What is a Sliver? "Letters From the Cosmere" Part 6

[TheBlueShifting he/him]

The Lord Ruler called himself "The Sliver of Infinity" and this apparently wasn't an empty title. A Sliver is different from someone with a lot of Investiture, they are something greater, or at least they were. Now they are their mortal selves, but they have changed. What exactly makes someone a Sliver? And how would we know a Sliver if we saw one? 

 

 

Here is the transcript of the text:

 

First I must make one thing clear, I have no idea if my interaction with Shard Pools has changed me. I am not so desperate for answers that I would resolve to testing. Understand that I respect your urgency, but just because I experienced something unique doesn’t mean that I have any understanding of what actually happened. As I recall, even our mutual friend was quite perplexed with my condition. However, I am nearly positive that I have nothing in common with a Sliver.

Slivers are a topic that is frustratingly vague I wonder if I have the capacity to explain it. As I stated in my last letter, I had hoped that there was more detailed information available to you on this subject. The stories of men and women with insurmountable powers, or who held them at one point, are deceptively plentiful among the Cosmere, yet lack the details or verification that I would need to form meaningful conclusions.

It seems that power alone does not make someone a Sliver. Investiture may be a part of it, but I don’t know if there is a point where a physical being can accumulate enough Investiture in order to become a Sliver. Yet in the few documented cases that we have accounted for in The Words of Founding, we still don’t get a clear picture of what exactly makes a Sliver.

Let’s start with the Lord Ruler. We know that he wielded a great power when he reached the Well of Ascension. This power let him shape the world according to his will. The Lord Ruler created life, and altered people without them even knowing what had happened. He touched the power of a Shard and came out the other side a changed man. After this event he called himself the Sliver of Infinity. This might have been just an ego title fueled by his hubris, but his example sets a good precedent for what a Sliver is. So from this point, I will look to the life of the Lord Ruler as a reference point.

Before we go any farther, I must point out that the Well of Ascension was not just a collection of Investiture. It is a shard pool, which is to say it was a part of a Shard’s body. Body is the traditional term, but it’s more like the Power and Essence of a Shard which is far more than just Investiture. When someone takes in Investiture, pure investiture, they receive power. From the accounts of the Ascended Warrior we learned that the Power of the Well wasn’t just Investiture, it was knowledge, mind expansion, and capacity to use that Investiture beyond the confines of human capabilities. Notice how the actions performed by The Lord Ruler had no resemblance to Allomancy, Feruchemy, or Hemalurgy. He learned of these arts intimately, but it was not by their power that he moved mountains. This power is far greater in scope and is not limited to the metallic arts.

To help offer a frame of reference, I wish to point out an example of someone who seems to exemplify the distinction between a sliver and a highly invested individual. After the Many War, the God Kings of Halandrin carried and passed on an incredible collection of Bio-Chromatic Breath. Breath is a form of innate Investiture found in each individual on Nalthis. They can give this breath to another, and the collection of Breath in a person increases their capacity and physical abilities. Hold enough breath and you can extend your life, or awaken inanimate objects, giving them temporary life. The God King holds tens of thousands of Breaths, possibly making him the most invested person I have ever observed. However, I do not think that this makes him a Sliver. This breath is so immense; it is unclear what specific powers he has access to. This power derives from Investiture that is natural. From my reports, the breath does not grant knowledge or Creation powers. The powers of the God King are immense, but they still follow the order of Awakening, and do not allow him to alter the planet itself. The Breath does seem to impart powerful knowledge of Awakening instinctively at this level, but I feel that this is still not an expansion of the mind, but more a heightened awareness of things known to the subconscious.

The God King is not a Sliver as far as I can tell. Yet there is something mysterious about the origins of the Returned. I think I will do more research into this topic, but the Returned of Nalthis, the Spren of Roshar, and the Seons on Elantris seem to share common elements. However, these things are not Slivers in the context of this conversation.

As near as I can tell, a sliver is a person who held the power of a Shard, but gave up or lost the power, leaving them deflated. My guess is that this would cause a permanent change in the individual, but how this change would manifest in indeterminable. The incredible powers of the Lord Ruler are more or less explained by compounding. Without another who possesses the abilities of the Lord Ruler, I cannot say if there was any measured growth in his abilities. Without more data, I have nothing more than vague speculations to work off of.

I know that this is not what you are hoping for, but I believe it is obvious that there is little that I can learn about Slivers at the moment. Even with my unique history, my interaction with coalesced investiture, I feel that I would not qualify to understand even the slightest part of what a Sliver is. Perhaps someday we will see and account for more Slivers. For now, we shall have to set aside this line of reasoning. As noted before, this research has led me to another classification that I feel I am more capable of reporting about. Splinters are quite fascinating, especially when we examine the similarities that exist between Splinters and Hemalergic Spikes. 

