To protect a Dawnshard

[Duxredux he/him]

The specific Dawnshard we are protecting changes some things. The current method that is holding up to the Night Brigade and Connection tracking probably leaned into the fact that Hoid's Dawnshard prohibited killing. Apparently step one was talk some super honorable chap, Windrunner probably, into believing that delivering the Dawnshard to a group was vital to save lives. Make him make an oath to protect it and not misuse it - tying his Invested abilities to his mission - forcing him to keep to the mission to retain his powers. Enhance him enough to not be able to kill or harm you, but enough to be really hard to for a third party to take down and let him loose. Arrange for him to deliver it (potentially) back to yourself in disguise then continue on to your next layer of protection. Hypothetically of course.

Really though, the biggest hurdle is information protection from the Spiritual Realm. Look at what Dalinar and everyone was able to learn hopping from historical moment to historical moment to a time that no one in the initial investigation was present for. There will be a record there of what you did, no matter the degree of obfuscation for those determined enough to find it. Because the Spiritual Realm exists, security through obscurity does not work. 

So yes, I also lean toward the "yeet it into a blackhole" camp to fulfill the "no one including yourself can abuse the power" requirement. Basically find a process that can't be reversed, even if they know exactly what you did. Everything else is a delaying tactic.

 

That said, this hardly counts as protection. The main issue is the OP requires that we trust no one, not even ourselves which by its very nature removes the option of making it retrievable if circumstance were such that it was required to be obtained.

If effectively destroying it or throwing it away is not an option, best I've got is to obtain the 9th Heightening and use several thousand Breaths to Awaken a metal safe (not sure on the metal, maybe Iron, maybe Steel) with the Command to Protect from Unworthy. Basically the Mirror of Erised gambit that requires that the person attempting to open it must not seek the Dawnshard for their own gain but for the Cosmere. Something like that. Set it up to more or less operate on the scale of Nightblood or the Father Machine that draws Investiture to itself and reinforces itself to fuel its Command, even at the cost of physical material or a sizeable chunk of a planet. If we haven't figured out how to destroy Nightblood, this seems like a good bet. Even attempting to open it might cost a huge amount of Investiture and you might get eaten if you fail the Nightsafe soul check.

Of course Hoid would have it open within a month by finding some stooge who believes that getting into it with the right intention is vital and then he just gets them to do what he wants with it (see WoB below). So the final phase assuming that the me as I was when I created the safe was not corrupt, I will have prepared myself at the sealing of the Dawnshard so that the version of me in the Spiritual Realm at that moment can give an interview to determine if the person attempting to retrieve the Dawnshard is doing so with good reason and not directed by the likes of Hoid. I will have a code phrase implanted in the safe similar to the Awakened lock in TLM that detects if the phrase was given in good faith or obtained nefariously. After I Awaken the safe I'll mentally prepare for the interview then store the memory of the phrase in a Breath, place the Breath in a cloth and burn the cloth, excising it from my memory so even I would need to go the Spiritual Realm to retrieve the code phrase - and if I were to change and be corrupted, my past self wouldn't even give my future self the code.

Add in that the Dawnshard can bend entire ecosystems to protect itself and this Nightsafe might be boosted far beyond what normal Invested abilities without a Dawnshard could do.

 

Hoid WoB:

Spoiler

Questioner

Think Dalinar could lift [Mjolnir]?

...

[Trimmed for relevance]

...

learhpa

Hmm. that leads to the hard question: could Hoid lift it?

Brandon Sanderson

No. Not a chance.

eri_pl

What?!? No seriously… I don't mean Hoid honestly being worthy… but he doesn't do much things honestly anyway.

I think that (assuming that Mjolnir's power level is +- a Honorblade), Hoid could deceive Mjolnir for long enough to be able to use it… wouldn't he?

Brandon Sanderson

I think if we're bringing a Marvel item into the equation, we have to play by their rules, not mine. Odin is one of the most powerful beings in the MCU, powerful enough that even Thanos feared him, by my understanding. I think by their rules, it would be difficult to fool the magic.

Hoid would be much more likely to find a being who IS worthy, but who is also dumb enough to be duped, and get them to do what he wanted with the hammer.

General Reddit 2019 (May 23, 2019)

 

Edited March 31 by Duxredux

[Frustration]

6 minutes ago, Duxredux said:

The specific Dawnshard we are protecting changes some things. The current method that is holding up to the Night Brigade and Connection tracking probably leaned into the fact that Hoid's Dawnshard prohibited killing. Apparently step one was talk some super honorable chap, Windrunner probably, into believing that delivering the Dawnshard to a group was vital to save lives. Make him make an oath to protect it and not misuse it - tying his Invested abilities to his mission - forcing him to keep to the mission to retain his powers. Enhance him enough to not be able to kill or harm you, but enough to be really hard to for a third party to take down and let him loose. Arrange for him to deliver it (potentially) back to yourself in disguise then continue on to your next layer of protection. Hypothetically of course.

Really though, the biggest hurdle is information protection from the Spiritual Realm. Look at what Dalinar and everyone was able to learn hopping from historical moment to historical moment to a time that no one in the initial investigation was present for. There will be a record there of what you did, no matter the degree of obfuscation for those determined enough to find it. Because the Spiritual Realm exists, security through obscurity does not work. 

So yes, I also lean toward the "yeet it into a blackhole" camp to fulfill the "no one including yourself can abuse the power" requirement. Basically find a process that can't be reversed, even if they know exactly what you did. Everything else is a delaying tactic.

 

That said, this hardly counts as protection. The main issue is the OP requires that we trust no one, not even ourselves which by its very nature removes the option of making it retrievable if circumstance were such that it was required to be obtained.

If effectively destroying it or throwing it away is not an option, best I've got is to obtain the 9th Heightening and use several thousand Breaths to Awaken a metal safe (not sure on the metal, maybe Iron, maybe Steel) with the Command to Protect from Unworthy. Basically the Mirror of Erised gambit that requires that the person attempting to open it must not seek the Dawnshard for their own gain but for the Cosmere. Something like that. Set it up to more or less operate on the scale of Nightblood or the Father Machine that draws Investiture to itself and reinforces itself to fuel its Command, even at the cost of physical material or a sizeable chunk of a planet. If we haven't figured out how to destroy Nightblood, this seems like a good bet. Even attempting to open it might cost a huge amount of Investiture and you might get eaten if you fail the Nightsafe soul check.

Of course Hoid would have it open within a month by finding some stooge who believes that getting into it with the right intention is vital and then he just gets them to do what he wants with it (see WoB below). So the final phase assuming that the me as I was when I created the safe was not corrupt, I will have prepared myself at the sealing of the Dawnshard so that the version of me in the Spiritual Realm at that moment can give an interview to determine if the person attempting to retrieve the Dawnshard is doing so with good reason and not directed by the likes of Hoid. I will have a code phrase implanted in the safe similar to the Awakened lock in TLM that detects if the phrase was given in good faith or obtained nefariously. After I Awaken the safe I'll mentally prepare for the interview then store the memory of the phrase in a Breath, place the Breath in a cloth and burn the cloth, excising it from my memory so even I would need to go the Spiritual Realm to retrieve the code phrase - and if I were to change and be corrupted, my past self wouldn't even give my future self the code.

Add in that the Dawnshard can bend entire ecosystems to protect itself and this Nightsafe might be boosted far beyond what normal Invested abilities without a Dawnshard could do.

Dang I was expecting some good ones, but the level of preparation here is just... wow.

I tip my hat to you good fellow.