Endowment on Ashyn (Back Half)

[KaladinWorldsinger]

Tldr: Endowment will restart an ancient conflict with rosharans and ashynites, helping Todium, to get her nightblood back.

Odium had friends

This theory kinda began with this quote by Dalinar in rhythm of war

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It wasn’t really in question. He didn’t trust Wit much, but he didn’t trust Odium at all. Besides, if Honor had died to trap this god here on Roshar, Dalinar had to believe the Almighty had done so for good reason.

So Dalinar has no idea why Odium had to remain trapped in roshar when Odium was ready to leave the planet completely for a thousand years. Dalinar refuses on a gut feeling that letting odium leave would be a bad idea and hopes Honor had a good reason for the trap, and i believe that Honor did.

I don't think it was for the sole sake of the rest of the Cosmere, and the 'honorable' thing to do. This would mean that Dalinar should have just taken the deal, for the sake of Roshar. Instead Honor(and cultivation) prolly had a more practical reason to bind Odium to Roshar

So that he doesn't bring his friends.

 Evidence: Odium was weak from all his battles already, Honor and Cultivation had a romantic relationship and their shard intents aren't very far apart in the way Devotion and dominion are, and there are dawnshards (plural!) on Roshar. Why did Rayse think he could take this planet on? Unless he thought he would have help but then quickly got trapped

 Honor did not let odium leave because even if odium promised not to come back again for 1000 years, he could just send his ally instead to gain his advantage.

And this friend at that time was probably Autonomy. 

But after 7000 years,  Autonomy (prolly trell) has his own plans for scadrial and you know, rayse died and taravangian took his place. I don't think Tara can really rely on Bavadin anymore. So maybe Dalinar should have taken the deal anyway? Nope. Because taravangian will instead make a new friend, Endowment.

Meta theorizing 

Imagine you are a casual stormlight reader who isn't cosmere-aware and doesn't read WoBs. You won't know that this is a ten book series or the delay between the front half and the back half being near five years. The first five books are about Odium and you expect Odium to be defeated at the end of book 5 and SA is done. But Brandon won't kill Odium again after he just killed odium in the fourth book! So we can be sure Tara will survive book 5. That looks like a sequel hook. Infact, the back half being set 15 ish years later with other characters being main characters  sounds a lot like a sequel story, instead of continuation.  Brandon has also confirmed that book 5 will have a satisfactory ending. He can't just end book 5 on a cliffhanger and leave for 5 years, that would kill interest in the series.

And sequels often need escalation of the conflict. So an extra 4th shard is a no brainer. Brandon likes to keep killing villains when they become stale, so he will keep introducing newer, bigger villains. Endowment is a perfect fit. Let me explain

Stormlight archive is very cosmere aware. Hoid is a huge part of this story, the ghostbloods are shallan's main antagonists now and of course, Vasher,vivenna and nightblood. Why tho? Well because SA is Brandon's biggest story. If he wants people to go along with the broader cosmere story, he has to seed it along SA to not let his biggest fanbase get confused and turned off. The ghostbloods and hoid make sense now as set up for the rosharan vs scadrian space age war . But why the nalthians?

To a reader who knows nothing, Nightblood is a maybe corrupted honorblade made by Shalash( false but they don't know that) that is very different from any other shardblade in the series because it talks without a spren form, with the power of chipping an honorblade. It was also used by taravangian to kill rayse all according to cultivation's plan! And you still know nothing about it! The sword is connected to 'zahel' and 'azure', the two most mysterious characters after hoid. They do nothing much plot relevant in their screentime unlike hoid. They will also prolly have huge part in the horneater novella.

Why endowment?

Endowment, i feel has already lost nightblood, her most powerful weapon, to Roshar. And taravangian is extremely interested in nightblood now... He could promise her the sword in exchange for her alliance. We know she lost it because she had no plans outside her own planet, so this was not intended

Ashyn was on war

I think wewill see Ashyn in the back half. My biggest reason here would be the parelels between Ishar and Venli. They both were ambitious, glory minded(tezim cares about glory, so maybe ishar does too), scientist type figures that were tricked by Odium into doing something that caused a great problem to their planets and nearly ended up killing their own race. Now venli's mistake drove the listeners to find a new place on Roshar. Also the singers allied with odium paid the price for it the desolations, the listeners escaped the conflict, like venli is doing now. That is what happened with Ishar. The refugees were driven out of Ashyn. That why some humans still live on Ashyn.

