Jump to content

Who is the most powerful shard?  

23 members have voted

  1. 1. Who is the most powerful shard?

    • Devotion
      1
    • Dominion
      2
    • Preservation
      1
    • Ruin
      3
    • Odium
      8
    • Cultivation
      2
    • Honor
      2
    • Endowment
      3
    • Autonomy
      5
    • Ambition
      2
    • Invention
      2
    • Mercy
      2
    • Valor
      4
    • Whimsy
      3
    • Virtuosity
      1
    • Reason
      6


Recommended Posts

Posted

I decided not to include Harmony and Retribution as they are combined shards and that wouldn't be fair.

Posted

It's hard to say since they all have near-limitless amounts of power, but if we go with 'Who has the most Investiture left' I'd be willing to bet on Reason because they may or may not be Invested on a particular world. If they aren't and really have just spent thousands of years doing nothing but hiding then that would mean that by default they have the most Investiture left out of all the Mono-Shards.

 

Posted

Welcome to the Shard! Please consider an Intro Post to let us know what you have and haven't read! Also check the Sharder FAQ for more information! Lastly, please note that the pronouns field isn't a second title, it's a serious space so that everyone knows what to call you :)

I think that we've heard from Odium about Valor being dangerous, and that's probably because its Intent is very combat-focused.

Posted
10 hours ago, Mist Wraith said:

I decided not to include Harmony and Retribution as they are combined shards and that wouldn't be fair.

What do you mean by powerful?

Posted
10 hours ago, Mist Wraith said:

I decided not to include Harmony and Retribution as they are combined shards and that wouldn't be fair.

Now this is an interesting question.

I'm going to assume when we say "most powerful" we mean which Shard can influence the Cosmere at large and outcompete other Shards in their influence.

In this case, a few things come to mind. Raw power is roughly equal amongst them all, except for those that have permanent manifestations of their Investiture, such as Scadrial, Honor's Spren and Heralds, Odium's Fused and Unmade, etc.- though those are all drops in the bucket regardless.

Intent matters much more, as it determines both what the Shard's ultimate agenda is and how its power can be used to achieve that agenda. A Vessel may disagree, but the Shard is the driving force in the relationship and will win in the long-term.

Furthermore, the ability to kill other Shards is a very powerful ability amongst them. You can't rely on armies to fight other Shards, you must engage in combat between individuals. There are also so few other Shards that killing one immediately removes a huge obstacle to one's own influence. What's more, a Shard like Autonomy that pushes to have a large influence in the Cosmere but doesn't actually directly confront other Shards is actually hurting themselves I'm fairly certain, since now multiple other beings of equal cosmic power will seek their dissolution of power or straight up destruction, and I'm not certainly they'll be able to sidestep it indefinately.

By these terms, Odium ranks very high, at least when in combination with its historic Vessels like Rayse and probably Taravangian. It's A-Okay with murdering other powers, has been seen holding massive influence despite being directly opposed by two Shards and their own powers, and it is going to be alright with its Vessel using dirty tactics.

Ambition would almost certainly been a candidate for "strongest" under the definition I've set, but Odium/Rayse managed to oust it before it got to scheme for terribly long.

Ruin would, I think, have some real potential to do damage- it's primary magic system appears to be parasitic in nature and can override other Shard's influence, and I kinda think the Shard itself may have an easy time with that type of ability. It's also a lot less stable though, as it mostly just wants destruction. That's not a good long-term, sustainable method of getting more of what they want though (more destruction), since it draws other Shards into conflicts of interest and Ruin often hurts its own minions and allies. Plus, it has difficulty with future sight. So it's probably harder to justify as one of the truly more "powerful".

Cultivation has been seen having good future sight, and it wants progression and growth. That's pretty good, and I think could be wielded similar to Ambition's Intent in the right Vessel, pushing the power to continue expanding its influence and eliminating factors that stand in the way of such growth.

 

Realistically, at the end of the day a Shard's real power depends on its Vessel. How it is filtered and used probably depends more than everything else. But its Intent can be a huge factor as well, and some Intents are simply more stable and open more options than others.

So I'm going to say that either Ambition or Cultivation have the most potential for power, at least from the ones we've seen thus far (Invention hasn't been witnessed enough to really tell, so I'm not even going to touch that).

 

Posted

me. i am.

nah jk but idrk much about any of the shards besides, like, ruin preservation odium cultivation honor. and autonomonsysyhshs i guess 

Posted
9 hours ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

Welcome to the Shard! Please consider an Intro Post to let us know what you have and haven't read! Also check the Sharder FAQ for more information! Lastly, please note that the pronouns field isn't a second title, it's a serious space so that everyone knows what to call you :)

I think that we've heard from Odium about Valor being dangerous, and that's probably because its Intent is very combat-focused.

Hi there, sorry for the confusion but those are my pronouns lol.

Posted (edited)
2 minutes ago, Mist Wraith said:

Hi there, sorry for the confusion but those are my pronouns lol.

And.. how do the decline? (I think that's the right word)

like... there aren't just two pronouns. what's the full set like?

 

Attack/Helicopter/Helicopter's?

Edited by Usseewa
Posted
5 minutes ago, Usseewa said:

And.. how do the decline? (I think that's the right word)

like... there aren't just two pronouns. what's the full set like?

 

Attack/Helicopter/Helicopter's?

I haven't put much thought into that yet, but will definitely consider this. Thank you.

 
Posted
Just now, Mist Wraith said:

I haven't put much thought into that yet, but will definitely consider this. Thank you.

 

Also are like, genuinely serious abt this? cuz...those are nonstandard pronouns.

Posted
8 hours ago, Argenti said:

What do you mean by powerful?

Just whatever you interpret it to be really.

Just now, Usseewa said:

Also are like, genuinely serious abt this? cuz...those are nonstandard pronouns.

Yeah I'm serious. Just because they are nonstandard doesn't mean they aren't serious.

Posted
6 minutes ago, Mist Wraith said:

Just whatever you interpret it to be really.

Yeah I'm serious. Just because they are nonstandard doesn't mean they aren't serious.

I mean

I have a bunch of non affirming Christian friends who routinely use those pronouns as a derogatory joke

If you’re a serious… I guess okay? But it doesn’t really sound serious

Posted
4 minutes ago, Verdance said:

I mean

I have a bunch of non affirming Christian friends who routinely use those pronouns as a derogatory joke

If you’re a serious… I guess okay? But it doesn’t really sound serious

Yeah I get that all the time. All good though

Posted
1 minute ago, Mist Wraith said:

Yeah I get that all the time. All good though

Well uh, in that case

Welcome to the Shard!

swing by TLT someday, we need a Protagonist

or don’t, up to you

*leaves with zero explanation*

Posted (edited)
2 minutes ago, Mist Wraith said:

Quick question. When should I close this topic? or do I just leave it open?

 

You don't/can't close topics.

 

I think I actually had that question when I first joined lol

only mods/admins can close topics I think, and usually only when topic gets out of hand or it's been no activity for a few years.

 

edit: i mean, you can hide the topic, but I see no reason to. at least for this specific topic, and most in general.

Edited by Usseewa
Posted
1 hour ago, Mist Wraith said:

Hi there, sorry for the confusion but those are my pronouns lol.

Yeah, there's no way you're not a troll if you insist those are totally your pronouns but you hadn't thought about how they would function in practice. Goodbye.

Posted
3 hours ago, Qianweilian said:

That’s not ominous…

It is ominous, because they have been banned. :)

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...