Usuario:Windrunner/Splinter

{/{Magic |image=Spren.jpeg |related=Shards |universe=Cosmere }}

“I am a god. [...] A little piece of one. Very, very little. ”

—Syl to Kaladin

A Splinter is a specific type of fragment of Investiture ultimately derived from Adonalsium. These Splinters exist comprised of a single Shard's power or the Investiture of multiple Shards. They are present in many worlds of the cosmere, sometimes in abundant qualities or as self-aware personalities, while other times they are absent altogether or exist simply as a chunk of raw power guided by something else. These Splinters are often possess abilities themselves or are capable of granting abilities to people that they bond with. Splinters are generally ageless and difficult to kill or destroy. The spren of Roshar, the seons of Sel, are some of the most well-known, although many species of Splinters can be found throughout the cosmere.

Nature

At its core, a Splinter is a significant measure of a Shard's power that has been separated from the main body of Investiture. There is a notable difference between a physical manifestation of Investiture such as atium and lerasium or a perpendicularity, and a Splinter. While a Shard's power is never truly separated from itself, as it is all connected through the Spiritual Realm,^{[Falta cita]} Splinters represent power that has been released or removed by a Shard. Splinters tend to not have much in the way of a Physical aspect, as a chunk of Investiture it tends to be more rooted in the Cognitive and Spiritual Realms. While many Splinters are comprised of Investiture of a single Shard, in the case of some Splinters they may actually be comprised of the Investiture or two or more Shards.^{[Falta cita]}

One distinguishing factor of a Splinter is that it may often have an intent of its own, separate from that of the parent Shard. Splinters commonly are sentient and have an associated personality, although that personality may be destroyed or damaged.^{[Falta cita]}Notum spren However, they do not necessarily need a personality to be considered a Splinter. Generally speaking, a Splinter has never been a person. By the strictest definition, a Cognitive Shadow may not be considered to be a Splinter, because Splinters have normally been defined as something that has never been human. However, there is an argument to be made that a Cognitive Shadow is just an imprint of a once-living being on Investiture, and has therefore never truly been human. Generally speaking, most would consider a Cognitive Shadow to be a type of Splinter. Nevertheless, Splinters and Cognitive Shadows operate by similar rules and many Cognitive Shadows may be made of an amount of Investiture equivalent or potentially even greater than a typical Splinter.

It is certain that all Splinters do not contain the exact same quantity of Investiture, as a Splinter may be Splintered yet again into smaller fragments. However, it is likely that there is some threshold below which a quantity of Investiture is not considered to be a Splinter. For instance a divine Breath is considered to be a Splinter,^{[Falta cita]} but there is no indication that the lesser Breath possessed by normal people is considered to be a Splinter. In fact, the small amount of Investiture present in sapient beings that is known as Innate Investiture is also distinct from Splinters.

Formation

“I have always existed. We are not 'born' as men are, and we cannot truly die as men do. Patterns are eternal, as is fire, as is the wind. As are all spren.”

—Pattern explaining to Shallan the nature of spren.

There are a few common ways for a Splinter to come into existence and most require the will of a Shard on some level. Perhaps the most common is that a Shard creates a Splinter by intentionally separating a bit of its power from itself. This may be done for the purpose of creating some sort of synthetic race, such as the spren or seons. Another reason to create a Splinter is if a Shard wishes to prevent a soul from passing on to the Beyond by making it into a Cognitive Shadow, as is the case with the Fused and the Returned. It is uncertain whether or not an avatar of a Shard could be considered to be a Splinter, or if there is some other qualitative difference. There are some planets that only have Splinters present on the world, as in the past Shards have gone to planets within the cosmere and left behind a Splinter before leaving. Adonalsium also once left behind Splinters on various worlds before its death.^{[Falta cita]}

A Shard may also Splinter another Shard, tearing off one or many chunks of its power, typically for the purpose of diminishing it. If a Shard is completely destroyed in this way it is said to be Splintered. Typically either a Vessel may be killed and then their Shard subsequently Splintered, or more commonly the Splintering may happen as one titanic event that kills the Vessel and disperses the power. The act of Splintering a Shard may ravage a planet with uncontrolled power if the Investiture is not contained. A Splintered Shard cannot have a Vessel while it remains in such a state, although it may be reconstituted into a full Shard via an unknown process, although it will not restore the original Vessel. Whether or not a Shard can Splinter another Shard is dependent upon the amount of raw Investiture that Shard is able to make use of at the time, as well as its ability to leverage said power, and its knowledge of the process. There are more and less efficient ways to Splinter a Shard and it may grow easier with practice. Even a successful Splintering is taxing on the Shard performing the Splintering and may require some recovery by the Shard afterward. In some cases whether or not a Shard is Splintered may be a somewhat vague term. A Shard left on its own without a Vessel may also Splinter of its own accord, although that is not the only possibility.

