Conspiracy Theory: Helaran is Alive

[Siaun Sanche]

10 hours ago, Krandacth said:

In all instances of Shardblade lending seen so far, the Blade remains bonded to the lendER, and may in fact be summoned back by them at any time.  For Amaram to be able to bond the Veden's dropped Blade it would have to no longer be bonded, which would mean it had previously been bonded to the Veden. For that Veden to have been Talak with Liss' Blade, she would have had to completely unbond it and let Talak bond it. This seems like an insane move, regardless of how much she trusted Talak (which likely isn't much anyway, in her line of work).

That's a fair point. This theory assumes that Talak (who is a guy that Liss hired three weeks before this scene) becomes very loyal to Liss (and both to Jasnah) over the intervening 6 years. Did that happen? Who knows. I don't believe we see Liss again, unless there's a reference that I'm not familiar with, so really there's a lot of unanswered questions there.

10 hours ago, Krandacth said:

Even more damning, however, is that Shallan confirms that the Blade in question belonged (at some point after the WoR prologue) to Heleran :-P

Well, Shallan says that it's Helaran's blade because she saw Helaran with it. But Helaran got it from somewhere, and his father (a dubious source, perhaps?) seems to have believed that he got it from his 'new friends', i.e., whatever group he was then aligned with. In any case, Shallan doesn't necessarily know where he got it from, just that he had it at that point.

And to be clear, this is 98% speculative. I was halfway proposing it so that I could see where the holes are. (One problem that I can't reason my way around is why Liss would have given it to Helaran--we don't know enough about what else he might have been up to when he came down to see his family.) Having thought about this, I think I still lean towards Helaran being dead.

4 hours ago, Chull #445 said:

The Talak theory was kind of good (although the bonding issues mentioned above are a problem) and there must be a reason for Brandon to have the Weeper in the WoR prologue. But otherwise, I do feel that introducing a random twist of "Helaran gave his blade to his redhead BFF who then tried to kill Amaram for unknown reason" is kind of a stretch, although it isn't impossible to pull off.

I tend to agree. I think for the theory to work, you need a particular, established character to be the proposed assassin, and not just posit that such a character would exist.

[LightSong77]

Another plausible way that the mechanics could work is that Helaran, no longer needing a dead Shardblade, had it sent back to his father as a kind of "proof of death" because he wanted his father to believe he was dead.  This would explain how the blade ended up with a member of the Ghost Bloods, as he could have given it to the group after receiving it (being a member himself) and why he is so certain that Helaran is dead when he was unable to be identified on the battlefield.    

 

[Siaun Sanche]

Why would Helaran want his father to have a Shardblade? He thinks that his father is a monster.

[LightSong77]

Other than seeing his actual corpse, it is the only way his father would ever believe that he had been killed.

[Siaun Sanche]

38 minutes ago, LightSong77 said:

Other than seeing his actual corpse, it is the only way his father would ever believe that he had been killed.

Wouldn't he prefer that his father suspect he was still out there somewhere? He did send Hoid down as a messenger to say that he "has eyes nearby, and is watching," because he wants his father to fear retribution for any harm done to the family. If Helaran wants to play dead, it can't be for his father's benefit. The last thing he would want is his father armed with a Shardblade _and_ feeling like he had a free hand to torment his children.

[Krandacth]

On yet another reread I looked at Amaram's precise words regarding his identifying his assassin as a Ghostblood, and it seems it was definitely more assumption than recognition: "... why Thaidakar would risk this? But who else would it be? The Ghostbloods grow more bold..." (Emphasis added). So even if this was Heleran, there is at least no strong reason to assume he was a Ghostblood and not a Skybreaker.

Hope this helps :-P

Edited January 28, 2017 by Krandacth
spelling

[Bcknight2]

There is another bit of evidence that may support the theory that the shardbearer Kaladin killed was not Helaran.

We have this WoB:

Quote

 

INTERVIEW: Sep, 2012

Cosmere Q&A - 17th Shard (Verbatim)

CHEESE NINJA

Did Amaram ever find out who the Shardbearer that Kaladin killed was?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Yes

 

If we can take this answer at face value (meaning Amaram knows EXACTLY who Kal killed not just that he was a member of insert your preferred secret society here...

