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I've been thinking about this for a while, and I have an optimistic theory about Discord that I think is counter to the general community's consensus. I believe that Discord is what Sazed believes himself to be, rather than what he truly is. To explain myself further, I think it's pretty clear that Harmony/Discord is 1 shard, rather than 2 shards in one vessel. The 2 intents have combined, which is indicated by Harmony's godmetal being it's own separate thing rather than an alloy of Lerasium and Atium. I recognize that this itself is debatable, but I think I think it meshes best with the themes of Era 1, and with the idea of adonalisium itself. The shards are shards of Adonalsium, and when you put two together you now have 1, larger shard. Anyway, I propose that Sazed actually believes himself to be Discord, and that is what is causing his schism. This meshes well with his character in HOA, where he was very distraught and divided on who he was as a person. So now that he is a shard, I believe he is more unsure of himself than ever. I believe this is what translates into the properties of Harmonium, for instance. We know that Harmonium has its unstable properties because of the ruin and preservation within it fighting against each other. I don't think this is indicative of two shards in one vessel, but rather that Sazed believes in that war within himself. I think this is supported by the experiments done by the set, where they were only ever capable of annihilating the Harmonium, never separating it. Only Wax managed that, and it was only because he has the specific intent to do so (similar to ROW). My other main argument is intent of Discord itself. If Discord is the combination between to opposing shards like Ruin and Preservation, then this wouldn't be limited to just that combination. Mercy and Odium, for instance, could create Discord. We also have reason to believe that every shard comes with it's own opposing intent, so any combination of the two could create Discord. Meanwhile, Harmony could really only be created by Ruin and Preservation. Take Odium and Mercy. A supposed combination of the two could create a "harmony" between them, but I don't think you would name it Harmony. More likely it would be Restraint, to have godly anger but the mercy not to lash out. Harmony refers to the harmony of the world, to not destroy or maintain, but to have both together. To destroy the old to make way for better things. However I believe Sazed is worried that he can't actually be that harmony. I think he sees the conflict within himself, and extends that to conflict in the shard. He is worried about harmony, and tends to slip into simple preservation, not doing anything and hoping everything works out on its own, fearing anything else to be disharmonic. In effect, his definition of Harmony is wrong, that perhaps it means for any good thing to occur, some equal amount of bad must come with it. And because he doesn't want anything bad to happen, he fights against what he believes Harmony is, hoping that the intent won't push him to destroy when he doesn't want to. While in reality, he fights against Harmony itself, which creates the Discord between himself and the Intent of the Shard. Essentially I think Sazed needs therapy.

Problem: Sazed is losing control of his Shard because he's out of balance from trying to be more Preservation-y than Ruin-y. Fact: Ruin's signature trick was altering the written word. Solution: Make words appear. Lots of words. Lots and lots of words. Every time someone throws out a scrap of paper, Harmony can write "Saze wuz here" up and down both sides. Every time someone scribbles something rude on a restroom stall, Harmony can change it to a Pathian proverb. Alleyway graffiti can migrate from wall to wall, correcting its spelling and grammar in the process. Sazed can continue the Words of Founding-- The Further Thoughts of God on Everything, Volume LXIII-- in any discarded book. He can write the Great Scadrialian Novel. He can write the Terrible Scadrialian Novel, if that appeases his inner Ruin more. He can write fanfic for A Hero for All Ages. He can (again, if he needs to use up some extra Ruin) write disturbing, badly-spelled TenSoon-centric smutfic for A Hero for All Ages. I cannot see any flaws in this logic and I expect Harmony to start on his writing career immediately. You're welcome, Sazed.

