Borio Singaldi

Okay, you're right. Intent may not be the right definition, but I still insist that may have been what Adonalsium strove for. The theme of unity is quite prevalent throughout the series, and I'm sure it's connected to Adonalsium. Let's go with saying "mandate" instead, that sounds good enough. OH! OH, YES! How could I forget the Iriali? Yet another wonderful example, thank you. An entire race of people known to have historically traveled to many cosmere worlds, seeking experience to the point where they all become One once again. United into One. They desire experience and unity. Thank you very much! Also, I really like the point you made about Dalinar's interaction with the most Shards. I think you might be onto something as well. I'm a bit confused by what you're saying... I assumed Adonalsium was already a sentient being. Do you mean you think the drive to have Unity has prompted some Investiture to become sentient? *blink blink* Whoa. Now there's a thought. I mean, I question its likelihood, but it's still a very interesting concept. Good thinking.

Because all of the Shards of Adonalsium have their own predesignated Intents, I have come to wonder if Adonalsium itself had an Intent of its own before it was shattered. And I believe that Intent, and therefore the name we can ascribe to the power of Adonalsium, is Unity. First of all, this stems from the nature of the religions on Sel, as shown in Elantris. The two dominant religions on Opelon in conflict with one another are Shu-Korath and Shu-Dereth. The way I see it, Shu-Korath relates closely to the Intent of the Shard of Devotion, and Shu-Dereth relates closely to the Intent of Shard of Dominion. Both were killed and Splintered early on Sel, but they still have a great influence on Sel, not just in the form of seons and skaze, but in the form of religious precepts. And what is it the Korathi and the Derethi are both striving for in the world? Unity. They seek to unite all people, but in different ways. The Korathi preach love, the Derethi preach control. Unity through Devotion. Unity through Dominion. Of course, this could be seen as the effect of people’s interpretations of Intent rather than Shards themselves, so who knows. My second point is a rather weaker one, relating to Scadrial and its Shards. When Ruin and Preservation are combined into one, they for the dual Shard of Harmony. It is a perfect Unity of the two most opposing Intents. If anything, I consider unity and harmony to be synonymous one with another (and so does the thesaurus ). Third of all is in the Stormlight Archive, Honor repeats the same command to Dalinar in each of his visions – Unite them. It almost even seemed a bit out of character to me that the dead Shard seemed to care more about unity on Roshar rather than the honor of mankind. We don’t even know entirely what he means by that phrase, but it is his ever-present plea. Unite them. Whatever it means, Honor desires unity of some sort. And in Oathbringer, it reaches a culmination that seemed to be set up from the start of the series. The previous points could be considered speculation, but this is a real example in the books that works as evidence. The linchpin for this theory is the climactic scene in Oathbringer in which Dalinar swears his third Ideal, opens Honor’s perpendicularity, and is referred to as having Ascended. When Venli asks him who he is, he responds, “I am Unity” before uniting the three Realms. This seems to go along with what Honor’s visions have been saying to him. The interesting part is this: it’s right after he says those words and brings the Realms together that Odium steps back in fear and rage, saying, “No, we killed you! WE KILLED YOU!” Now, why would he say that in direct response to Dalinar calling himself Unity? At around that same time, Dalinar remarks to himself that Odium suddenly seems small compared to him. It seems to me that in that moment, Dalinar somehow took up a bit of Adonalsium when he briefly Ascended and somehow knew it, which was why he referred to himself with the title of “Unity”. There are even moments in the series before and after that scene where he describes feeling a warmth and a light that comes from somewhere beyond, something different from Honor. It makes me think that the voice telling him to “unite them” may not even be Honor’s. And if it is, it seems to bear the touch of Adonalsium. On Roshar, Dalinar is meant to “unite them” to save humankind. On Sel, the religions based off the two Shardic Intents are looking for unity through devotion and dominion. On Scadrial, Sazed has become the unified form of two Shards as Harmony. As shown by these three series, unity seems to be a big driving force in the cosmere, one closely related to some of the Shards and perhaps something beyond even them. Why? Because I think Unity was the Intent of Adonalsium, and that it has left its touch on the Shards even after all the time it was Shattered. So my next big question is – if the ultimate power of the cosmere was the godly embodiment of unification, then why would people want to divide it? But hey, that's just a theory. A Cosmere Theory! Thoughts on this theory as a whole? TL;DR: Adonalsium had the Intent of Unity, with possible evidence given in Elantris, Mistborn and the Stormlight Archive.