And we combine that knowledge with this interaction from WoR:

Quote

 

“Brightlord,” Shallan said, drawing Amaram’s attention. He seemed startled, as if he’d forgotten she was there. “Yes?” “Brightness Shallan,” she said, “wants to make certain the records are all correct and that the histories of the Blades and Plate in the Alethi army have been properly traced. Your Blade is not in them. She asked if you would mind sharing the origin of your Blade, in the name of scholarship.” “I’ve explained this to Dalinar already,” Amaram said. “I don’t know the history of my Shards. Both were in the possession of an assassin who tried to kill me. A younger man. Veden, with red hair. We don’t know his name, and his face was ruined in my counterattack. I had to stab him through his faceplate, you see.”

Sanderson, Brandon. Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, Book 2) (pp. 611-612).

 

If Amaram thought it was Helaran Davar who tried to assassinate him, I would expect at least some reaction from him when he's told that the man's sister is investigating the origin of his shards.

This leaves us with 3 possibilities that I see:

1. I'm misinterpreting the WoB and he didn't necessarily mean that Amaram knew the name of his would be assassin.

2. Amaram does know the name of the assassin, and it was not Helaran Davar, so the fact that Shallan Davar wanted to investigate the origin of his shards held no significance to him.

3. Amaram is a much cooler customer than I gave him credit for. Considering he was described as stumbling back with a look of horror, when he finally recognized Kal after his challange, I consider this one somewhat unlikely...

 

[The One Who Connects]

19 hours ago, Bcknight2 said:

This leaves us with 3 possibilities that I see:

I like the thought put into this, but just as option 1 says that he didn't know it was Helaran, option 4 should cover the possibility that he did not know "Brightness Shallan's" last name, and thus didn't make the connection. He let Kaladin live, which came back to haunt him. This speaks much about his potential to leave loose ends, so I can see him looking into connections to the secret societies before doing the obvious "inform the family of their loss," especially since his cover story shows he didn't have to.

[Jofwu]

@Bcknight2, that's a fantastic WoB find! And I think there's more evidence here than a mere lack of reaction from Amaram. There are three possible situations:

1. Amaram doesn't know the man's name (at the time he spoke with Shallan)
2. Amaram knows the man's name and it's Helaran
3. Amaram knows the man's name and it's not Helaran

You're right about the first point here. It's possible we're assuming too much about what Brandon is saying. Also, the question says "did he ever" and I think an argument could be made that Amaram finds out the name after speaking with Shallan (either with Brandon speaking from some place much further in the future, or with Amaram finding out between then and the end of the book). This seems unlikely to me, but it's a possibility. Lastly, there's always the chance that the WoB is mistaken.

But let's take the WoB at face value and assume Amaram knows the man's name at the time he spoke with Shallan.

It's strange how he describes the man to Shallan after lying to her about knowing the name. I disagree with @The One Who Connects that he might not have connected Helaran and Shallan. Shallan's full name is mentioned at the beginning of their conversation, and indeed Amaram doesn't recognize it until she clarifies "Betrothed of Adolin Kholin”. But her full name was out there. It's possible that he only knows Helaran's first name, but it seems unlikely. There's not much meaning in "knowing the name" if all he has is an unattached first name. I can't even see how he might discover just a first name with no other information. Possible, but unlikely. So surely the Davar name would ring a bell with him, right? But it apparently doesn't. He shows no reaction, and he goes on to describe the man with enough detail that surely another Davar would think, "Hey, that sure sounds a lot like my brother who died..." Not just that... This Davar woman is going out of her way to ask him about his blade and the previous owner? That's code red level suspicious. How would he not think she's on to him? It's obvious he wants to keep the name a secret, because he's lying about it. The fact that he doesn't see a need to conceal the man's description from Shallan, however, is pretty good proof I think that he has a name besides Helaran's.

Another odd revelation here is that Amaram lied about knowing the man's name to Dalinar (and presumably others). He wasn't just trying to conceal the name from Shallan. So I think we have to disregard your final 2nd possibility. He didn't lie out of indifference. For some reason, he doesn't want somebody (or people in general) to know that he knows the name. Maybe he doesn't want "secret society X" to know that he's on to them, for example. As far as I can see, this doesn't have any obvious implications concerning my little conspiracy theory. However, it might be telling if we get into some of Amaram's other secrets, which might give us a connection to which name he's trying to hide exactly. Just musing here.

