Mercy

[Onironte he/him]

SPOILER ALL                                       INCREDIBLY IMAGINATIVE THEORIES; DO NOT TRUST THEM
The idea for this topic came from Possible Shards Combos, specifically from @Ashbringer, so thank for that!

The few things we know on Mercy (Shard) to the date:

• It was taken at the Shattering by an unknown Vessel.
• It was involved on the fight between Ambition and Odium, fight that ended with the death of Ambition, resulting in a wound upon Threnody's Spiritual realm (shades are a consequence of this wound)
• We also have Words of Brandon (I haven't found it, sorry) in which is told  that a one-vs-one Shard fight is perilous, and Odium would only  have attacked Ambition knowing he would win. That sounds to me like a team-up with another Shard, probably Autonomy or even Mercy (or unlikely Valor)
• And that's all we know, we don't have much info about Mercy (I've only found 7 entries of Mercy on the Arcanum)

And on what is exactly the Intent of Mercy Shard (aka dictionary):

• : compassion or forbearance (see forbearance sense 1) shown especially to an offender or to one subject to one's power
• : a blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion
• : compassionate treatment of those in distress

I don't know about you, but the Intent doesn't seem particularly dangerous to me, and even less so to the extent of troubling Harmony.

So, I don't think Saze is concerned with the Intent per se, but rather with who the Intent is directed to.
Who is worth of Mercy?
Practically everyone. The Fused, the Heralds, every suffering fella of every suffering specie. However; Who is suffering the most? Who is living literally Hell on life? Oh, Threnody. And, by chance, Isn't Mercy responsible (at least partially) for most of troubles haunting the Threnodites?
To my knowledge, Odium got some help against Ambition, probably Mercy, that was present on the incident, maybe even Mercy itself gave the merciful final stoke to end the suffering of Ambition. The other likely option of Odium's ally is Autonomy. It would fit it's Intent to kill that Shard that potentially could try to conquer everything. To end Autonomy's autonomy. And, should Autonomy interfere, To what extent? Would she really compromise her power completely? Or only a small piece of it? So, if another Shard interfere in favor of Ambition, she wouldn't loose to much? If Ambition were still alive, the Evil wouldn't exist. If ambition were still alive, the dead Threnodites wouldn't come back and kill the living ones. Should Mercy would have helped Ambition, Threnody wouldn't be suffering.

       Mercy: a blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion

Compassion for a inflicted wound upon a realm. What actions could a being called Mercy on that scheme?
Some ideas:

• Odium had nine Unmades (invested to the point of some sort of conscience and other god-like powers), tons of voidsprens (a huge amount of them conscience) and a storm of investiture. In addition, he granted immortality an Surges to at least seven hundreds of Fused. And he was still considered all thought the Cosmere as the more dangerous Shard. Even if we consider Ambition as Splintered, the Investiture that the Evil seem to posses and the Splinter of the Secret Project 5 plus probably less than hundred thousands non-aware Shades is not that big. Not to the point of a Shard. So, maybe the power is hidden. I think the Cognitive realm is a good option, so maybe Mercy could bring Ambition-Corpse-Based-Magic (Selish-like) to the Threnodites. Or maybe Odium took Ambition corpse somewhere else. Thrown into a pit (Braize). An then built a house over the pit to make sure no one take the remaining Investiture. People upon a broken land with Ambitious power would be problematic to Harmony, as they could seek Hemalury.
• Where's Ambition power? I think that the shades are caused by the wound on the Spiritual realm, not because of Ambition power investing some Threnodites' souls to immortality. Maybe a guilty, merciful god could see the suffering that it has caused to the people by being accomplice of their god's murderer. Maybe Mercy will attempt to give Threnody it's god back, by Ascending itself or giving it to a Threnodite. That sounds plausible to me, and would definitively troubled Saze.
• The Evil kills people. Killing what you can use doesn't sound Ambition-like. It sound more like Odium-Ambition twisted investiture with a pre-Shattering entity (like Stone, Wind, or Aethers). Maybe Mercy could destroy the Evil. But Saze would like that, so unlikely.
• The Shades could be suffering, lost in on an attributed, foggy mind, angrier because of your bloody, cruel, sudden and fast dead. Stressed to the point of killing everyone that reminds you of your dead (blood), or scares you (fire, run). Maybe Mercy will invest the shades to be merciful instead of angry, afraid and frenetic. To help Threnody to raise. But this wouldn't bother Harmony neither, so unlikely.
• Paranoid level theory: we are focusing on Mercy for the mortals, but what about Shards? "Duty is heavier than a mountain death is lighter than a feather". Being a god, all those responsibility... Poor them. Maybe Mercy would kill them all to end their suffering. Unlikely, but would definitively worry Saze.
• Sja-anat could be partially invested by Ambition, so, maybe Mercy, guilty for killing the father, tried to help the son, moved some Shard-strings to free Sja-anat, maybe even help her consolidate power on Roshar. Harmony would be worry about that.
  