The refugees escaping their burning planet reminds me of nuclear Ash, and Nuclear war. The listeners would have never called the everstorm if the humans were not threatening their extinction. Maybe Ishar's country was also in a war? Why else would you experiment with and use a dawnshard(even if they didn't know how deadly it was).  And now, the ashynites remember rosharans with a vengeance and maybe want their dawnshard back.

Tinfoil: Magic System

Ashyn has a magic system where you symbiotically house a disease to get powers. This, Brandon confirmed is cultivation based magic. But Koraveri seems to be setting up lift to be the next vessel of cultivation (since lift's whole arc is not wanting to change, but cultivation is change). So we can expect some problems with cultivation in the future. Will the magic system of Ashyn survive that change. A bit tinfoil but i think it could happen.

Because Symbiosis is what I think Endowment+Cultivation could be. In Symbiosis, are you cultivating parts of yourself or endowing the other guy with your abilities? 

But most probably Endowment would just get her new planet some awakening too.

Clues:

Endowment already hates hoid, like Bavadin or Rayse. She even saw through his disguise, which is pretty smart for a shard. They could have a rivalry

Awakening is a perfect complementary fit to what Roshar needs right now, Like having enough breaths gives you perfect pitch, something very important for anti-stormlight production

Warbreaker was created so that Vasher could have some backstory. Infact Vasher's story's main theme is the handling of power, the same theme that's running throughout stormlight with the recreance and the Bondsmith unchained storyline. 

There is already some nalthian influence on Roshar like:

In The Girl who looked up, she has white hair, tying her back to Shalash. The story has a lot of awakening type language around her red tthing on her neck, and the color is brought attention to a lot.

The curses around Kelek are His breath and His tongue. I don't think he was an awakener, but he could have been a singer of some sort. A dawnsinger maybe? Because cohesion is heavily tied to dawnsinging, as we saw in venli talking to the stones and the are arcanum. The ars arcanum even talks about Intent and Command, and the second has not been relevant info for SA. But it is for Awakeners

Sadees the Sunmaker has a name very similar to Nalthians (ends in -ees) and the other part of his name sound a lot like Nalthian returned naming convention ( like warbreaker the peaceful).

Humans on Roshar have something like royal locks(or atleast adolin does). Does anyone remember the WoB?

Shashara did come to Roshar and made nightblood seeing shardblades.

The iriali have colors in their quotes( in one of evi's lines)

Also dawnshards. They are Commands of adonalsium that if you hold, you have heightening-like abilities. If you want to understand them, u need Awakeners to explain. And didn't Vasher just start talking to kal about types of invested entities?

The silence divine just happens to take place in the back half time

Also soulcasting used to be called awakening. Just a small point

 

Edited March 30, 2022 by KaladinWorldsinger

[Green Hoodie Mistborn]

Why would Endowment want Nightblood? 

I theorized a long time ago that she Returned Shashara in order to make Nightblood, in order to kill Odium. I was... kind of right in the end, even if that wasn't Endowment's intention, I called Nightblood's narrative purpose to a large degree. But I don't think she has any desire for Nightblood back at this point. 

But in the main she's focused on Nalthis and not concerned with Cosmere wide efforts. 

[KaladinWorldsinger]

3 hours ago, Green Hoodie Mistborn said:

Why would Endowment want Nightblood? 

I theorized a long time ago that she Returned Shashara in order to make Nightblood, in order to kill Odium. I was... kind of right in the end, even if that wasn't Endowment's intention, I called Nightblood's narrative purpose to a large degree. But I don't think she has any desire for Nightblood back at this point. 

But in the main she's focused on Nalthis and not concerned with Cosmere wide efforts. 

Nightblood is the most dangerous weapon in the cosmere we have seen yet. Wouldn't you want to have it on your side, just to protect yourself or your planet?

It's because she is focused only on nalthis that I think losing Vasher and nightblood to Roshar was not in the plan. And she created nightblood for a reason ( not to destroy odium as we know she doesn't care much about the cosmere). I see a lot of reasons why she would want nightblood back.

