Sazed's Great Scadrialian Novel

[Necessary Eagle]

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.

[+robardin]

And thus, after fending off the aggressive incursion into Scadrial from Autonomy, did Harmony fall victim to the far more subtle incursion from another Shard he never even knew was coming.

Well played, Whimsy. Well played!

 

EDIT: You know, perhaps Sazed has already done/is doing this. We have mention in Shadows of Self that the Words of Founding are so long, abridged versions are common - and yet Wax can identify pages torn out by Bleeder and overwritten with Lies, Lies, Lies, as being from the eightieth book, "verses 27 through 50", on "Harmony's quest for Truth".

Imagine if this "quest for Truth" takes the form of a a dialectic conversation between Harmony's two halves, Preservation and Ruin, in verse form, no less... NOBODY would read that. Well, maybe Elend, but he's dead.

Edited November 29, 2022 by robardin

[LazyTurtleDelta]

I have been wondering if Sazed uses his Ruin abilities to add commentary footnotes into books, like they have on Roshar.

[cometaryorbit]

On 11/16/2022 at 1:32 PM, robardin said:

EDIT: You know, perhaps Sazed has already done/is doing this. We have mention in Shadows of Self that the Words of Founding are so long, abridged versions are common - and yet Wax can identify pages torn out by Bleeder and overwritten with Lies, Lies, Lies, as being from the eightieth book, "verses 27 through 50", on "Harmony's quest for Truth".

Imagine if this "quest for Truth" takes the form of a a dialectic conversation between Harmony's two halves, Preservation and Ruin, in verse form, no less... NOBODY would read that. Well, maybe Elend, but he's dead.

I imagine "Harmony's quest for Truth" refers to Sazed's period of doubt researching all the religions in HoA before finding out from TenSoon about the kandra/Terris religion.

[Primeival Chaos]

On 11/16/2022 at 8:07 AM, Necessary Eagle said:

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.

This actually terrifies me though. Imagine Sazed goes insane and descends into Discord. All of a sudden, all non-metal writing in the world goes haywire, shifting and changing infinitely. No one can read anything anymore. 

They would have to make ink with metal shavings in it or something

[IlstrawberrySeed]

@Primeival Chaos, Ruin could mess with writing if he could see it. If the writing is in metal, but not on metal, he could have messed with it because her can still see the letters, their just glowing really bright. They would need metal shavings in the paper as well.

[+robardin]

On 1/9/2023 at 6:12 PM, cometaryorbit said:

I imagine "Harmony's quest for Truth" refers to Sazed's period of doubt researching all the religions in HoA before finding out from TenSoon about the kandra/Terris religion.

Maybe. I have always imagined the later verses of the later books of the WoF as being like the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings at the end of The Return of the King, full of lots of nerdy world-building details that only the very hardcore geek fans ever read seriously (like, the kind who end up practicing how to transliterate and to write their name in Elvish letters in the Tengwar style... cough).

I mean, he did say he'd dumped all the information from his copperminds - including the bits about pre-FE religions - into those books, and that's how Marasi knew about "Trell" as the name of a god from one of them. But full on debating himself, by Himself and with Himself, as to their relative merits, like making a black and a white sock puppet go at each other? Books 80+ of the Words of Founding is exactly where such things would be, right? Only Pathian priests and theologians would ever be likely to read that far.

Edited January 11, 2023 by robardin

[NerdyAarakocra]

I'm not sure if that would use up enough Ruinous Investiture to be viable.

But still, YES.

*Saze writing Kaladin fanfic noises*

[IlstrawberrySeed]

You mean in Urdailian, right?