Theory - Spoillers (with capital S) - The Secret of Gavilar Murder - The Black Gem

[Natans]

I apologize in advance for post another crackpot theory but I would really like to listen you guys about this one, so bear with me =)

 

I was reading the question that Joshstormblessed(thanks man) asked recently to Brandon and something hit me like a stone.

 

Here what was asked:

Q: What is the stone that Gavilar gave to Szeth before he died?
A: good question, there are clues to what it is. (I'm going to try to get this answer right) if you decode Shallans letter in the beginning of The Way of Kings you will find some significant clues to what the stone is. The letter has already been decoded over at the 17th shard but I've never confirmed that those clues are in fact there. So go tell the 17th shard I confirmed that and they will love you for it.

It's  know that the Navani's notes contain basic explanations of how make a fabrial and how to TRAP A

SPREN.

 

 

CAUTION

XXXXXXXX--------- Big spoillers of Words of Radiance ---------XXXXXXXX

 

 So if I'm correct the gem that Gavilar gived to Szeth contain a trapped spren, in true the gem contain not a normal spren, but a "dark spren" or "voidbringer spren" and this would explain everything. So let's do some math.

 

1- In the Dalinar purelake vision he saw a "voidbringer spren", that acted strange and was protected by a Thunderclast, a confirmed Desolation creature.

2- The Parshendi Killed Gavilar to stop him to bring back their "old gods", Aka voidbringer sprens.

3- The "Parshendi forms" are some kind o magic system that use certains sprens to change the physical/mental/emotional traits of the parshendis, by starting some kind of symbiotic relationship with differents kinds of sprens. (Eshonai reading)

So if Gavilar's dark gem is really "voidbringer spren" trapped, and if that spren escape he could bond with the parsheman or parshendis to make the "voidbringer parshemen" that are the odium's basic troops in the desolations, this would explain the need to kill Gavilar by fear of being affected by this  darksprens.

 

And more, by what we already know, the forms change de basic disposition of the parshemen, like when they are in the mate form and they can't think anything else different that "you know". 

 

If the voidbringer spren have some of the odium touch(investidure), for sure the parshemen woud go berserk in the voidbringer form, they would be "hateful" to say the last.

 

And more, like in the Ruin exemple, if the parshemen received some kind of odium investidure, Odium would be able to "control" or atleast influence the parsheman to to his desires by mental connection, like the Inquisitors case.

 

I'm starting to think that the parsheman aren't of Odium. Maybe they are of Cultivation and  Odium only exploited the spren+parsheman symbiose, so he could save his investidure to do another his "things" in others worlds ,what would be dificult if he was highly invested in roshar.

 

And this would make sense, give the fact that he would bring "hate" between Culivation and Honor beings what are his intention after all.

 

Make sense ?

Edited October 11, 2013 by Natans

[Gloom]

First, lets establish the quote:

 

“A spren that doesn’t act like it should,” the man said. “Just keep your eyes open, once Ja-ana touches them they are different. They act strange. Call attention to anything you see, even if you are uncertain.”

 

Once Ja-ana touches them. This doesn't sound like it's void spren. It sounds like it's a spren that was corrupted by Ja-ana, whom I believe is one of Odiums ten Anti-Heralds, or Fools.

 

This point is important to note. For void spren to exist, it establishes that Odium invested Roshar with spren. Corrupted spren on the other hand require only enough investiture to corrupt an existing spren to serve Odiums purposes. We are talking about a pretty big power differential between the two. Think of it like this. If Honor created wikipedia. Then Odium will occasionally go in an alter a document to serve his purposes.

 

The premiss that a corrupted spren exists in that little gem is possible, it may even be probable. It's still just one spren. It would be capable of creating one Voidbringer. Hardly a desolation.

 

If Odium was forced to create a race of sentient beings as a part of the Oathpact, I could easily see him creating the Parsh like so. They are enslaved to spren. Without spren they are simple, dull creatures with little ambition. With spren they are a vibrant intelligent and deeply cultured people. When Odium corrupts those spren they become deadly hateful monsters intent of the destruction of life itself. This way the Parsh would loath losing their spren bonds, but the price they pay for those bonds would be that of turning into ravening beasts when the desolation comes.

 

I'm not saying this is the case, it's just what I think Odium would do should he some how get cornered into investing in a planet.

