What was Harmony the first/only shard to have done?

[Limpy]

In the book,  Ed mentions that Pathianism barely counts as a Scadrian religion because Harmony was the only shard to have done something.

What if the reason Pathianism and allomancy in general are particularly rare in space age Scadrian populations,  and why we haven't heard almost anything about northern scadrians is because Sazed took them and fled the planet or maybe did something else to protect them and seperate them from the southerners?

Maybe I am completely missing some mentions of people from the Elendel basin in either TSM or Isles. Please let me know.

Edited July 12, 2025 by Limpy
Finished

[+Oltux72 he/him]

43 minutes ago, Limpy said:

In the book,  Ed mentions that Pathianism barely counts as a Scadrian religion because Harmony was the only shard to have done something.

By the specific connection with ethnicity I would assume that Harmony has left Scadrial, or to be more precise become a multiplanet Shard without going the routes of Cultivation or Autonomy.

[lacrossedeamon]

15 hours ago, Limpy said:

In the book,  Ed mentions that Pathianism barely counts as a Scadrian religion because Harmony was the only shard to have done something.

 

14 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

By the specific connection with ethnicity I would assume that Harmony has left Scadrial, or to be more precise become a multiplanet Shard without going the routes of Cultivation or Autonomy.

This is not what is said. Ed is explaining why he can disagree with a lot of Scadrian culture while still following a Scadrian religion. The reasons given is that he thinks the Shard, presumably Harmony/Sazed, is nice and is the only Shard to have done... something... that is still living (which means that whatever was done could have also been done by a previous Shard as well).

[Elite01]

It could be something related to northern Scadrial but it could also be that Sazed/Harmony did something to distance themselves from Scadrial in general .

Spoiler

We learn that Harmony releases the Kandra from his service in Tress. It could be the Malwish were pressuring them to be spies and assassins and harmony may have stated he doesn’t want to pick a side in the war.

so Harmony did something so unique/good that makes it worth worshipping him even though other people are doing bad things in his name/by his power.

 

[+Oltux72 he/him]

On 7/13/2025 at 5:53 AM, lacrossedeamon said:

This is not what is said.

I stand corrected.

[teknopathetic he/him]

I wonder if he is the only shard to change his intent. 

[lacrossedeamon]

10 hours ago, teknopathetic said:

I wonder if he is the only shard to change his intent. 

Assuming Odium becoming Retribution doesn't count but otherwise this could be it

Edited July 15, 2025 by lacrossedeamon

[listerfeend]

What if, after becoming Discord, he actually relinquished Ruin to Kels?

[teknopathetic he/him]

I also wonder if maybe Sazed found a way to invest more generally outside of a planet. Maybe he diluted his power across the cosmere and is more able to assist people galaxy wide. This would make people feel he wasnt Scadrian in the same way. 

Edited July 16, 2025 by teknopathetic

[Cosmer]

Any chance he’s the first to give up his shards willingly and live? Leads credence to the Discord/Kelsier thoughts. 

[listerfeend]

The phrasing Ed uses really trips me up. He says
 

Quote

The only known living Shard who as performed the....

Calling a thing "the" implies a well known or formal name for something, like, someone would say "they performed the tango" or "the performed the Summoning Ritual™"

Nothing I can think of would relate Harmony/Sazed/Discord to a "the" type of action that makes any sense to me

[Jult]

On 7/12/2025 at 8:17 AM, Limpy said:

In the book,  Ed mentions that Pathianism barely counts as a Scadrian religion because Harmony was the only shard to have done something.

 

For clarity, the exact quote is:

Spoiler

Quote

“Don’t you literally worship a Scadrian?” Nazh asked.

“That’s different ,” Ed said. “He is nice . Plus, he’s the only known living Shard who has performed the—”

I think this implies that he's not the only Shard to perform this mystery action. Just the only one still living (that Ed knows of). Perhaps we should look to known deceased Vessels (Aona, Skai, Leras, Ati, Vin, Rayse, Tanavast, Uli Da, and the unnamed OG Vessel of Virtuosity) for hints of what this action could be?

"perform the -" is also a weird choice of words.

[Fyodor32768]

Do we know that he is a Paathian and not a Survivorist?

[lacrossedeamon]

6 minutes ago, Fyodor32768 said:

Do we know that he is a Paathian and not a Survivorist?

Yes. He has a Pathian earring.

[+Child of Hodor]

Performed the feat of re-splitting the shards. He took up Autonomy and split Ruin and Preservation. He's autonomously the vessel for all three shards. Or he holds Autonomy separate while Ruin and Preservation stay merged.

