Star Trell: The Final Frontier

[skaa]

(I wanted to celebrate my 900th post by writing a theory. This one's not a particularly cool theory by my standards, but it has spent enough time brewing in my brain that I might as well just throw it out there. Feel free to suggest modifications to increase its awesomeness.)
 

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Out of all the religions that existed on Scadrial before the Final Empire, there is one that gets mentioned more often than the rest: Trelagism.
 

"I think I have the perfect religion for you," Sazed said, his normally stoic face revealing a glimmer of eagerness. "It is called 'Trelagism,' after the god Trell. Trell was worshipped by a group known as the Nelazan, a people who lived far to the north. In their land, the day and night cycle was very odd. During some months of the year, it was dark for most of the day. During the summer, however, it only grew dark for a few hours at a time.
"The Nelazan believed that there was beauty in darkness, and that the daylight was more profane. They saw the stars as the Thousand Eyes of Trell watching them. The sun was the single, jealous eye of Trell's brother, Nalt. Since Nalt only had one eye, he made it blaze brightly to outshine his brother. The Nelazan, however, were not impressed, and preferred to worship the quiet Trell, who watched over them even when Nalt obscured the sky."
Sazed fell silent. Vin wasn't sure how to respond, so she didn't say anything.
"It really is a good religion, Mistress Vin," Sazed said. "Very gentle, yet very powerful. The Nelazan were not an advanced people, but they were quite determined. They mapped the entire night sky, counting and placing every major star. Their ways suit you--especially their preference of the night. I can tell you more, if you wish."

Sazed is particularly fond of Trelagism, even though he was aware of its flaws.
 

He sat down at the table, opening his portfolio, taking out the next sheet in the line. It listed the tenets of the Nelazan people, who had worshipped the god Trell. Sazed had always been partial to this religion because of its focus on learning and study of mathematics and the heavens. He'd saved it for near the end, but had done so more out of worry than anything else. He'd wanted to put off what he'd known would happen.
Sure enough, as he read about the religion, he saw the holes in its doctrines. True, the Nelazan had known a great deal about astronomy, but their teachings on the afterlife were sketchy--almost whimsical. Their doctrine was purposefully vague, they'd taught, allowing all men to discover truth for themselves. Reading this, however, left Sazed frustrated. What good was a religion without answers? Why believe in something if the response to half of his questions was "Ask Trell, and he will answer"?

Later, it was the knowledge of the Trelagist Nelazan that allowed the newly Ascended Sazed to put Scadrial in its original orbit.
 

From the Nelazan, the Keepers had recovered star charts, and had dutifully recorded them--even though scholars had called them useless, since they hadn't been accurate since the days before the Ascension. Yet, from these star charts, and from the patterns and movements of the other planets in the solar system they outlined, Sazed could determine exactly where the world was supposed to sit in orbit. He put the planet back into its old place--not pushing too hard, as the Lord Ruler once had, for he had a frame of reference by which to measure.

(Side note: There are apparently multiple planets in the Scadrian solar system. Not really surprising, but this does bring up the possibility of Era 4 Scadrians mining the other planets for rare metals or maybe even terraforming them.)

In AoL, we learn that the Words of Founding left by Sazed included a lengthy explanation of "Trellism" (as it is now called) and its teachings, and that there are followers of this religion even in Era 2 Scadrial, most notably the lawmaker turned criminal Miles Dagouter, who even in the last moment of his life preached Trell-worship.

All this got me wondering: Why? Why does Trell seem so important in the Mistborn stories? Why did Brandon feel a need to reference this god's religion in AoL? Other Sharders have asked the same question, and there are many theories that have sprung from it. Some believe that Trell is one of the other Shards we've yet to officially meet. Some say that the star-loving ditheistic Trelagism of Ancient Scadrial has somehow morphed into a totally different monotheistic religion in Era 2 Scadrial (hence the name change to "Trellism") that is now focused on a racist doctrine that Miles seemed to advocate. Still, others say that the Southern Scadrians are Trell-worshippers and that they are somehow involved in the activities of the Vanishers and the Set.