We see that Harmony is being followed around by a sometimes-visible, sometimes-not shadowy ‘other self’ that mirrors him. The ‘other self’ is called Discord. - The Lost Metal, chapter 66 - The Lost Metal, Kelsier’s epilogue So, putting the pieces together, a clear picture emerges of what’s going on here: Harmony is struggling to reconcile the differences between Ruin and Preservation. Sazed wants to remain Harmony, and maintain a kind of equilibrium to protect Scadrial. But he’s losing ground, and he’s getting closer and closer to becoming a different version of his Shard: Discord. This would mean dealing with the conflict between Ruin and Preservation differently (not ‘controlling’ it in the same way). The Intent of Sazed’s Shard would change from Harmony to Discord. That’s what we know, or can reasonably infer, so far. Here’s my weird speculation: what if Discord is actually not a bad thing? The imagery we have for Discord is shadowy and ominous, but what if that’s misleading? Dark doesn’t mean evil. Discord hasn’t shown up yet, so the only reason we have to feel concerned is that Sazed is fighting against it - and much as Sazed is a great guy, his judgement is not the greatest right now. On the other hand, Harmony has given us plenty of reason to feel concerned. He lies and withholds information when he shouldn’t. The whole Lessie incident was very troubling. He very nearly failed to protect Scadrial from Autonomy, and doesn’t seem able to understand what went wrong or how to fix it. He worries (with good reason) that his way of handling the Catacendre was not good for the development of Scadrian society, but again, he doesn’t seem able to course-correct. Most of Harmony’s flaws stem from a difficulty in taking action. He’s being pulled in two directions, so instead of acting decisively, he dithers, delegates and exerts subtle influence. Instead of making necessary changes, he desperately clings to the status quo. This doesn’t look like something Sazed can improve or work on - it’s inherent to the Intent of the Shard. That’s just how Harmony is. Which is a problem, given the threats facing Scadrial. What if Discord is what Scadrial needs? What if, instead of maintaining the equilibrium, there were a better way to resolve the conflict between Ruin and Preservation? One that uses the conflict as a driving force, maybe, so that the Shard can still take action while avoiding the worst excesses of Ruin and Preservation. Discord could be much more suited to lead Scadrial into the cosmere’s space age than Harmony. And if Discord causes some discord on Scadrial? I think people, and society, can handle discord. Thoughts? Am I totally wrong about Harmony and Discord? Or have I cracked the code?

Nightblood contains at least some portion of Ruin's Investiture, and based off it's color and command, I'd venture to say that it actually converts other forms of investiture into Ruin's investiture. But Nightblood can't hold all that investiture, so it leaks away...where? Back to the spiritual realm, where all investiture eventually goes. But if that happens, would that then make that extra Ruin-converted investiture eventually find it's way to the shard of Ruin itself? And by doing so, could that lead to an imbalance of Harmony's powers, thus starting to turn him into Discord? Maybe this is one of the big reasons why Sazed is now finding it harder and harder to act; his powers are now longer in balance.

So... Discord! Yay! Want to have a crazy conversation with me? Go right ahead. I'll try not to mentally self-edit. You start the conversation.

