Obeythelaw7

Hahaha, hoovering up shards is so funny to me. now I need fanart of an enourmous figure vacuuming up power from various planets. I also wanted to say, of all the shards, I agree this seems most likely. Taravangian would also see his predecessors actions in stuffing them into the CR as fortuitous and like stashing a weapon in a room before you enter it for a party where you plan to assassinate someone, or "No Russian" the whole party, as is his way. Past Odium setting those shards aside for future Odium. I would be fascinated to see what happens to the Elantrians if this happened though. would they just die? Would Fjorden politically subsume all of Sycla? All of Sel? Would the monks of Dakhor fall too without the Dor? Too much chaos, too many great characters dying. For that reason alone, I don't think this could happen because I don't think Brandon would write it. Plus, what would we call a being with four shards? TetraShardic? PolyShardic? Both are a mouthful to say.

I think this was because Radiants are dangerous. Just usually only to evil people, or people doing evil things. So I don't know if that fact implies that the Scadrian scientists believe that oathed Rosharans are dangerous to everyone. Alternatively, I think it implies that the scientists knew their non-intervention was inherently wrong, and therefore a Radiant bearing witness to their uncaring attitude towards the suffering of canticle's people would make that Radiant a danger to them specifically.

Wow, a herald as a shard would go hard. They are already a step removed from godhood as it stands, and it wouldn't be broken, it would be nice to have honor fill the obvious cracks in Taln's Spiritweb, as well as heal some of his brokenness. He would have the experience of multiple lifetimes, and an indellible hatred for Odium, or at least for what Odium put him through on Braize. If Honor is properly affected by Dalinar's involvement, then the combination would make Honor a formidable opponent. Maybe then, Adolin could take up Taln's spot as a herald. Then, maybe, and unfortunately, Brandon could write it so that Chana dies and Shallan could also become a herald and their marriage could last FOREVER. This is what happens, I'm calling it now. Even if it is only because I love them both so much, plus Kal needs his friends most of all.

Funny enough, he was successful. The king died of laughter

I was perusing the WoB's for my own enjoyment and stumbled across this question and wow...just wow. I love the style of the question, the question itself, the spirit of the question. I love it so much that I want it to happen in canon. we DESERVE an awakened, blood golem that can recombine like t-1000. maybe let it congeal so it is thicker, then awaken... That is all

Yes, thank you! most of that was just me trying to be humorous, while also asking for the link. thank you again for being willing to help answer questions for so long now. very much appreciated!

Okay, I have been meaning to ask you this since last week when I was so thoroughly schooled on the nature of shards, their vessels, and any potential power struggle between dishards. HOW do you find WoB's so quickly? Have you read them all and can just remember them using the index in your head, like you're the merriam-webster of WoB's? or is there a site where you can search through them? or some unknown third thing, like you're actually Brandon Sanderson and you've been playing games with us this whole time? follow-up questions: If its the first one, can you teach me how? If its the second one, can you share a link? If its the third one, can I have your autograph in exchange for keeping your secret, lord spirit?

ahh that makes sense. I get why too. Hard to swear yourself to opposing ideals....just ask moash. although after doing some reading on this topic here, I realized that we have technically already seen this. Since Shallan now has a bond with a Seon and Pattern at the same time.

woah, a windrunner/lightweaver/edgedancer would go so hard. same with a skybreaker/elsecaller/edgedancer or any combination really. good to know, ill be on the lookout for unkillable radiants with wwwwaaaaayyyyy too many powers in the next 5

oh, wow. that is interesting. With Taravangian's current plans and his historical tendency toward lighting the world on fire just to to keep humanity warm, because that is the burden a king bears or whatever his excuse may be. I don't think he would last long with just honor as the one shard, especially with honor growing and learning what true honor is. but I dont know who would take it up after that. maybe rlain, szeth or navani. I don't know, no one makes sense for the power right now. At least not to me. but a part of me wonders if cultivation planted a seed in lift that makes her a candidate for the shard later on? otherwise I would root for szeth to take up honor if that ever happened, dude deserves it way more than taravangian. I agree that Adolin would be a great vessel for honor, but i hate the idea for two reasons. one, because he turned down the throne, he would do the same with the shard. second, because I don't want to see him or Shallan have to struggle in their relationship. they have both been through enough and him having to live long enough to watch her grow old and die would be an injustice. vice versa, Shallan does not need to lose her husband to godhood.

could you explain a bit about why the dor is not included? in your first paragraph? wow, that makes so much more sense, at least about the nature of rasharan and nalthian investiture. I find it interesting that he almost acts as if putting adonalsium together is a fruitless endeavor. Yes, this is very enlightening and helpful. Thank you!

I think that last statement alone is enough to condemn him, definitively, as an asshole.

IKR!? i should have guessed this, but apparently I am the most recent in a long, long line of people to have attempted to find a canonical reading order. If anyone finds this and is similarly curious, see this helpful post for more info

well, if that is the case, then i might have to do a full re-read through every book, because my ability to engage to that level is nonexistent

Okay, I think at this point, we know that when investiture is released, it seems to just dissipate into the spiritual realm of the cosmere. (i.e. Kalladin lashing rocks to drain himself of investiture, AonDor usage post-reod and pre-restoration, the shattering of individual shards by any force.) This is power that cannot be reinvested into a host, at least not without a perpendicularity. if my understanding of this is correct so far, and correct me if not, then I have some questions... Does the Cosmere follow some version of the laws of entropy? Meaning, more specifically, will there come a time when so much investiture is being used across the Cosmere that it becomes scarce, or we run out? Can shattered shards whose power has been dissipated into the Cosmere ever be recovered? Surely those aspects of Adonalsium didn't cease to exist, and if they did, how will that affect the Cosmere if Adonalsium were somehow remade without those aspects? (I'm thinking specifically of the Selish shards here) Has anyone here read "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov? if not, go give it a read, its a very short story and it is a great read. plus the rest of my question will spoil it, so I will mark it at such in case people want to go read it first. I would love to hear any and all thoughts on this topics. Even corrections, so long as they don't start with, "No, dummy! It's like this!" ready, set, go!

