Found 278 entries in 0.307 seconds.
Was it necessary that Adonalsium split into sixteen Shards, or was it happenstance?
I will RAFO that one.
Would the number or intents have been different, if there were more or less people?
That's all wrapped up in that RAFO. Let's say it's conceivable that the split could have happened in different ways.
Do the Shards know each others' weaknesses? Like the metal blindness or anything?
They are not aware of every specific, but they know generalities.
So they know that they do have weaknesses.
Yeah.
So would Odium have taken advantage of Honor's weakness to Splinter him?
You could say that, yeah.
Do all the shards have a 'secondary' imperative of some degree, to create?
You could say this.
Is all Investiture in the cosmere associated with a Shard?
Yes, well, okay. So this is a complicated one. *pauses* So, Investiture predates the Shattering of Adonalsium, all Investiture was from Adonalsium, all Investiture got assigned to one of the 16 Shards when Adonalsium was Shattered. Some of the Investiture was not on Yolen but location is irrelevant. So Investiture is related to Shards even on planets where none of the Shards are inhabiting.
Are they aware of that Investiture?
That's part of the whole seeing into the infinite, being beyond even the power of a Shard. So, technically you could make the argument that Harmony could feel the sense of Preservation on every world in the cosmere, right? Because the building blocks of all life and creation are these things.
So the Shard of Preservation embodies all preservation in the cosmere?
Yes but he just can't do that, right? Like, he's not infinite. The Vessels are not, even if their minds are enormously expanded by holding a Shard, they are not infinite. The Connection is all there in the Spiritual Realm.
Is Hoid any of the Shards of Adonalsium?
Good question. He does not hold a Shard.
I was noticing that some of the Aons from Elantris, have similar names to the Surges on Roshar. Like there's an Aon for Cohesion, which is a Surge. Does that have anything to do with each other?
Vaguely, yes.
What about the ones with the names of Shards, like Endowment, which is a Shard.
Mmhmm.
Those are related?
Yes.
What do they have to do with each other?
It's a tangential relationship.
We're aware by now of eight of the sixteen Shards (Devotion, Dominion, Ruin, Preservation, Endowment, Honor, Odium and Cultivation) and seven of the ten core Shardworlds (the Dragonsteel world, Roshar, Scadrial, Nalthis, Sel, the White Sand world and The Silence Divine world). Given that you now how we love to obsessively speculate based on only the tiniest of information, and also given that it seems an endless source of amusement to you that we do, would you perhaps like to tease us with a smidgen of information about one of the remaining eight Shards or the three remaining Shardworlds?
Ha. If I give you this, what will you speculate on in the future? :) I hate to do this, but I'm going to RAFO that one for now. Sorry.
How do you decide what concepts become Shards?
It took a little bit of work. I basically brainstormed a bunch of attributes of deity that most people had in their religions and see which ones will adapt well to being these concepts.
If Sazed got bored one day, could he split the two Shards he has?
Read And Find Out.
So for right now, there are fifteen Shards?
Right now, there are sixteen Shards, but fifteen Vessels. Well, not even that, 'cause, you know.
Is a Shard's influence of power based on Physical distance, Cognitive distance, something else, or does it vary from Shard to Shard?
It varies, but is definitely more Physical.
Are there requirements to join the Seventeenth Shard, and would they accept, for lack of a better term, a non-enhanced member?
Yes and yes... Baon is not Invested...
What would they not like? 'Cause, like, we know they don't like Hoid, and what he's doing-- *laughter*
They do like what Khriss is doing, alright? This is an acceptable thing to them.
...What about when people start integrating themselves with a culture, is that gonna make problems?
They would prefer that people didn't do that.
So not Vasher?
Not Va-- Vasher is very far from being Seventeenth Shard. *laughter* So very far.
Would you say they are a community of scholars?
They are a community-- They are not all scholars, so I would not say that. I would say they are interested parties who do not want any planets to get destroyed.
So they're the Apocalypse Guard? *laughter*
No, they aren't really able to prevent these sorts of things. They're more like the-- Oh what do they call them in DC? The Watchers? ...But those guys are super powerful and stuff, so it's not like that. But you can imagine it's something like that. "We're watching, we're studying' we're investigating, and we're trying to prevent-- ...They're like Starfleet, right? They've got some Starfleet stuff right? "We're gonna go research and study these people, but we shouldn't be involved." It's less about Prime Directive, and more about "What if something we do causes-- exacerbates the conflict between the Shards." The Shards split up for a reason, is what they think, right? Shards split up for a reason, they should continue to be split up, we should not dabble in bringing them together.
Can you tell us which Shard is with the new story?
This is a world that does not currently have a Shard.
Other Shards, other than Odium and Cultivation, can take physical form, right?
Yes.
Are there any Shards that can't?
No.
Could Ruin have taken physical form in The Well of Ascension?
