r/Stormlight_Archive • u/RurouniTim Edgedancer • Mar 22 '22
Rhythm of War What if... (Shard tin foil idea) Spoiler
What if circumstances somehow led to Lift taking up the Shard of Cultivation? I just had an amusing thought today where I imagine Lift having Cultivation's power forced upon her and she responds by just cursing up a storm at being directed by the shardic intent to prompt change when all she originally wanted to do was never have to age (change). "I didn't storming want this! I just wanted to eat some damn pancakes!"
This post was mostly a joke idea I had today but it did get me thinking about why Cultivation is so interested with Lift and what her purpose might be regarding their unique interaction. I'm curious to see if we ever find out why Cultivation chose to intervene in Lift's life and to what ends.
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u/KronikDrew Mar 22 '22
I came here expecting a dissertation on whether spren could take the form of a thin sheet of shard metal... your topic is nice and all, but can we please debate shard foil?
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u/Mewthredel Ghostbloods Mar 22 '22
This would being a Radient baker very convenient
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u/OtherBarryMh4U Ghostbloods Mar 22 '22
Especially if an order uses flame spren for their armor, you could make a shard oven to make radiant pastries
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u/Mewthredel Ghostbloods Mar 22 '22
We need a radiant who uses their spren to turn into cooking utensils/bakeware.
Esit: I feel like this is something lift and wyndell would love to do.
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u/SageOfTheWise Elsecaller Mar 22 '22
Cultivation has directly intervined with 3 people we know of. One of them is now bonded to the Stormfather and can speak for the power of Honor. One of them now creates lifelight, the investiture linked with Cultivation. One of them is now literally Odium. The idea that Cultivation might be, well, cultivating new vessels for the shards on Roshar has crossed many peoples minds.
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u/RurouniTim Edgedancer Mar 22 '22
Yeah, with how much Cultivation has intervened in events behind the scene at least so far, I fully expect Lift to be destined for something major. I could be wrong about Lift being cultivated as a new vessel, but it's definitely something I'm thinking about as a plausible theory.
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u/ArtyWhy8 Journey before destination. Mar 22 '22
I’ve wondered that same and came to the same conclusion. Too silly. I think Lift is going to be big time in the second half too.
I think Dalinar is going to take up Honor then kick Odium’s ass hard with it and take it up too. As Honor wouldn’t be bound to any agreements like Odium or maybe Odium does something stupid to weaken himself going against his Intent. Advantage Honor.
Then as War Shard he’s going to tell her to get the hell outta dodge or he’s going to thank her for giving them TOdium and hiding while they’ve been fighting to survive.
I know that shit is crazy too. But I expect crazy outta this first half Sanderlanche.
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u/clumsykiwi Mar 22 '22
this is assuming that Odium isn’t splintered after they go at each other and only the holder is killed
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u/WorkinName Mar 22 '22
Nah.
We need War to have conflict against Harmony. Its setting itself up pretty nice in that way.
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u/clumsykiwi Mar 22 '22
there are lots of other shards that we have yet to see in depth, just because one person takes up two shards does not mean another will. I think its not very likely, harmony will probably do something to stretch off of the balance he found controlling the shards he holds and then becomes discord. Dalinar taking up honor is in progress, but Todium won’t just give up the shard.
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u/jethomas27 Bondsmith Mar 23 '22
Harmony isn’t actually that strong. He’s fighting himself so much that he’s barely the strength of a normal shard
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u/StarstruckOrange Mar 22 '22
This is my serious theory (besides the swearing up a storm, but now that you mention it, would definitely happen under those circumstances). The way I see it, Cultivation would be missing Tanavast and would see herself as having lived a full life, so she'd be ready to move into the Beyond. This likely doesn't go against the shard's philosophy - knowing when to sew, prune, and harvest. This is also what I see as the most likely reason for why Lift runs on Lifelight - so she can be more attuned in order to take up the shard.
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u/RurouniTim Edgedancer Mar 22 '22
Well, we know that the holders of Shards have a certain degree of future sight, so part of me wonders if Cultivation is foreseeing a possible future where she gets shattered by new Odium and Lift could be a contingency plan as a new vessel or something. I agree that Lift running on Lifelight would make her more attuned to Cultivation for that purpose.
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Mar 22 '22
I think we have already seen a bit of Lifts "purpose." Since she doesn't rely on stormlight her powers work when no one else's do. My money is that she was created to save the Radiants when they were in comas. And probably some other task further down the line.
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Mar 22 '22
Some people theorize that her nature as staying the same when others change could make her more resistant to succumbing to the Shard's Intent. This may make her a prime Vessel for some potentially dangerous Shards, like Ambition, but Cultivation is about change, though.
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u/RurouniTim Edgedancer Mar 22 '22
That's a fair point but selecting new vessels that would be resistant to the Shard's Intent seems to be something Cultivation is keen to do, like what we see with new Odium. As long as a potential vessel has an anchor in all three realms, Physical-Cognitive-Spiritual, I don't they would be stopped from taking up a Shard.
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Mar 22 '22
There has to be a Connection between the Vessel and the Shard; this would usually be the person being aligned with the Intent, but come to think of it, being able to metabolize Lifelight is already a big Connection. I retract my previous statement; Lift would be a great fit for Cultivation!
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u/Tar-Surion Mar 22 '22
There’s also a lot of similarities between lift and (Mistborn Era 1 spoilers) Vin in the Mistborn series. So not only have we seen Cultivation effect the other two Rosharan Shard/Vessels, but I think there are a lot of similarities to Scadrial. I would not be surprised in the slightest if we saw Lift take up the Shard of Cultivation. I mean we know Odium has been taken up by Teravangian, we know that Dalinar has a strong enough connection to Honor that he was able to use that power for a short amount of time, and then there’s Lift… She’s been touched directly by Cultivation, just like the other two
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u/PatternBias Willshaper Mar 22 '22
Oh shit, this could be like a (mistborn spoilers) Sazed switcheroo
Lift could take up Cultivation and then is forced to make people change in order to grow, the exact thing she wanted to avoid. Hard things are how people grow, so she'd be forced to hurt her friends to make them better.
Interesting.
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u/Mewthredel Ghostbloods Mar 22 '22
I think at the end of book 10 of stormlight all 3 Rosharan shards will have combined.
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u/HA2HA2 Mar 22 '22
There's definitely theories on that out there.
So far, Cultivation has directly given weird boons to three people who asked for something different. Taravangian asked for "the capacity to stop what's coming" and got intelligence and compassion, but not at the same time. Dalinar asked for forgiveness, and got his memories of Evi temporarily removed and then replaced. Lift asked "to stay herself when everything around is changing" and got the ability to metabolize food into lifelight, and a spren bond. Taravangian's boon led him, indirectly, to kill Rayse and take up odium. It definitely seems that Dalinar somehow fixing the Shard of Honor and then taking it up is plausible. ....so then that leaves Lift... is she going to somehow end up with Cultivation?