Shard: Difference between revisions

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Shards are fragments of Entities that serve as the source of parahuman powers.

Description

Shards resemble crystalline structures folding and unfolding like hypercubes.<ref name="WoG1">Wildbow on Spacebattles</ref>

They travel along predetermined paths after being cast off by an Entity in space, "raining down" on the Earths over the course of decades. Once they landed, shards resided in other worlds, uninhabited worlds, and they remained cloaked and concealed in areas humans were unlikely to explore. <ref name="I26">Interlude 26</ref>

When two entities collide, rubbing against each other, their shards can be damaged or destroyed by the friction and pressure.<ref name="I26">Interlude 26</ref>

Abilities

Ever since they first evolved on their homeworld, Entities have been composed of "clusters" of shards, each with different functions.

Living Shards

Entities can "tune" their shards to perform different functions, or combine different shards to create new ones with new functions.<ref name="I26">Interlude 26</ref>

Dead Shards

Many dead shards were also damaged. Vikare's shard was dead.<ref name="I26">Interlude 26</ref>

The large numbers of dead Eden shards meant there were more parahumans than the entities had intended, leading conflict to spiral out of control.<ref name="I26">Interlude 26</ref>

Damaged Shards

Many of Eden's shards were damaged and corrupt, rendering them useless to the cycle. Scion would destroy them on sight as he saw them falling.<ref name="I26">Interlude 26</ref>

Vikare's shard was damaged, but still able to grow properly as long as he was alive.<ref name="I26">Interlude 26</ref>

Vital Shards

Some shards were vital to an Entity, and not intended to be given out. If their vital processes were separated, they could die. Scion saw some of Eden's vital shards seemingly falling and being sent to hosts after she crashed.<ref name="I26">Interlude 26</ref>

Power Source

One shard is capable of settling in a grouping of near-identical worlds, drawing energy from all of those worlds at once.<ref name="I26">Interlude 26</ref>

Effects on Host

Shards "take root" in humans.<ref name="I26">Interlude 26</ref>

The effects that Shards have on their hosts are dependent on several factors, including but not limited to: age of the host, the host's personality, the host's trigger event, how much the host embraces the Shard's need for conflict and the nature of the Shard itself.

