Khyrindor

Hello friends. I've been thinking a lot about Shards over the last month or so, especially in advent of the upcoming Q&A on Reddit. It's been a while since I've seen one of these, so I figure there's no harm in putting this out there again (especially in light of new reveals in AU). I want to think about Shards, and possibly narrow down the six remaining Shards, and I would love some input from you guys (I've been driving my family crazy with questions on their thoughts in the last couple days). Firstly, here's what we know. We know ten of the sixteen Shards of Adonalsuim. Listed in order of reveal/publicity, they are Devotion, Dominion, Preservation, Ruin, Endowment, Honor, Cultivation, Odium, Autonomy, and Ambition. We know that Odium Splintered at least four Shards. We now know all four: Ambition, Devotion, Dominion, and Honor. Odium had a 'hit-list', and Ambition was #1. There is a Shard that just wants to hide and survive, but that Shard's intent is not 'Survival'. There is a Shard that is not on a planet. (This could refer to Ambition, depending on where it was finished off.) There are two Shards that aren't on a planet, Ambition, and one other. Here's some stuff we're I'm pretty sure about/think we know. (Please let me know if any of these suppositions were confirmed) Shards are based somewhat on "divine attributes" of a god figure. Shards have an opposite pairing, but most are not clear opposites.* * There's been a lot of discussion involving this, and it's looking more and more unlikely that there are pairings of Shards. However, since it's somewhat simple to use that supposition as a format for now, if nothing else. Here's some supposition/speculation I make on the information above. If the sixteen Shards of Adonalsium were all combined, the result would be a god figure. Because of this, we can assume that there are likely no duplicates (for example, there wouldn't be a Shard of Immutability, as Preservation already fills that role). Now onto the Big List. I'm going to attempt to fill in this list of Shards and their pairings, and I will update this list with our guesses. Confirmed Shards will be in Red, guesses will be green. Confirmed pairing will be bold, highly likely will be italicized, and unsure I will leave plain. Here goes. Preservation Ruin Dominion Autonomy Odium Devotion* Endowment Ambition** Honor Absolution?*** Cultivation Tribulation Enlightenment Enigma Purity**** Synthesis? * On the Odium/Devotion pairing. I put this one up because Odium is defined by hatred and jealousy, whereas Devotion is stuff like love and service. I find it to be a likely pair, but a good argument can be made for and Honor/Odium mashup as well. ** On the Endowment/Ambition pair, I find this one a bit of a stretch, I'll admit. It comes from the thought process of Endowment being giving to others, and Ambition looking to receive. It's a tenuous connection, but I'll leave it here for the time being until we find a better candidate. *** One of the possible Shards my family came up with is Mercy (or forgiveness) EDIT: Absolution involves both of these, also, you can be absolved of burdens and Oaths. It's also a God attribute so I like it better. I'm still not too sure I like it as a whole. I like the idea that it's a possible opposite to Honor, because the way we've seen Honor act sounds like a Judgement type, dealing heavily with Oaths. Forgiveness and Mercy sometimes happens in Honorable people in SA, but I haven't seen it represented in a Shard (though there is a case to be made that Endowment or Cultivation could involve it). **** Purity seems like a likely Shard to me. We haven't seen a Shard that represents the righteousness or holiness of god, and I think there's an argument to be made that Purity could fill those shoes. There is also a planet named Purity in the Threnodite System that breaks the pattern of funeral songs like the other planets. Now, let's discuss. Please bring forward an idea of the remaining six shards. Even feel free to argue my pairings if you like. Please keep in mind these things on looking for Shard possibilities. Divine attributes separated from the virtues that give them context (as Hoid would say). Attributes that aren't shared in another Shard. Shards that wouldn't logically be higher on Odium's hit-list that Ambition. Otherwise he would have targeted them first. Edit 1: Added Tribulation, added confirmed information about Ambition and the other Shard without a home. Edit 2: Absolution instead of Mercy, added Synthesis as an opposite of Purity.

I received my inheritance. It's sand.

Is there a google doc for transcribing the Signing line yet? If not I can get on it.

Fixed, thanks.

