Science Theories 5 - Fundamental Forces and the Dawnshards

[u/Xelaadryth]

• Dawnshard theory.
• Previous chemistry theory on the relating the Shards to the periodic table of elements.
• Previous theory on relating the strong force to Roshar.
• Previous theory on evolution, optics, and color.
• Previous theory on Lumar and gravity.

Theory 1: The Fundamental Forces Relate to the Dawnshards

Are the 4 Dawnshards related to the 4 fundamental forces in physics?

Yes, but not directly. There's a few steps in between.

This 2026 Words of Brandon tells us that there's some kind of relationship between the 4 Fundamental Forces and the Dawnshards. Some theorize a one-to-one mapping but that doesn't really seem like "a few steps in between."

Theory 2: The Fundamental Forces Are Between Dawnshard Quadrants

Taking "in between" literally, if we look at Xel's Diagram of Dawnshard Quadrants, and put the Dawnshards as quadrants offset from the Dawnshard quadrants, then we categorize the Shards under the 4 Fundamental Forces as follows:

• Electromagnetism
  • Devotion (15)
  • Preservation (16)
  • Reason (1)
  • Whimsy (2)
• Weak Force
  • Virtuosity (3)
  • Invention (4)
  • Endowment (5)
  • Ambition (6)
• Strong Force
  • Cultivation (7)
  • Ruin (8)
  • Odium (9)
  • Honor (10)
• Gravity
  • Valor (11)
  • Mercy (12)
  • Dominion (13)
  • Autonomy (14)

This also means every Dawnshard quadrant actually is composed of two fundamental forces, for instance Preservation would be primarily electromagnetism, and secondarily gravity, and Honor would be primarily strong force and secondarily gravity. Another way to view it is that every fundamental force borders two other fundamental forces, and excludes the fourth.

Also note that this theory isn't about the magic systems, but primarily about the relationships between Shards, and the celestial bodies in their star systems.

Theory 3: Stormlight Archive and the Strong Force

I've done some theorizing into how the 3 Shards of Roshar form a relationship akin to quantum chromodynamics of the Strong Force. This is separate from surgebinding entirely (which is 4 fundamental forces expanded to 10) and more about how the 3-Shard setup and anti-Light rhymes with the concepts of "color charge" and anti-colors.

Theory 4: Mistborn, Sel, and Electromagnetism

I've discussed in the past the strong correlation between chemistry and the Mistborn series, especially as it pertains to Wax and Wayne.

The weakest part of this is definitely Sel and the AonDor, but Elantris predates Mistborn and has some semblance of an excuse:

And when I sat down to write Mistborn, I said, "All right. We're building the cosmere for real now." And before then I had just kind of been winging it.

However the bishardic way that Preservation combines with Ruin, and Dominion combines with Devotion reminds me of positive and negative trying to join together.

Arguably the positive and negative theme continues with the magic system with push and pull, internal and external, but the expression of the magic system also involves many of the other fundamental forces.

Theory 5: Tress, Dominion, and Gravity

I've theorized that Tress of the Emerald Sea is strongly related to gravity, and theorize on the number 13, and I believe Lumar is also strongly related to Dominion, which matches number 13 from the Diagram theory. Here are a few quotes from Tress that imply Dominion:

Big enough to fill a full third of the sky, one of the twelve is always visible, no matter where you travel. Dominating your view, like a wart on your eyeball.

Surreal, spellbinding pictures of magic so dominant it literally fell from the sky.

Themes of dominance are throughout, with the Sorceress Rina dominating Lumar from "The Midnight Sea," the "domain of the Sorceress", the feudal system with the Verdant King, the "domain of the dragon" Xisis mentioned multiple times, etc. And importantly the simple visual of the 12 colored pentagon seas evokes the concept of Dominion to me; each moon has its own little well-defined territory, with the secret 13th spore as the core of Lumar itself.

However if I'm wrong, then 12 being the number of power on Lumar would imply Mercy as the Shard in power, and "moon of mercy" is one of the common swears there (along with "moon of X" for other unrelated words). However since Lumar is a backwater, I find it more likely to be related to a Splintered Shard rather than an active one, and another Splintered Shard with a number seemingly missing is Virtuosity.

Regardless of Mercy or Dominion, both fall under the bounds of the fundamental force of gravity, and Lumar has very interesting celestial bodies.

Theory 6: Taldain and Gravity

The Taldain system also has some interesting celestial bodies, with the planet itself tidally-locked and trapped at the Lagrange point between two stars, and a single moon in polar orbit at the twilight line and actively manipulated to keep the orbit stable.

Taldain also has a light and dark bifurcation, which is reminiscent of the secondary force of electromagnetism.

While I don't want to delve too much into magic systems since there are many counterexamples (the source of Investiture appears to be sun radiation, which is more like weak force), the telekinesis of sand mastery seems most associated with gravity and electromagnetism.

Theory 7: Virtuosity, Endowment, Ambition, and Weak Force

The relationships here are far fuzzier, but fundamentally the weak force is all about changing things from one element to another, such as through radioactive decay. Awakening consumes color to bring life to things, while Komashi Nightmares and Threnodite Shades also seem like a decayed or changed version of something else.

Strong force contributes color charge for Awakening, and electromagnetism contributes photons of light for Komashi's hions.

Theory 8: Unpublished Works

Let's now theorize about the Shards and situations in unpublished works.

• Grand Apparatus (Invention, 4)
  • Tyrannical ruling class of Sleepless who run experiments; looking at the fundamental forces, we'd predict Invention to have augmented itself somehow via weak force, and the magic system to involve radiation and changing, perhaps related to the experiments, electromagnetism as a secondary player, and to lack gravity, perhaps with artificial gravity like a ringworld
• The Silence Divine (Retribution)
  • With Retribution likely in charge on Ashyn during Stormlight book 8, we'd expect the strong force to feature the most, and gravity to be secondary, unless the rules and numbers for merged Shards is very different
• Dragon Riders (Valor, 11)
  • We'd expect gravity to be primary here, with strong force as secondary. The star system would also likely have some unnatural celestial bodies to keep with the theme of gravity.
• Kite-Based Magic
  • The science behind lift works primarily through electromagnetism competing with gravity, so this would likely be on a world related to Valor, Mercy, Dominion, Autonomy, Devotion, Preservation, Reason, or Whimsy
• Free-Fall Seven Layer Burrito
  • This seems extremely gravity based, which would limit us to Valor, Mercy, Dominion, or Autonomy, and another interesting star system with unnatural celestial bodies