#shardle

[cosmerelists]

Five Things I Learned Playing Shardle (And One Thing I Didn't)

"Shardle" is like Wordle, only for terms that exist as the title of a Coppermind article. I've been playing Shardle for like a week now, so I am ready to share my experiences.

1. There are too many stormin' characters!

So far, I've played 10 days in a row, and I've only once had a character whose name I even vaguely recognized (Klade, who's at least been in several scenes I can, like, picture). Otherwise, the description post-answer will be like, "You know, that one skaa who works at the sawmill in Luthadel who appeared in like one scene in one book" and I'll be like "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, SHARDLE?!"

2. Main characters tend to have longer names

The thing is, I feel like I know quite a few character names. I write this blog, and it uses a lot of characters. But they all have such long names! Like, at least six letters (looking at you, Jasnah and Navani). Or, if they're short, they're like short (looking at you, Vin and Hoid). So my excellent knowledge of main characters is doing me absolutely no good at all, and playing this makes me feel as though I know nothing.

3. Which is probably why they let you use some regular English words too.

While playing by my usual strategy (typing in phonemes that could potentially make up a fantasy name while crying), I was delighted to find that there was apparently somebody named "Mouse" because "mouse" worked as a guess! This was huge because it let me test out three whole vowels, and at LEAST you know there are vowels in Sanderson character names.

...Only later did I actually read the directions to find that they actually let you use some regular English words to, like, show some small amount of mercy, and there is no Sanderson character named Mouse. It's just the English word "mouse" but I'm gonna use it anyway, damn it.

4. Sanderson LOVES the letter "L"

My starting word is "Rlain," and this has worked out pretty well because there is almost always an "L" in whatever the answer is. Now, I was worried that this might be mere confirmation bias (and also I've only played 10 times at the point of writing this list), so I want to Coppermind for help (https://coppermind.net/wiki/Category:Characters). A very scientific test (using "ctl f" with each letter of the alphabet) revealed that "L" actually is the most common consonant used on this page! Take that, confirmation bias!

5. My starting word is actually genius (accidentally)

By the way, according to my "ctl f on every letter in the alphabet while on the Coppermind list of characters page" test, my starting word of "Rlain" is accidentally brilliant. The three most common consonants are "R," "N," and "L" in that order! And "A" is the most common vowel! Thank you, Rlain, for this help even though I actually chose your name because you were literally the only character I could think of whose name was five letters without repeating letters.

And the one thing I don't know...

6. What quote is used for getting it in 1 guess. Or 2. Or 3 dammit.

Shardle displays a quote once you get the answer, based on how quickly you got it. I know the quote used for, well, not getting the answer. Or for getting it in 6. In 5. Or in 4. But what it says if you guess in 3 or fewer remains a mystery...perhaps forever.

...Do I even like playing?

[thinkingaboutbones]

Shardle 608 3/6

🟩⬛⬛🟨🟨

🟩🟩🟩🟨⬛

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

[thestormlightnetwork]

Shardle 608 2/6

🟨⬛⬛🟨⬛

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

[valebatcattus]

@phoinixflames || hey dad

Tabitha huffed, tugging at Lhabrea's sleeve. "When are you gonna teach me magic? You said you would when you had time and that was forever ago."

At least two Rejoinings ago, she was pretty sure. She wasn't sure exactly how many years that'd been since he'd promised but definitely a long time.

"You should totally have time now."

[colby-jac-cheese]

Fun unspoken but Canon facts about my fanfiction part 1: the name "Cam' was the compromise of a lifetime.

Whyin and CM argued for hours over what their human last names would be. Whyin originally wanted 'watcher' but CM shot the idea down because if they used that theme then his last name would be 'copy' and "-that's already my name dammit! I'm not gonna be copy mark copy! Pick something else!"

CM wanted 'Smith' or 'Doe', because it was the most average human name he could think of in his very limited idea or what normal human names are, on account of the fact that he has never been human before. Whyin claimed that was basically naming themselves 'totally real human' and shot the idea down without mercy.

Whyin then suggested 'Poam' pronounced poem. CM hard vetoed it once he learned it was an acronym for 'Property Of Actor Mark' and threatened to throw a mirror at whyin.

The two considered 'Pov' as a middle ground, but eventually changed it to 'Cam' to make it less obvious what they were referencing.