If you read the descriptions, they don't quite seem to match with cryptics. Cryptics are always described as "head of lines" whereas Elhokar said "Twisted figures," (IIRC) which seems to suggest either a different spren, or perhaps influence by Odium. Cryptics and Honorspren are still on the same side; they might not get along due to differing Intents, but they don't hate each other. If a Cryptic was bonding Elhokar, Kaladin wouldn't have been able to banish it. If anything, Elhokar may have been inspired by Kaladin to due better, and the spren figured he was no longer on the path to bonding it. I find it more likely that he was under Odium's influence, personally, but with what evidence we have, it's anybody's guess really.

I can't find the proof any more, but I asked Brandon if Devotion and Odium were opposites during a Twitter thing last year, and he said "they could be considered as such." I think it's likely, based on that, but also based on the fact that Devotion includes things like Love, and Odium includes things like Hate, which are clear opposites. But, I agree we don't have very much hard evidence. The scenario on Sel seems likely, and seems to point to Devotion being the opposite, however. Both Dominion and Ambition are Splintered, Dominion is very stuck, permeating the Cognitive Realm of Sel, and nearly inseparable from Devotion, so I think it's highly unlikely that either of them are the culprit. Also, We have a WoB that says that Trell is involved with a Shard we know, and it's from before we knew about Ambition.

So, I made a realization about Shards, and I remember this being discussed or WoB'd a while back. I'll try to find it after I post. Shards don't apply their own Intent to themselves. Preservation was very bad at Preserving himself, because he was busy protecting the world from Ruin. Ruin also didn't seek to Ruin himself, rather than the world. Endowment doesn't give herself anything, she gives it to her people. Odium doesn't hate himself, he hates everything else. I could go on with the other Shards, but the evidence stands. I don't think we should be surprised when we see Autonomy being subservient, as long as it means that he is freeing people from others' control (which, as Trell, she's doing, by the way). On the WoB I linked about Autonomy helping Odium on Sel, you're all very eager to say the questioner gave a lot of wiggle room, and I agree. But wiggle room goes both ways. Brandon could be saying "Well, sure. Autonomy helped by giving Odium directions." Or, he could be saying "Well, this questioner's really close to the answer, but since he gave me an ambiguous question I'll give him an ambiguous answer." I agree we should take it with a grain of salt, but the fact is that Autonomy did help in some way. I should think that Autonomy would like to have a chance to Splinter her opposite, just as Odium would.

There is a WoB which states that Odium would only work with another Shard if he were in charge. For this reason, I think that Autonomy is the one helping Odium in this relationship. Further evidence I posit to this theory is that it seems like Autonomy helped Odium cause the Splintering on Sel, as both Autonomy's opposite (Dominion), and Odiums possible opposite (Devotion) were killed. There is also a WoB which states that Autonomy "in some way" helped Odium there, though I admit the questioner gave Brandon a lot of wiggle room there. I know it seems odd that a Shard of Autonomy would be subservient to another Shard, but mostly I assume that a Shard's behavior doesn't apply to them-self. Preservation had no problem giving himself up, Ruin wasn't about to self-destruct. Endowment isn't giving herself anything. Odium probably doesn't hate himself. Therefore I have no problem with Autonomy possibly yielding to Odium's will if they have a common goal. It may even have to do with their relationship before the Shattering. As for Odium being trapped, Era two is after at least Stormlight 5, so anything could happen between then. Odium may even be out. I would direct you to this thread on for discussion and links to the WoBs I mentioned above. Welcome to the Shard!

On the M translations, I'm not sure if it's just a literal reflection of the N. Both glyphs for Vamah and Hatham have the same shape, just rotated differently. There hasn't been an extra line hanging down like the N. I know the outside glyphs are a little more stylized, but they still follow a pattern. This also fits with the weird shape in the Ironstance scroll that you mentioned. Same shape as in the pictures below.

