Saodar he/him Posted August 16, 2023 Posted August 16, 2023 As of right now, we know of 15 of the 16 Shards. I have a theory about the last Shard's Intent. We know from WOB that there's a shard that "just wants to survive." There are also WOBs that could contradict my theory for sure. Quote Chaos Give us the name of a Shard's intent we have not seen before. Brandon Sanderson There is one who just wants to hide and survive. General Signed Books 2011 (Nov. 8, 2011) "Survive" sounds like it could be an Intent but we know that it's not. Shardic intents seem to sometimes go to extremes of their areas: "odium" could be considered extreme hatred, "ruin" could be extreme decay/destruction, etc. So what if "survive" is the less-extreme version of this shard? The Shard I propose is Ferocity. When I think of something that just wants to survive, I think of a cornered animal. A cornered animal is ferocious, but not malicious. They'll do anything they possibly can to survive, maybe even escape. But there's no malicious intent. Just a need to survive. An aluminum-foil hat for sure, but what do people think?
Scars of Hathsin he/him Posted August 16, 2023 Posted August 16, 2023 Have you read Yumi and The Nightmare Painter Because from there along with some WOB's all the Shard names are known: Preservation Ruin Odium Cultivation Honour Dominion Devotion Autonomy Mercy Valor Whimsy Ambition Endowment Invention Spoiler 15. Wisdom (per WOB) Yumi and The Nightmare Painter Spoilers: Spoiler 16. Virtuosity
Firesong she/her Posted August 17, 2023 Posted August 17, 2023 18 minutes ago, Scars of Hathsin said: Reveal hidden contents 15. Wisdom (per WOB) Yumi and The Nightmare Painter Spoilers: Reveal hidden contents 16. Virtuosity Not just per WoB, they also mention the Shard twice in Stormlight, just in cryptic ways. The one I remember best is the Epilogue of Way of Kings. Hoid mentions three scholars, two of them turned out to be Vessels for Shards we now know, and the third valued wisdom and acumen. I think I also remember some quote of like "wisdom and I have always been at cross purposes, and I never learned the language in which she speaks" (paraphrased)
Scars of Hathsin he/him Posted August 17, 2023 Posted August 17, 2023 Just now, Firesong said: Not just per WoB, they also mention the Shard twice in Stormlight, just in cryptic ways. The one I remember best is the Epilogue of Way of Kings. Hoid mentions three scholars, two of them turned out to be Vessels for Shards we now know, and the third valued wisdom and acumen. I think I also remember some quote of like "wisdom and I have always been at cross purposes, and I never learned the language in which she speaks" (paraphrased) I was thinking about that as well, but didn't want to quote the book wrong, and i forgot the second book that mentioned it. I was aware of these things as I posted a topic about it once, and someone posted the WOB's, and later found the quotes in a reread of the books.
Firesong she/her Posted August 17, 2023 Posted August 17, 2023 2 minutes ago, Scars of Hathsin said: I was thinking about that as well, but didn't want to quote the book wrong, and i forgot the second book that mentioned it. I was aware of these things as I posted a topic about it once, and someone posted the WOB's, and later found the quotes in a reread of the books. I do wonder if he is holding it off as there is something special about that Shard, or if he didn't find a chance to bring it up, or if it was like a Shard 15 scenario where he is taking a while to find the right name for it. 1
Werewolff Studios he/him Posted August 17, 2023 Posted August 17, 2023 29 minutes ago, Firesong said: I do wonder if he is holding it off as there is something special about that Shard, or if he didn't find a chance to bring it up, or if it was like a Shard 15 scenario where he is taking a while to find the right name for it. I feel like it's more the later. I've always liked the fanon name 'Prudence', though 'Caution', 'Cunning' and 'Guile' are also some good ones. Will be interesting to see whenever they revel themselves.
Firesong she/her Posted August 17, 2023 Posted August 17, 2023 Just now, Werewolff Studios said: I feel like it's more the later. I've always liked the fanon name 'Prudence', though 'Caution', 'Cunning' and 'Guile' are also some good ones. Will be interesting to see whenever they revel themselves. What do you mean? Latter only works in a list of two, so I am curious if you meant the second, or were using an expanded abstraction of the term to mean "The ending element in a list"
Werewolff Studios he/him Posted August 17, 2023 Posted August 17, 2023 Just now, Firesong said: What do you mean? Latter only works in a list of two, so I am curious if you meant the second, or were using an expanded abstraction of the term to mean "The ending element in a list" Sorry, was referring to your last point; that being similar to the 15th Shard. 1
Firesong she/her Posted August 17, 2023 Posted August 17, 2023 (edited) 7 minutes ago, Werewolff Studios said: Sorry, was referring to your last point; that being similar to the 15th Shard. Ah, no biggie, just making sure. And yeah, probably. A bit hard to find a word as there are a lot of similar ones with very different connotations. Cunning and Guile I don't think fit with the description we got in WoK. Edited August 17, 2023 by Firesong 1
alder24 Posted August 17, 2023 Posted August 17, 2023 13 hours ago, Saodar said: As of right now, we know of 15 of the 16 Shards. I have a theory about the last Shard's Intent. We know from WOB that there's a shard that "just wants to survive." There are also WOBs that could contradict my theory for sure. "Survive" sounds like it could be an Intent but we know that it's not. Shardic intents seem to sometimes go to extremes of their areas: "odium" could be considered extreme hatred, "ruin" could be extreme decay/destruction, etc. So what if "survive" is the less-extreme version of this shard? The Shard I propose is Ferocity. When I think of something that just wants to survive, I think of a cornered animal. A cornered animal is ferocious, but not malicious. They'll do anything they possibly can to survive, maybe even escape. But there's no malicious intent. Just a need to survive. An aluminum-foil hat for sure, but what do people think? We know that the last Shard's intent is related to Wisdom, and it now thinks survival isn't the best outcome: Spoiler Paleo (paraphrased) Is Wisdom a Shard? If so, how bad does it want to survive? Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased) There is a Shard with a similar intent. The Shard has realized that survival might not be the most desirable/important. Footnote: Paleo later asked Brandon for clarification on this one because he couldn't quite remember the survival part when he wrote it down. Brandon stressed again what the Shard has realized. Stuttgart signing (May 17, 2019) We know that the "survival Shard's" intent isn't directly connected to survival Spoiler Seonid I've heard about a Shard that just wants to survive, hiding off-- it doesn't have a planet it doesn't-- Brandon Sanderson Right. Seonid --out there in space, trying to survive. Does it have the intent of like Fear, or something like that? Brandon Sanderson The intent is related but only tangentially. Mostly it just knows what's going on and is smart enough to get out of there. Bands of Mourning release party (Jan. 25, 2016) And that Prudence sounds like a Shard name: Spoiler Paleo In May, in Germany, you told me that... or I asked whether Wisdom was a Shard, and you said it was or something like it, and that wisdom was close to an intent of a Shard, and you also told me that it has realized that survival isn't necessarily the most important thing for it. I wanted to ask whether it has realized that over time or was it from the get go? Brandon Sanderson Over time. Paleo Okay, so then naturally, my next question: Is it the survival Shard? Brandon Sanderson RAFO. Paleo And then somebody actually came up with another good probable name. Is Prudence close? Brandon Sanderson Prudence sounds an awful lot like a Shard name. That's some excellent theorizing there. Prague Signing (Oct. 26, 2019) Based on that I think it's pretty fair to assume that the last Shard's intent is closely related to Wisdom (not necessarily named Wisdom) and it used to be the Survival Shard. Ferocity has nothing to do with either wisdom or survival tbf.
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