Side note: it is immediately obvious to any intelligent beings they meet that 'Cam' is a fake name. The issue is though, because of the eldrich reality warping powers they both have there's??? Records of them??? And a family going back atleast 5 generations using the name??? But their all obviously the same two people with different colored hair or hats???

This is Canon, mouth of God (the author) shit that will never be addressed in the main fic series.

[boomboxboi]

Not my typical blog post but I feel compelled to share this.

A while ago, I backed a game on Kickstarter called Swordcery. I specifically wanted the little Shardling Pin because it was absolutely adorable!

I ultimately got the pin in the mail upon its shipping date. And I adored that pin. It was up on my mantle of things.

Small flash forward.

I ended up going through a very nasty divorce that left me essentially homeless and many of my belongings left behind. The pin being one of those things. It weighed heavy on my mind for a while but I had to focus on getting my life together.

Recently, I sent an email out to the team and told them about my situation. I genuinely wasn’t expecting anything but took a chance and asked if they perhaps had any shardling pins they could send to my new address.

To my surprise, they emailed back rather quickly (next business day- if not earlier because I only check my emails once a day).

They informed me they had a pin and would send one to my new address.

Well. Today I got the pin.

And a note.

And I’ll be honest, I’ve been sitting here crying because of how amazing the team at Swordcery is!

And when I say I’ve been sitting here crying, I legitimately mean sobbing with the whole snot running down my face and red puffy cheeks because this genuinely made me so happy.

If you haven’t had the chance to check out this game, I highly recommend doing so! This team has been passionate in working on this project and I’m so glad I came across it on Kickstarter.

Please check out Swordcery, y’all!

[rippleclan]

[Image ID: a faded Dark Forest spirit (a red transparent cat with black holes for eyes) stands under the title, “Spirits of Shadow: Compendium.”]

I wanted to make sure I wrote down all the Spirits of Shadow I’ve created for the series so far so that if I use them, they don’t feel weirdly placed. Basic summaries await!

Skin N’ Bones: spirits of hunger and cannibalism. Well known tormentors of those in the Dark Forest, driving them into the depths of hunger before turning them so mad, they try to eat other cats. Visit the living world when they struggle to find victims in the Dark Forest.

Wraiths: echos of pain and suffering that haunt a location in the real world and the Dark Forest. They pull cats in to repeat their horrific tales. The shipwreck was once thought to house wraiths, but future generations will say the birth of Carnationspeckle in that shipwreck drove them off with the energy of her pure compassion.

Heralds: spirits pretending to be regular cats. They ask for aid and when the clans give them permission, they open portals to summon more Spirits of Shadow.

Honeybites: spirits who mimic strange dens and enticing caves, luring curious cats into their gaping mouths, which look like typical entrances.

Shardlings: the broken pieces of a destroyed Dark Forest cat, representing their inner thoughts and emotions. Without their other pieces, they are volatile and intense. While they can be “killed”, they always remain as some trace of the dead spirit.

Stormfoots: born of the Dark Forest warrior Stormfoot, who left his bastard kits to freeze to death. They create powerful storms that StarClan has trouble controlling.

Dark Forest Warriors: the general population of the Dark Forest. While some have arisen to become unique enemies in their own right, the entire population of the dark forest can be considered a type of spirit of shadow. While some spend their afterlife quietly, others try to engage with the living and join forces with some of the monsters that plague them.

Darkhounds: the Clan equivalent of hellhounds, the darkhounds are a common enemy in the Dark Forest, chasing down warriors and devouring them again and again. Some cats can manipulate them, just like they would manipulate a pack of dogs. Other times, when a darkhound doesn’t find a soul to snack on, it will slip to the mortal world for a hunt.

Dog-cat: a horrific fusion of dog and cat. Said to be born of Dogcall, who befriended dogs and used them against the other Clans.

Forsaken Prey: if you hunt prey and do not respect its sacrifice, its spirit can turn into a crazed and rabid ghost, seeking to treat you the same way.

Rat Leader: a mass of rats, their tails entangled. Carriers of disease and panic, it is unsafe to be around them for long.

Scarecrows: stories of the strange human figures that stand in the wheat fields have given birth to a new Spirit of Shadow, a human made of wheat and plants that hides and waits for a passing cat.

