Dragon13
Are there requirements to join the Seventeenth Shard, and would they accept, for lack of a better term, a non-enhanced member?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes and yes... Baon is not Invested...
Questioner 1
What would they not like? 'Cause, like, we know they don't like Hoid, and what he's doing-- *laughter*
Brandon Sanderson
They do like what Khriss is doing, alright? This is an acceptable thing to them.
Questioner 1
...What about when people start integrating themselves with a culture, is that gonna make problems?
Brandon Sanderson
They would prefer that people didn't do that.
Questioner 2
So not Vasher?
Brandon Sanderson
Not Va-- Vasher is very far from being Seventeenth Shard. *laughter* So very far.
Argent
Would you say they are a community of scholars?
Brandon Sanderson
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.
Questioner 3
So they're the Apocalypse Guard? *laughter*
Brandon Sanderson
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.