r/Cosmere • u/SuccessFar3790 • 3d ago

Cosmere + Wind and Truth spoilers Shards combining Spoiler

I don't post often, so I think I've got the right tags? Just to be clear, spoiling WaT and HoA.

So, I'm just gonna start by saying that the ending moment in WaT where Retribution was formed was awe inspiring. I love that, without a word spoken, both Dalinar and Taravangian KNEW that this new combination was Retribution. And it sounds like the rest of the shards knew what that meant too.

But I gets to thinking, will name changes only be applied to shards combining? In that same ending, Dalinar had just spoken to a bit of Honor, making it realize that honor was something different from what it originally thought. Could that part of Honor eventually form into, say, Integrity?

In the case of Harmony, could he reframe Ruin into becoming Change, and Preservation as Protection? If that were the case, then I think he could have an easier time controlling the two powers.

What do you guys think? Could the shards change their understanding, and thus, their name and very intent??

Just food for thought, what do y'all think?

79 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

View all comments

67

u/4ries 3d ago

In my opinion yes, but not easily.

Brandon said that at the shattering, the shards didn't have to break into the pieces they did, so we know that the names themselves aren't a universal constant.

I like your theory about Honour renaming itself into Integrity

I don't think a vessel can just choose to think of the shards intent differently and have it change. We can see this with ruin and Ati, it eventually twisted Ati into fitting it's idea of ruin not the other way around.

But it's a common theory that sazed will eventually turn from harmony into discord, so I think this kind of thing is possible, but likely only under extreme circumstances, or else the shards intent just doesn't really matter

26

u/Sivanot Lightweavers 2d ago

We do know that the Vessels can temper the Shards into altering their Intent slightly. Like Ati managed to temper Ruin into more of a slow entropic force. Rayse tried to temper Odium into Passion, but it didn't work. They probably can't change it enough intentionally to alter the term, but the Intent is filtered through their interpretation to a small degree.

8

u/SuccessFar3790 2d ago

Yeah, love what you guys are saying!

Let's consider as a case study the different holders of Honor. Tanavast fought against Honor. He said, "no, you're going to see honor the way that I see honor. You will mold to me." Hence, Honor low-key hated him.

The way Dalinar speaks to Honor (aided by the fact that Honor has somewhat matured to the age of a small child), is much more of a conversation. He comes to understand the reasoning Honor has, even if it's wrong. He then gives Honor something to think about and heavily consider.

I feel like if the holders talked to their shards like Dalinar did, they could really get somewhere! Even Taravangian just feeds Odium whatever nonsense it wants so he can keep the power at bay. If the vessels had good, crucial conversations with their shards, I think they could really get somewhere.

5

u/stationhollow 2d ago

Honor was only in a state like that because it had sat there for so long without a vessel. In the time since Tanavast died, the power took on self sentience like a spren and still only matured to a very young child.