Bavadin

Bavadin
by Maria Lia Malandrino
Abilities	Shard of Autonomy
Titles	Autonomy
Aliases	Sand Lord, Patji
Homeworld	Taldain
Universe	Cosmere

“You have accused me of arrogance in my quest. You have accused me of perpetuating my grudge against Rayse and Bavadin. Both accusations are true. ”

—Hoid

Bavadin is the original and current Vessel of the Shard Autonomy. She is the only Shard of Taldain, where she's invested in one of the local suns.

Appearance and Personality

Though she herself is female, Bavadin has a habit of taking on multiple forms and appearances. She has several male and female personas, and will often presents herself as different people to the same culture; race, gender and other qualities are fluid where she is concerned. Bavadin seems fond of changing her appearance, and which forms she takes changes on the daily. Even her original species is unclear; she is not an Aimian, but it's unknown whether she's human.

Bavadin's interpretation of Autonomy lends itself to strict isolationism; she forbids travel to and from Taldain, to the detriment of worldhoppers from that planet. At the same time, she is more than willing to meddle in affairs of other worlds herself. She is fond of creating avatars, sapient entities which hold portion of Autonomy's power but are independent of her. It's unknown how much their personalities is influenced by Bavadin's. At least one of them is haughty and self-assured, although it seems it is not a trait shared by all others, and thus it's unclear if Bavadin herself is like this.

Abilities and Attributes

by zoethatcher_art

Bavadin and her avatars

Bavadin is a Vessel of a Shard, making her ageless, incorporeal and incredibly powerful. Whether Autonomy grants her any unique strengths or abilities is unknown, though she has the capability to bar people from accessing Taldain through the Cognitive Realm. She seems to be a skilled and keen actor, capable of assuming dozens of made-up personas; there are entire pantheons of gods where every deity is actually Bavadin in a different disguise.

History

Like all original Vessels, Bavadin came from Yolen. She and a number of others killed the creator-god, Adonalsium, and split up his power into sixteen pieces. Bavadin herself picked up the piece which became Autonomy and departed Yolen, eventually winding up in Taldain, where she Invested herself in the local sun.

For subsequent events, see Autonomy#History.

Relationships

“You must know better than to approach us by relying upon presumption of past relationship. ”

—Patji to Hoid

Bavadin seems to have some alliance with Rayse, the Vessel of Odium. She has assisted him in splintering the shards of Devotion and Dominion, though the extent and nature of this assistance is unknown. Hoid holds a deep grudge against both Bavadin and Rayse, for unknown, but related reasons. Bavadin herself doesn't seem to be overly fond of Hoid either, though they two have had a prior relationship of some nature. In the present, her avatars deeply dislike Hoid, and at least one of them -- the Obrodai avatar -- has been instilled with deep dislike of him as a precaution.

Trivia

• Among the original Vessels, Brandon is very fond of Bavadin. Part of the reason he regrets moving on from White Sand is that he cannot properly introduce Bavadin in-story just yet.

Notes

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