Leatherwaste: Leatherwaste is the dishonor title of a careless and callous artisan who desecrated the bodies of prey animals beyond use. Now scraps of fur/leather fall off this Dark Forest soul and turn into leather amalgamations who like to destroy Dark Forest spirits in the same way.

Manykits: the spiritual children of Goldtoe, who had mates across the Clans and sired many children. These ghostly kits make cats lost and lure them far from home.

[if-one-of-us-falls]

Sanderson's non-cosmere stuff being included in Shardle is so funny because you struggle to piece together letters losing your sanity by the minute and it ends up being Steve

[cosmereplay]

Thank you @comiclysmic for this amazing meme format 😂

[ID: A three panel comic by comiclysmic altered by cosmereplay. Adolin is shown from the shoulders up, wearing his uniform. He's sweating. He thinks, "What is he doing?" As the judge Kelek sits at a tall desk, writing in a book, Adolin thinks, "I hope it's related to the hearing and not a word puzzle or something." The last panel is a close-up of the book Kelek is writing in. Pasted in is a screencap of the online word game Shardle, with KALAK as the first guess and JEZR started as the second guess.]

[faller-of-kharbranth]

Oh… Harmoniah’s decided to set up a nest outside the Center.

She says…

She says she’ll be staying here.

Staying put…

W-with the rest of the Shardling Saltid Tikkitiks.

…

I’m glad she… and the others… found a place they like staying.

[peridyke]

An idea for the lapis is human but not really au is that gems can have babies by chipping a shard off of their gems and incubating it for somewhere between 50 years and a century- an amount of time that feels short(ish) to them but really long to us, during which the gem will grow to the size of a regular gem- after which the baby gem, called a chip or a shardling, will form a body for the first time, and will follow a normal gem lifecycle.

The parent gem(s) can be a single gem, in which case it will look like the original gem, but slightly smaller, two of the same type of gem, in which case it would look like the same type of gem with it’s own features, or two different types of gem, in which case it would look like a perma-fusion with one gem, but regular gem size. In these case it’s also worth noting that something from both parent gems’ physical bodies must be used to tie the shards together (I.E. hair, clothes).

It’s an uncommon process because it can lead to negative side effects, such as, chronic pain or fatigue, depression, memory loss, or, when done improperly, even death.

Lapis’s parents were both Lapis immigrants that lived on earth when Lapis was born, but they didn’t like her because she was less powerful than them.

wow you really thought about this

[paperanddice]

Many different stories are spread over crawling hands. Some say that a murderer killed in the middle of hunting their target may channel all of their hatred into one hand, which splits off of their body and continues hunting down their intended victim. Others say that necromancers create them as assassins. Still other stories say that a living person's hand can become infected and possessed, popping off while they sleep to commit murders they want in their heart, before returning in the morning to reattach before the host wakes up. Regardless of the origin, they are focused and dedicated killers, rarely acting unless they have a specific target in mind, who they will pursue without hesitation or distraction.

Giant crawling hands are always purposefully created however, as the magic to form them requires additional effort to expand their size beyond that of even a giant's. Perhaps they can form naturally from the hands of a titan, but such things are so rare that no one actually has confirmed such an event. At least, titans themselves won't confirm it.

A crysmal is an animated chunk of transparent crystals in the form of a dog sized scorpion, crysmals are elemental creatures that obsessively hunt precious gemstones. They fuse roughly 500 gp worth of these gems into a new young crysmal, called a shardling. This process turns the gems into much less valuable crystal, making them hated enemies of dwarves. Killing a crysmal will reveal the gems it has collected in preparation for creating a shardling, usually 1d4x50 gp from any given crysmal. Hunting them can be an easier way to collect raw gems, as the crysmal separates out the slag, holding onto just the precious material. Some more vicious gemcutters will farm crysmals. Less valuable gems will be used to expand the population, while higher quality ones will be cleaned by feeding them to a crysmal, then killing the creature and harvesting the stone.

Inspired by the Pathfinder 1e Bestiary 2. This post came out a week ago on my Patreon. If you want to get access to all my monster conversions early, as well as access to my premade adventures and other material I’m working on, consider backing me there!

