Lirins hand
Are all the red-eyed characters influenced by the same Shard?
Brandon Sanderson
No. Good question! I was waiting for someone to ask that. You will come to learn what red means in the Cosmere. There is a meaning for red in the Cosmere.
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Are all the red-eyed characters influenced by the same Shard?
No. Good question! I was waiting for someone to ask that. You will come to learn what red means in the Cosmere. There is a meaning for red in the Cosmere.
Two questions about the mechanics--well, actually, a bunch of questions--would a Shard's magic change if they moved to a different world?
That's a RAFO.
Is Silverlight that place that is not a planet where there is a Shard?
RAFO.
How is it that Nightblood, who is merely a near-sentient awakened object, was able to read minds, something a Shard like Ruin was unable to do?
It requires bonding (with the person whose mind is to be read) to read minds.
How many Shards have been Splintered, besides the four we know?
You're gonna make me canonize this? I can't canonize this. There's a couple that I'm just kind of...
Odium, Endowment, Devotion...
Okay, Odium has not been Splintered. Endowment and Devotion have been Splintered... Endowment hasn't been Splintered, sorry. Dominion and Devotion have been Splintered. I've confirmed that one other has been Splintered. And then Honor has been Splintered. Those are your four that I've canonized. The other one is, I don't know if I've mentioned who exactly it is, but it's not one that you've seen on one of the planets...
Yeah, I'm not gonna canonize it, exactly how many there are. Because there are things going on in the cosmere that I wanna settle down and decide on once I get to it, exactly what. And Splintering can be a vague term sometimes, too... So that's a RAFO.
Was Scadrial visited by any other Shard before the events of Mistborn? If so, which one?
Yes. Several.
Four clues you've given over the years about unknown Shards: 1) One that wants to hide and survive. 2) One that's not on a planet, but not Ambition 3) One that Hoid would have taken 4) One that would have been used for Rithmatist
I'm not looking for a new clue. I'm wondering if there's any overlap between the clues. Are these four separate Shards? If not, which hints apply to the same Shard?
Also, since clue #3 was from before Ambition was revealed, was Hoid going to take Ambition? He certainly is an ambitious individual.
I'll tell you this--those aren't necessarily four different shards. But I do have to RAFO which one Hoid might have taken.
As Lift's spren refers to the Nightwatcher as Mother, right...
He definitely calls somebody a mother. The implication in the text is that it's the Nightwatcher.
Certainly, so I'm just going to run with that right now. So the question that I'm asking is, is surgebinding in general a melding of Honor and Odium, a la feruchemy being in some sense not directly derivative of Ruin and Preservation?
It is...Honor and Cultivation is what you mean?
Yes.
There are spren of all three Shards, and those spren can work within the bounds of the magic that has already been set up on Roshar.
What Shard are Cryptics associated with?
RAFO.
Can a Shard go to a planet, create an autonomous Splinter, and then leave the system of the planet and then *inaudible*
Yeah, that's possible. In fact, that's happened. You've seen that happen.
We have seen that two Shards can merge into one. Is the opposite possible?
The opposite is theoretically possible.
If yes, have we heard of Shards created this way?
It has not happened yet. Unless you count Splintering into a bunch of pieces, but that's not what they're asking.
Chapter Eighty-One - Part Four
Vin's Sacrifice
Killing Elend and leaving Vin alive would have been, in my opinion, more tragic than what happened. As I establish in a little bit, there is an afterlife in this cosmology. Better for them both to die and to be together.
There were only two ways that Ruin could have died in this book. The first would be to have him give up his life as Preservation did. I don't think that was very likely.
The second way is the one I've been subtly pushing the reader toward from the very beginning of the novel. Ruin and Preservation are opposites. Equal, particularly while Ruin doesn't have access to the chunk of his power trapped in the atium. The only way, then, for him to be killed would be for Preservation to smash his power against that of Ruin and destroy both of them. It's a form of balance. Either you block and stop each other, warding each other away, or you overlap and destroy one another.