Continuing on with my Highprince translation attempts, I've found two possibilities for this glyph: My interpretations on this glyph are spoilered below for length. *Apologies for the crappy mouse-writing* What do you think? Does the glyph work better as Ruthar or Thanadal? Did I miss anything? Just for fun, I'll attempt to narrow this one down by using the last "Unknown highprince glyph": Next, I went to a new glyph to interpret, and came upon this one: Interpretations below. Just for fun, I'm attempting the translation of the last "Unknown" Highprince glyph, in order to narrow down the Thanadal/Ruthar above. Here's what I have so far:

So, I've been working on translating the few unknown highprince glyphs, and I think I may have figured out Hatham's. The blue line mostly fits with what we think could be the H, the red line fits what might be a Th, and the green could be an M. Not much to go on, but none of the other unknown highprince glyphs match the H at the beginning. Apologies if this has been posted before, been a while since I sifted through all the pages.

As with any command, the Intent behind it is very important. Nightblood differs to whomever is holding him and their definition of evil, because he does not have that definition himself. Nightblood is not a Shard, though he is one of the most Invested objects in the Cosmere other than Shards and their ilk. He was created by thousands of Breaths, as well as probably something from another Shard's Investiture, which leads to "corrupt Investiture" (i.e. the black smoke that is visible when he's around). About spren and Breaths, the spren on Roshar are mostly what we call "Splinters" of a Shard of Adonalsium, as the result of a Shard either dying and being Splintered (like Honor), or a self-Splintering or a Shard in order to Invest their power. This second type is what we observe in Warbreaker. Endowment (the Shard there) willingly Splinters her power in the form of the Divine Breaths, attaching them to Cognitive Shadows, and thus bringing them back to life. This is how the Returned function. Regular Breaths are not the equivalence of spren, the Divine Breaths are. Hope that clears up some stuff for you, feel free to ask for clarification if I confused you.

We do know by WoB that Odium seeks to be the last Shard standing. It would make sense for him to target planets with dual Shards, but I doubt that's what he did, especially since he went after Ambition first. He wanted Ambition first because he thought that would be the one that would best rival him, while others he went after, he did because of the vessel (at least, it's likely, I remember WoBs that suggest that). Again I think he went after D&D because his Opposite Shard (Devotion, in theory) was there, and would be a good candidate to neutralize him. Also, Dominion sounds like another Shard with power that would be able to hurt him. In my mind, it's a coincidence that some of the planets Odium targeted had two Shards, but if that ends up being true, it doesn't hurt my theory that he and Autonomy are going after Harmony.

I'm a bit fuzzy on the details of this myself, but for your second question, it's generally assumed that you can use allomancy independent of your location. Magic, in it's "usual" form, would be able to do this, but what we see are a lot of exceptions. For example, on Sel, you can only use the magic in given locations, because the massive build ups of the Dor are all in the Cognitive Realm, which is location dependent. If you're an Elantrian, and travel elsewhere in the cosmere, you would lose your powers until you returned to Elantris. If you were a Surgebinder, and attempted to travel off world, you would need to take your spren, which is difficult, but possible according to WoB. Allomancers and Awakeners would be able to use their magic wherever, because there is nothing tying it to location, does that make sense? What I'm trying to say is, an allomancer wouldn't need to use identity to be able to use allomancy off world. Identity would be more for, for example, making yourself a viable candidate for magic systems with require you to be born in a certain place, like on Sel. It's theoretically possible for you to tap identity etc, and be chosen by the Dor to become an Elantrian (though one should note that whatever Hoid tried to become an Elantrian didn't work). Anyway, hope that made sense.

One of my favourite moments is when Kaladin's father is stitching up Roshone on the operating table, and has the choice to cut an important vein. Their problem would go away and no one would know. However, he chooses life. Always one of the quiet, epic moments for me when you see the true heart of a character.

