Confused Posted July 20, 2015 Posted July 20, 2015 “(You’ve Got) Personality” – Harold Logan and Lloyd Price Summary At or after the Shattering, Adonalsium’s Powers of Creation (the “Powers”) attached themselves to the sixteen Shards in equal and identical pieces. At the time of their attachment, these Powers lacked “thoughts and personalities” but already had what Sazed/Harmony calls the “mandate of [a Shard’s] abilities” (what we’ve been calling “intent.”) These “mandates” (intents) came from Adonalsium. BUT – the distribution of powers upon the Shattering wasn’t random. Like RadiantSpren, the Shattered powers sought cognitively “like-minded” hosts. Each mandated power could be taken only by a Shard whose “mind” could direct that power. Power needs to be matched with a mind that can wield it. Over time, the dominant drive of that Shard – the reason the power chose it in the first place – came to squeeze out all other feelings and drives. Ati became Ruin. That dominant drive arose in each Shard’s unconscious, built into their SpiritWeb. (Forbidden Planet, anyone?) Argument and Analysis WoB mentions that Adonalsium had an “enemy” who had developed a “weapon.” Brandon’s words, as usual, are so vague that they could refer to anyone or anything. So I won’t here speculate on HOW or WHY the Shattering occurred. Brandon has stated the Shattering happened about 10,000 years ago, but this estimate is non-canonical. Facts we DON’T know include whether the “people” who became the Shards (i) planned and executed the Shattering or were simply bystanders; and (ii) intended to acquire the Powers themselves. Brandon calls the entities who became Shards “people” to obscure whether they were all human. (WoB, Question #25.) The best we can say is that these “people” were likely the closest sapient beings with the right “temperaments” when Adonalsium’s Shattered Powers went looking for new hosts. Even that is uncertain. We also don’t know WHY the Powers Shattered into sixteen equal parts. We DO know from Brandon that the Power of each Shard began as equal. From this fact, I induce that the MIX of Powers exercisable by each Shard was (and is) identical, including equal amounts of each of the ten Powers we are aware of. Adonalsium Shattered vertically, along the fault lines of the mandates (intents), not horizontally across the spectrum of Powers. That is not necessarily a sound mathematical conclusion. But it best establishes a thematic story line – that the only difference among Shards (at least at the beginning) is how each Shard expresses its Powers through its mandate (intent). We also have the evidence this quote from Sazed/Harmony provides: “These two minds [Ruin and Preservation] were, of course, independent of the raw force of their powers. Actually, I am uncertain of how thoughts and personalities came to be attached to the powers in the first place – but I believe they were not there originally. For both powers could be detached from the minds that ruled them.” HoA, Epigraph to Chapter 55 (emphasis added). This quote is important because it is the one of the few bits of textual information we have about the Shattering in all the Cosmere novels. It is especially important because the information COMES FROM A SHARD itself (as do all of the HoA epigraphs). Sazed/Harmony may not have been a percipient witness to the Shattering, but he inherited the memories of two such witnesses, Ati and Leras. As his Consciousness became fully invested, I’m sure he learned all about the Shattering. But at the early stage of his Ascension when he made his Epigraph observations, his knowledge, while valuable, was incomplete and speculative. Thus, we have questions… Question 1: What does Sazed mean with his phrase “thoughts and personalities”? Is this the same thing as “the minds that ruled” the Powers? I think “thoughts and personalities” means something different from “the minds that ruled” the Powers. Power itself could be cut off from Conscious control and yet mindlessly function in accordance with “a vague will of its own, tied to the mandate of its abilities.” That is what happened with the mists: “[Preservation had] given up most of his consciousness to form Ruin's prison, and the mists had to be left to work as best they could without specific direction.” HoA, Epigraph to Chapter 81 (emphasis added). “The power needed a consciousness to direct it. In this matter, I am still rather confused. Why would power used to create and destroy need a mind to oversee it? And yet, it seems to have only a vague will of its own, tied in to the mandate of its abilities. Without a consciousness to direct it, nothing could actually be created or destroyed… That makes me wonder who or what the minds of Preservation and Ruin were.” HoA, Epigraph to Chapter 79 (emphasis added). I believe the “mandate of its abilities” refers to what we call “intent,” here Preservation