This was the role Preservation chose Vin to play all those years ago. As she surmises, he needed someone to do what he could not. He had been too corrupted by his power, and could not destroy Ruin. If Vin had held the power for millennia as Preservation had before her, then she too would have lost the ability to destroy Ruin.
It needed to be someone fresh to the power, still separate enough from it to be able to kill Ruin. Preservation knew that if he did not sacrifice himself and let someone else take up the power, then Ruin would eventually win and the world would end. Imprisoning Ruin was always only intended to be a delaying tactic.
The delay was so that the power could find a new person to bear it. Someone who could do what Preservation could not.
Does each Shard have a favorite, or special, number or color?
I would say that there are inclinations but it's not, perhaps, as specific as you are thinking.
How do you decide which Shards go with which planet?
I have an outline, and it’s kind of according to the outline...
So are there Four Dawnshards that each split into four more Dawnshards? Or just four? Are there 16 Shards and 16 Dawnshards?
This is intentionally vague, I'm afraid. (Sorry.)
Are there any Shards who-- that have merged like Sazed's Shards?
That is a RAFO, good question. Excellent question.
Just trying to think outside the box.
I think that's the first time I've been asked that.
Can the 16 Shards be mapped onto the chart of Allomantic metals? i.e. does each Shard have a corresponding Allomantic metal?
The Shards were first. The metals are in a way a...further division on an established pattern.
If I can ask a question, I just read the Mistborn trilogy and, were Preservation and Ruin two different shards or a single one with their power split somehow? If they were two shards, does that mean a single person can hold more than one, since Harmony apparently holds both now?
They were two shards.
Yes, one entity can hold more than one. Remember that holding a shard changes you, over time. Rayse knows this, and prefers to leave behind destroyed rivals as opposed to taking their power and potentially being overwhelmed by it.
I have a question, if you are willing. Would Ruin be more compatible with Rayse, would he pick up that shard had he visited Scadrial and shattered him? All the shards we have seen that he has shattered seem rather different in intent than him- Honor, Cultivation, Love, Dominion. But Ruin seems more in line with Odium. Rayse has ruined the days of quite a few people.
Technically, Ruin would be most compatible with Cultivation. Ruin's 'theme' so to speak is that all things must age and pass. An embodiment of entropy. That power, separated from the whole and being held by a person who did not have the willpower to resist its transformation of him, led to something very dangerous. But it was not evil. None of the sixteen technically are, though you may have read that Hoid has specific beef with Rayse. Whether you think of Odium as evil depends upon how much you agree with Hoid's particular view.
That said, Ruin would have been one of the 'safer' of the sixteen for Rayse to take, if he'd been about that. Odium is by its nature selfish, however, and the combination of it and Rayse makes for an entity that fears an additional power would destroy it and make it into something else.
He wanted to know, if a pregnant woman took up one of the Shards--one of the sixteen Shards--would the child <still be born without> any god powers?
It would have an effect.
Some of the few Shards Rayse Splintered included Ambition, I believe, Dominion, and Devotion.
Yes.
And those were all way back, in the history. So, we know that the Shards' personalities overrides the Vessel's personality over time?
Strongly influence, and depending on the individual, override.
Okay. So did Rayse choose those Shards because--
He went after Ambition first, but didn't find Ambition until after going after Devotion and Dominion. But Ambition was number one on his hit list.
Was it because of the Shard or because of the Vessel? Like did he hate the person?
In this case it was the Shard, primarily, that drove him--
Oh, he was maybe afraid the Shard would grow too powerful and take over--
He was afraid that this Shard that would rival him. And so he's like "This one is number one on the hit list. We're taking down Ambition." But then he got trapped in the Rosharan system.
Imagine a hypothetical Shard of Tenacity. What happens when the Vessel of that Shard dies?
The magic will change drastically. Among other things, it would be very easy for practitioners of that magic to become Cognitive Shadows.
Dalinar's visions are the memories of Honor, correct?
Yes. Yes, they are things specifically created by Honor...
Does that mean that the Recreance happened before Honor's death... since Dalinar sees it?
