Doviebear

Y'know I'm looking back through Tress and I'm actually not finding any evidence for that. I could've swore I remember reading that theory somewhere, with some quote from Tress that makes it seem like the audience is Iriali, but I think I've got that wrong. The audience is definitely from First of the Sun but I don't see any evidence it's Iriali. That being said, even though the timeline is kinda tight, and even if we don't know about any of the other lands the Iriali went to, I still find it odd Ed would refer to Virtuosity that way.

I'm referring to the theory that the Iriali are in fact a Splinter of Virtuosity, and that after they complete their Long Trail they will reform into the full shard Virtuosity again. While reading IotE, this line from Ed the Arcanist piqued my interest: What does he mean that nobody knows where Virtuosity is? Don't they know the shard is splintered? I feel like this leads to a couple of possibilities: 1. Ed is talking about her Splintering in an obtuse way. This seems least likely to me, since he then goes on to talk about Dominion and other Shards that can't explain what they did, presumably because they were Splintered. Virtuosity is obviously not in this category. 2. Ed and Arcanists of the time don't even know that Virtuosity was Splintered. This also seems kinda far-fetched. Hoid obviously knows that she was Splintered as of Yumi, and also indicates there's a Scadrian space station in the vicinity of Komashi. (Iron Seven Waystation). It seems wild that at the Cosmere aware stage that Scadrial is in at that point that they don't know about Virtuosity Splintering herself while also inhabiting the area where she did. 3. Something happened between Yumi and IotE and Virtuosity reappeared and then prompted disappeared herself. Maybe something like the completion of the Iriali Long Trail? We know that Roshar is the 4th world, and there's a strong chance that Scadrial is the 5th, since people matching Iriali traits are described in Era 2, after SA5. We also know that they were on Lumar 300 years before Tress is set, and that at the time that Tress is happening they are currently on First of the Sun. They were on Roshar for longer than 300 years and Tress is after Roshar in the timeline, so they must've gone to Lumar after Roshar, but before First of the Sun. So Lumar is 6th, First of the Sun is 7th, and then sometime after Tress but before IotE the Long Trail is completed and Virtuosity is reformed, an event that Arcanists are sure to be aware of. Thus when Ed refers to Virtuosity she is not Splintered but disappeared as she hides for some reason or other. Am I missing something? I know it's a lot to infer from one line, but it just seems very out of place from an extremely Cosmere aware character like an Arcanist. TLDR; Did the Iriali already reform into the shard Virtuosity?