What Harmony Needs

[Philomath she/her]

So I have been thinking is that what Harmony really needs in order to overcome his struggle to take action is to take up Cultivation as a Shard. It seems like part of the problem is that Preservation and Ruin are not really directed at anything. What to preserve, what to ruin, and why? But with Cultivation, there may be more of a direction. A point to the preservation and ruin. The only thing is, that it still just basically feels like that is Cultivation. Maybe it would be the Shard of Growth or Progression. I don't know that this will actually happen, but it seems like it might be something that would help. 

[RShara she/her]

Cultivation isn't that different from Ruin. Ruin is change-to-destruction, Cultivation is change-to-growth. I don't know if that mix would be a good idea...

[Weltall]

The more Shards you take up, the more you have to fight off the influence of multiple Intents. Adding another Intent to Odium might make that particular Shard less likely to do the sorts of things Rayse is doing (bearing in mind that he's still in control and is the impetus behind what 'Odium' does, because he's so well matched to that Intent and is working in harmony with it) but whichever Shard you do it for, it's going to exact a toll on the psyche of the Vessel. And when you already have a Shard that's trying to juggle two opposing Intents, adding a third to the mix is just asking for trouble.

And as RShara says, Cultivation is probably an especially bad Shard for anyone already holding Preservation to take, since those two Intents are to a degree opposites as well. If Sazed was just holding Ruin, it would be a lot safer.

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Autarchk

If I can ask a question, I just read the Mistborn trilogy and, were Preservation and Ruin two different shards or a single one with their power split somehow? If they were two shards, does that mean a single person can hold more than one, since Harmony apparently holds both now?

Brandon Sanderson

They were two shards.

Yes, one entity can hold more than one. Remember that holding a shard changes you, over time. Rayse knows this, and prefers to leave behind destroyed rivals as opposed to taking their power and potentially being overwhelmed by it.

Nepene

I have a question, if you are willing. Would Ruin be more compatible with Rayse, would he pick up that shard had he visited Scadrial and shattered him? All the shards we have seen that he has shattered seem rather different in intent than him- Honor, Cultivation, Love, Dominion. But Ruin seems more in line with Odium. Rayse has ruined the days of quite a few people.

Brandon Sanderson

Technically, Ruin would be most compatible with Cultivation. Ruin's 'theme' so to speak is that all things must age and pass. An embodiment of entropy. That power, separated from the whole and being held by a person who did not have the willpower to resist its transformation of him, led to something very dangerous. But it was not evil. None of the sixteen technically are, though you may have read that Hoid has specific beef with Rayse. Whether you think of Odium as evil depends upon how much you agree with Hoid's particular view.

That said, Ruin would have been one of the 'safer' of the sixteen for Rayse to take, if he'd been about that. Odium is by its nature selfish, however, and the combination of it and Rayse makes for an entity that fears an additional power would destroy it and make it into something else.

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Edited June 2, 2018 by Weltall

[Calderis he/him]

I've always viewed those three in particular as three points on a line, with Cultivation and Ruin at the ends, and Preservation in the center. 

I think that Cultivation would actually exacerbate Harmonies issue, as after picking it up, any action he took would be opposed by two of the three instead of just one. 

[Philomath she/her]

You all make good points. So is part of the problem that while Harmony calls himself that, He still views himself as Ruin and Preservation? I think there is a WoB (not sure how to link those) that says only the Shard of Harmony would be left if Sazed died. So he is not actually Ruin and Preservation anymore. What do you think could actually help Harmony to become less paralyzed? Or does he even need to be?

[Ciridae]

Autonomy might be an interesting shard to throw in the mix. We think that with the right interpretation of the intent autonomy can pretty much do what she wants, but who knows what that particular mix might do. Maybe Sazed might interpret autonomy as not intervening at all and giving everyone else, and not him, complete autonomy. 

Ambition or Dominion might get him to do something, but they don't really feel like shards the Sazed pre harmony would be very interested in. Those might warp his personality in ways he probably wouldn't want.