Devotary of Spontaneity

Odium. Autonomy. Ruin. Three of the most dangerous Shards in the Cosmere, yet dependent on their Vessel for direction. Elereod had felt the pull of all three Shards since arriving at Silverlight. He had rejected all three, though. Perhaps in his younger days, Elereod would have taken the Shard of Hate. He had known hate once, had dedicated his life to the destruction of the Invested population. The years had mellowed hate into determination. No longer did Elereod hate his targets. The Shards and all their creations were not to be despised, but merely pitied. They as much as anyone were victims of Adonalsium's power. Autonomy, perhaps? Personal freedom, the urge to tear down the establishment and liberate the masses from tyranny? No. Taking on the Shard of Autonomy would merely exchange one form of tyranny with another. True change, the type that brings down the corrupt elite and replaces it with something better, cannot come from one such as Autonomy who favors individuals above all else. One person; a Kelsier, a Hrathen, a Dalinar, can be the driving force behind the destruction of a system. Replacing that system with something better, establishing a society where one's Investiture levels do not enable people to abuse the less powerful, requires a unified populace. Not even Ruin. Ruin, whose power kept him alive. The personification of entropy, the Shard that walked a path so very similar to Elereod's own. He had sought decay and destruction, the final end to all things. Yet for all his power, he could not defeat Preservation. Indeed, he could never have defeated Preservation, for what is absolute entropy but perfect order, preserved forever? In his haste to destroy, Ruin defeated himself. Elereod would not make that same mistake. He would reject the Shards. He would succeed or fail based on his own merits, without the interference of uncontrollable power. *As always, Elereod's views do not necessarily reflect my own.* --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I, too would like to move away from the spreadsheet error. I see that Jondesu and TheYoungPyromancer have removed their votes from Elbereth, which is good. Elbereth is still voting for me, I believe for sounding off when addressing the Shards that got released today. I was in the middle of writing a response to YoungBard when rollover happened, and was very surprised to see that instead of Cultivation and Ambition, we as a whole released the Shards most likely to have anti-village win conditions. @MonsterMetroid, on the other hand, voted for me on the basis of a gut read and assuming that Elbereth would not lie about what she saw on the spreadsheet. Now that it's been established that the situation was most likely based on a misread, would you mind removing your vote or providing your own reasons for lynching me? @Seonid, I would like to repeat the calls for more details on the lynch. How are ties determined? Is there a vote minimum required to lynch someone? Is voting for No Lynch a viable option? As per page 2 of the signup thread, Hoid's ability to weaken a Shard's barriers allows him to end up as a Vessel. Additionally, Khriss has the ability to steal Investiture from 2 separate Shards. While this doesn't mean that Odium is in the hands of the eliminators, it does make it more likely than you're suggesting here.

I went too far defending myself with knowledge from the doc. I apologize to everyone, especially Seonid, Arraenae, and Wilson. I should have checked what was legal to disclose before paraphrasing large sections of the doc. Seonid said on page one of the signup thread that, "If Ruin destroys Silverlight, contained Shards move to random Shardworlds. They remain in containment, and any player that can target a contained Shard with an ability can use that ability to target any Shard that is on the same Shardworld they are. (So, basically, any Silverlight only abilities become "anywhere with a contained Shard" abilities.)" Using Ruin to blow up Silverlight was my strategy when I was Khriss, though, so it is something to watch out for.

I'm... not sure why you're doing this. I assume that I cannot show you the actual doc, but I can summarize it. I was introduced by my AI assistant Adeptus Hamonius. Wilson was listed as the IM. I was using the light green color and remaining anonymous as everyone who could access the doc already knew who I was, though at one point I claimed to be ARINIAN, Lord of Colors. Seonid told me that Khriss can theoretically steal two Shards at once is she wasn't already a Vessel. I tried to signify that I was asking a question I wanted answered by putting the @ symbol in front of his name, but then he told me that he would prefer it if I bolded my questions, and that urgent questions should be asked in a PM. Rae talked to me at one point and said that she would not answer any mechanics questions. I got a PAFO card when I tried to ask how Hoid was doing. She used a custom blue with an RGB value of 43,161,216. At one point I typed ECHO ECHO ECHO ECHO ECHO ECHO ECHO ECHO ECHO ECHO across the page and nobody responded, which made me sad. I don't know how else you want me to legally show that I was Khriss last round. I will note that we have already had someone claim Hoid. If anyone else wants to claim Khriss, feel free.

