The 16 Shards of the Cosmere

In this video, we talk about all of the cosmere's gods, known as Shards or magic bois. I may have made that last name up.
Also, my cats are slowly taking over the channel and there seems to be no clear way of stopping it from happening. Oh, well.

0:00 - Intro
1:53 - What's a Shard?
4:20 - Ambition
6:46 - Autonomy
8:36 - Cultivation
10:04 - Dominion & Devotion
11:22 - Endowment
13:04 - Odium
15:02 - Honor
16:40 - Invention
17:28 - Mercy
18:24 - Ruin & Preservation
20:39 - Final Four
24:56 - Spoilery Bonus Round
26:51 - Cat Wrasslin

[mrm]

Daily reminder that according to Hoid's letters, Ruin was the most righteous and kind man he knew before he became Ruin

[yewnork]

Honor is not dead so long as he lives in the hearts of men

[damonrowsell]

My personal theory about Invention involves a Word of Brandon from a while ago where he said that there’s at least one shard that isn’t tied to a planet. If Invention has the highest technology out of any shard I could see it ruling over a giant traveling spaceship or other vessel.

[GraveKing]

Honor. Right or wrong, I can't help but feel my heartstrings get tugged every time I hear stories of brave souls sacrificing themselves for greater causes. Honor, inspiring such souls, and living up to the call himself, is definitely my favorite.

Also, while I love, love the vessel of Harmony...my personal theory is that Harmony is the overall antagonist of the Cosmere. It's just a thing that I've noticed about Sanderson. He's a deeply religious man that is not afraid to poke at the flaws of religion...so a god that is paving his own path to hell with good intentions just makes sense. Also...I don't think Ruin and Preservation are working together inside that shard...

[nathnaeltsegaw]

You just blessed my night!

I like cultivation the most. She seems to have effective measures in place to neutralize the most dangerous shard out there. She is like the old spymaster whose web you don't see until you're ensnared in it.

[gnastygames]

I don't have a favourite shard but Sazed has got to be the best vessel

[mohitbelagal]

"Honor is dead, but I'll see what I can do."

[whyonthefall]

My favourite Shard is likely Harmony, as it's the first example of the mixing of Intents, and has huge implications for the Cosmere. Also, I like seeing characters from the first era books sticking around and gaining more knowledge.
After that, Cultivation is really interesting, given it has a soft magic system based on its Intent. (Side note, I love how the different Shards seemingly have very different abilities-of course, on top of their base powers-based on their Intent, or even the Vessel: eg, Autonomy's many Avatars and weird Perpendicularities, Cultivation's altering and cultivating Old Magic, and Odium's capacity to take away one's pain: to absorb Passion, the emotions of all people. Its quite cool. It gives Shards more individuality on top of their magic systems and the Vessels' personalities.)
I also really like the Shard Whimsy; giving light hearted fancy the power of a deity sounds really interesting for inter-Shard "politics". Imagine having to deal with a god who's sole interest is to be facetious and aloof?
Invention, Ambition and Mercy are also very compelling to me.
Oh yeah, how about Odium? The change in management is going to be quite interesting for the future of the Cosmere

[orrinscott-stewart]

Harmony is my favorite shard mainly because I really liked his vessel so I'm more invested.

[EmethMatthew]

So far I think Odium is my favorite shard simply from the amount of info we have on it in the stormlight archive so far. Harmony might become my favorite as I continue reading, but I'm not deep into that yet.

[JulianClosethewriter]

I think it is interesting that the word "cultivation" not only means to prepare and care for growing things, but also to harvest them. Whatever Cultivation's intentions, I think she'll take whatever she feels she needs to achieve them.

[aldan]

Homework assignment accepted! My favourite shard is 100% Honor. Because of the moments the Radiants have through the SA, and the honor involved in all those huge moments that just destroy me lol - It's such a perfect concept for me that this is a no-brainer :-)

[mr.nugget]

We know nothing about it but i just know my favourite shard would whimsy. A whole planet of jokesters just having the time of their lives doing whatever, just because they find it whimsical. May also be one of the most unpredictable shards because you'll never really know what will tickle whimsies fancy... Further enforcing this, one possible definition for "whimsical" is "unpredictable". So imagine a literal shard, with near infinite power, and one of the key "intents" of this shard is unpredictability. I find this concept really funny (or dare i say whimsical), but also a little scary. At least with most other shards we can know what their main intent is

[PlayguePals]

We're very biased but you're one of our favorite creators on the Internet <3 Fantastic production as always! AND CAAAAT!

[Alfoldio]

Im very interested to see what Valor's planet/magic system looks like

[jtsg]

I'm calling it now. The final shard is "Instinct".

[Nonzerotonin]

I think my favorite shard is devotion because i like the image of a god that is by nature called to serve its people. Unfortunately for me, we cannot have nice things

[Ruminations]

My favorite Shard is Autonomy, for a few different reasons.
First of all, of the base Intents each Shard embodies, Autonomy is the one that I personally value the highest. It would, without a doubt, be the Shard I would be most suited to take up myself of the sixteen options.

As almost an exact antithesis to that though, I find Autonomy's current rising status as a villain in the Cosmere super intriguing. I personally find it much more compelling to see how ideals traditionally thought of positively can cause harm in their extreme than ideals like "Ruin" or "Odium". They make powerful, scary villains, but forces like Autonomy make for a more dynamic and complex conflict in my opinion.

The lore behind Autonomy is also some of the most interesting, with how Autonomy is seeding dozens of other planets with Avatars as a way of spreading her control. The fact that the fandom is only just now - within the past year - noticing hints of Autonomy that were set up as early as Elantris genuinely blows my mind. I have particular interest in the Avatar Patji, as First of the Sun is my single favorite planet in the Cosmere.

But also I just... really like Bavadin so far (despite how little we've seen of them). He's a character who freely changes his gender based on what feels appropriate in the moment and is a big proponant for self-expression. They're not confirmed human, but they seem to be. And if she is, that also makes her the first non-binary human character in the Cosmere.

[xHTxRaptorF]

Autonomy is a cat confirmed, also now we have seen a dragon on screen

[grykraghhansen]

I really like Harmony because its vessel is one of my favorite characters and I love them <3 But for a favorite I honestly think Whimsy, even with our lack of knowledge on it. I just love fun, whimsical fantasy, it makes me happy :-D
Thanks for this walkthrough, it was really helpful :-)