Edited October 11, 2013 by Gloom

[hoser]

Hey Guys, just as a nitpicky point of order, I believe the Dalinar Purelake vision is a WoR spoiler, so this thread should probably be in the WoR section for the sake of those who want a certain experience of WoR.  Until it gets moved, maybe the information can be edited into spoiler format. 

 

Thanks in advance

[Natans]

First, lets establish the quote:

 

 

Once Ja-ana touches them. This doesn't sound like it's void spren. It sounds like it's a spren that was corrupted by Ja-ana, whom I believe is one of Odiums ten Anti-Heralds, or Fools.

 

This point is important to note. For void spren to exist, it establishes that Odium invested Roshar with spren. Corrupted spren on the other hand require only enough investiture to corrupt an existing spren to serve Odiums purposes. We are talking about a pretty big power differential between the two. Think of it like this. If Honor created wikipedia. Then Odium will occasionally go in an alter a document to serve his purposes.

 

The premiss that a corrupted spren exists in that little gem is possible, it may even be probable. It's still just one spren. It would be capable of creating one Voidbringer. Hardly a desolation.

 

If Odium was forced to create a race of sentient beings as a part of the Oathpact, I could easily see him creating the Parsh like so. They are enslaved to spren. Without spren they are simple, dull creatures with little ambition. With spren they are a vibrant intelligent and deeply cultured people. When Odium corrupts those spren they become deadly hateful monsters intent of the destruction of life itself. This way the Parsh would loath losing their spren bonds, but the price they pay for those bonds would be that of turning into ravening beasts when the desolation comes.

 

I'm not saying this is the case, it's just what I think Odium would do should he some how get cornered into investing in a planet.

 

 

I agree, a corrupted spreens fit better in the Odium intent. I didn't stop to think about the origin of the "dark spreen", you idea looks correct to me Gloom. 

 

Hey Guys, just as a nitpicky point of order, I believe the Dalinar Purelake vision is a WoR spoiler, so this thread should probably be in the WoR section for the sake of those who want a certain experience of WoR.  Until it gets moved, maybe the information can be edited into spoiler format. 

 

Thanks in advance

 

Indeed, could you point me a way to move this thread ?

[WeiryWriter]

I agree, a corrupted spreens fit better in the Odium intent. I didn't stop to think about the origin of the "dark spreen", you idea looks correct to me Gloom. 

 

 

Indeed, could you point me a way to move this thread ?

 

You can't, only admins/mods can move threads.  You can edit the op to add spoiler tags (click on the "special BBC code" button and select spoiler or add [spoiler*]

around the spoilery text without the *)

 

Also, because I'm a nitpicky person, it is spren not spreen.

[Natans]

You can't, only admins/mods can move threads.  You can edit the op to add spoiler tags (click on the "special BBC code" button and select spoiler or add [spoiler*]

around the spoilery text without the *)

 

Also, because I'm a nitpicky person, it is spren not spreen.

 

Thanks for the feedback =)

[Aether]

I am not sure we have enough information to assume whether or not the gem contains/traps a Voidspren, a corrupted Spren, or just some Voidlight or whatnot. What seems fair to assume, on the other hand, is that it is intricate to what Gavilar was planning to do, and to what

the Parshendi (Eshonai & Co.) wanted to stop him from doing.

 

I do, on the other hand, find it more likely for Odium to corrupt existing Spren rather then to create Voidspren. IIRC, Brandon said somewhere that it is more in the nature of Odium to destroy (or corrupt), rather then to create.

[Gloom]

I disagree that the 'Orb of Shadows' had to be the reason for the Parshendi assassination. They may not have known about the Orb, and been concerned about his search for the most important words a man can say. The Orb does seem to be the logical reason, but that, along with the fact that the Parshendi provided their assassin with no instructions regarding the Orb lead me to believe that the Orb wasn't a factor in the why the Parshendi had Galivar killed. It may still have been a factor in why he was killed. The Parshendi weren't working alone. Someone provided them with Szeth and informed them on his capabilities. If another party wanted Galivar killed for the Orb, then it would make more sense why the assassin lacked instructions regarding what to do with it.

[Aether]

Your [Gloom's] logic is sound. Presented in that light, it seems rather evident that the Parshendi did not know about the Black Sphere (it is referred to as a sphere in the book, and described as black, thus I prefer this terminology). Also, just before he died, Gavilar seemed quite intent on having the sphere remain hidden from whomever he suspected wanted it. It seems thus unlikely that he would show it to the Parshendi or anyone at all.