If nightblood does turn out to be a dawnshard like some theorize, then wanting it back makes even more sense

 

[Green Hoodie Mistborn]

That's some Sauron thinking there. I don't think the Shard's think like that. Especially one that has held their Shard since the beginning.

Endowment's Intent has likely overtaken Edgli, so her goals will be Endowing, improving, empowering. None of those things deal with Nightblood or what Nightblood does or can do which is now they opposite of her thing. 

You may in the end be proved right, it just doesn't feel like something that makes sense to me. 

[KaladinWorldsinger]

@Green Hoodie MistbornSo your objection was not something I saw coming because I thought the morality of Endowment was the least controversial part of my theory. But I will do my best to answer

15 hours ago, Green Hoodie Mistborn said:

That's some Sauron thinking there. I don't think the Shard's think like that. Especially one that has held their Shard since the beginning.

I don't understand what you mean here since we have seen very evil shards by now..

Do you mean wanting Nightblood on your side is bad? Because to me it feels pragmatic. And using Nightblood is something a shard would do. Example: Cultivation used nightblood for her plans.

But i don't think i understood what you meant by this.

15 hours ago, Green Hoodie Mistborn said:

Endowment's Intent has likely overtaken Edgli, so her goals will be Endowing, improving, empowering. None of those things deal with Nightblood or what Nightblood does or can do which is now they opposite of her thing.

But you forget, Endowment returned the five scholars for a reason. They were meant to create nightblood and she wanted nightblood for her plans. So now it seems like she would want it back right?

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OrangeJedi

When Nightblood created, was Endowment involved in any way more than normal?

 

Brandon Sanderson

Good question, you qualified that the right way! I would say yes, but maybe not to the extent you're thinking.

 

OrangeJedi

Normal being using Endowment's Investiture to Awaken. There's something special.

 

Brandon Sanderson

I would say, there is something special.

This WoB proves that Endowment wanted nightblood to be created.

We know Endowment has good future sight ( lightsong was in the right place at the right time to stop a second manywar). The returned were returned for a reason, and what they did was improve awakening technology so much that wars became really, really destructive. From coppermind, we will find out that visions of the future caused the manywar( Vasher tried to get ahead of it). This all seems like this could have been stopped if endowment wanted. She literally has the power to smite down anyone on the planet( yup! another WoB)

So I don't think endowment is as nice as you think she is. Vasher, in row, says he hates endowment, and i think he has good reason to. From what we know of her, she seems like a manipulater. 

Tldr: She created nightblood for a reason. Maybe she hasn't fallen to her intent? Either way she prolly wants it back

[kenod]

On 14-4-2022 at 10:04 PM, KaladinWorldsinger said:

Do you mean wanting Nightblood on your side is bad? Because to me it feels pragmatic. And using Nightblood is something a shard would do. Example: Cultivation used nightblood for her plans.

You probably want Nightblood on your side. However, I suspect no Shard would actually want Nightblood on their planet. Having the one weapon that makes a mortal capable of killing a vessel if they manage to meet them on the same planet as the primary world you Invested sounds like a very bad idea.

Right now Nightblood is roaming out and about, doing damage to Shards other than Endowment, and there are two powerful Nalthians nearby who have a strong connection to it and would likely keep an eye on it and prevent it from causing too big a mess.

Essentially, right now Nightblood is on Endowment's side, and, more importantly, on a world where it doesn't function as a sword of Damocles hanging over her head. Besides, Endowment is the only shard in her system, who else would it be any use against right now if it was on Nalthis?

[+Harrycrapper]

On 3/30/2022 at 6:45 AM, KaladinWorldsinger said:

Why endowment?

Endowment, i feel has already lost nightblood, her most powerful weapon, to Roshar. And taravangian is extremely interested in nightblood now... He could promise her the sword in exchange for her alliance. We know she lost it because she had no plans outside her own planet, so this was not intended

Also dawnshards. They are Commands of adonalsium that if you hold, you have heightening-like abilities. If you want to understand them, u need Awakeners to explain. And didn't Vasher just start talking to kal about types of invested entities?

The silence divine just happens to take place in the back half time

Also soulcasting used to be called awakening. Just a small point

 

4 hours ago, kenod said:

You probably want Nightblood on your side. However, I suspect no Shard would actually want Nightblood on their planet. Having the one weapon that makes a mortal capable of killing a vessel if they manage to meet them on the same planet as the primary world you Invested sounds like a very bad idea.

