Can a Shard Bearer Change the Intent of the Shard?

[Bort he/him]

We know that the Intent of a Shard can corrupt the Vessel holding it, but can this work in reverse?

If you had someone who was somehow immune to being changed by the Shard they are holding, could that person then influence the Intent of the Shard?

[Quantus he/him]

The Vessel can and does Interpret and sort of Filter the Shard's Intent, so the intent can be expressed differently under different management.  But short of combining Shards like that time, the vessel cannot make any sort of permanent change to the Shard's nature itself.  The shards are each 1/16 of everything, broken along whatever lines of the initial Shattering and they are too infinte to be modified by still finite people, expanded though they may be.

  

 

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Questioner

I was just wondering if a Shard's intent can change over time without changing holders?

Brandon Sanderson

Without changing holders? The holder can have a slight effect on how the-- a big effect on how the intent is interpreted, but what the intent is stays the same. So it's gonna be filtered. The way it manifests can change, and you'll see that happening, but it is the same intent. When it was broken off, it took a certain thing with it.

Salt Lake City ComicCon 2017 (Sept. 21, 2017)

 

 

 

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Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Shards and Shard intents: Holding a Shard is a contest of willpower against the Shard that, over time, is very hard to resist.

Shards affect you over time, but your mind will not leave a permanent effect on the Shard. A holder's [Vessel's] personality, however, does get to filter the Shard's intent, so to speak. However, if that holder [Vessel] no longer held that Shard, the Shard will not continue to be filtered by that person.

Alloy of Law 17th Shard Q&A (Nov. 5, 2011)

 

 

 

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Questioner

We know Ati chose how Ruin was interpreted, in that he was a card-cackling maniac. Could someone so differently interpret a Shard as to change its name to be something different? Could someone pick up the Shard of Ruin and think I'm the Shard of Change? Or could someone pick up the Shard of Honor and think--

Brandon Sanderson

*hesitantly* Yes. To an extent. The interpretation, what you call a thing-- I think it would be arguable either way in-world, regardless of what they call themselves. There are those who would say the core intent is still there and you can't shift it that far, and others would argue you can shift it far enough to change the definition to a synonym. You see evidence of someone claiming this in the books. I'm not gonna confirm or deny for you whether that is actually a thing or not.

Oathbringer London signing (Nov. 28, 2017)

 

 

 

[Bort he/him]

Thanks Quantus

[apepi]

This is the most updated WoB believe that I have seen. It is seems possible(?), but very extremely difficult to do.

 

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m4ge

If a Splintered Shard is somehow reformed, is it possible to change the word that expresses its Intent?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, but that's a very implausible thing depending on how... so, you're getting into some weird Cosmere stuff here. Most of the ways that these different Shards could manifest could be described differently. Odium is trying very hard to describe his Shard as something different, and there's an argument there. But it depends on if you're like actually changing it or if you just want to call it something different. You could just call Odium Hatred and it's not going to change anything, but if you wanted to change Odium to mean Passion like Odium thinks that it means, then that's more difficult.

YouTube Livestream 32 (June 3, 2021)

 

My guess is there could be a few ways of going about this. A shard might be able to take a splintered part of another shard and...add it to their own maybe? Like if Odium took a splinter of Ambition, maybe they could really be 'Passion', or maybe a shard could splinter part of themselves and take an intent that they have(like the stormfather) and disown them? Saying that they are no longer part of the shard? So then that shard could reconfigure it's intent. Something like that, just me guessing.