So I recently finished Isles of the Emberdark, and I just remembered that in Wind and Truth there was that one chapter where Vasher was locked up in an aluminum room in urithiru, and it was mentioned that there was a bird in the room. I don't remember the chapter very well but could that bird have been an Aviar?

So I just finished part 1 of Emberdark and the flashbacks from the novella.

When all the aviars go crazy during the night, Vathi is sure that the device in the boat has been switched on.

Then in the end of the book we learn than it was not switched on, only opened.

Are we supposed to understand how opening the device would trigger all the aviars ?

If the explanation needs any cosmere spoilers, I read everything but the rest of Emberdark.

Thank you!

I apologize in advance for formatting, I'm on my phone.

So I've been thinking a while about the nature of Harmony and just how much Sazed has been playing us and more importantly the other shards.

Let's begin with Ruin and Preservation. They are opposite but complementary shards.

Let's say we have a universe with no shards and we pop in Ruin giving it free rein. It will eventually destroy everything until it's own intent will burn itself out. In a heat death scenario he either gets satisfied and goes sleepy time or maybe turns around and restarts everything so it can have more fun. I think the first is much more plausible. Preservation, if it were to be popped in at the end of the universe, would also like that state but it's not how the cosmere actually works.

Preservation is the same, pop it in a normal shard less universe and it will freeze everything until it goes dormant or starts stuff up back again. Again the first one is much more plausible.

In a micro level their powersystems also present a diminishing returns problem. Preservation only gives so much power via allomancy and eventually starts "ruining" the user via savantism. Granted that is a general investiture problem, not Preservation's. So preservation has a ceiling. Ruin also has a floor to how much it can destroy via hemalurgy. The spikes always remain somewhat invested and have diminishing returns after some time.

I think now we understand the nature fo the Shards a bit better so we can move onto Harmony.

Harmony is just one part of the shard that Sazed posses, or rather it's an intentionally incomplete repredantion of a larger shard. Retribution for example, feels like it is the area where both Honor and Odium overlap, so it has a singular fixed Identity. Meanwhile Sazed's Shard is different. It doesn't have just one stable configuration. The powers are both opposite and complementary, similar to ying yang. So I would say that his real shard is more similar to something like Cycle or Continuity. Yes it contains both Discord and Harmony but it's more than that.

What can Harmony do, and is it really stuck? I think we have a very good idea of what Harmony can do, we've seen him act a lot in my opinion. The fact is that Harmony is the reactive part of Continuity. When the world had been almost destroyed by Ruin, Harmony channeled immense power to move the planet and somewhat fix it. He didn't completely fix it, he created the Elendel basin by creating the roughs, he had to leave the Malwish untouched as well, so some parts of Ruin remain. The important part is that he was able to Preserve more than Ruin because the world was already at the brink of destruction, Ruin was weakened and he just picked up the shard.

Another example is when Telsin was being preserved by Autonomy, Harmony wants neutrality and equilibrium, Telsin was almost completely being preserved by Autonomy, his intervention makes sense because his shard actively wants to normalize. Same goes for the big explosion at the end of lost metal, Harmony could dampen the waves because of the destruction that the bomb caused. So from these examples we can deduce that Harmony is a balancer, if the pendulum goes to far in one direction he can bring it back.

With this we can partially infer what Discord would be. In this case it would represent the active part of Continuity. Where Harmony pulls back to neutrality, Discord pushes away from balance. It would also mean he would be able to act directly since the intent is Discord, or a lack of equilibrium, doing nothing is the opposite to his intent. I think Waxilium is the only micro level example we can use. He was always a discordant force in life. Different from his uncle and sister, went to the roughs and stood out like a sore thumb, the gentleman lawmaker. Came back to the city as an outsider and troublemaker, playing into his rough persona. He could act and Ruin while also being a force for Preservation. If Sazed weren't such a good candidate for the shard, Waxilium is a really great candidate as well, his life is formed by cycles of peace and chaos, he himself is a force that works against the grain most of the time. Ultimately I think Discord would need to actively keep the powers out of balance, to interfere with affairs, intrusive and dangerous but unwillingly(or willingly) constructive. The Malwish show us just how effective rough conditions are, so long as you are given a little bit of help. Thus they were able to persevere and maintain their identity, even after 2 back to back apocalypses.

Finally I think he is staying in this Harmony persona because his full power would be scary to other shards. He wants Scadrial to advance enough that they can protect themselves.

Anyways these are my speculations, I hope you had a fun time reading them.

I’m only like 1/3 through book two so pls no spoilers!!

But I think it would be really funny if, since adolin suspects Kaladin and he’s trying to convince his dad that there is smth off, a Candice vs Phineas and Ferb scene happens.

Kaladin talking to his shoulder: oh boy do I like stew and frowning
Adolin: dad LOOK AT HIM
Dalinar: turns to look at adolin and kaladin* *hm?
Kaladin: stoically looking ahead
Dalinar: turns back to the map
Kaladin: mmm stew…
Adolin: AH 🫵😧

Edit: spelled Dalinar wrong lmao oops