Difference between revisions of "Odium"

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== Abilities ==
Odium has managed to kill several Vessels and, in some cases, Splinter their Shards. It is unclear whether Odium has some unique skill or attribute enhancing his ability to do this or whether all Shards are capable of these actions given the right motivation.
{{theory}}
Perhaps unique to known Shards, Odium has figured out a method to kill a Shard's Vessel without destroying himself. Compare this to [[Preservation]], which in order to defeat [[Ruin]], had to kill himself to do so. While that may be particular to Ruin and Preservation's circumstance of being perfect opposites, there is no evidence of Shard death aside from Ruin and Preservation, and Odium's power. While how Odium accomplishes this is a mystery, It is known to be very taxing and take a long time to recover from.
 
The first theory to explain this was that Odium was inherently more powerful as a Shard, and so he can simply overpower other Shards. This is not the case, however, since all Shards initially had the same power level.{{17s ref|post|42116|Did all Shards start with the same power level?|date=26 September 2012}} It is possible that since Odium is unlikely to invest his power in granting to sentience (as Preservation did), Odium is now slightly more powerful than his opponents, but this still does not explain how Odium easily could defeat Aona and Skai's Shards, [[Devotion]] and [[Dominion]].
 
Another explanation could be that potentially any Shard could figure out Odium's destructive methods, but lack the motivation compared to Odium's overpowering intent of hatred.
 
Odium's other known ability is his power to [[Splinter]] Shards. This appears to require the opponent's Vessel to already be dead before Odium can Splinter them. It is unclear if any Shard can Splinter Shards, or it is especially unique to Odium. It should be noted that Preservation tells [[Kelsier]] that Ruin seeks to splinter his power{{msh ref|6|4}}, implying that the power, or at least the will, to splinter a shard is not unique to Odium.
 
Unlike Ruin, Odium is unable to change text documents on Roshar.{{wob ref|date=2016-4-8|2654|OdysseyCon 2016}} This is due to him not having infused his essence into the world, like Ruin did at the creation of Scadrial.{{wob ref|date=2015-10-19|5293|Shadows of Self London UK signing}}
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