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 '''Shards''' are fragments of [[Entity|Entities]] that serve as the source of [[parahuman]] powers.
-==Overview==
-===Trigger Events===
-After an Entity has finished preparing a Shard, it will let the Shard loose, plot for the Shard's arrival, as well as plotting the location it will arrive in and its future host. The Shard will lock on to the host, get a grasp on the host's personality and summarily allow that portion of itself to die and burn out to form the [[Corona Pollentia]]. It will then sit dormant for a time, unless the time of the Shard's arrival coincided with the host's trigger event.
-When a trigger event happens, the Shard recognizes the event from the state of the host, from context and from the flood of stress responses. It then reads the host to find out who they are and how they respond to situations before reading the situation for itself and accessing what form the danger takes.
+==Description==
+Shards resemble crystalline structures folding and unfolding like hypercubes.<ref name="WoG1">[https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/21152145/ Wildbow on Spacebattles]</ref>
-The Shard then discards everything it doesn't need, distilling itself down to one efficient, case-specific task, suited to the host. Where the Shard isn't already programmed with [[Manton Effect|inherent safeties and limitations]] it will use the host's stored knowledge to generate a grasp of what it needs to do.
+They travel along predetermined paths after being cast off by an [[Entity]] in space, "raining down" on the [[Earths]] over the course of decades. Once they landed, shards resided in other worlds, uninhabited worlds, and they remained cloaked and concealed in areas humans were unlikely to explore. <ref name="I26">[[Interlude 26]]</ref>
-If there are additional hosts present during the host's Trigger Event, and they are actively using their powers, then the Shard can "ping" off the others and exchange information. This generally allows the host to gain some kind of additional ability that they would not have had otherwise.
+When two entities collide, rubbing against each other, their shards can be damaged or destroyed by the friction and pressure.<ref name="I26">[[Interlude 26]]</ref>
+==Abilities==
+Ever since they [[Entity#Origins|first evolved]] on their homeworld, Entities have been composed of "clusters" of shards, each with different functions.
+==Living Shards==
+Entities can "tune" their shards to perform different functions, or combine different shards to create new ones with new functions.<ref name="I26">[[Interlude 26]]</ref>
+==Dead Shards==
+Many dead shards were also damaged. [[Vikare]]'s shard was dead.<ref name="I26">[[Interlude 26]]</ref>
-If multiple hosts undergo a Trigger Event at the same time, then a multiple trigger will occur. In such an event, several people will get powers at once. Most often, this will result in multiple parahumans who have an array of minor powers that share a concurrent theme. The powers most often compliment one another, or at least work in similar ways. these are known by the colloquialism of "[[Grab-Bag Cape|grab bag capes]]".
+The large numbers of dead [[Eden]] shards meant there were more [[parahumans]] than the entities had intended, leading conflict to spiral out of control.<ref name="I26">[[Interlude 26]]</ref>
+==Damaged Shards==
+Many of [[Eden]]'s shards were damaged and corrupt, rendering them useless to the cycle. [[Scion]] would destroy them on sight as he saw them falling.<ref name="I26">[[Interlude 26]]</ref>
-Multiple triggers are meant for the end-game of the Cycle, serving to stress-test powers as well as compare and contrast the smaller powers.
+[[Vikare]]'s shard was damaged, but still able to grow properly as long as he was alive.<ref name="I26">[[Interlude 26]]</ref>
-===Second Trigger===
-The Shard draws from context and explores and/or conceptualizes new uses for its powers. The Shard begins splitting off to find a new, but similar host - piggybacking off the original Shard's context and experience - but then a major event prompts to catalyze and consolidate in the current host instead. To experience a second trigger, a parahuman has to experience a situation highly similar to their original trigger. For example [[Grue]] was at one point abused by his mother's boyfriend, and the catalyst for his first trigger event was when that same boyfriend started abusing his sister [[Aisha]]. Later on, he was vivisected by Bonesaw, but even though his vivisection was several orders of magnitude more traumatizing than anything that occurred during his first trigger event, he did not actually experience a second trigger until Bonesaw started carving [[Taylor]]'s skull open. In both situations, a person that had tormented Grue turned on one of his loved ones and caused him to experience a trigger event, and it was this commonality between the trigger events that allowed a second trigger to occur.
+==Vital Shards==
+Some shards were vital to an [[Entity]], and not intended to be given out. If their vital processes were separated, they could die. [[Scion]] saw some of [[Eden]]'s vital shards seemingly falling and being sent to hosts after she crashed.<ref name="I26">[[Interlude 26]]</ref>
-Second triggers are exceedingly rare, and generally do more harm than good due to the level of trauma involved. They rarely serve as flat power boosts for the host. Other than Grue, the only parahuman confirmed to have experienced a second trigger is [[Narwhal]]. Narwhal's second trigger gave her the ability to create her forcefields inside people, something she was previously unable to do due to the [[Manton effect]], and the questions raised by her triggering a second time were the subject of one of the PRT's first 52 case files.
+==Power Source==
+One shard is capable of settling in a grouping of near-identical worlds, drawing energy from all of those worlds at once.<ref name="I26">[[Interlude 26]]</ref>
+==Effects on Host==
-If the Shard is in an adult before finding its way to the child, it can begin this splitting-off process (generally requiring time or a degree of stress to allow for the maturation).{{Cite}}<!-- incomprehensible, rewrite or ax? -->
+Shards "take root" in humans.<ref name="I26">[[Interlude 26]]</ref>
-Cauldron capes cannot experience a second trigger, because the Shards harvested from Eden's corpse are dead.{{Cite}}
-====Double Trigger====
-Due to second triggers requiring a situation that mirrors the first trigger event, the most common type of second trigger is the "double trigger". [[Tattletale]] speculated that it would be impossible for [[Weaver]] to experience a new trigger because she may have already experienced her second trigger during the Locker Event, meaning her second trigger occurred during the same event as her first trigger. She speculated that Weaver's mind being being overwhelmed by the inhuman sensory input of countless bugs caused her to trigger with the ability to process all the new info, providing her with an essentially unlimited multitasking ability. Due to the triggers occurring back-to-back, the need to experience a new event that mirrors the original one is removed.{{Cite}}<!-- fascinating but when did tattletale say this all i remember is number man telling weaver -->
-==Effects on Host==
 The effects that Shards have on their hosts are dependent on several factors, including but not limited to: age of the host, the host's personality, the host's trigger event, how much the host embraces the Shard's need for conflict and the nature of the Shard itself.
 <!-- on what a shard can actually make people do https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/49vqrr/spoilers_all_did_canarys_shard/d0vmp07
 -->
-==Physical Properties==
-Shards resided in other worlds, uninhabited worlds, and they remained cloaked and concealed in areas humans were unlikely to explore. One shard is capable of settling in a grouping of near-identical worlds, drawing energy from all of those worlds at once.<ref name="I26">[[Interlude 26]]</ref>
 [[Category:Terminology]]
 [[Category:Spoilers]]