He is the son of Los and Enitharmon , begotten of their separation. Los, in his jealousy, takes Orc up on the mountain and binds him there as a sacrifice to Urizen. His warmth and energy awaken the dead Urizen. The actual rebellion against Urizen is led by Fuzon, who can be seen as an Orc figure in The Book of Ahania . Blake is ambivalent about the emotion Pity.
Pity defuses the power of righteous indignation and proper prophetic wrath that lead to action.
In his later works, Blake sees Pity as an emotion that can draw beings together. The Shadow is desire made immutable and immobile. It is the memory of desire. In the fallen world, it is the result of repressed desires. Thus the material world is the shadow of Eternity , the solid immobility of matter rather than the energy and fire of intellectual warfare.