 

 

But something is not quite right here. It seems to me that there must be several parts to whatever he was planning. First, let's look at it from the Parshendi perspective:

1. We do not know what Gavilar was planning, but the Parshendi feared that it would bring about the return of their gods, and that "all would have been lost" if they had allowed this to happen.
    
2. While we do not know the nature of his plans, it seems unlikely that the king knew about their ultimate consequences for the Parshendi (and possibly the rest of Roshar), as he is completely baffled that Szeth was sent by the Parshendi. We can thus assume that the return of the Parshendi gods would have been a secondary effect of what he was aiming for, and not his real goal.
    
3. Another indication that he was ignorant this secondary effect is that he seemed happy enough to chat about it to the Parshendi ambassadors. At the very least, he must have been convinced that the return of their gods (which he might not have known to be their gods) would have been a good thing.
    
4. Whatever he told the Parshendi, they seem to believe that they got to him before he was able to go through with it.
   
   

   For if he had lived to do what he had told him that night, all would have been lost.

   - From the Eshonai chapter of WoR (my bold lettering)

 

 

In addition, the surrounding circumstances of his assassination are rather suspicious:

 

• As the Parshendi most likely knew nothing of the Dark Sphere, it is possible that it had nothing to do with the plans Gavilar told them about. It thus seems right to assume that it would have been integral to a second, more secret (and possibly sinister) plot.
   
• The mere fact that Gavilar did seem to expect an assassination attempt, but from someone else than the Parshendi, would tentatively support this theory.
  
  

  "I... expected you to come," the king said between gasps.
  (...) "You can tell... Thaidakar... that he's too late..."

  "I don't know who that is," Szeth said.

  (...) "Then who...? Restares? Sadeas? I never thought..."

  - From tWoK prologue, "To Kill" (my bold lettering)

   

   

• Note that Gavilar says that the assassination came too late. While the Parshendi might have stopped him from doing what he told them about, this again indicates that he had other things going on, things that had already been started. He is also rather intent on keeping the Dark Sphere away from someone (the perennially obscure "they").
   

• It also seems to me that the Parshendi were somewhat played by a third party, or that they at least understood how the Parshendi would react to the kings plans and took advantage of it:

1. We know that their plan to have Gavilar killed was a desperate and hastily concocted plan. Eshonai described it as a "desperate gambit to stop the Parshendi gods from returning", and they had only known about it for a few hours at most (see first quote). The presence of Szeth amongst their servants seems a tad too fortuitous, and even allowing the possibility of them buying him randomly, it does not explain how they would know about his talent for the deadly arts, as he doesn't seem to be too inclined to inform his masters about it.
    

2. Liss, the assassin from the Jasnah chapter of WoR, seems to have got hold of Szeth:

   "What happened to that slave you were talking about?" Jasnah asked. "I thought you were going to show him off to me today."
   "I sold him to a slaver weeks ago."
   "Really? I thought you said he was the best servand you ever had?"
   "Too good a servant," Liss said. "Let's leave it at that. Storming creepy, that one was."

   It seems likely that she could have discovered his true capabilities, and that whomever sold him to the Parshendi (or rather planted him with them) knew what they would do with him even before they themselves realised it.

Now, this quickly got rather convoluted, but reason for going through all of the points above is to rather firmly establish the circumstances, if unfortunately not the nature, of Gavilar's assassination.

 

 

 

TL;DR: King Gavilar had at the very least two separate major ploys going on, one of which had little to nothing to do with the Parshendi. He was oblivious to the fact that his other plan scared the living rust out of the Parshendi, and the result that they feared was not his intended goal. Whatever the plan entailed, he was killed before he could do it.

 

Gavilar did however expect to be assassinated, not because of what he told the Parshendi ambassadors, but because of the first plan, which seems to have something to do with Thaidakar and the Dark Sphere he gave to Szeth. Whatever the plan entailed, he had already put it into action at the time of his death.

[marianmi]

I see 1 of 2 possibilities:

 

1) Gavilar wanted the return of the KR.

1a) The Parshendi seem to have a similar notion as Darkness, that having a bunch of surgebinders around will trigger a desolation.

Just like Darkness is out and about executing surgebinders, the parshendi thought of getting rid of a man with these dangerous notions. Maybe the gods of the parshendi are nothing more than surgebinders, and since some of them are turning bad, they are the "dark gods"...

 

1b) There is something that Gavilar would have done thinking it will change the shards in better/make a surgebinder, that the parshendi knew more about and they knew that it would have the side effect - e.g. you can't bring back only the good guys, the bad guys will come with that as well.