Some relevant WoBs I found. I also remember asking Brandon on Twitter if Odium and Devotion were opposites and he said "they could be considered as such," but alas, I can't find it. From these (all taken from the tag 'Odium' in theoryland), we can see that; 1. Odium has probably worked with another Shard in the past. 2. Autonomy "in some way" (which I admit is ambiguous) helped Odium splinter Devotion and Dominion. 3. There's some connection between Odium ad Trell (which could be that they are both in the Cosmere, Brandon has said that ambiguous questions like this leave him a lot of wiggle room). I concede on the fact that Honour and Cultivation arrived together, WoB is proof. That WoB that we can't find about Odium Splintering pairs of Shards that you mentioned doesn't run counter to my point that Odium and Autonomy may be working together on Sel, because even if he's doing that, it fits with his MO of attacking multiple Shards. I don't know the reason why Odium thought he could do H&C by himself, but he was clearly wrong. He could have learned from his mistake before going after Harmony (on the Odium tag, you'll also see a few "Odium is aware of and very scared of Harmony" WoBs as well; why would he go up against someone he's afraid of alone? Thanks for clearing up the timeline issue of WoK history there. Odium was still stuck there before he could prevent Harmony from happening though.

Sure, if you want to make it with your reply and link to this thread? I'll re-post the WoBs I found on there if you like as well.

So, we're getting off topic fast, so I put some WoBs I found on Odium and the discussion we were talking about in spoilers for those who are interested. Apologies on the tangent

Very good point about hit trying to take on Honour and Cultivation on his own, but I suppose it's possible he just went after one of them alone before the other joined in the fray. I don't know if we're explicitly told that Honour and Cultivation arrived at the same time, one of them could have stepped in to help the other against Odium. Not saying that I think that's what happened, jut one possibility I thought of while reading your response. Do you have a confirmation that Odium was specifically targeting planets with two Shards? I hadn't seen that before, but your reasoning makes sense, if he was trying to prevent them from combining. Also a little ironic that, in splintering Devotion and Dominion, he did combine them (though admittedly in a way that's harmless to him). Also, I agree that it's not likely Odium fled one threat to target another, but if you look at it like this: Odium, once finally free of his trap, wanting to get away before he's trapped again. Or maybe he realized he couldn't take this threat on by himself, and said "Look, Autonomy, I need some help over here," and Autonomy replied, "Okay but only if you help me kill Harmony first." Again, I'm just thinking up some possibilities, I don't necessarily agree with those few. I do, however, think it's very likely that Odium and Autonomy have worked together in the past, and are now. I just don't think a small, unsubstantial piece of Ruin could be a very big threat to someone who carries two Shards. That, and the fact that the kandra don't recognize the metal, which means it's not Atium and it's probably not ettmetal. And no matter how easy it sounds, the fact is that Autonomy is interfering in someone's planet, and that something is interfering on Scadrial. Maybe it is easy, but maybe it's supposed to be easy. It could very well be Autonomy by herself if Odium isn't going to leave the Rosharan system, but we just have a lot of evidence that at least brings the possibility of Odium into the picture that it's not something I want to dismiss. Also, if Odium does ditch Roshar, it wouldn't be the first time he's done something similar. Recall that he initially clashed with and wounded Ambition, then left to kill Devotion and Dominion, then went back to finish the job. He already Splintered Honour, and that got him stuck on Braize for 4500 years. Maybe it's time for a regroup with his only ally.

Problem is, Harmony says he doesn't know what it is. The reason Autonomy makes so much sense is in light of an AU spoiler: And because Paalm's behavior in Shadows of Self would match the Intent of Autonomy. That said. I'm on the Odium/Autonomy team, and I have a few reasons for this. 1. Hoid mentions his beef with "Bavadin and Rayse" in the same breath in the letters. 2. A theory of mine that I bring up whenever it's relevant is that Odium and Autonomy could have worked together before, in Splintering Devotion and Dominion. It makes sense for me because Devotion is a good candidate for Odium's opposite (remember the WoB that said they aren't all perfect matches like Preservation and Ruin) making a hate/love pair, and Autonomy is almost certainly the opposite of Dominion. Odium would be hard-pressed to Splinter two Shards on his own I think, so it makes sense that he would recruit the opposite of the other Shard on Sel to help him. Remember Odium's hit list: Ambition, Devotion and Dominion, then Honour, then everyone else. Devotion and Dominion make sense because one is his opposite and the other could rival him. 3. Odium is very scared of Harmony, because he holds two Shards (this also lends credence to my theory that he wouldn't be able to Splinter Devotion and Dominion on his own). The problem is, Odium is currently stuck in the Greater Roshar system. BUT, Brandon has said that the Era 2 of Mistborn happens after Stormlight 5 because of "Cosmere events that need to happen." In conclusion, Odium may have, by the end of Stormlight 5, escaped the Roshar system, not wanting to stick around once he's free to risk his defeat, and contacted his old ally Bavadin, who suddenly switched he position of lockdown to go meddle with a common threat, Harmony.

