Hacking Connection: Cultivation's boon to Taravangian

[OoklaApologist She/her]

A short last-minute WaT theory

I was reading the thread linked below, when I made a connection I hadn't before: Taravangian's emotion serving as a Connection to Odium. While I was thinking about that, I realized, Cultivation's boon was a way of creating a vessel of Odium with enough Connection to manipulate the Shard that is still a cultivative vessel. The division between diagram Taravangian and sad-old-man Taravangian was not created by accident, but instead created so that there is a vessel of Odium that is still soundly connected to Cultivation.

Now, here's where the theorizing starts. Why would Cultivation create a vessel with dual connection? There's several possibilities, here listed in no particular order. There are definitely other reasons that Cultivation could give the boon, but these are the only ones that I could think of that incorporate connection

1. A Colleague - Koravellium wants someone with the same goals as her being the vessel of Odium. We currently don't know the short-term goals of Taravangian or Koravellium, but it is definitely possible that they could align, and after, she could dispose of him. Alternatively, it could be that Koravellium misjudged Taravangian and is dealing with the consequences now.

2. A Replacement - Connection to Cultivation and Odium would make it very easy for Taravangian to either take up both shards, or abandon Odium to assume Cultivation. Koravellium could be planning to retire soon, leaving Cultivation to Taravangian. Either Koravellium is confident that she can train Taravangian, or she, as before, misjudged him.

3. An Insurance Policy - Similar to the replacement theory, except Cultivation isn't planning to retire anytime soon. She could be undertaking a dangerous endeavor, or just planning for the future.

This is my first major theory for the shard, so if you have any feedback, let me know!

[QuantumHarmonix he/him]

I think it is interesting that his intelligence was also tied to how emotional he could be. So he was the most emotional when he was dumbest. Interesting that he now holds a shard that is extreme emotion. Seems like Cultivation may have been trying to limit Odium's ability to strategize.