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What are the requirements for Ascension?


XaviGzz

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Hi everyone!

Why does Rashek count as being Ascended if he never held the shard, or even a splinter of it?

I'm not sure if in-world in mistborn era 2 they state Rashek Ascended, but the coppermind does talk about him being Ascended. Additionally, in Secret History, he could have lingered longer in the CR (because of this), but chose not to.

Is the requirement for being Ascended holding enough raw investiture from a shard? 

I assume Dalinar Ascended because of his bond to the Stormfather, Honor's CS and splinter. 

If someone from Mistborn era 1 could have gotten hold of all atium, and burned it, would he have Ascended as well? (I ask this because if I recall correctly, God metals equal shardpools just in a different state of matter.)

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An Ascended individual has basically held enough Investiture (and then released it) that their soul has been fundamentally altered by it, stretched by the act of holding so much power. Ascension does not necessarily mean ascension to Shardhood. So yes, Rashek Ascended and apparently Dalinar did too (we have no official confirmation but I'm willing to take Odium's word for it and interpret it by looking at previous instances of the same word in canon).

Going by what happened with Elend at the end of HoA, burning enough Atium can give similar results

Edited by Honorless
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17 minutes ago, XaviGzz said:

Why does Rashek count as being Ascended if he never held the shard, or even a splinter of it

Because he did hold enough of the Shard to Ascend, however briefly. That was the purpose of the Well of Ascension. There's a difference between 'Ascend' and 'Ascend and become a Vessel yourself'.

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Is the requirement for being Ascended holding enough raw investiture from a shard? 

We don't know the exact requirements, but we know that a lot of Investiture from the Shard is needed and while some Connection is required you don't have to align completely with a Shard to Ascend, it's just easier the better the match. Brandon has used Elend's duralumin/atium burn as an example of limited Ascension where you're partially in the Physical Realm and partially looking straight into the Spiritual. We're also told that a form of Ascension is theoretically possible via Bavadin's avatars but it would take some work to accomplish.

Edited by Ookla the Nameless
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Essentially you have to hold a large portion of a Shard's power.  If that Shard is unheld at the time it can become permanent, otherwise the original owns is likely to take it back in short order, and you'd have to get enough of it away from the Shard in the first place. 

In Rashek's case, it was only possible because so much of the Shard's Investiture was held in the Physical Realm in the Shardpool, where he could reach and take it without the Shard's help/approval.   This was very likely a combined result of the unique way those two were Invested in Scadrial since they created it, as well as the way the two Shards were actively opposing and limiting each other's actions, but I cant say that for sure. I do suspect it would be harder to pull off on Nalthis, for example, though if you managed to collect the entire population's Breaths you might get there (Im going to arbitrarily call that the 20th Heightening).   I believe that in Rashek's case, he basically found a huge stash of Preservation's power hidden int he physical realm.  When he took it up it Ascended him, making him a Sliver, but each time he used the Power it would return to the Spiritual Realm where Leras would be able to reclaim it (just like how "destroyed" and/or used breaths return to Endowment).  

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25 minutes ago, XaviGzz said:

Hi everyone!

Why does Rashek count as being Ascended if he never held the shard, or even a splinter of it?

I'm not sure if in-world in mistborn era 2 they state Rashek Ascended, but the coppermind does talk about him being Ascended. Additionally, in Secret History, he could have lingered longer in the CR (because of this), but chose not to.

Is the requirement for being Ascended holding enough raw investiture from a shard? 

I assume Dalinar Ascended because of his bond to the Stormfather, Honor's CS and splinter. 

If someone from Mistborn era 1 could have gotten hold of all atium, and burned it, would he have Ascended as well? (I ask this because if I recall correctly, God metals equal shardpools just in a different state of matter.)

The shardpool that he used is a Splinter, I believed.

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