Compassion
| Compassion | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||
| |||||
| Abilities | Sunheart[2] | ||||
| Titles | Compassion[3] | ||||
| Religion | Adonalsium[4] | ||||
| Groups | Greater Good | ||||
| Residence | Beacon | ||||
| Ethnicity | Threnodite | ||||
| Nationality | Union (formerly)[5] | ||||
| Homeworld | Canticle | ||||
| Universe | Cosmere | ||||
| First Appeared | The Sunlit Man | ||||
Compassion is one of the three members of the Greater Good, the ruling council of Beacon on Canticle.[6] As the eldest member of the Greater Good, she is also likely the oldest citizen in Beacon.[4]
Appearance and Personality[edit]
Like the other members of the Greater Good, Compassion is an elderly woman and wears common black dresses, gloves, and a hat even while indoors.[6] She has darker ebony skin similar to the complexions found in central or western Roshar, light brown eyes, and white hair kept in tight white curls.[6][3] She is shorter, older, and frailer than the other members of the Greater Good and requires help to walk.[6][4][3] Her voice is small and frail and wavers when she speaks yet she portrays an inner strength that belies her outer fragility.[4][3]
“And yet there was a strength to her. The strength of someone who had bowed to the years, but not yet surrendered to them.”
Due to her advanced age Compassion is nearly always seen sitting down.[2] She is typically provided a seat but will sit on the floor if the need arises.[7][8][1] After crossing the mountains in the southern corridors of Canticle, Compassion is wrapped in a blanket.[8]
Compassion's birth name is unknown, having taken up the title Compassion upon being named to the Greater Good.[3][9] As the embodiment of compassion on Beacon's ruling council, her primary focus is typically the physical and emotional welfare of her people[6][4][3][1] often deferring to Confidence and Contemplation for planning and tactics.[3] Her role in the Greater Good is in seeing the bigger picture and planning for the long term. This at times requires her to place higher value on the survival of the collective above that of the individual.[2]
Compassion's empathy extends beyond the living members of her community. She is keenly aware of the responsibility she has to uphold the memory and legacy of deceased Beaconites and includes the memory of their contributions into her decision making.[6][4][3][7] She also shows aptitude for understanding the motivations of her foes as she is able to predict the Cinder King's thinking by understanding his drive to maintain authority.[6]
Compassion worships Adonalsium, whom their people learned of on Hell,[4][5][10] before being led to Canticle by the first Lodestar and believes that it will bless their endeavor to find and open the door to the Refuge.[4]
Attributes and Abilities[edit]
Sunheart[edit]
As with all Canticlites, Compassion can transfer Investiture in the form of heat between herself and people or sunhearts with whom she has a Connection.[11][2] If she were left in the sun on Canticle, she would presumably leave behind a sunheart with at least 200 Breath Equivalent Units of Investiture.[5][12]
History[edit]
Compassion was born on Canticle and was later in life named to the Greater Good of the Beaconite community (then under the rule of the Cinder King).[5] As a member of the Greater Good and thus an elder in the community, Compassion was meant to be one of the next to be turned into a sunheart to keep the community afloat.[13] However, the Greater Good named Elegy Salvage to be Beacon's Lodestar who ended the tradition of sacrificing the eldest members of the community to pursue instead the Sunlit Ones' Refuge.[6][4][9]
After the Rescue[edit]
The Greater Good is informed of the results of Zeal's raid on Union; their Lodestar Elegy and the Cinder King's Scadrian authorization key, believed at the time to be a key to the Refuge, had both been recovered at great cost, including Elegy and Rebeke Salvage's brother Divinity. Compassion councils that they have a duty to test the key, likely referring to the lives lost in the mission to obtain it and commends Zeal and his team for their willingness to steal it. When Confidence warns that the Cinder King will chase the Beaconites for stealing the key, Compassion explains how the Cinder King would seek to chase and destroy them regardless and that stealing the key had only hardened his resolve as he relied on his people believing in his uncontested authority.[6]
Upon learning that Nomad had survived for several seconds in the sunlight, Compassion explains to him the story of the Sunlit Ones who could survive and use the sunlight by taking it into themselves and were thus able to stay in one place long enough to build a city beneath the ground. Despite Confidence’s incredulity, Compassion believes that Nomad’s survival indicates that he is one of these Sunlit Ones, a belief that is shortly strengthened when Nomad reveals that he is able to read the Scadrian text on the authorization key and can communicate with the people behind the door it opens. Compassion councils that she believes Adonalsium will bless their endeavor to find and open the door to the Refuge but requests that they ask the Beaconites for their consent before committing to such a risky course. In return for translating the authorization key and helping the Beaconites reach the door the Greater Good agrees to give Nomad food, drink, clothing, and remove the bracers the Charred had put on him when he arrived at Union.[4]
Jeffrey Jeffrey cautions that the plan is dangerous and that Beacon will have to be disassembled in preparation for entering the Refuge once it is found. Compassion thanks Jeffrey Jeffrey for his assessment and notes that they will make that clear in their explanations to the people of Beacon. She explains that they must put their hopes in this plan despite its risk as they are running out of resources and their sunhearts are dying. She tries to bolster him by asking him to imagine a brighter future where they can prove that the people of Canticle do not require the Cinder King’s tyrannical false unity to survive.[4]
The Greater Good's discussion turns to contemplating a punishment for Rebeke’s insubordination for which Nomad chides them. Confidence and Contemplation argue that Nomad is an outsider and, wrongly, too young to understand moderation. However, Compassion is notably silent on the matter and only speaks to offer a suggestion that Rebeke can see to Nomad’s request for food, clothing, and bed as part of her punishment.[4]
The Mountains[edit]
After failing to find the door to the Refuge and getting forced south by the Cinder King, Compassion admits to the Beaconites that they have been run into an untenable corridor with unsurpassable mountains and dwindling power supplies. Seeking a plan of action, she turns to Contemplation who does not have an answer. When Confidence later questions Nomad what the purpose of trying to summit the mountains is if by his own admission the Refuge does not exist, Compassion mollifies her and reminds her that a tiny hope is better than the alternative and that they owe it to their ancestors who had survived against all odds to at least try.[3]
Compassion is present when Nomad’s first prototype engine is tested and explodes. Nomad later comes to the Greater Good to explain that in order to get over the mountains they will need to abandon all but the ten largest ships of Beacon and Compassion expresses sorrow that Elegy’s vision of their grand city of freedom will be left to be devoured by the sun. She then points out that with only dining rooms, cargo holds, and places of worship left they will be doomed if they do not find the entrance to the Refuge.[7]
After Beacon crashes on the far side of the mountains, Compassion meets with the other members of the Greater Good, Jeffrey Jeffrey, Zeal, Rebeke, Solemnity Divine, and Nomad in the hall containing the Chorus' enclosure to discuss their next steps. She sits on the ground wrapped in a blanket while the others in attendance stand.[8]
When the remaining ships of Beacon are flying along the mountain’s shadow to escape into the night, Nomad notes that Compassion herself had insisted all the ships fly at their best speed and not slow if others had troubles.[2]
“Compassion, in this context, had to be about the survival of their people.”