   

What do you think?
Where I am wrong?
It is Mercy's Vessel Senna?
Why do you think Ambition Splinters doesn't seem to have also ambitious intents?
I'm looking foward to reed all your crazy theories.

 

Edited March 16, 2025 by Onironte

[Ashbringer he/him]

Nice theories!

9 hours ago, Onironte said:

• We also have Words of Brandon (I haven't found it, sorry) in which is told  that a one-vs-one Shard fight is perilous, and Odium would only  have attacked Ambition knowing he would win. That sounds to me like a team-up with another Shard, probably Autonomy or even Mercy (or unlikely Valor)

I think this is this one - which was more about Devotion/Dominion than Ambition, and we learned a bit about that in WaT. (Namely, Odium got Devotion/Dominion to weaken each other, then finished them off.)

8 hours ago, Onironte said:

To my knowledge, Odium got some help against Ambition, probably Mercy, that was present on the incident, maybe even Mercy itself gave the merciful final stoke to end the suffering of Ambition. 

Personally, I think this is what did happen - Mercy hit the death blow on Ambition, either after working with Odium or after their clash. Whether Mercy was helping Ambition beforehand, or Odium after, not entirely sure.

Wind and Truth seems to indicate that the Threnodite System got broken by the clash, with planets being destroyed and severe damage done. To me, that feels like the two had a direct clash, like the one Honor and Odium nearly had a few times. 

We also know that Odium thought that the fight against Ambition would have been easier than it was, and he was wounded because of it. Perhaps his help wasn't as much help as he thought.

9 hours ago, Onironte said:

Odium had nine Unmades (invested to the point of some sort of conscience and other god-like powers), tons of voidsprens (a huge amount of them conscience) and a storm of investiture. In addition, he granted immortality an Surges to at least seven hundreds of Fused. And he was still considered all thought the Cosmere as the more dangerous Shard.

I think most Shards had such Investments - Honor seemed to give up more power than Odium did, Cultivation gave up pieces as well, Preservation and Ruin built an entire planet/people, Invention's been going around making random things... perhaps Valor hasn't been Investing, or Mercy.

 

9 hours ago, Onironte said:

• Even if we consider Ambition as Splintered, the Investiture that the Evil seem to posses and the Splinter of the Secret Project 5 plus probably less than hundred thousands non-aware Shades is not that big. Not to the point of a Shard. So, maybe the power is hidden. I think the Cognitive realm is a good option, so maybe Mercy could bring Ambition-Corpse-Based-Magic (Selish-like) to the Threnodites. Or maybe Odium took Ambition corpse somewhere else. Thrown into a pit (Braize). An then built a house over the pit to make sure no one take the remaining Investiture. People upon a broken land with Ambitious power would be problematic to Harmony, as they could seek Hemalury.
• Where's Ambition power? I think that the shades are caused by the wound on the Spiritual realm, not because of Ambition power investing some Threnodites' souls to immortality. 

I actually think somewhat the opposite - some of Ambition's power is tied to Threnodites, and passed through there heritage, as the people of Canticle all seem to be fairly Invested based on their sunhearts compared to the Rosharan's. Although this does seem tied to them as a people, rather than only affecting those alive on Threnody / those alive when the Clash happened. 