Two weeks ago, we started an anonymous poll where we asked you, the users, to judge us, the mods! Now that two weeks have passed, we have pored over the results to discover the answers to what are clearly the most pressing questions we could have - who's the people's favourite moderator? Who's the most terrifying? And what did anonymous user #78 have for breakfast the day they filled out the poll? (it was a turkey sandwich, apparently) All in all, 146 users have given us their answers over the course of fourteen days that the poll was up - assuming we didn't have anyone answering the poll multiple times. Two people have decided to leave their polls blank for some reason, so: here are 17th Shard's opinions on the staff as represented by 144 people. Quality of moderation on the Shard The first three questions were focused on general opinion on the staff: in short, are we doing a good job? Well, in your opinion, it seems that we are! A 1 here meant we were doing terribly; a 5 meant very good. Almost 70% of you gave us the top marks when it comes to general moderation on the Shard, while no-one said we're horrible at it - nice! There were, of course, responders who believe we could do a better job of it - this is valuable for us to know and we will work to improve and hopefully raise these responses in the next poll! In this question, 1 indicated that the mods are too harsh; 9, that we are too lax. As perhaps could've been expected, it seems you find us to be on the harsher side of things; only twelve people answered on the lax side of the poll, while almost half believe we have attained the happy middle ground. Here, 1 indicated that the mods are too scary to approach, while 5 meant that you felt you could be casual with the mods. It seems like almost a quarter of you are at least somewhat wary of mod interactions, which is probably tied to the prior result naming us somewhat harsh. This is something we can improve on in the future. The People's Mod and the Scariest Mod The next two questions were mostly fuelled by our curiosity: who do you think is the most approachable mod? Who do you find the scariest to talk to? When it comes to question number 1, the race for the top rank was close, but the results were clear: in Excel, because Google Forms wouldn't let me sort the answers The People's Mod award goes to Ene! Rasarr (it is I!) comes in second place (thank you, thank you), while trailing close behind are Argent, Overlord Jebus and LadyLameness. While the race for the most approachable mod was somewhat close, especially in the first few days, you folks never hesitated when it came to the scariest one. Yep! The Scariest Mod award goes to Chaos by a landslide. No less than 53% of the responders found him to be the most fearsome; the next mods (Argent, Grey, LadyLameness and Ene) trail far, far behind. Conversely, the Least Scary Mod award goes to Paleo, Mestiv and FelCandy, whom no responder found scary. I would also like to shout out the anon who found Argent to be both the most scary and the most approachable of the mods, and another anon who thought the same of Chaos. I do not understand how this works, but I respect you. Preferred ways of contacting the mods Our next question concerned itself with how you would go about contacting the mods, and I'm happy to see that most of you would not shy away from contacting us in some way, should the need arise. Only 7 of you found us too fearsome to summon (I must wonder if it's the same 7 who found us too scary, though I admit I did not look into that). I will say, there is nothing to fear! If you have any issue with something happening on the forums or on the Discord server, do not hesitate to contact us! If you don't want to speak to the specific mods directly, the forum's report and Discord's @Staff ping will summon any mod currently online, and we will absolutely not begrudge you for using it. The open questions Questions 7 and 8 were open text fields, letting you folks tell us what you think in plain English. We will not be inserting a full list of them here - first of all, it doesn't graph well, second, some of those answers might be used to guess who the speaker was. For question 7 ("Is there something you particularly like or dislike about 17th Shard's moderation, or think we could do better?"), the answers were roughly half praise and critique. While the former was very nice to hear, the latter in particular is extremely useful to us; we will strive to improve on the points you have raised. Question 8 was a bit more freeform ("Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?"), and so were the answers. The bulk of it was outpouring of love and affection for the mods, which we are very grateful for, as it feeds our egos quite well indeed. There were several more serious issues raised, and we will be looking at them in the future. There were also comments of other nature, such as: culinary advice (I'm not a fan of pickles myself, but I'm sure someone will make use of it) "Today I had a good day" (good to hear! Hopefully, you had more good days since) "Hi" (and hello to you as well!) "I used to be addicted to soap, but I'm clean now." (good for you, buddy, good for you) A picture of a cat (aww) There was also an assumption that we are all beta readers, which I feel needs to be clarified: no. At least half of us (myself included) are not part of Brandon's writing process - and the part of the staff that are beta or gamma readers are absolutely forbidden from telling us anything. We do not have any knowledge you don't have. The Shard's Favourite Mod Now that I've talked your ear off, let's get to the real question, and the one that inspired this poll in the first place: who is the Shard's favourite staff member? The answer is clear: you have no idea. On a less facetious note, ignoring the "all or none" answers, the Favourite Mod crown goes to Argent! In the second place we have Ene, while the third is shared between Rasarr and Chaos, followed by Lady Lameness. So, there you have it - a look into the minds of the Shard members. I would like to sincerely thank everyone who responded, and doubly so the people who praised and critiqued us. Knowing what you feel we're doing right and wrong is extremely helpful, and we promise we will try to learn from what you've told us. And if you've missed the poll, or feel like we should need more data - do not worry. We definitely intend to run it again in the future, both to see if we're improving and to hear more of your honest thoughts.