Yes. But Honor's death, like Preservation's death, is a protracted event.
Odium seems to have a bad track record when it comes to killing Shards. He was wounded versus Ambition, and he's trapped on Roshar. Yet, he's credited in killing Devotion and Dominion. My question is: was Autonomy significantly involved and would Odium have been able to do it on his own and still be okay to--
RAFO. It is dangerous to attack a Shard with one Shard. Let's say that. And a wise Shard would try to avoid that confrontation unless there are specific reasons they think they would have an advantage.
Is Ingenuity a Shard?
Umm... *long pause* Maybe. *smiles slyly*
Does Silverlight have a Shard?
Good question. I will RAFO that.
Can any two Shards be joined together, like "Preservation and Ruin", or does it depend on their Intents?
Any can be joined, theoretically, but boy, some of the pairings would have an odd resulting pressure on the one holding them. And similar intents make for an easier time melding.
So do each Shard's perpendicularity-- is that, like are they their own individual color or is that sort of--
There is a small thematic connection. This is not to be taken as one of the bigger deals in the cosmere, but there is a small thematic connection.
Feruchemy is the "balance" between Ruin and Preservation. Would any combination of Shards create a "balance" magic, so to speak, or are only certain Shards compatible?
Feruchemy ended up being a balance system, because of how polar Ruin and Preservation were. Any world with at least two Shards will result in a similar phenomenon.
Like Roshar?
Like Roshar. There is something like that going on there.
Are Shards limited to one per perpendicularity? Can a non-Splintered Shard control where and how their perpendicularity manifests?
RAFO, but yes on the second.
I'm a big fan of Harmony.
Probably will never happen but I'd love to see him put the smackdown on Odium.
Paging [Brandon]... what do you think of this theory :) ? Is this your plan? Or are we asking about something which is decade(s) away?
I find theories like this very interesting, but yes, you're right. This is talking about things very far away. I've said, however, that Odium is wary of Harmony.
It seems like Odium has been attacking shards that share a world for some reason (dom and dev hon and cult). Maybe his exploit against dual sharded worlds would work less well against a dual-wielding shardholder?
I won't say yes or no to that, but you can imagine that what happened on Scadrial is something he would have preferred never occur.
I'm surprised it didn't occur to anyone to grab two shards to begin with? Pairing Odium with Devotion seems like a good idea.
Did this not occur for a specific reason, or just an oversight on the part of the folks involved?
RAFO
Are the Intents of all the Shards related to the individuals who were involved in the Shattering?
"Related to"? Slightly, but not as much as you probably would think.
Is it possible to make an artificial shard? And not in an easy manner but if one had the resources and time could they make one?
I'm not sure what an artificial shard would be. You'd be using the power from Adonalsium to do it--so it wouldn't be 'artificial,' by cosmere terms. You'd just be collecting power. The question becomes if you gather enough of it, would it combine back together--which is a RAFO in the world. Nobody knows.
In Dawnshard, when Rysn's looking at the mural, it's exploding the sun into four pieces and then each of them is broken into four from there. Based on this, would it be reasonable to assume four Shards of similar Intent could be able to form like a super-Shard without the issues Sazed is encountering? For example, say Honor, Valor, Mercy, and the last maybe unknown Shard like Wisdom or something like that?
That is a correct line of theorizing.
I am wondering if it is possible for a person to take the power of a Shard and then later decide the whole god thing isn't working out. Can they retire and go back to being a person? Or are they immediately sent to the Beyond?
It is possible that they could retire as a person. Wouldn't be the first thing that would happen.
Are the Shards ever going to be bonded like the spren?
RAFO, here's your RAFO card.
All right, regarding the 'Wisdom Shard' again. We have one quote where Hoid... I'll just cite it: "Some men, as they age, grow wiser. I am not one of those, for wisdom and I have always been at cross-purposes." Is he referring to that Shard there... or the Vessel?
*thumbs up, grins* ... Yes.
In The Traveler, which you read here [at a prior JordanCon], Hoid was on Yolen. He has only worldhopped with perpendicularities. Does Yolen have a perpendicularity?
