Plans of cultivation

[Pandora's shard]

I just listened to shardcast about Taravangium and I have a theory about cultivation and her plans. I am sorry if it has been discussed before, but I could not find out any similar theories. 

 

After RoW, it's clear that something is going on in the background in cosmere related to shards. We also know, Autonomy has been seeding herself in different planets. And, Odium has been destroying shards. As Gatorgirl theorised in the shardcast, Autonomy may be the brains of the operation and odium the muscle. So, here is my theory:-

 

Autonomy and Odium worked together to destroy shards who could be a threat to them. Odium came to Roshar, and even if he got bound in the system, he was able to splinter the shard of Honour. Vessels of cultivation and Honour were romantically linked. So,  Cultivation entered the game, and  wants to take revenge from this group of shards, not just personally, but at the cosmere level, by negating all their plans. And she is doing so by being the master manipulator that her shard allows her to be.

She understood Rayse, and so, she knew of the problem between the vessel and shard of Odium. So, she seeded Dalinar to foil the plans of Rayse and destabilise him so that, he could be easy picking. 

She seeded Taravangium with passion and intellect, so the shard of Odium noticed him, and in the resulting conflict, where Rayse-Odium was already desperate, Taravangium killed Rayse and became the new Odium. So, cultivation got her revenge on one level. But on a different level, she is also fed up with what is going on in the cosmere and how, Autonomy wants to reign supreme. So, in one play, she changed the predictable Rayse with totally unpredictable Taravangium. All the shards knew and understood Rayse, but only Cultivation understands Taravangium. So, while all of us 17th shard people think Taravangium has tricked cultivation, may be, she actually accepts the unpredictability, and wants that from Todium. And in one play, she has also taken away the biggest weapon of Autonomy away from her. Now, while cultivation cannot control, predict or manipulate Taravangium, absolutely no other shard can too, including Autonomy. And so, now, she has cultivated Todium to be her weapon for the cosmere. We know that something is going on in the background in Cosmere related to shards. Cultivation's actions just blew away all those plans of other manipulators. And cultivation is playing a game only she can play, that of cultivating things to reach a goal she wants to achieve, even when the path to that remains unknown. 

 

But, here comes her third plan. As Roshar grows in significance, and becomes the hub of cosmere that affects everything, all other shards will focus here and will try to stop both cultivation and odium. And they will do this by sending their agents. Roshar is all powerful because of its investiture and how freely it is available. That goes for stormlight, and now, as Odium almost surely becomes native to Roshar, so will be voidlight. So, what better way destroy the power of Roshar than to cut the connection of stormlight and voidlight from human and singers? There will come a time in future where other shards will work together to make magic disappear from Roshar. And so, the contingency plan is Lift.

I don't think she is being groomed to take over cultivation. It is too repititive. I think, Lift is Cultivation's contingency plan for the absolute worst condition. 

So, in short, in one step, cultivation destabilised Odium. In second step, she replaced vessel of Odium with a much more crafty vessel, thus flipping all plans of her opponents, and in third step, she has planned for absolute worst. Cultivation's three plans. 

 

She might have more plans which we don't know now, but with present information, this is my theory.. 

Edited December 7, 2020 by Pandora's shard
Was thinking Autonomy, wrote Ambition

[Frustration]

Uli Da Ambition's vessel is already dead

[Pandora's shard]

6 minutes ago, Ookla The Frustrated said:

Uli Da Ambition's vessel is already dead

Yep, my mistake. Was thinking Autonomy and writing Ambition.. 

[Frustration]

Just now, Pandora's shard said:

Yep, my mistake. Was thinking Autonomy and writing Ambition.. 

I figured but just to be safe

It's a common theory but I find the only evidence to be Trell in Era 2 but that isn't enough for me.

[Lightdancer]

I really like this theory. I like the idea of Cultivation as a crafty, cosmere-scheming dragon. I also have been a fan of the Odium-Autonomy pair-up. One of the reveals that surprised me the most in RoW (besides, well... everything) was that Mercy was the other shard involved with the splintering of Ambition. I always assumed that it was Autonomy. The idea that Odium and Autonomy teamed up to splinter Ambition was the main point that made me believe in the Odium-Autonomy pair-up.

Since that's not the case... I still like that pair-up. However, I might as well suggest a possible Odium-Mercy pair-up. I really like the idea of Mercy as an antagonist/villain, with an overt and intentional role in Ambition's death. However, that's literally all we know about Mercy, whereas Autonomy has been a looming presence over the cosmere.

Finally, I like the idea of Lift as a final contingency plan. I am a little confused- if you think that she isn't Cultivation's heir, then what is her role?

[Frustration]

43 minutes ago, Lightdancer said:

I really like this theory. I like the idea of Cultivation as a crafty, cosmere-scheming dragon. I also have been a fan of the Odium-Autonomy pair-up. One of the reveals that surprised me the most in RoW (besides, well... everything) was that Mercy was the other shard involved with the splintering of Ambition. I always assumed that it was Autonomy. The idea that Odium and Autonomy teamed up to splinter Ambition was the main point that made me believe in the Odium-Autonomy pair-up.

