Sjsharks93

Yeah, Brandon's answer to me seemed like he had heard of the theory and was messing with fans

I think there needs to be sapience to truly become a Vessel. From looking through some WoB's, Brandon never outright says it, but he makes it seem like it would need to at least be something alive. He does say that the power of a Shard left alone long enough will start to develop a consciousness similar to the Stormfather (although he has cognitive shadow weirdness going on too) My theory would be that you would get something similar to Nightblood, a sentient object with the desire to fulfil it's intent

Potentially? I think it would depend on how long the Vessel held the Shard. The only "Person" we know to have held a Shard and given it up without going to the great beyond is Kelsier, and he may not have had it long enough to make changes. IMO it would take almost as long to reverse any changes as it took to make them. The closest parallel we have is that we know Hoid held a Dawnshard at some point (although no clue how long or how long ago) and he is permanently changed by it (he can't hurt people or even eat meat.)

The Shards are more Brandon's ideas of what the aspects of the almighty would be broken apart. Also they can only ignore the Intent for so long before it begins to warp them. Ati was said to be a gentle man before Ruin warped him.

As for why Hoid didn't switch the blade, I think it is a respect thing. The Heralds are some of the few people in the Cosmere that Hoid really respects.

Fortune is not a Shard, it is kind of a spiritual property that allows you to see into the future, among other things. As for the question, it is a really good one. I think I mostly agree with the posts above, but seeing where people differ in opinion is fascinating. Each Vessel will view their Shard's intent differently, and that could change how they act overall

I would guess the enlightened spren have a little more intelligence than basic windspren. Kaladin specifically comments on windspren not being very smart, so I don't think they would make great spies. As for control of the plate spren, I see no reason Jasnah wouldn't be able to control them. Kal is just more focused on protecting others so he tries some different things

Along with the answer above, metalminds have a limited amount of space, and the smaller the metalmind the less space it has

At first, only 10 of your friends are allowed over. Then you torture them until one of them breaks and everyone else is allowed in. Or for a more realistic idea, you get one person to be your Wit and sit at the door and insult everyone as they come in.

I think a big difference here could come from the intentions of the Shards found on all sides of these conflicts. On Scadrial you have Preservation trying to fight off Ruin, but Preservation doesn't fight. That isn't in it's nature. It can't truly fight back against Ruin any more than it already has. Honor and Cultivation (or at least the powers set up by them) don't have any problems like that. Both are willing to help fight, and have taken a much more direct hand in the fighting with the Radiants and the Heralds both being created as a way to specifically fight the forces of Odium. And like you said, Odium didn't want to destroy the world. Even when we thought the sole goal of the voidbringers was to wipe out humanity, he still wanted a world to be left for his followers. Ruin is specifically trying to destroy everything, and he doesn't have any followers to leave anything behind for. And even if he did his very nature would make him want to destroy anyways.

Oops, my bad. The second person I responded to posted right as I did and I couldn't figure out editing in a new quote. Favorite hat is a tough one, but let's go with a beanie. I'm not normally one for hats but will always throw one on if it gets cold enough!

While it would be interesting to see Brandon's take on a truly soft system, I wouldn't want it to be in the Cosmere. One of the things I love most about the Cosmere is that it has defined rules that make sense, and this is something Brandon seems to care about too. I could see Whimsy having a system with shifting rules and maybe even bending rules, but part of the Cosmere is that there are real rules that even Shards (maybe even especially shards) can't break.

I will add to this that Nightblood is an awakened solid object, and it cant do much on it's own. There might be one time it slightly unsheathes itself, but I haven't read Warbreaker in a while. Either way it has a command it badly wants to fulfil and it can't do anything alone.

That is very interesting that it seems to be different for different people. Since we know that Hoid I guess you could add all the torture to the insanity of the Heralds too.

I had always assumed that (Warbreaker) Although he may not be old enough for it to matter yet.

I have to go with WoR here. Amazing climax and the duel is probably my favorite scene in the Cosmere

Oh that's a tough one. Probably Teft, his whole arc really speaks to me. I also really like Breeze, and appreciate him helping in his own way.

Yeah, that's fair. Do we know how long it takes for the mind to start to break? Like is it in the 100s of years or the 1000s

Huh, this does bring up an interesting point. Why haven't the shards done anything to help here? We know that spren can't help with the insanity, because Nale is a Skybreaker and very insane. Unless he bonded his spren after his mind broke, which would really just make me judge the spren more.

Aux is very different from honorspren we know in a few ways, behavior, abilities, and of course naming. My theory for why is that Aux is an enlightened honorspren turned deadeye, and this is giving all sorts of weird powers. Thoughts?

Yeah them being protected would make sense, seeing as how spren can prevent their radiants from the negative effects. I would assume Shards can do at least that much.

Would it be reasonable to assume that all of the Singers (and probably all of the Heralds) are savants, from the lifetimes of using their powers? Or would the changes that come be reset through each rebirth? I'm curious to get the thoughts of others.

I believe there is a WoB somewhere that says a Nahel bond can be stolen, but then you run into the issue of Spren being intelligent (and articulate) beings. They have the ability to break the bond still Edit: Found the WoB

The Sibling is the only character I can think of off the top of my head

Qui-Gon is a cognitive shadow confirmed