 

2) There was something else besides restoring the KR orders that Gavilar had in mind.

[Argent]

Regarding the hypothetical return of the Parshendi gods - keep in mind that both Gavilar and Dalinar (at least in the beginning) suspected those to be a few "Monsters of the Chasms" even bigger than the rest.

[hoser]

TL;DR: ... Whatever the plan entailed, he was killed before he could do it.

Apparently he did do it.  Consider what he said to Szeth:  "You can tell Thaidakar that he's too late."

 

And Taravangian in chapter 71: "But the dying see something.  It began seven years ago, about the time that Gavilar was investigating the Shattered Plains for the first time."

[Gloom]

Yes, It appeared that Galivar was confident that he succeeded at something, and the Death Calls started around that time.

[Aether]

I see 1 of 2 possibilities:

 

1) Gavilar wanted the return of the KR.

1a) The Parshendi seem to have a similar notion as Darkness, that having a bunch of surgebinders around will trigger a desolation.

Just like Darkness is out and about executing surgebinders, the parshendi thought of getting rid of a man with these dangerous notions. Maybe the gods of the parshendi are nothing more than surgebinders, and since some of them are turning bad, they are the "dark gods"...

 

1b) There is something that Gavilar would have done thinking it will change the shards in better/make a surgebinder, that the parshendi knew more about and they knew that it would have the side effect - e.g. you can't bring back only the good guys, the bad guys will come with that as well.

 

2) There was something else besides restoring the KR orders that Gavilar had in mind.

 

Those are good guesses, but my point was and is that we have very little information about this stuff, and at best we can only make educated/calculated guesses. I find it quite plausible that Gavilar might have been interested in getting the KR (or at the very least surgebinding) back - the fact that he had acquired an interest in "The Way of Kings" and that he told Dalinar to "find the most important words a man can say" seem to point to this - but in the end we have very little to go on. My intended goal was to try to avoid extrapolation and instead firmly establish that there was indeed several things going on here. What that entails remains to be seen.

 

Regarding the hypothetical return of the Parshendi gods - keep in mind that both Gavilar and Dalinar (at least in the beginning) suspected those to be a few "Monsters of the Chasms" even bigger than the rest.

 

I sincerely doubt that the Parshendi gods has anything to do with the Great-shells of the Plains - at least not in their current form. That particular remark seemed to come from men who still dismissed the Parshendi as uncivilized savages. Besides, there is nothing in the Eshonai chapter to indicate that they are referring to some "Monster of the Chasms" when talking about their gods.

 

Apparently he did do it.  Consider what he said to Szeth:  "You can tell Thaidakar that he's too late."

 

And Taravangian in chapter 71: "But the dying see something.  It began seven years ago, about the time that Gavilar was investigating the Shattered Plains for the first time."

 

He did do something, but not what the Parshendi feared. Again, the whole point of the overly long reasoning was to show that the plan they tried to stop and the plan King Gavilar described as too late to stop are two different things.

 

And yes, I find it extremely interesting that the death visions started approximately a year prior to his assassination. Something happened at the plains, and I wonder what.

[The Count]

With regard to bringing back surgebinders, if it happened the night that Gavilar died then Jasnah certainly attracted a spren VERY quickly as she is noticing issues with her shadow almost at the same time as Szeth is beginning his rampage.

 

There is certainly some evidence connecting Gavilars actions / intentions to both the return of Surgebinding and the coming of the Desolation: 

 

Assuming that Return of Parshendo dark gods = Voidbringers = Desolation. Then the Parshendi essentially feared that Gavilar would trigger a Desolation.

 

Also, the timing. Everything seems to start happening the night of Gavilars Assassination. Given other speculation, it seems that many of the Heralds may also have been present at the party that night.

 

Also

The information from the Lift interlude implies that Surgebinders somehow cause a Desolation

 

I am really not sure how the Sphere fits in to all this but I suspect that book five will have Gavilar's POV on the Prologue. That may explain a significant amount.

Edited October 30, 2013 by MadRand

[Aether]

with regard to bringing back surgebinders, if it happened the night that Gavilar died then Jasnah certainly attracted a spren VERY quickly as she is noticing issues with her shadow almost at the same time as Szeth is beginning his rampage.

 

There is certainly some evidence connecting Gavilars actions / intentions to both the return of Surgebinding and the coming of the Desolation: 

 

Assuming that Return of Parshendo dark gods = Voidbringers = Desolation. Then the Parshendi essentially feared that Gavilar would trigger a Desolation.