So, yes. What it really counts to be physical, for someone like a Shard, is subject to debate, but he could have done some of the things that others have done. There were certain restrictions on both Ruin and Preservation, because of the deal that they had set up, that would not have made doing that very useful. But there is possibility he could have.
You mentioned that you thought Rithmatist was gonna in the Cosmere. Did you have a Shard in mind?
Very early on, I did. But I won't tell you who it was. It it not a Shard we've seen. If I ever do write Rithmatist 2, you might be able to piece it together. Though I'm, in revisions of the outline, really trying to push it away from where it was originally, so it will have a distinctive feel of its own. So I'm trying to write out some of the cosmere elements. But this is one of those things that, if I write it out too much, it just won't match with the first book. So I have to be okay with some of the sort of cosmere relationships.
If Ruin and Preservation could become Harmony, could any of the other Shards combine?
Yes, although they would have different names.
So, the sixteen Shards. Is it possible that there are more than sixteen, yet they do not know of them?
This would be possible but I'll just go ahead and tell you no there aren't. *laughter* That'll stop a lot of theorizing, though it is possible that Shards have been divided and things like this. And so you can call two subsets-- But it's kind of like there are twelve tribes of Israel. They became twelve other tribes of Israel. There were still twelve because two were the sons of one. Yeah, stuff like that.
What is Odium's edge? Vin and Ati killed each other, but Rayse has downed 3 shards and survived. Was it skill, ability, numbers or possibly un-dispersed power?
Some combination of the above.
Can Shards travel backwards in time?
Anything is possible.
Who in-world named the Intents of the Shards? Is it possible that they misinterpreted the name in any case, and that the Intent is not fully in line with the name we know?
This is possible. Right, this is absolutely possible. I mean you have context for this with Odium kind of claiming that it's not the right name for Odium. Others would disagree, but Odium has tried, aggressively, to change that name. I will say, you could make the argument, well, Odium just is bucking the trend and this is actually who Odium is. It is possible. Which is why Odium would try to get that name changed. These are imperfect definitions of ideas, as most words are. Those ideas could be misinterpreted.
Could a Deception Shard be out there calling itself something else, and none would be the wiser?
None being the wiser would be real hard. The other Shards knowing but other people not knowing could happen. It would be pretty hard for the Shards to not know, but it is within the realm of possibility. How about that?
Can Shards lie anytime they want to other than when bound by oaths and such?
Yes. Anytime they want to might be a little... But that caveat you put on there: there are instances where they can't. But you should assume they are able to more often than not. I'm sure we've seen instances of it in multiple places in the books. Their duty to randos, as we might say, is much less than interacting with one another.
This is a bit of a technical question, but if somehow Sazed were to die and another Shard picked up Harmony, what would happen to their intent.
It would be influenced by them over time, but they would be influenced more by it.
Rayse (Odium) was very methodical with the order in which he went after other Shards. Hypothetically if he'd visited the Rosharan system all those years ago but managed to avoid being trapped and was able to continue his mission right away, which of the known Shards would've been next up on Rayse's hit list?
He expected Ruin to implode. So he might have gone for Autonomy, double crossing them.
*written* Could a Shard refuse to "fuel" a magic user? E.g. Could Preservation have refused to "fuel" Ham's pewter? (Please, for the question, assume Preservation is whole and undamaged.)
*written* No, but he could have interfered.
*spoken* So, the answer is "no, he couldn't." Like, if you just had the Allomancy going, like--
They can't shut you off?
They can't shut you off, but they can interfere with you using it. They could do other things. But, like, the magic, it would be like saying, "I refuse to let gravity work on this person."
But couldn't a Shard-- Technically, they can control forces--
No, they can't, but they can interfere with it, does that make sense? ...Gravity is not gone, but this person is being interfered with and their relationship to these sorts of things.
Kind of like if I throw your pen in the air, gravity's not gone, but I've interfered with something.
Yes, exactly. And you can, like, twist the gravity, so it's pointing... But the laws of natures, burning is, like, a law of nature, and things like that. And they can circumvent, and they can twist, and they can bend, but the laws of nature are still the laws of nature.
They can't just cut it off?
Yeah.
Can a Shard and its holder be separated without the holder dying?
Yes.
A Couple of Small Notes
Yes, Demoux survives, as I promised to Micah. Also, Ruin—like Preservation—dropped a body when he died. This is important, but I can't give you a decent explanation of why that is at the moment.
We've seen different Shards have different prophetic abilities--
Yes.
Is this a result of the Shard itself, the wielder, or a combination of the two.
More the Shard.
I know about Harmony but is it possible for like two Shards to procreate and make a brand new Shard?
That is a Read And Find Out. Assume I'm not hiding too much from you in that realm, but there will be some fiddly bits as we go further in the cosmere about stuff like that.
