Can you give up a Shard?

[Zelly]

Without dire mortal consequences? Like, "Oh hey a Shard. Woooow I'm all expanded and powerful.  Nope not for me, gonna drop this now, go back to being a barkeep."

A vessel's body appears again physically if the vessel dies, so I'm assuming they have a physical body.....err, in status somehow, Spiritually cryo-frozen? 

Kelsier gave up Preservation to Vin, but he's kinda questionable since he was a cognitive shadow at the time and he obtained it through unusual means. 

[+Extesian]

Yes

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Questioner

Can holders of Shards give them up voluntarily? If so, what would happen?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, a Vessel for a Shard of Adonalsium can give up their power if they wish.

As for what would happen...well, there are some variables in there. Kind of like the variables in what happens to a bucket of water if you dump it out. Depends on where it falls, how strong the wind is, what the air is like.

Power dropped like this, if left alone, could end up Splintering and turning into something like spren/seons. It could become something more like the Stormfather--a large, self-aware entity. It could become something like the Dor or many of the Unmade--something proto-aware, but not truly an individual. There are other possibilities as well, depending on lots of factors. (Are sapient beings involved? what is being done with the power--is it concentrated in the Spiritual Realm as normal, or is it being pushed somewhere else?)

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[Zelly]

Thanks for the WoB!   I'm more interested in the vessel themselves, however.  Does it work like Ascension, where the individual rejoins the physical realm fairly normal, except with an expanded understanding of the universe and expanded soul?

[Steeldancer]

3 hours ago, Zellyia said:

Thanks for the WoB!   I'm more interested in the vessel themselves, however.  Does it work like Ascension, where the individual rejoins the physical realm fairly normal, except with an expanded understanding of the universe and expanded soul?

I'm pretty sure kelsier is pretty much how it would work, although it does mean that they would come out still having a body. 

[+Invocation]

Pretty much what happened with the Lord Ruler and everyone else who held a fraction of Preservation's power would happen if you gave up the Shard, though you could probably make your physical body have a mega-charged version of the Shard's magic system if you wanted, provided it doesn't require a bond like the Nahel bond (see again, TLR giving himself Allomancy without a bead of lerasium, just by remaking himself).

[Weltall]

On 9/3/2018 at 6:27 AM, Zellyia said:

Thanks for the WoB!   I'm more interested in the vessel themselves, however.  Does it work like Ascension, where the individual rejoins the physical realm fairly normal, except with an expanded understanding of the universe and expanded soul?

Brandon has said that a Vessel who gives up the Shard would regain their Physical body (Kelsier excepted because he didn't have one) and the influence of the Shard would fade with time but there would be 'some permanent effects'. Elsewhere he describes the Sliver effect being like a deflated balloon and that it does some weird things to the soul.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Weltall