Master Elodin Posted February 20, 2016 Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 On Roshar, combining surges creates two causes and an effect. Same with Twinborn. This hints to the fact that Harmony, instead of having no power as we assumed (due to Ati and Leras cancelling each other out) actually has a new intent, something appropriately harmonious. Feel free to speculate on and criticize this theory. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natc Posted February 20, 2016 Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Nobody ever assumed Harmony had no power. He clearly can terraform, do genetic modifications on an entire planet, move planets and all that jazz. He's just got two intents yelling at him to do completely opposite and mutually defeating things simultaneously, which ends in him not doing much of anything. Leras and Ati are also dead as of Harmony's Ascension so I'm not sure what they have to do with him at all. Edited February 20, 2016 by natc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glamdring804 Posted February 20, 2016 Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 I actually think that "Harmony" is the wrong term for the combined shards. Progression would more suited, I think. If Preservation reigned supreme, nothing would happen. If Ruin rained supreme, the world would literally crumble to dust. Combine the two, and you get a normal world, with things changing over time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Master Elodin Posted February 20, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 I'm sorry, by Leras and Ati I meant the Intent of their shards. And by "no power" I meant no power correlating to shardic Intent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oversleep Posted February 20, 2016 Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 I actually think that "Harmony" is the wrong term for the combined shards. Progression would more suited, I think. If Preservation reigned supreme, nothing would happen. If Ruin rained supreme, the world would literally crumble to dust. Combine the two, and you get a normal world, with things changing over time. Progression is Cultivation. I also think that "Harmony" is kind of too broad name for combination of Preservation and Ruin. It describes balance between opposing Shards, but it has nothing to do with these two specific Shards, as both of them has to do with the way things change (or not). In a way, combination of Ruin and Cultivation could also be Harmony, as it is balance between improvement and destruction. But better name would be Change. Similarly, Preservation + Cultivation also could be Harmony because it is balance between stasis and improvement. I personally think that this combination could be named Prosperity or something along these lines. So we've got three different combinations and they all could be named Harmony. It isn't really descriptive, is it? Unfortunately, I have no idea what would be a better name for Ruin + Preservation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypatia she/her Posted February 20, 2016 Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 There was a third power at the beginning - the Power of Creation. Scandrial wouldn't exist, if Ati/Ruin and Leras/Protect hadn't worked together. Now Sazed is balancing the original powers like acid and alkaline. And in the neutral point is Creation. I don't think something is yelling at him, but it is a fragile system - acting too much on one side could probably destroy the balance, perhaps even the Power of Creation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yata he/him Posted February 20, 2016 Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 There was a third power at the beginning - the Power of Creation. Scandrial wouldn't exist, if Ati/Ruin and Leras/Protect hadn't worked together. Now Sazed is balancing the original powers like acid and alkaline. And in the neutral point is Creation. I don't think something is yelling at him, but it is a fragile system - acting too much on one side could probably destroy the balance, perhaps even the Power of Creation. Every Shard is "the Power of Creation". Ruin & Preservation can't create just because create something is aganist their Intent, but once they "trick" their Intent (at least Preservation) finding a way to create (Preservation creates because knows that it's need to stop a force of decay and Ruin creates to may destroy all after) compatible with the Intents. They did it pretty fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natc Posted February 21, 2016 Report Share Posted February 21, 2016 They likely had to do it all before the intent corruption became a hopeless case as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amulligan99 Posted February 21, 2016 Report Share Posted February 21, 2016 I think harmony is a great name because they exist together and one is not more powerful than the other, hence creating harmony. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yata he/him Posted February 21, 2016 Report Share Posted February 21, 2016 They likely had to do it all before the intent corruption became a hopeless case as well. I am not sure about. They can't do it because the Intent stop them, therefore they are already corrupted by the Intent. After all I suppose that creates everything on Scadrial wasn't the first thing they did... Maybe they stayed some time with Yolen, then travel to the Cosmere, ecc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natc Posted February 22, 2016 Report Share Posted February 22, 2016 Harmony has been corrupted for 300+ years and, while not often or to any great magnitude, still orchestrates clearly preservational or ruinous events. Leras!Preservation couldn't so much as stab someone no matter how hard he tried. I said "before it became a hopeless case". I'd imagine it grows stronger with time. Creation was in clear defiance of both of their intents, and since even Harmony has stopped doing it I personally doubt P&R could've done it again after Scadrial fell even if they wanted to. Especially since they are two different people with opposite views, not one person with two conflicting views to reconcile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts