Shardic Number Theory (Part Three - Shardic Numbers are Bollox)

[Tempus]

Shardic Number Theory Revisited

Part Three - Shardic Numbers Are Bollox

 

Premise
 
We've talked about 'Every Shard has a number', and also 'Shard Numbers Mesh Together'. And Word of Brandon supports this^[1]. However, Shardic number theory is full of holes and things that don't match up and is generally the kind of thing you look at with one eyebrow raised. However, surely there are other options? That Word of Brandon is actually very open to interpretation! We'll be looking at a few of these today, for the last part of Shardic Number Theory Revisited.

 

I will be referring back to evidence from the previous theories to save time and space.
 
 
Each Shardworld has a Number
 
Hypothesis:

 

Just because the number is important to the Shard doesn't mean that the number belongs to the Shard. A good alternative theory is that the Shardworld is what encodes the number that is important (kind of like how the Shardworld determines the Focus for the planet).

 

 

Scadrial - Sixteen
 

Scadrial's number must be sixteen. They even have a 'law of sixteen' on Scadrial. Brandon comes out and tells us Preservation picked sixteen since it was important, and Alloy of Law is stuffed with more sixteen's than a high school dance.

 
Sel - Three or Four
 

Sel is still not clear. Going by the significant numbers noted previously, three and four seem very likely.

 

Roshar - Ten
 

If you have read Stormlight Archive, you may have noticed the number ten used once or twice. This subtle hint is Brandon's way of telling you the number for this Shardworld.

 
Nalthis - Five
 

As seen previously, Nalthis remains five, for the very same reasons.

 
 

The Numbers are Important to the Cosmere as a Whole
 
Hypothesis:

 

Shards may choose to focus on numbers that are important to the Cosmere as a whole. Thus, there may be some numbers here that come up again and again.

 

 

Sixteen
 

Sixteen is certainly of Cosmere importance. There are sixteen Shards from the Shattered Adonalsium. Here are some other instances where sixteen is important.

 

On Scadrial, Vin's Age, Allomantic, Feruchemic, and Hemalurgic Metals, The number of people in percent that Preservation Snapped, the Law of Sixteen mentioned in Alloy of Law, Wax's address, Wax's generation, when Wax Snapped, and other less important instances. On Roshar, sixteen is considered the time of coming of age. On Sel, the Rose Empire has eighty factions and worship the eighty suns, which is sixteen times five. There is no known significance of sixteen on Nalthis.

 
Ten
 

Ten is also of Cosmere importance. Word of Brandon tells us there are ten Major Shardworlds[2]. Other instances where ten is important are:

 

On Scadrial, there were ten original known metals, ten great houses, ten dominances, ten thousand skaa in the rebellion and numerous other small facts (Mistwraith are ten feet long). The Well of Ascension, in an important fact, refills every 2^10 years. On Sel, the Reod was precisely ten years ago. On Nalthis, there are Ten Heightenings, and the count of Breaths to reach them are always approximating multiples of ten. There are also ten thousand Lifeless. Roshar also has a small amount of influence from the number ten, but I will leave this as an exercise to the reader.

 

Five
 

Five has no known meaning in the meta-narrative, but is nonetheless found all over the Cosmere. Some instances of five include...

 

On Scadrial, the Dominances are split into two groups of five (as are the metals). Skaa do not become Mistings unless they have Aristocratic blood within five generations. Spook snapped when he was five and Inquisitors trained for five years before being spiked. The Lord Ruler's Chamber was lit with five massive braziers. The Well of Ascension can also be counted as refilling every 4^5 years. It was five months since Lessie's death for Wax, and Elendel accomodates about five million people. Lawmen should be one to five hundred people, and bubbles are about five feet across, as far as we know. Wax has been a constable for 25 years.

 

On Sel, the City of Elantris is designed with many five's in it's architecture and planning. It was five years since Sarene began to paint, and five years since Raoden began opposing his father. Sarene was 25, and Hrathen and Sarene were poisoned for five days. Shai has five Essence Marks, there are five Arbiters per faction, and five times sixteen yields the number 80, important both politically and religiously in the Rose Empire.

 

Roshar has the five ideals, and five known groupings of fabrials. The binding charts seem to be able to split into fives along both axis. Nalthis is of course replete with fives as mentioned before, and shshshsh also has significant influence of the number five, such as the spheres at the beginning.

 
Eleven
 

Eleven seems to be a Cosmere number identified with a number of evil things and occurrences.

 

The only know duration of a Desolation lasted eleven years. There were 99 Desolations in total, according to the Vorins. Eleven is also associated with Ruin many times, see Part One for details. In Elantris, the Jeskeri Mysteries met at eleven 'o clock to sacrifice.

 

 
 

 

Conclusion
 

The two theories above are attractive. They are generally simpler than attaching numbers specifically to a Shard, and thus perhaps more likely to be correct. That said, they are all very common numbers, and Brandon has to count things somehow. There is also a very notable concentration of some numbers on some planets, where those numbers aren't seen at all on others. Mysterious.

 

That was pretty much every Shardic Number Theory that held water I could find or dream up, and all the references I could find. I hope you all enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed endlessly typing em' out.

 

 

 
References:

 
 

THOUGHT
It seems that certain colors and numbers appear frequently in specific cosmere books, like the number 5 in Warbreaker or red and blue in Elantris. Do these colors or numbers happen to refer to a specific shard, and if so, would they be consistent across the cosmere?
BRANDON SANDERSON
Certain colors and numbers are important in reference to certain shards.

 

Q. Can you tell me something about the Cosmere that you haven't told anyone before?
A. "There are inhabited planets in the Cosmere that don't have any Shards there. There may be inhabited planets that only have a Splinter of a Shard. There are 10 Core Cosmere planets, which tell the overarching story of the Cosmere."

 

[SmurfAquamarineBodies he/him]

In regards to there only being ten thousand Lifeless on Nalthis, there is actually forty thousand according to my copy of Warbreaker with four different Returned having command of ten thousand each. Plus the Lifeless left over from Kalads ( spelling? ) army and other random ones floating about.

[Tempus]

Indeed, apologies, I meant armies of ten thousand.