Splinter

A Splinter is the term for a specific type of fragment of Investiture that is ultimately derived from Adonalsium. These Splinters can be composed of a single Shard's power or the Investiture of multiple Shards. They are present in many worlds of the cosmere, sometimes in abundant quantities or with 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 often possess abilities themselves or are capable of granting abilities by bonding with people. Splinters are generally ageless and difficult to kill or destroy. The spren of Roshar and the seons of Sel are some of the most well-known, although many species of Splinters can be found throughout the cosmere. The Shards Ambition, Devotion, Dominion, and Virtuosity have been Splintered, and therefore large portions of their power exist as Splinters.
== 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, 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 they tend to be more rooted in the Cognitive and Spiritual Realms. While many Splinters are composed of the Investiture of a single Shard, in the case of some Splinters they may actually be composed of the Investiture of two or more Shards.
One distinguishing factor of a Splinter is that it may often have an Intent of its own, separate from that of its parent Shard, although it may be thematically related. Splinters are often sentient and have an associated personality, although that personality may be destroyed or its body tortured. However, they do not necessarily need a personality to be considered a Splinter. Generally speaking, a Splinter has never been a person. Therefore, by the strictest definition, a Cognitive Shadow may not be considered a Splinter, by some. 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. Whether or not an avatar of a Shard should be considered a Splinter is also a subject of some debate. While some would disagree, many people in the cosmere would be comfortable terming avatars Splinters.
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 exists 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, but there is no indication that the lesser Breath possessed by normal people is considered to be one. In fact, the small amount of Investiture present in sapient beings, known as Innate Investiture, is also distinct from Splinters.
== Formation == 
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. They may make it into a Cognitive Shadow by either merging the Splinter with the soul or imprinting the soul upon the power, as is the case with the Fused and the Returned. They could create an avatar of their Shard by using their Investiture and some would call that a Splinter.
A Shard may also Splinter another Shard, tearing off one or many chunks of its power, typically for the purpose of diminishing it. This is a process that transcends the three realms and if a Shard is completely destroyed in this way it is said to be Splintered. Most commonly, a Splintering may happen as one titanic event that kills the Vessel and disperses its power. Less frequently, a Vessel may be killed and then their Shard subsequently Splintered. The Splintering of a Shard may also have serious consequences in the Physical Realm. The power of a Splintered Shard may ravage a planet uncontrollably if its Investiture is not contained. There may be other physical effects of a Splintering, such as the formation of an asteroid belt in the system. The process of Splintering is somewhat similar to the process by which Preservation stole a piece of Ruin's body to hide from him.
A Splintered Shard cannot have a Vessel while it remains in such a state, but its Splinters may be reconstituted into a full Shard via an unknown process, although it will not restore the original Vessel. This is not known to have occurred yet in the cosmere. If a Splinter's parent Shard is itself completely Splintered, there may be some impact on any extant Splinters. Whether or not a Shard can Splinter another Shard is dependent upon the amount of raw Investiture that said Shard is able to make use of at the time, as well as its ability to leverage said power, and its knowledge of the Splintering 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 it and may require some recovery by the Shard afterward. In some cases, whether or not a Shard is Splintered may be somewhat vague. A Shard left on its own without a Vessel may also Splinter of its own accord, although that is not the only possibility.
== Vulnerabilities ==
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 in any bonds it may have formed with other beings. One of the primary examples of this are the deadeyes of the Knights Radiant who break their oaths. These spren are effectively immortal, as their essence cannot be destroyed, but they suffer physical disfigurement in the Cognitive Realm and are reduced in function. When they are drawn as a Blade, they experience a state of agony. The severing of the Nahel bond rips out a portion of their soul, which is not easily replaceable. However, to the astonishment of many spren, deadeye cultivationspren Mayalaran showed significant and ongoing rehabilitation during her time with Adolin Kholin.
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 seemingly totally unaware. Their minds were returned to them when Raoden repaired the Aon Rao in Elantris.
Other vulnerabilities of Splinters 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. Another possible vulnerability of Splinters is their ability to be trapped, perhaps most particularly those Splinters that lack a substantial physical aspect. Splinters can be permanently killed by the use of a raysium dagger touching a gem of anti-Light of the type of Investiture associated with the Splinter.
Due to their connection to their parent Shard, Splinters often struggle to leave the location where they were created or the system that their parent Shard inhabits. However, some Splinters can be even further trapped under certain conditions, such as spren inside of gemstones. It is uncertain if all Splinters may be similarly trapped under the correct conditions.
