Argent he/him Posted November 13, 2013 Report Share Posted November 13, 2013 Humiliation. The more you're mocked, the stronger you are. Masters of the art would employ crowds of people to belittle them, and the weakest people would have good self-esteem and stable relationships with their peers. Saboteurs would send in ninjas to whisper compliments to people as they slept, and the best thing a friend could do for you would be to make you think you were truly useless. As a mild aside, Brandon actually has an idea - maybe even a draft - for a book where becoming sick gives you superpowers, but only as long as you are sick. You get a cold, you start doing some lightweight magic. Cancer gets you, now you are heavy duty. And so on. For my idea? Weakness. The weaker you are... well. You know. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Rooster he/him Posted November 13, 2013 Report Share Posted November 13, 2013 (edited) As an exercise in the ridiculous, my friend and I decided to see if we could think of some Shards who would make the world they Invested just unbearably awful. Here are a few of our suggestions, what does the audience think? ...Clowns. .. Lol Balloonomancy! Side effect, packing alot of dudes into a tiny carriage. All tumble before the Lord Jogler! Edited November 13, 2013 by agrooster 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamma Fiend he/him Posted November 14, 2013 Report Share Posted November 14, 2013 Humiliation. The more you're mocked, the stronger you are. Masters of the art would employ crowds of people to belittle them, and the weakest people would have good self-esteem and stable relationships with their peers. Saboteurs would send in ninjas to whisper compliments to people as they slept, and the best thing a friend could do for you would be to make you think you were truly useless. Brandon's nightmares of showing up to book signings in his underwear will give him unlimited power! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glaring at the Survivor he/him Posted November 16, 2013 Report Share Posted November 16, 2013 Shard of Hypocrisy - does exactly the oposite of whatever you want (really WANT) it to do. Not just think you want. The logic here is similar to what Llarimar used againt Lightsong when speaking of the weather, if you want to check. Shard of Exclusion - Invests itself in absolutely nothing. Except for very exclusive people. Shard of Brandon - Uh... How to explain... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmingly he/him Posted November 17, 2013 Report Share Posted November 17, 2013 Shard of Insanity - Being crazy gives you power - actually never mind. That's been done, and it can work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Swimmingly he/him Posted November 17, 2013 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 17, 2013 Shard of Tipsiness - Alcohol-based magic. Different kinds of drinks give you different powers, and mixed drinks can do weird things - but if you pass out or get too drunk to do anything (or hit anyone) you're screwed in a fight. Some people are incredibly alcohol-resistant, chugging rum and whisky for pure power, while others less able to hold their drinks make up for it with original drink mixes and cocktails. The book would include a scene where the main character tries to take a swig of his 299 proof superpowered mixed drink to start knocking holes in mountains or something as a last resort, and - gasp - someone replaced it with non-alcoholic beer. Then he passes out from all the alcohol he already ingested during the preceding climatic extreme drinking contest with the big bad vodka superconglomerate CEO, and wakes up in a dungeon beneath the planets largest, highest security vodka distillery. The operation is in fact producing black-market non-alcoholic beer, which it is using to sabotage Alcomages everywhere. The Shardpool of Tipsiness is in fact a literal lake of Invested alcohol. It rains beer. There are ginmists, scotchstorms, and underground coffee rings. The Bartenders Union is second only to the Federated Distilleries in terms of political power. The religion is oriented around attaining a state of drunkenness so perfect that everything becomes clear, and the priests have a holy obligation to never be sober. Liver failure is unsurprisingly the foremost killer on the planet, even though through Tipsiness's shaping, their livers can handle many times what one of us could. Alcohol related birth defects don't happen for this reason as well. Strong Alcomages, or many weak ones working together, can turn literally anything into alcohol. 28 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oudeis he/him Posted November 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2013 ...for your sheer dedication to this concept, up vote. I actually had an alcomage in a story I wrote once. In the world every Mage has an elemental affinity. Wood, fire, soil, water, air were common ones. People sometimes had odd and specific ones, like sunshine. My guy had alcohol. His potions were all alcoholic and he was more powerful while drunk, and he had enough resistance to the deadly effects of alcohol to use his powers without having a 50 percent chance of dying every night. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloom he/him Posted November 17, 2013 Report Share Posted November 17, 2013 The Shard of Dreams. When a Cognitive being falls asleep, they become invested and can do incredible things, but everything is done subconsciously and you have no control over what you have done. As soon as you wake up, you lose all investiture until you fall asleep again. Those who are awake have to try to find a way to deal with all the chaos that is generated by those who are asleep, to include killing nightmares, putting out fires, burying those who were killed by other peoples dreams, etc. The Shard of Auto-correct Invests everyone with the ability to communicate telepathically, but randomly auto-corrects their thoughts. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Araris Valerian he/him Posted November 18, 2013 Report Share Posted November 18, 2013 The Shard of Death: Your powers become stronger the closer you are to dying, but you cannot use them to save yourself. We probably would have a whole lot of main characters in a story with this guy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmingly he/him Posted November 19, 2013 Report Share Posted November 19, 2013 The Shard of Death: Your powers become stronger the closer you are to dying, but you cannot use them to save yourself. We probably would have a whole lot of main characters in a story with this guy. An interesting counterpoint to that would be a Shard of Life, which, the healthier and less likely to die you are, strengthens you, increases your immune system, etc - but as soon as you began risking yourself by using the powers proactively, rather than as a resource to keep you alive, they would start to disappear. I guess in that system, Lifey people would be a lot like those with a lot of Breaths on Nalthis with a bit of low-grade Allomantic pewter type effects, whereas Deathy people would be insanely strong and fast, but no more durable - you would be more prone to illness, dementia, broken bones, muscle atrophy, even from usage of power - like swinging a glass sledgehammer at something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