Right now Nightblood is roaming out and about, doing damage to Shards other than Endowment, and there are two powerful Nalthians nearby who have a strong connection to it and would likely keep an eye on it and prevent it from causing too big a mess.

Essentially, right now Nightblood is on Endowment's side, and, more importantly, on a world where it doesn't function as a sword of Damocles hanging over her head. Besides, Endowment is the only shard in her system, who else would it be any use against right now if it was on Nalthis?

I had the same exact thoughts and I think Brandon himself said that most shards would seek to avoid Nightblood like the plague. Though in addition to that, I don't see how Endowment could make her way to the Rosharan system. Based on what's happening with Odium and what happened with Ruin, a Shard cannot just up and leave a planet they have Invested on. Endowment would need to destroy her planet to get to Roshar. I could see her influencing events from afar much like what seems to be happening on Scadrial with Trell. But, I don't see Endowment showing up in the Rosharan system, getting her vessel killed, Cultivation's vessel also dies, and Lift somehow merges the Shards. That just seems super implausible. 

Also did I miss something where Soulcasting used to be called Awakening? I'm drawing a complete blank on that. Not saying it isn't true, would just like to see the source. 

And I'm also not sure why you would need Awakeners to explain Dawnshards when you have Hoid there who once held one and was likely there when they were used to Shatter Adonalsium. 

 

[KaladinWorldsinger]

On 4/27/2022 at 9:06 PM, kenod said:

You probably want Nightblood on your side. However, I suspect no Shard would actually want Nightblood on their planet. Having the one weapon that makes a mortal capable of killing a vessel if they manage to meet them on the same planet as the primary world you Invested sounds like a very bad idea.

Essentially, right now Nightblood is on Endowment's side, and, more importantly, on a world where it doesn't function as a sword of Damocles hanging over her head. Besides, Endowment is the only shard in her system, who else would it be any use against right now if it was on Nalthis?

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I had the same exact thoughts and I think Brandon himself said that most shards would seek to avoid Nightblood like the plague

You are forgetting, the reason why nightblood could kill rayse was because of renarins future sight clouding his perception. Also rayse happened to visit him in a vision.  Having nightblood on your planet means you can control it easily and track it's movement. If nightblood is out of your control and kills shards without your control, is it even useful? I am thinking of a nuclear weapon here. Would not it be good to have it with you for protection? Hopefully never have to use it?

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Right now Nightblood is roaming out and about, doing damage to Shards other than Endowment, and there are two powerful Nalthians nearby who have a strong connection to it and would likely keep an eye on it and prevent it from causing too big a mess.

I am not even sure if nightblood is on her side anymore, unless she has beyond ridiculous talent with futuresight. And Vasher seems to hate her right now and freely gave nightblood to the nightwatcher. So I don't think she has any control over it.

On 4/28/2022 at 2:07 AM, Harrycrapper said:

Though in addition to that, I don't see how Endowment could make her way to the Rosharan system. Based on what's happening with Odium and what happened with Ruin, a Shard cannot just up and leave a planet they have Invested on. Endowment would need to destroy her planet to get to Roshar. I could see her influencing events from afar much like what seems to be happening on Scadrial with Trell.

I was thinking of trell like interference from endowment rather than a complete transfer to Roshar. Or specifically to Ashyn.

 

On 4/28/2022 at 2:07 AM, Harrycrapper said:

But, I don't see Endowment showing up in the Rosharan system, getting her vessel killed, Cultivation's vessel also dies, and Lift somehow merges the Shards. That just seems super implausible. 

I never said that endowment's vessel will die or that lift will somehow merge them.

On 4/28/2022 at 2:07 AM, Harrycrapper said:

Also did I miss something where Soulcasting used to be called Awakening? I'm drawing a complete blank on that. Not saying it isn't true, would just like to see the source. 

Soulcasting in the original vision of stormlight archive was called awakening. That has now changed. It was just a minor point.

On 4/28/2022 at 2:07 AM, Harrycrapper said:

And I'm also not sure why you would need Awakeners to explain Dawnshards when you have Hoid there who once held one and was likely there when they were used to Shatter Adonalsium. 

Hoid is notoriously unhelpful and if we need to understand dawnshards, we need to understand what a command actually is. Only Awakeners have actual use of Commands in their magic system.