Yes, that's why I'm considering whether it's a good idea to release Ruin, not supporting. A villager that releases Ruin can also put the Shard back into containment, though it would take a full cycle to do so. Noticing this now, I will say that I was Khriss last round, and spent 5 pages going insane from boredom. It might have gotten better in later cycles, but I voted to reset the game. Hmm, I missed rollover, let's see. Ok, what happened to going for Cultivation and Ambition!? We now have all three 'evil' Shards out! I have to go to sleep now, but I will do some proper panicking when I wake up.

1. My activity level is not much higher this turn, it's just that I've been asked more questions that I've felt the need to respond to. Such as this post. 2.I think you mean Ruin, not Odium? And yes, Ruin is better for Hoid and Khriss, which is why it might be better to release him now into what will likely be village hands than to wait until the elim teams can release him by themselves. 3. What Monster said.

Dominion: Shardic Ability - You may use your action during the Night Turn to redirect any actions another player takes to a different player (living or dead). Any actions that do not target a player cannot be redirected. This wording makes it seem like Dominion cannot make a player self-target. If Dominion can make someone attack themselves, then they could make Odium a Dakhor Monk so they'd survive Shattering themselves.

I don't think this would work, as Devotion can only redirect actions to herself.

Twenty year old Elereod knelt before Series. The shadowy figure spoke, "So you are the operative who has been killing Allomancers?" Head still bowed, Elereod replied, "Yes, my master." "Then you are a fool." Elereod looked up, confused. "Master?" "There is no point in merely killing a misting or a ferring. Their deaths do not dissipate the power they held, but merely returns it to the source, Harmony himself. Trying to destroy Harmony's power by killing his servants is futile, like trying to destroy water by imbibing it. To truly weaken his power, you must use these." Series pulled out an aluminum spike, much like the one embedded in Elereod's heart. "Did you think we steal powers just for our own gain? No. The use of these spikes permanently weakens Harmony. A fraction of a metalborn's power, gone forever. " He handed the spike to Elereod. "Go now. Continue you crusade with my blessing, but if I ever catch you killing outright, I'll demonstrate what else a hemalurgic spike can steal." Elereod though of that long ago meeting now, as he examined Survival's empty cage. He had been wrong then, but Series had put him right. He hoped that his fellow researchers would similarly correct him before he made any mistakes here, where the stakes were so much higher. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you to Elbereth, Magestar, Droughtbringer, Stick, Randuir, Megasif, Orlok, and Steeldancer for convincing me that formalized PM chains are not worth the trouble. Universal condemnation is better than no feedback at all. I spend far too long on this post, so I'll go away now. I do think we should consider TheYoungPyromancer's suggestion of having Ruin destroy Taldain.

Ah yes. I now see that rule clarification on page 3 of the signup thread. Thank you for noticing that _Stick_. That does make PMs less valuable.

You are right that PM circles are not necessarily advantageous Elbereth. The benefit of having a PM circle is that everyone is in contact with at least one other player. Depending on the alignment of the two connected players, this can help keep people accountable and give them a private outlet to share their thoughts, real or falsified. Since PMs in this game are so limited, I believe that ensuring that everyone has at least one PM is better than one person having several contacts while other people having none. As Mage says, people do tend to be more talkative in PMs. The more important part is to not let the power of PM creation lie solely with Cultivation's Vessel. However, you have convinced me that my plan was not the greatest. While I still believe that PMs will be important and that we shouldn't neglect them, I no longer think that coordinated action is the best way to go about creating them. Drought makes a good point about World docs, though since I don't believe they reset every day, it seems that they would be even less secure than a PM. Unless they are anonymous and you don't have to use the same color every time you visit.

