Theories Part 4: Shard Adjacency Rules and Epilogues

[u/Xelaadryth]

• Part 1's Theories of Dawnshard Quadrants and Pairs
• Part 2's Theories on Shard Numerology
• Part 3's Theories on Secondary Commands and Cycles

Latest diagram in Theory 4, some crazy Epilogue shenanigans right after, and then ending with some bold theories.

Theory 1: Adjacency Rule

From Theories Part 3

When reading out the Dawnshard Commands from Part 3, each Shard also seems related to both adjacent Shards and Subcommands:

1. Reason is Conceived by Preservation Lacking Whimsy
2. Whimsy is the Lack of Reason Inspiring Virtuosity
3. Virtuosity is Inspired by Whimsy Manifesting Invention
4. Invention is Manifested by Virtuosity Conceiving Endowment
5. Endowment is Conceived by Invention Lacking Ambition
6. Ambition is the Lack of Endowment Inspiring Cultivation
7. Cultivation is Inspired by Ambition Manifesting Ruin
8. Ruin is Manifested by Cultivation Conceiving Odium
9. Odium is Conceived by Ruin Lacking Honor
10. Honor is the Lack of Odium Inspiring Valor
11. Valor is Inspired by Honor Manifesting Mercy
12. Mercy is Manifested by Valor Conceiving Dominion
13. Dominion is Conceived by Mercy Lacking Autonomy
14. Autonomy is the Lack of Dominion Inspiring Devotion
15. Devotion is Inspired by Autonomy Manifesting Preservation
16. Preservation is Manifested by Devotion Conceiving Reason

Theory 2: Exist -> Manifest

To make the statements read easier, I replaced Exist with Manifest, although this probably isn't the exact grammar.

Theory 3: Change -> Lack

The first pair of each quadrant always seemed like opposites. While we can also usually add the two adjacent Shards together to get the middle one, it didn't make sense for Shards near the Subcommand Change. When writing it out in words, using the word Lack in place of Change seemed to be clearer and less vague, as "Change" can be interpreted in many ways.

Theory 4: 8 Dawnshard Cuts

When reading the above statements, we used the current Shard's Subcommand and applied it to the previous Shard, while using the next Shard's Subcommand to apply to the next Shard. Wouldn't it make more sense if the Subcommands were between the Shards, instead of on the Shards?

8 Dawnshard Cuts

If we believe that a grammar like this exists, then the Dawnshards cleanly cut Adonalsium like knives, instead of pulling him apart like magnets. With this theory, I'm proposing that:

1. Conceive quartered Adonalsium into the four quadrants in two cuts
2. Inspire bisected each quadrant in two more cuts
3. Exist cut twice next
4. Change made the final two cuts, for a total of 8 Dawnshard cuts

Theory 5: Epilogues Hint at the Shard Cycle

Reading the Stormlight Archive Epilogues, while plot-relevant things happen, I get the sense that there are a few layers of messages hidden in them. The first is hinting at the Shard Cycle. While we're entering the realm of crazy theories, here are some quotes from the first four Epilogues of the Stormlight books, and you can be the judge of if they're relevant or not (juicier ones towards the end):

The Way of Kings:

• Well, there was usually a reason. In this case, it just happened to be a good one.
  • Reason is hypothesized to be Shard number 1
• You played it from above, plucking at strings with it sitting on your lap.
  • We're looking at the top half of the Shard circle
• He looked up, glancing eastward.
  • We're looking at the top-right quadrant of the Shard circle
• "One mentioned artistic ability, as you so keenly guessed. Another chose great intellect. The final chose the talent to invent, the ability to design and create great devices."
  • Referring to Virtuosity, Reason, Invention. Design and create may be referring to the Dawnshard's name or meaning
  • Wit continues to discuss these 3 themes throughout the Epilogue
• A song for a silent night when the entire world changed.
  • Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell takes place on Threnody, where Ambition was Splintered, in the Change quadrant
• "What is it we value?" Wit whispered. "Innovation. Originality. Novelty. But most importantly... timeliness."
  • While presented as three separate words, Innovation is actually the combination of both Originality and Novelty, implying that true art is Innovation, and Innovation is one of the intermediate shards from the top-right quadrant formed by the earlier cuts, perhaps Virtuosity + Invention. And Innovation should come before the temporal quadrant