Edited February 22, 2017 by jofwu

[TamagoDono]

On 17/01/2017 at 7:02 PM, Krandacth said:

I like many of your points here, and it does seem far from impossible that there might be more Vedens (Vedenar being a country not much smaller than Alethkar) with red hair (a common Veden trait, by all accounts) involved in the many secret societies on Roshar. However, the specific scenario you describe above seems highly unlikely:

In all instances of Shardblade lending seen so far, the Blade remains bonded to the lendER, and may in fact be summoned back by them at any time.  For Amaram to be able to bond the Veden's dropped Blade it would have to no longer be bonded, which would mean it had previously been bonded to the Veden. For that Veden to have been Talak with Liss' Blade, she would have had to completely unbond it and let Talak bond it. This seems like an insane move, regardless of how much she trusted Talak (which likely isn't much anyway, in her line of work).

Even more damning, however, is that Shallan confirms that the Blade in question belonged (at some point after the WoR prologue) to Heleran :-P

The only feasible scenario close to the specific one you proposed is that Heleran became unbonded from his Blade, it ended up with Liss, she gifted it to Talak, then sent him to kill Amaram. While feasible, this is pure speculation, and the general theory (that Heleran was separated from his Blade and it ended up with another Veden sent to kill Amaram) is exactly as stated in the OP.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it possible to unbond a shardblade by destroying the gemstone in the blade, like what Adolin did in the first duel for shard? If this is correct, then the bonding issue isn't that great. Liss lends the blade Talak, and she doesn't know he dies so never knows not to summon the blade back until it's too late and the gemstone has been destroyed and the bond severed. 

It's also possible Helaran never truly owned the blade himself, but was simply borrowing it because he thought he may need to threaten his father. Shallan has no way of knowing if it's actually his blade, or if he'd simply been borrowing it at the time. As stated, he'd received it from a group of people, but that may have simply been a loan. I can't imagine many people go round simply giving away shards. Helaran may have ended up in Liss' service and borrowed the blade from her. 

We've also seen that outside the king there are a few people who loan out there shards. The highprinces who don't go riding into battle often loan them out to soldiers if they believe it can help the battle, knowing full well they can call back the blades at any time if they need to. Given the fact that the highprinces never let the people borrowing there shards too far from their sight, it would be reasonably safe to assume they'd need to see the person with the shard fall if they wanted to summon the blade back without potentially losing it, or taking it from a soldier who was using it.

Finally, combat rules (for all they are actually followed) dictate that whoever slays a shardbearer takes their shards. Depending on how you interpret shardbearer, it could either mean the person who the shard is bound to, or the person using the shard at time of death. If you're strictly following the rules then a person wearing/using the shard, but not bound to it can still lose the shard if they die while wielding/wearing said shard. 

[Jofwu]

12 minutes ago, TamagoDono said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it possible to unbond a shardblade by destroying the gemstone in the blade, like what Adolin did in the first duel for shard?

 

No, Brandon recently mentioned that he originally made it work this way, but it does not. Can't remember the Adolin scene exactly, but I'm guessing it was mainly symbolic, to make a point.

14 minutes ago, TamagoDono said:

It's also possible Helaran never truly owned the blade himself, but was simply borrowing it because he thought he may need to threaten his father.

We saw him summon it, so it was bonded to him. But I agree that this doesn't imply it wasn't "on loan". Just means the person he borrowed it from is powerful enough to be comfortable loaning Shardblades. I think there are potentially people in Roshar in such a position.

[Spoolofwhool]

51 minutes ago, jofwu said:

No, Brandon recently mentioned that he originally made it work this way, but it does not. Can't remember the Adolin scene exactly, but I'm guessing it was mainly symbolic, to make a point.

His opponent tapped the gem to unbond it. The gem glowed briefly to show this.

[BlackYeti]

For the sake of completeness, here's the WoB that @jofwu mentioned:

Quote

I've several times said something that I later decided to change in a book. I've always got this idea in the back of my head that the books are canon, and things I say at signing aren't 100% canon. This is part because of a habit I have of falling back on things I decided years ago, then revised in notes after I realized they didn't work. My off-the-cuff instinct is still to go with what I had in my head for years, even when it's no longer canon.

An example of this are Shardblades. In the first draft of TWoK in 2002, I had the mechanics of the weapons work in a specific way. (If you wanted to steal one from someone, you knock off the bonding gemstone, and it breaks the bond.) I later decided it was more dramatic if you couldn't steal a Shardblade that way--you had to kill the person or force them to relinquish the bond. It worked far better. 

