Extesian

I previously posted this on the Shardcast comments, I don't think there's much to it but I'm curious to hear any thoughts on Sel's land gaining self-awareness. In Arcanum Unbounded Khriss makes the observation that "Indeed, I believe that the very landscape itself has become Invested to the point that it has a growing self-awareness, in a way unseen on other planets in the cosmere". We know the earthquake that caused the Reod was not natural. So this made me think the land itself could have 'deliberately' caused the earthquake (maybe not with a highly intelligent level of awareness, perhaps closer to animal instinct). I see two possibilities. 1) the land is self-aware enough to protect itself and for some reason had a problem with the level of magical advancement (or use of investiture) by Elantrians. 2) that the land on Sel is becoming self-aware but with its 'personality' corresponding to the Shard that has the strongest regional influence there (as the Shards' power was stuffed into the cognitive and while they together made the Dor, perhaps they remain somewhat separate), and that the Dominion-land (hmmm Jaddeth??) wanted to overthrow Elantris (a la two tectonic plates sliding across each other, but in this case one of the plates deliberately moving itself). I see 1 as more likely in reflection, I'm not sure that parts of the land would be Dominion and parts Devotion, as opposed to an roughly even blend across Sel. And to be fair, both are probably unlikely but hey, it's a thought

Given the timeframe of the WoB about having seen them before (ruling out IRE or Silverlight as an entity, I believe - and possibly even the Set though I'm unsure about that), and given the Ones Above rules on non-intervention (that individuals amongst them seem to be messing with), my top choice is the 17th Shard. They're about non-interference but not so good at it: They seem likely to be a diverse group of Worldhoppers who gather magic systems/technology from different systems, allowing for a combination of Herdazian food and seemingly Scadrial technology, who have a policy of non-interference but a desire to see a non-Shardworld survive and thrive. I feel like they may be working around a general policy of non-intervention in a way to help FotS make the breakthroughs they need to survive the inevitable efforts of agents of interference (Hoid, Bavadin, the Set) to get hold of FotS magic. They want to reduce conflict between Shards. The quote below is pretty illuminating on their aims and methods:

Yeah I think this is a fair read. I still find it interesting that Autonomy would have religions that are so inconsistent in terms of individual (autonomous) rights. It's not a great surprise after the revelation in AU that Autonomy does interfere with other worlds, I'm just interested to see how much Bavadin's goals align with Autonomy (eg oppressive religions that have the eventual goal of autonomy for a world, independence from Shardic influence) and how much there are goals that in no way align with ideals of autonomy. Basically I'm interested to see if Bavadin exerts more influence as a vessel than the Shard itself, as we know the Vessel can influence the Shard but normally will lose the battle and become overwhelmed by the Shard's intent.

Interesting that the implication (though it's hard to infer much from some WoBs) is that Bavadin's religions are not tolerant towards self-determination given she holds the Autonomy Shard. I'm more and more curious about Bavadin's religions. And how many of them we've seen.

Good points on B Yata. Though with the ending of Ambition, I still feel there's a chance Ambition's vessel essentially ended him/herself at a place he/she chose. I think we have evidence that Ambition did run away from Odium after the clash began as Khriss says he mortally wounded Ambition in the Threnodite system, but Ambition was Splintered elsewhere, and Khriss does not indicate Odium did the Splintering nor does the include him in the list of Shards he definitely Splintered. My theory is that Ambition was taken by a well-meaning Vessel who wanted to limit the damage Ambition would do and once he/she realized they were 'mortally wounded" (ie wounded so badly he/she would definitely die), Ambition's Vessel ran to a place where the damage being done by the clash with Odium and Ambition's final Splintering would be contained. This could be in empty space, or perhaps was done in a controlled way to give some final benefit of its inevitable Splintering. It's not a theory I think is likely, but it's A theory for what happened to Ambition between its mortal wounding in Threnodite by Odium, and its eventual Splintering, away from Threnodite and possibly not by Odium. But thanks for the critique, you're one of my favorite Sharders and I was hoping you'd tear apart my ideas

I suspect he did a Taravangian 15 years ago, wrote the entire Cosmere sequence and has been lying around since then occasionally releasing parts of it to avoid raising suspicion.

