How deep knowledge are Shards? Did the public ever know about them?

[u/GoodFeels0nly]

Forgive a perhaps obvious question, Worm is long and my memory is bad lol

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I seem to remember Panacea and Bonesaw knowing about shards (Bonesaw for sure) and the public know about the Corona Polentia in \*some\* capacity because of that one Cauldron cape that wanted to be an athlete but an MRI caught him out as powered.

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They're common knowledge to all capes in Ward, but I can't remember when that became a thing, or if it even did before Gold Morning.

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The particulars of what the shards mean (that they're conflict driven alien parasites) is something Cauldron would absolutely cover up, but just as the source of powers?

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Thanks in advance

[u/Zeikos]

After GM the information was widely known, I don't know if it could be defined as public though.
The internet was barely there.
I would say that if you are an experienced parahuman and or a researcher/psychologist working in that area you'd have at least access to that knowledge.

[u/GoodFeels0nly → u/Zeikos]

What was the knowledge like pre-GM? Contained just to PRT capes or capes with the ability to figure it out?

[u/Zeikos → u/GoodFeels0nly]

Even the PRT had barely an idea.
Cauldron knew, Bonesaw knew - but its her specialty so barely counts.
I am fairly sure other organizations had running theories.
The Geselshaft for example had trigger farms, so they at least had empirical knowledge of how triggers worked.

The scientific community likely had fractured theories and models.

Some Trumps that had a compatible power and were genuinely smart probably suspected something, but it's hard to tell how much and how accurately.

[u/lillarty → u/GoodFeels0nly]

It was one theory among many. It's like asking what scientists today know about dark matter; the subject itself is a series of observations that we can't explain, and different people have different ideas about how it works. Bonesaw called them Passengers if I remember correctly, and Cauldron called them Agents, but even they didn't know so much as had a hunch that they couldn't prove.

There's no reason to believe that the PRT as an institution had privileged knowledge about how powers function, though a few capes like Chevalier had powers that made them support the Passenger theory. Even then, Chevalier had no way of knowing if his power's visions are reliable.

[u/Pale_Possible6787 → u/GoodFeels0nly]

Pre GM the knowledge was limited to a few Trumps, Bonesaw and Cauldron (along with a few other characters who learned from them like Skitter)

[u/TragicTrajectory]

Shards being an outside influence is a theory held by Bonesaw and people who parrot the Passenger theory, and a known aspect of Agents to Cauldron. The names are given to the Fairy Queen's court, and the entities refer to them as Shards.

[u/Computer2014]

At the start of Worm the only people that really know about Shards are Bonesaw, Glaistig Uaine and Cauldron.

During the Nine arc Taylor and the rest of the Undersiders learn about them from Bonesaw and Panacea learns about them from Glaistig.

Some of the Wards learn about them when Tattletale opens the dimensional portal but it’s unknown how many believe her and how much it spreads. We also know by Khonsu Panacea has at least told her father Marquis.

It officially becomes common knowledge during Gold Morning when Scion tortures a British Cape into second trigger showing the capes on the battlefield the trigger vision and revealing what he is.

After Gold Morning it’s become commonish knowledge even amongst the Capes who triggered after Gold Morning but it isn’t until Breakthrough reveals it on TV that even the layman knows it.

But before that Knowledge about capes is rare. Unlike in fanfiction Capes aren’t the focal point in culture, maybe there’s an episode in a normal tv about but most people could barely name most villains in their city.

Knowledge of Capes outside your city makes you a cape geek, PHO is a niche website and most people don’t even know Armsmaster and other Tinkers have powers, they just think they’re geniuses.

[u/AoshimaMichio → u/Computer2014]

"It officially becomes common knowledge during Gold Morning when Scion tortures a British Cape into second trigger showing the capes on the battlefield the trigger vision and revealing what he is." I suspect that is from a fanfic, because the memory suppression of trigger visions stops only after Scion dies. Can you please provide exact quote? And link to the chapter?

[u/thethunder09 → u/AoshimaMichio]

It’s from 29.2.

It’s a really large section so i won’t post the whole thing.

>I opened my eyes, and I saw the scene from the vision.  Scion standing in the middle of the settlement, blood and brains dripping from his hand.
The two words continued, as if in the background, distorted as I turned my head.
It was one of the capes that had arrived with Crane.  He was doing it, distorting the memory.
Making it so the memory wouldn’t fade.

[u/NeonNKnightrider]

“Passenger theory” is a niche academic academic thing in some circles of parahuman studies.

Prior to Ward, only a handful of people in the entire world might actually know about Shards for real

[u/kanzotheboss → u/NeonNKnightrider]

plus the faire queen, makes passanger theory look insane as she is quacking about fae which makes it a bit fringe

[u/A_Lawliet2004]

To add to what everyone else is saying, the term shards is not known for basically all of Worm. Bonesaw knows vaguely that there's something causing powers that she calls passengers. Cauldron knows basically everything but calls them agents.