There's not any way around that that I can see, it was really bonded to him.

[maxal]

11 hours ago, jofwu said:

No, Brandon recently mentioned that he originally made it work this way, but it does not. Can't remember the Adolin scene exactly, but I'm guessing it was mainly symbolic, to make a point.

We saw him summon it, so it was bonded to him. But I agree that this doesn't imply it wasn't "on loan". Just means the person he borrowed it from is powerful enough to be comfortable loaning Shardblades. I think there are potentially people in Roshar in such a position.

If it were a loan, then the Blade wouldn't have been available to be bonded again once Helaran was killed. This Shardblade was then bonded by Amaram which implies it was a dead-Blade and it was indeed bonded to Helaran.

I see no working around it: Helaran had a regular Shards and was later killed by Kaladin. Whether or not he was planning to join Nale's initiates, we do not know, but his status prior to his death was "Shardbearer" and his status now most likely is "dead".

[Spoolofwhool]

1 hour ago, maxal said:

If it were a loan, then the Blade wouldn't have been available to be bonded again once Helaran was killed. This Shardblade was then bonded by Amaram which implies it was a dead-Blade and it was indeed bonded to Helaran.

I see no working around it: Helaran had a regular Shards and was later killed by Kaladin. Whether or not he was planning to join Nale's initiates, we do not know, but his status prior to his death was "Shardbearer" and his status now most likely is "dead".

They meant that his patron was trusting enough to loan the shardblade and allow Helaran to bond it. It would still be on loan as it wouldn't be his, but not in the regular sense of loaning shardblades. 

[maxal]

15 minutes ago, Spoolofwhool said:

They meant that his patron was trusting enough to loan the shardblade and allow Helaran to bond it. It would still be on loan as it wouldn't be his, but not in the regular sense of loaning shardblades. 

Yes, I agree. The Shards belonged to Helaran in the same ways as the Shards Adolin won belonged to the men he gave them too. In other words, upon their deaths, the Shards probably go back to the Kholins to be given to anyone of their choice: they aren't necessarily passed down towards their son unless the owner allows it.

Still, one has to wonder how such ownership could truly be enforced... Say for instances, Nale wants his Shards back, then how does he proceed? You can't force a Shardbearer to unbond a Shardblade... So how does it work? Say Adolin loses his own Shards and wants to use one of the other set he won, how does he reclaim them? They could just say screw you, I am keeping them... 

[Calderis]

Seems to me "enforcement" in that situation comes in only two flavors.

1) be trusted enough that it is known you will return the Shards when asked. 

2) be feared enough that it is known anyone who fails to return your Shards dies. 

[Spoolofwhool]

40 minutes ago, maxal said:

Say Adolin loses his own Shards and wants to use one of the other set he won, how does he reclaim them? They could just say screw you, I am keeping them... 

Have you ever considered.... Murder?

[Patrick Star]

Just now, Spoolofwhool said:

Have you ever considered.... Murder?

Adolin would never murder someone though, why would you suggest such a thing? #Adolindidnothingwrong

[maxal]

4 hours ago, Patrick Star said:

Adolin would never murder someone though, why would you suggest such a thing? #Adolindidnothingwrong

Joke apart, Adolin would never murder a fellow companion just because he fail to return his Shards.

[AerionBFII]

Pehaps Helaran was just an initiate? He had just joined the Skybreakers after seeking them out and was under guidance until he could attract his own Highspren, until he could perform the Nahel Bond he was "loaned" a Shardblade. Heralds are considered deities, who could loan out a Shardlade without fear of them not returning it? The Answer:

An insane immortal leader of a highly dangerous group of super powered vigilantes. Who you just stiffed.

 

 

 

[happyman]

On 2/26/2017 at 0:00 PM, AerionBFII said:

Pehaps Helaran was just an initiate? He had just joined the Skybreakers after seeking them out and was under guidance until he could attract his own Highspren, until he could perform the Nahel Bond he was "loaned" a Shardblade. Heralds are considered deities, who could loan out a Shardlade without fear of them not returning it? The Answer:

An insane immortal leader of a highly dangerous group of super powered vigilantes. Who you just stiffed.

 

 

 

I don't care if this is true or false (OK, not completely true; you make a good point).  But I seriously love the wording.

