DrakeMarshall

First test: 34% truthwatcher 25% skybreaker 19% bondsmith 16% elsecaller 13% willshaper 9% stoneward 5% lightweaver 5% dustbringer 3% edgedancer 0% windrunner Second test: 34% stoneward 31% willshaper 31% skybreaker 25% bondsmith 22% edgedancer 13% windrunner 11% dustbringer 9% truthwatcher 0% lightweaver 0% elsecaller Well some of these jumped around a bit. The three that stayed near the top were skybreaker, willshaper, and bondsmith. Huh. None of these had very high percentages though.

It is certainly true that this could be a shard of adolnasium. Grace is absolutely regarded as a divine attribute. Not sure how a shard of grace would act apart from the context of the others... Would be interesting I bet. Probably one of the nicer shards to meet.

I would say that such opposing shards probably wouldn't mix. But feruchemy is obvious evidence to the contrary. So at least if odium remained on Roshar long enough... It is probably inevitable that a magic system would arise that had both odium and honor in it.

Actually that is what I based my claim off of. Sounds like Sanderson is saying that while many shards do have oppositions, there is no formal rule that says they have to.

Yes well the radiant oaths imply that all surgebinding is tied to honor, even ones that come from nahel bonds with cultivation spren. Not sure how this works, but the presence of oaths denotes this. Honor and cultivation's magic would mingle in some ways, though. I wonder if there is a magic system that is based exclusively on the power of cultivation, or if cultivation's main manifestation of magic is in fact slightly mingled with honor.

The things you need to do to access the power seem to be most tied to a shard's intent, the physical manifestation of the power seems to be most tied to the planet.

As far as I can see, the two most likely shards that have come up that are pure speculation are a shard of tribulation and a trickster shard. Both of these have clearly defined and possibly cosmic intents. That being said, judging by Sanderson's response I am guessing that while some shards can be counterparts to each other, there is no rule that says that they have to be, or that all shards are paired. If one could make a decent case that they are counterparts, this implies that the idea of shard counterparts is really just a construct, not some law of adolnasium.

Perhaps. But it seems like at some times spren remain aloof from humanity (no radiants, parshendi usually remained in dullform) and then at some point both odium spren and radiant spren would show up. Whether or not it is correct for people to draw a causal relation, they do happen together. Always. Which might mean something.

That is I think on the back cover of the WoK book.

I am inclined to guess that nightblood requires a human to take investiture from (although if you wielded it in a highstorm/everstorm you would just basically be funneling investiture from the highstorm into nightblood). However, radiants can't get stormlight from an everstorm probably. A voidbringer could get energy from it though, so maybe if a voidbringer had nightblood they could fuel it with the storm. Mind you, voidbringers are rather evil, so nightblood might possess said voidbringer and make him impale himself.

Your description of immutability sounds a lot like what preservation is... Otherwise this looks pretty good. Although honestly, guesses about any pair of shards for which we don't know the identity of either members of the pair can't be very accurate given the information we have to work with.

This is an interesting combination... Unlike most of these, such a combination wouldn't afford for very much raw power, but the capacity for subterfuge would be incredible. Such a combination could do very many things. Lol I think nearly all the combos here would allow somebody to either subjugate or annihilate all the inhabited planets in the cosmere, if they so wished.

Possibly. The link between protecting your foes and standing against your friends definitely makes the most sense with Kaladin. The line about storms responding makes the most sense with Eshonai, on the other hand, given that she literally did control thunder and ultimately summoned a highstorm.

