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We know Slivers can choose to stay Cognitive Shadows for however long they want instead of going to the Beyond. But would this apply to Vin and Ati after they collided Shards? Before Secret History, I thought that their minds had automatically gone to the Beyond after the collision. But Secret History shows this didn’t happen and based on what we know of Slivers, they should retain their powers post collision This also creates another question. Let’s say no one besides Vin and Ati were around Preservation and Ruin post collision. Could they just run over to their Shards and get back in the driver’s seat? If they did, would they be able to replace their missing bodies? Would they be even weaker than other Shards by being bodiless Vessels? And for that matter, if two Shards are of perfectly equal power, can a Vessel with more mass or whatever equivalent in spirt and mind gain an advantage over the other? Kinda like how two people burning pewter cancel out? I’d think that even if you could convert mass, Shards require more to shift their relative power levels. Like having two lakes and saying that adding a cup of water to one makes it bigger.

The Lord Ruler called himself "The Sliver of Infinity" and this apparently wasn't an empty title. A Sliver is different from someone with a lot of Investiture, they are something greater, or at least they were. Now they are their mortal selves, but they have changed. What exactly makes someone a Sliver? And how would we know a Sliver if we saw one? Here is the transcript of the text: First I must make one thing clear, I have no idea if my interaction with Shard Pools has changed me. I am not so desperate for answers that I would resolve to testing. Understand that I respect your urgency, but just because I experienced something unique doesn’t mean that I have any understanding of what actually happened. As I recall, even our mutual friend was quite perplexed with my condition. However, I am nearly positive that I have nothing in common with a Sliver. Slivers are a topic that is frustratingly vague I wonder if I have the capacity to explain it. As I stated in my last letter, I had hoped that there was more detailed information available to you on this subject. The stories of men and women with insurmountable powers, or who held them at one point, are deceptively plentiful among the Cosmere, yet lack the details or verification that I would need to form meaningful conclusions. It seems that power alone does not make someone a Sliver. Investiture may be a part of it, but I don’t know if there is a point where a physical being can accumulate enough Investiture in order to become a Sliver. Yet in the few documented cases that we have accounted for in The Words of Founding, we still don’t get a clear picture of what exactly makes a Sliver. Let’s start with the Lord Ruler. We know that he wielded a great power when he reached the Well of Ascension. This power let him shape the world according to his will. The Lord Ruler created life, and altered people without them even knowing what had happened. He touched the power of a Shard and came out the other side a changed man. After this event he called himself the Sliver of Infinity. This might have been just an ego title fueled by his hubris, but his example sets a good precedent for what a Sliver is. So from this point, I will look to the life of the Lord Ruler as a reference point. Before we go any farther, I must point out that the Well of Ascension was not just a collection of Investiture. It is a shard pool, which is to say it was a part of a Shard’s body. Body is the traditional term, but it’s more like the Power and Essence of a Shard which is far more than just Investiture. When someone takes in Investiture, pure investiture, they receive power. From the accounts of the Ascended Warrior we learned that the Power of the Well wasn’t just Investiture, it was knowledge, mind expansion, and capacity to use that Investiture beyond the confines of human capabilities. Notice how the actions performed by The Lord Ruler had no resemblance to Allomancy, Feruchemy, or Hemalurgy. He learned of these arts intimately, but it was not by their power that he moved mountains. This power is far greater in scope and is not limited to the metallic arts. To help offer a frame of reference, I wish to point out an example of someone who seems to exemplify the distinction between a sliver and a highly invested individual. After the Many War, the God Kings of Halandrin carried and passed on an incredible collection of Bio-Chromatic Breath. Breath is a form of innate Investiture found in each individual on Nalthis. They can give this breath to another, and the collection of Breath in a person increases their capacity and physical abilities. Hold enough breath and you can extend your life, or awaken inanimate objects, giving them temporary life. The God King holds tens of thousands of Breaths, possibly making him the most invested person I have ever observed. However, I do not think that this makes him a Sliver. This breath is so immense; it is unclear what specific powers he has access to. This power derives from Investiture that is natural. From my reports, the breath does not grant knowledge or Creation powers. The powers of the God King are immense, but they still follow the order of Awakening, and do not allow him to alter the planet itself. The Breath does seem to impart powerful knowledge of Awakening instinctively at this level, but I feel that this is still not an expansion of the mind, but more a heightened awareness of things known to the subconscious. The God King is not a Sliver as far as I can tell. Yet there is something mysterious about the origins of the Returned. I think I will do more research into this topic, but the Returned of Nalthis, the Spren of Roshar, and the Seons on Elantris seem to share common elements. However, these things are not Slivers in the context of this conversation. As near as I can tell, a sliver is a person who held the power of a Shard, but gave up or lost the power, leaving them deflated. My guess is that this would cause a permanent change in the individual, but how this change would manifest in indeterminable. The incredible powers of the Lord Ruler are more or less explained by compounding. Without another who possesses the abilities of the Lord Ruler, I cannot say if there was any measured growth in his abilities. Without more data, I have nothing more than vague speculations to work off of. I know that this is not what you are hoping for, but I believe it is obvious that there is little that I can learn about Slivers at the moment. Even with my unique history, my interaction with coalesced investiture, I feel that I would not qualify to understand even the slightest part of what a Sliver is. Perhaps someday we will see and account for more Slivers. For now, we shall have to set aside this line of reasoning. As noted before, this research has led me to another classification that I feel I am more capable of reporting about. Splinters are quite fascinating, especially when we examine the similarities that exist between Splinters and Hemalergic Spikes. Until the next letter, Elsric

