Drakonstrong

Hmm... that does seem to be the case... and the Ire did say that the orb was a tool to capture the power of a weakened or dead Shard. It would make sense that the way to capture that power is by pulling Investiture in, and that the Shard would just resist if it was still active. If it's similar to the orbs of physical objects in Shadesmar's consciousness/connection, perhaps breaking the orb gave the kind of Shardic connection that Preservation had to his Investiture? I still believe the two orbs are similar purpose and use, between WoK and M:SH, and if it isn't heavily Invested it very well could be heavily Connected. If it was storing Connection it would be interesting, and change how the sphere worked on Roshar. I imagine as on Scandrial it was blue lines, it would be a similarly Rosharian experience with the black sphere. Also, If it pulled Investiture in as the M:SH sphere did, would it take Investiture out of those Invested? (Say, for example, would it pull the spren bond from the Parashendi?) In M:SH it seemed like he didn't get any Investiture added to him, but more connected to him--I say this because nothing in M:SH or the trilogy lead us to believe anything in the world became less Invested, and Investiture cannot be created.

It did more than attune kelsier to preservation. WoB has said that ascension to Preservation is basically like burning a ton of lerasium: "INTERVIEW: Sep, 2012 Cosmere Q&A - 17th Shard (Verbatim) DOUGLAS What about a Lerasium savant? Or would that require so much Lerasium that the person attempting it would ascend to become a new Shardholder? BRANDON SANDERSON Basically, this is what ascension is." And so, this would mean that to ascend is to use a large amount of the Investiture of that shard. This, in turn, means that the sphere had to house a large amount of Investiture, because Kelsier ascended for sure. Plus, the quote I used in my first post said the black sphere is "heavily invested", so if the two spheres are comparable, the sphere in M:SH would be invested heavily as well.

Alright, this is my first post, and I don't know how to work with spoiler tags or proper quoting, but I have a pretty good theory to propose! There will be spoilers for WoK (mild) and Mistborn: Secret History (strong spoiler), so prepare, or leave, as you see fit. To the Theory! First relevant quote: Now, Brandon said this wasn't necessarily important, but I think it is. Sanderson rarely includes this much detail for something with no importance, and the fact that it was RAFO'ed means there's something more there. [spoilers!] Reading Mistborn: Secret History, we see another sphere that reminded me of the sphere in the pouch the Radiant had: the sphere the Ire has, that can capture the power of a weakened Shard and contain it. This made me think of another quote, about the black sphere Gavilar has in the beginning of WoK: (Emboldening my own.) "Something like that." I don't think think Odium invested in the sphere, but rather part of his power was taken from him and placed in the sphere. I thought of this largely when I saw this question: Odium is referred to as the "Broken One", in the epigraphs. How is he broken? I propose he was broken by the Radiants stealing a portion of his power using the sphere--possibly given by the Ire?--shown in Dalinar's vision. With the power of Odium in it, it turned black, and became the sphere Gavilar had. This would explain why Gavilar needs to keep the Sphere out of Parashendi hands. If they give the sphere to Odium, breaking it as Kaladin did in Secret History, and giving the power, Odium might become un-"Broken". This might even show why there hasn't been a desolation in so long, as Odium is Broken and doesn't have enough power. It seems difficult to prove or disprove this with the amount of information we have now, but it feels right, and it seems like a Sanderson thing to have! Also, thanks for enduring my first post.