bookofavarice

[bookofavarice]

[bookofavarice]

Transfems read this thread

[bookofavarice]

End of the Prelude:

End of the Postlude:

😭

[bookofavarice]

Shardic Opposite-pairs – Cosmere Theory

It's been said that some of the Shards have opposite Intents (Preservation and Ruin). The obvious question is how inherent is this to the system? Given the symmetry of the original 16, do all of the Shards fit into 8 opposite-pairs?

As of Wind & Truth, we know the names of all 16, so I'm going to try to pair up each and see how they fit. (Cosmere spoilers below)

(Our pool: Devotion, Dominion, Preservation, Ruin, Odium, Cultivation, Honor, Endowment, Autonomy, Ambition, Invention, Mercy, Valor, Whimsy, Virtuosity, Reason)

Preservation/Ruin - This is our canonical example. I don't know that I need to elaborate on their locked conflict on Scadrial and Harmony's difficulty integrating them.

Devotion/Dominion - Khriss describes these two as having "a polarized relationship [...] Forced together as they are, trapped and bursting to escape". Also, the submission/dominance dichotomy seems obvious here.

Cultivation/Endowment - The Nightwatcher is all about fair if esoteric prices for the good she offers, and Cultivation takes that to a deeper level—her deal with Dalinar is about the loss necessary to relief, and the pain necessary to growth. Whereas, Endowment grants godhood freely as she sees fit.

(These first 3 seem pretty clear to me, and they're some of the Shards we know the most about. Those that follow I'm less sure of.)

Odium/Mercy - Odium represents many emotions, but the strongest emotion is hatred, which... I think could be described as a passionate attachment to a wound, lashing out at its perceived source. (That adding Honor's sense of righteousness yields Retribution supports this interpretation.) Mercy is the opposite of that, of Justice classically, letting go of wounds and forgiving. (The two things we know about Mercy canonically are that Harmony was disturbed by discussing Odium with them, and that they were involved in the clash of Odium and Ambition. The former could be Mercy expressing mercy for Rayse himself, but that's not well determined. What happened around Threnody is known to be disturbing, so that's a more obvious interpretation, and this is complicated by knowing that Vessels and Intents don't always align. So, the name is all canon really gives us.)

Autonomy/Honor - (On with my bolder choices.) Harmony says "Autonomy is driven to divide off from the rest of us, go her own way," while Honor's most famous directive is "Unite them." Autonomy's individualism and distinctiveness contrast with Honor's legalism and uniformity. Autonomy avoids constraint while Honor is all about binding people. (This one surprised me, but I think it holds up quite well. Another option was Honor with Whimsy, constraint vs. spontaneity, but I think this split is better, as I'll elaborate later.)

(We know very little about any of the remaining 6 Shards.)

Ambition/Valor - Ruthless self-preservation and accomplishment (Ambition would be mono-black in Magic: the Gathering, Brandon says) vs. selfless defense of others. (Here's a decent place to note my recurring that the saying "Discretion is the better part of Valor" is relevant to Hoid not being able to find her, though she does talk to others, so I don't know if that fully tracks.)

Invention/Virtuosity - My flaw here is that I've not read Yumi & the Nightmare Painter yet, only skimmed Virtuosity's Coppermind article. Still, there seems like a basic opposition here between the creation of new things vs. the mastery of existing arts (Renaissance art's focus on proper perspective, photographic painting, etc. vs. Modern art's focus on surprise and violation of convention).

Whimsy/Reason - Whimsy could well be defined as not doing things for reasons, but following unanalyzed spontaneous impulses. We're told the Shard is not congruous with intense planning or ambitions (per Coppermind, which is an argument for Whimsy/Ambition, but I'm guessing the planning aspect might be more important.) It's also not dignified. Reason, however, seems to be our most dignified and deliberate Shard. It's the Survival Shard, of which Brandon said "The intent is related but only tangentially. Mostly it just knows what's going on and is smart enough to get out of there." This sounds to me like Reason is relevant in that it channels the knowledge of the Vessel to a coherent conclusion that it follows very consistently. Having the discipline to hide from other gods for millennia does seem antithetical to the fun and spontaneity of Whimsy.

So... that fit better than I expected. There's a few other shufflings I could see, and if anyone wants to reblog with their own arrangements I'd be delighted to read your arguments. But it feels just coherent enough that this might actually be Brandon's intention and not only me projecting and forcing patterns to make it more interesting (as my OCD likes to do).

The obvious next question is whether these pairs are part of a more complex structure, analogous to the 16 mundane metals in the Metallic Arts. Each pair would then be like a Push/Pull duality, the 16 should be divisible into 4 quadrants, and so on. I do not know if Brandon planned that far ahead, but... the question of whether each of the four Dawnshards corresponds to a quartet of Shards was RAFO'd, so maybe (Cultivation and Ruin as under Change makes sense, Preservation then under Exist... maybe I should stop here, we only know 2 of the Commands anyway). Again, any thoughts are welcome 😉

[bookofavarice]

transfem Rosharans making study groups together to learn how to read and catch up on the womens education they missed growing up

[bookofavarice]

I'm going to be thinking about Sigzil renouncing his oaths for the next eight hundred years. After Sunlit Man I assumed it was some cataclysmically bad event where he was in a leadership position, or failure of judgment, that pushed him to break his Windrunner oaths, and spent essentially every shattered plains chapter waiting for things to go horribly wrong. After all that only for it to be in protection of Vienta. Giving up his bond, and the sky, and his oaths, protecting someone. The very cornerstone of the windrunner ideals. I'm never going to emotionally recover from this.

