Effect of holding Ambition?

[Fanghur Rahl]

Lately I was thinking, what exactly would the effect of holding the Shard Ambition be on a person? Or if hypothetically the remnants of Ambition re-coalesced into a sentient, Vessel-less Shard? Because ambition is not something that can really exist in a vacuum, it’s a relational attribute. Ambition in the absence of anything to be ambitious about is effectively meaningless I think. So what exactly does the term mean in the context of the Shard? 

I would guess that if one were to hold Ambition in addition to another Shard, it would likely have a similar effect to a Blue Lantern Corps member being near a member of another Corps, namely it would act as an amplifier of whatever that Intent is and effectively make them even more fanatical about it (or at least I think that’s a plausible hypothesis), but what about if one was just holding Ambition? It seems like the landscape of possible ways that particular Shard could be channelled is effectively endless, depending on what its Vessel happened to be ambitious about.

[I think I am here.]

Maybe it’s up to the Perception of the vessel and how they Perceive Ambition as.

Maybe it’s Ambition of whatever material desires the vessel has.

Maybe it’s just general Ambition to do anything.

Maybe it’s even Ambition to be more Ambitious (woah).

[Calderis]

This assumes that "ambition" is the Shards true name. 

There is a recent WoB that kind of surprised me concerning Ambition, that only makes sense if you understand the game Magic. 

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LordSkybreaker

Hey u/mistborn I have a couple questions about Magic: the gathering.

What colors/kind of deck do you play in magic?

What colors are the known shards?

What colors are the various orders of the knights Radiant?

And finally, have you ever thought of doing the story for Wizards Of The Coast on one of their mtg blocks?

Brandon Sanderson

Any combo-style deck I can draft--or esper if I'm constructed.

Ruin: Black. Odium: Red. Honor: White. Preservation: White. Cultivation: Green. Devotion: Green/red. Dominion: Black/White. Autonomy: It's complicated.

(Also, question 3 is way too large for me to commit to right now. And for 4, if the right opportunity came along and they were interested, I could see myself doing this.)

SoupOrMan692

What about Endowment and Ambition?

Brandon Sanderson

Ambition is mono-black, and endowment is probably mono-green. Some of the blue shards are ones we haven't seen as much from yet.

source

Mono-black. 

So. Ambition, at least in my opinion, is essentially a nice name for greed. Self empowerment. Whatever you want to call getting more. 

[Quantus]

16 minutes ago, Calderis said:

So. Ambition, at least in my opinion, is essentially a nice name for greed. Self empowerment. Whatever you want to call getting more. 

Favorite Word = MINE!

 

[Fanghur Rahl]

2 hours ago, Calderis said:

This assumes that "ambition" is the Shards true name. 

There is a recent WoB that kind of surprised me concerning Ambition, that only makes sense if you understand the game Magic. 

Mono-black. 

So. Ambition, at least in my opinion, is essentially a nice name for greed. Self empowerment. Whatever you want to call getting more. 

I quite honestly have no idea what any of that meant; I know literally nothing about Magic Cards. But regardless, I think that while avarice and ambition are in many ways closely related, they are not synonymous and have generally very different connotations, and they also aren’t necessarily mutually-dependent. One can be ambitious without also being greedy by most definitions. I don’t think Brandon would have chosen to call the Shard ‘Ambition’ unless that was actually what the Shard was. I think that ‘Ambition’ and ‘Avarice’ would likely need to be two separate Shards. 

Though admittedly, it would at least make sense of why Endowment seemed to hold them in such contempt, since Endowment and Avarice would essentially be polar opposites.

Edited November 10, 2018 by Fanghur Rahl

[Calderis]

@Fanghur Rahl the five colors of magic are both elemental alignments of a sort, and philosophical alignments, and for these I think the philosophical aspects are more important.

Here's an explanation from a wiki I found for the black ideology. 

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Black doesn't see anything as fundamentally immoral. To black, the only measure of right and wrong should be whether or not it leads to success. Black is open to opportunities and strategies rejected by others as taboo or forbidden—death, torment, infection, betrayal. Black characters will do anything to ensure their own well-being even at the expense of others; to black, anything less only allows others to do the same. Thus, black does everything possible to gain the only commodity that can secure it from weakness, and ensure its ability to get whatever it needs or wants—power.

Although if taken to extremes, black's selfishness and lack of ethical restraint can result in tragedy, at its most basic level black is not inherently evil. It has a very cynical world view, and its core philosophy is that of self-determination and release from society-imposed limitations. Black has an ally in blue, as it appreciates its subtlety and use of cold logic. Black is also allied with red, respecting its desire to do things on its own terms. However, black's disregard for other members of the group, spirituality/religion, and the sanctity of life opposes it with green and white.^[7]

 

[Quantus]

So, in respect to Autonomy, am I remembering correctly that a Rainbow deck was a thing in Magic?  (I never had the cash to really get into it, but had some friends that loved to talk about their decks).

[Weltall]

Yeah, you can build decks using all the colors and there's even a nonstandard way to win the game using a card that gives you the victory if you have one land and one creature of each color in play.

[+Child of Hodor]

On 11/10/2018 at 11:47 AM, Calderis said:

This assumes that "ambition" is the Shards true name. 

There is a recent WoB that kind of surprised me concerning Ambition, that only makes sense if you understand the game Magic. 

Mono-black. 

So. Ambition, at least in my opinion, is essentially a nice name for greed. Self empowerment. Whatever you want to call getting more. 

Yeah, interesting how endowment and ambition are mentioned separate in that WoB. Whether intentional or not in the WoB they do seem like external / internal versions of the same idea. Endowment is gifting or giving to others. Ambition giving to yourself, which could be seen as greed, self-improvement, self-empowerment, self-actualization. Ambition + Autonomy be the ultimate self help guru.  

The drive to become better than we are currently. Whether it is physical, mental, social status, wealth etc.   

Ambition would want to see that drive reflected in all sentient beings. Shards tend to apply their intents outward more than inward. Ambition might think the Thrill was overall a positive thing because it is influencing people to compete and strengthen themselves. 

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self-ac·tu·al·i·za·tion

noun

1. the realization or fulfillment of one's talents and potentialities, especially considered as a drive or need present in everyone

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#27

Chaos

It's a little odd that Preservation would inherently give up its power to fuel Allomancy, because you'd think he would preserve himself, you know? Does that make sense?

Brandon Sanderson

Preservation, as a Shard, is about preserving life, people, and the like. Not about self. No more than Ruin is about destroying self, or Cultivation is about growing herself.

1.  

 

Edited November 14, 2018 by Child of Hodor