Odium

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Odium is the Shard of Adonalsium held by Rayse. Unlike most other Shards, which typically pick a single world and settle there, Odium has been traveling freely throughout the cosmere for a long period of time, deliberately refusing to Invest himself anywhere. 
He is responsible for the deaths of at least four Shards -- Ambition, Devotion, Dominion, and Honor. Prior to the Night of Sorrows, he was confined to the Rosharan system. Odium’s Investiture is typically associated with “burning” gold or violet-black colors, though it is also often red, the color that signifies corrupted Investiture. His overall motif is red-gold, although gold is his "real" color.
Odium is considered by Cultivation to be the most dangerous of the Shards.
== Intent ==
The Shard of Odium is even harder to control than Ruin. Odium is considered the Shard of hatred and divine wrath, uncoupled from divine love and mercy. However, interpretation of the Shard's Intent is not as simple. Frost and Hoid claim a straightforward definition: that it is God's own divine hatred, divorced from the other aspects that give it meaning. Rayse himself, however, claims that he's Passion, a Shard of emotions, in particular excessive emotions. This is also espoused by Taravangian, while holding Odium. When he reflects on the Shard's Intent, Taravangian comes to the understanding that it does not contain "subtler" emotions like love, and tends to like anger above all others. 
Upon Ascension, Taravangian grappled with the vicious urge to destroy and burn. Many of his splinters, the Unmade compel people to give in to powerful sensations - Ashertmarn compels people to revel mindlessly, and Nergaoul inspires exultation in battle. On the other hand, the overwhelming amount of emotions inspired by Odium are hateful, among them the aforementioned Thrill and the Rhythms of Odium-derived singer forms. Moreover, Odium's influence sometimes promotes apathy rather than passion, as his followers are encouraged to give up their pain and sense of guilt. However, this was moreso due to how Rayse manifested Odium, than something intrinsic to it, with Taravangian encouraging his followers to revel in their emotions, rather than giving them up. He considered Rayse a glutton for his actions. 
When the Shard was viewed by Dalinar, it was described as being the lives and emotions of all men compounded into one. Furthermore, Taravangian experienced a strong Connection to Odium when he was in a state of heighted emotions. He, as Odium, could feel the suffering, pain, and emotion of all people across the cosmere, as if they were his own.
Odium likes questions and arguments, which conflicts with Rayse's own hatred of being questioned.
Apart from the issue of the Shard's nature, Rayse desired to become the sole god of the cosmere. Whether this is due to the Vessel or the Shard is unknown.
== Associated Magics ==
=== Voidlight ===
Voidlight is the gaseous form of Odium's Investiture, analogous to Honor's Stormlight. Unlike Stormlight, however, Voidlight's applications are far more narrow. It can be utilized by the Fused to provide healing and fuel their use of Surges, and it might have some relation to the forms of power used by the Regals. It has applications in fabrial technology created via the process of corrupting spren and then trapping them within an appropriate gemstone housing, similar to normal fabrials.
A singer can sing the Song of Prayer to obtain Voidlight, though this would draw Odium's attention and appears to have certain limitations. In the past, it was also provided by Ba-Ado-Mishram, and possibly through other means.
Voidlight can be combined with Stormlight via the use of the Rhythm of War, binding them into a form of light called "Warlight" that has a dark blue-white appearance.
=== Everstorm ===
Odium is able to manipulate a powerful weather pattern on Roshar. While they normal arrive within a certain schedule, Odium is capable of altering the Everstorm's speed as he desires. He can accelerate it, pushing it to go around the planet in as little as five days. He can also bring it to a full stop and hold it stationary for hours.
=== Raysium ===
Raysium is a God Metal, a physical form of Odium's raw power. It is gold-white in color and its ability to conduct Investiture has many applications in fabrial technology.
=== Surgebinding ===
Surgebinding on Roshar is a magic system used by the Fused. According to the Fused, Honor is responsible for making the Surges into natural law.
=== Voidbinding ===
The Rosharan magic system associated with Odium is Voidbinding. Very little is known about it at the moment, including the specific powers it grants or the method of acquiring the ability to Voidbind. What is known is that there are ten levels to it, and that it involves something called the Voidbindings, which might be the name of individual powers, analogous to Surges. It is highly likely that predicting the future is one of those powers.
=== Spren ===
Despite his reservations about Investing into a planet, Odium has created numerous spren in the Rosharan system, known collectively as Voidspren. Some of them are intelligent, and capable of autonomous thought in the Physical Realm despite not being bonded to a living creature, in contrast to most spren of Honor or Cultivation. Others are as mindless as ordinary emotion or nature spren. Singers can bond the latter to become Regals, taking the spren into their gemhearts to gain forms with supernatural abilities ranging from speaking all languages, to summoning lightning.