Wax used the Bands of Mourning tapping amazing amount of Investiture from its reserves, at the point he began to see the true structure of the Cosmere. We know that someone become a Sliver after keep an huge amount of power, the power expands his soul and when the power was there no more, it leave some residual. We know also that a Lerasium Mistborn is near of the amount of power needed to become a Sliver (from a WoB). Therefore, may Wax and Marasi have becomed Slivers ? Any idea ?

I just finished a reread of all of Mistborn and in HoA, I came across an interesting line. “Preservation’s power remains, for power cannot be destroyed. His mind however, was all but destroyed-for this was the sacrifice he made to imprison Ruin.” “The sliver remains,” another reminded. “The shadow of self.” “Yes,” Haddek said. “But that is not Preservation, just an image-a remnant…” (The Hero of Ages Hardback pg. 507 Lines 1 and 3 added for context and emphasis is mine.) And I got to thinking… What is the connection to Shadows of Self? Is there a connection? Is book 5’s title a reference to Leras, Rashek, Kelsier, or Vin? Or all four? Or not of Preservation at all but of Ruin? Is Ati’s mind out their somewhere? Maybe somebody else? I’m gonna feel dumb it this has already been posted and explained. By the way, this is my first post so, howdy all!

I have some Questions regarding Divine Breath. When a Returned heals someone, does that person get the Divine Breath? Or does it Dissipate after healing them. If a person gets to keep the Divine breath, could they awaken with it? If they Awaken it, will it dissipate after a week? If they Awaken with it, can they Draw it back? What would happen if a Returned used the one-breath Command and his Breath to Awaken a Lifeless? Is there a Limited number of Divine breaths that Endownenment can use at a Time. If a Returned with 2000 normal breaths (5th Heightening) awakened with a Divine breath, would the Other 200 breaths keep him alive? And one more Question that's not about Divine Breath. Could the God King awaken Multiple things with One command?

I don't know if any of this has been posited yet, but this idea fascinated me. I got really excited about the Stormfather in WoR. So here's my theory/speculation about him/it. He refers to himself as a sliver of Honor (well, of the Almighty, but same thing) multiple times: He also says: Now, we understand that a sliver is an entity that has held most of the power of a shard for a time then released it, examples being (spoilers for Mistborn) If the Stormfather is a sliver, then when did he hold the power of Honor? I believe that it was when Odium killed him. When Odium killed Honor, by which we really mean he killed Tanavast, the Stormfather, who was present somehow, took up the power, did something with it, then released it. I assume that Odium did something more than just kill Tanavast; it would be lazy to just let the power sit there. So maybe he and the Stormfather clashed or something, and that is when the Stormfather fled, as he said. Now, based on his name, the obvious relation between him and the storms, and what he says about it that I have quoted, I think that he threw Honor's power into the highstorm/s. I do not know when Honor was killed (before the Last Desolation, or whenever), or if the highstorm/s existed before his death. Either the Stormfather created the storm then with the power, or added it to what already existed. We have WoB that the highstorms are a combination of something meteorological and something magical (obviously, on the magic), so I guess that it is the second, that the Stormfather added the power to the already existing storms, making them much more violent, then he became the sliver, the remainder of the Almighty for humanity. There are numerous potential implications if this is all correct; about the nature of the spren, Stormlight, etc. I believe there must be a definite amount of Stormlight that is continually recycled by the highstorm/s. Is that the power of Honor himself? It would make sense. Another question is, What does this mean of spren, particularly bonding spren? They are very similar to Seons and Skaze on Sel, from what we know, splinters of Shardic power. Did they exist before the death of Honor? Could they have been part of what the Stormfather did with the power? These may all very well be questions that have been answered already, but I don't really feel like searching that hard. If all this has been posited already, feel free to ignore. If not, do you agree, or have anything to refute? Am I hopelessly wrong?

I was rereading The Hero of Ages and stumbled across this: It looks as though "shadow of self" is another term for Sliver. And what/who is the shadow being discussed by the Kandra in this context? The mist spirit Preservation? Might we see a Harmony-spirit wandering in the Elendel Basin soon?

Regarding the following quote I'm worried. Please bear with me for my befuddlement, the possibility that this question was brought up before (I didn't find anything), and the possibility that BS yet clarified my problem (I didn't find anything). That reads to me as if there are only "Slivers of Adonalsium," but there would be no Slivers of one of the sixteen Shards of Adonalsium. At the moment I understand Splinters and Slivers as kind of a "pair" of description. But with the above quote I likely think that that "pair" should be Slivers and Shards. edit: If I'd be right we'd have to adjust the coppermind article about Slivers.