[bookofavarice]

🦇 Lord of bats 🦇

[bookofavarice]

It really hurt when Hoid respawned after being vaporized and immediately frantically wanted to go back. He's been such a strange character in these 5 books. I've never been able to unhear him saying he'd let Roshar burn before he let Odium free (presuming that is what he meant), but when push came to shove even he admitted that he didn't know if he could do that. He loves that world. He loves the people on it. He didn't want to return because he thought he actually had a chance at stopping Retribution, he wanted to return because people he loved were there and he didn't want them to suffer alone.

It's only after he realizes that Roshar actually has a genuine chance at winning that he stays where he is. Because Dalinar did something wonderful and frightening and brilliant, and Hoid can use that.

He can do more to help by influencing the other worlds to grow in the ways they need to, and trying to convince the other Shards to listen. And so when he does come back to the place and the people he loves, he will be prepared to help them win.

[bookofavarice]

Navani will wake up from her stasis to see Elhokar, living and breathing in front of her. But it’s not him, it’s Gavinor. It’s her grandson, around the age that his father was when he’d died. “How long had she been gone?” She’ll ask herself. 30 years or so based on Gavinor’s age. So so long. She missed him growing up. He didn’t get to grow up with his parents or his grandparents. But then she’ll get corrected. Someone will have to gently break the news that it’s only been about 10 years. She was right about Gavinor’s childhood and early adulthood, but it’s so so much worse than she thought. Not only did she not get to be there for it, he didn’t get to have a childhood at all. He grew up utterly alone. And Navani will blame herself because she was holding him. He was in her arms as she fled the Spiritual Realm, a memory from less than a day ago in her mind. She had chosen life over death, she left Dalinar behind so Gavinor could be saved. This was her fault. The way the duel played out was her fault because she couldn’t tell the difference between her grandson and a lump of empty flesh.

Then Navani will see Jasnah. Her little girl had needed her, really needed her. The side of their relationship that she longed for had resurfaced in her absence. But Navani had locked herself away and wounds healed without her. Jasnah, Gavinor, and Renarin have only had each other for family. Navani will likely be initially shocked that Renarin has been their emotional core.

She’ll be praised, celebrated when she wakes up. The last Bondsmith will wake up, knowing she’s succeeded in saving Urithiru. A mother will wake up believing she’s a failure.

[bookofavarice]

Master Thaidakar is very disappointed in your results, Iyatil.

(All credit to u/pokedragonboy on reddit for making this!)

[bookofavarice]

Wind and truth spoilers under the break!

Wow I love this book so fucking much, not even just the writing but all the amazing ass art in it too like look at this!!! Djdbdijes!!! So fucking good!!! AND OMG TALN!!! TALN FOUGHT BACK!!! Like my god that chapter id already had the main line spoilt literal hours earlier but reading it was still such a fucking cool and powerful moment, him fighting without his armour, his sword, after being in essentially a comatose state since coming back to roshar after 4000 years of torture and absolutely ripping the heads off of so many fused, and then ash dying as well not letting him be alone again *sobs* after 4000 years, the bearer of agonies fought back, if that's not a line for the historys I don't know what is

ALSO !!! Finally we have confirmation about Shallan being the daughter of Chana :000 I thought this!!! This is such a cool revelation!

AND OMG THATS WHAT IT MEANT BY UNITE THEM IN ALL HIS PAST VISIONS!!!! AND WHY CULTIVATION WANTED HIM TO SEE THE PAST!!! MAYBE THIS IS HOW HE BECOMES WORTHY OF HONOR IF THAT HAPPENS NEXT? IM GONNA KEEP READING!

[bookofavarice]

being self aware suuuucks like yeah this thought pattern/behavior is stupid and pointless and a symptom. i know this. [does it anyways

[bookofavarice]

We! CHOSE!

Adolin pulled free and crossed the stage. He supported Maya, putting her arm across his shoulder to hold her up as he would a wounded soldier. She clung to him, stumbling as she struggled to remain upright. Even as she did, however, she whispered it again. “We chose,” she said, her voice ragged as if she had been shouting for hours. “Adolin, we chose.”

Brandon Sanderson, The Rhythm of War

There haven't been many times in my life when I dropped my book, AND my jaw, at the same time.

Painted in Procreate. For brushes, see my Gumroad! https://jennydolfenart.gumroad.com/

Also, drawing this in the staffroom was a funny experience. Colleague: "WHOA! What's THAT?" - Me: ... ... ... ... ... I really can't explain in less than twenty minutes. ... But that's not a human. ... You might say she's his sword." Colleague: *slowly backing away*

[bookofavarice]

Made a stuffed Axehound toy for my friend’s birthday!

This bad boy is 50 inches from nose to tail and I weighted the tail and each leg for ultimate floppiness

What nobler creature could there be than the shrog (shrimp dog)

Based my pattern off the popular fanart by Marianne Eie:

[bookofavarice]

[bookofavarice]

Fondly reminiscing over the time mumbo hermitcraft jumbo revolutionized slime farming meta by building a slime farm that sucked ass so legendarily that it forced the technical minecraft community to figure out how on god’s cubic earth he even did that

[bookofavarice]