I'm partial to Webhopper

"IT WAS NIGHT AGAIN. The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts." (Totally one sentence, with a full stop in the middle.)

I've always been under the impression that throughout the Cosmere there are planets naturally invested through creation by Adonalsium that have local manifestations of magic, and then places that have been directly invested by a Shard of Adonalsium with far greater levels of investiture, perpendicularities and resulting magic systems that people can directly access (see 2014 Salt Lake City Comic-con and 2015 AMA below). So the two worlds we know that match this are First of the Sun and Threnody (perhaps Ashyn but I'm trying to confine this to canon). As Brandon says, it's interacting with nature. But both these worlds have something unusual going on. Threnody has no Shard and no stable perpendicularity (though does have unstable, unpredictable ones of 'morbid origin') but did have its existing magic distorted by the mortal wounding of Ambition. First of the Sun has no Shard but does have a stable perpendicularity. Note that this AU essay pre-dates re events of Sixth of the Dusk and we know there is investiture on FotS, in the form of invested fruit eaten by worms, which are then eaten by Aviar (birds) that develop a magical 'Talent' and bond with a human to share that talent. I believe (maybe it's confirmed) that this is simply the 'pool' of concentrated investiture nourishing the trees, and that it is birds rather than people that have the ability to convert that investiture into usable magic. We also know there's a lot going on in the Cognitive Realm there as predators hunt by sensing thought. So we know that these two minor Shardworlds show extraordinary characteristics, both due to events deep in the past. The distorted and macabre form of natural magic on Threnody makes sense but we still need to explain the large amount of concentrated investiture on FotS. I propose that the link is the (former) Shard Ambition. We know from above that soon after the Shattering Odium mortally wounded Ambition in the Threnodite system and that Ambition was later Splintered in a different location. We also know from a separate WoB that Odium could not find Ambition at first. And finally we don't know where Ambition was finally Splintered, or how, or whether it was by Odium, as Khriss in AU states he did the mortal wounding but excludes Ambition from the list of Shards he definitely Splintered. My theory is this - Ambition has been to the Drominad system; this was where either: A) Ambition was hiding, stuffing him/herself into the Cognitive Realm, prior to Odium briefly giving up and going after Dominion/Devotion, but was desperately avoiding investing in the system to avoid detection. But the Shard's presence was enough to increase localized investiture enough to create the perpendicularity and to shift the existing natural magic more into the Cognitive Realm (hence predation by thought). OR B ) After his/her mortal wounding in the Threnodite system, Ambition escaped to Drominad and, knowing the end was nigh, deliberately self-Splintered into the Cognitive Realm of FotS (though without deliberately interfering with the existing magical system there or creating a new one). The Splinters are the Aviar. The nature of the people, flora and fauna suggests an Ambition theme. I'd love any thoughts, comments, corrections on this long and rambling theory. I'm not exactly committed to either option I just find the magic systems of minor Shardworlds interesting, and the story of Ambition intriguing, and wondered if they could be combined.

I liked the brief discussion of Khriss' observation that "Indeed, I believe that the very landscape itself has become Invested to the point that it has a growing self-awareness, in a way unseen on other planets in the cosmere". As was discussed, the earthquake that caused the Reod was not natural, see WoB from 12/6/12 at http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=988 ------------- MI'CH You’ve told us that the earthquake was not caused by natural events. BRANDON SANDERSON Yeah, it’s a complicated question because the earthquake was not caused by natural but the Reod was a natural effect of the earthquake, then... does that make sense? So the Reod is natural, a natural result of... does that make sense? That’s why it was a tricky question. QUESTION But the earthquake was not natural. BRANDON SANDERSON No, it was not. AARON So the Reod is a natural reaction to an unnatural occurrence. BRANDON SANDERSON Yes. JOSH And wasn’t it because there was like magical strain on the land? BRANDON SANDERSON That is certainly part of what was going on. ------------ So this made me think the land itself deliberately caused the earthquake (maybe not with a highly intelligent level of awareness, perhaps closer to animal instinct). I see two possibilities. 1) the land is self-aware enough to protect itself and for some reason had a problem with the level of magical advancement (or use of investiture) by Elantrians. 2) that the land on Sel is becoming self-aware but with its 'personality' corresponding to the Shard that has the strongest regional influence there, and that the Dominion-land wanted to overthrow Elantris prior to it (Jaddeth?) launching an invasion (a la two tectonic plates sliding across each other, but in this case one of the plates deliberately moving itself). I see 2 as more likely though I'm not sure that parts of the land would be Dominion and parts Devotion, as opposed to an roughly even blend across Sel. EDIT - P.S. I hope I wasn't supposed to spoiler-mark that? I'm not 100% on which forums require spoilers...

