How much does Harmony know?

[Chromium Compounder]

In particular, does he know about the other Shards and shardworlds? In HoA when we're in his head at the end he is limited in how much he's able to learn and figure out.

Presumably the other Shards were all present when Adonalsium was fractured, and we know they can world hop, but what if Harmony had no way of knowing the other Shards and shardworlds were even out there? Has anyone heard anything about this?

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Well, to start off with, I'm not sure how much he knows about the magic systems at play.  From an email response I got (asking about the rule of 16 thing shortly after MB3 came out)

 

The charts are all presented as in-world artifacts; what's contained on them is according to the understanding of people in the world at various points in time.

There is another explanation of how everything works out, and there are a few hints in the series itself. There are also hints if you compare versions of the chart to each other. But I'm not going to make a definitive statement so people can figure things out for themselves. When I get around to writing the Mistborn sequel trilogy, more aspects of the magic system will be explored and may help to answer some of your questions.

There are things even Ruin did not know.

 

Ruin didn't understand everything going on with Scandriel, so I doubt Sazed is going to have much more luck with stuff outside of it.  He'll need time to figure stuff out

 

From the recent Reddit AMA:

How cosmere-aware was the Lord Ruler? If a Returned waltzed into Kredik Shaw, would he have any idea what was going on? Or at least be able to recognize 'hey that guy seems endowmenty'.

5) Aware enough to know he wasn't alone, but not so aware that he'd know specifics. He didn't hold the power long enough to explore outward very far.

 

So at bare minimum Sazed knows there's other stuff out there - he's got more power and longer use than the Lord Ruler, after all.

[Windrunner he/him]

Huh, any other insights from that email?

[Observer]

He was able to pull up the name Adonalsium and deduce that the shards were once together, and that was within a few minutes of picking up the powers. He probably knows that there are other things out there like him, and probably that there are other planets. It's unlikely that he knows about all the shardic drama that's going down, but he probably knows somebody is out there.

[TheOneKEA]

Brandon has already said that Harmony knows how to grant Allomantic powers to the kandra. It suggests to me that he, at a minimum, knows everything there is to know about the Three Metallic Arts and their use on Scadrial.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if he has figured out that Scadrial itself has a soul; I would be interested to see a character monologue where he talks about that revelation.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Huh, any other insights from that email?

That was the whole text of it.

Edited April 25, 2013 by Phantom Monstrosity

[Chromium Compounder]

He was able to pull up the name Adonalsium and deduce that the shards were once together, and that was within a few minutes of picking up the powers. He probably knows that there are other things out there like him, and probably that there are other planets. It's unlikely that he knows about all the shardic drama that's going down, but he probably knows somebody is out there.

 

Is that in HoA?  It's been a while since I've read that one.  I'm currently going through the series again, and I just finished WoA.

 

I remember him recognizing that the shards were once together and wondering about how they came apart, but I don't remember the name Adonalsium.  The first place I saw it in any of the books was when Hoid (as Wit) mentioned it to Dalinar.  I'd heard of it by then from talking to people, but I figured they'd got it from something Brandon said in an interview or something.

 

Brandon has already said that Harmony knows how to grant Allomantic powers to the kandra. It suggests to me that he, at a minimum, knows everything there is to know about the Three Metallic Arts and their use on Scadrial.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if he has figured out that Scadrial itself has a soul; I would be interested to see a character monologue where he talks about that revelation.

Speaking of the Kandra, do they exist anymore?  I thought at the end of HoA they all turned back into Mistwraiths.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

IIRC, Adonalsium is there, but it's actually mispelled.  Sazed basically just says 'I heard this name wonder what it means

it means buy more books

', and that's all.

 

 

Speaking of the Kandra, do they exist anymore?  I thought at the end of HoA they all turned back into Mistwraiths.

 

Some moderately clever people figured out to put the spikes back in.

 

They exist as of AoL, but at Sazed's insistance they don't take human bodies anymore.  They're known as the 'faceless immortals' now. 

