On Shards and How They Mix

[thebestoralist]

SPOILERS FOR ALL COSMERE BOOKS

The best moment of Mistborn Era 1 was Sazed taking up the Shards of both Ruin and Preservation to become the uber-Shard Harmony.  Per WoB, Odium is scared of Harmony, and in Bands of Mourning it's apparent that Harmony is singlehandedly fending off a significant threat to the whole planet of Scadrial.  

I think we've seen a similar blending on Sel, albeit in the absence of someone seizing the Shards of Dominion and Devotion rather than because of it.  The AonDor appears to be a mixture of both, yet Odium did not seize them after Splintering them.  

I submit that not all Shards are compatible, at least without the presence of others.  Harmony notes that Ruin and Preservation seemed like they actually wanted to work together, and Dominion and Devotion, while opposites, still share a connection of similarity.

Odium, however, is simply God's hatred.  It's hard to see how that intent could be similar to either Dominion or Devotion.  It's not a complete opposite, like Ruin and Preservation.  And both Shards' intents refer to a certain type of relationship with another, albeit in completely different forms.

I guess my point is that I don't think Odium actually could take up either Dominion or Devotion - perhaps that was his intent in going to Sel and was really disappointed -though someone else may be able to hold both. A person holding both would likely call itself Marriage (I kid).

I think Odium could only be combined if all the other Shards were going into the mix too.  It's hard to imagine another Shard that would have a similar intent to just hating everything without context. 

What other Shards may be compatible? Will Brandon's big finale be a couple of Uber-Shards battling it out? 

Autonomy would likely be hard to combine since it's, you know, autonomous, but Ambition might be a good match. Honor and Cultivation seem to have teamed up at one point on Roshar, but I have no idea what combination of the two would look like. 

[Weltall]

FYI, we know that Odium has no interest in picking up other Shards. He could but he doesn't want to, it has to do with the nature of Odium being inherently selfish and Rayse's own personality combining into an entity that fears any change to its own nature. Though Brandon has said that if Odium did pick up another Shard for some reason, Ruin would have been one of the safer ones, as far as compatibility goes.

Brandon has also said that any Shards could be combined in theory, but it would be easier for Shards with similar Intents, and certain combinations would put a lot of pressure on the Vessel.

Edited September 28, 2017 by Weltall

[Mulk he/him]

I'd think that if anyone ever tried to recombine all of the shards into a new Adonalsium (if that's even possible) Odium would probably have to be just about the last one picked up.  Maybe that's what Hoid is after, why he has sought connections to the various forms of Investiture? I don't know.  I'm still missing a couple of parts of Misborn Era 2, haven't read Aether of Night yet, nor the whole of White Sands so I'm probably missing some pieces.

[thebestoralist]

Thanks for those WoBs. I find it odd that Odium wouldn't want more power if he could get it, though I understand that he wants to remain "pure."  If someone other than Rayse were to hold it, I wonder if some combination of Odium and Honor would turn into something like "Vengeance."  

[Weltall]

1 hour ago, thebestoralist said:

Thanks for those WoBs. I find it odd that Odium wouldn't want more power if he could get it, though I understand that he wants to remain "pure."  If someone other than Rayse were to hold it, I wonder if some combination of Odium and Honor would turn into something like "Vengeance."  

There's actually been several discussions on possible Shard combination names, here's the big one.

 

[Stormcrown]

If a shard created a splinter, couldn't Odium come and put just enough investiture to change the overall intent of the original into something hatred-themed? This would work best with shards that aren't inherently emotional, or emotions are easily mix with intense hatred. It's reasonable that Odium knows how this works, due to him not wanting to pick up other shards. He knows his advantage is in how flexible the concept of Hatred is, and likely why Rayse wanted it in the first place.

Odium's #1 enemies would be shards that could reverse that effect in his absence, like Devotion or Honor.

Just a random thought, but in order to shatter another Shard, it would require enough power from Odium that it would logically result in him having to recover over time.

Edited September 29, 2017 by Stormcrown