—Nomad on the meaning of compassion[2]
After saving Contemplation and the other Beaconites in the straggling ship, Compassion along with the other members of the Greater Good form a circle of prayer and beckon Nomad to come to the center. The Greater Good take Nomad’s hand and Compassion tells him that Nomad is a name that no longer fits him as he has a place there with them. When Compassion uses Nomad’s birth name he notes that her pronunciation sounds slightly odd in her accent. Contemplation names him Zellion which Compassion explains means “One Who Finds” though she does not know in what language. Zellion explains that the name is from Yolen. Now having a Connection with Zellion, Compassion and the other Beaconites each give him some of their warmth, recharging Zellion's Investiture. Confidence asks Zellion if he has a plan to get them to the Refuge and he replies that he does but would like some time to process. Compassion agrees saying that he gave them every moment they have from now onwards.[2]
The Refuge[edit]
When the Scadrian scientists allow three people to accompany Zellion to negotiate, Compassion requests that Rebeke go in her place so that all three Greater Good are not simultaneously put at risk.[1]
Compassion is the first to recognize Rebeke's new status as a Sunlit One after the Cinder King's defeat. The Greater Good attempts to give Rebeke the authority to lead which she steadfastly refuses, saying the Greater Good should remain in charge.[14]
Relationships[edit]
Nomad[edit]
Compassion initially thinks Nomad may be from a far northern corridor of Canticle based on their inability to understand him when he speaks Alethi to Auxiliary.[6] Despite Confidence’s incredulity, Compassion believes that Nomad having survived a few seconds in the sunlight indicates that he is one of the Sunlit Ones.[6]
Greater Good[edit]
Compassion and the other members of the Greater Good treat each other with great respect. Even when disagreeing with one another they preempt the disagreement with a phrase of deference.[6]
“If it pleases you to be contradicted, he would chase us anyway.”
—Compassion offering a decorous counterpoint to Confidence[6]
Elegy[edit]
The Greater Good, likely including Compassion, voted to name Elegy to be Beacon's new Lodestar.[9] Elegy's decision to search for the Refuge and end the practice of sacrificing their oldest members to become sunhearts saved their lives, as the Greater Good were to be the next sacrifices.[13]
Rebeke[edit]
As a citizen of Beacon, Rebeke is under the leadership of Compassion and the Greater Good.[15] When they meet after the rescue of Elegy from the Cinder King, Compassion consoles her for the loss of her brother Divinity.[6] While Confidence and Contemplation seek to find a suitable punishment for Rebeke disobeying their explicit orders to not attempt to rescue Elegy, Compassion offers a compromise that her punishment should be to see to the needs of the stranger, Nomad.[4] Compassion is the first to recognize Rebeke's new status as a Sunlit One and though the Greater Good attempts to hand over leadership to Rebeke, she refuses.[14]
Zeal[edit]
Zeal works under the Greater Good as a field commander or special ops planner.[3] Compassion specifically commends Zeal and his team for their willingness to steal the Scadrian authorization key during their rescue mission at Union.[6]
Jeffrey Jeffrey[edit]
Jeffrey Jeffrey works under the Greater Good as a city steward or administrator. He has served under many incarnations of the Greater Good providing Beacon with continuity of leadership as the members of the Greater Good are converted into sunhearts.[3]
Notes[edit]
- ↑ a b c d The Sunlit Man chapter 43#
- ↑ a b c d e f g The Sunlit Man chapter 39#
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l The Sunlit Man chapter 19#
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m The Sunlit Man chapter 11#
- ↑ a b c d The Sunlit Man chapter 12#
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o The Sunlit Man chapter 8#
- ↑ a b c The Sunlit Man chapter 23#
- ↑ a b c The Sunlit Man chapter 32#
- ↑ a b c The Sunlit Man chapter 20#
- ↑ The Sunlit Man chapter 34#
- ↑ The Sunlit Man chapter 21#
- ↑ The Sunlit Man chapter 24#
- ↑ a b The Sunlit Man chapter 15#
- ↑ a b The Sunlit Man epilogue#
- ↑ The Sunlit Man chapter 7#