The Death of Pattern

[Newan he/him]

Over in "Buy or Sell" somebody theorized Pattern's death.  As Brandon likes to keep it interesting, I don't think that Pattern would die in the same way Syl "died" in Words of Radiance.  

 

Today at Comic Con, I asked him if a splinter could use up its mind like Leras did when he imprisoned Ati.  Brandon said yes, but that a splinter couldn't achieve something so powerful with it.  

 

 

So whatever splinter you love (Pattern, Syl, Nightblood, Ashe, Zahel's soul) could expend its mind in a burst of power.  Do you think that any of these tiny pieces of god will ever be pushed to the point of using this ability?

Zahel's soul's mind? Weird.

[18th Shard he/him]

See Elantris Annotations. the Seons could originally do this and Ashe, I believe, did.

[Newan he/him]

It was Raoden's seon, not Ashe.  And it wasn't the same thing.  

A seon can use itself up in a burst of power that fulfills its inscribed aon.  A divine breath can be given up to heal someone.  This isn't the same as expending your mind.  Remember how Leras used up his mind to trap Ati?  The power of Preservation remained whole, but Leras lost his cleverness.  He had been a genius who came up with a convoluted scheme to trick Ruin, but he became a pretty dumb mist spirit who really sucked at charades.  

If Pattern used up his mind, he would still exist.  Shallan could probably still use her bond with him to surgebind.  But he would be permanently stunted cognitively.  

[Paragrin she/her]

Oooooo, maybe that's what the Recreance was. They discovered lots of voidspren and the knights' spren had to trap them. And then the spren back in the Cognitive Realm didn't know...? Or something...