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How to render a Shard as harmless as possible?


Oltux72

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You can

  • let it lie around - bad idea, as it will become sentient
  • splinter it - bad idea, the splinters will do what you do not like
  • Nightblood it - dangerous idea, the consequences are unknown
  • combine it with another Shard - difficult idea. Shards are not common and you have no sure prediction of the result

So you will have to get it a vessel. You want a weak and reluctant vessel. You also want a new vessel. We know that a weak vessel is

  • a Cognitive Shadow (Kelsier was weaker therefore)
  • somebody with a barely sufficient Connection, or even artificially boosted Connection
  • somebody holding it only a short time

Hence my proposal: You have a perpendicularity and a Shard. You can make Cognitive Shadows. Ask for volunteers, screen them for their Connection, turn them into ghosts and let each of them carry the Shard for only a few days. Institutionalize that as a religious order. You can honestly promise immortality, kind of.

 

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1 hour ago, R J said:

Why not use multiple steps? (assuming one has the resources... somehow) take two diametrically opposed Shards, Splinter them, then have Cognitive Shadows with artificial Connection become their Vessels.

I guess you woud already fail at the requirement of getting two Shards. Even then, they are usually not diametrically opposed. What is the opposite of Cultivation? Ruin? Then what is the opposite of Preservation? Who is the counter of Endowment? A hypothetical Deprivation?

And, of course, the more steps, the likelier to fail.

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17 minutes ago, Oltux72 said:

Even then, they are usually not diametrically opposed.

Well not all Shards are diametrically opposed, but it really also depends on the Vessels PoV.

If the two Vessels view their Intents as opposed or if the Vessels dislike/hate each other then there should be a sort of natural friction between the pairs investiture

Edited by Eternal Khol
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35 minutes ago, Oltux72 said:

I guess you woud already fail at the requirement of getting two Shards. Even then, they are usually not diametrically opposed. What is the opposite of Cultivation? Ruin? Then what is the opposite of Preservation? Who is the counter of Endowment? A hypothetical Deprivation?

And, of course, the more steps, the likelier to fail.

Not all Shards have direct counters but some do, at least two that we know of can be rendered relatively underpowered via this.

The rest of the steps could still work for the other Shards, assuming one has the resources for it.

 

Also, Nightblood can't hurt a Shard, only the Vessel.

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1 hour ago, R J said:

Also, Nightblood can't hurt a Shard, only the Vessel.

Sure, but the WoB also says:

Quote

Questioner

If it's possible for Nightblood to actually interact with a Shard, what would happen?

Brandon Sanderson

A Shard would try to stay very far away from Nightblood. Nightblood could not plausibly destroy an entire Shard but the Vessel could be in danger.

Starsight Release Party (Nov. 26, 2019)

 

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1 hour ago, GoWibble said:

Sure, but the WoB also says:

Quote

Questioner

If it's possible for Nightblood to actually interact with a Shard, what would happen?

Brandon Sanderson

A Shard would try to stay very far away from Nightblood. Nightblood could not plausibly destroy an entire Shard but the Vessel could be in danger.

Starsight Release Party (Nov. 26, 2019)

 

He can probably hurt some Splinters. Though we only have one comparison currently: with the Stormfather, who is more Invested than Nightblood¹ but Nightblood gets stronger as he consumes more Investiture².

He might become the monster you all in the Shard think he is, but he isn't that monster yet.

 

1: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/385-orem-signing/#e12591

2: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/360-legion-release-party/#e10833

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2 hours ago, R J said:

He might become the monster you all in the Shard think he is, but he isn't that monster yet.

Well, with this hypothetical future when people have somehow removed Rayse from the Odium Shard, Nightblood might have eaten an unmade or nine, and then might be more powerful than the Stormfather, at least. 

But for now, I guess NB can't eat a Shard

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