Shards and Champions

[Kinnsayyy]

Okay so this is a very tenuous theory with not a lot of evidence, but it kinda makes sense in my head. 

We know the plan for the SA is for Honor and Odium to pick a champion. At first I assumed this would just be a regular person who would be picked and it wouldn't afford any extra powers. However, picking a champion is kinda similar to what Ruin/Preservation did with Vin. She was picked as part of the plan from a long time ago. 

Vin was shown to be a better allomancer than anyone of her time. She instinctively knew a lot of stuff that takes years to learn. I cannot remember the exact WoB, but I remember seeing somewhere when asked why Vin was so powerful/different there was a RAFO.

 

My theory is that each shard can pick a "champion" and give them something. Maybe it's extra access to their investiture, such as allowing Vin to draw on the mists (Wax also has drawn on them I think I read someone) or just something else. 

This does seem like a connection to me. But I apologize for the lack of evidence. Does anyone have any input?

 

Edit: I found some WoBs that might pertain to this. 

Quote

INTERVIEW: May, 2010

Ancient 17th Shard Question and Answer(Paraphrased)

CHAOS

In the most recent Hero of Ages annotation, you said that Preservation chose Vin to be the recipient of the power, just as Preservation had chosen Alendi previously (thus, this was why Ruin had manipulated the Prophecies). Was Alendi also chosen precisely sixteen years before the Well of Ascension's power returned?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Yes. He was chosen exactly sixteen years before, but he was a bit older then Vin when he was chosen.

Quote

INTERVIEW: Oct 12th, 2015

Shadows of Self-Oak Brook, IL

QUESTION

We were talking about Kelsier, and how he was much more powerful than most Mistborn, and how Vin was slightly more than most Mistborn [I think this was supposed to be Kelsier?]?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Why were Vin and Kelsier more powerful?

QUESTION

I know why Kelsier, but why Vin?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Vin was not more powerful. Vin just took to it very naturally. She was highly skilled. It was very instinctive to her, but Elend was actually more powerful than she was, if you count just raw power. Vin just knew her stuff. Beyond that Vin is a rare individual that for reasons I have not explained yet, was able to draw in the mists for a little extra boost at times. And there are other characters you have seen do this.

Quote

INTERVIEW: Nov 7th, 2016

Lisbon, Portugal (Paraphrased)

QUESTION

What made Vin so special?

BRANDON SANDERSON

RAFO

This one has a RAFO, which means it will probably be talked about more in the future. This could be discussed with the champions on Roshar. 

Quote

INTERVIEW: Feb 17th, 2016

Calamity-Seattle

QUESTION

Has Wax drawn on the mists at some point?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Yes.

 

Edited May 4, 2017 by Kinnsayyy

[Argent he/him]

1 hour ago, Kinnsayyy said:

We know the plan for the SA is for Honor and Odium to pick a champion.

We don't, actually. Honor - through the Stormfather - suggests this to Dalinar, but even he is not sure whether it will work. It's a safe bet to assume Dalinar will try to force Odium, as per the instructions, but whether it will work out or not... only Brandon knows.

 

[Djarskublar he/him]

My new bet on what happens that I just came up with is that they force a champion fight in the first five, and it buys them time to prep for the back five. Now, how that champ fight will turn out is anybody's guess. My bet is they both die, so it's a draw.

This of course assumes they even choose champions. Knowing Brandon, that'll end up as a red herring, just like all those marriages in Elantris XD

[Zeldan he/him]

I don't think that Honor is even capable of choosing a champion until he is made whole again(my guess is that the first five books of SA are being focused on Honor's restoration, and the next five will be for the confrontation you have in mind). At the moment, I think if we were to compare any individual with a Nahel bond from SA to a reasonable equivalent in MB, they would be like the Mistings, none of them even capable of fully grasping the entirety of Honor's investiture. Even still, I'm not entirely sure if Honor will choose a single champion the way Preservation did. Since Honor seems closely tied to warriors, the oaths and brotherhood between them, I expect that there will 10 New Heralds, who will then take the fight directly to Odium. So far, I think we've only seen one of each type of Surgebinder(that I can recall), so it could be that they will be the Herald of their respective Order. I'm not counting Szeth as a Windrunner since he gained his powers from the Honorblade, and he's likely to become a Skybreaker anyways. While that would make two Skybreakers counting Nale, I don't think that Honor will allow him to continue in his role since he broke the Oathpact once already.(unless there's more that we don't know about Nale, like maybe he was not a part of Breaking the Oathpact, like maybe he was knocked unconsious, had his honorblade planted along with the rest, and afterwards he's been tracking down the other Heralds, killing them each one by one. He wasn't actually shown to be there in the intro to WoK, there was only Jezrien and Kalak, and it's possible Jezrien lied to Kalak, but this is a long string of maybes, and I'm getting off topic anyways)

