So, I've been reading a lot about Autonomy's avatars and the hive mind (debunked) or multiple personalities theories and the following comes to mind (forgive me if this has been discussed already. If there's a WoB, please send me the link!):
Could it be that have multiple avatars for Autonomy is actually a result of the shard's intent? A manifestation/implementation of the shard remaining autonomous even if (one of its) vessels gets destroyed/killed?
Basically, the multiple personalities issue happened after the shattering, due to the intent lacking the context and balance of the other intents?