We're assuming it's Sazed since he's referred to as "nice", but it could be a different Scadrian. (please not Kelsier please not Kelsier) 

Edited July 22, 2025 by Child of Hodor

[earthexile]

Harmony is the only Shard we know of who created a set of scriptures and clear instructions for His people, that's pretty cool. And a Pathian would be most likely to appreciate it. I don't think it fits with the "perform" idea though.

[Elite01]

I don’t know if it was directly stated but the idea that he is “the only know living shard” makes me think he is still a shard and still alive so it’s unlikely he gave his shards away. (Unless someone is pretending to be Harmony) 

 

I think releasing Kandra, changing intent etc is so far the best.

 

makes me wonder what “dead” shards performed the same task. The only one I can think of is virtuosity (midnight painter spoiler)

Spoiler

Splintering itself 

And vin gave up her shard? Or was it kelsier who did that. 

[BinarySecond]

I was wondering if it was something to do with modifying intent whilst holding the Shard. Lots of people (I think) are expecting something like Discord to emerge - which I think would fit with a Cosmere wide war - Given the Shadowy Sazed that is seen in TLM.

[Belgarad]

My guess, similar to others, is that he willingly split his power and passed it to others.  But the twist is that he altered the Intent of the resulting shards to something like Survival and Death and gives them to Kelsier and Marsh respectively.

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

1 hour ago, Belgarad said:

My guess, similar to others, is that he willingly split his power and passed it to others.  But the twist is that he altered the Intent of the resulting shards to something like Survival and Death and gives them to Kelsier and Marsh respectively.

Maybe he only split part of his power? Like splitting half of Preservation and half of Ruin, thus leaving Sazed with two halves of each Shard, letting him still maintain a whole Shards worth of power?

There is a WOB that states a Shard could be split, and its Intent could also be split up like splitting Honor into Integrity and Bravery. So maybe Harmony could split off two half Shards and split the Intents to even out his own Shards and make it easier for him to act? And make the resulting Half-Shards have Intents that better fit certain individuals? Like Survival being a part of Preservation's Intent would fit Kelsier for sure.

Spoiler

Isaac Betzold

Could a Shard be split into smaller Intents, like if Honor were alive and then was split into maybe Integrity and Bravery?

Brandon Sanderson

This is possible. Very plausible. You ask some weird things sometimes, this one is not that weird, this is very plausible.

 

[Belgarad]

Not to mention old Ironeyes being synonymous with Death seemingly Cosmere-wide by the time of Tress.

[CognitiveShadow he/him]

I initially interpreted it as something related to changing his Shardic Intent from Harmony to Discord.... but after reading these thoughts I'm wondering about splitting them off with different intents - death and survival are pretty baller and would be cool.. but idk if I can see Kelsier and Marsh signing up for that?

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

1 hour ago, CognitiveShadow said:

I initially interpreted it as something related to changing his Shardic Intent from Harmony to Discord.... but after reading these thoughts I'm wondering about splitting them off with different intents - death and survival are pretty baller and would be cool.. but idk if I can see Kelsier and Marsh signing up for that?

I'm sure Kel wouldn't mind another go around with godhood, especially if it's more controllable than last time. Not to mention he has been questioning why some people can pick up Shards naturally, like Vin and Sazed, while others like himself can't. Though he would probably be hesitant due to it even further limiting his ability to Worldhop, but being able to create Lerasium on demand and gaining a more intimate understanding of the Metallic Arts would greatly aid his goal in democratizing Investiture for Scadrial, turning everyone into Mistborn or Full Feruchemists.

Marsh is a better question, he's already pretty tired with life by TLM, only going forward due to wanting to atone for being Ruin's puppet. Godhood probably wouldn't appeal to him all that much.

Of course, with the way Sazed is acting, I highly doubt he'd be willing to make Kelsier of all people Ascend again, he won't even tell him about how to make Lerasium, so giving him Godhood is likely the last thing on Sazed's mind.

[mai_day she/her]

I don’t know why, but I kind of feel like this line might be a bit of a misdirect/red herring. Maybe because it seems like an especially juicy tidbit cut off right at the last second; it’s almost too on the nose as a tease.

i wouldn’t be surprised if Ed was saying something like “only known living shard who has performed the rite of personally guiding the recently departed to the Beyond after death.” It’s something that we know Sazed has done, and Marsh could be telling other people about over the centuries since he knows that detail. Just that on its own could be enough to draw a non-Scadrian to worship, imo. Would be very nice to know that you’ll have someone to see you off once you die.

I could also be totally off base here and it’s hinting towards some totally epic thing that we’ll see in Era 3 of Mistborn, tho. Maybe I’m just being a contrarian.

[DSCrankshaw]

I think "living" is key to this. I think someone else has done this. A Shard that is currently dead. The list is long, and will likely get longer, by the time we reach this time period.