I have a feeling that Cultivation will flee and join Harmony on Scadrial

[Frandoka]

It's just a feeling, but after the events of Wind and Truth, I think the most likely place Cultivation would flee to would be Harmony. Harmony and Cultivation's intents could complement each other and foster incredible scientific growth on Scadrial. Harmony seems the most motivated and the most powerful shard to counter Retribution. I  don't think that cultivation would hide and do nothing. She would perhaps hide on Scadrial and aid Harmony in containing Retribution. Harmony has been contacting other shards to build an alliance against Odium. I don't see why he wouldn't do the same with Cultivation. I also fear that Cultivation would be the first on Retribution's murder list. Taravangian has personal reasons for enacting some "retribution" against Cultivation for nearly destroying everything he held dear. So finding some protection with a shard on the near-to-equal power scale would be a wise course of action. 

 

What are everyone else's thoughts on this?

Edited December 31, 2024 by Frandoka

[elihaun]

I think this is the most LOGICAL course of action, but I don't think it would work that well.  It would seem too much... like a book plot?  too deus ex machina?  like it is 'fated' to happen, and I don't think it would work, because retribution would work to stop it

[+Oltux72 he/him]

I think that Cultivation knows that Harmony is playing a leading role in the shardic coalition against Retribution. Hence she will avoid him. She has fought enough.

[Letryx13]

I could see it going either way. After everything she did to try and stop Odium by replacing Rayse, I could see her just giving up and waiting for him to kill her. But then again, if that's all she was going to do, she might as well have just stayed on Roshar. On the other hand, if she still wants to try and fight, then it makes sense for her to team up with Harmony, or possibly the other shards. Harmony because he's the only true rival to Retribution now, or the other shards because she knows them better. Of course, considering how the other shards just ignored Odium until he became Retribution, she may not want to waste time with them and try and help teach Harmony how to use his power better. 

[Asininity]

It's interesting idea but I think this is unlikely. 
Cultivation represents change and growth, concepts that are fundamentally at odds with nature of Preservation. In many ways Cultivation is just as big of anathema to preservation as Ruin is.

While the Vessels might cooperate, their Intents would make this alliance inherently volatile. Balancing Preservation and Ruin was already a monumental task fo Sazed, adding Cultivation into the mix would magnify the conflict.

That is of course assuming she's opposed to the conflict. If she planned Retribution, her going to Sazed and turning him into Discord would align perfectly with planting another seed for chaos and war.

[BridgeBoi]

I feel like cultivation will set up on sel. There is so much pontential there with all the magic systems. Plus it currently doesn't have a shard so she could control it. I definetalty feel that cultivation will true and manipulate the other shards, growing the shards of honor into true shards of honor and/or manipulating harmony so it can take actions.

[Raven Wilder]

Cultivation might be drawn to Scadrial simply because, with the world having been restored from an apocalypse four hundred years ago, and with most human development clustered in two small areas, the majority of the planet could be seen as an undeveloped blank canvas.

As for conflict with Harmony ... well, Mistborn Era 3 is gonna need to be about something.

[Frandoka]

Harmony is the newest and most inexperienced Shard, with the greatest potential for growth. He could benefit from a mentor to guide him and help him grow into his role. Taravangian also mentioned planning to start a conflict on Scadrial in Wind and Truth, which gives me a hunch that he will play a role in Mistborn Era 3. With Retribution planning to involve himself with Scadrial, I’m not sure Harmony has the luxury of refusing help from Cultivation.

Also Cultivation's style isn't to be at the forefront in Shard conflicts; instead, she plants seeds to stimulate change. Conflicts themselves stimulate change. Someone also mentioned that Preservation's intent could clash with Cultivation's intent, but that’s not the Shard intent of Harmony. Additionally, Cultivation and Honor didn’t clash, so it's not inevitable that Shard intents would always conflict. 

So all in all, especially with a common enemy, if Retribution does appear on Scadrial, it wouldn't be unlikely that Cultivation would appear on Scadrial. I don't like the chances of Harmony going one-on-one against Retribution.

Edited January 16, 2025 by Frandoka

[Leuthie]

Cultivation left a lot of herself on Roshar. The Sibling, the spren, the simple fact that she was there so long. She has to have a plan to return. 

