Demi-gods?

[elihaun]

So, I have FINALLY caught up with chapter 30 of the preview chapters.  

It seems that Illatil is moving in a direction not aligned to the ghost bloods, and that has got me thinking.  Why does she want to find BAM? 

My prediction: if BAM is a investiture with an intent (as all spren are in a way), then could she be 'killed' and picked up?  What would happen if someone ascended not to a shard of aldanisum, but to an unmade's power?  that person would be equivalent to a demigod (think Perseus, Heracles, etc.), no?  Has Brando even mentioned if it was possible to accend to a lesser gods power?

[BinarySecond]

That's an interesting theory - Shards can be picked up because the Host and Shard are separate entities. 

 

If the Investiture is stripped of it's Identity (I'm using a capital I intentionally) then can you wield it? How much Identity is left in a Shardblade - Does Mayalaran have more?

[CognitiveShadow he/him]

31 minutes ago, BinarySecond said:

That's an interesting theory - Shards can be picked up because the Host and Shard are separate entities. 

Right - an Unmade or even a 'god-spren' like the Sibling or the Stormfather (particularly the stormfather pre-Honor's death) is not a combination of power and vessel like a shard. The spren are power only, but it's just power that was left alone long enough to get up and start moving around. 

The Sibling points out how it's not too dangerous for spren lik them to form their own self-awareness and stuff because they aren't really that much power. But if a shard were to develop it's own sentience and personality and essentially form it's own vessel, that would be very dangerous because it would essentially have no ties to the physical world and would not have a good understanding of mortals. I personally think this may have happened with Honor's power - either that Tanavast copied himself and put his investiture copy in the Shard as a new vessel while giving up the power himself and going down to earth as Nohadon, or that the power has just spent enough time sitting alone in the spiritual realm to be 'awakened' to some degree already. In that case, it seems like someone will need to convince the power to let them take it up.

For BAM specifically, I think it works more like a nahel bond or connection shenanigans. You can likely bond with BAM, but I doubt a mortal person could try and replace her the way someone can ascend to be the vessel of a shard.

[coolsnow7]

What we know so far is that Iyatil and Mraize are interested in BAM because they want to “control the Shards”. In this way (they claim) their goal is aligned with Kelsier’s, because it’s to ensure survival. I don’t see how becoming the vessel of a demigod helps them control the Shards.

I think that it is much more likely that, however BAM was captured, the Ghostbloods want to replicate that on a much larger scale, vis full-blown Shards.