Shadowspren he/him Posted August 25, 2015 Posted August 25, 2015 Every time we see someone take the power of a shard (whether it is at the Well of Ascension or when someone has actually ascended) we see that the persons mind expands to be able to comprehend things of God's and the universe. We see from HoA that a persons body has to be destroyed in order for their mind to expand as such. But we know that the Shards are not omnipotent. Taking most Christian beliefs as an example, in that, God is all knowing and all powerful. In contrast, we know that the Shardholder's don't know everything. Thus, my question (although pretty insignificant) is... When a Shardholder first ascends, are they capable of understanding every language? or does their enhanced mind just allow them to learn it really quickly as they can comprehend just about everything? Like I said, answering this question probably is of no consequence. My thoughts around this are, if a Shardholder can't understand every language immediately woudl that be an advantage someone could use is they needed to fight one (like Ruin or Odium for example)? I'm thinking, they can create and teach the language using metal sheets. And when they start using it, the Shardholder has no clue what's going on... Also, can Odium see metal? or is the blinding metal a common impairment amongst Shardholders? I would think that because the presence of Ruin and Preservation are what create the metallic arts, they would be the only ones susceptible to that weakness. Thoughts?
natc Posted August 25, 2015 Posted August 25, 2015 Metal is the focal point of magic on Scadrial, IIRC, which is why it glows. Presumably something else would glow blindingly on a different shardworld.
Hemalurgist Posted August 25, 2015 Posted August 25, 2015 I wonder if he would be able to see gems. Also I don't think Odium is currently on Roshar so I would if he can observe things in the way Ruin did.
Mestiv he/him Posted August 25, 2015 Posted August 25, 2015 I always was under the impression that Shards can read minds of mare mortals, so using an unknown language would be useless as they can read your thoughts that are not in any language I think.
natc Posted August 25, 2015 Posted August 25, 2015 I always was under the impression that Shards can read minds of mare mortals, so using an unknown language would be useless as they can read your thoughts that are not in any language I think. Ruin sure as Damnation can't read minds.
Alfa he/him Posted August 25, 2015 Posted August 25, 2015 Ruin sure as Damnation can't read minds. That was the interesting duality of Scadrial's shards: Preservation could read minds, but not influence them; and Ruin could influence minds, but not read them. Harmony, finally, was able to do both. But as far as I know, nobody of them was very good at reading and/or influencing minds; only a little bit.
ParadoxicalZen he/him Posted August 25, 2015 Posted August 25, 2015 Every time we see someone take the power of a shard (whether it is at the Well of Ascension or when someone has actually ascended) we see that the persons mind expands to be able to comprehend things of God's and the universe. We see from HoA that a persons body has to be destroyed in order for their mind to expand as such. But we know that the Shards are not omnipotent. Taking most Christian beliefs as an example, in that, God is all knowing and all powerful. In contrast, we know that the Shardholder's don't know everything. Thus, my question (although pretty insignificant) is... When a Shardholder first ascends, are they capable of understanding every language? or does their enhanced mind just allow them to learn it really quickly as they can comprehend just about everything? Like I said, answering this question probably is of no consequence. My thoughts around this are, if a Shardholder can't understand every language immediately woudl that be an advantage someone could use is they needed to fight one (like Ruin or Odium for example)? I'm thinking, they can create and teach the language using metal sheets. And when they start using it, the Shardholder has no clue what's going on... Also, can Odium see metal? or is the blinding metal a common impairment amongst Shardholders? I would think that because the presence of Ruin and Preservation are what create the metallic arts, they would be the only ones susceptible to that weakness. Thoughts? We have it via WoB that Saze/Harmony's body is in a some kind of inbetween state and isn't destroyed I guess it depends the person to be fair. Saze was a Keeper and had access to most of the pre-FE religions so it is possible he might have also had access to old languages. If not, then i believe even if they didn't know it instantanteously, they would understand the language very very very quickly. Each Shardworld has a planetary focus (Scradrial's being metal, Roshar's possibly being gems/jewels) and should a Shard be invested in that Shardworld, they would be blind to it (Ruin and Preservation were blind to metal) so if Odium were to suddenly appear and invest in Scadrial, then it is most likely possible that he would be blind to metal deposits. Some Shards are capable of reading minds. Ruin wasn't but he could influence people into doing what he wanted whereas Preservation could read minds but lacked the capabilities to influence. Ergo, Harmony can do both. And Ruin/Preservation didn't create the metallic arts/magic systems of Scradrial; they already existed to some extent but the Shard's presence altered/manifested them into what we see today (still not sure what Brandon meant by the systems already existing but I'll see if i can find the WoB)
Alfa he/him Posted August 25, 2015 Posted August 25, 2015 Some Shards are capable of reading minds. Ruin wasn't but he could influence people into doing what he wanted whereas Preservation could read minds but lacked the capabilities to influence. Ergo, Harmony can do both. And Ruin/Preservation didn't create the metallic arts/magic systems of Scradrial; they already existed to some extent but the Shard's presence altered/manifested them into what we see today (still not sure what Brandon meant by the systems already existing but I'll see if i can find the WoB) I think he said, that the magic systems are "natural reactions between shards and planets".
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