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Brandon's statements on Harmony's power, and a theory


TheOneKEA

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Brandon Sanderson has previously said that Harmony can be labeled as the most powerful entity in the Cosmere. Most of the posts I've read and most of the tidbits Brandon has said stated suggest that Harmony is the most powerful because he has two Shards.

However, with the recent Reddit quotes about the 'mindless' powers on Sel and their effect on the Cognitive Realm, I have an alternate idea: Harmony is the most powerful because he has the most spiritual power under his cognitive control. This makes sense to me because of how Brandon worded his statements about the Shards on Sel. It suggests that if someone managed to reassemble Devotion and Dominion and then take them at the same time, they would be equally as powerful.

It also makes me wonder if Harmony, in some ways, is a more capable thinker and planner than Odium, because of the nature of his Shards and the expansion of his cognitive aspect to hold them successfully.

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Harmony's mind isn't necessarily "bigger" than Odium's in any significant sense. A taller person has more body to manage, but that doesn't mean that they're smarter. It could also be the case that, even if Sazed's cognitive aspect as Harmony is larger than Rayse holding a single shard, that "extra brain" could all be dedicated purely to managing his excess power, rather than being applicable to thought.

Edited by Kurkistan
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Harmony's mind isn't necessarily "bigger" than Odium's in any significant sense. A taller person has more body to manage, but that doesn't mean that they're smarter. It could also be the case that, even if Sazed's cognitive aspect as Harmony is larger than Rayse holding a single shard, that "extra brain" could all be dedicated purely to managing his excess power, rather than being applicable to thought.

That's true, but the end of The Hero of Ages explicitly mentions how Sazed's consciousness expands to hold the content of his copperminds and hold their contents successfully. I doubt Brandon would have mentioned that unless it was significant.

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Yes, but the limit could be a basic "shard-brain" rather than "holding X amount of Shardic power => getting Y brain power." Sazed essentially changed types, from "human" to "Shard," and so got a bigger consciousness. We know that Brandon considers Harmony to be a single Shard, at its core, so we're still in the ballpark of "Shard" rather than Sazed having transcended to an altogether new type of being, a "Shard 2.0."

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Yes, but the limit could be a basic "shard-brain" rather than "holding X amount of Shardic power => getting Y brain power." Sazed essentially changed types, from "human" to "Shard," and so got a bigger consciousness. We know that Brandon considers Harmony to be a single Shard, at its core, so we're still in the ballpark of "Shard" rather than Sazed having transcended to an altogether new type of being, a "Shard 2.0."

Well, he consideres harmony to really be two seperate shards.

And I'm pretty sure that Sazed is higher up the brainmeats scale than the Ascended Lord Ruler was.

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Well, he consideres harmony to really be two seperate shards.

And I'm pretty sure that Sazed is higher up the brainmeats scale than the Ascended Lord Ruler was.

 

He's a smidgen unclear on it, but leaning towards "one:"

 

Link

QUESTION

Were Ruin and Preservation two shards or one?

BRANDON SANDERSON

They were two shards. Harmony is considered a shard, although it’s really two, in the same way that a king of two countries would still be considered a king.

 

I'm not so sure about your second line. TLR moved planets around, so he had a fair amount of juice, and he was able to do some mind-boggling genetic engineering population-wide with no time and less experience.

 

EDIT: Second quote, much more clearly saying Sazed is not of a different type.

 

Link

MASON WHEELER

And shard holders tend to take the name of the shard they hold. So you've got Sazed, who goes by "Harmony" now, after taking up Ruin and Preservation. That makes me wonder, does he hold two shards... or one?

BRANDON SANDERSON

You could really answer that either way. The distinction is a really subjective one, and you could say that he's holding both shards, or that he holds one single Harmony.

Edited by Kurkistan
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There's also this, though.

Q: Is Harmony more powerful than other Shards?

Brandon: More powerful or more potent?

Me: Um, powerful.

Brandon: Harmony is two shards in one.

Me: Could he take Odium?

Brandon: His two shards are at odds with one another.

http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/1729-a-late-breaking-report/

Sazed's two Shards do not "cancel out", as Brandon said that it would like being pulled by two huge gravitational tides. You can get to a way that you aren't instantly ripped apart, but that doesn't mean you don't feel it. EDIT: When asked what effect the Shards would have on Sazed, Brandon said, "Read Alloy of Law to find out".

The fact that his shards are at odds with each other, and seem to have distinct influences upon Sazed, kinda implies that they still exist as distinct entities.

Regardless, I don't see any reason why you'd have a hard cutoff to cognitive gain at "one sixteenth", and gain no improvement from upgrading to "one eighth".

Edited by Phantom Monstrosity
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Interesting new comment from Brandon about an hour ago at the AMA:

 

Thanatos17901: If Sazed were to die, would he drop the Shards Ruin and Preservation or would he drop the shard Harmony?
 
mistborn: Excellent question. The shards are now intermingled, and would take effort to split apart. He would drop Harmony. (This is what Odium feared would happen, by the way.)

