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Theory: Endowment Recently Arrived on Nalthis


Windrunner

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From Brandon's signing in York

Q. Can you tell me something about the Cosmere that you haven't told anyone before?

A. "There are inhabited planets in the Cosmere that don't have any Shards there. There may be inhabited planets that only have a Splinter of a Shard. There are 10 Core Cosmere planets, which tell the overarching story of the Cosmere."

Q. "Are all the Cosmere books so far set on these 10 core worlds?"

A. "Yes"

Q. Are there any of the 10 core worlds without a shard?

A. "All 10 core worlds have significant Shardic Influence."

This instantly set my mind spinning and gave a solution to a problem that had been bothering me, what changed on Nalthis that started the people Returning, and the discovery of Awakening? It only happened 300-500 years before and I couldn't understand why Endowment would suddenly make such a big change. Maybe they could have Awakened all along and didn't know how, but AonDor which is just as complex had already been in use for centuries, if not millennia. So what changed?

My answer is this, Endowment came to Nalthis. Before it had just been of those Shardless worlds, perhaps left over from the Shattering of Andonalsium but then Endowment came. She (maybe a he?) started returning people 500 years before. after the people of Nalthis had spent time around her, they began to change, kind of like mutation, and started having pieces of Endowment inside them, Breath, which culminated in the discovery of Awakening around 300 years ago.

I'll expand on this more later, when I get home and can examine some quotes from Warbreaker and work on the theory. Until then, any comments, questions or concerns?

Edited by Windrunner
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Hmm, this is a bit of a problem. Returned can return without Breath, but without one a week they will die after 8 days. Maybe the original Returned just died after a week? When they discovered Breath they would be able to keep them alive. I can't remember if it says that they lived or died. Let me check my Warbreaker and I'll see if I can find any quotes the give evidence one way or another. The only thing I can think of, off the top of my head is Vo the First Returned came back, gave them the 5 Visions, got his wife pregnant, with a baby who would found the House of Idris and had that color-changing hair, and then Vo died. I'm pretty sure that all happened in a week.

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One concern: Breath needs to exist before Returned, or else the Returned die after a week.

Other than that, this makes sense to me!

At Alloy, when Zas asked if Drabs can Return, Brandon said pretty much no, at least in the way that we understand Returning. He implied that there could be a way to Return differently. Vo could have Returned in that way.

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At Alloy, when Zas asked if Drabs can Return, Brandon said pretty much no, at least in the way that we understand Returning. He implied that there could be a way to Return differently. Vo could have Returned in that way.

That would make sense, since Returned as we know them are sterile, right? (Even Susebron, IIRC. It's been a while since I read Warbreaker, so correct me if I'm wrong.)

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Forgive me if this has been theorized or refuted before, but is it possible that Returned are sterile because they think they are sterile? We know they can change their appearance rather dramatically; perhaps they could also remove their ability to have children? If someone managed to convince them that they were sterile, and then it became part of the religion, they might continue to be sterile whether or not they wanted to be, because they thought they had no choice. Vo, however, would have had no such preconception. God Kings might could be made believe themselves different enough that they could think themselves out of sterility.

Back on topic, what if Endowment created people on Nalthis (with Breath, as Deus Ex Biotica mentioned), then went on vacation to another Cosmere planet, possibly one we haven't even heard of (thus no Returned, but Breath continued working as usual), then came back a few centuries ago (as Windrunner described).

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Okay I did a bit of digging and found some things out.

This is from chapter 44 of the Warbreaker annotation

It is possible for a Returned to have a child. Vo, the First Returned, did it. The God King isn't special in that he can do it; any of the Returned could, but it requires some special knowledge that—I'm afraid—I'll have to keep secret until the sequel. Suffice it to say that the priests know how it is done.

The problem is, they aren't always able to get this to work. Sometimes, they have to do what Siri guessed—replace the God King with an infant Returned. Infant Returns happen very infrequently. It's more rare than an adult Returning, so there is something sound to the Hallandren reasoning that you have to do something heroic in order to Return. (That's not true, but it is more sound a doctrine than Siri thinks it is.)

This is from a Twitter interview in July of 2009

Graendal: A question that's been on my mind for a while. If Returned can't have children, how are Siri and Vivenna descended from one? 

Excellent question. One I have to RAFO. When I was writing WRBRKR, I was planning on two books. 

I seeded two questions to be answered in the next book. One was the origin of the royal family.

The second was how Vasher was able to survive while hiding his divine Breath. I will answer these questions. 

Eventually. (It has to do with restoring Breath and life to the child while still in the womb.). 

This clears up the Returned having children, their is something odd going on, a secret, but it is clearly possible.

Warbreaker Chapter 32

"The First Returned was born during this time," Hoid said, sprinkling a handful of silver glitter into the air before him. "Aboard a ship that was sailing the coast. Returned can now be found in all parts of the world, but the first one—the man whom you call Vo, but we name only by his title—was born here, in the waters of this very bay. He declared the Five Visions. He died a week later.

Okay I was right, Vo did die after a week, but I'm thinking they already had Breath, because then he wouldn't have Returned looking like the other Returned that were to follow. We have no idea how different the other type of Returning is from the one we know.

And now I have something of a timeline, from Chapter 32 as well.

The glitter ran out, and Hoid began to drop a powdery brown dirt from his other hand as he reached into another pocket. "Now, you may wonder why I must travel back so far. Should I not speak of the Manywar, of the shattering of kingdoms, of the Five Scholars, of Kalad the Usurper and his phantom army, which some say still hides in these jungles, waiting?

"Those are the events we focus upon, the ones men know the best. To speak only of them, however, is to ignore the history of three hundred years that led up to them. Would there have been a Manywar without knowledge of the Returned? It was a Returned, after all, who predicted the war and prompted Strifelover to attack the kingdoms across the mountains."

So this says that Vo Returned 300 years before the Era of the Manywar

"You know, perhaps, that the royal family was growing increasingly interested in the process by which Breath could be used to bring objects to life. Awakening, it was then first being called. It was a fresh and poorly understood art, then. It still is, in many ways. The workings of the souls of men—their power to animate ordinary objects and the dead to life—is something discovered barely four centuries ago. A short time, by the accounting of gods."

To put this in context it was talking about the royal family during the time of the Manywar. So when those two quotes are put together, a bit of a timeline can be put together. According to my theory, first Endowment arrived on Nalthis, and probably not too long after, Vo Returned. 300 years later came the discoveyr of Awakening, the 5 Scholars, and the Manywar. Around 400 years after that comes the events of Warbreaker. I was a little off on the dates so I'll edit the first post soon, but so far, nothing contradicts the basic precepts of my theory.

Back on topic, what if Endowment created people on Nalthis (with Breath, as Deus Ex Biotica mentioned), then went on vacation to another Cosmere planet, possibly one we haven't even heard of (thus no Returned, but Breath continued working as usual), then came back a few centuries ago (as Windrunner described).

Possible, but personally, I doubt it. I don't see any possible motivation for leaving Nalthis. The only Shard that we know for sure has left it's planet is Odium, who went to murder Aona and Skai. I can't see a Shard with an intent that means giving, going to kill anyone else. Maybe she was escaping Odium, but I don't see him leaving the inhabitants of Nalthis unharmed. I don't know that the Returning would stop if Endowment left, Preservation had no mind and it still was on auto-pilot snapping people. Also Vo probably wouldn't be called the First Returned, because there would be myths of others from before Endowment left.

Edited by Windrunner
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