How does a shard world or magic change when a shard shatters?

[menacekop]

This is less of a theory and more of a thought exercise that has been rattling around my head the past couple weeks.  It may not even be interesting to you guys and gals but i thought i would throw it out there and see if anyone bites...

 

How does a shard world or the magic on a shard world or the magic’s influence on a shard world change after a shard has died?

 

More specifically is there a standard way a shards influence on a world changes when a shard dies or shatters?  Or is it different for each shard and the circumstances surrounding their death?

 

My thought comes from trying to figure out how things on Nalthis would change if Endowment shattered, what would happen to the people and their breaths?  Would awakening still work?  Would the heightenings still work the same?

 

I also wonder what things were like on Scadrial before Preservation died and Ati trapped, were there always alomancers that could burn metal and feruchemists that could store/tap metal minds?  Were the powers stronger/weaker?

 

Also is there an inherent difference between a shard dying (in Preservations case) and a shard being forcibly split by Odium (like Devotion or Honor)?

 

I would love to read a book or series that covers a shard world before, during, and after their shard split.

Edited February 27, 2014 by menacekop

[Chromium Compounder]

I've had the same thought.  

 

I believe the closest we have to any information about this is a WoB about AonDor saying that it existed before the Odium's visit to Sel, and that it was slightly different, but I don't think he gave us anything specific.

[taveren he/him]

hard to say. powers on scadrial worked regardless of what was going on with the shards, and the shards powers where in flux a lot during those books

[Youngy he/him]

But none of the Shards in the trilogy were actually Shattered at any point during the Mistborn series (or before or after).

[Chromium Compounder]

hard to say. powers on scadrial worked regardless of what was going on with the shards, and the shards powers where in flux a lot during those books

I wouldn't put it that way.  The only time the state of the shards themselves (not the holders) changes is when Sazed takes them and becomes Harmony.

 

And when that happens we do see changes.  Snapping is less dangerous now.  Spook was the last Mistborn.  Atium and Malatium are gone, replaced by Cadmium and Bendalloy.  Although I believe all of that was consciously done by Harmony.

[DocHoliday he/him]

I wouldn't put it that way.  The only time the state of the shards themselves (not the holders) changes is when Sazed takes them and becomes Harmony.

 

And when that happens we do see changes.  Snapping is less dangerous now.  Spook was the last Mistborn.  Atium and Malatium are gone, replaced by Cadmium and Bendalloy.  Although I believe all of that was consciously done by Harmony.

We have confirmation from the big man that these were changes performed intentionally by Sazed to.

Except possibly the Cadmium /Atium switch I think.

Relatively sure that was simply a misinformation thing.

[Gaz he/him]

I don't think anything will change. Didn't Brandon say that the magic was on the shardworlds before the shards?

[Shardlet he/him]

I don't think anything will change. Didn't Brandon say that the magic was on the shardworlds before the shards?

 

The magic for each of the shardworlds did not occur until at least some portion of the power of creation (the power of Adonalsium and thus each Shard) was invested.  There may have been some initial investment by Adonalsium (such as in the case of Roshar where WoB is that there are splinters of Adonalsium there from when Adonalsium left a portion of its power there), but in most cases the power that was invested came from the Shards.

[Tempus]

I would suppose that seeing as the magic is invested, if a shard is shattered, each splinter of that shard would remain invested. Surgebinding still works on Roshar, though Honor shattered. AonDor still works on Sel, though those shards were both shattered. The Investiture remains... invested. I suppose the difference would likely being in the splinters. We know a shard can splinter itself, but it seems to me that if a shard were shattered, and it's cognitive aspect (the shard holder) killed, we would have many, many more splinters and each would require their own cognitive aspect.

 

We also know it's fairly difficult to REMOVE investiture, so it's unlikely one of those splinters could remove it's investiture from the investiture pool. Also interesting might be the question - if a shard shatters, do it's shattered pieces gain a new, derivative intent similar to how when Adonalsium shattered, all the shards had an intent? When Devotion shattered, do the seons all represent things like loyalty, fidelity, constancy, commitment, alleigiane, dedication, fondness, love, admiration, affection, piety, respect, holiness, worship, etc, etc... all little 'parts' of devotion? I'm tempted to say that they do not, experientially. But logically, they should.

[red032 he/him]

On Sel, where Devotion and Dominium were splintered, the magic systems are tied to specific locations. Maybe, bafore the splintering, the magic would work without this limitation, like other shardworlds. My theory is that the magic still works, but only near the shardpool - which would bind it's magic locally.

[Vortaan he/him]

On Sel, where Devotion and Dominium were splintered, the magic systems are tied to specific locations. Maybe, bafore the splintering, the magic would work without this limitation, like other shardworlds. My theory is that the magic still works, but only near the shardpool - which would bind it's magic locally.

 

Except Forging, ChayShan, and Dakhor can't all be powered by the same two Shardpools, considering that geographically they are pretty far apart. I'm more inclined to think that the splintering of Dominion and Devotion co-mingled their Investiture, creating the Dor and a multitude of region-locked magic systems to access it, whereas before it may have been more similar to a Ruin/Preservation 3 magic split. Likely all three systems would have focused on Forms as a focus, and considering the quasi-spiritual nature of AonDor I find it likely that one would have focused more on physical/body forms and another more on cognitive/mental forms.