Standing apart from regular voidspren are the Unmade, a group of nine great Splinters of Odium, each granted immense power. Their abilities vary from Unmade to Unmade--some are capable of influencing human minds, some can grant powers to other creatures, and others have the ability to change spren. Likewise, their levels of intelligence vary; while Sja-anat is almost human-like, Nergaoul behaves more like a blind force of nature or animal.
=== Fused ===
Fused are Cognitive Shadows of singers bound to Odium. This grants them numerous benefits, chief among them the ability of resurrection by taking over the bodies of their living kinsmen. During the True Desolation, this can occur when the Everstorm passes over singers who have been mentally primed to let something into their gemhearts. How this bonding happened before the Everstorm existed is unknown. Odium is able to take away their immortality.
The Fused can use Voidlight to heal themselves, as well to fuel their use of Surges. Unlike Knights Radiant, the Fused have access to only one Surge each. However, Lady Leshwi claims that the Fused are more skilled with their Surge, due to the Fused being more internally focused, while the Radiants are more externally focused.
=== Passions ===
By Connecting with someone, Odium is able to take away their negative emotions and passions, including fear, anger, pain, and insecurities. When negative emotions arise, they are quickly sucked away by Odium, leaving the person feeling nothing. This Connection can be disrupted, allowing the person to feel their pain in full.
He is also capable of feeling emotions of others as if they were his own, he feels emotions and pain all across the cosmere. This was initially overwhelming to Taravangian upon becoming the Vessel of Odium. This does not appear to be able to be ignored or deactivated, as it is an inherent aspect of the power the Vessel holds.
== History ==
=== Ancient History ===
==== Creation and initial killings ====
Odium was created at the Shattering, around ten-thousand Rosharan years before the True Desolation, when the creator god, Adonalsium, was killed by sixteen people, splitting it into sixteen Shards. One of those killers was Rayse, who chose for himself the Shard of Odium.
At some point after Ascending, Odium went after one of his fellow Shards, Ambition, as he felt most threatened by her Intent. However, before he could find her, he located two other Shards, Devotion and Dominion, in the Selish system. Because they had settled together, Odium attacked them, since he could argue that they were breaking the agreement the Vessels made about not being in the same system as another Shard. Through means unknown, Odium killed and Splintered them both. To prevent their remaining power from gaining intelligence of its own, he then pulled it out of the Spiritual Realm and into the Cognitive, creating the Dor and causing Sel's magic systems to become location-dependent. He wasn't very experienced at the time, and his countermeasure failed as the Dor did, indeed, begin to gain a measure of sentience.
After creating the Dor, Odium went on to the Threnodite system, where he found and attacked his initial target, Ambition. During the fight, Ambition was dealt a grievous wound, and chunks of her power were flung across the system. Ambition managed to flee the system, but was still Splintered in a fight with Odium. The Shard Mercy was also involved in at least one battle with Ambition and Odium. These clashes resulted in a wound in the Spiritual Realm and had "disturbing" effects that "twisted" the planet Threnody and its inhabitants. 
Although Odium was successful in these initial conflicts, he was weakened and severely wounded by them.
==== Intervention on Alaswha ====
Odium intervened with human development on the planet of Alaswha in the Rosharan System around eight thousand years before the Night of Sorrows. According to Ishar, Hoid was in same way responsible for the humans of Ashyn gaining contact with Odium. Odium granted powerful Surges to one of the many city-states dotting the planet, and backed it in its hegemonic expansion into an immense empire. He introduced himself to the people of Alaswha as Passion, not Odium.
==== Battle with Honor ====
Next, over seven-thousand Rosharan years before the True Desolation, Odium set out for Rosharan system, seeking to kill either Honor, Cultivation, or both. According to the Eila Stele, he was brought by the humans from another world, and the singers considered him a human god. It can be assumed that Odium was crucial in the breakdown of the relations between the two species. Eventually, for unknown reasons, a swap occurred, whereupon singers came to worship Odium while humans began serving Honor and Cultivation. Both sides created their own immortal armies - Odium, the Fused, and Honor, the Heralds.
Honor fought Odium with assistance from Cultivation, and the two bound him to the Rosharan system, whilst also prevented him from acting directly against most individuals on Roshar. As a result of this binding, Roshar adopted Rayse. Honor additionally crafted the Oathpact, which would use the Heralds to imprison Odium's forces on Braize along with their master. However, Odium was a much better fighter, and Honor was killed, though he inflicted a deep wound on Odium.
=== Preparations ===
Killing Honor did not free Odium from Braize, and the sacrifice of the Herald Taln meant that he could not send his armies to Roshar. And so, for the next four and a half thousand years, he prepared for the time when Taln would break, allowing for one last Desolation -- the True Desolation.