While Cultivation remains whole, she can theoretically seal most of the breaks in a PM circle. While having everyone connected in a PM isn't essential, after tonight it will be more difficult to create any PMs without Cultivation's approval. Anyone other than Cultivation who wants to create a PM will either have to be a Hemalurgist or at some point go to Roshar, trade for a charge of Cultivation's Investiture, then burn it to create a PM. If Cultivation gets shattered, then the Roshar ability will be the only way we'll ever get new PMs. I do see what you're saying though. Perhaps it would be better to spread out PM creation over a few cycles? Wait for a few conversions and deaths to happen, then let the survivors travel to Roshar at their own pace?

So we started over, not that it makes much difference to me. Going for Cultivation early will help address our lack of communication. However, if a Shard is released, nobody gains any Investiture from that Shard. Therefore, it's probably best if only three or four players go for Cultivation and the same amount for Ambition. Furthermore, Cultivation can only create two PMs per cycle. A possible solution is for eight players to sacrifice four turns to ensure full connection. These eight players would steal Investiture tonight from Shards other than Cultivation or Ambition, travel to Roshar in the day, then spend their night action next cycle to obtain a charge of Cultivation's Investiture. On Day 2, they would then create a PM with a player on Roshar. This would require everyone to worldhop to Roshar. We would end up at the beginning of Night 2 with a PM chain connecting all twenty players, assuming that we've lynched two by then. If it turns out that worldhopping occurs after Investiture actions, we could leave Roshar after the PMs are created in preparation for stealing more Investiture. @Seonid, can we get an order of actions for the day turn? Feel free to attack this plan. The main flaws that I can see are that it requires a lot of cooperation, limits personal autonomy, makes it easy for Hoid and Khrissala to convert whoever they want, and limits our ability to release Shards. I believe the benefits are worth the downsides, but that's just my opinion.

Neither Hoid nor Khrissala can convert a player who holds a Shard. Although, @Seonid, do conversions happens before ascensions? As in, if a player that gains a Shard tonight is the target for a conversion, will they be successfully converted? I'm confused as to how we would be able to tell whether Hoid or Khrissala take a charge, especially because Hoid starts with charges from every Shard. As far as I can tell, all we would learn is whether they attempted a conversion or not.

@TheYoungPyromancer Lopen isn't even in this game. I would say that Silverlight is the most important planet until it gets destroyed or most of the Shards get released. Roshar will be the next most useful, as we can use its ability to gain a charge of Cultivation's Investiture, which we can then use to create PMs. Or we could use it to acquire a charge of Odium's Investiture and kill a player on Roshar. If everyone did that, we could theoretically kill everyone on Night 1 except for Survival. The game would then end in a victory for the 17th Shard. While this isn't likely to happen, it might be worthwhile/amusing to try. Scadrial isn't going to be too useful until the kill roles start coming out or if you think you're going to be lynched. Nalthis and Taldain are more useful to Hoid and Khrissala than to the 17th Shard. I think it's a bit early in the game for Braize to be useful as it requires two charges of Investiture. If we really want to turn this into a murder-fest, we're better off going to Roshar.

Players on Braize can attack anyone, no matter what world the target is on.

