Rayse (The Stormlight Archive)

"I know pain. I am the only god who does. The only one who cares."

- Rayse

Summary
Rayse, also known as simply Odium, is the first Vessel of the Shard Odium, the Shard of Passion and Hatred. He was one of the Sixteen individuals who acted in the Shattering of Adonalsium.

History
He was born a normal human named Rayse, and he became good friends with Hoid. Though at some point in their past their relationship broke up and they began to hold a seething grudge against each other.

Sometime in the past, he joined in a conspiracy with fifteen other individuals to shatter Adonalsium. And successfully carried out their plans, breaking it up into Sixteen Shards. He took up the Shard of Odium.

He became known and feared for not Investing himself in an individual planet, but rather traveling across The Cosmere and killing and Splintering every other Shard he came across. Slaying Devotion and  Dominion on his path to  Ambition.

He began to interact with the people of Ashyn, and encouraged them to start experimenting with Surges. Ultimately leading to the scourging of Ashyn and the exodus of most of Ahsynite Humans to the planet of Roshar. At some point, he began to side with the Singers, and held a battle against Honor and  Cultivation, who had turned on the Singers to join Humanity. This conflict concluded with him being bound to the planet of Braize via the Oathpact, and would spend the next several millennia trying to escape his bondage.

He would have his followers go to Roshar many times whenever a Herald broke, bringing about several Desolations which always returned humanity back to a more primitive era, stunting their development. It was seemingly sometime during these Desolations that he created his Unmade, which were a particular threat to humanity during the Desolations. This lasted until the Aharietiam around year -3332, which essentially sealed him and his followers away, as they couldn't break Talenel no matter how hard they tried.

He was aware of the birth of Harmony around the year 800, and greatly feared him, not just for his power, but also for what he represented, the fusion of two Shards into a single greater one.

Even though he was sealed, his subtle manipulations are what led to many things, such as shaping Dalinar Kholin into the kind of man he needed to elect as his Champion, and gave him the trauma which he believed would make him give in to remove the pain of guilt; he always led to the assassination of  Gavilar Kholin, the War of Reckoning, and ultimately the coming of the Everstorm and the True Desolation.

During the True Desolation he attempted to find a Champion in Dalinar Kholin, who he had been grooming to be his Champion since his youth, in order to assist himself in escaping from his bondage. Though his attempts ultimately failed as Dalinar turned against him and refused to become his Champion, much to the god's anger and dismay.

He ultimately perished and had his Shard taken from him by Taravangian in the year 1175.

Appearance
He takes on a different appearance depending upon who he is talking to.

To humans he presents himself as an old man with a wide, furrowed face and bone-white hair sweeping back from his head, and thick mustaches with a hint of black in them blended into a short white beard. He has light skin and lacks epicanthic folds, and he wears wears a golden crown in his powdery hair.

To Singers he presents himself as an ancient singer with gold and white marbled skin.

Rayse
Little is known about Rayse from before he picked up the Shard of Odium beyond how he was described by those who knew him. He was described as cunning and ambitious, with Hoid calling him "among the most loathsome, crafty, and dangerous individuals I had ever met."

Odium
As Odium he maintains much of his original personality, being very cunning and manipulative. Often taking on a façade of kindness, acting grandfatherly and friendly to Dalinar when he first met with him in a vision. He also tends to praise his target effusively in order to try to honey them up to him. He is willing to put up such a façade for as long as it needs to be put up to fool people, trying to present himself as a reasonable ally instead of the vicious warlord with a god complex he really is.

While he does wish to get his plans done was quickly as possible, he also is not one to rush things. With his plans to escape his prison and gaining a Champion being long reaching and complex. He also is able to understand when he needs to flee to regroup and try another day.

He is very arrogant and loves to show off and be worshipped. When he pulls people into a vision, presenting himself with a powerful, dominating figure beyond what is necessary, for the purposes of gaining fear and reverence. He also tends to show off when others stand up to him, or show great feats; such as when he saw the Diagram he thought to show Taravangian how small and meagre his predictions were compared to the vision of a God, or when Dalinar got cocky against him he decided to show him a very brief glimpse of the true essence of Odium. Following from this God-Complex and desire to be the greatest, he doesn't want there to be any other God in the Cosmere to be equal to or greater than him, which is what led to him going around the Cosmere and slaying various Shards.

Even though he desires more power, he doesn't take in other Shards, for he feels that the Intents and aspects of the Shards would sully him and change him. Therefore he rather Splinter the power, so that he would not be changed by it, and no other being could come to take it up themselves.

He greatly fears Harmony, not just due to his power, which surpasses his own, but also due to what he represents.

Powers and Stats
Name: Rayse | Odium, Rasen (By the Alethi), Nun Raysli (By the Tashikki), The Unnatural One (by Pattern), The Broken One (in a Death Rattle), Vun Makak or Nu Ralik (Possibly),

Age: At least 11,000

Gender: Male

Classification: Human | Vessel of Odium

Powers and Abilities: Rayse = unknown Vessel of Odium = Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Immortality (He is able to live for any amount of time so long as he isn't slain, and he cannot die from any disease nor wound of flesh), Precognition (Type 2) (He is abe to see all the paths that the future can take, and make very accurate assumptions as to what path the future would take), Teleportation, Abstract Existence, Empathic Manipulation, Limited Omnipresence within the Everstorm, Power Bestowal (Is able to grant various powers to his followers), Soul Manipulation, Madness Manipulation (Through revealing his true essence, he can easily break the minds of people and drive them to madness), Resurrection (Is able to resurrect his followers), Telepathy, Avatar Creation

Abilities Not Shown
Abilities shown by other Shards, but not yet displayed by Odium. These are all assumptions of what he should have and should not be taken as fact.

