Which would mean that holding the shards 'poisons' the holder until they lose what individuality they possessed.
This thread is really interesting, though some of the things should probably be put on the wiki. Are you all ok with me copying your theories/ideas?
Joe
I don't mind, but I suspect that the people maintaining the Wiki would prefer to have well-sourced theories rather than this speculation.
I do have evidence, mind. Brandon made some important comments on the state of Ruin's mind in his annotations for MB3. He basically said that very little was left of Ati's personality except what applied to the power he was holding. If this applies to all Shardholders, then whether they're "good" or "evil" depends much more on context than anything else.
But you can copy over whatever you like. I don't have time to look up the appropriate sources, myself.
which may explain why the Shardholders don't call each other by their real names, the personalities of the original people have been basically obliterated, so it kind of wouldn't fit.
Also kind of makes me feel sad, cause that one line from the letter-epigraphs in WoK says that Ati was a nice guy......
edit : The reference is from the annotation for chapter 57