Since that's not the case... I still like that pair-up. However, I might as well suggest a possible Odium-Mercy pair-up. I really like the idea of Mercy as an antagonist/villain, with an overt and intentional role in Ambition's death. However, that's literally all we know about Mercy, whereas Autonomy has been a looming presence over the cosmere.

Finally, I like the idea of Lift as a final contingency plan. I am a little confused- if you think that she isn't Cultivation's heir, then what is her role?

Really it never says which side Mercy was on.

I took it to mean Mercy was trying to save Uli Da.

[Darth_Hel]

Perhaps, or Uli Da was doomed and Mercy came in to deal the killing blow rather than it be a long strung out death.

 

[Pandora's shard]

On 08/12/2020 at 3:58 AM, Lightdancer said:

Finally, I like the idea of Lift as a final contingency plan. I am a little confused- if you think that she isn't Cultivation's heir, then what is her role?

The problem I have for Lift being Cultivation's heir as in succeeding her in becoming a vessel of the shard is that, a shards vessel becomes too limited a character. That vessel cannot be at a forefront as doing a lot of things. As a manipulator, the vessel and shard is good. But, as a character in a story, they can almost never be at a forefront. 

Lift if too good a character to just let go like that. She if funny, awesome, goes to places where she is not supposed to go, she has such an out of ordinary gift from cultivation of not changing even when everything around her changes.. and Brandon has said that he is grooming her for bigger things in future books. She is also weird in that she can convert food into lifelight!! 

So, spurn such a character to be a shard? No. That is too obvious. 

One story that looks possible is when there exists no other magic, her use of lifelight can act as a contingency.

Also, the fact that she does not need an external source of investiture for her magic.. wow.. it would be so easy for her to go to other planets and do all kind of stuff if only it could be figured out about how the spren could leave Roshar.. if that happens, suddenly, Lift becomes such a potent power in Cosmere.. 

And then, she has this weird way of finding out what's the truth and which side is right. Read her parts and despite her being so young, she understands the situation so quick.. and finds the right side, and then fight for it.. hell, she sorts out situations so quick.. find solutions and a the time, she is awesome!! This can lead to her being in direct opposition of all our expectations, and when all of us think, the story is going to one way, she may find out the truth and support the other side.. there are so many possibilities with her character.. 

That's why, I thing just grooming her as a potential next cultivation vessel is a bit wasteful. 

But then again, Brandon already has the story in his mind. I am just excited to see how he uses Lift in this magical tapestry that is Stormlight Archive and Cosmere. 

 

Edited December 25, 2020 by Pandora's shard

[Halyo_Alex he/him]

8 hours ago, Pandora's shard said:

The problem I have for Lift being Cultivation's heir as in succeeding her in becoming a vessel of the shard is that, a shards vessel becomes too limited a character. That vessel cannot be at a forefront as doing a lot of things. As a manipulator, the vessel and shard is good. But, as a character in a story, they can almost never be at a forefront. 

Lift if too good a character to just let go like that. She if funny, awesome, goes to places where she is not supposed to go, she has such an out of ordinary gift from cultivation of not changing even when everything around her changes.. and Brandon has said that he is grooming her for bigger things in future books. She is also weird in that she can convert food into lifelight!! 

So, spurn such a character to be a shard? No. That is too obvious. 

But don't you remember the boon she wished for?
"When everything else around me changes, I want to stay the same."

I doubt it would entirely prevent the shard's Intent from taking over, but it might hold it off long enough for Lift to do something important with it.

[Lightdancer]

13 hours ago, Pandora's shard said:

The problem I have for Lift being Cultivation's heir as in succeeding her in becoming a vessel of the shard is that, a shards vessel becomes too limited a character. That vessel cannot be at a forefront as doing a lot of things. As a manipulator, the vessel and shard is good. But, as a character in a story, they can almost never be at a forefront. 

Lift if too good a character to just let go like that. She if funny, awesome, goes to places where she is not supposed to go, she has such an out of ordinary gift from cultivation of not changing even when everything around her changes.. and Brandon has said that he is grooming her for bigger things in future books. She is also weird in that she can convert food into lifelight!! 

So, spurn such a character to be a shard? No. That is too obvious. 

One story that looks possible is when there exists no other magic, her use of lifelight can act as a contingency.

Also, the fact that she does not need an external source of investiture for her magic.. wow.. it would be so easy for her to go to other planets and do all kind of stuff if only it could be figured out about how the spren could leave Roshar.. if that happens, suddenly, Lift becomes such a potent power in Cosmere.. 

And then, she has this weird way of finding out what's the truth and which side is right. Read her parts and despite her being so young, she understands the situation so quick.. and finds the right side, and then fight for it.. hell, she sorts out situations so quick.. find solutions and a the time, she is awesome!! This can lead to her being in direct opposition of all our expectations, and when all of us think, the story is going to one way, she may find out the truth and support the other side.. there are so many possibilities with her character.. 

That's why, I thing just grooming her as a potential next cultivation vessel is a bit wasteful. 

But then again, Brandon already has the story in his mind. I am just excited to see how he uses Lift in this magical tapestry that is Stormlight Archive and Cosmere. 

 

That's a fascinating analysis. I'm also excited to see where this goes.