Really Bad Shard Ideas

[Darkness he/him]

I don't think there's all that much of an influence. More because of tradition or religion than actual shardic influence, I'd say. Oh wait! You said 'cultural influence'! Never mind me and my WoB.

 

EMERALIS00

Does the intent/personality of the Shard affect the personalities of the humans they create?

BRANDON SANDERSON

It has some very small effect.

[natc]

Especially in the more religious worlds that are slightly aware of their shards, the defining traits of their god (the Shard) would likely be incorporated as virtues, which might enhance that somewhat.

The fact that the magic systems also tend to correlate to the shard somewhat doesn't help matters either. Imagine if Scadrial only had hemalurgy and guess where the culture would end up.

[WindrunnerRadiant he/him]

A Shard of Forgetfulness could be interesting.

 

"How do I use my powers again?"

[Curious Anamaximder he/him]

Shard of devastation. World its on is a smoking husk. At least no clowns

[Peng the Just he/him]

The shard of apathy. You only have powers if you don't care enough to use them.

 

EDIT: realized that's already been done. How about the shard of ignorance? you can't ever REALIZE you're using your powers?

Edited March 25, 2015 by jasonpenguin

[Xaladin he/him]

The Shard of Non Existence.

[ERROR: This Shard does Not Exist]

That Shard exists if and only if it does not exist.

You see, the fact it does not exist shows its supreme power in its (non)existence. Even in Real Life!

 

Did you know elephants hide in jellybean jars?

(say no, act confused)

Have you ever seen and elephant in a jellybean jar?

(say no)

See how well they hide?

[Paragrin she/her]

Did you know elephants hide in jellybean jars?

(say no, act confused)

Have you ever seen and elephant in a jellybean jar?

(say no)

See how well they hide?

No, no, no. It's like this:

Why do elephants paint their toenails red?

I dunno, why?

To hide in strawberry patches.

What? That's ridiculous!

Have you ever seen an elephant in a strawberry patch?

No...

See! It works!

[natc]

Equity, whose intent is to create complete equality and fairness in the universe. As such, it Invests equally in every single object and being it can. Of course, the Investiture granted to each is negligible, therefore making it useless.

Or he becomes so obsessed with equality that he creates the FMA universe?

[Unhinged he/him]

Or he becomes so obsessed with equality that he creates the FMA universe?

 

The shard of equivalent Exchange you must first give up something of equal or greater value in order to use your powers.

 

Edit: oh wait that's actualy a pretty good shard idea

Edited March 26, 2015 by Unhinged

[Sirce Luckwielder he/him]

Equity, whose intent is to create complete equality and fairness in the universe. As such, it Invests equally in every single object and being it can. Of course, the Investiture granted to each is negligible, therefore making it useless.

When everybody's a super, no one is.

The shard of equivalent Exchange you must first give up something of equal or greater value in order to use your powers.

 

Edit: oh wait that's actualy a pretty good shard idea

I wonder if this is the concept behind the world where getting sick gives you powers. I think the name is Silence Divine, but I am not sure.

[the Gleeman he/him]

The shard of Jordan. The longer and more detailed your life gets the more power you obtain.

[natc]

The shard of equivalent Exchange you must first give up something of equal or greater value in order to use your powers.

Edit: oh wait that's actualy a pretty good shard idea

It's always rigged so that the world is better off without powers though. God was a jerk. Overcharging for everything.

Shard of Madness. Power correlates to lack of mental stability (well, more than usual. Being traumatized is already a requirement for self-investment everywhere). The strongest people on the planet can be anything from a total psychopath to some guy who watches too much anime and hero shows and is utterly delusional (or in this case not so delusional?)

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Shard of Disney. The more often you sing cheery ballads about being a man or painting with strange colors, the more powerful you become. Bonus points if you get those songs stuck in peoples' heads. 

 

Oh, wait—that's a fantastic idea.  

[Infinight888]

Irony

The shard has all the powers of a god, but can only act in ironic ways. Also, people only gain powers if something really ironic happens to them.

 

Shard of Death. Only dead people get powers. Or you get powers after murdering everyone.