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1ced7z/iamstilla_novelist_named_brandon_sanderson_ama/c9hpuvd

 

My question was only two comments up from that one, hopefully he'll get to answering all the rest soon (though I know he's traveling right now).

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Interesting new comment from Brandon about an hour ago at the AMA:

 

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1ced7z/iamstilla_novelist_named_brandon_sanderson_ama/c9hpuvd

 

My question was only two comments up from that one, hopefully he'll get to answering all the rest soon (though I know he's traveling right now).

That lends a lot of weight to my theory - by successfully bringing the two Shards under his own cognitive control, they merged into a larger Shard and are now difficult to separate.

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Interesting new comment from Brandon about an hour ago at the AMA:

 

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1ced7z/iamstilla_novelist_named_brandon_sanderson_ama/c9hpuvd

 

My question was only two comments up from that one, hopefully he'll get to answering all the rest soon (though I know he's traveling right now).

 

My mind is blown. This is amazing.

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What Odium feared would happen? How much did Odium know about Scadrial that he was scared of one person holding two Shards?

It could be more general; Odium could just be afraid of any two Shards combining, since it's a direct threat to his goal of being the most powerful thing in the cosmere without picking up any more Shards himself. Even if he didn't know it was possible, he'd fear it, and then Harmony proves that it's possible.
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It could be more general; Odium could just be afraid of any two Shards combining, since it's a direct threat to his goal of being the most powerful thing in the cosmere without picking up any more Shards himself. Even if he didn't know it was possible, he'd fear it, and then Harmony proves that it's possible.

 

Good point. Still good info about Harmony. Side point: is this why Devotion and Dominion were splintered? Does the process prevent someone from taking up both, or make it easier?

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Good point. Still good info about Harmony. Side point: is this why Devotion and Dominion were splintered? Does the process prevent someone from taking up both, or make it easier?

 

I would imagine that Splintering makes things at least a lot harder to hold the Shard itself, as you'd need to pick up each individual Splinter and put it back together. Whereas if Sazed died, any random dude could just pick up Harmony. That's easy. (Well, at least, if someone picks up Harmony fast enough)

 

Man, my mind is still blown by that, since I've still grouped them as Ruin and Preservation, instead of Harmony. Crazy.

 

I think your idea Morsk is pretty sound. I need to think more about why Odium fears it, though.

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I wonder if Devotion and Dominion have become conjoined in a similar way? The Dor is always described as a single power, with every system we've seen so far siphoning power from it, despite implications that they lean either towards Devotion and Dominion. The problem there is that they were never held by a single person as far as we know.

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I wonder if Devotion and Dominion have become conjoined in a similar way? The Dor is always described as a single power, with every system we've seen so far siphoning power from it, despite implications that they lean either towards Devotion and Dominion. The problem there is that they were never held by a single person as far as we know.

That seems pretty plausible, yeah.
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I think your idea Morsk is pretty sound. I need to think more about why Odium fears it, though.

My talent is coming up with great-sounding ideas that are never right.

There was another post but I can't find the thread, or if it was here and was deleted. But the poster said Odium was thinking of himself, and what would happen to his own Shard if he took another one to go with it. I like that interpretation more now.

edit: Yes that's it below.

Edited by Morsk
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That lends a lot of weight to my theory - by successfully bringing the two Shards under his own cognitive control, they merged into a larger Shard and are now difficult to separate.

 

So...there's only 15 Shards now?

 

EDIT:

 

And I guess that lends more to the theory that, yes, in fact you can put Andolasium back together again. But also brings Hoid's thoughts of whether putting all these Shards together would form Andolasium or something else into the discussion I imagine.

DOUBLE EDIT:

What Odium feared would happen? How much did Odium know about Scadrial that he was scared of one person holding two Shards?

 

He may have been more scared of another Shard picking up the coginitively freed Harmony and combining all three shards.

Edited by Windrunner
Please don't double post, you can simply edit your original post
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And I guess that lends more to the theory that, yes, in fact you can put Andolasium back together again. But also brings Hoid's thoughts of whether putting all these Shards together would form Andolasium or something else into the discussion I imagine.

 

I'm actually in the process of writing a theory about this exact question.

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I wonder if Devotion and Dominion have become conjoined in a similar way? The Dor is always described as a single power, with every system we've seen so far siphoning power from it, despite implications that they lean either towards Devotion and Dominion. The problem there is that they were never held by a single person as far as we know.

 

 

Pretty sure that was me over here.

 

I'm also wondering about Devotion and Dominion. It does seem that they're pretty tangled now.

 

I completely agree. In fact, you two have given me a really great idea on exactly how they can intermingle, because if they have intermingled, it is clearly in a way that is very different from Harmony.

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