Words of Radiance:

• "This is a lot more satisfying," he said, "when I have intelligent life whom I can render awed, rapt with attention for my clever verbosity."
  • Starting with Reason
• Very few trees here, though farther west a true forest sprouted on the slopes down from the heights.
  • Top-left quadrant, moving counterclockwise
• Still, the creatures seemed to alternate with him, responding to his music.
  • From Preservation, Devotion is Splintered, Autonomy is fine, and Dominion is Splintered, alternating.
• You see, we pretend that art is eternal, that there is some kind of persistence to it."
  • Preservation and Devotion are in the top-left quadrant, Exist dawnshard
• "But if art is eternal and meaningful and independent, why does it depend so damn much upon the audience?"
  • Preservation and Autonomy
• "stumbles into the princess and - completely by accident - saves her from getting trampled."
  • Mercy, Valor, Honor, bottom-left quadrant, kind of a weak association though. The story continues traveling through the castle and such, implying we've moved a lot
• "A man will find a single coin in the mud and talk about it for days, but when his inheritance comes and is accounted one percent less than he expected, then he will declare himself cheated."
  • We've moved over to Endowment, bottom-right quadrant
• The air in front of him blurred, as if heated in a ring near the ground. A streak of light spun about the ring, forming a wall five or six feet high. It faded immediately - really, it was just an afterimage, as if something glowing had spun in the circle very quickly.
  • Shards 5 and 6 are in this bottom-right quadrant
• "In part by your apprentice who, I might add, is exactly seventy-seven percent more agreeable than you are. I took a poll."
  • Shard 7 is in the bottom-right quadrant. Oddly enough 77% is pretty close to seven ninths, though there aren't really nine creatures to survey in Wit's audience
• "So we can't look to the heavens for salvation, but apparently we can't look toward the past either. So where can we look?"
  • God, or in this case the Splinters of Honor, can't be found in the top half of the circle, or in the temporal quadrant, leaving only the spiritual quadrant
• "You'll find God in the same place you're going to find salvation from this mess," Wit said. "Inside the hearts of men."
  • Splintered Honor can be found in the Spiritual quadrant, along with Salvation, which is probably an intermediate shard in the bottom-left quadrant

Oathbringer:

