TOdium Sacrifice

[Lego Mistborn he/him]

First off, @Frustration I'm counting on you to be mean to my theory.

Now, we know that after RoW, Taravangian took up the shard of Odium. The question is, what will he do with it. We know his main goal is to protect those closest to him, but if he can, he hopes to save as much of Roshar as he can.

I would like to propose a very risk free way to do this: give Cultivation the shard of Odium.

I believe this would work because, as this WoB illustrates, ROdium was afraid of combining with other shards, because "terrible things would happen.

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Questioner

You've mentioned before that Odium is scared of Harmony. Is it only because of the raw power of the two Shards? Or is he scared of what Harmony represents? (Meaning the possibility of merging two Shards.) Was he aware that this was possible?

Brandon Sanderson

He, on one level, was aware. But it was more of awareness of this as a possibility. It actually happening is part of what has him scared. It's the idea of the two merging Shards both being more powerful and finding a harmony. (Which Sazed is actually having way more trouble doing than Odium realizes.) Those two things really have Odium scared. Because, partially, this means he has to find a way to destroy or split Harmony without taking up a second Shard himself, because Odium knows if he takes up a second Shard, terrible things will happen. And so he doesn't want to do that. (Terrible things as he views them.) And so he's gotta find a way to split this apart, or somehow otherwise defeat.

Now, the more he learns about Sazed's actual state, the less afraid he'll probably be. But that's an advantage that Sazed has right now.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/431/#e14009

 

 

This means that potentially, another shard would change the intent enough that, even when the power is overpowering the vessel completely, they would not harm Roshar, at least not to the full extent.

If the intent doesn't change enough, at the very least, the vessel would be partially immobilized, as Brandon describes here with reference to Sazed's situation.

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ericth

Could Sazed take down Rayse since he has two shards?

Brandon Sanderson

Rayse is VERY scared of Sazed. However, given Sazed is a composite of two diametrically opposed shards, he finds it very difficult to act.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/201/#e4437

 

 

Now, why wouldn't TOdium just steal another shard for himself? Well, the other shards are aware of his streak of killing other shards, and then splintering the powers, thus, even those that potentially are okay with giving up their shard would avoid him at all costs. Taravangian knows this though, and he is still very smart, even if he doesn't still have his bane/boon. This means that he will plan around this, and he knows that the only way to accomplish the combination of his shard is to give it up and allow another vessel to take it up. Most likely cultivation, because she can probably be trusted, and is very accessible.

Now the hardest part, giving away the shard. This is hard because we are aware of multiple individuals/groups that would love to swipe the shard, and TOdium can't just go up to Cultivation and give her the shard. Now, I'm not the best when it comes to realistic theory, but I would guess that it is possible to put the accumulation of the shard, or whatever it is that a person uses to take up a shard, entirely in the spiritual realm. With the spiritual realm being pretty inaccessible to those who we don't want getting the shard, but easy for Cultivation to reach, this makes it an ideal place for the transfer.

[Frustration]

This is possible, however I don't think it will happen. Taravangian was quite clear He wanted to be the one to save Roshar.

[Lego Mistborn he/him]

1 minute ago, Frustration said:

This is possible

This might be the highest praise I've ever received. 

 

2 minutes ago, Frustration said:

however I don't think it will happen. Taravangian was quite clear He wanted to be the one to save Roshar.

I guess it just depends on his interpretation, and how much and how fast the intent warps him.

[Shining Silhouette he/him]

I find this theory interesting. I think it has potentially big ramifications for the future of the cosmere

[Smye]

The biggest issue I see here is the need for any vessel to be adequately Connected to a given shard’s intent to hold it successfully (see M:SH, as well as several WoB’s)… somehow I doubt that Koravellium Avast is going to be particularly Connected to the intent of the shard that ended her husband.

 

Oh storming crem-filled Nale’s nuts! 

Unless… SHE was complicit *cue dramatic woodchuck*

 

While doubtful, I may have just found my new favorite Cosmere Conspiracy 

Edited July 12, 2022 by Smye

[Lego Mistborn he/him]

Well, we know she's a little devious... 

However, I don't think the world needs another story about a wife plotting against her husband.

[cometaryorbit]

I think this would work - probably not automatically, but two Shards working together could probably find a way around the Connection limitation (maybe just "Cultivation/Koravellium asks Dalinar to use his Connection powers" or stealing Ishar's Honorblade).

But I don't think Taravangian will give up power. Even before being molded by the Intent of Odium, he thinks *he* can fix things better than someone else could.

[Halyo_Alex he/him]

3 hours ago, cometaryorbit said:

I think this would work - probably not automatically, but two Shards working together could probably find a way around the Connection limitation (maybe just "Cultivation/Koravellium asks Dalinar to use his Connection powers" or stealing Ishar's Honorblade).

But I don't think Taravangian will give up power. Even before being molded by the Intent of Odium, he thinks *he* can fix things better than someone else could.

So... Use Connection to forcibly glue chunks of Honor to Odium, then?

[cometaryorbit]

Given all the talk about how scary Unchained Bondsmith powers are, I think that's likely possible. Though probably a bad idea, I feel like a Shard would be able to defend itself against something like that.

EDIT: and I'm not sure adding a small amount of Honor to Odium would help much. 95% Odium 5% Honor might be something like sworn vengeance or battle fury.

Edited July 13, 2022 by cometaryorbit