Survival was once again wandering the Cosmere. Elereod shook his head wearily. How was he going to destroy the Shards if they kept escaping containment? Survival was perhaps the least of the Shards, and the least offensive. Elereod fingered the aluminum spike protruding from his heart, the spike that kept him alive long after the disease should have killed him. Yes, Elereod could empathize with the desire to keep on living. Yet Survival was a Shard like all the others, the epitome of an ordinary being granted far more power than they had any right to possess. Empathy would not prevent Elereod from completing his mission. These fragments of Adonalsium would be destroyed, their power rendered broken and useless. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There's no guarantee that Survival will work with the village. In fact, since the village's current goal is to put Survival back into containment, it's likely that if Survival already has a new win condition, they won't want to work with the village. @Seonid, if Survival's vessel is following the 17th Shard's win condition, how long would it take them to put Survival back into containment? Would they be able to do it by the end of the Day turn, or would it take them until the end of the next Night turn? Releasing the Shards only advances the elims's sudden death conditions if Hoid or Khrissala manages to acquire a Shard. Since we outnumber the elim team by so much, we have 20 chances to get a Shard while they only have 3. While the actual odds won't be this good unless everyone goes for Cultivation or Ambition, the odds still favor us getting the Shards. To prevent Shards from going their own win conditions, we could establish a strategy of Shard passing. Seonid said on page 2 of the signup thread that the overriding Intent timer resets when the Shard passes to a new vessel. So we could have the vessels of Ambition and Cultivation swap Shards every day cycle with very little chance of either losing their original win condition. We could do this with every pair of Shards excluding Survival if we wanted to. If any Shard ended up being Fused or Invested into a Shardworld, we would know exactly who to lynch.

What order do players lose lives in? Say a player has their original life, one life for being Survival's vessel, one life for using Survival's investment ability, and one life from the Scadrial default ability. If they then get attacked twice, which two lives would they lose? Since the 17th Shard's sudden death win condition is a strictly easier version of their normal win condition, does this mean that the normal win condition is not applicable? If so, does this mean that the 17th Shard can win the game along with either Adonalsium's Chosen or the Standard of Harmony?

Elereod was born on Sel, thousands of years after its restoration. He hated the Elantrians and their powers, the way they thought their abilities justified them to meddle in the lives of others. He'd lost count of the number of times his parents had dragged him into Elantris, begging the distant gods that resided there to try one more time to heal him. A silvery being would look down at the little boy, his hands trembling uncontrollably. Without pausing to examine the boy or trying to discover what was wrong with him, the Elantrian would invariably begin to trace the familiar shape of Aon Ien. When the light faded and Elereod remained unchanged, the Elantrian would try again, adding new and different modifiers each time. All of them failed. Perhaps, Elereod wanted them to fail. Everyone had heard stories of the distant past, when Elantris fell. Ten years without their powers had forced the Elantrians and their neighbors to get along without magic. The Arelons had squandered that opportunity for technological development, and Raoden's triumph had led to further technological stagnation. Nonmagical medicine had not progressed beyond simple treatment of minor wounds. Nobody on the planet could do anything for Elereod. It had been a traveler from Scadrial who had finally saved him. Who had looked at him not with pity or with mockery, but with scientific interest. She had been a Set Hemalurgist, endowed with a supply of pewter spikes. Yet she hadn't tried a magical solution immediately. Feruchemical gold was not her first, last, and only solution to medical problems. She was the one who had finally told him, after nearly two decades of life, why he was like this. Copper savants, she explained, often had similar symptoms. Too much copper built up in the body was toxic, and caused the hand tremors, the balance issues, the dark rings around his eyes, even his impulsive, and at times psychotic, behavior. In the end, she offered him a choice. He could accept the way he was, with the knowledge that his lifespan would be limited. He could get a liver transplant, take drugs for the rest of his life and avoid copper. Or, he could accept an aluminum spike, cleanse the copper from his system, and begin a new life as a Hemalurgist. In the end, Elereod accepted the spike, and the flakes of aluminum that came with it. He would join the ranks of the Set, but not for the abilities it offered. No, Elereod wanted only one thing, to find those with too much power, and Ruin them, casting them down to the levels of ordinary mortals. Decades passed and Elereod became an old man. Frequent burning of aluminum had kept his disease in check, while also granting him the abilities of a savant. Having long since retired from fieldwork, Elereod spent his time researching technologies that could supplant magic and guarantee equal standing between those with power and those without. When the call came from Silverlight that Hoid and Khrissala were attempting to free the Shards from containment, Elereod knew that his days of taking an advisory role were over. The two ancient worldhoppers collectively represented the two things he hated most of all; the accumulation of power into fewer and fewer people and the tendency of the powerful to interfere in the lives of those less fortunate. Elereod packed up his aluminum fiber armor, his supply of Allomantic aluminum, and fake documentation bearing the name Reed in preparation for the trip to Silverlight. Yes, he would stop Hoid and Khrisalla, but he had another motive as well. He would destroy the Shards themselves, splintering them and scattering their Investiture throughout the Cosmere. Never again would wars be fought over their corrupting power. If he died in the process, so be it.

