The Ultimate Shard

[Staterus]

If Odium ever arrives on Scadrial and inevitably comes into conflict with Harmony, presumably Odium would attempt to splinter Harmony, meaning that Harmony would then split back into Ruin and Preservation. If Odium then saw the opportunity presented to him and took up Ruin as well, what would the result be... pure power with a will to kill everything? Ideas and names for this Fusion of shards would be appreciated!

 

[Farnsworth]

Woah! I find this pretty unlikely to actually happen, because it's unlikely they would be split up in exactly the same way. You'd get two shards with different attributes instead of Preservation and Ruin. Maybe Change and Staisis?

If it did happen, it would be awesome! Maybe the shard of destruction?

Edited May 19, 2017 by Figberts

[+Extesian]

It's highly unlikely he would. I know it was a hypothetical but in case you haven't seen this one-

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AUTARCHK (MARCH 2013)

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?

BRANDON SANDERSON

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.

NEPENE

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.

BRANDON SANDERSON

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

And Figberts is right, they are one Shard now and would tale something to split them apart. Could be possible though. 

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THANATOS17901 ()

Thanks so much for all your writing, Way of Kings is the best book I've read in the last decade.

If Sazed were to die, would he drop the shards Ruin and Preservation, or would he drop the shard Harmony?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Excellent question. The shards are now intermingled, and would take effort to split apart. He would drop Harmony. (This is what Odium feared would happen, by the way.

As for a name, I'd call it Malevolence. Like hatred but with an element of intent to hurt. 

[CosmereQuestioner]

2 hours ago, Figberts said:

Woah! I find this pretty unlikely to actually happen, because it's unlikely they would be split up in exactly the same way. You'd get two shards with different attributes instead of Preservation and Ruin. Maybe Change and Staisis?

 

Actually I asked Brandon about this for a book customization and he wrote that "Almost anything is possible, but it is very unlikely harmony would split into anything other than ruin/preservation."

[Staterus]

7 hours ago, Figberts said:

Woah! I find this pretty unlikely to actually happen, because it's unlikely they would be split up in exactly the same way. You'd get two shards with different attributes instead of Preservation and Ruin. Maybe Change and Staisis?

If it did happen, it would be awesome! Maybe the shard of destruction?

But isn't Ruin technically already the shard of destruction?

[Yata]

33 minutes ago, TheLerasiumFerring said:

But isn't Ruin technically already the shard of destruction?

Yeah destruction is a face of Ruin. It's not only destruction but it's probably the nearest one

[+Extesian]

1 hour ago, TheLerasiumFerring said:

But isn't Ruin technically already the shard of destruction?

Ruin is more like decay. It's an embodiment of entropy. Entropy/decay/ruin does destroy things, but I feel a Shard if destruction sounds more like actively rapidly reducing things to nothing. Ruin seemed to want it to happen more naturally. He didn't try to use his power once freed to suddenly destroy Scadrial, he accelerated its demise through ash and so on rather than just destroying all life in one hit. Well  that's sort of my head-Canon

[Zmaray]

If Odium saw ruin and preservation, he would see two shard vessels who are still a threat to his own power and attempt to split them further.

Has Odium ever tries to take up another shard to augment his own?

[Yata]

1 hour ago, Gudbrand said:

If Odium saw ruin and preservation, he would see two shard vessels who are still a threat to his own power and attempt to split them further.

Has Odium ever tries to take up another shard to augment his own?

Odium doesn't want to be Influenced by other Shards' intents. He is fine with his actual mindset

[Kered]

5 hours ago, Yata said:

Odium doesn't want to be Influenced by other Shards' intents. He is fine with his actual mindset

Yeah, but that was his motto before Harmony came into the picture. Brandon's stated Odium's feelings on the subject, he's afraid that something like this would happen. I think he has to change up his game plan now. At the very least, it's not out of the realm of possibility anymore.