[RoW] I am confusion.

[Kered Soulcaster]

I feel like I have all the pieces but I'm not smart enough to put them together. This is either going to be a situation where the answer is so obvious that it's made me hesitate. Or I'm just missing something completely. Scrubbed through Arcanum and Coppermind and came up with nothing. Renarin and Sja-Anat have me confizzled. My simple question is, did the two of them conspire to assist in the Ascension of tOdium or were they just trying to undercut rOdium? 

The pieces I realized:

• Sja-Anat Interlude: Sja-Anat purposely manipulates the situation to get sent to watch Taravangian instead of the tower. She also calls Taravangian a weapon. 
• Tarava Interlude: Renarin gives him a bowl of spheres that hold enlightened spren with a note saying sorry. Is the sorry because his and Sja's goal was for Taravangian to kill Rayse and unleash the power? 

So if the obvious is true and they were working towards this, was their goal to kill Rayse, not anticipating the tOdium ascension, or was it to assist in the ascension? If's the ascension, does that mean Sja-Anat is working with Cultivation? 

[Treamayne Elantrian]

6 hours ago, Kered said:

The pieces I realized:

• Sja-Anat Interlude: Sja-Anat purposely manipulates the situation to get sent to watch Taravangian instead of the tower. She also calls Taravangian a weapon. 
• Tarava Interlude: Renarin gives him a bowl of spheres that hold enlightened spren with a note saying sorry. Is the sorry because his and Sja's goal was for Taravangian to kill Rayse and unleash the power? 

Sja-anat wants freedom and is a manipulator. I don't think she was specifically planning to kill Rayse or Odium; as much as she was politicking to get herself in a position to take advantage of whatever situation would arise around Taravangian. I don't think Renarin was involved directly, except as the vehicle to deliver the enlightened spren she promised to Taravangian as a way to draw Odium's attention.

Spoiler

RoW Ch 1-2

Both knew she wanted more freedom than he would allow. Both knew that she wanted to be a god unto herself. But he didn’t know for certain she was taking actions to undermine him, like when she’d saved Shallan and her companions from death in Kholinar a year ago. She had played that off as accidental, and he couldn’t prove otherwise.

If Odium caught her in a verifiable lie, he would unmake her again. Steal her memory. Rip her to pieces. But in so doing, he would lose a useful tool.

Hence the game.

Ch 54

“How many corrupted spren are we talking about?” Dalinar finally asked.

“Only a handful,” Renarin said. “She won’t change intelligent spren without their consent.”

“Well, that’s valuable to know. I’ll consider it. Are you … in contact with her?”

“Not in months. Glys is worried at how silent she’s become, though he thinks she is somewhere near right now.”

She creates in us a faction loved by neither men nor Odium, Glys agreed. No home. No allies. She might be destroyed by either. We will need more. Like you and like me. Together.

Ch 1-12

“H … hello, Sja-anat,” he finally managed to say. “I had not realized any of the Un … Unmade were here.”

What is wrong with you? a voice said in his mind, warped and distorted, like a dozen voices overlapping. What has happened to you?

“This is how I am sometimes. It is … the Nightwatcher’s fault.”

No, the other one. The god. She touched three that I know. The child. The general. And you. The Old Magic … the Nightwatcher … I begin to wonder if it was all a cover, these many centuries. A way for her to secretly bring in people she wanted to touch. She has been playing a far more subtle game than Odium realized.

Why did you go to her? What did you ask?

“For the capacity to stop what was coming,” he said. He was too frightened to lie. Even the smart him hadn’t wanted to face one of these things.

She sows many seeds, Sja-anat said. Can you do it? Can you stop what is coming?

“I don’t know,” Taravangian whispered. “Can it be stopped? Can … he be stopped?”

I am uncertain. The power behind him is strong, but his mind is exposed. The mind and the power seek different goals. This leaves him … not weak, but vulnerable.

“I have wondered,” Taravangian said, glancing down at his notebook, “if he is merely playing with me. I assume he looks over my shoulder at everything I write.”

No. He is not everywhere. His power is, but he is not. There are limits, and his Voidspren eyes fear coming too close to a Bondsmith.

Something itched at Taravangian through the fear and confusion. Sja-anat … she spoke like she wanted Odium to fall. Wasn’t there something in the Diagram about this? He tried to remember.

Storms. Was she tricking him into confessing? Should he stay quiet and not say anything?

No. He had to try.

“I need a way to lure Odium to me,” Taravangian said. “At the right time.”

I will arrange for you to be given gemstones with two of my children inside, she said. Odium searches for them. He watches me, certain I will make a mistake and reveal my true intentions. We are Connected, so my children appearing will draw his attention.

Good luck, human, when he does come. You are not protected from him as many on this world are. You have made deals that exempt you from such safety.

She faded from the mirror, and Taravangian hunched over, trembling as he continued to write.

 

[Quantus Most Ancient]

For what its worth, I dont think we are supposed to fully understand.  Renarin is to be a POV character with a Flashback arc later on (after a 10-ish year timeskip).  I suspect those flashbacks will cover background events of the first 5 books (like all the various stuff that was only hinted during RoW).