[LeahAstonished]

Quote

“You don’t know who we are. You don’t know what we’re trying to accomplish. You don’t know much of anything at all, Veil. Why did your father join us? Why did your brother seek out the Skybreakers? I have done some research, you see. I have answers for you.” ~Mraize speaking to Shallan after discovering her identity, Words of Radiance Chapter 88

Mraize said Helaran went to "seek out the Skybreakers" not necessarily join them.  I like one of the two possible timelines.

Helaran is dead timeline:

• 1167 - Shallan's mother and associate (Dreder?) try to kill Shallan. For this proposed timeline, I am assuming they are affiliated with the Skybreakers.
• Helaran finds out the truth about his mother's death and goes to "seek out the Skybreakers" in an attempt to protect Shallan in the future.
• During his search over the next five months, he discovers the Ghostbloods and joins their ranks as it will further his goals to protect Shallan. Through his connection with the Ghostbloods he receives a shardblade.
• 1168 - Helaran summons his shardblade in front of Lin and Shallan
• Over the next three years, Helaran is working for the Ghostbloods and doing what he can to help his family:
  • Giving Shallan art supplies to encourage her surgebinding
  • Having the Ghostbloods financially help House Davar (since Lin didn't have a tattoo, I would guess Lin had a lot less control of things than he thought, that he had no idea Helaran was a part of the group, and that Luesh was actually calling the majority of the shots)
  • Sending Hoid to intimidate Lin (I don't know how much Hoid is connected to the Ghostbloods, but their interests aligned in encouraging Shallan's surgebinding)
• 1172 - The Ghostbloods send Helaran to assassinate Amaram. He was carrying a shardblade so he was not bonded to a spren. He was killed by Kaladin and Amaram got his blade
• 1173 - Shallan killed Lin. With Helaran dead there is no one to intercede with the Ghostbloods on the behalf of House Davar so their debts were called up.
• Continuity issue 1: If WoB says Amaram knows "who the Shardbearer that Kaladin killed was" why did he not say so or react to "Shallan Davar's messenger"? I am going with he is a cool customer and he said he didn't know his name because he didn't want Shallan to know it was her brother. He noted it was a young, red-haired Veden because that was probably already known publicly enough Shallan would find out about it anyway. Why he can be cooler about this than being faced with Kaladin? He would have found out who Shallan was when Adolin left their conversation to go talk to her for the first time and we didn't see his reaction then. He has had time to be prepared with this cover-up.
• Continuity issue 2: Why would Taravangian think that Shallan could have been trained "by the girl's brother, before his death" if he was not bonded to a spren? Mraize says "You seem to think that your new found place among the Radiants makes you unfit for our numbers, but I see it differenly, as does my babsk". The Ghostbloods clearly have an interest in furthering surgebinding abilities, so maybe Helaran would have information from them on how to train Shallan even if he didn't have first hand experience.
• Continuity issue 3: To the statement "I guess Helaran was not bonded to a spren, then." WoB was "Why do you say that?". I am assuming under this proposed timeline that Brandon was asking the question just to understand where the asker was coming from, not to point out that the statement was wrong.

Helaran is alive timeline:

• 1167 - Shallan's mother and associate (Dreder?) try to kill Shallan. For this proposed timeline, I am also assuming they are affiliated with the Skybreakers.
• Helaran finds out the truth about his mother's death and goes to "seek out the Skybreakers" in an attempt to protect Shallan in the future.
• During his search over the next five months, he discovers a group working against the Skybreakers. This could still be the Ghostbloods or another group, maybe Hoid and the Worldsingers, or possibly Liss. Helaran is given a shardblade or earns one through combat.
• 1168 - Helaran summons his shardblade in front of Lin and Shallan
• Helaran bonds with a spren and can no longer use the shardblade. The group he is working with finds it useful for him to have a body double so the shardblade is given to someone who looks like him.
• Helaran encourages Shallan's surgebinding (gives her art supplies to Shallan and sends Hoid to intimidate Lin) but chooses not to tell her what she is or train her at this time (Taravangian thought it was possible he could have, though).
• 1172 - Helaran's group sends his body double to assassinate Amaram. The body double was killed by Kaladin and Amaram got his blade. Armaram finds out who the man is and it is not Helaran Davar.
• Helaran needs to keep up the pretense that it was him who was killed, so he no longer has contact with his siblings.
• 1173 - Shallan killed Lin.
• Helaran is still working in the background, if he has the surge of Illumination then we might have even already come across him in disguise. If Taravangian thought Helaran could train Shallan, then it is most likely he shares at least one surge, like Jasnah does.
• Continuity issue 1: Regarding the following discussion, I am assuming under this timeline the clue is that Helaran could not have been the one killed holding the shardblade since he had bonded a spren. 
  • I guess Helaran was not bonded to a spren, then."
  • WoB "Why do you say that?"
  • " I saw that his Blade had a gemstone at the bottom, so that was a clue."
  • WoB "That is a very good clue."