Edited April 25, 2013 by Phantom Monstrosity

[Observer]

Er...I'm pretty sure they do. Wax got his earring from a kandra in a human body, and the legends say that they take bodies.

[Senor Feesh]

Wasn't it confirmed that

the police guy

gets replaced by a kandra?

Edited April 25, 2013 by Senor Feesh

[Observer]

That too, but I was trying ot stick to in-book example.

Still, thanks.

[Voidus]

 

BRANDON SANDERSON

Marsh survived. (He'll show up in the Mistborn sequel series.) The Kandra were restored, and have taken a vow to live only in animal bodies. There will never be any more of them, but they are functionally immortal. So you'll see them again. The Koloss who were in the cavern at the time survived, and were changed to become a race that breeds true, rather than Hemalurgic monsters. More below.

So they all vowed to but how well enforced that is we don't know, so it's probably only at Harmony's specific request or else there's a rebel faction among the AoL era Kandra

 

 

 

[Chromium Compounder]

So they all vowed to but how well enforced that is we don't know, so it's probably only at Harmony's specific request or else there's a rebel faction among the AoL era Kandra

Yeah, I could see the second generation Kandra rebelling, and those that followed them.  They didn't care about the true purpose of their people.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Yeah, I could see the second generation Kandra rebelling, and those that followed them.  They didn't care about the true purpose of their people.

Most of them didn't like to take human bodies, though.

If sazed provided some nice materials for skeletons, they'd probably stick with them.

[Voidus]

Most of them didn't like to take human bodies, though.

If sazed provided some nice materials for skeletons, they'd probably stick with them.

But they did like human forms with their True bodies, wheras the quote from Brandon says they were forced into animal bodies. I could see the 2nd Gen rebelling in that

[Windrunner he/him]

I'm pretty sure that Brandon changed his mind on that, guys. After all, we see a kandra in Alloy wearing a human body and there's a mention of another one. TenSoon takes Constable Bretton's body, and MeLaan is the woman who gave Wax his earring. So they're clearly not exclusively in animal bodies.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

But they did like human forms with their True bodies, wheras the quote from Brandon says they were forced into animal bodies. I could see the 2nd Gen rebelling in that

I'm going to guess that in context he meant 'as opposed to human bodies' and not 'as opposed to bodies that were never living'.

It's possible to argue that animals include humans of course, but that doesn't make much sense.

Edited April 26, 2013 by Phantom Monstrosity

[Observer]

I prefer to think of it as Kandra replacing people and having a field day with the power they have over society. They'll be animals unless Harmony calls for them, otherwise they'll regret those spikes.

[Voidus]

Considering that most of them didn't like using genuine human bones and prefered True bodies Id think it would be a bit redundant to say that though, also recall that most Truebodies aren't particularly human looking anyway, so they couldn't properly imitate people with them, which means the 2 known instances of Kandra in human form would have used actual human bones.

[Windrunner he/him]

Well, Brettin for sure, otherwise he wouldn't have looked like Brettin. Here's a direct quote confirming he's in a human body.

FEJICUS
Oh, and another little tidbit,

BRANDON SANDERSON
The person who gave Wax his earring was the kandra, MeLaan.

Also, that Kandra are working as "Sazed's Angels". And their role is primarily to go along fixing things by Sazed's Will. Brettin was killed towards the end of the book, but not in the storyline related plot. Sazed saw this, and told Tensoon to go get his bones, which is why he wasnt able to imitate him properly.
Source

[Voidus]

It might be a good question to confirm with Brandon, whether the whole swearing to only use animal bodies has changed or whether there are multiple factions or what's going on.

[KChan she/her]

Perhaps they swore to only live in animal bodies, but then Sazed gave them a different purpose as his "angels." It seems that they still only use humanely gathered bodies, though; note that Sazed had TenSoon get the constable's bones after he had already died, rather than having someone kill him.

 

Here's an interesting thought: you guys know how people today can donate their bodies to science? What if on Scadrial, people can decide to offer their bodies to the Faceless Immortals after they die? It's slightly morbid, sure, but it's not like Sazed would handle it in a way that would be traumatic to the family of the deceased.