Humans Only On Scadrial?

[Wherethewindgoes]

Well, this is my first post. Greetings, everyone.

This is something that's been bugging me for a while, and perhaps there's a simple answer to it that I've missed. From the epigraphs of HoA:

Preservation's desire to create sentient life was what eventually broke the stalemate. In order to give mankind awareness and independent thought, Preservation knew that he would have to give up part of himself—his own soul—to dwell within mankind. This would leave him just a tiny bit weaker than his opposite, Ruin.

That tiny bit seemed inconsequential, compared with their total vast sums of power. However, over aeons, this tiny flaw would allow Ruin to overcome Preservation, thereby bringing an end to the world.

This, then, was their bargain. Preservation got mankind, the only creations that had more Preservation than Ruin in them, rather than a balance. Independent life that could think and feel. In exchange, Ruin was given a promise—and proof—that he could bring an end to all they had created together. It was the pact.

And Preservation eventually broke it.

This seems to suggest that Preservation and Ruin created humanity together, as an almost-compromise. How, then, are there humans on Sel, Roshar, and other planets? Unless, of course, Ruin and Preservation traveled through the universe, putting humans on multiple planets; however, I was under the impression that shards generally stay on one planet, and the epigraphs seem to suggest that. The other option, although less likely, would be that humanity originated on Scadrial, but later humans invented space travel and populated other planets, only to later forget about it.

Any thoughts?

[name_here]

Ati and Leras were humans, but their home planet was apparently destroyed.

[Wherethewindgoes]

I don't think Ati and Leras held the shards when humanity was created, because, well, they didn't create themselves. Unless the creation of humans by Preservation and Ruin wasn't original, only based on a model from other planets? Although, it would still be improbable for humans to all be the same on various planets. Unless humans originated on one and traveled across shadesmar to colonize other planets?

Edited January 7, 2013 by Wherethewindgoes

[Tarontos he/him]

Andonsolium is the original shard it existed on a planet where humans existed at some point it shattered into sixteen shards. These are taken up by various people from said world. These shards seperate. Later they make life based off the life forms from there original planet. Unique forms of life are either directly from the settled planet. Or in the case of mist wraiths were created by the lord ruler in his moments of shardic power.

[Oudeis he/him]

Yes, it's my understanding (I'm sure it's said in an epigraph somewhere in HoA, I might try to look up the direct quote later) that Sazed specifically mentions that Preservation based humanity on Scadrial on a model they saw somewhere else; what I take from that is, Ati and Leras knew humankind from whatever the "original" planet of the Cosmere is and re-created humans from that.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Dug it up from the annotations.

http://www.brandonsanderson.com/annotation/352/mistborn-3-Chapter-Seventy-Six

�Something in the form of that which we�d seen before.�

There�s one other cool item to note in this chapter. If you read Ruin�s words carefully, he admits that he has indeed seen human life somewhere before. This means that there is life on other planets in this cosmology, and that Ruin and (presumably) Preservation have experience with those other planets.

Another building block for the larger story.

[Observer]

Humans tend to vary throughout the cosmere, though they maintain the important things. I'll sum up what we know on this, most likely through using information already stated above.

Adonalsium watched over his own little planet filled with humans. One day for unknown reasons Adonalsium shatters into 16 shards. 16 humans take up the shards and split up. What happens to the old planet is unknown but likely not good. Eentually the shards want to make life, and they all do it based on the animals and people from their old homeworld, with varying degrees of success. I imagine Dragonsteel, when it gets out, will have a lot of familiar creatures in it.

Edited January 7, 2013 by Observer

[Oudeis he/him]

Dug it up from the annotations.

http://www.brandonsanderson.com/annotation/352/mistborn-3-Chapter-Seventy-Six

Thank you for looking this up!

[happyman he/him]

Yep, Phantom dug up the relevant quote with annotation. Humans on Scadrial were created by Ruin and Preservation, but they weren't the ones who created the original blueprints, or whatever actually happened in the distant past.

[Wherethewindgoes]

Ah, that makes more sense. I didn't realize that Adonalsium originally was on its own planet. Thanks for the help, everyone!

[happyman he/him]

Ah, that makes more sense. I didn't realize that Adonalsium originally was on its own planet. Thanks for the help, everyone!

Technically, that's speculation still. It is easily the most likely case, though.

[Aethling he/him]

Sanderson confirmed in the QA last year that the human homeworld was Yolen.

[happyman he/him]

Sanderson confirmed in the QA last year that the human homeworld was Yolen.

OK. Did he say anything about what Yolen's relationship to Adonalsium was?

[Aethling he/him]

Not as a direct response to that question. I had the same thoughts as you about the humans, and the text v annotation difference spurred me to try to clarify the question of human origins when he did the QA. the thread is still open to read under the general theories forum.

We will probably find out more about Yolen later, as it has not been the scene of any of the published works yet.

[happyman he/him]

All I can say is that I have read the parts of Liar of Partinel on Brandon's website. If that stays canon, then the backstory behind Yolen is already quite complicated even without the other shardworlds. Thus I hesitate to speculate much about what happened there.