So I have been re-reading WoR and have noticed something perhaps significant. So it is time for my first theory. After a few Sanderson novels, I have come to expect initial impressions and suspicions to be reversed. Who/whatever you think is the antagonist at the beginning never ends up as such. For example (beware of spoilers): -Treledees -Denth and Vasher -Preservation -The Lord Ruler (I would still say he was evil but he was not what you thought) I could probably go on. The point has been made, however, thus I won't. There is probably a similar reversal down the pipe in the Stormlight Archive. Starting with odium. I think it is fairly clear that odium is evil. Storms, he is the shard of hatred! Also, Hoid has a very poor opinion of Rayse, which probably does count for something. However, there is something else of note down this vein in the Stormlight Archive, linked to all these secret societies. We know that Gavilar was assassinated because he approached the Parshendi wishing to bring back the voidbringers. We also know that Taravangian loosely aligned with Gavilar. We also know that both of these people at least started out wishing to save the world, but it looks like what they actually tried to do was quite destructive. We also know that Ameram was interested in bringing back the voidbringers. And the ghostbloods are embroiled in all of this but we have no idea what they are looking for. So lots of people are interested in either bringing back the voidbringers or averting their return. I also want to highlight the "cover synopsis" of the Way of Kings: From the above information, I feel we can conclude two things: 1. The presence of radiants is associated with the desolations. Correctly or incorrectly, many presume a causal relationship between the return of voidbringers and the return of radiants. It would be interesting if this assumption was in fact correct. 2. The fact that both voidbringers and radiants have disappeared is not necessarily a good thing. So in light of this, Gavilar's efforts, one way or another, may have actually be saving Roshar. He tells Dalinar to "find the most important words a man can say" which probably means the radiant oaths. He tries to return the voidbringers, but this may actually be an attempt to restore the radiants as well. However, Gavilar foretells the approach of the everstorm to Taravangian. It even seems that all of his efforts are to prepare for the everstorm. So why would he be trying to bring back voidbringers? Wouldn't he realize that the voidbringers would cause the everstorm? It is possible he did not. Or perhaps the everstorm would have come eventually even if Eshonai hadn't caused it. Then there is also the motives of the society Ameram is a member of. We don't know very much about those other than that Ameram wants the voidbringers to return. I am inclined to believe Ameram's motives are not good, based on what he did to Kaladin. And there is the ghostbloods, which contains worldhoppers. The presence of worldhoppers implies that their motives are connected to the actual struggle between shards of adolnasium, something I doubt the others are keenly aware of or embroiled in. However, their motives are as of yet an enigma. All that being said, this theory doesn't really have a resounding conclusion. On the contrary, I am really making the point that we are probably wrong about a lot. Nevertheless, in conclusion: The return of the voidbringers means more than we think it does. Given that multiple groups are competing to return the voidbringers, there is probably some benefit to be had for whoever first creates voidbringers. However, restoring the voidbringers might not be as insane of an idea as we think. Gavilar might actually have been saving Roshar.

This isn't terribly important, but in the name of compiling the most exact set of information: It is known that Tyn was not a full member. Mraize tells Shallan this when he first brings up making her a member. Tyn was only an associate of the ghostbloods. This is a very, very good overview though. I found it interesting to read through all the death rattles juxtaposed. Many of them seemed to be referencing things. Sometimes from the perspective of the person themselves, sometimes from the perspective of somebody important in the future. Two possible meanings of rattles that popped out to me: This is almost certainly a description of stormclasts in the desolations. I bet this is about Eshonai. It fits quite well. "All is withdrawn from me" probably references the fact that she was basically possessed by odium. This is also in line with her attacking her friends (alternatively her closest parshendi friends she killed or perhaps the humans she tried to make peace with), and standing for a cause she would have previously thought as evil. Also, the most obvious reference, "I raise my hand. The storm responds" is almost certainly a reference to the effects of storm form.

I meant entropy more like disorder, not as in destruction. There is a difference between chaos and ends. They might have some rough overlap, but they are definitely distinct. Not sure if honor and absolution pair. Honor is only concerned with what is right, and is willing to forgo the demands of justice in the name of saving people. That seems to encompass absolution to an extent, so how could they be a differing pair? Still, forgiveness is a major attribute in a divine being, so it stands to reason that it would have a shard, even if it isn't paired with honor. It might oppose odium. Hope. Interesting. I am unsure whether hope is an attribute of a cosmically powerful being, but maybe. That would be an interesting shard indeed. I kind of doubt that a shard of hope would seek to only protect itself, though.

I will pull it up for you in a bit. Right now I will just say I recall that Lift's spren, which is fairly obviously of cultivation, refers to the nightwatcher as its mother. A bit like how the stormfather is sometimes referred to as the father of honorspren.

It isn't by any means impossible. It would have weird plot implications though. I mean, we already have sixteen shards... An entirely new entity... Would make things complicated. Still, the cosmere has a diverse range of novels. It might work. We will see.

I believe that there is some reference to voidbinding, not just surgebinding, at the end of WoK and WoR. So presumably on Roshar, odium's magic is voidbinding. What does voidbinding look like? Well I believe that voidbinding is what one has access to in the forms of power. I would say a stormform's power over lightning is a type of voidbinding. Presumably a nightform's future sight is also voidbinding. Not sure what the specific powers of shadowform or smokeform would be, but also probably reflections of odium's magic. It is not surprising that using odium's power warps you to odium's intent (Eshonai becoming evil). This seems to be the case to a very limited extent for all the magic systems in the cosmere. It also stands to reason that odium's power would be the one that twists the user the most. Mind you, odium spren can also do things like make stormclasts. So their spren can do some other dangerous magical things. But I believe the most prominent magic system on roshar that is of odium is voidbinding, what is granted to the forms of power.