Seonid has confirmed that Ruin can destroy Silverlight.

Akhanaka the itinerant Ardent is signing up. As a follower of Chanarach of the Releasers, Akhanaka walks into Kharbranth with no thoughts as to what the future may bring.

Thank you Drake for creating an excellent first game to be evil in. Credit goes to Drought, Joe, and Ecth for being such good teammates. Sadly, we didn't get to win peacefully because you all banded together to lynch Drought, but it does mean that Joe now owes me a Shard.

I will join as Reed. Who definitely isn't in it for the power. No, that can't be it. Is this just a weaker version of the Researcher steal ability? If Ruin destroys Silverlight, what effect does that have on any Shards in containment? Additionally, what happens if Ruin destroys all the planets?

All accusations have been made, all votes have been placed. Let this cycle die now. Tomorrow, we shall see how everything turned out.

Your plan, while it would have worked if you are a villager, is limited because you are the only one who receives confirmation. While I don't know exactly how your plan worked, from the PM you sent me a few cycles ago it seemed that it relied on a list of words indicating that a particular player was a villager and a set of words indicating that a particular player was an eliminator. The exact nature of the list is transmitted between you and Lopen through Shqueeves, possibly distorted had Shqueeves been an eliminator. You have Shqueeves ask Lopen for a row and column number and Lopen either lies or tells the truth, though since Shqueeves was good Lopen would have told the truth. Shqueeves reports back to you, you check that Shqueeves is telling the truth and now you have confirmed his innocence. Hooray! Except, the only person who has learned anything is you. My plan, while it wasn't thought through all the way, had the potential to confirm to the entire thread which one of them was evil. As I posted in thread: " I propose that Lopen post a list of words for both Shqueeves and Drought to post in thread. These words would ideally be unguessable and come from PMs that Lopen has sent to currently living players that he believes are villagers. When Shqueeves and Drought post their list along with the associated player, in the form Player-PM#-Word Number-Word, the players would then confirm the word." Here a similar thing happens as goes on in your plan. Since Drought was the evil one, and here's the part I didn't think of at the time, Lopen would have composed Drought's list of words with phrases that didn't actually appear in any of his PMs. When Drought posts his list to the thread, it becomes obvious to everyone that he's lying when none of his words can be found in Lopen's PMs. Even if Drought knew he was being lied to, he would only been able to guess correctly for players that were evil. We could then have spent the rest of the cycle getting as much information from the dead through Shqueeves as we could. Instead, you took my plan, removed the public aspect from it, and posted it before I could finish thinking through my idea. As a result, Shqueeves died before he could be fully trusted. If you are one of the two elims left, then lynching you will provide a good deal of information. Namely, it will mean that the players you've gone after most aggressively are less likely to be evil. In that case, I would say that your most likely teammate is Ecthelion. Since I spent far too long thinking about this PM plan, I will take a break before looking through his posts.

Arinian made the same assumption up here, and it seemed a plausible theory. I'm not sure how that bolded part is helping you prove your point. More generally, you're saying that it's better to lynch me because you have no obvious teammates, while BR helped turn the lynch towards Joe away from me last cycle, and is thus a potential teammate? That the likeliest possibilities are that either you are the last elim, or that I and a teammate are evil? Just want to make sure I know what you're saying.