#adonalsium

what did adonalsium do to get like 18 people to decide “yeah let’s kill god that sounds like the best option here”

Cosmere meme I thought of earlier today while using a ruler that said this on it.

From cosmere inktober 2025 prompt list: Spiritual.

Adonalsium on the day of the Shattering.

here are some things i know. can someone tell me if they're correct?

the shards were formed by the shattering of adonalsium, the god who created the cosmere

there are sixteen shards in total, of which one, ie odium, is evil and wants to destroy the others. he has currently killed devotion, dominion, ambition and honor.

the shards are essentially just power, and have three major components: vessel: the human which controls and houses the power intent: the power itself mind: the will of the power

Later

Actually coping half-decently with immortality.

When compared to the known Shards/Heralds (Wind and Truth spoilers) (not counting Sazed/Marsh/Kelsier because they're comparatively young) either the powers they gain corrupt them slowly, or the pain they endure because of the powers that wield wears them down.

Ati was the kindliest of them all. Ruin corrupts him. Even Tanner turned into someone he didn't recognize, and he was wielding storming Honor. If the embodiment of doing right by others is corrupted by their powers into doing things that are morally wrong, what's left? Cultivation and Preservation manage fine by all accounts, but their powers are subtle. So subtle that they can't really do much.

(Do those efforts pay off in the end? In Cultivation's case, yes, she sets the deck to allow others a chance. Preservation buys more time for others to take a chance. [By that point in the series he'd spent so much time delaying Ruin that there wasn't much direct action he could take] They kinda follow the same pattern as Hoid, putting the sword into the stone, so to speak, rather than wielding it themselves, which tends to corrupt, but Hoid manages this without a Shard, and he still manages to more directly impact the main plot. Instead of setting the deck, so to speak, he is a player at the table, which assists our heroes not only indirectly [establishing a friendly environment] but also provides emotional support in the form of an extremely powerful, impossibly ancient ally [both by giving decent advice but also serving as a constant reminder that they matter in the grand scheme of the Cosmere. Their struggles are not in vain. It's like Gandalf in Return of the King, despair is a terrible foe] But I digress)

The Heralds get to spend their immortality one of two ways: being tortured in Braize, or fighting wars on Roshar. PTSD is not a joke, friends. It's astonishing they didn't crack sooner. The Oathpact was a terrible idea, a last-ditch effort that should never have been maintained as long as it was.

Then we get Hoid. He bears the name of someone he should've loved. He says he turned down the Shards because it allows him a greater degree of freedom, but it really doesn't. He's just bound to a different role: guardian. Hope. Maybe he was a sober-minded scholar before the Shattering, maybe the original Hoid wouldn't even recognize him now, but he still manages to be a source of hope in the worst of times in the Cosmere. That is not an exaggeration; he must have some kind of sensor that shows him the most important events (which largely occur during conflicts) so that he can keep the interests of the wider Cosmere in mind, and defend it.

It would be understandable if he snapped. If he carved out a hermitage on some backwater planet and left the Shards to rip themselves apart. To let the vaporizations stick. But no. He spends his time with bridgemen and lighteyed ladies, trying to help them. He muses on the meaning of art. He tells stories to anyone who will listen. He chooses to form relationships, to fight for planets, even though he knows that he's going to lose them to the inevitable march of time. He actually more often than not avoids fellow immortals (with maybe the exception of the kandra) in favor of people that are going to die, no matter what he does. Because he needs to do better. For Hoid, for Ati, for everyone he's failed. He can't save everyone, but by Adonalsium, he's got an obligation to try.

He gets to live.