Shardic Intent

[Wyndle88 he/him]

We have seen 2 examples of multiple shards being held by one person in the Cosmere so far. Harmony and Retribution.

Sazed picked up both the shards of P & R at the same time. Hence why the shard became Harmony.

In the case of Retribution we see that it still has a lot of anger in it even after picking up Honor. 

Does this mean that in the case of Retribution, when the 2nd shard was picked up by Taravangian, he was already Odium. So does the intent of Odium supress the intent of Honor? Or does the intent clash as well in case of Retribution as we see in the case of Harmony?

[The White Drake]

Neither. Retribution compares his own case to Harmony’s, and concludes that his Intents mostly align. There will be a little clashing, but not much. Honor doesn’t mind anger

Edited Friday at 07:01 PM by The White Drake

[Returned he/him]

Even where there is a clash of intents, it may not be as direct or immediate as between Preservation and Ruin. I think that the issues are twofold:

1. Combined Shards become one, single thing which is different from the two separate things they were before. This was what Rayse wanted to avoid: being something other than Odium alone. Whether or not there is conflict is a different question, but it seems reasonable to think that at some point there is something that Retribution might desire or pursue that is different from what Odium would desire or pursue. I don't think there is any indication of how severe such a thing needs to be, though.
2. The Vessel needs to direct the Shard (or be consumed by it), and there are many ways that this direction could be pursued. For example, Sazed could be Harmony or Discord, and failing to maintain a good balance as the former may lead to the latter-- not one Shard winning out over the other but a combination that may not be what the Vessel would prefer or could use effectively in pursuit of their goals. We've seen some consequences of Sazed's struggles after a couple of centuries of the tension between his Shards but have seen only a very brief period of Taravangian's. Taravangian's opinions of his nature with his two Shards may not be accurate nor sustainable, and he may get better or worse at handling the situation as the Shards influence his mind and will. I suspect that issues satisfying Honor and Odium together will eventually be meaningful for Taravangian, but we'll see how well he manages.

The Shards' natures are not quite innate. They were all one, single combined thing at one point, and the sixteen specific pieces are sort of arbitrary divisions of that one thing as effected by the Shatterers. So far we know very little about the specifics but "two Shards" might be a less accurate way of thinking about it than "a single Shard which needs to find its own equilibrium, which may not be deterministic". Given the effects we've seen from holding just one Shard I am skeptical that adding another can be fundamentally imbalanced in the way that "Odium suppresses Honor" would suggest, though maybe a stable balance between the two would look a lot like that to us.

[Sophrosyne He/any]

I think T is angry because T is an angry person and Odium is hyping him up. 
As far as I can tell the Cosmere has basic rules that all things must follow and the way I think about it is this. If I were a 3 ideal Windrunner who started taking up any other orders oaths neither would supersede the other, I'd have to live by both or lose my spren.