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Really Good(or at least not Bad) Shard Ideas


Swimmingly

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This is a blatant ripoff of 's Really Bad Shard Ideas. Basically, this is where you put ideas that you thought were ridiculous at first, but didn't seem so bad when you thought through them. Or just good ideas :D

 

I sorta found myself overthinking my submissions and ruining the lighthearted intent, so yeah.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why aren't you posting already? Go!

 

EDIT: Fixing posty linky thingamaboberroos

EDIT 2: Maybe now it'll work?

Edited by Swimmingly
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So as I was trying to come up with more good ideas for shard names,  I was thinking, that when it comes to his magic systems, Brandon is a great one for having rules to limit things, and he usually comes up with some naming conventions for all his books and so I wondered if he has any rules or conventions for how he chooses the names of the shards.  ISo I asked myself what do all the shard names we know so far have in common, linguistically speaking?   The known shard names include: Honor, Cultivation, Endowment, Preservation, Ruin, Devotion, Dominion, and Odium
 
This is what I've been able to come up with so far: 
 
1) They all have multiple uses in various contexts. All of the known shard names have multiple definitions (I used Merriam-Webster.com. Interestingly, they have 10 definitions for the word honor)

 

2) They are all nouns which can imply a state of being:

  •    to be honored/honorable
  •    to be cultivated/cultured
  •    to be endowed
  •    to be preserved
  •    to be ruined/ruinous
  •    to be devoted
  •    to be dominated/dominating
  •    to be odious
3) Most of them can also imply action. Odium is the only one of these words that doesn't have a direct verb form. 
  •   to honor (someone or something)
  •   to cultivate
  •   to endow
  •   to preserve
  •   to ruin (someone or something)
  •   to devote
  •   to dominate
  •   the closest I have for the word Odium are verb forms of its synonyms such as "to hate" or "to   condemn"
So using words already associated with Shards, I think the most important rule for choosing shard names is that they must imply an intent. (a thing that you plan to do or achieve : an aim or purpose).  
 
So does anyone with more knowledge of linguistics have any other insight into this?  Do we have any ideas for shard names that fit these criteria?  
 
Edit: Sorry this isn't very lighthearted. Should I have started a new thread?  I don't want to hijack or anything... :unsure:  
Edited by LightReader
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They all seem to be derived from verbs and have noun forms that can describe the product/act of performing the verb, come to think of it. Odium doesn't have a direct verb form in English, but it's derived from odeo, odire, odivi, which is Latin for "to hate". Well, technically, it's derived from a neuter noun, but I'm pretty sure that's because they used the gerund so often they made it an official noun.

 

Also, except for Ruin and Preservation and arguably Cultivation they're all abstract and relate to human emotions and interactions.

 

I actually theorized that they might have the same recursive paring pattern as the Allomantic metals, with pairs that are linked to another pair, and then that is linked to another quad and the resulting octets have some thematic opposition. Brandon has stated somewhere that Scadrial's system is an in-universe effort to impose order and does not necessarily reflect underlying reality, but given how Hemalurgy works, the quads seem to be meaningful, so I feel fairly confident in saying that the overall pairing pattern is actually a real phenomenon and could extend to the Shards. It would be rather appropriate if Preservation's system most accurately reflected the original, unaltered split.

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The Shard of Change.

 

A person who has a change in nature is given power. 

Example: A person who was once honest begins to lie and turns into a deceitful, dishonest person. The person is granted power for the change.

 

You would have to define a lot of things. What is a persons "nature"? How long does a person need to fully change? + more.

 

Just thought it would be interesting and make for interesting characters with powers. 

 

Also, maybe Shards of:

 

Deceit

Enjoyment

Independence/Loneliness/Solitude- Only loners, exiles and social misfits are empowered.

Edited by tjoryk
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Friendship. Because then it will be a world where Friendship Is Magic.

(I can't believe I posted this. I blame Swag. Something about it made me feel every boundary had already been crossed...)

 

Actually, a few members of the Cosmere fandom on tumblr talked about if MLP was a shardworld. I beleive we decided that "Amity" sounded like a properly shard-ish name for that world.

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Mistpony

Interesting that they both made her a unicorn... I'd've gone with pegasus. Also I like the second one better, if only cuz I'm fairly sure the earring is in her left ear.

 

I'm ashamed to say I don't know the Steel Alphabet very well... can anyone direct me to somewhere on the internet I can get a good look at what the various symbols mean, allomantically, feruchemically, and phonetically?

Edited by Ookla the Confuzified
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