Dawnshards = Glowsticks confirmed.

I think the only big reason for there being a one-year gap is because of Dalinar's writing of Oathbringer. If he's gonna write an entire book by hand after just learning to read, that's gonna take quite a while to write, revise, edit, make extensive copies of, and publish to the rest of the world, at least a year. We know this from experience, and that's in the case of an already published author with unbelievable writing speed and skill. I believe that in the time that year has passed, Dalinar probably will have recently finished writing Oathbringer and published it (maybe the book will even start that way), and the book's reception will play an important part in the story. This is my main reason for believing that Adolin and Shallan will not have a child in that gap, because that is simply not the reason Brandon is spacing books 3 and 4 a year apart. Other reasons have already been listed.

My guess for this Shard's intent is Awareness. Like a Shard that is simply innately aware of everything going on in the Cosmere, watching and understanding. Seems to me like that something that would fit Adonalsium. We can assume the ultimate manifestation of godly power is omnipresent and omniscient, and I think it's same to assume that an Intent like Awareness would be omniscient. A Shard that is all-knowing, but lack the other attributes that make it able use that omniscience to interfere. So it hides away. Perhaps it's hiding and surviving because it's aware of what Odium's been up to and knows that it could be on that "hit list" when other Shards were killed because they were taken by surprise. Or perhaps there's a big Cosmere-wide threat other than Odium that this Shard knows about (and could be the only one fully Aware of it). Whatever the case, my bet's on Awareness as the true name of the Survival Shard.

How about the one with maybe potentially the greatest cosmere implications? Odium: "No, we killed you! WE KILLED YOU!" Definitely one to remember.

WOAH!!! Those are awesome!

Okay, here's some more (my dad's right, I've had way too much time on my hands recently. I need to go back to school and get a life again.) Alright, here we've got our favorite crime-fighting pair, Wax(illium Ladrian) and Wayne. And of course, next up are their good companions, the cousins/sisters Marasi Colms and Steris Harms. How bout we get a bit more historical? Now we have yet another dynamic duo, but this time it's Breeze and Ham! And next up are a couple I nearly forgot about; Elend and Spook! Okay, so my last two are actually from the Stormlight Archive - relating to Oathbringer, to be precise. So be wary, as they DEFINITELY contain spoilers of the story. OB SPOILER WARNING!

Thanks! Well, my brother actually made the Inquisitor one. Pretty sure he made the spikes out of large pointed grey eyebrows that were moved over to cover the eyes, which were made small and black to look like the "spikes" were covering them. i realized after I posted these that Taravangian is too light-skinned. I was so focused on making him looking old and oriental that I forgot to make him look completely Rosharan. I'll have to make more Miis too. I also realized afterwards that I'd left out Mistborn Era 2 and Kelsier's crew.