[scottos]

1 hour ago, Leuthie said:

Cultivation left a lot of herself on Roshar. The Sibling, the spren, the simple fact that she was there so long. She has to have a plan to return. 

Yeah, I feel like she is going somewhere for help and will be back. She seems too invested (not referring to investiture here ) in the events of Roshar to just move somewhere else.

[AonSoo he/him]

On 1/16/2025 at 12:47 PM, Leuthie said:

Cultivation left a lot of herself on Roshar. The Sibling, the spren, the simple fact that she was there so long. She has to have a plan to return. 

I agree. She will come back. 

On 1/3/2025 at 8:32 PM, BridgeBoi said:

I feel like cultivation will set up on sel. There is so much pontential there with all the magic systems. Plus it currently doesn't have a shard so she could control it. I definetalty feel that cultivation will true and manipulate the other shards, growing the shards of honor into true shards of honor and/or manipulating harmony so it can take actions.

I feel this is more likely than Scadrial. She went to Roshar to be away from others and didn't like Honor interacting with Odium. I also can see her setting up far away on an uninhabited planet.

[+Oltux72 he/him]

On 1/16/2025 at 8:47 PM, Leuthie said:

Cultivation left a lot of herself on Roshar. The Sibling, the spren, the simple fact that she was there so long. She has to have a plan to return. 

She expects the other Shards to fight Retribution. If she wants to survive long term Retribution has to be defeated. That makes Roshar a target. Roshar in her mind is the place you do not want to be. It is like going on a trip to Hirosima on Aug, 1 of 1945, knowing what is to come. Not advisable.

[BridgeBoi]

Where ever she stays it will probably be temporary but extremely impactful. If she settles on Scadrial, I could see her alliancing with Kelsier to kill Sazed and spilt harmony. Kelsier would take preservation and rule as the god of Scadrial. Cultivation would ascend to Ruin, using the power of dual shards with compatible intents to fight Retribution. 

If she settles on Sel, she would probably try to cultivate all the magic systems and kingdoms, bringing them into conflict with each other. That would probably be the instigating factor in Elantris 2 & 3. Her long term goal on Sel might be to prepare and cultivate for the Shardic War. 

Of the two, I think Sel is more probable but now that I've articulated it, Kelsier/ Cultivation would be scary. 

[Leuthie]

17 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

She expects the other Shards to fight Retribution. If she wants to survive long term Retribution has to be defeated. That makes Roshar a target. Roshar in her mind is the place you do not want to be. It is like going on a trip to Hirosima on Aug, 1 of 1945, knowing what is to come. Not advisable.

Yeah. Hence the running away. But she is tied to Roshar, diminished by leaving behind Splinters of herself, and probably drawn to return by the power itself. She never wanted to be on Roshar, but she stayed for Tanavast. She has no reason to return except for 10,000 years spent Invested there. And I'm willing to bet that Cultivation doesn't just give up on things it's Cultivating. Cultivation (the concept) doesn't really have an end game. It's a concept of preparing and using things. When crops are sewn, the cultivation of the land doesn't end.

So meeting the Intent of the power she holds, Kora will be pulled to see things through. This means her plans are still in effect, including preparing and using Retribution.

Or the entire plan was to free Tanavast from his self imposed prison in the Storm and get the hell off of the planet. That actually fits the person's personality if not the Power's Intent.

[MagicMaggot]

We already have 3 shards involved on Scadrial, and the corpses of two that we haven't really explored yet on Sel, and you want to throw more shards into the mix there? From a story-telling standpoint, do you really think that is a good idea? At its core the stories still have to be about mortal protagonists figuring things out, and throwing more players beyond mortal comprehension in that change the way physics work, and with a background that you get from a different series of novels, doesn't sound especially appealing to me. 

I personally don'T expect to see her active outside of SA novels. Maybe a mention hinting at what she might be up to, but certainly not settling on another plot hotspot.

[SpeakoftheDeval]

On 1/18/2025 at 5:39 PM, MagicMaggot said:

I personally don'T expect to see her active outside of SA novels. Maybe a mention hinting at what she might be up to, but certainly not settling on another plot hotspot.