Hiya everybody, I've got a nice theory for ya today. Spoilers ahead for Secret History and Mistborn Era 1. Chapter 8, Epigraph, Final Empire: "He shall defend their ways, yet shall violate them. He will be their savior, yet they shall call him heretic. His name will be Discord, and they shall love him for it" So there was a WoB on Discord. Bands of Mourning release party (Jan. 25, 2016) #6 Questioner Last time you said that his name, if it wasn’t Harmony, it would be something else. Is it Discord? Brandon Sanderson This is relevant. Questioner It is relevant? Brandon Sanderson Yes. Now this actively sounded odd to me. "It is relevant" instead of an outright Yes or No or RAFO? There is always another secret ey? Secret History, Chapter 8: "Kelsier smiled, knowing that at long last it was finished. In a rush, the mists swirled in twin columns, impossibly high. The powers had been released. They quivered, uncertain, like a storm brewing. Nobody is holding them. . . . Kelsier reached out, timid, trembling. He could . . . Elend Venture’s spirit stumbled into the Cognitive Realm beside him, tripping and collapsing to the ground. He groaned, and Kelsier grinned at him." My personal theory is that if Elend died in WoA, Kelsier would have taken up the Shards, Preservation and Ruin but because he was more attuned to Ruin, he would become Discord. Am I overthinking it? I dunno just my personal theory that I want you guys to run through the mill.

Okay, me going through the thread talking about Harmony Blades when I started thinking about Ettmetal's (Harmony's Godmetal) properties, like the fact it explodes, making it pretty bad for normal uses people would have for metals. And I know there is the explanation the reason Harmony's metal explodes is because of the powers of Preservation and Ruin being represented and all that, but why would Harmony, the supposed perfect mix of the two shards, be represented in a metal that explodes? Why would it be so reactive? I would think it would be more like a noble gas and just not react with anything. So I see two potential explanations. Either 1. Ettmetal is more likely the godmetal of Discord, which would make more sense. An explosion seems like a nice representation of discord. However, this doesn't completely work because for now, as it doesn't seem like Sazed is Discord and it might have even been stated that ettmetal is Harmony's god metal. And then there's the fact I tend to push back at the theory that Sazed is Discord because I imagine if he was, it would be very destructive for the Scadrians, but maybe he is more in Discord with himself and is still conscious enough to not end up screwing over the planet he cares about. Something to think about. The other explanation is 2. the metal is currently symbolizing Sazed's struggle with the powers and that's why it' so reactive right now, because he still hasn't figured out how to deal with the contrasting intents, and the metal will eventually start to change as Sazed gains mastery of his abilities, becoming less and less reactive, as ettmetals abilities seem to be more about it weird storing and realizing of investiture rather than it's reactivity. So maybe one-day Ettmetal, or at least further production of ettmetal, will become stable, like a normal metal. (Also, random thought that popped in my head, but when Shardblades are summoned, they are covered in condensation, which would be bad for a metal that explodes when in contact with water. Wonder if there's a connection there.)

For International Games Week (November 3-9) I will be putting together some one-shot, one-page RPG sessions via Discord for whoever's interested. By design, the games will be really easy to get into and rules light, with a hard limit of 2 hours of play time. It's a chance to get together with people and have some fun without all the preparation and baggage. I have a number of games we can play, including but not limited to Honey Heist, Everyone is John, Lasers and Feelings, Oh Dang! Bigfoot Stole My Car With My Friend's Birthday Present Inside, Sexy Battle Wizards, Adventure Skeletons, and Pride and Extreme Prejudice. We can even do a short Mistborn Adventure Game one-shot if people are willing. At the moment I'm trying to gauge interest and get a sense of peoples' schedules, after which we can set up times and decide what games to play. Once those details are hammered out, I'll post updates here in this thread, including links to the Discord server. If you're interested in playing, let me know here or on the 17S Discord, along with a general idea of what times you're available!