Better? I don't know. We'll see. More numerous? Likely. I've been busy. Well now, in honor of this being my 200th post, I hereby present the Cosmere Miis I have produced (though a couple aren't exactly mine.) Starting off, we have Dalinar Kholin, Kaladin Stormblessed, Szeth-son-son-Vallano, and our favorite Survivor Kelsier! (The Kelsier one was made by my brother and edited by me.) And next up are the lovely ladies Shallan Davar, Jasnah Kholin, and "Valette Renoux". Next comes Adolin Kholin, a Steel Inquisitor (another made by my brother and edited by me), good ol' King Taravangian, and Vin without her nobility disguise. How about we expand a little from just MB and SA? Here I give you Ati, the original Vessel of Ruin; Hrathen, the Derethi gyorn, and Talenelat'Elin, Herald of War. Sorry, but this next batch seems to be just SA. I present Meridas Amaram, Renarin Kholin, and Tanavast, the Almighty Vessel of Honor. Aaand we're back for a little more expanded lineup! Next upcoming are Leras, the original Vessel of Preservation, our favorite Lightsong the Brave, and Torol Sadeas. And last but not least are a few more of our biggest cosmere players: the cheeky devil Hoid; Sazed, Hero of Ages and Vessel of Harmony, and Vasher (whose umpteen other names will not be listed). Hope y'all like them!

Dang it, Toaster, ya beat mii to it! I had flippin just started doing that this morning! I'll have my retribution once I upload my own miis. (But honestly, good idea, though. Kudos to you for beating me to it.)

Ha. So I did. Silly me. Oh, well, the topic is safe enough that a spoiler tag is no longer needed.

Actually, for some reason, that reminds of ChayShan instead. You know you're a Sanderfan when you're constantly asking your family members what part of the book they're on. My dad is currently at the climax/avalanche of Oathbringer, while my brother is partway through part one of the first Mistborn book (the part where Vin first meets Lestibournes). It's his first cosmere book and I'm so proud of him. When you have a dream about teaching a Sanderfan friend of yours how to use the Surge of Gravitation. That's all I remember from that dream, and it was so cool! When you write a ketek based on Hemalurgy: Blood drawn / we steal souls / piercing with spikes / with pierced souls stolen / we draw blood. When you mentally refer to the weather reporters as stormwardens.

That is kind of a large and plot twist suggestion, but I find validity in it. Now, I'm pretty sure that the Tranquiline Halls, or the world the people lived on before Roshar, was Ashyn, not Braize. But your idea that Odium was stuck on Roshar long enough to utilize Surgebinding for the human Voidbringers to use is a good idea. In spite of that, I don't think Odium created Surgebinding, as he created Voidbinding, but we can't know for sure. But I think it is quite likely that Odium was Invested or trapped on Roshar for the first few centuries. Good thought.

Funny how Hoid is on a vendetta against the god of hatred, yet his cover is being a guy who insults everybody and makes them hate him. Wouldn't he be helping Odium in that regard? (shrug)

I think the point of Sadeas' death by Adolin reached the fulfillment of its arc in the Battle of Thaylen Field. Odium (or more direclty, Nergaoul) used the Thrill to incite the Sadeas soldiers against Dalinar and the coalition. Why? Because they blamed him for the murder of their highprince and let the Thrill take control. I believe that narratively, that was the point of Sadeas' death -- it set up the Battle of Thaylen Field and justified the sudden turning of the Sadeas soldiers to the bad side without making it seem like a cliched mind control move. Narrative genius at the price of no consequence for the one sort of behind it, because Adolin has yet to own up to that too, I suppose. I'm just trying to say that that was why Sadeas died and that was the payoff of it; reasoning behind the Battle of Thaylen Field. I am partial to the sentiment that Adolin may fade into being a conforming background character, seeing as he didn't take responsibility for it until long after the battle ended. As well as all the other points stated about him.

Current favorite character: Korg from Thor; Ragnarok.

