Why didn't Ruin and Preservation know?

[Zelly]

The shards all have some level of foresight.  They've been peeping and planning for millennia. 

And there are all those prophecies about the Hero of Ages with the power to save or destroy, so someone sorta kinda knew what was coming...

Why then, did neither Ruin nor Preservation seem to expect/predict the loss and then merging of their shards?

Shards can be surprised, but I mean.....that's a pretty big oversight.

[Weltall]

Leras himself tells us that even Shards have a hard time distinguishing what will happen or is most likely to happen from the nearly infinite number of things that might happen. We have plenty of evidence that when two individuals with future-sight go up against one another they can interfere with each other's power to the point that it becomes effectively useless, as a general Cosmere mechanic. With Preservation being demonstrably better at seeing the future than Ruin, it's likely that the latter either never saw any version of the future in which he died or it was such an unlikely outcome that he dismissed it. Preservation for his part might well have foreseen the possibility (consider the twist in the wording of the Terris prophecies that pointed right to Sazed in the end) and accepted that outcome as the best possible result. It's just that by the time we see Leras directly, he's so far gone that he can't remember exactly what his plan was and is trusting that he set everything up properly while he was still lucid

[Dunkum he/him]

1. all shards have some level of foresight, but some are better at it than others.  Preservation has much better foresight than Ruin does, due to the nature of the shards - basically the ability to preserve is heavily dependent on the ability to predict future problems, while the ability to destroy does not necessarily need that; so Preservtaion's foresight is better than Ruin's.

2. Based on all the available information, it is not clear that Preservation didn't know.  my read of the first era Mistborn books is that he considered the possibility of his death to be acceptable in light of the ultimate gains that would come out of it - i.e. the end of Ruin as an independent entity.  in fact, he may have considered his death inevitable, in which case the influence of his shard would have pushed him toward an option like the one that we ultimately got - since any option where Ruin was still around, but Preservation was completely gone would have been antithetical to the concept of Preservation.

[Niteshado he/him]

im actually rereading secret history atm.

 

Preservation is asked about him seeing into the future by Kelsier, he says he can see a little into the future, but there are so many possibilities. 

Ruin i think was too focused on destruction to notice that possibility, if he could see further. But overall, Preservation already knew he was dying, i think his main focus was living out, and passing his power. With all that Ruin changed in texts and such, plus Preservation's deteriorating mental state, i dont believe he could see that. At all. 

All he knew was Vin was to take his place. 

[teknopathetic he/him]

1 hour ago, Weltall said:

It's just that by the time we see Leras directly, he's so far gone that he can't remember exactly what his plan was and is trusting that he set everything up properly while he was still lucid

He may have needed to be crazy as well, as a sane Leras may not have been able to ruin himself in that way. 

Edited June 27, 2018 by teknopathetic

[Weltall]

3 minutes ago, teknopathetic said:

He may have needed to be crazy as well, as a sane Leras may not have been able to ruin himself in that way. 

Well, if he did it would have been accounted-for back when he was sane since that's when he set everything in motion. But I don't think that it's really a factor since Brandon has said that Shardic Intent is not internally directed in that way.

Quote

Chaos

It's a little odd that Preservation would inherently give up its power to fuel Allomancy, because you'd think he would preserve himself, you know? Does that make sense?

Brandon Sanderson

Preservation, as a Shard, is about preserving life, people, and the like. Not about self. No more than Ruin is about destroying self, or Cultivation is about growing herself.

source

 

[Wandering Investor]

The Terris prophecies were originally created by Preservation, so it seems likely he did expect some of what occurred to happen. He may even have planned for Harmony, but was unable to recall the plan by the time of Mistborn.

As for Ruin, the leading theory on foresight is that a Shard's intent determines how good their foresight is. Ruin and Honor are concerned about the here and now. Cultivation and Preservation are concerned about both the now but also the future. So Ruin might now have been able to see the future accurately enough to find the branch that reality took.

[Solarserpent]

It takes an infinite mind to see and understand the lines of the future correctly. The shards have infinite power but are not infinitely aware or intelligent. I do wonder if Adonalsium was and if so then him shattering was expected and allowed, if not then Adonalsium was not omniscient and so was not God with a capital G.

[Veiled]

If Ruin's nature is what keeps him from seeing the future then why does burning his body allow one to see the future?

[Embrisk he/him]

I agree with what the others have said, and would like to add a few words of my own.
In my opinion, even if ruin knew there was a possibility that he would die, the most important thing to him is, well, ruin. I suppose his own death may have brought him some satisfaction in that regard. Not only that, but even if he died, he might of assumed that someone else would become ruin and continue his work. Even when Sazed became balance, he created things which eventually would die. I suppose ruin genuinely believes that ruin is inevitable, whether he is dead or not.

Edit: Ruin didn't have his body. If he did, he might have been able to predict his own death. Even if he did know, he might now have been able to prevent it without more power, anyway.

Edited October 10, 2018 by Servillius