How are some of the Five Scholars Siblings

[+ILuvHats]

This question probably doesn't have a good answer yet, but I was wondering if there was a WoB about Arsteel and Yesteel being brothers, and/or Shashara and Denth being siblings.  I can't see how they could be biologically related since they're returned, so I'm assuming they adopted each other as family.  Just wondering if any explanation has been provided concerning this, and maybe why Vasher is the odd man out.

[Weltall]

It's entirely possible they were actual siblings. While Returned lose memories of who they were before their death, the institution of setting them up as gods and not telling them anything about their past lives only took its current form after the Manywar. It's entirely possible that the priests told them that they had been siblins when they returned or their deaths/Return was staggered so they could learn it from each other. Say, Arsteel dies and Returns. Yesteel tells him that they're brothers. Then Yesteel dies and Arsteel greets the new Returned as his brother.

Or somewhat less likely but perhaps not impossible, they were twins who Returned together as infants. If if can happen to a single newborn, it's possible it could happen to twins too.

But we don't have any official word on this yet.

Edited September 12, 2017 by Weltall

[+ILuvHats]

@Weltall Those are some interesting thoughts.  I'd doubted there was any official word yet, but I'd just assumed that they couldn't be biological siblings because I'm so used to the custom of keeping the former life of a Returned a secret from them.  My original thoughts were that Arsteel and Yesteel chose their new names after they had been returned, and made their names similar to reflect their adopted brotherhood.

[FiveLate]

I think we can discount the Priests telling them they were siblings, since they returned before the Manywar.  I have the distinct impression that the priesthood was not set up until after it when the first Godking came into being...I could be totally wrong there though.

[Gigalemesh]

My opinion is that they were just biological siblings that returned. They could easily have been told about it by the people surrounding them. 

[The One Who Connects]

On 9/12/2017 at 11:06 AM, FiveLate said:

I have the distinct impression that the priesthood was not set up until after it when the first Godking came into being...I could be totally wrong there though.

I want to think the same, but I'm uncertain. I kinda feel like there should have been some type of priesthood already in existence when Vasher instructed them to safeguard Peacegiver's Treasure and taught them the secret of Mental Commands so they could then teach the God Kings when the need arose.

Granted, it might have been a priesthood founded by the Five Scholars(or founded by men who wished to serve the Scholars), making it Post-Scholars, but Pre-Manywar. We don't have enough information, but I'm a little skeptical about Warbreaker the Peaceful just creating a priesthood on the spot after the war was won. That's the kind of thing that would take time to build from scratch.

On 9/11/2017 at 9:45 PM, ILuvHats said:

I was wondering if there was a WoB about Arsteel and Yesteel being brothers, and/or Shashara and Denth being siblings.  I can't see how they could be biologically related since they're returned, so I'm assuming they adopted each other as family. 

I'll trust Brandon's wording here. From the Annotations:

Quote

Instead, Lightsong is seeing an image of a previous war, which is prophetic in that another Manywar is brewing—and in both cases, Nightblood will be important to the outcome of the battle.

The person Lightsong sees in the abstract painting is Shashara, Denth’s sister, one of the Five Scholars and a Returned also known as Glorysinger by the Cult of the Returned. She is seen here in Lightsong’s vision as she’s drawing Nightblood at the battle of Twilight Falls. It’s the only time the sword was drawn in battle, and Vasher was horrified by the result.

I'm of the opinion that they were actually biologically related, but we'll just have to wait:

Quote

Interview: Sep 24th, 2013

Steelheart Release Party (Verbatim)

Question

In Warbreaker, how did Denth remember Shashara was his sister if he was Returned?

Brandon Sanderson

That is an excellent question and it will be answered. It is a conscious decision of mine, it is something you are supposed to be wondering. In the future books I want to delve into that sort of thing a lot.