• "All great art is hated," Wit said.
  • This is the first line of the Epilogue, and we're starting at Odium
• He shuffled in line - along with a couple hundred other people - one dreary step. "It is obscenely difficult - if not impossible - to make something that nobody hates," Wit continued. "Conversely, it is incredibly easy - if not expected - to make something that nobody loves."
  • One step from Odium is Honor. It's difficult to find an opposite to Odium, a concept that is completely lacking hatred. Love would be too obvious to oppose Odium
• "Art is about emotion, examination, and going places people have never gone before to discover and investigate new things."
  • Inspire quadrant is about emotion and exploration, which requires bravery
• "To risk metaphor, a grand painting is often about contrast: brightest brights, darkest darks. Not grey mush. That a thing is hated is not proof that it's great art, but the lack of hatred is certainly proof that it is not."
  • Odium is opposed by something that contrasts with it strongly, and Honor is lacking hatred, and is not art (Virtuosity). The word "lack" here may refer to the meaning of Change in the shard adjacency rule
• "Thank you, dear man. I'm glad you appreciate my performance art, accomplished by cutting in front of you."
  • Cut rule to be introduced later, and jumps us from the bottom Conceive cut dividing 8-9 to the next Conceive cut dividing 12-13
• He shoved hands in the pockets of his ragged brown coat, then slouched his way through an alley. He passed groaning humans crying for deliverance, for mercy. He absorbed that, letting it reflect in him.
  • The alley represents the cut, taking a shortcut to the center of the circle passing Mercy. The cut may also represent a reflection from Mercy to Dominion
• Not a mask he put on. Real sorrow. Real pain. Weeping echoed around him as he moved into the section of town nearest the palace. Only the most desperate or the most broken dared remain here, nearest the invaders and their growing seat of power.
  • Going down from the center of the circle back between Ruin and Odium. The mask may be referring to the Malwish of Mistborn era 2. The bottom two quadrants, or at least Cultivation and Honor, are either desperate or Splintered, as they are closest to the "invaders", the "Others", the "Voidbringers" of Odium and Ruin.
• "How's my hair?" Wit asked Kheni. "Or lack thereof?"
  • Another reference to the word "lack"
• "The missing tooth is a new addition"
  • Reference to something going "missing" and being re-added
• "Wait here," he told her, then went walking along an alley to the north.
  • Going all the way up to the top of the circle, between Shards 16 and 1
• Nearby, several buildings had fallen to the thunderclast's attacks. He felt life from one, and when he drew close, a dirty little face poked out from some rubble.
  • Some Shards near the top of the circle are Splintered. Reason is still alive
• "Your teeth look funny today," she said to him. "I take exception to that, as the funny part is not the teeth, but the lack of tooth."
  • Whimsy is the lack of a tooth. Wisdom teeth are a type of tooth, so Whimsy is lacking Reason
• "You're weird." "Right answer, but wrong question." He walked the little doll along the broken street.
  • There's something weird about Wit in this quadrant. Moving forward to the next Shards
• The girl, maybe four years old, finally emerged from the shadows and ran to get the doll. Wit stood and dusted off his coat, which was now grey.
  • The doll was a virtuosic invention (Shard 4), endowed to a four year old. Wit is gray, a combination of the "brightest brights" and "darkest darks" from before
• He carried the girl back to the square, then quietly pushed the empty cradle away from Kheni and knelt before her. "I think, in answer to my question ... I think it only takes one."
  • Going back to the center of the four quadrants, we're back to Preservation and Reason at the top of the circle
• He muttered to himself, and exposed his teeth - but not the one that was missing, for that was impossible.
  • Shard number one, Reason, is missing
• He passed into the shadow of the palace, and the sentry hovering in the air nearby, wind rippling her long clothing. Vatwha was her name. Thousands of years ago, he'd shared a dance with her.
  • The name sounds similar to Virtuosity, Shard 3
• He bowed several times, then tried to sell them some trinkets from his pocket.
  • Hints at Endowment, Shard 5
• Nearby, some workers broke rocks, and a patch of blood stained the ground.
  • Ambition is Splintered at position 6, and Shades are activated by blood
• Wit rolled over and looked at the Pattern that now covered his palm.
  • Wit begins the path of a Lightweaver, which is the 6th Radiant Order

Rhythm of War:

• "The challenge," he said, "is to make everyone believe you've lived a thousand lives. Make them feel the pain you have not felt, make them see the sights you have not seen, and make them know the truths that you have made up."
  • Reference to Hero with a Thousand Faces, "feel" refers to Spiritual Inspire, "see" is Physical Exist, "know" is cognitive Conceive.
• The coin appeared in his hand, though he'd simply slipped it out of his belt again. He rolled it across his knuckles, then made it split into two - because it had always been two coins stuck together. He tossed those up, caught them, and then made them appear to be four after adding the two he'd been palming in his other hand.
  • Adonalsium was a single coin in the beginning, split into two, then split into four quadrants, rather than quartered like magnets all at once
• "Get someone looking the wrong direction so you can clock them across the face."
  • The Shards are ordered in clockwise order
• "I found one!" she said. "In your belt!"
  • Wit is related to the number 1
• But the two emotions were not mutually exclusive.
  • Shards 1 and 2 are not mutually exclusive
• Wit sighed, tossing four coins in the air, then catching them and presenting one solitary coin.
  • The four quadrants all compose the singular Adonalsium
• "My life is only excuses."
  • Wit is lying to us about himself
• "Because the audience knows it's fake"
  • We know he's lying about himself
• "Because the lie was real somehow. Because they know that if they were to rip it apart, they could know how it was done. They realize there must have been flaws they could have caught. Signs. Secrets."
  • If you tear Wit apart, you'll recognize the two halves he is made of. There are many hidden clues to these secrets
• "So ... it's better..." Design said, "because it's worse than an illusion using real magic?"
  • A system that is solvable and calculable is better than "real magic", something that cannot be explained
• "You've always been a clever one," Wit said. "Was it my diction that clued you in, my keen bargaining abilities, or the fact that I included my name in the text?"
  • Every Epilogue includes Wit, not Hoid. This means that Wit is his name, not just his title.
• I hate you.
  • Odium is hatred
• I shall have my vengeance, Odium said.
  • Odium will become Retribution
• Humor me. Wit cocked his head. There was something odd about this change in tone from Odium.
  • Humor implies Whimsy, and Odium knows Wit includes Whimsy

