Why are Shardholders limited?

[Cstryon]

In each Cosmere story where we know that the Shard is present and whole, the Shard seems to just influence events, or grant powers, instead of just making their intent happen.

On Scadrial, when Ruin is freed, he didn't just destroy everything. He had to create champions, or minions. Vin took up Preservation, and started changing things, only to be countered by Ruin, or allowed to screw up by Ruin.

Ruin did start to destroy somewhat, but slowly. Why couldn't he just move the planet into unstable orbit? Why couldn't he just cause the ash mounts to all erupt like crazy at once, messing up the atmosphere quickly enough that everything living is destroyed.

Maybe he didn't do any of that because he still needed to find the Atium stash to come to his full power, and without his minions living to find it, or destroying the world all together, he'd loose all that Atium.

But Odium, why is his war on Roshar taking thousands of years? He shattered Honor, but why hasn't he shook the planet the way we know Preservation could?

Harmony, he fixes Scadrial, changes little things, like snapping, and completely heals, and rewrites Spook's sDNA. And that's just what we know he did.

So, are the shards limited? Is there some block in their influence caused when another shard is present and whole? Is there a reason why the whole Cosmere isn't just stuck in an epic celestial conflict of differing intents instead of Humans fighting against the intents of shards?

Edited May 28, 2014 by Cstryon

[RShara]

For Ruin, he was missing a significant portion of his powers.  He also had a balance (Preservation).  He set up the minions so that they could act for him when he was being blocked. 

 

Odium, we don't know a lot about, but presumably, he has some sort of limitation on his power as well.  We don't know what that is, but he seems to be imprisoned on Braize, so there is something preventing him from moving on.

 

Also, Odium doesn't seem interested in destroying planets or regular people.  He left Sel pretty much alone after he Splintered Devotion and Dominion, and as far as we know, he hasn't managed to Splinter Cultivation.

 

There probably is some sort of limitation on Shardholders, but I think it has more to do with their Intents and the nature of their powers, than any external preventative force.

[Pechvarry]

Now look at Endowment.

 

Not only is it uncontested, but it seems (to me) to be the Intent most likely to create a planet-wide paradise.  Or at least attempt it. 

I can only come to 2 conclusions:

1) There is a hard-fast rule about affecting the physical realm, and it has nothing to do with conflicting shards.

2)  Endowment already Endowed itself as much as is possible.  I believe we have WoB that it's not Shattered and not dead, but perhaps there's some similar bind a shard could put itself in, particularly with such a sacrificial Intent.

[CWS]

Thats the biggest "criticism" I've had with the mistborn series, the immense power Rashek and Vin get when holding Preservation for just a few moments are potentially world shattering, meanwhile Ruin has to wait around like a chump for allomancers to get spiked? 

 

For "ruin" to almost happen accidentally when someone picks up Preservation and is in line with its intent to preserve, it seems like Ruin could hit himself a home run using a similar strategy, so I think its got to do with more than simple intent.

 

I put criticism in quotes because its not to that level yet, I just think its information that Brandon hasnt divulged that will allow us to make sense of it...  He's thought of everything, handwaiving at this point doesnt seem like something he'd do.

[MistLord]

Atium, remember. Ruin did have a lot of power to do things like that, but he lost it as it was manifested in the physical realm as Atium, Ruin's body. The Hero of Ages basically had our protagonists try to stop Ruin and Ruin trying to get the Atium to end the world. 

[happyman]

Thats the biggest "criticism" I've had with the mistborn series, the immense power Rashek and Vin get when holding Preservation for just a few moments are potentially world shattering, meanwhile Ruin has to wait around like a chump for allomancers to get spiked? 

 

For "ruin" to almost happen accidentally when someone picks up Preservation and is in line with its intent to preserve, it seems like Ruin could hit himself a home run using a similar strategy, so I think its got to do with more than simple intent.

 

I put criticism in quotes because its not to that level yet, I just think its information that Brandon hasnt divulged that will allow us to make sense of it...  He's thought of everything, handwaiving at this point doesnt seem like something he'd do.

 

I thought this was actually explained pretty well in Hero of Ages.  At the beginning of the book, Marsh notes that something is still blocking Ruin; this is strongly implied to be the mindless power of Preservation instinctively stopping Ruin from exercising his power unconstrained.  Ruin was doing everything he could, but it was almost completely blocked by what was left of Preservation and so proceeded very slowly.

 

The "almost" from above means that Ruin did make progress, getting the Ashmounts to erupt, causing Earthquakes, and so on.  Those were all direct manifestations of his power and show what he would have done if he had been truly free from Preservation.  He wasn't just spiking people.  Spiking people was essentially the secret ops he used on people to figure out where the Atium was.

[Cstryon]

Atium for Ruin, good point people... He was fairly crippled.

So this tells me Odium is being held back, Cultivation hasn't revealed any action (that we know of, she might not even have much interest right now either), and Endowment definitely endowed a lot, and wouldn't need to interfere because the events might not be affecting her at all.

And Harmony already showed he can do a lot, but doesn't intervene because, well, his Sazed and cares about people making choices for themselves. He'll probably intervene if his "harmony" on Scadrial, and maybe the Cosmere later, is threatened.

Edited May 28, 2014 by Cstryon

[TheOneKEA]

Atium for Ruin, good point people... He was fairly crippled.

So this tells me Odium is being held back, Cultivation hasn't revealed any action (that we know of, she might not even have much interest right now either), and Endowment definitely endowed a lot, and wouldn't need to interfere because the events might not be affecting her at all.

And Harmony already showed he can do a lot, but doesn't intervene because, well, his Sazed and cares about people making choices for themselves. He'll probably intervene if his "harmony" on Scadrial, and maybe the Cosmere later, is threatened.

We also have repeated WoB that Sazed is positioned in a metaphorical Lagrange point between the enormous Spiritual power of the two Shards he holds, and that this placement restricts the freedom of action his Cognitive mind possesses. I agree though that if disharmonious things began happening in the Cosmere that he would probably be able to act quite easily.