Possible Bilocation, Biological Manipulation (Various Shards have shown the ability to actively manipulate the biology of beings down to a genetic and cellular level)

Attack Potency: Unknown as a human, we have never seen him as a human nor heard much of his level of strength as a human, therefore it is left as an unknown | As the Vessel of Odium he is one of the most powerful beings in the entire Cosmere, holding onto a tremendous amount of Investiture. He is said to be capable of reducing the entire planet of Roshar to dust. He is not capable of pulling upon the entirety of his power, but it is known to be enough to break a man, and was compared to "the heat of a thousand suns". He is powerful enough to match up to and kill, even Splinter, other Shards. However he is known to be weaker than Harmony.

Speed: Unknown | He is capable of teleporting around Roshar with ease, bypassing the need for traveling the distance in any meaningful timeframe. The power itself is essentially omnipresent, interpenetrating the entirety of the Cosmere.

Durability: Unknown | His exact durability seems to be far below that of the power he can wield, as he was slain by being stabbed by Nightblood's Cognitive Aspect while he was not on guard. However no exact level of durability can be gathered from this due to Nightblood's soul-effecting nature.

Intelligence: He was known to be an intelligent, crafty, and intelligent individual even before his ascension, Hoid considered him, "among the most loathsome, crafty, and dangerous individuals he had ever met." | As a Vessel he has an immense knowledge of and understanding of the universe and Realmatics, and how it all functions. Along with this, his awareness of the world reaches far wider than any non-Shard being, mortal and immortal alike. This awareness allows him to be aware of things happening all across the Cosmere, but it is not an omniscient sense of awareness, and does have limitations. He can also see far into the future, and is able to make very accurate, but not infallible, predictions of what path the future will follow. He also has the mental capacity to take in the information of and understand all of the futures that he looks upon, having no issues processing the veritable infinitude of information. He is also capable of making complex and long lasting plans and strategies spanning the course of decades and even millennia, manipulating people and nations to achieve his goals.

Weaknesses: Unknown | While his vision of the future is extremely far reaching, he still has various blind spots. Both having many possibilities which he is unable to see; his visions also become far hard to predict when faced with somebody else that can see the future, causing it to splinter off into infinite different paths and thus becoming essentially unreadable. He also can be wrong in his predictions of the future. Due to the Oathpact, he is ultimately unable to leave the Rosharan System, and his influence on the system is very limited compared to his full capabilities. Due to his arrogance, he can often practice little caution, as he always believes himself to be far ahead of everyone else, and tends to not think about the possibility of his plans going awry. He also tends to only go into things if he believes there to be no chance of failure. While he does have access to essentially infinite power, he is not capable of drawing upon all of the power held within his Shard, due to mental limitations, amongst other things. Despite being exceptionally powerful, he is known to be weaker than Harmony, and actively fears them.

Rayse = Very little is known about his powers or abilities before his Ascension.

Vessel of Odium = "It was hatred. A deep, pulsing hatred with a pressure to turn all things molten. It was the heat of a thousand suns, it was the bliss of every kiss, it was the lives of all men wrapped up in one, defined by everything they felt."

- Dalinar describing Odium

As the Vessel of Odium he is a being of extreme power, only comparable to other Shards, but he is the most feared amongst them for his aggression, going around and killing other Shards over his years of godhood. Splintering Devotion ,  Dominion  ,  Ambition , and  Honor.

Splintering
As mentioned before, Rayse holds a deep knowledge of how to Splinter a Shard, something that not all Vessels possess. He used this to Splinter four separate Shards in his attempts to become the sole god in the Cosmere.

Immortality
As a Vessel he gained a form of Immortality, never ageing and exceptionally difficult to kill. Shards, him included, have been shown to be able to live for thousands of years if no other being comes to kill them.

Though he was ultimately able to be killed by Nightblood when it was wielded by Taravangian, due to the unique nature of the blade.

Future Sight
He is capable of seeing far into the future, well enough to make The Diagram look meagre in comparison.

The future is hard to see for Shards, or for any version of future sight, when faced with another being capable of seeing the future, and that the further one looks the harder it is to make out the future.

Voidlight
He has access to a essentially endless supply of Investiture known as Voidlight, which is manifested in the Everstorm and given to the Fused. As with all Investiture, whenever it is used it would be filtered back to the Spiritual Realm for him to use once again. However, it is finite

This is used to power all of his powers.

He was stated to be powerful enough to reduce the planet of Roshar to dust, and his essence was compared to a thousand burning suns.

Visions
He was capable of penetrating into Dalinar's Visions from Honor

Oathpact
Due to the nature of the Oathpact he was bound to Braize, but even with it growing weaker after the Aharietiam, and especially so during the Last Desolation, he is still ultimately bound to the Rosharan System, and his main goal is to be able to find a way in order to escape his bounds.

Splinter Creation
He is capable of breaking off parts of himself and making powerful sentient constructs out of them known as Splinters. These Splinters were the Unmade, nine extremely powerful beings which act as a blight upon Roshar.

Key: Rayse | Odium