shards Shards and worship

[Zuff]

I was reading bands of morning again and had a thought. 

      Do the shards gain anything from humans worshipping them?

Edited April 11, 2017 by Zuff

[+Extesian he/him]

This is an interesting idea, the Raymond E Feist model. We know that things people believe in (well, think about) manifest in the cognitive realm. We also know Autonomy hijacks religions and can even represent a whole pantheon of gods. So it's a legitimate question. Maybe some of the realmatic experts can weigh in on cognitive and spiritual aspects. I want to say no, that spren are different and Autonomy has other reasons. But it's a worthwhile idea (whether or not it's been posited before).

[Landis963 he/him]

I don't believe we've seen anything that would point to human worship leading to a direct profit for the Shards they worship.  However, I can think of an indirect profit; appear in their dreams as X deity, and you can make them do whatever you want.  This might actually be Autonomy's MO, now I think of it.  

[Themasterhunter]

Also, When the shard shatters itself, on purpose, what purpose does it serve? if not to invest a specific world, and cause more belief in itself?

[Weltall]

I don't think there's any reason to think that Shards directly require belief, but as noted it makes it easier to carry out your Intent if you have people who see you as a god and are willing to do things for you on that basis. Harmony makes for an interesting illustration as he flat-out tells people not to waste time worshipping him, but he's happy to use their belief in his divinity to nudge people in the right direction via the Pathian earrings and his kandra and mortal agents.

@Themasterhunter You mean Endowment creating Splinters? It's carrying out her Intent and contributing to whatever her motivations are, whether this leads to anyone specifically believing in her or not. She's evidently not too concerned with accuracy in belief because the religion that seems to recognize Endowment's existence posits a male deity and the nation that's built around her Splinters doesn't follow Austrism any longer. Of course we have no idea what the rest of the Nalthis believes at this point.

In Honor and Cultivation's case, they seem to have been copying what they already found on Roshar, as there were spren on the planet before the arrival of the Shards. They too don't seem terribly concerned with strict accuracy among the people who believe in them, though they were also kind of busy dealing with Odium and the Desolations so maybe Honor never had time to set the record straight before his death and Cultivation... well, who knows.

[Farnsworth]

SH spoilers: 

Spoiler

Kelseir is connected to Ruin in his spiritweb

So Shards and humans can have bonds. In this case the bond was because of a similar intent/Intent, but worship could create a bond as well. I would imagine that a shard with a lot of connections with their people would have more power.