@The One Who Connects @Dunkum I honestly don't remember a source for that, perhaps my mind is making it up, but I think it comes from Shallan's realization that the Plains are symmetrical/when she makes all those connections in the storm at the end. I'll go read through the passage and see if I can find anything. Also, on the other cities that you said aren't Shattered, aren't all the cities the cities Kabsal mentions Oathgate cities? I'm not sure if they're all confirmed, but it seems likely that they all would be, and the symmetricality of all those cities would only have the Oathgate in common. Now, why they aren't all broken, I can't say. Edit: found a quote. Words of Radiance, kindle edition, page 847 This quote is when Shallan and Kaladin were in the chasms, mapping them out. Shallan seems convinced that the Plains being symmetrical had something to do with Cymatics. I don't know for sure if it is the Oathgate, but that's what's at the center. So, her theory seems to be that it was Cymatics causing earthquakes, which turned the stone into sand, which was in turn washed away by the storms. Perhaps the reason the Plains are more shattered than other Oathgate locations has to do with it being closer to the Origin?

So, Brandon has said that with Wax, his powers are becoming one to him. You see him become very skilled at Pushing, as well as increasing/decreasing his weight. I imagine he even does it without thinking (or narrating) sometimes, and only the times he really thinks about it get put in the text. Even though Brandon may be changing savantism a little bit, I'd still say Wax is a steel Savant. A couple things that support this: The steel bubble of his. He can Push all around him enough to not throw him off balance, and not Push any metal on him. We haven't seen Zane (a Mistborn with a spike that seals extra steel power) do that, nor Kelsier, who is described as a master of Pushing and Pulling. I saw a theory I really liked about Wayne's Resonance recently, that it might be some form of immortality. His powers are gold healing, and speeding up time in a bubble around him, and the two of those together kind of smack of immortality. I also think it's been foreshadowed a little bit with his very kandra-like tendencies to mimic and method act (though Brandon has confirmed that they are natural), and with MeLaan saying "You are wasted as a human" and such. Honestly, I do ship them a bit, and I think that them getting into Worldhopping mischief is great idea. But that's besides the point.

Actually, the crem covered buildings that we saw in WoR were part of Stormseat, which was a much smaller city in the centre of the Shattered Plains. It would have to be a ridiculously huge city to span the entire plains. The Plains were shattered by the cymatics that @Pagerunner was talking about, which were most likely caused by the Oathgate at Stormseat. Whenever the Oathgate is activated, it causes vibrations that reverberate throughout the plains, which gives them their symmetrical pattern (This might be related to why the other Oathgates are now locked). Combine that with years of erosion from storms and crem build-up, and you have the plateaus. On the original subject, I will echo others in saying that it is likely unrelated to the chasm that broke the aons. The Shattered Plains is a natural occurrence of the Oathgates, and the Chasm in Elantris was probably a purposeful attack by Jaddeth, or perhaps interference by the Dor, or maybe Hoid (as he was in the area at the time too). After all, as others have said, Devotion and Dominion being Splintered happened millennia ago, and the chasm was recent (Though Elantris was years ago compared to Way of Kings as well).

And there's her relationship with Marsh as well. He seemed perfectly okay to give her a book full of secrets. It might be Wax that's Harmony's favourite, but that doesn't mean Marasi won't have her own stories.

Since Kelsier is functionally immortal as a Sliver and a Fullborn with spikes, I could see this happening. We know that Hoid will be one of the main characters/protagonists in the Mistborn Space Opera books, and who do we know that Hoid doesn't like? Kelsier. I could totally see him being, if not the villain, at least an antagonist. In another story, Kelsier would have been a villain. Good thing he fixed his hatred on the evil overlord.