But I think, perhaps, Odium partially Splintered Ambition (or the Splinters that were made in the Threnodite system, as Ambition seems Splintered elsewhere) were placed into the Physical Realm. The Evil seems to be many large chunks of Ambition's (or Odium's) Investiture that gained some level of sentience. 

9 hours ago, Onironte said:

It is Mercy's Vessel Senna?

... who is Senna?

Copperminds

Oh. Maybe, actually, Mercy or Virtuosity. I do wonder if Mercy's Vessel is another Sho Del, as it would seem unlikely for their to be only one - but Chan Ko Sar / Invention also sounds Sho Del-ish.

 

9 hours ago, Onironte said:

• Paranoid level theory: we are focusing on Mercy for the mortals, but what about Shards? "Duty is heavier than a mountain death is lighter than a feather". Being a god, all those responsibility... Poor them. Maybe Mercy would kill them all to end their suffering. Unlikely, but would definitively worry Saze.

I do think this is, perhaps, a key point. Mercy for who?

In my opinion, Odium thought that he could attack Ambition one-on-one because Ambition+Mercy settled together, and thought Mercy wouldn't interfere. Or perhaps he had help, in the form of Autonomy or a convinced Mercy, that ended up flaking on him. The two Shards attacked, and began destroying the Threnodite system, with Ambition losing but still doing a tremendous amount of damage. Then Mercy decided to kill Ambition in order to end the clash and save what was left of Threnody.

That could be a Mercy on Ambition, to end her suffering. And a Mercy on Threnody, to save it. And would it be a Mercy on the greater cosmere?

[+Oltux72 he/him]

Failure results in suffering. The surest way to avoid failure is to not even try. Hence there is a reason Mercy and Ambition do not get along well.

[AsherCrane]

6 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

Failure results in suffering. The surest way to avoid failure is to not even try. Hence there is a reason Mercy and Ambition do not get along well.

Technically untrue on 2 accounts.

1. Inaction can certainly lead to punishment. One could argue that it does so less often perhaps, but not enought to say not trying is the surest way to avoid it.

2. Mercy is the deliberate forgiveness of punishments, not just a lack of suffering. Without punishment or suffering, there would not be more mercy, mercy would not exist. 

Going with Ambition would the surest way of finding people who need Mercy to save them from their ambitious screw-ups.

Edited March 17, 2025 by AsherCrane

[Onironte he/him]

19 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

I think this is this one - which was more about Devotion/Dominion than Ambition, and we learned a bit about that in WaT. (Namely, Odium got Devotion/Dominion to weaken each other, then finished them off.)

That one, thanks!

 

19 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

We also know that Odium thought that the fight against Ambition would have been easier than it was, and he was wounded because of it. Perhaps his help wasn't as much help as he thought.

Perhaps, but it still... weird how he was still able to be a thread to every other Shard after being wounded for the fight against Ambition, not to mention against Devotion and Dominion... How? Can Shard's wounds be healed somehow?

 

19 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

Invention's been going around making random things...

Do we have any WoB on that?

 

19 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

I think most Shards had such Investments - Honor seemed to give up more power than Odium did, Cultivation gave up pieces as well, Preservation and Ruin built an entire planet/people, Invention's been going around making random things... perhaps Valor hasn't been Investing, or Mercy.

Not to speak about Whimsy and Reason... I'm the only one finding strange that two Shards whose Intents are practically opposites have been acting exactly the same (hiding/non-acting) for at least 10.000 years?

 

19 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

I actually think somewhat the opposite - some of Ambition's power is tied to Threnodites, and passed through there heritage, as the people of Canticle all seem to be fairly Invested based on their sunhearts compared to the Rosharan's. Although this does seem tied to them as a people, rather than only affecting those alive on Threnody / those alive when the Clash happened. 

I haven't thought of Canticle's inhabitants as Threnodites, I forgot about them. That make a good point, but it is still not enough investiture as to explain where is Ambition's power.

19 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

But I think, perhaps, Odium partially Splintered Ambition (or the Splinters that were made in the Threnodite system, as Ambition seems Splintered elsewhere) were placed into the Physical Realm. The Evil seems to be many large chunks of Ambition's (or Odium's) Investiture that gained some level of sentience. 