In any case, Vin wasn't even really chosen as a "Champion" so much as a temporary successor, since Leras had already resigned himself to fading away slowly over time, and needed someone else to carry the torch until his ultimate plan came to fruition. Honor is actually already dead, only fragments of his being/investiture remain, and needs to be pieced back together. The Shards themselves aren't really fully sentient, only an immense driving force with a single intent. Someone who lays claim to any given Shard gains full control over it and its associated powers, however over time, they will become molded to the intent of the Shard, like Ati was.

[+Extesian he/him]

I think it's simply that naming champions is an old tradition that relies on each leader abiding by the terms, but because Honor's thing is bonds he (well, the Shard) can bind even another Shard to such an agreement. A named champion would surely need to draw on Honor's power, and how that works post splintering I'm not sure. But Preservation picked an individual to give direct access to his essence (if very occasionally) and otherwise to guide. I think the difference with SA is that it's not a powerful individual, it's that Honor's intent can actually magically force Odium to abide by the wager once he's manipulated into it. I suspect it's the same mechanism by which Odium was tricked into investing into Roshar in the first place. 

[Darkness he/him]

If the champion thing goes down, I'll be looking for an individual who instinctively draws in stormlight (common to surgebinders), takes to their powers naturally, and is more or less universally hated, possibly even by him/herself (odium will certainly be working on honor's champion).

So far in our first 2 books, Szeth is the most universally hated, and Kaladin/Lift has taken to the abilities most naturally. I'll be mostly discounting shard interference in all this. I dont believe either champion will be purely of any one shard. We all saw how much Ruin interfered with Vin.

However, Szeth is quite methodical in using surgebindings, but that was with the honorblade. We also haven't really seen many people learning to surgebind, which may (read: Will almost certainly) introduce us to more potential champions along the way.

[Thanatos]

I reckon Kaladin will end up being Odiums champion. Given his back and forth emotional thoughts.

Plus it would be a twist i would not put past Brandon doing

[dendrophobe he/him]

12 hours ago, Thanatos said:

I reckon Kaladin will end up being Odiums champion. Given his back and forth emotional thoughts.

Plus it would be a twist i would not put past Brandon doing

I could see that happening, but only if it's a Demons Don't Dream (Xanth) type scenario where he doesn't know what side he's really fighting for. Kaladin would never knowingly fight on Odium's side.

[Thanatos]

But if Odium cohesed and manipulated him... 

And possibly corrupted Syl into a Voidspren... 

Just speculating 

[Kitch]

Couple of thoughts....

Champions for Honor/Odium could be Humans/Listeners respectively. Either as a whole or individually.  But that seems too simple/obvious.  

Parallels between the Heralds "Right of Challenge" and the contract that Odium is bound to.  Characters will quarrel over it because it's not actually taking away his power(a la Sadaes), but it's a rule that he's bound to and must accept the precepts.  This is probably what broke the Heralds in the first place...this never ending fight that doesn't actually mean anything because it's a game. I imagine at the end of the fight a boon will be granted.  It could be that the original boon was to seal away Odium.  

And then trying to break the rules, a la Kaladin and the final boon at the end.  Not knowing the rules and the precepts of the challenge is going to get some people burned.  Probably Hoid.  He's always a rule breaker, he'll try to find some loophole in the agreement between Honor and Odium and exploit it for his own ends.

Final outcome - I think whoever is Honor's champion is(Probably Dalinar) will realize that you can't actually kill Odium, he's too invested.  Or that splintering him will cause more problems than not.  Instead, they will use Honors boon to become the vessel for Odium, basically killing Rayse in order to contain Odium.