Quote Originally Posted by MrThinker View Post
Nice diagram, I like it.

Some more questions that I think need to be answered:
NONE of your questions have confirmed answers; it's all speculation at this point, and many here would be happy to share their personal theories.

So here are my personal theories!

Are the shards fully fledged universes in their own right with their own cosmology, or are they localized dimensional anomalies?
It is my feeling that the Sundering was a local event that affected THIS star and little or nothing beyond it. It was caused by a clash between Hydaelyn and Zodiark, and what we've seen of Hydaelyn's abilities and limitations doesn't really paint her as being a god capable of galactic-scale manipulations. It's not impossible that the whole universe was copied, but I find it unlikely.

Do shards all experience calamities at the same time? or do the Ascians pick a single target for the rejoining at a time, because coordinating the advent of calamities in more than 2 worlds at roughly the same time is a major pain in the head?
At this point, is hasn't been confirmed that Calamities even happen on the worlds about to be Rejoined. We currently have no idea what actions take place on a Shard during a Rejoining. We know that Ascians go there to do SOMETHING, but it might simply be maintenance work, to preserve the Balance of Light and Darkness so that the world doesn't Flood before a Rejoining can occur.

If the Voice and its Call really are transporting the Scions to another Shard, perhaps we'll have a few of these answers in the upcoming patch and/or expansion.

What role does the balance of Light and Dark in a shard have in the formation of its social structure and history, if any?
I haven't really thought about this one. Unhulkai's world was apparently darkness-rich (though how much of that was Ighorym's doing is unclear), and he seems to be a relatively nice person. Apparently others from his world were rather power-hungry, embracing the power of the Primals, but that could have started out of necessity to stand against the overwhelming Darkness. The Warriors of Darkness, on the other hand, from a light-rich world, seemed like a pretty arrogant bunch, but that might be a natural result of them curb-stomping every threat that came their way on their own world. They certainly have some ability, though, as they were able to polish off Ravana without too much trouble.

Are there actually alternate versions of people we know existing on the other shards?
I hope not. These aren't recent copies; there's something like ten THOUSAND years of divergence from the point the Shards were created. The odds of an identical person cropping up are astronomically low - and if it happens, it will strain suspension of disbelief considerably. If it's the case that the entire universe was copied for each Shard, it's possible that Omega and Midgardsormr and his brood could have copies there; each of them was alive/functioning a considerable amount of time before they came to this star, so they may well have existed before the Sundering.