Swimmingly Posted November 30, 2013 Report Share Posted November 30, 2013 Shardic power seems to basically be an infinitely regressive system in which expending power simply returns it to the Shard - unless it is Invested in something or someone. People, for example, took a portion of Preservation's power away permanently in becoming sentient. So, a Shard can consciously give up some of their power. Now, I know that Splintering is slightly different than this, but it is similar - can a shard consciously and deliberately create a Splinter to do a specific task without suffering major setbacks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WeiryWriter Posted November 30, 2013 Report Share Posted November 30, 2013 Yes, Endowment does it with the divine Breaths. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmingly Posted November 30, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2013 So my next question would be, what price does Endowment pay for losing those breaths? Or are the breaths that are returned to her once a week generally enough to do it? If 1 divine breath is roughly equal to 500 regular ones, then Returned would have to survive an average of 10 years, and that's assuming that the breaths given to Returned indeed do make their way back to her. Though I suppose that it could be considered that all breaths held in Nalthian bodies are still circulating within her Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oudeis Posted November 30, 2013 Report Share Posted November 30, 2013 Perhaps, being Endowment, she's actually empowered when she gives something away. Shards don't have to make sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WeiryWriter Posted November 30, 2013 Report Share Posted November 30, 2013 So my next question would be, what price does Endowment pay for losing those breaths? Or are the breaths that are returned to her once a week generally enough to do it? If 1 divine breath is roughly equal to 500 regular ones, then Returned would have to survive an average of 10 years, and that's assuming that the breaths given to Returned indeed do make their way back to her. Though I suppose that it could be considered that all breaths held in Nalthian bodies are still circulating within her I think it is important that divine Breaths aren't just big/powerful Breaths. Normal Breaths are a part of a person's soul and/or innate investiture, whereas divine Breaths are Splinters. I'm not sure why a Returned would have to survive an average of 10 years? What are you trying to get at? Endowment, presumably, doesn't lose anything by creating Splinters except for a reduction in power equal to the strength of the Splinter. On a side note, we do not know Endowment's gender at this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmingly Posted November 30, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2013 I resist the notion that Shards don't have to make sense. Though this is a universe where infinite free energy could be potentially generated, there are godlike beings, stone can become food through application of extradimentional bribery, etc. so you may have a point. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oudeis Posted November 30, 2013 Report Share Posted November 30, 2013 I'm not sure why a Returned would have to survive an average of 10 years? He's referencing the fact that Returned eat a Breath per week. If Endowment 'loses' a chunk of power every time he/she makes a Returned, and gets that power back when a normal Breath is sacrificed to keep the Returned going one more week, then after 10 years the power would balance out. I disagree, since Breaths are given to every human on Nalthis and returned at some point, and that one Divine Breath is similarly on loan, but that is his reasoning. Or her, I don't know if Defenestrated's gender has been confirmed, either. I resist the notion that Shards don't have to make sense. Though this is a universe where infinite free energy could be potentially generated, there are godlike beings, stone can become food through application of extradimentional bribery, etc. so you may have a point. Sorry, it's been an odd day and I was indulging in a bit of silliness. I agree that considering the mind in charge, the Cosmere likely does make sense. Also upvote for "extradimensional bribery". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmingly Posted November 30, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2013 Je suis un homme, merci beaucoup 我是他 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aether Posted December 1, 2013 Report Share Posted December 1, 2013 I resist the notion that Shards don't have to make sense. Though this is a universe where infinite free energy could be potentially generated, there are godlike beings, stone can become food through application of extradimentional bribery, etc. so you may have a point. I agree that there are underlying, universal (cosmerian? cosmersal? cosmerological) rules that the Shards are subject to, but I think what WeiryWriter (Ookla the Indubitable) meant was that it doesn't have to make sense to us at this point in time, without further knowledge of those exact rules. And yes, up-vote from me as well for such a deliciously inventive wording! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satsuoni Posted December 1, 2013 Report Share Posted December 1, 2013 So he gets upvotes for wording, while I get downvotes for illustration of said process? Anyway, since Divine Breath gives you 5th heightening, it would be equivalent to about 2000 Breaths, not 500 Then again, we don't know what happens when it gets used or when a Returned dies. If it just returns to Endowment, she could keep doing it, limiting the number of Returned to an acceptable level of power decrease. As a single Shard, she(?) can probably make a lot of Splinters without much of a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aether Posted December 1, 2013 Report Share Posted December 1, 2013 Wait, where did you get down-voted? And yes, most up-votes goes to either really well formulated arguments, new and interesting ideas... or just plain and fun humour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satsuoni Posted December 1, 2013 Report Share Posted December 1, 2013 (edited) Meh, that is old history (maybe a year old or so, and I've hidden the post anyway), so nevermind I was (mostly) joking. (edit:removed link) Edited December 1, 2013 by OOkla the Felinicious Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aether Posted December 1, 2013 Report Share Posted December 1, 2013 ... I... am not sure how to respond to that. Though probably not worthy of a down-vote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oudeis Posted December 1, 2013 Report Share Posted December 1, 2013 , but I think what WeiryWriter (Ookla the Indubitable) meant was that it doesn't have to make sense to us at this point in time, without further knowledge of those exact rules. I believe I was the one to express the idea that Shards do not have to make sense. What I meant by it was, "I have had a long day and I feel like saying something a bit silly." I personally don't care much about rep. Some people here seem to like me, and I've got enough that it would take determined malice on someone's part to affect me. If I get the occasional unwarranted downvote, meh, it's the internet. What do you expect? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aether Posted December 1, 2013 Report Share Posted December 1, 2013 (edited) Pardon me then, and I can agree with that sentiment. I've myself had a rather long day and don't really feel like going through the posts, so I'll take your word for it. I don't put too much stock into down-votes. Sure, can be difficult to not find it offensive sometimes (if you truly feel like it was unwarranted), but for every undeserved down-vote we get, we'll probably get around tenfold the amount of undeserved up-votes. (not that that's a bad thing) Edited December 1, 2013 by Aether 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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