Odium, though severely limited by Honor's actions, was nonetheless active. He also kept a limited awareness of what was going on all across the cosmere, and was aware that Ruin and Preservation had combined to become Harmony in Scadrian Year , over three-hundred years before the True Desolation. The idea of someone taking up two Shards at once, and finding harmony between them, terrified him. He therefore began formulating a plan to eliminate this threat after being freed from the Rosharan System.
As one of his Unmade, Nergaoul, was still free, Odium sent him to Alethkar to facilitate the Thrill among the Alethi. Over the centuries, the battle-rage brought about by Nergaoul became normal, and even desirable to the Alethi men; this developed affinity allowed Odium to control them using the Thrill. Moreover, the Thrill allowed Odium to groom a champion whom he could later put in command of his armies and use to release himself. In the final decades of the Era of Solitude, such a potential champion appeared in the form of Dalinar Kholin. Odium focused on him to ensure he had as many hooks in him as possible.
Odium also focused on the listeners, a group of singers that had denied him some centuries prior. On the day of a treaty between them and the Alethi, Odium used one of his voidspren to lead them to buy an assassin, Szeth, who was used when Eshonai found out that the Alethi king, Gavilar Kholin, intended to release the very gods the listeners had once fled. Whether Gavilar's plan was inspired by Odium or not, it pushed the listeners to assassinate him, leading to the War of Reckoning. The War brought tremendous losses to the listeners, until the idea of assuming the old forms of power grew appealing to them. Through Ulim, Odium persuaded the listeners to assume stormform and summon the Everstorm, beginning the True Desolation.
=== True Desolation ===
==== Preparing a champion ====
As the True Desolation began and the Fused started taking over human territory, Odium focused on Dalinar Kholin while maneuvering his forces towards Thaylen City, where the confrontation between the two sides would occur. He penetrated one of Dalinar's visions and let him believe that Odium was the Almighty for a short while before revealing himself. Although Dalinar refused to release him, Odium was certain that Dalinar would eventually do so, and showed him his true form when Dalinar began to get too comfortable. He did not, however, agree to the contest of champions Dalinar suggested. 
Odium also interacted with Venli. He stopped the Fused from taking her body and granted her envoyform instead to spread his propaganda among the newly awakened singers. When she didn't work hard enough to his satisfaction, he tortured and threatened her, causing Venli to reconsider her current allegiance further.
Dalinar and Odium spoke once more in a different vision, after Dalinar attempted to negotiate with Venli. Odium initially attempted to tear the vision apart, although Dalinar managed to send Venli out of it before that could happen. Odium then appeared to Dalinar and scolded him for thinking that any sort of accord between the two races was possible, before reassuring Dalinar that peace would, indeed, happen -- after Roshar was destroyed.
==== Battle of Thaylen Field ====
Odium decided to lead his forces on Thaylen City personally, although he didn't intend to use the plain singers in battle. He first sent a pair of thunderclasts, one to destroy the city walls, and the other to get to the Thaylen Gemstone Reserve, along with Fused to ensure that the King's Drop wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. Then, Odium used Nergaoul and the Alethi dependence on the Thrill to possess the Sadeas princedom forces in the city and make them turn against their own allies.
Odium then went, taking with him Venli and several other Fused, to confront Dalinar in front of the city. Dalinar once more repeated his demand for the contest of champions, and this time, Odium agreed, before revealing that his champion would be Dalinar himself. By reminding Dalinar of his past crimes, chief among them the murder of his wife, Evi, Odium attempted to persuade Dalinar to surrender his guilt and accept that it was all Odium's fault. However, though Dalinar was initially horrified, he refused to give in. Odium could only watch, speechless, as Dalinar's newfound resolve allowed him to swear the Third Ideal of the Bondsmiths and open Honor's Perpendicularity.
This development horrified Odium, especially when he recognized whatever Dalinar became at this moment. Realizing that he lost his trump card -- and that Dalinar could now push him into a real contest of champions -- Odium swiftly retreated from the field, leaving his armies to lose the battle.
==== Deal with Taravangian ====
King Taravangian of Kharbranth had been planning to strike a deal with Odium for some time, as neither he nor his Diagram believed that defeating a god would be plausible. As such, he found a way to communicate with the Shard, both by writing and through actions such as opening the Kholinar Oathgate to let the Voidbringers invade Urithiru.
Some time after the Battle of Thaylen Field, Odium obliged him, visiting him in Urithiru after Taravangian let him in by opening a window. Odium revealed that he knew perfectly well that Taravangian had both brilliant and less intelligent days, and deliberately visited on one of the latter, to make sure that Taravangian knew he had nothing to negotiate with. Though Odium praised the Diagram, he used it to show how much further his own future sight reached. This inadvertently let Taravangian know that Odium was unable to perceive anything involving Renarin Kholin.