Until the next letter,

Elsric

[Landis963 he/him]

Haven't watched the video yet, but couple of things in your transcript: Vin is the "Ascendant" Warrior, not the "Ascended" Warrior, and "Hemalergic" Spikes are spelled with a u, as "Hemalurgic".  

Those quibbles aside, I'm looking forward to Elsric's thoughts on Splinters.  Also, I called that he was native to Scadrial!  I wonder what exactly happened to him though.  Did he perhaps jump into the Well in a desperate attempt to escape the Catacendre?  And was therefore saved by Harmony as he attempted to swim the Cognitive Realm?  

Edited October 7, 2016 by Landis963

[TheBlueShifting he/him]

8 minutes ago, Landis963 said:

Did he perhaps jump into the Well in a desperate attempt to escape the Catacendre?  And was therefore saved by Harmony as he attempted to swim the Cognitive Realm?

I will actually respond to this with a question. If the Well was empty, could anybody actually use it to travel into the Cognitive Realm? Or would they have to wait for it to charge back up in 1000 years? Just some food for thought. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 

And yes, my transcripts are far from perfect. I try, but I focus mostly on the video itself. And my darn Auto Correct never handles Cosmere words well. 

[Landis963 he/him]

1 hour ago, TheBlueShifting said:

I will actually respond to this with a question. If the Well was empty, could anybody actually use it to travel into the Cognitive Realm? Or would they have to wait for it to charge back up in 1000 years? Just some food for thought. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 

I was at work when I thought of Elsric jumping into the Shardpool, and my very next thought was "wait, wasn't it empty?"  Maybe the merger of Kredik Shaw's basement caverns and the Pits of Hathsin brought enough Investiture together to facilitate a jump to the Cognitive?  Would that even work in the first place?  Meh, I don't really know what happened, I'm just speculating.  And I suspect I'm quite off-base here.  (I don't even know the circumstances under which Elsric left in the first place, let alone what happened to him during that first jump)

[TheBlueShifting he/him]

1 hour ago, Landis963 said:

And I suspect I'm quite off-base here.

No, I won't mislead you, you are on to something. I recently watched Brandon Sanderson's interview at Dragon Con and he mentioned something that I feel directly applies here. He said that good foreshadowing gets people guessing. But the downside to foreshadowing is that sometimes people guess close to or right on the truth of it. A writer shouldn't take this personally, but accept it as inevitable.

Like Brandon, I will resist giving too much away knowing it will be revealed. Yet I will not mislead you or change my story to avoid it being guessed. I will mostly RAFO because these things will eventually come out. Now I won't confirm anything here except that you continue to think along the right path, and I was pointing out a potential gap in your theory. I intend this to encourage you to keep guessing. I will not confirm Elsric's origins yet, but he obviously has spent some time on Scadrial. 

As far as the abilities of passing through the Pits, well we don't know for sure, but Demoux got onto Roshar somehow...

[Landis963 he/him]

31 minutes ago, TheBlueShifting said:

No, I won't mislead you, you are on to something. I recently watched Brandon Sanderson's interview at Dragon Con and he mentioned something that I feel directly applies here. He said that good foreshadowing gets people guessing. But the downside to foreshadowing is that sometimes people guess close to or right on the truth of it. A writer shouldn't take this personally, but accept it as inevitable.

Like Brandon, I will resist giving too much away knowing it will be revealed. Yet I will not mislead you or change my story to avoid it being guessed. I will mostly RAFO because these things will eventually come out. Now I won't confirm anything here except that you continue to think along the right path, and I was pointing out a potential gap in your theory. I intend this to encourage you to keep guessing. I will not confirm Elsric's origins yet, but he obviously has spent some time on Scadrial. 

As far as the abilities of passing through the Pits, well we don't know for sure, but Demoux got onto Roshar somehow...

I appreciate the heads-up, but a couple things.  First off, you could have stayed silent and allowed me to mislead myself.  I'm sure I could have been led in all sorts of fun directions until I finally hit on what actually happened.  Second off, the Pits are iffy because Kelsier destroyed them not 12 months earlier (I'm actually unclear on the timing between TFE and HoA, but I know there's no chance in hell that 300 years passed between the two).  So if Elsric did in fact leave Scadrial during the Catacendre, both of his possible exit points may as well be barred shut for all they are accessible.  

Edited October 8, 2016 by Landis963