Found 10 entries in 0.038 seconds.
Pod
The combination of a Shard and its Vessel leads to sapient mind with access to a virtually infinite pool of Investiture. Are avatars the product of a similar combination of a mind and a pool of Investiture, only on a smaller scale, with less power?
Brandon Sanderson
I would say that is an accurate representation of what an avatar is. It’s not the only way, but it is an accurate... some avatars are that. I would say that’s the standard.
Questioner
So Bavadin's avatars, right; Autonomy's avatars.
Brandon Sanderson
One of Bavadin's avatars.
Questioner
Of those avatars, are some or all of them actual Splinters of Autonomy?
Brandon Sanderson
The terminology gets kind of sticky here. In Cosmere terms, some would say that counts as Splinters, some would say not. The avatars aren't necessarily aware but Bavadin always is. A lot of people in Cosmere would call that a Splinter.
Questioner
My follow up to that would be, is it possible for a person to Ascend and become a Vessel of one of those Splinters?
Brandon Sanderson
That is plausible. Yes. It could happen. It would be tough because they will have personalities of their own and so something would need to happen... but yeah.
Questioner
Did Adonalsium ever create any avatars?
Brandon Sanderson
I'm not gonna RAFO this; I'm gonna give you answer. But there's the thing on this answer: some of these things are canon in stuff I've done so far that I may not canonize going forward. The answer is yes: in original outlines going back to Dragonsteel, the answer is yes, that you would have seen that. Will I do that when I write the actual series? I cannot guarantee. So it's a tentative yes, but it's not canon yet.
Questioner
Are any of them still around?
Brandon Sanderson
I'll RAFO that for you.
Questioner
Is Hoid an avatar from Autonomy?
Brandon Sanderson
No. Good question. He is independent.
Questioner
He's human, but he's more than human? He's changed from all the places he's been?
Brandon Sanderson
Even before that he's not exactly one hundred percent human anymore. But he's his own agent. He's not an avatar of somebody.
The Dusty Wheel
Do any other Shards utilize avatars the way Autonomy does?
Brandon Sanderson
Uh... they have in the past, I can't say for sure if they are doing so now or not.
FeatherWriter
I have to ask about using the word "avatar" for Thaidakar sending avatars... does Kelsier actually have anything resembling a real avatar or is he just using the word and lying through his teeth?
Brandon Sanderson
Oh yeah, he's mostly lying through his teeth. Basically — this is not canon, because I might come up with a better [idea] - but in my head, I have him with a large cloak with a Seon on top indicating his face [hosts laugh] It was something along those lines. He wants them to think that he is capable of getting to Roshar in a meaningful, physical way.
Spoiler! he can't get off Scadrial, and it's really annoying to him. At least by this point in the continuity, in fact a little past it, because the Wax & Wayne books...
*multiple people*
[Tangent where he forgets where in the timeline Wax & Wayne actually falls, and Chaos corrects him. Answer ends up being that it takes place after Stormlight 5, as he has usually said.]
Brandon Sanderson
As of the Alloy era, he is still unable to get off of Scadrial.
Chaos
Guess we'll learn about that in Era 3, if it's all Kelsier stuff.
Brandon Sanderson
Era 3 will definitely involve some Kelsier stuff. Let's just say he's perturbed.
Argent
With all the new avatar lore from The Lost Metal, can and should the Stormfather be considered to be an avatar of Honor?
Brandon Sanderson
Ooooh, RAFO! What a wonderful question. There's some fertile ground for theorizing, there. I gave you the prologue of that so you could spend a few years theorizing, guys, so go ahead and go forth.
Alex M
What's the difference between avatar and Splinter?
Brandon Sanderson
These are all very weird terms that I'm just using.
*mistakenly answering for Sliver* A Sliver is a person who has held the power of a Shard, and then let go of it. A briefly held time, holding the infinite power of a Shard, but no longer does. So what does that do? That changes your soul, and leaves markers on it. It's a real physiological thing.
An avatar is... a Shard manifesting a semi-autonomous piece of themselves that is still connected to who they are. An avatar, for instance, of Autonomy - depending on how Autonomy creates that avatar - might know, might not know, but they are still an aspect, they are still part of Autonomy. And when you get down to it a part of them knows that, and it's almost a god roleplaying, but in a way that only a Shard, or a lowercase-g god in the Cosmere, can do.
Brandon Sanderson
*realizes that he answered for Sliver earlier, and clarifies*
A Splinter is a piece of a Shard that is fully autonomous, where an avatar is not. So something that is Splintered does not consider itself - and would not be considered by the definitions - an actual piece of it [the Shard], and has free will. So once it has free will, and/or could develop free will (because some of the Splinters haven't gotten there yet), but is fully cut off from the direct control and self-identity of the Shard, then it is called a Splinter.
Pod
Do you approve of the fanonization of ‘Bavatar’?
Brandon Sanderson
*laughs* That’s pretty funny, I haven’t heard that before. Yes, I approve.
LettersWords
Now that we know a bit more about the connection between Trell and Autonomy, can you explain who exactly the person named Trell in White Sand is, and how they connect to the Trell, the avatar of Autonomy, that we see in The Lost Metal? Was this Trell just another person who acted as the Trell avatar after being Invested by Autonomy in a similar way to Telsin?
Brandon Sanderson
This is the way I want you theorizing.