Causes of Shard Mental Instability

[NotBurtReynolds he/him]

On a long enough time-line would all Shards be driven insane by their Intent, or is the warping that the Intent brings different than what we would consider insanity?

Why was Honor  losing his mind but Cultivation did not? Was it because he was the only Shard actually giving up something of himself as he weaved whatever trap he was laying for Odium? Did I wrongly think that Cultivation was involved in this Odium plan as well? Or was she involved, but not in the way Honor was, so her mind was unaffected?

IMO, no Shards can ever really be trusted...But with that being said, haven't all the Vessels held their Shards long enough that they should be close to completely warped by the force and therefore should never be trusted because all of their actions will ultimately be only in regards to their Intent? I ask because of Ruin. Fair to say that Ati was world-class warped by Ruin. Cultivation has had her Shard for even longer yet seems much more in control. Was Ati's warping sped up by his imprisonment? Is Cultivation playing opossum with her mental stability?  Should I just keep typing inane questions?  

 

[Weltall]

Honor was going mad not because of his Intent but because he was dying at the time. Brandon has mentioned that for Shards, death can be a protracted event; see Leras in Secret History for an even more extreme example. We also know that there are Vessels who are more resistant to having their personalities altered by their Shards, such as Sazed and Rayse. By contrast, Ati is called out as being someone who was not able to resist being twisted by the Intent of his Shard. Brandon has stated more generally that the Intent will strongly influence the personality but whether it will override it or not depends on the Vessel. Which is why Odium is noted to be so dangerous; the Vessel and Shard are such good matches for one another. It's also why Rayse splinters Shards rather than taking their power for himself.

So yeah, while all Vessels are going to be affected by their Intent in various ways, they're not all complete slaves to that Intent like Ati/Ruin was and they're not 'going mad'. Though to a normal human they might certainly seem that way at times, like with Leras' admiration for Rashek. But Cultivation appears quite stable from what we've seen, Edgli/Endowment as well. Preservation had more problems than just his Intent weighing on him when we saw him and the same is true for Honor at the time of the Recreance. There are impliedly other Vessels who have also managed to retain most of their personality.

And then there's Autonomy...

[Calderis he/him]

It goes off topic a bit, but I go into this in my thread on the nature of intent. Specifically on what I think happened to Ati. 

OB spoilers naturally. 

 

[NotBurtReynolds he/him]

On 2/2/2018 at 2:23 PM, Calderis said:

It goes off topic a bit, but I go into this in my thread on the nature of intent. Specifically on what I think happened to Ati. 

OB spoilers naturally. 

 

Thank you for the heads up..Thats a really good read.