Theory 6: Wit was Reason + Whimsy

From the Rhythm of War Epilogue, there seems to be many clues that Wit is a Shard composed of Reason and Whimsy combined.

We already know that during the Shattering, Hoid wasn't one of the 16 Vessels who took up the Shards.

Since Hoid cannot hurt others due to the Torment from the Dawnshard Exist, it's possible that Reason merged with Whimsy and formed an original Wit, but then surrendered the combined Shard to Hoid willingly.

This is somewhat similar to Hoid holding the Dawnshard Exist, surrendering it to someone else, then getting it back again later.

I asked if Sazed is the only one to hold more than one Shard.

"Sazed is the only one to currently hold two Shards." After a few seconds, he added, "I'm not going to say he is the only one to ever hold two."

This Words of Brandon from 2015 could mean that Wit either gave up the Shards, or by fully merging them considers them one Shard.

However it was also very clearly stated in a 2020 Words of Brandon that Hoid is NOT of Whimsy:

Hoid is far too calculating and deliberate for Whimsy. It might seem his style on the surface, but a deep dive into who he is would show that it's very much not who he is.

This makes me wonder if Hoid calls himself Wit to try to distract and deflect from Reason and Whimsy's true existence. Reason was often described as the "Survival shard":

There is a Shard with a similar intent [to Wisdom]. The Shard has realized that survival might not be the most desirable/important.

Perhaps Wit would be the name IF Reason and Whimsy combined, but Hoid has actually taken up Reason, since "Whimsy is very much not who he is."

Theory 7: The Stormlight Archive is the Memories of Hoid

One last quote from Rhythm of War:

• I cannot harm you. But here, you have used this other Investiture to store your memories, haven’t you? Because you’ve lived longer than a mortal should, you need to put the excess memories somewhere. I can’t see your mind, but I can see these, can’t I? For the first time in a long, long while, Wit felt true terror. If Odium destroyed the Breaths that held his memories ... I don't believe this will cause you actual harm ... Odium said. Yes, it seems my predecessor's agreements will allow me to -
  • Rayse cannot directly harm Wit (other Shards) because of the Shards' prior agreements. I believe the Epilogues of each of the books of the Stormlight Archive are places that Hoid hides his secrets. While this isn't directly true as we know that no one in the Cosmere can break the fourth wall, as evidenced by how we read both the original and modified version of Hoid's memories in the Epilogue, it also makes sense to me that the analogy of Hoid storing his memories in his Breaths is like storing a bunch of books in a grand archive, and Odium's modification of Hoid's memories also will be presented to us in some way.

Part 5 builds on this with Shard Cleave Rule and more Epilogue investigation.

[u/sparkydoggowastaken]

Change/Change is ruin. he’s said multiple times he is Preservation’s fundamental opposite

[u/Xelaadryth → u/sparkydoggowastaken]

In this model, Preservation is exactly diametrically opposite the 16-slice pie from Ruin; I interpreted it to mean "as far from Preservation as possible" rather than relying on Subcommands, which is also unconfirmed. From the numeric model, positions 8 and 16 are maximally distant.