While these theories (which aren't mutually exclusive, come to think of it) are all pretty interesting, I can't help but think that there is something more fundamental that we are missing, and I think it might be the strange connection between ancient Trelagists' beliefs and space travel.

Think about it. If you were a Trelagist astronomer (and there were obviously Trelagist astronomers; their civilization studied not just the stars but also the motion of planets), you'd be a little concerned once you realize that your whole world basically revolved around your god's evil brother. If you could, you'd want to get out of the solar system entirely, escape Nalt's grip, and fly off towards the Thousand Eyes of Trell.

Knowing that Leras could see into the future, I wonder if he saw a need for Scadrians to eventually learn space travel at some point, perhaps to ensure survival by populating many planets across the galaxy. He may have influenced the beliefs of the Nelazan the same way he did the Terris. Sazed, after Ascending, would have eventually seen what Leras saw, which might be influencing his decisions to an extent.

But there is a problem. Creating excellent star maps does not make someone a space traveler. It doesn't even begin to come close. Space travel requires a huge leap in science and technology if you're starting out from a pre-Industrial society, and Sazed himself said that the Nelazan weren't advanced. What's worse, they as a people might not even have had the right mindset to begin the necessary scientific advancements even if the Final Empire did not conquer them.

Why do I say this? Because the Nelazan were known for being a gentle people, perhaps too gentle, and the history of space travel (at least on Earth) is filled with the complete opposite of gentleness. It is not unreasonable to argue that human spaceflight could not have been achieved in the 20th century without the Cold War, that rocket science advanced tremendously during World War II, and that even the concept of rockets came to be only when the Chinese decided to use black power to shoot projectiles at their enemies all those centuries ago.

 

In short, while the Nelazan might have had a desire for space travel, they needed experience building things that go very fast through the air and possibly hitting things, and this wasn't something they could have achieved while peacefully staring at the stars. (Perhaps Ati fooled the Nelazan into becoming excessively pacifist, the same way he fooled the Terrismen into preaching the virtues of giving up god-like power.)

So why would Leras even bother to insert Trelagism into the Nelazan culture? Well, first of all, it's not like he'd ever choose war. Leras held Preservation and was constrained by the Shard's Intent, and a religion that stealthily advocated space travel might have been the best he could do. But he probably foresaw his own eventual death and knew that someone else will manage to take both Ruin and Preservation and become far more capable of finishing what Leras had started.
 
Perhaps the new guy might even find a good use for Trell-worshipers.

Here is my suspicion: I think Sazed has foreseen a war between Elendel and Southern Scadrial, and is allowing it to happen in order to speed up both the technological and magical progress on the planet. Sazed also allowed the formation of the Set because their actions will lead to a less lopsided war, though he does try to mitigate some of their evil via his favorite Pathian lawman (Wax).
 
Note that Sazed as Harmony would not force anyone to do anything. He only encourages and nudges. The evil acts of Edwarn Ladrian are all his own, just as the heroic acts of Waxillium Ladrian are his own. The important thing is that all these acts will one day lead to cool starships powered by magic that will travel across the galaxy, spreading Harmony's agents in a thousand star systems. This, come to think of it, may be the closest anyone could get to being a god with a thousand stars for eyes.

Everything will be better. Everything will be answered eventually. Just worship Trell and wait.

 

 

 

Edit: Renamed the thread to "Star Trell" to make the bad pun even more obvious, though at the expense of accuracy (Trell has many stars, not just a singular star), because I like it when people get my lame jokes.

 

Update with SoS spoilers: 

After reading Shadows of Self, I now think that Sazed is setting himself up to become the unloved god Nalt, and that he gave the role of Trell to Kelsier. This, again, is all so that Scadrians will want to leave their planet and spread out across the Cosmere. Becoming an unloved god is a sacrifice I know Sazed would be willing to make.