By reading the Diagram, Taravangian eventually managed to negotiate with Odium, though his initial offering of sparing anyone Taravangian ruled was discarded, with Odium pointing out that Taravangian sought to become the king of the whole of Roshar. Eventually, the two settled on sparing the citizens of Kharbranth and their spouses.
==== Contest of Champions ====
A year later, Odium brought Dalinar into a vision and agreed to set the terms of their contest. Although Odium's most important point was being able to leave Roshar--a restriction that Dalinar could have lifted, as the largest remnant of Honor's Investiture--Dalinar refused, deciding that since Honor had died to keep Odium in the system, that point would need to remain. At this point, Odium came very close to incinerating Dalinar, almost losing control of his Intent, but managed to keep his temper in check. Eventually, they agreed that on the tenth day of the new month, they would each appoint a willing champion, who would be allowed to the top of Urithiru—unharmed by either side—to fight to the death. If Dalinar's champion won, Odium would return Alethkar and Herdaz to the coalition, fulfilling Dalinar's oath to the Mink. If Odium's champion won, he would keep those two nations and Dalinar would serve his interests in the wider cosmere as a Fused. In either case, Odium would remain bound to the Rosharan system, but would keep the other lands he had won and be able to send agents to the wider Cosmere, and both leaders would be required to enforce the peace to the best of their ability. Additionally, at least some of the protections specified for Hoid in Dalinar's initial proposal seem to be in effect.
===Taravangian's Ascension===
Later that day, Taravangian managed to manipulate Szeth and Rayse to come to him at the same time. When Rayse pulled him into a vision, Taravangian grabbed Nightblood's Cognitive aspect and stabbed Rayse with it, killing him. Right before this happened, Szeth had stabbed Taravangian with his belt knife, but just as he died, Taravangian Ascended to become Odium. His previous Old Magic afflictions seemed to vanish as soon as he Ascended, giving him both emotion and intelligence in far greater amounts, and he possessed all the power of the Shard of Odium. Taravangian realized that Rayse had been sliding towards oblivion for a very long time, as he had been severely weakened by his previous battles, especially against Honor; Rayse had been enslaved by the power he wielded. Rayse's body appeared in the place of Taravangian's, although it was so damaged by Nightblood that Szeth was unable to tell the difference. 
Some time later, when Hoid was walking the hallways in Elhokar's palace, Taravangian confronted him. When he asked Hoid what he would have done in Taravangian's place, Hoid realized that there was a new Vessel, and was unable to hide his terror. Taravangian then tampered with the Breaths that Wit was using to contain his memories, and retried the whole encounter, this time pretending to be Rayse much more effectively.
=== Formation of Retribution ===
== Influence ==
Throughout his existence, Odium has had profound effect on the cosmere and several of its planets in particular. He has been called the most frightening and terrible of all Shards, and with good reason. He has a wish to become the sole god in the Cosmere, and to that end, he has gone around the Cosmere Splintering, or attempting to Splinter, all other Shards.
On Sel, Odium's murder of Devotion and Dominion suffused the entirety of the planet's Cognitive Realm, fuelling its magic systems. The seons and skaze are splinters of Devotion and Dominion respectively.
On Threnody, Odium's battle with Ambition had vast ramifications for the entire system, though what exactly this entails is unclear. It's possible that the Evil that had taken over Homeland, as well as the Shades, is a side effect of the battle between the Shards. Harmony noted a wound on the Spiritual Realm itself where Ambition was Splintered.
On Roshar, Odium's influence is felt most acutely through the numerous Desolations he caused, as well as the murder and subsequent splintering of Honor, which made the Stormfather what he is today. He is known obliquely in the various religions of the world as the leader of the voidspren and the force behind the Voidbringers. In the present, the Everstorm and the True Desolation are his doing.
== Trivia ==
* Odium is one of the only five characters who have spoken in small-caps, the other four are: Sylphrena, Cultivation, Dalinar, and the Stormfather.
* Odium's original name was Hatred; Brandon changed it because, in his words, it was "too on-the-nose", while the name Odium brought the Shard a step closer to Passion.
* The mere mention of the word Odium makes Syl hiss.
* Odium is very scared of Harmony.
* Odium might currently have an alliance -- or, at least, an understanding -- with Bavadin, the Vessel of Autonomy, although he was considering double-crossing her after dealing with Honor and Cultivation. He's also allied with a cosmere power other than her.
* In Magic:The Gathering colors, Odium would be red.
* Odium is weirded out by Lift.
* Rayse hates puppies.
* Jasnah would be a good candidate for controlling Odium's power.
* Odium was not in possession of a Dawnshard.
* Rayse was aware of Thaidakar. It is unknown whether Taravangian is.
== Notes ==
es: Odium
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