I agree that cultivation settling on sel or scadrial to the extent that she has a personal impact on the nature of the magic systems or politics of the world would be unsatisfying- I think something which might circumvent that and also seems pretty aligned with cultivations MO is that in the Elantris sequels, we see characters slowly interact more with the Dor as it grows in sentience, and then find out that the Dors increasing sentience is because Cultivation has slightly invested herself in it/ cultivated it. The Dor as a whole grows to see itself as Cultivations daughter. 

[Teravangian]

Whatever happens, having all the shards unite and fight, is both going to be crazy, and hard to pull off. This certainly will be interesting to watch.

[ParaTulip fae/faer (declines as she/her)]

On 1/18/2025 at 12:14 PM, BridgeBoi said:

Cultivation would ascend to Ruin, using the power of dual shards with compatible intents to fight Retribution. 

If she settles on Sel, she would probably try to cultivate all the magic systems and kingdoms, bringing them into conflict with each other. That would probably be the instigating factor in Elantris 2 & 3. Her long term goal on Sel might be to prepare and cultivate for the Shardic War. 

I think taking up Ruin would be really hard on Kor, based on what we have seen of her. She is, even after so long carrying Cultivation, still unhappy with the parts of the Intent which are pleased by war. If I was to combine the two ideas, Ruin and Cultivation, it does give me the mental image of a Reaper figure, perhaps by the name of Harvest. I would love to see an amendment to Hemalurgy that allows the spikes to be planted in the ground and used to grow magical fruit, but this is probably my fascination with the way World of Darkness presents Lilith in its mythos.

I think the idea of her going to Sel to try to pick up as much of Devotion and Dominion's power makes more sense. Devotion especially seems like an idea her story, of loving Tanavast, losing him, and the way she cared to bring the society she was involved with away from Retribution's domain, would support her becoming involved with.

I actually personally think she would go to Bavadin and say "Hey, I am sorry for hanging out in the same place as Tanavast for the last 10k years even though we all agreed to not do that before ascending. I see the error of my ways. I am now convinced of the one shard per system notion. Can we do something about these dishards by coordinating plans or is that infringing on your Intent? Do you want me to just throw some plants out that you can shine on as you want?" or something. The two of them knew each other before the shattering, so I assume Kor knows how to talk to Bavadin.

[Leuthie]

Can Cultivation be a blending factor with Ruin and Preservation? It would give the two opposing Shards a common direction that they could both contribute to. Is that a direction that Brandon is going? 

Edited April 8, 2025 by Leuthie

[SpartanBrigade He/Him]

On 12/31/2024 at 8:48 AM, Frandoka said:

It's just a feeling, but after the events of Wind and Truth, I think the most likely place Cultivation would flee to would be Harmony. Harmony and Cultivation's intents could complement each other and foster incredible scientific growth on Scadrial. Harmony seems the most motivated and the most powerful shard to counter Retribution. I  don't think that cultivation would hide and do nothing. She would perhaps hide on Scadrial and aid Harmony in containing Retribution. Harmony has been contacting other shards to build an alliance against Odium. I don't see why he wouldn't do the same with Cultivation. I also fear that Cultivation would be the first on Retribution's murder list. Taravangian has personal reasons for enacting some "retribution" against Cultivation for nearly destroying everything he held dear. So finding some protection with a shard on the near-to-equal power scale would be a wise course of action. 

 

What are everyone else's thoughts on this?

We know with the timeline that Mistborn Era 2 comes directly after WaT. After being so terrified of Retribution that she ejected herself from Roshar I don't think Cultivation would place herself in the middle of a war between Harmony and Autonomy. There's also the fact that we don't see her in Era 2 or get any hints from Sazed that she showed up there during Era 2. So while it is possible (she could just not have arrived yet or is hiding from him while Autonomy clouds his vision) I personally don't find it very likely 

[Through The Living Ash he/him]

I think Cultivation would likely go to some planet that does not have shardic influence and hide out, waiting for things to blow over. We see in the books that she is resistant to immediate action and prefers to plan things out in the long run. In addition, the main reason that she was with another Shard is because Tanavast wanted it. She will likely return to Roshar once the threat of Retribution is eliminated. 

Although I could also see her potentially going to Endowment for assistance, as it seems that their Intents would mesh nicely.