Difference between revisions of "Shard"
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(I don't know who added this information, but it was wrong: the Spiritual is not tied to the afterlife, and who on Earth thought the mists were related to the Spiritual?) |
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{{spoilers|book=msh}}
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The '''Shards of [[Adonalsium]]''', or '''Shards''' for short, are pieces of the power of creation itself.{{qa ref|727|45}} They are named after a specific action or ideal, called an [[intent]]. A mind must control a Shard. When a person holds a Shard, they are imbued with its power, but they also become the Shard.{{qa ref|697|21}}
There are sixteen Shards{{epigraph ref|TWoK|11}}, and they are the most powerful known entities in the [[cosmere]]. They are related to many, if not all, magic systems, and for practical purposes, they are gods. All Shards started at an equal power level.{{17s ref|post|42116}}
Nine Shards have thus far been mentioned in the novels, and an additional one by Brandon. They were either referenced by their Shard's name or
== Introduction ==
{{quote|Even now, I can barely grasp the scope of all this. The events surrounding the end of the world seem even larger than the Final Empire and the people within it.<br> I have delved and searched, and have only been able to come up with a single name: '''Adonalsium'''. Who, or what, it was, I do not yet know.|the [[Hero of Ages]]{{epigraph ref|mb3|39}}, emphasis added}}
It is not known what [[Adonalsium]] is, whether it be a person or a great power. Since Shards have been called pieces of the power of creation{{qa ref|727|45}}, it is theorized that Adonalsium is in fact the power of creation. Regardless of its nature, Adonalsium was [[Shattering|Shattered]] by the original sixteen Vessels, and thus the Shards of Adonalsium came into being. [[The Way of Kings]] heavily implies there are sixteen Shards.{{epigraph ref|TWoK|11}}
These Shards are named after their respective [[intent]], which represents the driving force of the power{{annotation ref|mb3|chapter=58}}--an aspect of creation. However, after the Shattering, the Shards were left with no mind to control the power. For [[Realmatic]] reasons, a mind--Cognitive power--must be attached to the Spiritual power of the Shard. People eventually took up these Shards, like [[Rayse]] and [[Bavadin]], who share some history with whoever wrote [[the Letter]].
When a person takes up a Shard, the extreme power vaporizes the body, allowing the person's mind to expand.{{qa ref|727|45}} From then on, the person's consciousness feeds on the power of the Shard to remain alive{{annotation ref|mb3|chapter=58}}, but the Shard's intent is the driving force of the power. Over an immense time--centuries, perhaps millennia--a
{{quote
|Ati was once a kind and generous man, and you saw what became of him.
|[[The Letter]], about Ati, the
}}
It is not clear who the original
Often, a
At this point, all known magic in the cosmere is related to a Shard.
It appears that the bond between human and Shard is permanent. The only evidence of Shards changing hands after the original
Ruin and Preservation were drawn together because they were such perfect opposites{{qa ref|691|9}} (though not all Shards have pairs like those ones do{{qa ref|691|9}}). Direct confrontation between their two powers was excruciatingly painful, and they eventually destroyed each other. It is not clear whether if any two Shards collided, they would both die, or if this was simply an effect of Ruin and Preservation having such opposite intents.
{| width=100% class=infobox
! colspan=5 class=title |Shards of Adonalsium
{{row|Shard|
{{/row|Devotion |Aona |Sel |Elantris |{{qa ref|715|9}}{{epigraph ref|sa1|22}}{{qa ref|428|106}}|}}
{{/row|Dominion |Skai |Sel |Elantris |{{17s ref|topic|1175}}{{epigraph ref|sa1|22}}{{qa ref|428|106}}|}}
}}
Endowment was confirmed to be the Voice from [[Warbreaker]],{{qa ref|428|59}} which Lightsong interacts with. [[Raoden]] interacts with a second voice when he jumps into the [[Shardpool]] in [[Elantris]] (presumably Aona's). Before the release of [[The Way of Kings]] it was not clear what the other two Shards were. However, Hoid was not a
With the Way of Kings, [[the Letter]] demystifies the other two unaccounted for Shards: we had not directly met Skai's Shard, but his power on the planet of [[Sel]] has been seen (and, presumably, his related magic, with the [[Dakhor]]). And [[Odium]] traveled to Sel, killing Aona and Skai, so by default his influence is pervasive on Sel.{{epigraph ref|sa1|22}} So, all the Shards on Scadrial, Sel, and Nalthis are accounted for.
The divine Breath that [[Returned]] hold (a Splinter of [[Endowment]]{{qa ref|680|13}}) and the Aon within a Seon (a Splinter of [[Devotion]]) are the only confirmed Splinters. Splinters also appear in ''[[The Way of Kings]]'', but not ''[[Mistborn (series)|Mistborn]]''.{{qa ref|699|8}}
It is not clear how Splinters are formed, though it appears a Shard can actively create one. Endowment seems to be able to form them at will for [[Returned]]. [[Odium]] traveled to Sel and Splintered [[Devotion]] and [[Dominion]].{{article ref|The Letter}} Since [[Odium]] killed [[Tanavast]],{{book ref|twok|75}} the
== Powers ==
=== Weaknesses ===
One of the largest weaknesses a Shard has is that its
Shards, though their minds are significantly expanded, are not omniscient, omnipresent nor omnipotent. Even after Ruin was free from his prison, he couldn't influence everything. After the end of ''[[The Hero of Ages]]'', Sazed can more easily influence events where the mists are located{{qa ref|727|8}}, which implies that there is a limit to his Shards' powers.
It has been theorized that a Shard's power creates sentience.{{17s ref|topic|549}}{{17s ref|topic|636}} Preservation put a fragment of himself into the people on Scadrial, granting them sentience, and the large quantity of Breaths (presumably fragments of Endowment) in [[Nightblood]] are a factor in his sentience.
===
=== Speculated Splinters ===
=== Shardic Future Sight ===
A remarkably simple theory explains why some Shards are better at seeing into the future than others. Cultivation is better at seeing into the future than Honor, and when compared to Preservation, Ruin was remarkably bad at seeing into the future. (After all, if Ruin figured out the Terris Prophecies, he could have simply killed Vin after the events of [[The Well of Ascension]], thus defeating Preservation's plot for a new
The idea is simple: a Shard's ability to see into the future is determined by the Shard's intent. Ruin is intent that has an immediate effect--Ruin wants to destroy ''now'', not later. Since Ruin is preoccupied with the present, he is particularly bad at seeing into the future. Preservation, on the other hand, is about protection. Protection is a long term thing, so Preservation is more looking into the future, so he is good at seeing into the future. It’s probably for similar reasons why Cultivation is skilled at seeing into the future.
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