Men of Gold and Red - Autonomy, Odium and ...Endowment?

[Starganderfish]

Having now read the Lost Metal and Tress of the Emerald Sea, my mind started bubbling with possibilities.

My initial thought for Autonomy’s army was they must have used Trellium in some way - because Trellium has red spots .. gold and red...But Trellium is described as a silvery metal with red spots.

Then in TLM, Marasi describes the Men of Gold and Red: 
TLM - Ch 60 - Marasi POV: “Thousands of inhuman soldiers with golden skin and glowing red eyes. Living statues. They carried rifles of an advanced design, and their stares seemed to bore holes in her mind. The men of gold and red had arrived.”

The bodies are gold and the eyes are red.

My thoughts:

1) In Tress, the Sorceress' army of "metal men" sounds very similar in function, if not precise design, to Autonomy's “Men of Gold and Red”.

TotES - Ch 59:  "Here Tress could make out the legion of golden metal men standing in ranks around the Sorceress’s tower. Outfitted with spears and shields, Tress could almost imagine them as men in armor with lowered faceplates. If only they hadn’t stood so unnaturally still."

TotES - Ch 63: "The color of burnished brass, each one seven feet tall and carrying a spear with a glistening tip, they were an intimidating sight."

TotES - Ch 64: "Even a semi-self-aware construct like an Awakened soldier relies on its instructions. They’re far more versatile than something running on a traditional computer program, but they’re also not fully alive."

2) Beings controlled or influenced by Trell typically have glowing red eyes.

3) Autonomy has access to weapons at least as advanced as Scadrial if not more advanced:
TLM - Ch 20 - Moonlight: “You had gunpowder weapons and electricity before any planet in the cosmere aside from her core homeworld.”

4) Kalad's Phantoms are a version of Lifeless made of Awakened human bones encased in stone, in the form of massive warriors. Their stone bodies are larger than a human's, and they are faster and sturdier than other Lifeless. 

Build an army of Lifeless constructs (sculpted to look like men rather than armoured constructs) and encase them in durable metal rather than stone.  
Awaken them with corrupted Breaths wielded by an avatar of Autonomy and watch their eyes glow red.
Equip them with advanced Taldain weapons.

You have an immortal army of powerful soldiers under Autonomy's direct control. They operate “autonomously” but are precisely following their creator's every command. That suits Autonomy perfectly.
In TLM, Moonlight describes Autonomy thus:
TLM - Ch 20: "She claims she wants everyone to be individual, gives them each a little house that is distinctive from the others, but only in a way that fits her plan, her desires. It's fake individualism"

I don't genuinely think Endowment is consciously involved, in spite of my click-baity title. More that her Breaths have been co-opted for the purpose. Alternatively, Autonomy may be Realmatically aware enough to be able to convert her own investiture into Breaths, similar to how Vasher can subsist on Stormlight and Trell hijacks Hemalurgy.

To take it one step further, this is the most speculative part -  Raysium (Odium’s GodMetal) is a bright golden metal. It naturally conducts Investiture, drawing it in from any source. Reversing the direction of a Raysium insert in a dagger causes the investiture to be expelled, suggesting it conducts in one direction only.
Encase your LIfeless army in Raysium and suddenly any investiture used against them can be absorbed and stored in internally-mounted gems for later use (possibly to create more Lifeless constructs?).

I'm 95% confident that Autonmy's armies are Awakened constructs, as I'm sure many others are as well. The timing of their appearance in the Lost Metal and the descriptions of the metal-men in Tress are just too coincidental to ignore. 

The idea of using Raysium is a bit wilder though.

But, we've been seeing hints from various WoB's recently that Autonomy may be involved on Sel through the Fjorden religion (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/509-youtube-spoiler-stream-5/#e15951), and may have helped Odium, or at least look the other way on Sel during his Splintering of Devotion and Dominion. So hints of an alliance or at least a non-aggression pact.

Raysium being gold fits the description, it furthers the idea that they may be working together in some way, and having the ability to absorb/channel Investiture makes it an amazing defensive material in the environs of the Cosmere. If you're planning to go up against Elantrians, Allomancers, Surgebinders or similar invested beings, being able to negate their Investiture attacks is clutch.

Edited March 20, 2023 by Starganderfish
added additional thought

[VirtuousTraveller]

On 3/20/2023 at 5:52 AM, Starganderfish said:

4) Kalad's Phantoms are a version of Lifeless made of Awakened human bones encased in stone, in the form of massive warriors. Their stone bodies are larger than a human's, and they are faster and sturdier than other Lifeless. 

I had this exact same reaction when I read this.  It felt like it was at least alluding to Kalad's Phantoms!

[cometaryorbit]

Yeah, I think the Awakened soldiers in Tress are definitely parallel to the Phantoms.

Autonomy's army could be, or they could be live people in some kind of other-magic-system Shardplate (the way Nightblood and Vivenna's Blade are other-magic-system Shardblades).