Yolen has something very similar.
Okay, is it associated with a Shard?
You would call it a perpendicularity, but there is not a Shard in residence on Yolen.
Do Vessels have any flexibility in expressing the intent of a Shard, particularly if the intent is open to many interpretations?
Yes they do. So, the Vessel's mind and how they perceive is going to have a large influence on how things are expressed and I think all of them have some wiggle room. But there are some deterministic things that are also going to push them. You know, holding Ruin, Harmony may not go down the same path that happened to Ati.
So Sadeas would express Honor differently than Tanavast?
Yes he would.
Have any other Shards been combined, like Harmony was combined?
That’s also a RAFO.
We know that Hoid was offered a Shard and turned it down. Was he offered a specific Shard?
He was. There is one of the Shards that he would've-- yeah.
Would he have been the 17th person or did someone take his place?
No. Someone took his place.
And... Fortune and Autonomy are Shards? Yes, no?
RAFO.
If Calamity were a Shard in the Cosmere, what intent would he be?
Oh boy... Oh boy. Have you read this book?
I have not read Calamity yet?
I don't want to spoil it. Um... *pause* Yeah, I don't really want to spoil it. But it's kind of-- it's like "Vindictiveness" would probably be a good match. This-- Or "Judgement". Maybe Judgement. Calamity's got this impression that people will destroy themselves if he lets them. Does that make sense?
Yeah.
So it's not either one of those, but it's something close to that.
If a Shard wanted to affect another Shard’s magic system, would they need to Invest themselves in the world, or can they just kind of show up and do things?
“Affect their magic system”? What do you mean by that?
So for Roshar, let’s say additional Surges or modified Surges. For Scadrial different metals. For Nalthis--
That would require more than just showing up.
Do all shards have a number they're associated with?
Some do, (most/some) don't.
i have an 'all the shards' question. Is how they obtain the Shards the first time affect what kind of magic their investiture effects?
That's a RAFO.
Does each Shard have the same quantity or quality of Investiture?
Um, yes. They were equal proportions originally, how about that.
Does a Shard's power being manifested either physically or not (through metals vs through light) have anything to do with its individual abilities/powers?
RAFO. :)
Cultivation, Ruin, and Preservation seem like aspects of Adonalsium's cosmic nature rather than personality traits like other Shards. Is there a fourth Shard that is cosmic in nature?
I think they all are cosmic in nature. Even Honor, like you could say that's a personality trait, I don't think it is, I think it's a cosmic sense of justice and order, if that makes sense. We're phrasing it as a personality trait but that's not really what it is. There are those who would argue that the Shard of Honor is what makes things fall to the ground when you drop them and obey natural laws.
Assuming the Dawnshards each represent four Shards, and considering their Intents seem to be similar, are Endowment, Cultivation, and Ruin all from the same category? Are they all Change Shards?
Oh, I get what you're saying. I'm going to RAFO that for now.
Can Odium change written word on Roshar like Ruin could on Scadrial?
*apprehensive* This is not really a thing that Odium does. Um, yea.
If a Splintered Shard is somehow reformed, is it possible to change the word that expresses its Intent?
Yes, but that's a very implausible thing depending on how... so, you're getting into some weird Cosmere stuff here. Most of the ways that these different Shards could manifest could be described differently. Odium is trying very hard to describe his Shard as something different, and there's an argument there. But it depends on if you're like actually changing it or if you just want to call it something different. You could just call Odium Hatred and it's not going to change anything, but if you wanted to change Odium to mean Passion like Odium thinks that it means, then that's more difficult.
I was actually wondering, the epigraphs for The Way of Kings, that were talking about how the various Shardholders [Vessels] are influenced by their Shards over time—how does that impact someone like Harmony, with multiple shards?
The main effect it's having on Harmony right now is the inability to act sometimes, because his two sides are pushing, and so he is having trouble being proactive. It'd take a long time before it really becomes manifest, but he's had several hundred years, so it's starting to have an effect.