[Bcknight2]

4 hours ago, LeahAstonished said:

Mraize said Helaran went to "seek out the Skybreakers" not necessarily join them.  I like one of the two possible timelines.

Helaran is dead timeline:

• 1167 - Shallan's mother and associate (Dreder?) try to kill Shallan. For this proposed timeline, I am assuming they are affiliated with the Skybreakers.
• Helaran finds out the truth about his mother's death and goes to "seek out the Skybreakers" in an attempt to protect Shallan in the future.
• During his search over the next five months, he discovers the Ghostbloods and joins their ranks as it will further his goals to protect Shallan. Through his connection with the Ghostbloods he receives a shardblade.
• 1168 - Helaran summons his shardblade in front of Lin and Shallan
• Over the next three years, Helaran is working for the Ghostbloods and doing what he can to help his family:
  • Giving Shallan art supplies to encourage her surgebinding
  • Having the Ghostbloods financially help House Davar (since Lin didn't have a tattoo, I would guess Lin had a lot less control of things than he thought, that he had no idea Helaran was a part of the group, and that Luesh was actually calling the majority of the shots)
  • Sending Hoid to intimidate Lin (I don't know how much Hoid is connected to the Ghostbloods, but their interests aligned in encouraging Shallan's surgebinding)
• 1172 - The Ghostbloods send Helaran to assassinate Amaram. He was carrying a shardblade so he was not bonded to a spren. He was killed by Kaladin and Amaram got his blade
• 1173 - Shallan killed Lin. With Helaran dead there is no one to intercede with the Ghostbloods on the behalf of House Davar so their debts were called up.
• Continuity issue 1: If WoB says Amaram knows "who the Shardbearer that Kaladin killed was" why did he not say so or react to "Shallan Davar's messenger"? I am going with he is a cool customer and he said he didn't know his name because he didn't want Shallan to know it was her brother. He noted it was a young, red-haired Veden because that was probably already known publicly enough Shallan would find out about it anyway. Why he can be cooler about this than being faced with Kaladin? He would have found out who Shallan was when Adolin left their conversation to go talk to her for the first time and we didn't see his reaction then. He has had time to be prepared with this cover-up.
• Continuity issue 2: Why would Taravangian think that Shallan could have been trained "by the girl's brother, before his death" if he was not bonded to a spren? Mraize says "You seem to think that your new found place among the Radiants makes you unfit for our numbers, but I see it differenly, as does my babsk". The Ghostbloods clearly have an interest in furthering surgebinding abilities, so maybe Helaran would have information from them on how to train Shallan even if he didn't have first hand experience.
• Continuity issue 3: To the statement "I guess Helaran was not bonded to a spren, then." WoB was "Why do you say that?". I am assuming under this proposed timeline that Brandon was asking the question just to understand where the asker was coming from, not to point out that the statement was wrong.

Helaran is alive timeline:

• 1167 - Shallan's mother and associate (Dreder?) try to kill Shallan. For this proposed timeline, I am also assuming they are affiliated with the Skybreakers.
• Helaran finds out the truth about his mother's death and goes to "seek out the Skybreakers" in an attempt to protect Shallan in the future.
• During his search over the next five months, he discovers a group working against the Skybreakers. This could still be the Ghostbloods or another group, maybe Hoid and the Worldsingers, or possibly Liss. Helaran is given a shardblade or earns one through combat.
• 1168 - Helaran summons his shardblade in front of Lin and Shallan
• Helaran bonds with a spren and can no longer use the shardblade. The group he is working with finds it useful for him to have a body double so the shardblade is given to someone who looks like him.
• Helaran encourages Shallan's surgebinding (gives her art supplies to Shallan and sends Hoid to intimidate Lin) but chooses not to tell her what she is or train her at this time (Taravangian thought it was possible he could have, though).
• 1172 - Helaran's group sends his body double to assassinate Amaram. The body double was killed by Kaladin and Amaram got his blade. Armaram finds out who the man is and it is not Helaran Davar.
• Helaran needs to keep up the pretense that it was him who was killed, so he no longer has contact with his siblings.
• 1173 - Shallan killed Lin.
• Helaran is still working in the background, if he has the surge of Illumination then we might have even already come across him in disguise. If Taravangian thought Helaran could train Shallan, then it is most likely he shares at least one surge, like Jasnah does.
• Continuity issue 1: Regarding the following discussion, I am assuming under this timeline the clue is that Helaran could not have been the one killed holding the shardblade since he had bonded a spren. 
  • I guess Helaran was not bonded to a spren, then."
  • WoB "Why do you say that?"
  • " I saw that his Blade had a gemstone at the bottom, so that was a clue."
  • WoB "That is a very good clue."

The main issue I have with both of your timelines is that they assume Helaran learns the truth about his mother's death before sending Hoid.  These two sections from that chapter lead me to think otherwise...

Quote

He glanced at Shallan as she stepped up into the box. The man started, dropping his cup to the table. He caught it with a swift lunge, keeping it from tipping over, then turned to stare at her with a slack jaw. 

Sanderson, Brandon. Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, Book 2) (pp. 522-523). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition. 

My interpretation of this part is: Hoid sees Shallan, he can tell she is a surgebinder, he is utterly shocked. Since Hoid is shocked, Helaran did not tell him she was a surgebinder, and I assume Helaran does not know. An alternate explanation is that Helaran did not trust Hoid enough to tell him the full truth, but the next section gives more evidence...

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“Oh! I assumed he’d sent you here. I mean, that coming to us was your primary purpose.” “Turns out that it was. Tell me, young one. Do spren speak to you?” The lights going out, life drained from them. Twisted symbols the eye should not see. Her mother’s soul in a box. “I . . .” she said. “No. Why would a spren speak to me?” “No voices?” the man said, leaning forward. “Do spheres go dark when you are near?” “I’m sorry,” Shallan said, “but I should be getting back to my father. He will be missing me.” “Your father is slowly destroying your family,” the messenger said. “Your brother was right on that count. He was wrong about everything else.”

Sanderson, Brandon. Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, Book 2) (p. 526). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition. 

My interpretation of this part: Hoid's primary purpose for traveling to the area was to find a surgebinder, Helaran gives him a secondary purpose of delivering his message. Hoid is surprised when his primary and secondary purposes intersect. And the last part about Helaran being "wrong about everything else", seems to imply that Hoid has deduced Shallan's part in her mother's death and that Hellaran is unaware.

Here is one possible sequence of events that I see:

- Following the death of his mother Helaran "seeks out the Sky Breakers" to join.

- Helaran is given a dead shardblade to complete some early missions, He summons the blade in front of Lin and Shallan at some point during this period

- Sometime later Hellaran attracts a Highspren and unbonds his blade, it is returned to skybreaker leadership and eventually given to another Veden recruit who is killed by Kaladin.

Edited March 2, 2017 by Bcknight2

[LeahAstonished]

5 minutes ago, Bcknight2 said:

Here is one possible sequence of events that I see:

- Following the death of his mother Helaran "seeks out the Sky Breakers" to join.

- Helaran is given a dead shardblade to complete some early missions, He summons the blade in front of Lin and Shallan at some point during this period

- Sometime later Hellaran attracts a Highspren and unbonds his blade, it is returned to skybreaker leadership and eventually given to another Veden recruit who is killed by Kaladin.

This is definitely another possibility, I still like the idea of mine better so I will go with Helaran didn't tell Hoid anything about Shallan for those theories.

A couple questions to flesh out your timeline:

- What do you think would be Helaran's motivation for wanting to join the Skybreakers?

- If Helaran has bonded a spren, other than Mraize saying he went to "seek out the Skybreakers", is there additional evidence to why this would be a Highspren rather than a spren from a different order? Taravangian's thought that he could train Shallan made me think he might share at least one surge, other than sucking in stormlight is there much a Skybreaker could teach a Lightweaver? Also, I have no specific evidence, but my general feel of Helaran's personality didn't fit with Nale and Szeth.