name_here Posted November 20, 2013 Report Share Posted November 20, 2013 Shard of Molar Mass. Using its powers requires writing in scientific notation. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skaa he/him Posted November 20, 2013 Report Share Posted November 20, 2013 Shard of Tipsiness - Alcohol-based magic. Different kinds of drinks give you different powers, and mixed drinks can do weird things - but if you pass out or get too drunk to do anything (or hit anyone) you're screwed in a fight. Then there's the Oh Shard of Hangovers, who involuntarily Invests on people who drank too much alcohol the previous night, magically preventing them from experiencing a hangover. The collective hangovers from all these people are instead experienced by the Shard's holder (named Bilious). Incidentally, the holder of the Oh Shard of Hangovers really, really hates Tipsiness-based magic users. Upvotes to those who got the reference. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
name_here Posted November 20, 2013 Report Share Posted November 20, 2013 Diskworld, Hogfather, created due to manifestation of excess belief during Teatime's attempted assassination of the Hogfather, when the Arch-chancellor commented that it was strange how there was a god of wine but not a god of hangovers. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oudeis he/him Posted November 20, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2013 Can you imagine a disembodied mind? Good. Now try to imagine a disembodied headache... 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cartith he/him Posted December 6, 2013 Report Share Posted December 6, 2013 An interesting counterpoint to that would be a Shard of Life, which, the healthier and less likely to die you are, strengthens you, increases your immune system, etc - but as soon as you began risking yourself by using the powers proactively, rather than as a resource to keep you alive, they would start to disappear. I guess in that system, Lifey people would be a lot like those with a lot of Breaths on Nalthis with a bit of low-grade Allomantic pewter type effects, whereas Deathy people would be insanely strong and fast, but no more durable - you would be more prone to illness, dementia, broken bones, muscle atrophy, even from usage of power - like swinging a glass sledgehammer at something. So glass cannons vs. titanium toothpicks? XD 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aether he/him Posted December 6, 2013 Report Share Posted December 6, 2013 (edited) Then there's the Oh Shard of Hangovers, who involuntarily Invests on people who drank too much alcohol the previous night, magically preventing them from experiencing a hangover. The collective hangovers from all these people are instead experienced by the Shard's holder (named Bilious). Incidentally, the holder of the Oh Shard of Hangovers really, really hates Tipsiness-based magic users. Upvotes to those who got the reference. I really wish I could up-vote you a thousand times. MY FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL!!! (well, mini-series, really...) EDIT: Oh, and in case there was any doubt I got the reference, here. Edited December 6, 2013 by Aether 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king of nowhere Posted December 10, 2013 Report Share Posted December 10, 2013 (edited) The shard of redundancy: it allows you to do what you could have already done before. the shard of apathy: you get superimpressively amazing power, but only as long as you don't want to use them for anything. If you think of using them, you're not aphatetic anymore and you lose your powers. EDIT: similar in effect to the shard of indecision, which gives you powers only as long as you are uncertain on how to use them. Redundancy is responsible for this doubled-up magic system. Edited December 10, 2013 by king of nowhere 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkarma he/him Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 Shard of Insanity - Being crazy gives you power - actually never mind. That's been done, and it can work. It makes what your insanity is real. Those voices in your head they now exist. The butterflies are trying to take over the world afterall. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Araris Valerian he/him Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 The shard of Unintelligence, the less you understand about your powers, the stronger. Come to think of it, Preservation is kind of a useless shard, he can't do anything by himself. Shard of Hypnotism, you can only use your powers when you are under someone else's influence. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightwatcher he/him Posted December 13, 2013 Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 shard of redundancy. you can only do things you already have the power to do 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aether he/him Posted December 13, 2013 Report Share Posted December 13, 2013 shard of redundancy. you can only do things you already have the power to do Up-vote for really embracing the spirit of redundancy! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamma Fiend he/him Posted December 15, 2013 Report Share Posted December 15, 2013 Ya know what sounds like a real horrible shard idea?Odium.Who wants to be hateful all the time? That shard would be a real bummer, man. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cem he/him Posted December 15, 2013 Report Share Posted December 15, 2013 Odium is not so bad. The real awful Shard would be Devotion. It would have Splinters that'd be total sycophants and stuff. Ugh. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metacognition he/him Posted December 19, 2013 Report Share Posted December 19, 2013 I don't know if this would be a horrible Shard or an awesome one:The Shard of Musicals Sure, the singing and dancing would be awesome for awhile, but how many times can you listen to people shouting lines from the Sound of Music to fuel their magic before you go insane?On the other hand, battles would be amazingly coreographed. I'm just imagining a duel taking place like in West Side Story. Bonus: Your magic grows stronger by the number of people you can get to join your song and dance moves. 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamma Fiend he/him Posted December 19, 2013 Report Share Posted December 19, 2013 Wars would basically be guer I don't know if this would be a horrible Shard or an awesome one:The Shard of Musicals Sure, the singing and dancing would be awesome for awhile, but how many times can you listen to people shouting lines from the Sound of Music to fuel their magic before you go insane?On the other hand, battles would be amazingly coreographed. I'm just imagining a duel taking place like in West Side Story. Bonus: Your magic grows stronger by the number of people you can get to join your song and dance moves. wars would basically be fought guerrilla style with flash mobs. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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