and Ruin. These quotes make clear that the “mandate of [a Shard’s] abilities” was NOT the Shard’s “Consciousness,” since Sazed/Harmony distinguishes between this “vague will” and the Shard’s Consciousness that could direct the power. Question 2: Are “thoughts and personalities” necessary to the Powers? BEFORE the Shards’ minds “ruled” the Powers, Adonalsium’s “mind” did. And his/her/its mind did NOT have “thoughts and [a] personalit[y]” according to Sazed/Harmony. These were “not there originally,” as the first quote above makes clear. To restate my conclusion from this post, “Thoughts and personalities” are unnecessary to the exercise of the powers. Cognitively, power exercise requires only direction, not consideration or introspection. Whatever Adonalsium was had no personality. Perhaps it wasn’t ever human or even sentient (e.g., a computer-driven power)? If he/she/it did have a personality, it was so perfectly balanced as to have no discernible features.” Question 3: Where did the Shards’ “thoughts and personalities” come from? Well…if the Power didn’t initially have a personality until it attached itself to the Shards, then it must have picked up personality from the Shards themselves. This is consistent with Brandon’s comment that a Shard’s personality “’filters’” the exercise of its mandate (intent). Conclusion and Preview In a later post, I hope to detail how each Shard’s mandate affects its expression of the Powers. Here’s an early preview about Devotion (Aona) and Dominion (Skai): “Dominion and Devotion established a symbiotic relationship. Dominion created each local Selian form necessary to access investiture – the means to control that investiture. But it was Devotion’s investiture that Dominion controlled – Dominion took what Devotion willingly and selflessly gave. Example: AonDor. The Aon provides the land-based access/command mechanism (from Dominion) and the Dor is the investiture used to execute the Aon’s command (from Devotion). (Is “Dor” short for “adore”?) [And, yes, I know the Dor is purportedly a mix of the two splintered Shards. This is an early draft…] That’s it for now. As always, thanks! 10
KnightGradient Posted July 20, 2015 Posted July 20, 2015 Dude, you're on fire. I think you have some really great points here, and your analysis of HoA's epigraphs is pretty darn rad. I think you are on the right lines(pun intended) with the whole, "Adolnasium shattered vertically, not horizontally", part. Nice work. 1
Moogle Posted July 21, 2015 Posted July 21, 2015 (edited) One minor point re. Adonalsium, we do know Adonalsium went world to world, creating. The dragon that Hoid wrote a letter to speaks of it as "god", and seems to believe it has plans, fearing they are "infants" who stumble through Adonalsium's workshop. (Note: I am not actually 100% on the workshop referred to in the epigraphs as referring to Adonalsium's, but I'm like 99% of the way there based on context.) Sazed implies the powers would not be able to create without a consciousness directing it. I would strongly suspect that Adonalsium was conscious. The dragon in the letter also seems to believe this, referring to Odium as "god's own divine hatred". The Shards may have had no minds originally, but this does not mean Adonalsium had no mind. Edited July 21, 2015 by Moogle 4
tobar14 he/him Posted August 5, 2015 Posted August 5, 2015 Question 3: Where did the Shards’ “thoughts and personalities” come from? Well…if the Power didn’t initially have a personality until it attached itself to the Shards, then it must have picked up personality from the Shards themselves. This is consistent with Brandon’s comment that a Shard’s personality “’filters’” the exercise of its mandate (intent). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I thought there was a common agreement that the shard (the thing that Sazed picked up) Ruin didn't have thoughts and personalities until Ati picked it up. The person who picks up the shard is what gives the shard thoughts and personalities that filter the shards original intent/mandate. 1 The shard is synonymous with it's power. The power is the shard, the shard is the power. 2 The shard/power is mindless on its own 3 Someone comes along and picks up the shard 4 The thoughts and personalty of the person who picked up the shard filters what they can do with it. 5 The shard/power has a list of things it is capable of doing, but when a person is holding the shard it is more dependent on what the person thinks they can do with the shard/power. 6 Over time the person and the shard become more of a single entity, and the person can no longer have as much influence on what they can do with it (quotes about when vin and sazed initially picked up the shard(s) they were able to do more things than they would have been able to had they held the shard for say 100 years.)
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