Local Authors > Brandon Sanderson
Cosmere Discussion ***SPOILERS for ALL books***
Pechvarry:
--- Quote from: SmokinEmber on September 14, 2010, 02:44:25 AM ---(good stuff)
--- End quote ---
Thanks a bunch! Now I feel a bit silly for not posting my questions in that "I'm new" thread. But now that I have my own... more questions!
Ruin and Preservation apparently created humanity on Scadriel. How can that be? Those shards are held by humans, which creates a paradox. Furthermore, the other planets have humans.
On a related note, the other (known) planets have a normal cycle of life and death, a la Earth-as-we-know-it. How can this be, when Ruin/Preservation are responsible for the circle of life?
My only possible explanation would be that Adonalsium created all the other worlds we've seen before the shattering, while Ruin and Preservation were still simply 2 aspects of a greater whole. That would make Scadriel a "second generation planet". Another feasible explanation: all the planets have or had 2 opposite but paired shards, representing multiple ways of reaching the same conclusion. e.g. Endowment plus something like Acquisition work together to describe the process by which nutrients of dead life forms feed and become part of what is living.
Anyway, can anyone clear up this confusion?
Fireborn:
We know that Ruin and Preservation couldn't create by themselves due to the nature of their Shards, whether that holds true for the other Shards remains to be seen.
Hoid, and the theory is the Shardholders too, was there at the shattering of Adonalsium, meaning that there were other planets with humans on them. The Shards are simply using a template they know works.
Ari54:
Shards don't always come in pairs. For instance, Roshar had 3 shards, (2 now that the Almighty is dead) and as far as we know Warbreaker features only Endowment.
Wolpertinger:
--- Quote from: Pechvarry on September 14, 2010, 05:56:43 AM ---Ruin and Preservation apparently created humanity on Scadriel. How can that be? Those shards are held by humans, which creates a paradox. Furthermore, the other planets have humans.
On a related note, the other (known) planets have a normal cycle of life and death, a la Earth-as-we-know-it. How can this be, when Ruin/Preservation are responsible for the circle of life?
My only possible explanation would be that Adonalsium created all the other worlds we've seen before the shattering, while Ruin and Preservation were still simply 2 aspects of a greater whole. That would make Scadriel a "second generation planet". Another feasible explanation: all the planets have or had 2 opposite but paired shards, representing multiple ways of reaching the same conclusion. e.g. Endowment plus something like Acquisition work together to describe the process by which nutrients of dead life forms feed and become part of what is living.
Anyway, can anyone clear up this confusion?
--- End quote ---
As far as I can tell, you're spot on -- Ruin and Preservation created a 'second generation' planet of humans. Presumably, they created said humans to be identical, or as close to identical as possible, to the humans that they used to be.
I'd guess that Adonalsium(sp?) created humans at some point, possibly on only one world, possibly on many.
After he shattered into tiny pieces, the newly godlike Shards scattered across the universe, either because the shattering of Adonalsium destroyed whatever world they all mutually originated on in the process, or through mutual agreement (spoken or unspoken) insofar in that they all wanted to go out and be gods instead of kill each other off before they had really 'figured out' their godliness and could fight from a position of strength (and their shards hadn't influenced their inner natures yet, so you wouldn't have ruin/preservation at each other's throats or similar opposite pairings), some combination of the two, or something of the nature of the originating world itself, perhaps.
From there, it's possible that the Shards, depending on their natures, created new humans, with their power alone or with the aid of other shards, or had humans 'colonise' from other worlds (possibly including the original). This would make especial sense if the 'original' human population was wiped out by the Shattering or possibly by a war of 16 new gods immediately after said shattering. Gods don't like to be without worshippers, and even those who don't care for worship would like to have a humanity to protect or guide or preserve.. or torment or destroy (Ruin would be an empty power without a Preservation to overcome and tear down - he needs something to create so he can destroy).
Pechvarry:
That makes a lot of sense about them making their own humans that are based off what they know (and were) as opposed to inventing humans fresh.
Though I was still led to believe through the Mistborn trilogy that Ruin and Preservation were responsible for the circle of life of the planet. In a very mythology-like "and that's why this happens" sort of way, I thought things were born and lived because of Preservation and decayed and withered due to Ruin's touch, with the certain knowledge that without Ruin, Preservation would eventually become self-defeating. If this is true, it means the other worlds need a reason to have a cohesive physics structure.
--- Quote from: Ari54 on September 14, 2010, 09:33:21 AM ---Shards don't always come in pairs. For instance, Roshar had 3 shards, (2 now that the Almighty is dead) and as far as we know Warbreaker features only Endowment.
--- End quote ---
While I'm going to readily embrace what we know (what you said above) as the easiest and most straightforward solution, I'm not going to discount the possibility that we don't know everything. For example, 2 could've been responsible for establishing Roshar, and then Odium could've swooped in and said "I want this one!" Likewise, Endowment could have a counterpart whose simply been absent for one reason or another since the founding of the Warbreaker planet (I can never remember the name!). Of course, if Endowment had a counterpart, it would likely be something that gives nothing -- not even destruction. So perhaps it simply has no magic system to share or even influence on the land -- a dud shard.
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