Harmony and Shards [Spoilers]

[Fringe]

Does Sazed (Harmony) have a weaker 'power set' compared to Leras and Atium? He obtained the power after Leras and Ati passed. Technically, he doesn't hold the complete power of the Shards since all/most of the Atium/Lerasium was burned away by Humans in Scadria. What does this mean for Sazed as a god? What implications do you see for the future of the series? It seems like the power of the Shards is slowly deteriorated across each planet...

I have read The Stormlight Archives, Mistborn Era 1 and am now starting the Shadows of Self.

Also, am I right to assume that Ati's/Ruin's complete power would have given him the power to see the future? If so, what would have been Leras'/Preservation's? Vin was able to 'remember' how Preservation's power was used in the past by Rashek... Lerasium is able to give the power of Allomancy to humans but Vin was able to use all metals to kill the Inquisitors once she took upon herself the mists... 

Edited December 19, 2016 by Fringe

[soyperson]

Keep reading, and once you finish Bands of Mourning, things may become clearer.

[Weltall]

Harmony is, per Word of Brandon, the most powerful thing in the Cosmere because he's holding two Shards. Once you finish the existing Era 2 books you'll have a more complete picture on how things stand. And it's not that Preservation or Ruin were missing part of a 'power set' as a result of some of their power being condensed into physical forms but a reduction in overall power that was significant insofar as the two of them were opposing each other and Preservation needed to hide as much atium as possible because he was naturally weaker than Ruin (because he put more of himself into humans than Ruin did, altering the balance between them) and that's how he enforced parity between them. All Shards have future-sight but how good they are at it varies. Relative to Preservation, Ruin wasn't particularly good at it.

Welcome to the Shard!

[Dunkum]

To add to what has been said already, when the Atium and/or Lerasium gets burned the power doesn't just vanish, it sort of condenses back in some form.  Think the Well of Ascension refilling over 1000 years after the lord ruler had spent its power before.  presumably Sazed could pul most or maybe even all of this back into himself, though exactly how long that might take is somewhat unclear

[Fringe]

First off, thanks for the answers!

I'm starting to see what you guys mean (just went through Wax's conversation with Harmony which I thought hilarious and loved). I will continue to read the books but I continue to have the following questions,

"Preservation put more of himself into humans than Ruin." This action led to a decrease in Preservation's power (in comparison to Ruin) and it was a considerable amount in order for him to have to bind Ruin by sacrificing his mind and having to hide his body/Atium (which is something I still need to study up on). I imagine that the Cosmere operates by similar laws to our actual Universe in that energy cannot be destroyed only transformed. Preservation's power is still imbued in humankind. Wouldn't that still mean that Ruin's power is stronger than Preservation's in Harmony? 

Dunkum raised another question but I think I know the answer. The power in the Well of Ascension, that won't be part of the world anymore correct? It was absorbed back into Harmony upon his Ascension. Correct? It would have been interesting to see Ruin's side of Ascension haha.

Along the same lines of burning Atium. When Atium is burned, it would condense back to physical form. Is this the same for all other metals (God and normal metals)?

 

[Yata]

26 minutes ago, Fringe said:

"Preservation put more of himself into humans than Ruin." This action led to a decrease in Preservation's power (in comparison to Ruin) and it was a considerable amount in order for him to have to bind Ruin by sacrificing his mind and having to hide his body/Atium (which is something I still need to study up on). I imagine that the Cosmere operates by similar laws to our actual Universe in that energy cannot be destroyed only transformed. Preservation's power is still imbued in humankind. Wouldn't that still mean that Ruin's power is stronger than Preservation's in Harmony? 

Yes the Investiture can't be created or destroyed, it only change.

About your doubt, to a Spiritual being like a Shard his "power" and his "body" are the same thing. What Leras (Preservation) did, is to manage to chunk off a piece of Ati (Ruin)'s power and place it into a System (the Pits of Hatsin) that condensate it in solid form (Atium). This was made to leave Ruin as powerful as him in order to keep the balance between them...He also sacrificated a meaningful part of his mind (something separate from the Shard's power) to create the Ruin's prison. But you have to notice, the word is "prison" but actually Ruin isn't really imprisoned or something like that....Simply every action Ruin took was auto-countered by Preservation. As you may see Ruin can influence people or know the outside world while he was "trapped".

32 minutes ago, Fringe said:

Dunkum raised another question but I think I know the answer. The power in the Well of Ascension, that won't be part of the world anymore correct? It was absorbed back into Harmony upon his Ascension. Correct? It would have been interesting to see Ruin's side of Ascension haha.

A Shardpool's Investiture upon use, return to the Shard from where it comes (in the case of the Well to Preservation, for the Black Lake to Ruin). But it will leak again in the physical after some time (many people used the Well in thousands of years after all). Now Harmony came to be, it's really unclear what happened to the perpendicularities (canon name from what we called Shardpool)...It's possible they are still there (maybe in other locations) or maybe now Harmony has a single Perpendicularity...some clue in the books seems to point as a single Harmony's perpendicularity but it's hard to say.

36 minutes ago, Fringe said:

Along the same lines of burning Atium. When Atium is burned, it would condense back to physical form. Is this the same for all other metals (God and normal metals)?

As I said before when the Atium was burned it will return to the Pits to be condensed again in the physical Realm after some amount of time. This is a not standard outcome born from the power stoled by Preservation. In a standard case the Investiture in a godmetal would return to the Shard....The normal metals are tricky, on Scadrial all is made of Ruin & Preservation therefore they would gain a metal's investiture when the metal is burned (they may decide to re-uses it to made new metals but it's not something automatic, Scadrial could in theory run off of metals)...but off world this isn't true, there the metal are (probably) made of Adonalsium's investiture and this mean that we don't know where they return when burned.

[Weltall]

2 hours ago, Fringe said:

"Preservation put more of himself into humans than Ruin." This action led to a decrease in Preservation's power (in comparison to Ruin) and it was a considerable amount in order for him to have to bind Ruin by sacrificing his mind and having to hide his body/Atium (which is something I still need to study up on). I imagine that the Cosmere operates by similar laws to our actual Universe in that energy cannot be destroyed only transformed. Preservation's power is still imbued in humankind. Wouldn't that still mean that Ruin's power is stronger than Preservation's in Harmony

Yes. Brandon was asked about this and left it as an exercise for us. Though we know that some of that 'missing' power is still condensed in the remaining atium that Marsh has.

[soyperson]

Just now, Weltall said:

Yes. Brandon was asked about this and left it as an exercise for us. Though we know that some of that 'missing' power is still condensed in the remaining atium that Marsh has.

So we know that Marsh uses his atium to live longer, right?

How do you think he wears it?

A bracer would be a tad conspicuous... how about a spike?

[Yata]

Just now, bleeder said:

So we know that Marsh uses his atium to live longer, right?

How do you think he wears it?

A bracer would be a tad conspicuous... how about a spike?

Marsh is quite "young", He probably is really low dependant by the Atium compound. The Atiumind is probably really small and may be also under the skin