Okay, additional thoughts/counterpoints to some of the arguments here, and this is coming form a place of relative ignorance regarding WoB's, but working with what i know from the books/coppermind. Here are some things both harmony and retribution have working towards them stabilizing as shards, as well as potential pitfalls they might encounter. Retribution was granted "the capacity to prevent the coming calamity" by Cultivation. is becoming a di-shard the fulfillment of this boon? or is that fulfillment yet to come? could she have prepared him with this rare possibility in mind? knowing he would take up both shards if things went how she hoped, could she have cultivated in him the capacity to stabilize them? assuming that is true, he may well be able to focus their intents in a single direction and stabilize. simply by the virtue of being chosen and prepared by cultivation for that express purpose.. however, if the fulfillment of Koravellium's boon was simply his ability to plan a way to reach that point, be the right vessel, and take up the shards. then that leaves him stranded in the endless ocean with no way to paddle. he would be the weaker of the two for sure because he has to learn to focus the two powers with their adjacent intents in a single direction. which takes time and weakens him. Harmony, as stated in the HoA, was "of one mind" about how to use them. clearly as time goes on, he has seen a need to change that mind, and said change is destabilizing him. however, he has direct experience in unifying the two opposing powers toward a common goal that meets both intents. he understand that both ruin and preservation are needed for the world to function. so could his experience in wrangling the two shards give him an edge? on the other hand, Sazed's nature was that of pacifism, so even if he knows he needs to focus the intent of the shards, how much more difficult will that be when that intent needs to oppose his own intent as a formerly human vessel? how much can the vessels intent actually change the intent of a shard before the power rejects the vessel? is there potential for Sazed to split the shards again by trying to reign himself in as discord? I like this idea. in a starkly Sandersonian way, the fact that two shards are inherently unstable, while three seem theoretically more stable, matches up with our knowledge of how things work in the real world. (i.e. tables, chairs, and balances of power within government structures.) a two legged table can't decide which way to fall, but it will inevitably fall. meanwhile a three legged table works just as well if not better than even a four legged one. I had thought of this as well. The full effects of the change that Dalinar made to honor, in the brief time he could, are still largely unknown. there are lots of effects to this. what are the chances that taravangian has a sudden change of heart and his "compassionate, but dumb" side comes out and he changes plans and intents. what if he split the powers and lost odium becoming honor alone. what if, Stormfather help us all, Moash took up Odium...*shivers*... Okay, thats enough theorizing for one day. I have scared myself.

hmmm, least favorite character is a hard one. Brandon does such a good job of making even the villainous characters respectable and relatable. so i will give two answers. one will be who i despise in world, the one i love to hate and can still somewhat understand and this may be spoiler-y for the uninitiates, so its my next answer will be the character that i found the most unlikeable or unrelatable, the one who is hardest to read about, (and this by no means makes him a bad character, just the least interesting to me) is

yes, just finished Wax & Wayne and am going back to some i feel held secrets i missed tough decision for me between scadrian and rosharan. both have so much untapped potential. [major mistborn era 2 and general cosmere spoiler upcoming. fair warning] this is by far the most labor intensive reading order i have ever encountered. Ill get right on it, lol that being said, could you share withe me the list of all his cosmere related books in canon chronological order? that would help me a lot, i think, to understand where events on different worlds fit into the overall story. hey, that is pretty close to mine in a lot of ways. I keep hearing mixed reports on white sands. I am interested to learn more about khriss, and I'm curious how a sando graphic novel will be, but i am trying to save up for the $70 omnibus, so i must wait for now. do you mean that it doesn't matter as in the order it is read, or as in it doesn't matter if you read it?

Wow, this is a fascinating topic, I am glad so many people know enough and care enough to respond. If this becomes an in-depth thread later on, please loop me in. that being said, I am well aware that we can only speculate on the varying power of different shards, but it is an interesting concept. I read something in another thread here or on reddit that I agree with..."The Cosmere was not set up to support power scaling." I take this as "if you are going to compare, do so in a speculative way only, because nothing is set in stone until it happens."

WOW! i never thought of it like that, he cant be harmony and keep them separated, thus discord must be born of that intent. so, and this is speculative, if he had gone in to being a di-shard with the intention to combine them fully, would he have been a more successful and/or permanent harmony?

that is an interesting ocncept i hadnt considered. so retribution is retribution and those pieces dont fit, so could you call that a stable dishard, whereas harmony is unstable meaning there are two forms those two shard could combine, one way as harmony and the other as discord?

hmm, that is an interesting take. i hadn't considered that. so in the universe, i might be able to see this viewpoint, because retribution will be delayed for fear of the other shards taking action against him. although in a vacuum, i think retribution would slaughter him. i love sazed, don't get me wrong, but what good is the long game or maneuverability when retribution can shatter you while you decide.

i completely agree, for those exact reasons. is there a place i could read more about harmony becoming discord? even theoretical conjecture would interst me.

oh wow, i had no idea. so do you think he will need to take up another shard to become discord, or will this be more of a philosophical transformation?