== Abilities ==
The abilities of a Splinter depend heavily on the conditions of their formation and the purpose or lack thereof that they were created with, although Splinters may learn to behave in ways other than was originally intended. As previously mentioned, many Splinters may become self-aware or were self-aware from the moment of their creation, but some do not and it is not a requirement to be a Splinter. Splinters may possess an inherent understanding of Realmatic Theory. 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, in many cases, may form bonds with other sapient beings. Sometimes these bonds are capable of granting access to Invested Arts, such as is the case with the Radiant 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 make use of remains unknown. They are often associated with Fortune and precognitive abilities. A Splinter may be able to replicate Preservation's imprisonment of Ruin on a much smaller scale. Splinters may serve as a sort of release valve on the power of a Splintered Shard, potentially making it 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 ===
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, Splinters most commonly take the form of spren, comprised often of some mixture between the Investiture of both Honor and Cultivation. While these two Shards are most common on Roshar, self-aware Splinters left by Adonalsium remain on the planet. 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 creatures, including the Ryshadium and the Tai-na. Splinters are also made use of in devices known as fabrials, which require trapping a Splinter in order to create some sort of Invested device with a specific power. The ten Cognitive Shadows known as Heralds could be considered Splinters as well, most likely created from Honor's Investiture.
Splinters of Odium are also present on that world, such as the Unmade, and other Voidspren. The Cognitive Shadows of ancient long-dead singers, known as the Fused, are also considered to be Splinters. Historically, these Splinters have been confined by the Oathpact to Braize, a planet inhabited solely by an entire ecosystem of self-aware Splinters, except during Desolations. However, following the True Desolation and the appearance of the Everstorm on Roshar, they are present on both Braize and Roshar. 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 Odium's Investiture.
Due to their strong Connection to the system, it is very difficult for spren to leave the Rosharan system, though it is possible through currently unknown means.
=== Nalthian System ===
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. Before they move to the Beyond, their souls are given a vision of the future and an opportunity to return as a Cognitive Shadow to influence future events. If they agree, it seems likely that a person's soul either merges with or imprints on the divine Breath that returns them to life. The Splinter grants them a whole host of other abilities as well, including unnaturally long life the ability to see fragments of the future when viewing art, 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, it is unclear whether or not Nightblood himself is a Splinter, Nightblood is not powerful enough to Splinter a Shard though. What Nightblood does is a completely separate process to Splintering.
=== Selish System ===
In the distant past, both Shards native to 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 to the Dakhor. While there are some similarities to Rosharan spren, seons and skaze are far less numerous. It is noteworthy that 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 the skaze and seons represent a small portion of the Splinters of Dominion and Devotion, the vast majority of their power is contained within Shadesmar as the Dor. While it is known to be composed 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 ===
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--are not Splinters. In fact, there are no Splinters of Ruin and Preservation in existence. Three and a half centuries after the Catacendre, 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. However, in the event that Ruin had been successful in defeating Preservation and destroying Scadrial, he would have Splintered Preservation. Somehow, Rosharan spren have entered and can be found in Scadrial's Cognitive Realm.
=== UTol System ===
The shard Virtuosity Splintered herself at some point in the past, in the UTol system. On that system's planet of Komashi, the Splinters are known as hijo, or 'spirits'; they form a major part of the lives of people all over Komashi, and are the key to their survival on the planet.
During the Torio period, figures known as the Yoki-hijo served to attract these, and bind them into various objects used by denizens. At one point, a group of scholars discovered that hijo could also be attracted by mechanical means to produce a more general-use form of Investiture known as hion. Unfortunately, the machine they Awakened to automate this was Commanded incorrectly, imprisoning the hijo and killing almost all the planet's human population.
The survivors wrested the hion to their own needs to persevere until, seventeen centuries later, the machine was finally defeated by Yumi and the hijo were freed again. They then entered into a more amicable relationship with humanity, and provided hion freely.
=== 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, as we know that chunks of Ambition's power were torn off there. Another open ended question is whether or not the weak Cognitive Shadows on Threnody, locally referred to as shades, can be considered Splinters or not. It is debatable whether the various avatars of the Shard Autonomy, located on First of the Sun and Obrodai among other worlds, are considered to be Splinters. 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 left behind Splinters on various worlds before its death.
== Notes ==
; Footnotes
*
 
es:Astilla