References to Shards

[Experience he/him]

Here a couple lines that I noticed while reading that may be referencing some shards.

"Maybe I'll just let it end, he thought. A mercy killing. Like a man mortally wounded on the battlefield.

"A place with no running. A place of peace and ... whimsy."

 

So...with the first, it seems likely that Mercy would mercy kill someone. Or maybe even a shard that was wounded by Odium?

I wonder what Whimsy's planet is like.

[duladen he/him]

Not a Shard reference, but something I noticed along similar lines...

Quote

"Conquest doesn't remove countries," Nomad said. "It removes lines on a map. Unity requires something else."

 

[+Child of Hodor]

1 hour ago, duladen said:

Not a Shard reference, but something I noticed along similar lines...

Not a Shard yet! Possible Shard combo in the future or perhaps not, but that stuck out to me too. 

 

[Gavtyven he/him]

The downside to having Shards be named after normal concepts is that it's easy to get confused. I don't think the mercy killing one is referencing capital M Mercy. Mercy-killing is just too common of a phrase. The Whimsy bit though, might just reference Whimsy themselves, and I am really looking forward to more Whimsy

[TheoreticalMagic]

I would agree that mercy killing could have no correlation to the Shard BUT from what little we know of Sazed's convo with Endowment about some other Shards, there were hints that the Shard of Mercy or at least one of its holders has a rather severe and not necessarily altruistic interpretation of that particular Intent. Like it definitely contained vibes that Mercy is not a benevolent entity, or at the very least an intimidating entity to be wary of, despite common associations with mercy as a positive.

There's nothing conclusive here, I'd agree, but between the whimsy reference (used as a modifier of a specific place, a planet that very well could be invested by Whimsy), and the vibes I've had about the Shard Mercy ever since that reference to it from Sazed....there MAY be something intentional about that line, even if its not actually meant as a direct reference to the Shard itself. For instance, I could see it being part of a longterm trend on Brandon's part to slowly seed in associations between mercy and a strict/harsh interpretation of that Intent, to pave the way for Mercy being introduced as a future Big Bad. So its a good catch and now I'm gonna be on the look out for more phrasings using mercy in that way, just to see if there is a larger pattern building along those lines.

Edited October 5, 2023 by TheoreticalMagic

[Treamayne]

3 hours ago, TheoreticalMagic said:

So its a good catch and now I'm gonna be on the look out for more phrasings using mercy in that way, just to see if there is a larger pattern building along those lines.

If you have not seen it yet, check out @Duxredux's Mercy (Conspiracy Theory) thread here.

[TheoreticalMagic]

1 hour ago, Treamayne said:

If you have not seen it yet, check out @Duxredux's Mercy (Conspiracy Theory) thread here.

Ohhh I had not seen that, but it definitely fits with what I was thinking. Thanks for the link!

[apepi]

I believe there was one about Devotion?

[ZenBossanova]

14 hours ago, apepi said:

I believe there was one about Devotion?

There was a line about how special Investiture makes the Charred devoted, though devoted wasn't Capitalized. Of course, the same scientist who said that, had a jar of Dor sitting on the table. 

[Elegy he/him]

On 10/5/2023 at 7:08 PM, duladen said:

Not a Shard reference, but something I noticed along similar lines...

 

That's interesting from a thematic perspective. Brandon has named conquest a synonym for Dominion:

Quote

Questioner

I wanted to know why in The Stormlight Archive and Mistborn, all the gods were named after human traits?

Brandon Sanderson

So this is... all the books are connected. So a long time ago, the premise is, a being... god named Adonalsium was split into 16 pieces, and so the various "aspects" of god, and those aspects are now the gods of all of these things. So there were two in the Elantris world, there's one in the Warbreaker world. Mostly Mistborn and Stormlight is where you'll find out about them.

Questioner

Preservation, and... I remember Hatred [Odium] in Stormlight.

Brandon Sanderson

Yep, Preservation and Ruin. And on Sel, it was Dominion and Devotion, or Love and Conquest were the two.

Tel Aviv Signing (Oct. 18, 2019)

With the concept of unity seemingly connected to Honor in some way (given the Dalinar scene), Sigzil's statement seems like a codified version of what the Wyrn is trying on Sel versus what Dalinar is trying on Roshar. So with what he does at the end, Sigzil walks in Dalinar's footsteps and wins against the Cinder King who is in a long line of tyrant in the Cosmere that function like the Wyrn.