Vulnerabilities

Mayalaran, a damaged Splinter, and Adolin, by DNAVENOM

As Splinters are fragments of energy and energy is conserved in the cosmere, they ultimately cannot be reduced to true nothingness. They may be damaged sufficiently to destroy their minds, if they are self-aware in the first place. It seems one source of vulnerability of a Splinter is any bonds it may have formed with another being. One of the primary examples of this are the deadeyes of the Knights Radiant who betray their oaths. These spren are effectively immortal, their essence cannot be destroyed, but they suffer physical disfigurement in the Cognitive Realm, as well as some sort of state of agony when drawn as a Blade, and other reduced functionalities. This betrayal of the Nahel bond rips out a portion of their soul, which does not seem to be easily replaceable. A bond between a human and a seon, another type of Splinter, can also be a vulnerability for the seon. Following the Reod in the ten years before the restoration of Elantris, seons were in danger if their master was taken by the Shaod. The incorrect Aon acting on the human would disrupt their bonded seon as well, causing gaps to appear in their Aon, as well as a loss of any apparent sentience. These damaged seons were known to stay close to their former masters that still lived, but apart from this they were impossible to interact with. Their minds were returned to them when Raoden repaired the Aon Rao in Elantris. Other vulnerabilities appear to exist, but are less well understood. It seems apparent that if their Spiritweb is directly damaged by something like a Shardblade they may be killed, or if their Investiture is consumed and fully corrupted by something like Nightblood, as is the case with the Fused. Even if it is not fatal, corruption of any sort by a foreign type of Investiture can cause serious changes to a Splinter, as is the case with Glys, a corrupted true spren.

Abilities

The abilities of a Splinter depend heavily on the conditions of their formation and the the purpose or lack thereof that they were created with. Although Splinters may learn to behave in ways that were originally not intended. Many Splinters may become self-aware or are self-aware from the point of their creation, but but some do not and it is not considered to be a requirement to be a Splinter. Splinters may have an inherent understanding of Realmatic Theory upon the point of their creation. One notable ability associated with Splinters is the ability to get a sense of what the future may hold. This is visible across a number of different Splinters, from the visions granted by the divine Breath to the Returned to the brief flashes of the future associated with Odium's Unmade. Splinters may form bonds with other sapient beings in many cases. Sometimes these bonds are capable of granting access to Invested Arts, such as is the case with the Nahel bond in spren, but they may be a much more simple connection, as is the case with seons.

Ultimately the full extent of abilities a Splinter may have is still unknown. A Splinter may be able to replicate Preservation's imprisonment of Ruin on a much smaller scale. Due to their connection to their parent Shard, Splinters often struggle to leave the location where they were created or the system that Shard inhabits. Splinters may serve as a sort of release valve on the power of a Splintered Shard, making it potentially less dangerous. It remains an open question whether or not a Splinter may take up a full Shard itself or if it would just become subsumed within that Shard. Kelsier's time spent holding the Shard Preservation may give some insight into the ability of a Splinter to serve as Vessel to a Shard.

Known Splinters

Rosharan System

Sylphrena, a Splinter, fights a deathspren, by Ashley Coad

“Spren are . . . power . . . shattered power. Power given thought by the perceptions of men. Honor, Cultivation, and . . . and another. Fragments broken off. ”

—Syl on spren

Splinters are perhaps most populous in the Rosharan system, residing in the form of spren and Cognitive Shadows on at least two of the planets there. On Roshar itself, Splinters most commonly take the form of spren comprised often of some mixture between the Investiture of both Honor and Cultivation.^{[Falta cita]} The Shard Honor itself has actually been Splintered, resulting in a much higher population of spren than before its destruction.^{[Falta cita]} Spren are more properly known as transformative cognitive entities, concepts from the Cognitive Realm that have gained power and sentience as people have personified them. Notably powerful Splinters range in power from the true spren capable of forming Nahel bonds, such as the honorspren, to massive spren of larger importance such as the Stormfather and the Nightwatcher. Certain objects created directly by the local Shards, including the Honorblades, may also be Splinters. While the flashiest bonds may belong to Surgebinders, the Splinters of this world form symbiotic relationships with many species of creature in the world, including the Ryshadium and Tai-na.