Well, that's not including the interludes... Also: When it's spontaneously super foggy one morning and you're both excited and unsettled by it. (And unsettled is the more fitting feeling. Turns out it was a mix of fog and smog. The Deepness has come to choke us to death!) When you think it'd be cool to die like a character in his books would (like suffocating in the mist). When you make a new friend at school just today from both of you fanboying about Oathbringer, then the entire SA, and then the rest of the cosmere. I'm not the only in-depth cosmere-aware Sanderfan at my school and it makes me so happy! I now know of at least four others. Until today it was three. (Edit: It's five now. One of my best friends just finished Bands of Mourning and freaked out about it. Now she has to read Secret History and really get into the cosmere. Muahahahaha!) When you listen to WoBs on Arcanum just to find out how to pronounce character names and the word RAFO. (Turns out, it's with a short vowel. I'd always read it as a long vowel, like Ray-foe. But no, apparently it's Rah-foe. I actually kinda prefer my pronunciation. Also, I found out I'd been saying Renarin's name wrong for a long time. Oops.) You know you're a Sharder when you try thinking of Steelrunners, but the word that comes to mind instead is "Steeldancer". (Edit: You're welcome @Steeldancer)

Oh, my goodness. This is comedy genius. I read it really late at night and I had to try so hard not to burst out laughing. Well done.

https://coppermind.net/wiki/Letters Just go right to this page It contains all the letters compiled in their complete forms instead of as epigraphs.

I need to give you all upvotes, but I can't right now... You're all making really good points that have taken my theory in different (albeit better) directions. Also, if it was possible to burn ettmetal without it exploding, there's a possibility that anyone can burn ettmetal, just like anyone can burn lerasium. By that logic, everyone on Scadrial is a Lerasium Misting (or no one is, depending on your perspective), and lerasium is of the essence of Preservation. If ettmetal a.k.a. harmonium exists because of the fusion of Preservation and Ruin into Harmony, perhaps it retains that ability from the part of Preservation's essence and anyone can burn it, meaning that everyone/no one is an ettmetal Misting. Then @Carbonationspren's point could be validated. Though I think it could be rendered moot by something from Well of Ascension. When Vin is having her final fight against Zane, she starts to burn the bead of atium Zane had given her earlier, only to find that it's just a bead of another metal with a slight coat of of atium on its exterior. Nevermind, that doesn't count, because the bead was made of lead, wouldn't register to Allomantic senses (I just checked). So how do we know if someone could discern two metals if one is encased in another? Thank you all for your insight.

I've come to the assumption that the author of the Second Letter is Autonomy, but that Bavadin herself is not the author. As it clearly says in the letter: Aaand yet there's a response to Hoid's letter anyway. From who? I think the letter was written to Bavadin, but it was one of the many servants of Autonomy who responded on her behalf, because (as they said) their leader can't respond. The servant answered for Autonomy, who was preoccupied with other matters, writing what she would have said. Why wouldn't Autonomy have been able to respond? The answer to that sounds like a RAFO waiting to happen to me, 'cause how are we supposed to know what Bavadin's up to during the SA? Also, another point: If one wishes to not have others interfere with their matters, you could say they're being pretty autonomous. I think they way that Shard is working is that she is perfectly okay with interfering with others, but doesn't want others to interfere with her. And another thing that's probably already been surmised: Sounds like the tone of one who is more inclined to Odium's side. Which we know Autonomy may have been: So while I questioned it at first, I'm pretty sure the author is Autonomy. I'm not trying to say it isn't Ambition in any way, since the OP makes some very good supporting points about that that I don't exactly subscribe to but are quite logical and acceptable. Just my three cents on the topic. (I say "three cents" 'cause that's literally all the money I have left, teehee.)

So, in The Way of Kings, Hoid writes a letter to someone (who we are pretty sure is a dragon named Frost), and we see clips of the letter at the beginning of some of the chapter headings as epigraphs. In Words of Radiance, Frost replies to Hoid with another letter that's also split across the epigraphs. And then... (Spoilers for Oathbringer)

For some reason, this makes me think of how the Aimians are extremely protective of whatever is on their homeland (as shown in the Oathbringer Kaza interlude). They said that it possessed secrets that if revealed could potentially lead to "the ends of worlds". More than one world. And IIRC, Autonomy/Bavadin has been to many worlds. Then again, this is a very loose connection to make, but you've made a very interesting theory regardless, OP! This could really lead somewhere...

Well, we'll have to RAFO to know for sure.