Crawling Hand  0 level spoiler [undead]  Initiative: +2 Vulnerability: Holy Leaping Claw +7 vs. AC - 2 damage. Natural 14+: The crawling hand latches onto the target. While latched on, the crawling hand gains resist damage 14+ to any attacks from creatures except the one it’s attached to, and travels with the target if it moves (except teleporting, which leaves the crawling hand behind). Any creature within reach of the crawling hand can spend a standard action to make a save; on a success, it removes the hand. Strangle +7 vs. PD (one enemy the crawling hand is latched on to) - ongoing 5 damage. This damage can’t be saved against normally, and only ends when the crawling hand is no longer latched to the target. The crawling hand can’t make attacks until the ongoing damage ends. Natural Even Hit: The target is also hampered and can’t cast spells, use bard songs or commander commands, or any other ability or feature that requires speaking as long as it’s taking the ongoing damage. Resist Negative Energy 12+. AC 15 PD 14 MD 11 HP 14 Nastier Special  Mark Quarry: The crawling hand can be marked with a drop of a creature’s blood. If it has no creature marked as its quarry, the first creature it damages during a battle becomes its quarry. Until it or the creature is slain, the crawling hand always knows the creature’s location and can follow it effortlessly, and gains a +1 bonus to attack rolls and defenses against that creature.

Giant Crawling Hand  2nd level troop [undead]  Initiative: +4 Vulnerability: Holy Leaping Claw +7 vs. AC - 5 damage and the crawling hand can grab the target. While it has a target grabbed, it can’t attack other creatures. Squeeze +11 vs. PD (one grabbed enemy; includes +4 grab bonus) - 7 damage. Natural Even Hit: The target is also hampered until the end of the crawling hand’s next turn. [Special Trigger] Pus Burst +7 vs. PD - 1d4 negative energy damage and the target is dazed (save ends). Limited Use: 1/round, as an interrupt action when an enemy engaged with the crawling hand hits it with an attack and rolls a natural odd attack roll. Resist Negative Energy 14+. AC 18 PD 17 MD 11 HP 34 Nastier Special  Mark Quarry: The crawling hand can be marked with a drop of a creature’s blood. If it has no creature marked as its quarry, the first creature it damages during a battle becomes its quarry. Until it or the creature is slain, the crawling hand always knows the creature’s location and can follow it effortlessly, and gains a +1 bonus to attack rolls and defenses against that creature.

Crysmal  1st level troop [elemental]  Initiative: +6 Vulnerability: Thunder Crystal Stinger +6 vs. AC - 4 damage. Natural 16+: The target also takes 3 ongoing damage. R: Shard Spike +6 vs. AC (one nearby enemy) - 8 damage. Natural Even Hit: 1d4 enemies nearby the target take 2 damage. Limited Use: 1/battle. After the crysmal uses this attack, its crystal stinger attacks only deal 2 damage. [Group Ability] C: Sparkling Burst +6 vs. PD (1d4 nearby enemies) - The target is hampered (save ends). Limited Use: The crysmal must be in a source of light to use this attack. Group Ability: For every two crysmal in the battle (round up), one of them can use sparkling burst once during the battle. Resist Cold 14+. AC 18 PD 15 MD 11 HP 24

[thinkingaboutbones]

Shardle 618 X/6

⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛

⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛

⬛🟨🟨⬛⬛

🟨🟨⬛⬛🟨

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬛

🟨⬛🟨⬛🟨

obviously made some dumb guesses early on but. i was never gonna get that

[gafurtle]

If Shardle has taught me one thing, it’s that Branderson LOVES a good “L” in his characters’ names.

[frongle-art]

this will probably reach like 3 people ever but i might as well work something out. any further input or reccomendations are appreciated

rn i have a shitload of characters but I'll list the ones that I'd probably be posting on here about first

Frongle

I guess this one is my main? I started using him for pfps on discord and tumblr as well as a dnd character. He came from the character creation screen of Star Trek Online after I decided to make a character that was the antithesis of all the overly muscular, handsome, superman lookin ass avatars everyone else was using.

He's short, chunky, pesto green with yellow streaks across his face, and wears an old-timey rich man's suit with a top hat, as well as some enormous goggles that help him see in the brightness of surface light conditions.

He sweats this unpleasant foul-smelling poisonous gunk and has limited abilities in psychic persuasion and short-range telekinesis.

He is a prolific thief and a constant nuisance to anyone who has to work with him. Despite his profound annoyance, he has also managed to avert multiple galactic crises, which has granted him diplomatic immunity and further fuels his pride and self-importance.