 

You know, neither of those are actually that bad of ideas. What about a world where anyone that would die survives for a few minutes after their heart stops in a state of limbo similar to the Elantrians, and if you kill someone in that state of half-death, you get to keep living by absorbing some of their soul. You also get some of their investiture to use for whatever magic you're allowed to do, and whatever wounds you obtain are automatically healed by that investiture. But the moment you run out of investiture, you return to the state of half-death for a few minutes again and die if you can't kill anyone. Perhaps animals could offer a bit of investiture so you don't always have to kill humans, but it take more animals to equal one human soul.

[Surgebound Rainspren he/him]

The shard of Windows 8.1

Where everyone gets their powers but they're forever stuck at 99% charged. 

Edited March 27, 2015 by Surgebound Rainspren

[Redbird he/him]

The shard of Windows 8.1

Where everyone gets there powers but they're forever stuck at 99% charged. 

And now for my final form!*

 

*almost

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

The shard of Windows 8.1

Where everyone gets there powers but they're forever stuck at 99% charged.

And where, after you've had your powers for two years or so, they'll randomly fail and give you the blue screen of death whenever you try to use them.

[Surgebound Rainspren he/him]

And where, after you've had your powers for two years or so, they'll randomly fail and give you the blue screen of death whenever you try to use them.

Sorry something went wrong, please wait as we restart the universe.

[Xaladin he/him]

The Shard of Bureaucracy (has this one been used already?).

 

Just imagine the Paperwork.

 

And nothing useful would get done.

 

And there would be so many dumb annoying quirks in the world (think, in our governments, we have a million random laws of things you can and can't do and exactly how. Imagine if nature itself was full of as many arbitrary annoyances!)

 

EDIT: yes that one was done; but the following hasn't:

 

The Shard of Savagery.

 

In this Shardworld, the more technology you develop, the less you can Invest. Therefore, the world would have very low technology (since those without technology would win out over those with, instead of the other way around like we see on Earth.)

Edited March 27, 2015 by Xaladin

[Sirce Luckwielder he/him]

The Shard of Savagery.

 

In this Shardworld, the more technology you develop, the less you can Invest. Therefore, the world would have very low technology (since those without technology would win out over those with, instead of the other way around like we see on Earth.)

This is avery interesting concept. Good thinking.

How about the Shard of Gullibility. Those with power are abused by those without.

[Curiosity he/him]

 

The Shard of Savagery.

 

In this Shardworld, the more technology you develop, the less you can Invest. Therefore, the world would have very low technology (since those without technology would win out over those with, instead of the other way around like we see on Earth.)

 

Actually, I think that this is a common idea. Magic vs. Technology, no? And how do you gauge how advanced you are? Hmmm...

 

Maybe we'll call this one Mysticism. The less you know how the magic works, the better it works. Does that sound a bit like Zen Buddhism?

[connormce10 he/him]

Or the Shard of Communism.

You all get Magic rations and have to share them equally XD

Naw, it would be: "You all get Magic rations, but really they all go to me and you get jack squat"

The book would include a scene where the main character tries to take a swig of his 299 proof superpowered mixed drink to start knocking holes in mountains or something.

Or, if you somehow obtained a 42,963 proof drink, you would become Alcodalsium

The Shard of NSA

Every time you watch someone plan to kill someone, your powers grow.

The Shard of Congress

Every time you do absolutely nothing, your powers grow.

I feel your pain. Here's an up vote to make the book worthwhile.

That book sucked.

*down-votes self*

I almost down-voted you for the Sword of Truth reference but then I would have to down vote myself for having read it.

EDIT: I guess in the context of this thread that truly would be a bad idea, so...up-voted instead.

Oh, I stopped at book 3.

* traumatic flashbacks*

[Xaladin he/him]

@Cthulhu

 

You know you can edit posts, right?

[connormce10 he/him]

@Cthulhu

 

You know you can edit posts, right?

 

Yes, I do.

[Surgebound Rainspren he/him]

Shard of TV where every time you use your powers, some guy comes and tries to get you to buy something.