I'm gonna say from the very beginning is that my take on this is more on that the HoA being a Discord rather than Harmony. Sorry if the title might not fit the post. Can't think of other title atm. Also not sure how the spoiler policy of OB on Cosmere Theory forum works so better be sure than sorry. Should've been a simply prophecy text that is relevant only to Mistborn Trilogy context that i'm not so sure anymore since it could mean extremely interesting narrative direction for the future of Mistborn franchise and Cosmere in general. Also the very obvious capitalization of the word and the hero of ages prophecy being weirdly word by word accurate(like the "on his arms" or the gender neuter thing) and i don't think Ruin changed the text that much. This kind of theorycrafting also inspired me more after reading Oathbringer where if i assume Rayse wasn't lying would mean that he's actually truly the Shard of Passion but people chose to call him Odium. And i don't think Rayse is lying considering that when he let him experience his infinity like other shards have before(Sazed to Wax during era2) and i don't think shards will lie about their intent to the utmost extent(considering that's what they're endorsing/implementing in the first place) as you would assume especially regarding themselves which Dalinar experienced emotions of all ranges. Even supporting that he might actually be a shard of passion or at least a synonym as his general policy for his army/people has been about passion and his minions claiming interest with Moash due to his "strong passion". So far apart from the manipulations of Ruin of the prophecy of the Hero of Ages. It hasn't lied to us and for some reason i doubt this was either shards doing. Another is that from Era2 Sazed has been stating being tied between the conflict of two shards and still insisting on balancing them. Could it be that him trying to please both masters is what causing his inactivity in the first place and the less he is about balancing the better he is at freedom from both shards. Also kinda makes sense with him being a young vessel which might've occured to other shards who fought their nature at the start. That Oathbringer event may imply that our Hero of Ages might not actually be the intent he says or could eventually change into what it was meant to be. Which brings me to these thoughts about Sazed's actual intent as the wielder of Preservation and Ruin (could've already been theorized by others as well and some i read from other post about discord/harmony) which might be more plausible/possible/would you support ? Harmony is Harmony and i'm wearing too much tinfoil hat i should stop. Sazed ascended as Harmony but is slowly being molded/evolved into Discord. Sazed thinks he's Harmony but he's actually Discord from the very beginning Sazed does not actually care if he's Discord but chose to name himself Harmony maybe for some reason The prophecy is averted abit which is why we have Harmony instead of Discord(not all future sight happening accurately ?) Could it be that his name, intent and being finally becoming Discord is just a matter of acceptance just like his role as the Hero of Ages, or about his acceptance of change/death is a natural thing to connect with Ruin. Could it be ? Questions Does it mean that the reason why Sazed is actually more limited than he should be has more to do with him trying insist he's Harmony(the balance between shards) rather than him being actually discord (the differences between the shards) ? If Sazed remains Harmony till the endgame cosmere does that mean he becomes more active or actually just gets worse and becoming more and more inactive ? What about him becoming discord ? Did we actually misunderstand Harmony and overtime he actually gains more freedom rather than being tied ? That Harmony could actually just do just about anything just like how incredibly flexible autonomy and endowment seems to be ? If assuming him becoming Discord is actually right and gives him freedom. Doesn't that make him incredibly dangerous and finally a big player of cosmere ? Since he's more interactive i assume Thoughts ? Supporting statements? Disagreements ? Theories ? Further Elaborations ? Anything resembling to thoughts about the matter ? Anything is welcome !(so excited about this topic after OB events sinking in and plenty of reading former discussion threads about this here or on reddit)

How do i get a link to the discord server? I looked all over

I'm not sure if this is the best place to ask this, but what happened to the Discord server? When I try to send a message, it says "Sending messages to this channel has been temporarily disabled. Try again in a bit." from Clyde Bot. It says this in all channels (that I've checked) on the server. One of the staff members just said something on the server, but I still can't. Is this just happening for me? It doesn't seem like any non-staff people have said anything in a while. Edit: Actually, general works, I'll just ask there. Edit 2.0: It seems to be back now. Edit 3.0: It happened again, it seems to be worse this time.

In case anyone hasn't heard of Discord it is a free chat website/app that allows you to use both voice and chat messaging. Here are some Discord chats: SE Chat: For Sanderson Elimination players Link: https://discord.gg/3Z38MnG Worldbuilding Chat: For makers of worlds! Link: https://discord.gg/Ze6KeKn Destiny Chat: For players of the video game Destiny. Link: https://discord.gg/gzNuBZ8 Cosmere Chat: For lovers of the Cosmere. Link: https://discord.gg/eVrg7aN Feel free to post other Discords!