He flies around in a stolen carrier flagship that used to belong to a demon race that presented one of the aforementioned galactic crises. He uses the power of this ship to go anywhere and give anyone he doesn't like a big punch, a migraine, a planted piece of contraband material, or some other petty inconvenience.

in the dnd campaign he acquired a cane that allowed him to summon a jojo-style stand that just looked like him but larger called 「hooligan heaven」 that would stride towards a location (like that one video of the plague doctor cosplayer) with incredible force while blasting various bootlegs of gangster's paradise.

frongle also used psychic ventriloquism to make a fish (which he had slain via farting in it's river) float in the air and speak, and he convinced himself that the fish was actually alive, which led to it essentially becoming an embodied version of the unseen servant spell. that was a weird campaign.

ok damn i guess i just wrote his bio post here but yeah the other ones are:

Gourdside

(pirate cursed by a god of plenty to be transformed into a pumpkin-headed humanoid with extendable vine-arms and a big hook. made them for a game art/design project)

AIPI (Artificially Intelligent Private Investigator)

security android that wears sherlock-ish outfits and has a head that resembles a coffee machine. it started out as another star trek online character but also got used for a game art/design project. i have it written into a two seperate storylines, one where it wakes up in a city full of servitor robots where all the humans have gone missing, and another one where it acts as a space government agent who doesn't care much about it's job and hangs out with frongle under the pretence of following it's assignment of keeping an eye on him.

Stone Golems

An assortment of golems that are part of my currently private worldbuilding project but I will probably post about some of them on here, especially if my intentions for that project change or if any version of it goes public in some way.

I have alot of details on how they work, where they came from, etc. and i can probably talk for hours about how it all works and it would probably lead into all the other lore about the world they're in. Currently I have:

Trip - a small Shardling (any golem twice the size of a human or smaller) that runs a bakery. It has a long, teardrop-shaped head and sloth-like bodily proportions

Pin - a Dustlet (the smallest kind of golem, a label that also includes non-sentient artefacts that run off the same magic as other golems) that resides in Trip's bakery and likes using it's tiny body as a rolling pin to help flatten dough.

Clobber - a Lesser Stone Golem (about the size of the drivable part of a truck) that closely aligned itself with a mortal race that became a powerful empire built on honour, craftsmanship and strength. It acts as a keeper of historical lore as well as an advisor to whoever is currently in charge.

Stack - a tall Shardling (about twice as tall as humans can be) that loves to build things and has a head shaped like a bowl.

Tumble - a stout, wheel-shaped Shardling (think like the size of a Monster Jam truck wheel) whose core was once trapped and being used as a grindstone by an ancient blacksmith.

Trod - a tortoise-like Greater Stone Golem (big enough to enjoy pretending it's a hill) that likes to sit somewhere and wait for someone to build a path near it so it can have someone talk to from time to time.

Clutch - another Greater Stone Golem that lumbers around the world and acts as a mobile sanctuary for Dustlets and Shardlings that are otherwise unable to fend for themselves, giving them the chance to safely explore the world without the threat of being abducted and experimented on by mages.

Yonder - a Stone Titan (fuckin HUGE, the LARGEST one that's still around) that was one of the first to be built and the only Titan that wasn't shattered into the pieces that formed all the Golems that wander the world. Big enough to inspire a legend that describes trees reaching an age where they decide to get up and walk around. It has a wide head (sort of like a hammerhead shark) and many-limbed quadrupedal body that imitates the form of it's long-extinct creators.

Wimguf

fucked up looking giant bowling pin lookin green sloth thing. most recent character so it doesn't have much lore yet. made it by photoshopping the wise mystical tree onto some concept art i found of uncle fungus from ice age and then stretching it really tall. I like his potential but it hasn't had much development yet.

Most of my characters go by either he, it, they or a combination of those. I will probably have some women enter this roster at some point but alot of these tend to come from interpretations of some aspect of myself. I recognise the importance of feminine representation but I am yet to confidently approach it in my character design.

For now it's a bunch of funky non-human characters that don't necessarily fit into the binary anyway and probably get whatever pronouns they may have more from how others would perceive them rather than how they see themselves.

I am continuing to write more characters and as I go more into the human/human-like races of my worldbuilding project there'll be a bit more gender variety.

[missouri-and-woe]

i call this layout shardle because the top row is shrdl lol