 

Good point. It seems whatever made surgebinding resurge (pardon the awful pun) happened some time before the assassination; I assume around the same time as the Death Visions started freaking out surgeons and doctors alike.

 

Also, the timing. Everything seems to start happening the night of Gavilars Assassination. Given other speculation, it seems that many of the Heralds may also have been present at the party that night.

 

Also

The information from the Lift interlude implies that Surgebinders somehow cause a Desolation

 

Didn't Brandon say somewhere that there would be at least some more information about the Sphere already in the next book? And yes you are right

Assuming Darkness is Nalan and that Baxil's mistress is Shalash, then at the very least two Heralds was present at or just prior to the assassination. Taking this further, since "Nalan" seems to be speaking with peculiar familiarity to his two companions, it would not be too far-fetched to suppose that these two could be Heralds too.

 

 

Also, can someone please explain to me how people can argue for the drunk bearded man being Jezrien (or whomever)? Other then using the "Hey!-A-man-with-a-black-beard!-Jezrien-has-a-black-beard!"-argument, I fail to see how. If one were to really nitpick, one might extrapolate heavily from this quote:

"Have you seen me?" The man asked with a slurred speech. He laughed, then began to speak gibberish, reaching for his wineskin.

- From tWoK Prologue, page 23. (My bold lettering)

"to speak" implies the presence of a structured language, which might be described as "gibberish" by someone failing to understand. Maybe the man was speaking in the Dawnchant or whatever one might call the language of the Heralds? Which Szeth only would have understood as gibberish?

 

Other than that, only the setting itself and that drooling quote from Darkness in the Jasnah WoR chapter (though I don't get how people can deduce that it refers to this drunk man) would indicate that he is anything more than a black.bearded, drunk man who only serves as a means to let on in on a unique part of Alethi culture (i.e. the Beggar's Feast).

Edited October 30, 2013 by Aether

[marianmi]

It was established that 'gibberish' was the word used in TwoK to describe the Dawnchant Dalinar was speaking, Dawnchant Wit was speaking, and the crazy drunk guy. Also the Lift interlude suggests that Jezrien is currently "drooling" on a permanent basis.

[Gloom]

The only other evidence is that in TWoKs, it appears that pretty much all the Heralds we know we've seen were casual mentions, including Darkness and his companion. It looks like Brandon was placing them in important places, but he wasn't introducing them to us. This may or may not be the case with Jezrien. If that was Jezrien though, and Szeth practically bumped into him while possessing his sword, I'm kind of surprised that no reference to that was made.

[Aether]

It was established that 'gibberish' was the word used in TwoK to describe the Dawnchant Dalinar was speaking, Dawnchant Wit was speaking, and the crazy drunk guy. Also the Lift interlude suggests that Jezrien is currently "drooling" on a permanent basis.

Wait what? When was Wit speakng Dawnchant? I know he used that word when asking Dalinar about Adonalsium, but I don't see how the "gibberish" he then proceeded to use has anything to do with the Dawnchant. Sure, they might, but to me it seems more likely that he was indeed speaking gibberish just to take Dalinar's attention away from the one real word he did use, i. e. Adonalsium.

 

And yes, it is interesting to note that Dalinar's Highstorm language was indeed described as gibberish. From what I understand about Brandon as a writer, it could indeed be the type of subtle easter-egg he would use, but it is still mightily weak grounds for assuming the drunkard was indeed speaking in Dawnchant. And after a careful reread of the prologue, he is nowhere referred to as drooling.

 

The only other evidence is that in TWoKs, it appears that pretty much all the Heralds we know we've seen were casual mentions, including Darkness and his companion. It looks like Brandon was placing them in important places, but he wasn't introducing them to us. This may or may not be the case with Jezrien. If that was Jezrien though, and Szeth practically bumped into him while possessing his sword, I'm kind of surprised that no reference to that was made.

It would be surprising, yes, but that's assuming Szeth's Shardblade is an Honorblade in the first place. I am not entirely convinced it is.

 

Also, the only thing Brandon has said is that all Heralds were either seen or mentioned in tWoK. As far as I know, he did not say to what extent, so the mention and viewing Jezrien got in the Prelude might be all he ever got in the book. In my opinion, there is just WAY to little to go on here. Of course, he might still be Jezrien, but at this point, wehave no firm evidence, only maybe shadows of possible would-be hints and red-herrings.

