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Would you take a Shard? (General Spoilers)


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So there I was, thinking about the Cosmere, when the question came to me. If I had the opportunity to take one up, would I become a Shard? If so, which one would it be? This is the question I pose to all of you, hoping that this hasn't already been asked and I just can't find it under pages of Shard-related threads.

If you had the chance to become a Shard, to basically become a god at the cost of your own personality and mind, would you do it, and which shard would you choose to take? Most importantly of all: Why?

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Relatively eternal life and extra-human conditions seem pretty nice, but then there's the problem of being consumed by that shard's intent. Sazed seems to have gotten off lightly, with his pair of opposing shards allowing him to remain in control, from what I can tell. 

 

However, I would probably only take a shard if nobody else would. If it was forced upon me to take it, I would, and if I was allowed to choose, then perhaps I'd probably pick Devotion or Dominion.

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STORMS yes. Having one's personality and soul stripped away in exchange for vaguely defined semi-divine powers sounds like a spectacular deal. It would all be worth it as long as I get my own magic system. :)

In all seriousness though, Cultivation sounds like a pretty good Shard to hold from what we've heard.

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Relatively eternal life and extra-human conditions seem pretty nice, but then there's the problem of being consumed by that shard's intent. Sazed seems to have gotten off lightly, with his pair of opposing shards allowing him to remain in control, from what I can tell. 

But Sazed's personality kind of fits Harmony's intent...consider though that he hasn't held it that long in shardic terms (by Alloy). Give it a thousand years or so...

Anyways, I'd take up either Cultivation or Endowment. Really any shard that isn't "evil", though personally I think taking up a Shard is too much responsibility (and work). If there were no other choice, sure, but there are other ways in the cosmere to become basically immortal without losing myself in the process. Perhaps I'm merely too selfish. ;P

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Ruin would be fun, providing there was always a Preservation to back me up and keep me from doing too much damage. But what you have to remember is, at the heart of Ruin, it is change. Ruin is the catalytic Shard.

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Dominion.

 

A while back, it has to have been months ago, there were a few of us in the chat and we all changed our names to those of Shards because we could and I chose Dominion, because it fits with my personality the best.  I can be fairly bossy/controlling at times, sometimes I just want to do everything myself...  If I could have a second shard as well, it would probably be Preservation.

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Harmony. Because it's twice as powerful and it's basically distilled divine Zen. You might be driven to be more inactive and peaceful, sure, but that might be the best thing for a god-analogue to be. You could spend immortality collecting and distributing knowledge carefully to trigger growth of society and civilisation most beneficially.

Actually, that sounds more like Cultivation.

Still, Harmony for 2x power.

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I would first examine the current Shardholders to see how long approximately it takes for a Shard to begin visibly warping a Holder's personality to fit its Intent.  I'd shave a hundred years off that just to be on the safe side, and take up Shard for that long and then willingly relinquish it to a handpicked successor.  After leaving myself a way to access my Shard's magic system as a Sliver and gift myself with immortality that way a la The Lord Ruler.

 

Of the currently known Shards I'd probably take Cultivation.  Though if Invention (or a close synonym) is revealed to be a Shard, as I strongly suspect one will be revealed to be, I'd take that one.

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If I had to take up one of the shards it'd have to be either a minor shard (not one of the big ones), though personally I'd prefer to be a splinter if anything. As for which one? I imagine there is a piece of intent out there that stands for Hope...

 

But of the big 16... Cultivation or Dominion sound like good choices, in that order.

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It might be possible to reduce the influence of a Shard substantially.

 

Create dozens/ hundreds of clones of yourself and seed them around the world with minor powers, and several immortal backup clones. Create some sort of memory transfer magic. Every hundred years pick one of your clones who is worthy and grant them your powers, switch with them.

 

And then you'll never be massively influenced by your immense investiture. 

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Unfortunately you don't get to "create" the magics, they are a combination of the planet, the Shard's power and the Realmatics...

I'd first take Harmony, 2x power and Divine Zen is pretty cool. Then either Honor, Endowment or Cultivation. I don't like being the bad guy.

Edited by Green Hoodie Mistborn
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Unfortunately you don't get to "create" the magics, they are a combination of the planet, the Shard's power and the Realmatics...

I'd first take Harmony, 2x power and Divine Zen is pretty cool. Then either Honor, Endowment or Cultivation. I don't like being the bad guy.

