Could the heralds fully hold a shard

[MasterK-Bob he/him]

In Secret History, and alluded to in Era 2, we find that Kelsier held preservation between the death of Leras and the ascension of Vin. He was able to do so because of IRE magical equipment, but he was not able to fully hold it like a living person could have, and so he was much more limited than Vin, just barely able to delay Ruin no matter what he did, while Vin was able, at the cost of her own life, to kill Ati and leave both Preservation and Ruin unheld. Was Kelsier so limited because he no longer a regular living being, but a cognitive shadow, or because he was not grounded in the Physical realm before taking up the shard? Like, if Kelsier had taken up preservation AFTER getting grounded in the physical realm again, could he have fully held it? The Heralds are also incarnate cognitive shadows who were once living humans, but until Oathbringer, every time they died, they reincarnated. When incarnate, could the heralds have taken up a shard fully, or would they have been limited like Kelsier was?

[+Keeper Exile he/him]

From what I know, anyone can hold a Shard, but (like Vin vs. Kelsier) they might not get as much "usability" out of the Shard. I think that the real question, however, is which Herald should be able to hold a Shard (with some of them being crazy and all).

Sorry if this is wrong. I am not really good when it comes to deep theorizing.

[Elegy he/him]

The primary reason why Kelsier couldn't hold Preservation was because he had too much of Ruin in him (that's what Leras himself states). We don't know much about how Connections work and all that Spiritual Realm stuff, but I imagine that it is necessary for a person to be Connected to a Shard's Intent to a certain extent for them to make proper use of it. And that's the reason why that didn't work out. That said, of course we don't know what would have happened if he had been more of a fit for it. Leras doesn't mention any other problem with the possiblity of Kelsier holding the Shard, so I don't think the difference is severe enough to be worth a mention in that context.

Although, of course, it's only his mind holding it, while the Shard exists on all three realms. I imagine it being like Ruin's situation in Hero of Ages: He has full control over his power, but the power is limited due to him not having the atium, e.g. the Shard's body. It seems plausible that a purely cognitive vessel would lack contact to the Shard's physical aspects and therefore couldn't use all of its power. If this is true, it would probably be up to debate whether or not it could be called "fully" holding a Shard. It would depend on whether Ati "fully" held Ruin without access to the atium.

With all that said, I certainly hope a herald could hold a Shard without too much of a disadvantage, because Taln holding Honor is still one of the most beautiful things that could happen in the cosmere, in my opinion.

[Calderis he/him]

Per What Ruin says to Kelsier in secret History, Kelsier's problems where his lack of a Physical aspect. 

Quote

The creature merely laughed louder. “You can barely control it,” Ruin said. “Even assuming it could harm me, you couldn’t accomplish such a task. Look at you, Kelsier! You haven’t form or shape. You’re not alive, you’re an idea. A memory of a man holding the power will never be as potent as a real one with ties to all three Realms.”

So personally I think that having a body restored to him, a "new string," would have fixed the problem. 

[Elegy he/him]

1 hour ago, Calderis said:

Per What Ruin says to Kelsier in secret History, Kelsier's problems where his lack of a Physical aspect. 

So personally I think that having a body restored to him, a "new string," would have fixed the problem. 

I checked back and it is indeed more vague than I thought, but him not being close to Preservation's Intent was also a reason:

Quote

Questioner

You hinted I think-- it was talking about it that Kelsier had kind of Ascended?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. [...] Yes he did Ascend briefly. It was... It didn't work real well for him because Kelsier plus the power of Preservation is not a good match, but yes.

Shadows of Self Lansing signing (Oct. 13, 2015)

Seems to be more complicated. I guess there are things he couldn't do because of him being a Cognitive Shadow and things he couldn't do because of him being Kelsier.

Edited May 5, 2019 by Elegy

[MasterK-Bob he/him]

2 hours ago, Calderis said:

Per What Ruin says to Kelsier in secret History, Kelsier's problems where his lack of a Physical aspect. 

So personally I think that having a body restored to him, a "new string," would have fixed the problem. 

Given what Ruin says, is there a suggestion that Kelsier is also short on his spiritual aspect? Like, cognitive shadows no longer have their ties to the physical realm, but are their ties to the spiritual realm fully intact? I guess since hemalurgy works on them (given Kelsier), they still have a spirit web. But not all cognitive shadows even seem to really be the memory of their living self--the shades on Threnody don't seem to have much human memory.

[Calderis he/him]

17 minutes ago, MasterK-Bob said:

Given what Ruin says, is there a suggestion that Kelsier is also short on his spiritual aspect? Like, cognitive shadows no longer have their ties to the physical realm, but are their ties to the spiritual realm fully intact? I guess since hemalurgy works on them (given Kelsier), they still have a spirit web. But not all cognitive shadows even seem to really be the memory of their living self--the shades on Threnody don't seem to have much human memory.

I think in most instances a CS is complete and has just had their tie to the physical severed. 

As to Shades, I think that's more an issue of some kind of corruption to the Cognitive Aspect itself.