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Can Vessels/Shards reproduce?


Ealbers

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Hi all, this is my first post, so I hope I’m doing this correctly! I’ve been re-reading stormlight (3rd time through) and spending a lot of time on the wikis and forums and q&a transcriptions trying to wrap my mind around all the cosmere level things.  

So my thoughts today went along theses lines: Tanavast/honor split off a part of his investiture and creates the stormfather intentionally. The nightwatcher is an analogous entity from cultivation (wyndle also refers to either cultivation or the nightwatcher as mother). All the spren of the radiant orders exist on sort of a spectrum between honor and cultivation. We are told there can only be up to 3 bondsmiths, and this limitation presumably  comes because there are only 3 spren who can create a bondsmith, the stormfather is the first, most of us assume the nightwatcher is the second (although I’m not sure if this is confirmed), and a third “sibling” who appears to be a big RAFO. We also know tanavast and the vessel of cultivation (I don’t believe we know her name?) were romantically involved. So my question is twofold, one specific to Roshar and a more general extrapolation.

Generally speaking, can a shard holding vessel/vessels reproduce (physically, cognitively, spiritually, magically?) and what effects would this have on a physical child from the union and on the power/investiture of the shard/s?

More specifically did honor and cultivation have a physical child and if they did how is that child different because of their investiture/does the child get some of the shard power? Or did they create a 3rd mega-spren analogous to the stormfather & nightwatcher but containing part of them both? 

Edited by Ealbers
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37 minutes ago, Ealbers said:

Generally speaking, can a shard holding vessel/vessels reproduce (physically, cognitively, spiritually, magically?) and what effects would this have on a physical child from the union and on the power/investiture of the shard/s?

Shadows of Self Chicago signing (Oct. 12, 2015)
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Dragon13

Is it possible for a Shard or Shardholder [Vessel] to reproduce, other than by creating Splinters?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Dragon13

Any chance we've seen the offspring of--

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO! *laughter*

 
 
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Another WoB that Shards can have children:

Quote

Paladin Brewer (paraphrased)

Are Shard Vessels able to have children?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes they are.

Paladin Brewer (paraphrased)

Even Sazed, with his body being a eunuch?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, though technically all of Scadrial are the children of Preservation and Ruin.

Librarypalooza (Feb. 27, 2016)

Though it was a paraphrase, the emphasis on the Vessel is suggestive since it implies we're talking about having children as if the Vessel were still an un-Ascended individual, and it's something Sazed could do even though he's not physically equipped for it. Given the amount of control a Shard can have over the spiritweb (to the point that Sazed could reverse Savantism and mass-heal genetic and physical ailments) one imagines that a child created by a Shard could end up anything from more or less 'normal' (if more Connected to the parent Shard(s) than someone else) to something like Rashek or even more extreme than that. Sazed's ability to affect Scadrians is not typical, since everyone on Scadrial is basically made of Preservation and Ruin, but the same principles that give him that degree of control would probably apply to any child created directly by a Shard.

As for the effect on the power of the Shard(s), it would probably be utterly negligible unless they deliberately tried creating a Sliver out of the child by splitting off a significant chunk of their Investiture.

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On 1/12/2020 at 9:12 AM, Eternal Khol said:

I think if two Shards like Honor and Cultivation had a human child, the child would definitely have more connection to the parent Shards.

I don't think it would be capable of surgebinding or cultivations magic,but they would be capable of something

perhaps an Honor/Cultivation child would be able to always have Stormlight like the Heralds do. they can't use it without a bond, but with a bond they would never run out of power.

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If Susebron could be healed in Warbreaker from having his tongue removed from childhood with immediate facility, and Rashek could upgrade his Vessel while only temporarily Ascended at the Well to make himself a Super Fullborn, why couldn't Sazed heal his own Vessel of castration at a similarly young age?

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19 minutes ago, robardin said:

If Susebron could be healed in Warbreaker from having his tongue removed from childhood with immediate facility, and Rashek could upgrade his Vessel while only temporarily Ascended at the Well to make himself a Super Fullborn, why couldn't Sazed heal his own Vessel of castration at a similarly young age?

Not sure if rhetorical

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21 minutes ago, StanLemon said:

Not sure if rhetorical

I guess it's obvious that the answer has to be "yes" - I was mostly responding to Weltall's comment about how "Sazed could do even though he's not physically equipped for it". He would be "physically equipped" for it, all he has to do is want to be.

In addition to possibly being able to simply create a Scadrian human ex nihilo as Harmony, the way Scadrial and its population orginally were by the concerted efforts of Preservation and Ruin, or forming some kind of avatar as Autonomy appears to do, he could also de-Ascend to mortaldom after healing himself, if he had some kind of plan for the Powers he holds afterward. Or if he could "background suspend" the Shardic Power to dip in and out of mortalness, in a kind of reverse Well maneuver.

Edited by robardin
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