 

We actually have no idea how much influence Shard's have over their magic systems.  All we know from Brandon is that they don't have total control of how things work, as it involves all of the factors you list, but we have no idea what that means.  For instance, the part they have no control over could be what medium their Investiture is imbued in (ie metals on Scadrial, forms on Sel).  But other than that, we know Preservation definitely had a fair amount of influence over allomancy, between snapping, his mists, the rule of sixteen, etc, all of which were deliberate tweaks done to suit his agenda.  We have no idea how much he did or didn't have to do with what alloys access what powers, and so on.

Edited by ROSHtaFARian2.0
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Unfortunately you don't get to "create" the magics, they are a combination of the planet, the Shard's power and the Realmatics...

I'd first take Harmony, 2x power and Divine Zen is pretty cool. Then either Honor, Endowment or Cultivation. I don't like being the bad guy.

http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=622

 

One of the 'basics' of the magic in all of the worlds is that the energy of Shards can fuel all kinds of interactions, not just interactions based on their personality/role. I did this because otherwise, the Magics would all be extremely limited.

The 'role' of the Shard has to do with the WAY the magic is obtained, not what it can do. So, in Preservation's case, the magic is a gift—allowing a person to preserve their own strength, and rely upon the strength granted by the magic. While Hemalurgy has a huge cost, ending in net entropy.

 

That is a general rule he has mentioned. A shard can do many sorts of magics, not just what the planet says.

 

There will of course be some limitations, like Honor being unable to see the future clearly, Ruin being unable to hear thoughts, but I doubt that any of them will be unable to do their basic godly duties, like creating humans or have no way to transfer memories.

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http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=622

 

 

That is a general rule he has mentioned. A shard can do many sorts of magics, not just what the planet says.

 

There will of course be some limitations, like Honor being unable to see the future clearly, Ruin being unable to hear thoughts, but I doubt that any of them will be unable to do their basic godly duties, like creating humans or have no way to transfer memories.

 

Totally derailing this topic, but I agree they can transfer memories, that is essentially what Tanavast is doing with Dalinar and the visions afterall. 

 

I guess I was having a misunderstanding between myself and your post. I read it and thought you were talking about a shard creating a system of magics that the people of that world could access. But it now seems like you mean "magics the Shard can set up for itself outside of the system humans can access"? If so, then I agree!

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Given Brandon's comments on allomancy, I suspect a shard has some degree of freedom to manipulate the magic system. But no, I was just talking about making a giant coppermind somewhere or something.

 

I think I know which shard I would take. Odium. I can take his hate into myself and stop his destruction. Work with Hoid to better the cosmere.

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I'd like to point out that interpreting the Shard's intent only seems to work for so long. Brandon doesn't consider Ruin to be Ati, for example. Maybe there was a time when he was Ati, heavily corrupted by Ruin, but still able to bend the intent to his own desires, but he is now Ruin, pure and unadulterated. Eventually there comes a time when there's simply not enough of you left to command the shard.

Honestly I can't help but wonder if this is the point of a Shard. They can't function well enough on their own, lacking a Cognitive aspect. Once taken, their will is bent. In time, however, everybody becomes a part of the Shard, not a wielder, but the tool itself.

Anyways, tangent. From what we've seen, there's no real way to fight off Shardic influence. If you give the thing up, I actually think that the corruption might be permanent. Like, if Ati dropped Ruin for a century or two, he'd probably still be a complete and utter psycho, his cognitive aspect warped beyond natural repair. Even with the clone idea, it technically isn't even you who holds the shard, it's a copy of yourself. The question isn't whether or not you'd like to hold a shard long enough to enjoy godhood, but short enough to not be corrupted. It's whether or not it's worth it to hold a shard for as long as it takes to fade away entirely, and then a few more centuries to boot. Is the power worth to complete and utter loss of self, even to a concept that is "good" or "better than the rest"?

EDIT: -_- And as usual the instant I post all of my line breaks stop existing.

Edited by Observer
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That may have been because Ati was trapped in the Well of Ascension and unable to do much. Still, my plan is there to reduce that corruption.

 

 If you give the thing up, I actually think that the corruption might be permanent.

 

 

I agree, hence why you only get to be a shard for a short time.

 

Upon deshardification the sliver would be given the option of dying a natural death, or visiting other worlds with a temporary loan of power to allow them to become a new hoid. I wouldn't want them to take much of my power away to another planet, but they could certainly use my power to find lerasium or become an elantrian or whatnot.

 

Even with the clone idea, it technically isn't even you who holds the shard, it's a copy of yourself.

 

 

Well, I do hold the shard. Just not forever. The opening statement made no requirement of you holding the shard forever.

 

Sometimes the best thing you can do is let it go. Not try to extend life to the point of corruption and insanity.

 

To the well-organised mind, death is but the next great adventure.

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