PallonianFire

I think my next step will be getting a WoB on "Has Odium ever visited Threnody?" or something along those lines. I'd love it if he decided to fire up another Sanderbot and crank out a Threnody novella for Arcanum Unbounded, too.

But doesn't this sort of assume that the world had to have been made by a Shard? Yolen existed pre-Shattering, and it would be pretty weird if it were the only planet that did.

Without saying much, I'll just say that I expect this to be a mystery for a while longer. One other interesting thing to note is the similarity between Nalt and Nalthis, the Warbreaker world. I have no idea what that connection might be, but I'd be shocked if there wasn't one.

I did, but I'm not sure that it makes total sense (from what we know, at least). The Shards that seem like the "creating worlds" types settled down where they created. I don't know what kind of Shard would make a world and then move on. Plus, that still doesn't explain the Cognitive Realm blockage/Shades problem. Also, hasn't he confirmed that Threnody is a "splinter world"? I swear I've seen that somewhere, though I can't find it now that I'm looking. :/

It's only available at the BYU library, from what I understand, and there's about a four-year waitlist for it. There are a couple pretty good reviews/synopses floating around the internet, though.

Okay, with some new information and WoB, I thought I'd gather all my thoughts into one place and make this a proper theory: Threnody was a Shard. This all started when I stumbled over the word "threnodic", describing flowers that might be used at a funeral. The immediate rush to the dictionary produced this definition: Threnody (n) A song or poem that expresses sorrow for someone who is dead. or A song of lamentation for the dead. This clear nod to an emotion brought to mind the quote from the letter in WoR, regarding Odium as "God's own divine hatred" and what Odium has been up to. We know from WoB (question 32) that Odium has Splintered more than just Devotion, Dominion, and Honor: LEIFTINSPACECan you write in one of my books about something we don;t know about the Shards, or at least one of the Shards? BRANDON SANDERSONOdium has killed at least one more Shard than the ones we know about. So, we know that at least one aspect of Adonalsium's emotions became a Shard: his hatred. And that an unknown Shard has been Splintered. So operating under the hope that Threnody was named for a purpose, I asked at the Denver Calamity signing: Q: Was Threnody named in memorial for someone? A: Yes it was. (With a big smile on his face.) So there's that. This would seem to imply that whatever it was named for died before it was settled, or at least that it died before the current civilization as seen in "Shadows For Silence in the Forests of Hell". At that point in the timeline, we know that something is messed up in the Cognitive Realm, hence the situation with the Shades. We know one other world where things are wonky in the CR: Sel, where Devotion and Dominion were splintered. Add my final assumption (or prediction, if you will) that if Adonalsium Shattered into Shards that included an emotion (Odium; divine hatred), it may have included more than one—Threnody; divine sorrow or divine lamentation. The conclusion is that, at some point, Odium either splintered Threnody on another world, and the cataclysm forced the people there to move worlds, settling on and naming Threnody after the Shard; or he visited Threnody, then unnamed, and splintered Threnody there. If it is the former, I think the people who worldhopped would have used the unstable Investiture post-splintering to fuel their worldhop, and that is what is currently mucking things up in the Cognitive Realm. If the latter, then it is a similar situation with Sel, where the splinters and Investiture stayed at the world, but are causing havoc in the CR.

Heh. Right? I have to just chuckle at some of his answers.

Cool, thanks! I guess I'll start hunting through the many comments in this thread lol

Holy cow. I totally misread that ad as "Do your metals speak to you?" and thought Khriss was looking for savants. I completely missed the tools part of it. Need to re-evaluate some things now.

Yeah, the pool mentioned in the SoS broadsheet is almost definitely Harmony's shardpool. And the masked figure there...let's be honest. Probably Iyatil. Unless there are other worldhopping SoScadrians out there. I still don't think the Pits work as a perpendicularity, since there's no atium growing there anymore. In fact, I think Sazed would have to make a conscious effort to produce actual atium (maybe to keep Marsh going?). Either way, the Well definitely doesn't exist anymore, since the shardpool in the mountains exists (unless you want to count that as a new "Well of Ascension"). There's just no reason for there to be more than one perpendicularity for Harmony.

Is there a list of all the possible ranks somewhere? Also, what are the dots below our names? The intuitive thing is something about number of posts, but I really didn't even notice them until a second one appeared under my name.

I think it was an identity. It had a personality, at least, IMO. I asked Brandon if anyone other than Hoid and the 16 were present for the Shattering, and he RAFO'd. It would probably make sense if Frost were there, too, but who knows. My main interest in it is if Adonalsium Shattered into 16 by nature, or by design. Were there only 16 in the group, or were there more and some missed out? (Obviously Hoid didn't really want to become a Shard. Not really his style.)

I would also say that Odium and Honor seem to be opposed, too. Honor=binding things together/Odium=breaking things apart. But the more I think about Shards, the more I like that not all of them have perfect opposites. It really makes for more conflict opportunities as he expands things.

The biggest thing about Khriss being confirmed as a member of the 17th Shard is that SH spoilers I also want to know how Hoid got the letter to Frost.

I think I may have to gather my thoughts and the WoB and make a proper theory post for this (and learn how to do the little espoused theories thing in my sig). I'm pretty sure this whole Threnody thing is my first real contribution to this site haha.

So from what I'm gathering from the topic, you think Kelsier is the recipient of the Letter? I'm pretty sure that he's not a dragon. Unless you just mean that Kell is working FOR the 17th, but I don't see him willingly working underneath someone.

Moving my WoB over here from the theory board. Q: Is Threnody named in memorial of someone/something? A: Yes it is. (With a big smile on his face.)

WOOOO! Asked if Threnody was named in memorial for someone at the Denver signing tonight. Brandon, with a big grin on his face: "Yes it is."

The prevailing theory is that the recipient is a character named Frost, from Dragonsteel, which would indicate Yolen. Now, it could be that he moved during/after the Shattering and that's how Khriss could be in touch with him/part of the Seventeenth Shard while being unable to access Yolen.

Keep a sharp eye out. There are hints in there about the origins of a certain religion on Scadrial. Enjoy!

Okay, so either there are a ton of Khriss WoBs out there that I haven't seen before, or this is an assumption. Certainly the Letter indicates that the Seventeenth Shard was founded by Frost, not Khriss.

I always figured that Odium's ability to splinter Shards wasn't necessarily because Odium was stronger, but because his Intent allowed him to perform those actions easier. That his whole thing is breaking things, essentially, in the opposite way that Honor's Intent is about binding things.

Okay whoa, I missed this WoB. I assumed she was the AA writer, but wasn't sure.

I'm very intrigued about the whole Frost/Khriss relationship, due to some things in M:SH. If we didn't have WoB that the Ars Arcanum author was part of the Seventeenth Shard, and Khriss is almost definitely that writer, I'd tend to say Khriss isn't part of the group at all.

Well, if certain characters know what they're talking about, then we do know who did it.