It could be, but that still leave open the question of how it is that the Evil is not ambitious. Maybe the way of Mercy of being merciful was to give a chunk of her power in order to counter Ambition's Intent on the Evil.
 

 

19 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

Oh. Maybe, actually, Mercy or Virtuosity. I do wonder if Mercy's Vessel is another Sho Del, as it would seem unlikely for their to be only one - but Chan Ko Sar / Invention also sounds Sho Del-ish.

It sound more like Ke’Chan to me.

 

19 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

That could be a Mercy on Ambition, to end her suffering. And a Mercy on Threnody, to save it. And would it be a Mercy on the greater cosmere?

I liked that, but I think we can dismiss the Threnody theory because of the killing of Ambition taking place out of the Threnodite system.

 

 

7 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

Failure results in suffering. The surest way to avoid failure is to not even try. Hence there is a reason Mercy and Ambition do not get along well.

31 minutes ago, AsherCrane said:

Technically untrue on 2 accounts.

1. Inaction can certainly lead to punishment. One could argue that it does so less often perhaps, but not enought to say not trying is the surest way to avoid it.

2. Mercy is the deliberate forgiveness of punishments, not just a lack of suffering. Without punishment or suffering, there would not be more mercy, mercy would not exist. 

Going with Ambition would the surest way of finding people who need Mercy to save them from their ambitious screw-ups.

I agree with @Oltux72 about suffering, because trying means putting a part of yourself into the fight, a part of your self-esteem, which causes more suffering when you lose than when you don't try. And at the same time, it'sGoing with Ambition would the surest way of finding people who need Mercy to save them from their ambitious screw-ups."

What I don't understand yet is why would Mercy not interfere against Odium when he came to destroy Ambition, potentially causing incredible amount of suffering to the Threnodites.

He thinks for a minute

Ahhh, because the mercy goes AFTER the suffering have been dealt... Isn't that kinda worrying?

[Ashbringer he/him]

7 minutes ago, Onironte said:

Perhaps, but it still... weird how he was still able to be a thread to every other Shard after being wounded for the fight against Ambition, not to mention against Devotion and Dominion... How? Can Shard's wounds be healed somehow?

Well, there's also that most Shards didn't consider him much of a threat, particularly after being bound on Roshar. Valor is AWOL, Autonomy has her own plans, Endowment is being Endowment.

But also, the fact that Odium took down Devotion+Dominion together would indicate that he's got ways around the power imbalance he's got. Despite being weaker than Honor, he got the better of him by dragging down Tanavast so much he lost Honor.

9 minutes ago, Onironte said:

Do we have any WoB on that?

Not a WoB, but Tanavast seems to think that's what they've been up to in WaT, making marvels across the cosmere.

11 minutes ago, Onironte said:

Not to speak about Whimsy and Reason... I'm the only one finding strange that two Shards whose Intents are practically opposites have been acting exactly the same (hiding/non-acting) for at least 10.000 years?

Whimsy's probably not hiding, just not being very helpful as per their Intent. Reason fully is in hiding. There's probably a reason that Honor didn't ask Whimsy for help.

... speaking of which, there's probably a reason Honor didn't ask Mercy for help either...

23 minutes ago, Onironte said:

It could be, but that still leave open the question of how it is that the Evil is not ambitious. Maybe the way of Mercy of being merciful was to give a chunk of her power in order to counter Ambition's Intent on the Evil.

I mean, we haven't seen too much of the Evil to say for certain, but Investiture that gains sentience isn't necessarily limited by the Shard's Intent - Nightblood isn't all that Endow-ing of a personality, for instance.

24 minutes ago, Onironte said:

I liked that, but I think we can dismiss the Threnody theory because of the killing of Ambition taking place out of the Threnodite system.

Fair. Could still be she interfered in some way, maybe to take the fight away from Threnody which helped Odium in some way.

[Onironte he/him]

51 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

Well, there's also that most Shards didn't consider him much of a threat, particularly after being bound on Roshar. Valor is AWOL, Autonomy has her own plans, Endowment is being Endowment.

But also, the fact that Odium took down Devotion+Dominion together would indicate that he's got ways around the power imbalance he's got. Despite being weaker than Honor, he got the better of him by dragging down Tanavast so much he lost Honor.