My apologies Weiry if this WoB is where you've linked to (I can't listen to YouTube right now) but Argent did ask about this at the Chicago signing and its connection with Silverlight is that the drawing of the star chart is hanging somewhere in Silverlight, rather than from the perspective of Silverlight. It could be both but I'm leaning towards it being an older map from the perspective of another location that was found by worldhoppers and hung in Silverlight. Obviously that location can't be any of the systems marked on the map, so Yolen or perhaps Vax come to mind. I don't imagine it could be a star chart from the perspective of somewhere in the Cognitive Realm as that is effectively a 2D plain and other systems are around you, not above you, making perspective completely different. Q: Does Silverlight have a permanent Perpendicularity? Brandon: Silverlight has...weird. So I’m gonna give a RAFO to that. Q: Cause, it’s got a physical constellation map. So they’ve gotta go to the Physical somehow right? Brandon: No, no, no. That can be in the Cognitive Realm. Argent: The constellation map can be a picture from the Cognitive? Brandon: Well, yeah, I mean, it can be a picture in the Cognitive. That is a picture that exists in Silverlight. Argent: Right, sure, but they need to be somewhere to view those things. Brandon: Right, I didn’t say that that’s from the perspective Silverlight, but the picture is hanging there. (Sorry about format for quoting this, got it from the transcript at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dlROFtLJS6QMt1hoBYwDwS9TJFdgi83ovEgVy5WuDAw/mobilebasic ).

Thank you all. I do have a question about unpublished works. While I have White Sand and Aether of Night, and I know Dragonsteel is unobtainable for the average Aussie, I only recently discovered the first 6 chapters of Liar of Partinel (which I really enjoyed). Are there any other gems like this floating around (I've covered the ones easily found on Brandon's website, like the chapters of the various Primes). Finding the chapters of Liar made me realize I could be missing more. For example I'd love to read any of Silence Divine and Dark One that are available. EDIT - I just discovered the page with links to the unpublished sample chapters, my apologies for the unnecessary post! (For any like me who hadn't seen it, it's below).

Not from my end unfortunately. I have White Sand prose and Aether, I was lucky enough to get them about a week after writing to Team Sanderson last year (which, from others' comments, seemed quick). Really enjoyed both of them (White Sand prose quite a bit more than the graphic novel), though I must give them both the reread they deserve. But thank you for the heads up anyway!

Thanks Herald, yes the title was from the brilliant post you did after the 30 November signing recently, no other source but you unfortunately. I've read everything obtainable but Dragonsteel so I'm curious to know if it's in there, or if we'll wait 25 years to see it

Hi 17th Shard! Just introducing myself, I got into The Man about 18 months ago, read all his stuff (Cosmere and non-Cosmere), had a gap to read Wheel of Time (and Book of the New Sun twice), and reread all Sanderson again. Plus perhaps 300 hours of reading this site and all the book signing transcripts from the last few years. So I'm no Cosmere scholar (Cosmolar?) but I'm into it enough that Arcanum Unbounded was a semi-religious experience. ('The Universities of Silverlight' caused a manly squeal). I'll slowly start to elbow my way into posts, thinking I know more than I do, and should He come to Australia sometime, he'll be getting 17th Shard questions from me while he signs my Kindle. Thanks for doing what you do, this site and His fans make his writing even better than it would be alone!