major threat, as he would be unlikely to leave something as powerful as Autonomy alone forever. Maybe trying to mislead Harmony into a battle with Odium is Autonomy's way of self-preservation? Odium's splintering of Devotion and Dominion (two Vessels, possibly the fusion of two shards, who were unified together) was a similar ploy - Autonomy could have seen the unified power of two shards working together as a threat to its own autonomous place in the cosmere. Upvote for you! =)

Well, this gives more credence to the idea that Braize is where the Heralds are forced to go in between Desolations. Kriss hypothesizes that some of the beings present on Braize are actually Cognitive Shadows...her statement "I believe it's possible some of these are actually Cognitive Shadows" would fit the idea of the Heralds being a mixture of the categories Brandon mentions on this reddit thread. I wonder if the Honorblades are the physical realm anchor that the Heralds' Cognitive Shadows pull to when they return each Desolation cycle. They would obviously have a strong Connection to their blade, as they've been using it for millennia to fight voidbringers.

There's a WoB that confirms that the Unmade are splinters of Odium. My first thought was that the Unmade responsible for the thrill would have been related to Ambition, however the WoB eliminates that as a possibility.

Do we have explicit confirmation that Trell is a shard? I think most would agree it is, but I don't know that we could say for sure that it's something separate from Odium, that was also at one point a part of Adonalsium. Curses ambiguity!

I don't remember seeing this WoB before, but it's from awhile ago. I think this gives us a more definite answer that there is definitely at connection between Trell and Odium, even if Trell is not Odium.

That's definitely a possibility. I'm wondering though if the seons and skaze were created by Odium to pull the unified Dor apart into its separate shards, preventing them from ever recombining again. The essay doesn't say that they were naturally born - they seem very artificial in origin and they seem designed to keep splinters of each shard separate to the point that they develop individual sentience.

Overall, I enjoyed the story. The worldbuilding that Brandon puts into these worlds is just insane. I've really wanted to know more about the western side of Roshar and I'm glad we get a glimpse into the culture there (especially since we may not see much more of these countries in future novels). I enjoyed finally seeing a Herald for more than a few seconds! I thought his change of heart was a little abrupt (after millennia of becoming the intense Darkness), but this was a novella and we could only cover so much ground in the confines of that length. Lift...I get it, I really do. She's immature. She's a child. She does her own thing and doesn't let other people tell her what to do. She's not a favorite for me. It's nothing against Brandon - I see what he's doing with the character ("I wish to never grow old" or "I never want to change" being twisted by the Nightwatcher into this weird prepubescent up and down business). The character just annoys me. "Your Pancakefulness?" It just comes of overly silly. But, she's consistent! I had similar feelings toward her after WoR.

I also wonder if this polarization (which makes more sense from Brandon's words now - thanks for the link!) is being affected by whatever "evil" seems to be driving the Skaze. Dominion and the ideal that it represents is nothing inherently evil, so unless these splinters are just becoming a natural opposite of Devotion (which also doesn't seem inherently good), there might be something else at play here. Not to mention anything about the Svrakiss or whatever guides them! This polarization could have taken millennia to occur, so perhaps when Aona and Skai were still alive, the intents (and their relationship) enabled them to work together better than if two new Vessels picked the shards up in present day (but this doesn't seem possible right now).

Bavadin could have been male - perhaps a female is now the Vessel of Autonomy? It would seem out of character for Brandon to make such a mistake, considering Bavadin is one of his favorite characters IIRC.

The powers are now trapped together without Vessels to guide them - I think that the void of a mind to guide the power, this is why the Dor is so dangerous. I propose that Dominion and Devotion are complimentary intents and that they were intentionally merged by the original Vessels into a single shard, which took their shared effort to control. I'm drawing from a Biblical allusion that Dominion and Devotion are the ying and yang of human marital relationships, which I believe Aona and Skai had as Vessels. When Odium splintered them, we learn that the Vessels were not only dead in the Physical Realm, but their minds were ripped from them, and their souls were sent into the Great Beyond. As "Unity" is a very Cognitive concept (as relationships are), I believe Aona and Skai's power suddenly and traumatically lost control of their combined power when splintered, causing the Dor to do all kinds of strange things. I don't read the Selish Essay as saying the powers are trying to escape one another, but rather they are trying to escape the Cognitive Realm. Even if they are opposed to one another, that doesn't necessarily make void my proposition, as the Vessels who guided these powers are no longer alive or a part of the Dor.

It's been almost 6 months since someone posted here, but @Oversleep I saw you post last week about your 1 year Shard-iversary and found this thread and it really made me smile! I feel like I couldn't be anymore a Theoryweaver unless I had a deductionspren screaming to bond with me (her name is Dysern, BTW ).

And yet, I do not take from the Selish Essay that they never were combined, only that they no longer are (though they are trapped together in the Cognitive Realm, currently "forced" together). As for me, I am sad to say that I no longer espouse that Hoid Caused the Shaod/Reod. I do, however, believe much more in the Jaddeth prophecy that a godlike being will literally rise from the ground to rule the world. That Khriss would say that "the very landscape itself has become Invested to the point that it has a growing self-awareness" tells me that the land itself seems to have intent and motive. Perhaps this Invested Land (which I believe calls itself Jaddeth to the Fjordell) chose to quake the earth, creating the chasm line and destroying the Elantrians. Perhaps this Invested Land wanted to remove a powerful adversary or punish their pride, who knows?

As I'm listening through TWoK again, I keep hearing references to the Parshendi's swords/knives that are covered in unknown glyphs/symbols. We've assumed the Pashendi/Listeners are an ancient, pre-shattering race - I wonder if this language is similar to the ancient Aonic symbols of Sel. If two shards brought a language system with them from ancient times, and the Listeners are ancient, it could be a connection (or just wild speculation :-P)

AU Spoilers

I think a certain Worldsinger/Worldbringer/storyteller may have a hand in this