Each shardworld has its strengths and weaknesses. But I wouldn't say they have different levels of power... Scadrial potentially offers compounding like the lord ruler had. You correctly note that this is absurdly powerful, but I bet I could outline instances of powers from other worlds that would rival the lord ruler's. Consider nalthis. It offers several devastating powers. We could have a returned of the tenth heightening who has awakened a blade like nightblood. Being able to animate everything nearby (pretty much regardless of color because of tenth heightening), and wielding a blade that is unstoppable while it has enough breath (which it will if the wielder is at the tenth heightening)... Such an individual would definitely be able to rival a compounder like the lord ruler. Consider sel. It also has extreme levels of power. If a clever elantrian was able to draw the right sequence of aons, they might be able to bring down a full compounder immediately. This might actually be the most powerful system there is, because on both nalthis and Scadrial the powers I listed are quite rare, but many people become elantrians on sel. Then there is Roshar. We do not have as much information as to what the limits of Rosharian power are. However, the entire order of windrunners could probably defeat the lord ruler, in all fairness. And I wouldn't be surprised if it was within the powers of one of the godspren on Roshar to kill a compounder of Scadrial, if it was their intent. So I'm not so sure if there is power disparity.

I would guess that the original sixteen shardholders were the ones that shattered adolnasium and chose which shards they would each take. They probably planned the shattering of adolnasium, agreed who would take up each shard, and then did it. I doubt they anticipated the warping effect of each shard's intent, though. But aside from that... If odium had a weapon capable of shattering adolnasium itself, it would have killed all the other shards by now. Apparently rayse knows of this weapon... But it is probably beyond his reach. He might not know where it is. Or perhaps it is incompatible since it is an anti-adolnasium power and he is formed from adolnasium's power. Most likely, the weapon is not something simple as we think it is. I kind of doubt that it is humanity, but I would not be surprised if it were something like that. It is an interesting role humanity plays in the affairs of shards, though. With the balance of power on a cosmic scale, sometimes the only individuals who can matter are regular humans. Or kandra. Or parshmen.

Interesting... It also helps that there are an even number of shards... Judging by what Sanderson has said, I am inclined to guess that the shards do sort of have counterparts, but not the kind of black and white opposites we are inclined to think of. The most likely guess I have seen so far is tribulation. Not sure if this would be the name Sanderson chooses, but the concept of paying the price and earning through difficulty is definitely an intent that would work for a shard. I am reminded of some other entities in books that act like this. If I had to match things up given our current list of known shards: Ruin | Preservation #this one is obvious, ruin and preservation are explicitly paired Dominion | Autonomy #again, pretty straightforward Endowment | Tribulation #endowment, being given something with no price, tribulation, making sacrifices to receive something Devotion | Odium #devotion and hatred are basically opposites. Cultivation | Entropy #cultivation, basically building up things, disorder, the opposite. I personally think that trell is a shard of entropy. Justice | Honor #Sanderson contrasts honor most directly with justice. It stands to reason that there would be a justice shard. Survival | Ambition #Ambition doesn't seem a very shard-like attribute, so not sure about this. These two intents do pair I feel though Fate | Chance #I literally have no idea what these two could be. Just a wild guess. Random vs. ordained future. Most likely, the majority of my speculation here will be proved wrong in later cosmere novels. But hey, might as well throw in my $0.02

Well after having read something that Lift's spren says to her, I am fairly certain that the nightwatcher is in fact related to cultivation... So the nightwatcher's boon+curse is probably not inherently evil. However, if the nightwatcher's true gift is when Taravangian is more empathetic (but also less intelligent), it stands to reason that a shard of hatred could manipulate Taravangian's thoughts when he is at his least empathetic. Or just manipulate the diagram. Either way, I am convinced that the powers given to Taravangian were initially good, but through some corruption by odium, and quite possibly a tragic misconception on Taravangian's part, they have been turned into a weapon.

In the stormlight archive it sounded like kaladin was actually able to fall without getting hurt, with enough stormlight. It didn't say his legs broke and instantly re-mended or anything, he just hit the ground in a burst of stormlight and was unharmed. Now for such a cataclysmic scale of velocity, you might need an extra kick of power. But it is possible that an ungodly amount of stormlight would actually outright protect you from getting hurt as you knock a planet out of orbit. Or perhaps I should say a godly amount, since you might be literally getting said power from a shard of adolnasium. Storms, why are we even discussing doing this? The impact and subsequent freezing would utterly destroy life on a planet.

42.