Edited November 17, 2015 by skaa

[king of nowhere]

the history of space travel (at least on Earth) is filled with the complete opposite of gentleness. It is not unreasonable to argue that human spaceflight could not have been achieved in the 20th century without the Cold War, that rocket science advanced tremendously during World War II, and that even the concept of rockets came to be only when the Chinese decided to use black power to shoot projectiles at their enemies all those centuries ago.

 

True.

But on the other hand, a civilization with the tech level for space flight has also the tech level to wipe out itself. so a civilization cannot be too warlike when it reaches space travel, or there won't be any civilization left to do the space traveling. And it is a cheerful thought, at the prospect of meeting an alien race, that any race capable of traveling through the stars is a race peaceful enough that it has managed to not destroy itself.

The very concept that conflict increases scientific advancement is debatable. Some theorize that the reason the industrial revolution happened in europe was that europe was made by many warring states, while everywhere else in the world those warring states tended to be absordeb into continent spanning empires. Some others observed that switzerland had 500 years of peace, and all they invented was the cucoo clock. as a theory, it is certainly possible. for sure, many technologies developed for war turned out to improve the lives of people in times of peace, rocketry being one of the most notable ones.

BUt then, europe almost destroied itself in the second world war, and the united states became the dominant power by being a united continent-spanning state. In the last 20 years, with the fall of the soviet union, there was almost no conflict in the industrialized world, and yet our science advanced as fast as ever, with information technology  and renewable energies coming out almost of nowhere and becoming main parts of everyone's life.

 

So, advocating strife as a way to advance society is a risky business at best. Even putting moral issues aside, i would not encourage it unless the situation was really desperate.

 

Speaking of morals, if saze was "nudging" towards a war, I don't care that people still have free will, saze would be corresponsible for it. If he wants to be a "good" god, he cannot encourage war just in the hope of getting some scientific development. I could only accept it (omniscient morality license) if he knew there was an alien invasion in, say, 200 years, and scadrial needed to be ready to face it.

[skaa]

(Oh, cool. The site's back up!)

I agree with the riskiness of using the belligerence of nations to improve lives in peace time. I toyed with the idea of a very long "cold war" (that will never actually erupt into a "hot" one) between the two nations, sending both to an arms race that will eventually produce aerospace technology. I'm not sure how Sazed/Brandon can pull this off, though, so I settled with the idea that full blown war involving actual use of ballistic missiles is the plan.

But hey, Brandon will probably surprise me with a much better peaceful solution. Hopefully that'll be the case.

Edited May 30, 2015 by skaa

[Redbird]

Maybe Sazed foresaw an attack from another space faring group. And this may keep the Scadrians from being wiped out by themselves and the others.

[Zaronixx]

Maybe Sazed foresaw an attack from another space faring group. And this may keep the Scadrians from being wiped out by themselves and the others.

Is the threat of Odium not enough to ecourage Harmony to quickly get his people ready for a war? Even at the cost of a war on his own planet? Harmony would surely be able to tell that the Cosmere is out of balance, and as his intent is Harmony, he would always work to keep the cosmere in balance, not matter the costs.

 

(This is my first post on this site!!!) Made an account just to add this in, as I saw no one else had mentioned Odium as a potential threat.)

[natc]

Technically his intent isn't exactly Harmony. It is to both ruin and preserve. While the shards are superglued together, their intents still function, and being pushed towards both makes it difficult to do anything.

I mean, this is Sazed. Mr. "His name shall be discord, yet they shall love him for it"? He's the most meddlesomely rebellious butler in existence. If he could do something he would. Yet Marsh implies he actually no longer believes so, so the intent corruption is probably kicking in and he's here being extremely non-interventional.

[Oudeis]

Well... but the only thing rocket propulsion has taught us about interstellar travel is that no amount of propulsion of any kind will ever allow interstellar travel. I suppose a necessary step, but could a God not somehow find some way to inspire the appropriate scientist to steer his research in a more fruitful direction without killing people in a war, and it could not possibly be considered more "intervention".