Hey everyone, I rarely post here (more like never, actually...) However, I do frequent all the Cosmere-related subreddits. A poster on /r/Mistborn asked if there was a discord chat, I wasn't aware of one existing, so I went ahead and created one. Feel free to join the discussion! https://discord.gg/Y83JZy4

To Shatter a Shard Jain shivered in the corner of his cell, his eyes squeezed shut to block out the world. A World devoid of Mercy. He didn’t know how long he’d been in The Cellar. All he knew was what Hoid told him, and the man took a perverse delight in tormenting him. There was a clang, as the cell door opened. Light fell on his eyelids, and he huddled deeper into the corner. Light meant that Hoid was back. His tormentor. What would it be this time? Another illusion of freedom? Some succulent meal that would turn to ash as soon as he partook of it? Or something new? A hand grabbed him by the neck, and pulled him upright. Ah, so it was to be a beating then. “Stand up boy. I’m freeing you.” Jain blinked his eyes open, and looked at his tormentor. Hoid looked regretful, an expression he had never seen before. He tried to respond, but only coughed weakly, and tried again. “I, I can’t.” Warmth Enveloped his body, and he suddenly felt better than he had in ages. A confident, fatherly voice sounded in his Ear. “Don’t worry Jain, Hoid isn’t going to hurt you anymore. We need your help. Odium has returned to a new Host. Now Rise.” He blinked again, then rose one foot. He pressed it against the stone floor and pushed. Hoid let go of his neck, and the prisoner stood on his own for the first time since his Panda’s death. His jailer was looking towards the door, so Jain followed Hoid's gaze to see Leif, the Holder of Endowment. “Thank you Sir. Why do you need me?” “After the last time Odium struck, we three are the only ones without hatred in our hearts. We three are the only ones to be trusted. Even the other Shards feel and act on his Hatred. We must find the Dread Lord and Destroy him, before he can destroy us. Furthermore, you were once Odium's own Slave. You know his actions and thoughts better than any other. Will you join us Jain?” “Of course.” \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ Ash, holder of Odium and Lord of Hatred, watched as the Seventeenth Shard gathered. The last time they had gathered in such numbers, they had been hunting his predecessor. For them to be gathering again spoke of a momentous event. Could it be that they had learned of his revival? Impossible. The only ones who knew were Devotion and Survival, and they would never betray him. A pillar of Golden Light came down from the heavens, interrupting Ash’s thoughts. A Pale Shin man stepped out and surveyed the crowd. He was followed by two Lifeless, carrying Corpses. The man spoke quietly, and the Lifeless dropped their loads on the ground. The crowd gasped as they saw their faces. Ash just frowned. Cleo and Kae, Shardholders of Devotion. It looked like they did know he was back. At least he could be more active in killing now, rather than arranging accidents. The Shin man raised his hands for silence. “Fellow Sharders, these two betrayed us. They have collaborated with others, to bring Odium back.” He paused as the crowd started chattering fearfully. “We were lucky enough to have captured them before they could cause too much Hatred, and their Shard has been given to a new bearer, but we don’t know who else is working for Odium. He has undoubtedly infiltrated us again, along with his champions. So, who among you are willing to help capture them?” Ash slid back through the crowd as people began to raise their hands in service. Luckily no one knew him in this current identity, so he could sign up as someone completely new, and no one would ever know. He signaled to the others in the crowd he knew, those few who had sworn their loyalty to him. They nodded, and rose their hands in service as well. Together, they would make the Seventeenth Shard tear itself apart, just like last time. Sign ups for Long Game 14 Have begun! Rules Signups will close on Sunday the 30th of August, at 9:00pm PST. (Exactly one week from this posting.) The Game will begin One hour later. Turns will always end at 9:00pm PST, and begin one hour after. We will begin on a Day turn. If you’re on Mobile, and can’t change the colour of your vote, please go to the bottom of your post, hit enter twice, and say who you’re voting for a second time, so that I don’t miss it. This is the First and Last game I will say this. THERE ARE NO SECRET ROLES OR RULES. Final Note*: I’m playing this game as a direct Sequel to A Game of Shards, so if you want to know where the prisoner, Leif, Ash and Cleo/Kae came from, Go read that! At least, read the Final Writeup. The Prisoner is totally Jain, I just need his permission to show that. Quick Links