Splinters of Odium are also present on that world, such as the Unmade, and other Voidspren.^{[Falta cita]} The Cognitive Shadows of ancient long-dead singers, known as the Fused are also considered to be Splinters.^{[Falta cita]} Historically these Splinters have been confined by the Oathpact to Braize, a planet inhabited solely by entire ecosystem of self-aware Splinters, except during Desolations.^{[Falta cita]} However, following the True Desolation and the appearance of the Everstorm on Roshar, they are present on both Braize and Roshar.^{[Falta cita]} It is unknown if any Splinters are present on Ashyn, the third inhabited planet in the Rosharan system. Splinters in this system are particularly vulnerable to the Unmade Sja-anat, who is capable of corrupting Splinters with Investiture from Odium.

Nalthian System

“I just wish I knew if there is really something spiritual about the Returns, or if it’s all just cosmic happenstance.” ”

—Vasher on the Returned

The only known Splinters present on Nalthis are the divine Breaths granted to the Returned by the Shard Endowment. These Splinters of Endowment are intentionally granted to the recently deceased by the Shard. They are given a vision of the future and an opportunity to return as a Cognitive Shadow to influence future events. The Splinter grants them a whole host of other abilities as well, including unnaturally long life and the ability to give away their divine Breath to perform an act of healing.

It is worth noting that while he may appear as such, Nightblood himself is not actually a Splinter, nor is he powerful enough to Splinter a Shard. In fact, Nightblood corrupts Investiture, which is a completely different process than Splintering.

Selish System

The seon Ien, a known Splinter, by Big Smooth

“Brief mention should be given to the entities known as the seons and the skaze, Splinters of self-aware Investiture who have developed humanlike mannerisms. ”

—Khriss's notes on Sel

In the distant past, both Shards native Sel, Devotion and Dominion were Splintered by Odium. As a result the beings known as seons and skaze were formed from their Splinters; although their exact origin and manner of creation is something that is currently uncertain. The seons are considered to be Splinters of Devotion, and more specifically it may be the Aons at the heart of the seons that are the actual Splinters.. Seons appear as glowing balls of light with an Aon at their center. Skaze on the other hand are formed from Splinters of Dominion. They are visible as dark spheres that seem to draw in light, with a ring of misty symbols around its circumference. The general nature of the seons and skaze are very much in keeping with their respective Shards. Seons appear to generally have the attitude of a devoted servant to their masters and view them with great affection, while the skaze have much more control within the confines of the Fjordell Empire and are a group of some importance. While there are some similarities to Rosharan spren, seons and skaze are far less numerous. It is noteworthy while there are many Splinters of Devotion and Dominion on this world, Odium left none of his power behind on Sel when he moved on to a different system.

One uncertainty on Sel is the exact nature of the Dor. While it is known to be comprised of the combined Investiture of Splintered Shards, it is still uncertain whether the Dor itself is made up of discrete Splinters or just a generalized mix of Investiture.

Scadrian System

“So a slow death. Ati doesn’t know how to Splinter another Shard? Or he hasn’t the strength? Hmm . . . ”

—Khriss on Ruin killing Preservation

During the time of the Final Empire, both Ruin and Preservation had no Splinters of themselves on Scadrial. This signifies that their god metals, lerasium and atium--despite existing as condensed Investiture of their respective Shards^{[Falta cita]}--are not Splinters. In fact there are no Splinters of Ruin and Preservation in existence. Three and a half centuries after the Catacendre Scadrial Harmony still does not have any Splinters but that does not preclude the possibility that one day he may have Splinters of his own. Any potential Splinters present on Scadrial would have to be brought there from another world, a notoriously tricky process. If Ruin had been successful in defeating Preservation and destroying Scadrial, he would have Splintered Preservation.

Elsewhere in the Cosmere

There are other places where Splinters must exist that we know less about as of yet. The Shard Ambition is known to have been Splintered by Odium, so it stands to reason that Splinters of that Shard exist somewhere in the cosmere. A few may exist even in the Threnodite system itself, as we know that chunks of Ambition's power were torn off there. Additionally the Cognitive Shadows present that are locally referred to as shades may be Splinters. Another open ended question is whether or not the weak Cognitive Shadows known to manifest on Threnody contain a Splinter or not.

Notes

Footnotes

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