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Kinolee

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Running through this water was tough.  Though he'd started near the front of the group, he has now lagging behind.  The group ran toward some kind of large rock mound ahead, shadowed in the dusk.  Maybe this wasn't the Purelake.  It didn't have rock formations like--

 

That wasn't a rock mound.  It was a fortress.  Dalinar halted, looking up at the peaked, castle-like structure that rose straight from the still lake waters.  He'd never seen its like before.  Jet-black stone.  Obsidian?  Perhaps this place had been Soulcast.

 

"There's a fortress ahead," he said, continuing forward.  "It must not still exist -- if it did, it would be famous.  It looks like it's created entirely from obsidian.  Finlike sides rising toward peaked tips above, towers like arrowheads... Stormfather.  It's majestic."

 - Words of Radiance, Location 1272, Kindle

 

Is this the same fortress that the Ire are set up in?  It doesn't match Kelsier's description of the fortress, but then again it is existing mostly in the Cognitive realm, not the Physical one, in Secret History.

 

But Kelsier states that he can tell the bricks came from somewhere else...

 

 

These weren't stones, but the spirits of stones -- like his spirit of a fire.  They had been brought here and constructed into a building.

 

If it is the same Fortress, it did didn't originate on Roshar, though.

 

 

He pressed his hand against the glowing stone and was given the impression of a rocky wall far form here, in another place.  An unfamiliar land with striking green plants.

 

The plants on Roshar are more than just "green," they're hard and crusty and mobile.

 

And still... this is the second fortress in the middle of a giant body of water that we've come across.  And what happened to the fortress on Roshar if it is no longer there in Dalinar's time?

 

I think the fortress might represent a way to travel between worlds that doesn't involve Shardpools.  Afterall, I don't think the Ire got to Scadrial via either of the pools there.  And if the fortress is an alternative means of transportation (or is located on one), it would explain why the 17th Shard is looking for Hoid in the Purelake.

 

---

 

So my theory is this... the fortress originated on Sel and it is Elantrian architecture.  It was built in the middle of a lake or ocean (possibly Lake Alonoe) and the Ire somehow uses it to travel between Shardworlds while they search for a Shard to bring back to Sel.

 

They came to Scadrial first to try to capture Preservation after Leras was killed.  They set the fortress down in a giant ocean.  The water helps the bricks of the fortress hold on to their "identity" in the cognitive realm.  After the Ire failed to capture Preservation, they moved to Roshar to try to capture Honor after Tanavast was killed.  Unfortunately, Honor was splintered by Odium in the Desolation despite the Ire trying to stop that from happening (Dalinar's vision).  Having failed a second time to capture a Shard, the fortress is then moved to another yet-unknown planet.  This explains why the fortress is now gone in modern Roshar.

 

 

...OK how crazy am I?

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Actually, I change my mind.  The Ire must have gone to Roshar first, because that's probably where they picked up that anti-Shadow fabrial.  The Desolation was a long time ago, so I'm sure the timeline fits better in this order anyway.

 

Does this mean that Tanavast/Honor was splintered before Leras/Preservation died?

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  • 2 years later...

Resurrecting this since I had a thought about the Ire keep that ties a bit into this theory. I don't post much, but wanted to get other opinions on whether or not this may be valid.

I also think that the Ire keep it's in Roshars cognitive realm, but rather than the Purelake, I thought it tied better to Akinah. If you read the description of Akinah in the Copper mind, and I think it's also in Khriss's notes somewhere in AU, it sounds like it may be viable. Link to the Copper mind description is below. 

https://coppermind.net/wiki/Akinah

It's interesting in that Akinah is described as being in an island in the middle of the ocean off the coast of Shinovar. I know the animals there are more crustaceous in nature, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the land itself wasn't more "green" as Kelsier described when touching the keeps stones. Maybe the stones came from Shinovar? Also, Kelsier describes this:

Quote

He hiked through the jungle for days, but then it started to dwindle. Eventually he reached a place where plants grew only in occasional patches. They were replaced with strange formations of rock, like glassy sculptures. The jagged things were often some ten feet or more tall.

Which sounds a bit like the history of Akinah from the Coppermind. As well as the reference to it being a land of fabrials and soulcasters since we know the Ire had the shadow detecting fabrial:

Quote

At some point in the past, air was Soulcast into massive spikes surrounding the city.[1] In the Heraldic Epochs, Akinah was known as the place to obtain Soulcasters, powerful fabrials that allowed the user to transform one substance into another.

I'll echo the OP here and say, am I crazy? Thanks in advance for humoring me. :)

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The Ire fortress is located within Scadral's Cogntive 'space' and exists entirely there, it's not some kind of dual-Realm structure. Silverlight is an entire functioning city which exists entirely within the Cognitive Realm.

@rhaiynebow Have you read Oathbringer? Because that book is where we get our knowledge of Akinah from and it also makes it clear that we can't rely on Dalinar's memories as a perfect understanding of what the Purelake may or may not contain in the present day. Setting aside that of course, a lot can happen in the two thousand or more years since his 'newest' visions and the present era without having to posit worldhoppers.

Also, the Ire device does not have to possess any relation to Rosharan fabrials; other 'mechanical' methods of using Investiture exist. Scadrial has medallions right now and machines powered by harmonium and they'll have more sophisticated ones later, Sel had 'standing Aons' and there's a country somewhere on Nalthis that uses Awakening to power machines. What we see in the Ire fortress probably operates on the same fundamentals as a warning fabrial but that doesn't mean it's from Roshar.

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