Wait, Adonalsium was a cop?
Hello Internet! My name is Steve; welcome to RAFO!
In last week's Realmatic Theory video I talked about how travel to Sel through
the Cognitive Realm: bad idea. "You'll encounter a giant raging plasma storm
called "the Dor" that will just tear you to shreds."
So what exactly is the Dor?
To explain that we need to go way back in the history of the Cosmere. So here is
The Genesis of the Cosmere: Chapter 1.
In the beginning there was Adonalsium.
And Adonalsium was God. Or at least a god. Or at least the power of a God. And it came to
pass that Adonalsium was shattered and, verily, 16 people took up these shards
and became gods in their own right. Yea, that is not to say that they were the
same, for each shard had its own intent.
(Sped up) But rather, each shard was equal in capacity.
Whether to build, or destroy; purify or corrupt, harm or heal.
These shards, for truly, the bearers were, in a sense, no more,
(Faster) spread throughout the Cosmere, and patterned off their own world, humanity sprang in their wake.
The Investiture of Adonalsium permeated the Realms Three: Cognitive, Spiritual, and Physical,
and these shards had power in each... blah blah blah...
Even knowing all of that, the weird complex history of it, it can still be
really confusing understanding what exactly a shard is. Shards are gods, even
though they're not gods, because they ate a god?
How do you break a god? Why are they all different?
In order to give you a better understanding of this, I give you: The Cop Car Analogy.
Once upon a time,
a group of people were walking down a country road and they came across a cop car.
Whether this car was in an accident or had just fallen off the back of a truck, we don't
know, but it was there nonetheless. Being industrious and enterprising individuals,
and recognising the need for the various responsibilities of law enforcement to
be fulfilled, they each took a piece of equipment from this cop car. One person
took a badge; one person took a first-aid kit; one took a gun; one took a spotlight,
etc. etc.; until everyone had an item and the cop car was empty. Returning to their
various towns and living places, each person now had an element of "policial"
authority. Just as the old saying says if all you have is a hammer everything is a
nail, so these people would naturally look for ways to use the thing that they
had gotten. The person with the first aid kit would look for people who needed
band-aids, the guy with the radar gun would set up speed traps, and the person
with the riot shield wouldn't stop telling their friends to throw things at
them. So while these people weren't individually officers of the law, they
each had a portion of the authority and capabilities of one. Just as each shard
has a piece of divine power and an aspect of divine personality. There's a
total of 16. We know 11-ish. Devotion - Aona - and Dominion - Skai - are on the planet Sel.
Ruin - Ati, Preservation - Leras - on Scadrial. Endowment - Edgli - on Nalthis.
Honor - Tanavast, Cultivation, and Odium - Rayse - in the Rosharan system.
Autonomy - Bavadin - on Taldain and Ambition - Uli Da - on Threnody. We know of one more
that just wants to survive. So if Adonalsium was a cop, Odium got the police
brutality part. Divine hatred without any other virtue to temper it, and he wasn't
a good person anyway. Soon after the shattering, Adium followed Ambition to
the Threnody system. Because if you want to become the number one big bad, your
main rival is going to be the person who also wants to be number one by nature.
They fought in the space between worlds in the Threnodite system and chunks
of Ambition's power were torn off and they landed on, at least, Threnody,
potentially creating "the Evil." Ambition then ran away mortally wounded and died
and was splintered somewhere else. Now, quick note: just as Adonalsium was
shattered, shards of Adonalsium can be splintered. In some cases this creates
smaller, self-aware entities of power, or it could be just a diffusion of power
without any mind that can control it. Now back to bad cop.
"But we are not done yet."
After dispatching rival number one, Odiumwent for rival number two: Dominion on Sel.
Who'd be more dangerous to him than a person who wants to control everything?
And as a lucky two-fer, Devotion was on Sel as well!
"Double Kill!"
We don't know exactly how
but Odium splintered Devotion and Dominion and trapped their power in the
Cognitive Realm, and that became what's known as the Dor: this mindless,
disembodied power that will vaporize anyone who wants to touch it. Now, what
happened on Sel is unique. Typically most of a shard's power lies in the
Spiritual Realm. Personal theory: I think Odium kept Dominion and Devotions' power
in the Cognitive Realm so they wouldn't be attached to the spirit web of the
shard anymore and so they'd be a lot more difficult to take up. Anyway...
Then he headed to Roshar, slowly strangling the shard of Honor until
Honor too was splintered. However, in the greater Rosharan system, Odium was bound
to a different planet - Braize - by the Oathpact. Or at least the Oathpact was part
of it. So not only are there four shards that have been splintered that we know
of, there's also a few other weird shardic things that have happened in the
Cosmere. Shardic anomalies, if you will. That includes what's happened on Scadrial,
where Ruin and Preservation now live in Harmony; as well as Autonomy, who
is on Taldain, who has at least one avatar on another planet. Not the full shard but
just part of it. That's the Isle of Patji on First of the Sun. Yeah, remember that
"Conflicting WoBs about Patji" post on Reddit that just created this huge
controversy? Yeah, that was mine. Heee!!!
So again, we know roughly eleven out of
sixteen. You may also have heard of the 17th shard, which is first mentioned in
the Way of Kings. The 17th shard isn't actually a shard of Adonalsium, but
it's an organization of world hoppers dedicated to the keeping of those shards
separate. It's also the name of Brandon's official fan forum. A lot of
the information I get for these videos is actually taken from the discussions
that happen on the 17th Shard, so if you want bite-sized versions of what's
happening on that forum please subscribe to my channel so you're notified for my
videos. If you'd rather go down any number of rabbit holes relating to
thousands of potential Cosmere theories, head on over to the 17th Shard so you can
Read And Find Out.