Jasnah Prologue

[Blindillusions]

Hello from Korea all. My first wall:

 

This is also from Jasnah's point-of-view and Jasnah knows Lyss' gender.  I'm fairly confident Lyss is a woman.  She wants to keep her gender secret, because she's a woman.  I don't really see the Alethi viewing assassination as a "feminine" pursuit so if she wants contracts she has to give the impression she is a man. 

 

Going with the context of the books thus far, I would have to say that assassination might be a(n almost) purely feminine pursuit. These are the Alethi we're talking about, a society where it is seemingly acceptable to abandon* the bulk of one's competition to complete destruction as long as it does not risk the kingdom*. Assassination is quite work. The Alethi High Princes (and I'll go out on a limb here and say most of the male nobles in Roshar) (Taravangian nonewithstanding) are anything but quite.

 

 

* pulled from the text of tWoK

 

"I didn't want to see you maligned for this bungled attempt to kill the king. If you'd wanted him dead, you'd have just burned out his eyes and been done with it." tWoK, Kindle Edition, pg 760

 

"Nobody would blame me. They all whisper that the Blackthorn should have taken the throne for himself years ago." tWoK, Kindle Edition, pg 959

 

Now, granted, those two quotes above really only say that Dalinar had nothing to do with Elhokar's bumbled assassination attempt on himself (sans weakened gemstones, of course), but they do shine on light on the way the nobles of Alethi think. Why assassinate someone when you can just call them out in a duel...or simply kill them outright? That's bold. That shows strength. That's winning. Seems to me an assassin, or rather the person who hires one, would be considered a coward. (I'll admit that coward is perhaps not the right word in this situation.)

 

Now, to bring this ramble a little more on point: I'm not really surprised at all that Jasnah employs assassins, either in the utilization of their typical skills or as spys/overwatch. It's my opinion that Jasnah could be considered the current Matron of her family. She's the cool one. The analytical one. The one who seeks to protect those around her. She sees what is coming and is doing everything possible to find a solution. (Navani is a woman of gossip and passions, a politican and dabbler of fabrials. I'm not saying this doesn't make a matron, but it does seem to me that Jasnah is the one doing what it takes to keep her family safe. Afterall, Navani returns to the Shattered Planes because she feels she has not place in the capital. ... .. ...I do like Navani as a character. I really do. Ahhh. Never mind.)

 

 

That was the point I was trying to get across.  Fighting, and presumably assassination, is a masculine art so the Alethi wouldn't approve of a female assassin.  Also, what "sarcasm" are you referring to? My last post was written seriously.

I'm not sure, but I don't think fighting and assassination really have any relation to one another. In the context of the subject matter, fighting involves banging one's sword/spear against their enemy's sword/spear until one is no longer able to do so. Assassination, on the other hand, is killing someone. There's no real fighting envolved...or at least I'm sure the assassin hopes so. All that to say perhaps assassination is gender neutral.

 

One final note: If we're to look for Lyss on the Shattered Planes...shouldn't we be looking for a male character?

[Shardlet]

Welcome BilndIllusions.  Glad to have you with us.  On this point, though, I disagree.  If assassination is principaly the province of females, then Lyss protecting the knowledge of her gender would not be as much of an asset.  Further, Adolin's dating habits would be much more tightly monitored and controlled to protect him from assassination since he is the heir to arguably the most powerful highprincedom.  These factors lead me to believe that most assassins are male.

[Argent]

At least the Alethi ones. Which, of course, makes sense - everything we've seen suggests that the one thing men in Alethkar are good for is physical activity

[WeiryWriter]

Yah, among the Alethi I'm sure assassination is a male-profession.  If it was a female one, there would have been a furor when Szeth, a male assassin, killed Gavilar.

 

@Blindillusions I don't think we should be looking for Liss on the Shattered Plains.  She's a handmaiden to Elhokar's wife who is currently holding court in Kholinar.

[Meg]

Regarding Lyss: In the scene described in the reading it's obvious that Lyss is a woman:

 

The woman, Lyss, picked the envelope up and made it vanish into the bust of her low-cut maid’s dress.

 

And if she reveals herself to Jasnah perhaps she also does to others hiring her. Or she passes herself off as a twixt when dealing with her orderer.

 

I'm not sure if I believe she's still with Elhokar's wife. Anyways, she seems to be educated, she possesses a Shardblade and -- if she's still in Kholinar -- I think she must be able to use a spanreed (for giving information to Jasnah).

 

Lyss is surely an interesting person.

[hoser]

I imagine Jasnah would want to be monitoring both the Shattered Plains and Elhokar's wife managing the homelands.  Given the concentration of people she is strongly connected to on the Shattered Plains, she might need more monitoring to happen in Alethkar,  Six years is a long time, so Brandon will devise the backstory to put the Weeper wherever fits the story he wants to tell. 

Edited October 22, 2013 by hoser