Magic Systems and the Shardic Choice

[+Invocation]

How much does the mind of the Shard influence the creation of the magic system? Hero of Ages seems to imply that the Intent of the Shard plays a factor in it, but how much is consciously shaped and how much just forms?

[Calderis he/him]

The majority naturally occurs through the interactions of the Shards investiture and the planet they've invested in. 

There can be nudges, like Ruin making the hole that allows for control in hemalurgy, or Leras switching things out in the mistsickness, or Harmony altering the threshold for snapping... But the powers themselves? Not so much.

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Agate

I can guess two possible options for the Kandra.

1. God Sazed endowed the gift of presence on the now mistwraiths.

2. Some of the Kandra survived in the cave with the Terrisman and people of the city, along with the small mistwraiths, these are re-born with the spikes they pulled out during the resolution.

I can imagine too that some Kandra on assignment may have hidden in the shelters with the rest of humanity.

Brandon Sanderson

The Kandra.

Yes, they live. The people were smart enough, eventually, to replace their spikes. (And there were a couple who were on assignment who made it to storage caches.)

However, there will likely never be any more of them, since Hemalurgy is required to make them. They are now some of the few people who can communicate directly with Sazed, who—like Ruin—can whisper to people most easily when they are connected to him via spikes. With some speculation, you can probably guess what kind of roles the Kandra will end up playing in future books.

Kaimipono

On a broader level, is hemalurgy officially dead, then? Or is it still extant in some Ruin-free (but still messy) form? (If it's gone, is there any imbalance since Preservation's magic power is kept and Ruin's isn't?)

Brandon Sanderson

Is Hemalurgy dead? No, not at all. It, like the other two powers, was not created by Ruin or Preservation, but by the natural state of the world and its interaction with the gods who created it. It still requires the same method of creation, but very few people are aware of how it works.

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Edited September 8, 2018 by Calderis

[Quantus he/him]

It's also worth noting that Scadrial is a bit of a special case in that those two shards actually Created the planet and people whole, so where more directly involved from the ground up, which is likely why they sounded like they had more choice in the matter.  On Roshar, by contrast, the Shards arrived and co-opted a pre-existing magical ecosystem (aka Stormlight).