[Gloom]

I agree that Szeths blade being Jezriens Honorblade is still just a theory, but it has a lot more to substantiate it than the evidence that the drunk at the party was Jezrien. Regardless, the point I was trying to make is that I would find it hard to swallow that both of these theories are correct because of that issue.

[name_here]

The Parshendi could still have sent Szeth in response to the black sphere; it's possible they weren't afraid of the sphere itself but of what Gavilar intended to do with it. It may be that they figured it would be harmless in the hands of someone who didn't know what it was. It'd actually be a pretty safe bet to assume the Alethi would dump in into the deepest pit they could find and Soulcast it shut if they found it. The thing is pretty creepy.

 

As for why Gavilar was baffled, he may have been planning to bring back the Parshendi gods without realizing they didn't like that plan. Or possibly he intended to resurrect the extinct Greatshell species (Aside from Chasmfiends, they've basically been hunted to extinction), which would provide excellent grounds for proclaiming himself High King of Roshar by Will of the Almighty. Since the Parshendi had Greatshells and appeared to like their existence, and their leadership wouldn't need to worry about their followers taking the appearance of the Greatshells who were already there as a divine sign, and they were getting pretty friendly so Gavilar claiming supreme power over the Vorin kingdoms would have been in the Parshendi's best interest, he may have been honestly baffled that they'd want to stop him. The people he listed, however, have political ambitions, and would not like the idea of him being able to claim divine support; anyone in the Vorin kingdoms who opposed him would have to worry about their own populace rising in revolt.

 

In this interpretation, he likely did not realize that reviving the Greatshells would also bring back the Thunderclasts and likely others.

[Aether]

Rereading this thread, I find myself amused by how far away we've gotten from the original point of debate.

 

And by the way, are we sure that Brandon was actually referring to the Navani's notebook pages in the quote from the first post? It seems likely as it is the only evident thing that we have to "decode", but on the other hand, he refers to it as "Shallan's letter" and places it in the beginning of the book.

 

But if the hints he describes are indeed in Navani's notebook-pages, then I think we can be safe to assume that the Black Sphere is indeed some kind of fabrial (i.e. a gemstone (maybe smokestone/heiodor?) with an (unkown) type of Spren trapped inside).

 

 

@name_here: "Or possibly he intended to resurrect the extinct Greatshell species (Aside from Chasmfiends, they've basically been hunted to extinction), which would provide excellent grounds for proclaiming himself High King of Roshar by Will of the Almighty."

 

I am not sure what you are basing your assumptions on. While Gavilar might have been interested in the challenge of hunting truly gargantuan Greatshells, at least in his early days of exploring the Plains, I do not see how this would lead him to proclaim himself as a High King of Roshar, and definitely not how this would be in the best interest of the Parshendi.

 

You are correct, on the other hand, that the people he listed might have been willing to kill him for political reasons. Sadeas and similar Highlords might have been willing to kill him to stop him from forcing the Codes on them, much like Sadeas betrayed Dalinar (and by the way, Dalinar to comment on Alethi Highlords penchant for not dirtying their own hands by not killing their targets directly, which would fit this into a scenario where the Parshendi were manipulated by a third party). But the mention of Thaidakar and his connection to the Ghostbloods (as mentioned by Amaram in chapter 51) seems ominous, and I think this group is much more likely to be the real puppeteers behind the king's assassination.

Edited October 30, 2013 by Aether

[Argent]

@Aether, we are pretty sure whoever reported this originally reviewed their notes / recording and verified that Brandon meant Navani's notebook. Also, since the threads here aren't strictly moderated, theories drift from their original idea. It happens all the time.

[name_here]

Bringing back the Greatshells would be a truly impressive feat and thus a sign of divine favor. Gavilar could then claim that his ability to bring back the Greatshells was a sign that the Almighty blessed his reign and it was the holy duty of all good Vorin followers to obey him, and a number of people would buy that. Sure, it's a stretch, but lots of people have claimed divine authority from much less. Since he is friendly with the Parshendi and most of his opponents aren't, anything that lets him triumph over his enemies would thus be good for the Parshendi.

[Argent]

Except Gavilar had gone all Way of Kings on everybody, and the book is pretty clear about how a leader should behave. Bringing back the greatshells so he can use them, one way or another, to take over the world doesn't sound like something Gavilar would do. Try imagining Dalinar telling Adolin that he has a plan that will put him in charge of every Vorin kingdom, and that plan involves pretending that he is a gift from the Almighty himself.