"Endowment is being Endowment"... liked that. Yeah, I agree with the practice of Odium with Shard-to-Shard confrontations making him more perilous, not necessarily strongest in raw power.

 

51 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

Not a WoB, but Tanavast seems to think that's what they've been up to in WaT, making marvels across the cosmere.

That make sense...

 

51 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

... speaking of which, there's probably a reason Honor didn't ask Mercy for help either...

Even though helping honor wouldn't have gone against Mercy's Intent (from my point of view)

 

51 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

I mean, we haven't seen too much of the Evil to say for certain, but Investiture that gains sentience isn't necessarily limited by the Shard's Intent - Nightblood isn't all that Endow-ing of a personality, for instance.

I agree in general terms (mistborns doesn't seem to be pacific people, nor Kandra violent...) but if we are talking about the Evil being the main remnant of Ambition's power (far more invested than Nightblood) there should be at least some Ambition related trait (as Nergaoul is biased to Odium's Intent, but even more clearly, for the Evil being more Invested)

Edit: I've just seen @Ixthos proposing on this topic that Ambition's corpse is hidden at Silverlight, and I think that's a worthy theory.

Edited March 17, 2025 by Onironte

[Nitpicking]

5 hours ago, Onironte said:

It could be, but that still leave open the question of how it is that the Evil is not ambitious. Maybe the way of Mercy of being merciful was to give a chunk of her power in order to counter Ambition's Intent on the Evil.

How honorable are the Honorspren who ruled Lasting Integrity, like Sekeir? Not very.

For that matter, how Odious is El? Not at all. He seems to hate no one. (El, of course, is a Cognitive Shadow, not a spren, but he certainly should have been very influenced by Odium.)

[Onironte he/him]

6 hours ago, Nitpicking said:

How honorable are the Honorspren who ruled Lasting Integrity, like Sekeir? Not very.

For that matter, how Odious is El? Not at all. He seems to hate no one. (El, of course, is a Cognitive Shadow, not a spren, but he certainly should have been very influenced by Odium.)

Yes, it is truth that Honorsprens are not an example of Honor, nor El is of Odium, but still they are small chunks of Honor's and Odium's power. If we are arguin that the Evil is the last remnant of Ambition's power, it has to be Invested by thousand (an approximation) times more power. However, if we agree on most of Ambition's Investiture (aka Ambition's corpse) being out there hidden, maybe Silverlight, maybe Vax (why not?), maybe Braize or wherever, the Evil would be less Invested to a similar level as sprens or unmades, so that could explain why is not especially ambitious.

Edited March 18, 2025 by Onironte

[+Oltux72 he/him]

14 hours ago, AsherCrane said:

Technically untrue on 2 accounts.

1. Inaction can certainly lead to punishment. One could argue that it does so less often perhaps, but not enought to say not trying is the surest way to avoid it.

It can. It does not need to. Ambition I would see in the social sense. The collective sense of achievement against adverse conditions is too close to Invention or even Cultivation. If you have competitors, you necessarily will have losers.

14 hours ago, AsherCrane said:

2. Mercy is the deliberate forgiveness of punishments, not just a lack of suffering. Without punishment or suffering, there would not be more mercy, mercy would not exist. 

Going with Ambition would the surest way of finding people who need Mercy to save them from their ambitious screw-ups.

That would turn Mercy into the firefighter who turns arsonist to get fires to fight. Shards can take the approach that one has to restrain oneself and accept an exception for the greater good. That is precisely what Cultivation preached to Odium. Mercy may have decided that the clash against Ambition is inevitable. Hence it was better to get it over with quickly. You may note that no other vessel had a high opinion of Uli Da. Mercy may have just been a realist.

[AsherCrane]

9 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

That would turn Mercy into the firefighter who turns arsonist to get fires to fight. Shards can take the approach that one has to restrain oneself and accept an exception for the greater good.

On the other hand, Ruin explicitly was willing to preserve some things to create greater destruction. Terrifying to think that Mercy without Devotion (Which Honor described as Divine love and compassion), could be one massive savior complex that creates problems specifically to save people from it.