The Unhallowed

While reading Arcanum Unbounded, I reread the Emperor's Soul and I noticed something that I think is an important clue. The Emperor's Soul takes place in a region far away that was never mentioned by any characters. Even Gyorn Hrathen seemed unaware to their presence. He frequently spoke of how their god Jaddeth wouldn't be satisfied until the whole world was Derethi, and that seemed to only include converting Arelon and Teod. So, it can be assumed that they didn't know of the other empire at the time. While it has been stated that the Emperor's Soul takes place "shortly" after Elantris, at least to the point that technology hasn't had time to change. I think it takes place after the unreleased Elantris sequel, since that is only supposed to be 15 years after the first. So, back to Emperor's Soul. Near the end, when she is running to make her escape, Shai runs into a "southern ambassador in red armor." As we all know, red armor is what the Derethi Gyorns wear. Now, it was never a secret that, at this point in time, the two empires were aware of each other. So, with what we know of Gyorns, they only show up to make some mass conversion (as with Hrathen at the Duladel Republic and with the Arelon and Teoish Monarchies). Either Wyrn has decided to expand his horizons by converting others before eliminating Teod and Arelon or he already has destroyed them. We may see more of this in the coming sequel, which we won't see for several years. Now, let's talk about another thing. Shai is there to Forge a new soul for Emperor Ashravan after assassins from the Glory Faction killed the patron from the Heritage Faction. I believe that the Glory Faction was sought out by the visiting Gyron and tempted to convert to Shu-Dereth in return for the throne. Shai only ever saw a tiny part of the plots due to being confined for so long and being away from court politics. Plus, with the Arbiters having little knowledge of Shu-Dereth, they would be oblivious to the conquering nature of the religion. So, it stands to reason that, do to our limited view of the palace, more is going on than meets the eye here. So, lets take stock of the theory 1) The Emperor's Soul takes place after the unreleased Elantris Sequel 2) The Svordish Empire still stands powerful in Opelon 3) Either Arelon and Teod are conquered or are being ignored for the time being 4) The ambassador in red armor is a Derethi Gyron 5) The Gyorn was working with the Glory Faction and was aided them in the assassination of Ashravan So yeah, that's my theory

It does say in the book that the orb was glowing blackness. Kinda like a negative form of a sphere.

It is possible that it was a captured Voidspren. Although, the Everstorm spreading Voidspren across the land would make having an artifact like that redundant. It seems like it will play a larger role in future books, but I can't say for sure.

I haven't dove too deep into the Cosmere (I am going to finish the books this summer), but I feel like the darksphere was more part of the Stormlight more than the expanded Cosemere. It seemed to be a negative form of Stormlight. Is it possible that it has something to do with Odium's power? If I'm missing something super obvious, please let me know so I can no longer feel as a fool. Quotes regarding the sphere... "Szeth hesitated, then knelt down and took the sphere. It was odd, unlike any he'd seen before. Though it was completely dark, it seemed to glow somehow. With a light that seemed to be black." (WoK Prologue: To Kill) "That tale always discomforted Szeth, as it reminded him of the strange black sphere Gavilar had given him. He'd hidden that carefully away in Jah Kaved." (WoK Interlude 3: The Glory of Ignorance)