[OB] Patji is... what!!!

[Wandering Investor]

Spoiler

emailanimal

[Brandon] must have had enough of chuckles every time someone referred to Bavadin as a "he" over the past few years.....

Brandon Sanderson

Bavadin has several male personas, and has often appeared as male for one purpose or another, so it's not that much of an issue. She has more female personas, but some of the male ones are quite popular.

This won't be relevant for a long while, but as a service to the community, let me say this: try not to get too hung up on gender, race, or even human appearance where Bavadin is concerned. There are some peoples who worship entire pantheons where every member is actually her.

Argent

There are some peoples who worship entire pantheons where every member is actually her.

I think that's hilarious.

I've been meaning to ask a similar question for a few days now, I am glad someone else did and you replied. Bavadin is now instantly super interesting to me!

Brandon Sanderson

Bavadin is awesome. One regret of finally moving on from White Sand (and doing the graphic novel, instead of doing an entire trilogy myself) is because I won't get to show her off as a character for a while. It should still happen, mind you, but I have enough on my plate right now that I just can't do it all.

Argent

Eh, it's alright. The more we wait to see her, the more practice writing you will have when you do write her, and the more awesome she will be to us Are we going to see her in White Sand first though, or elsewhere?

I've also been talking with a couple of friends about Ambition, who happens to be a Shard I love unconditionally just because of his?her? mandate. So I should ask - how tight-lipped do you intend to be with information about it? Can we prod for a little bit of trivia, or is it too early for that?

Brandon Sanderson

I'm going to be pretty tight-lipped for now. Let's at least let White Sand finish first--you will find her in there, though her touch on the story (directly) is light. She prefers to allow her personas to become the focus of attention.

source

I was referring to the above, specifically "There are some peoples who worship entire pantheons where every member is actually her." But the intent is still the same, Patji and the rest of the Islands could all be Autonomy, possibly with autonomous personas she creates.

[PrinceDusty]

My question is, what needs to be updated on the Coppermind for this entire discovery, because First of the Sun is my favorite underdeveloped world so far and I'd be totally ok with doing whatever needs to be done

[Wandering Investor]

@Prince Dusty I'd hesitate to update anything just yet. We know Patji is of Autonomy, but we don't know the details of the connection, or whether Patji/Autonomy actively interferes with the world or just observes. 

[AntiqueArabesque]

Any clues on what Bavadin could be doing on the islands? Maybe the native investiture is rare or something?

[Wandering Investor]

Autonomy appears to be building a interstellar empire. As noted by Khriss, Autonomy has a isolationist policy implemented on Taldain, in direct contradiction to her actions, indicating she regularly interacts with locations off world of Taldain(its not confirmed if Autonomy moves around herself though). The letters in OB indicate Autonomy has claimed several worlds, potentially investing in them. As per WoB, we know Autonomy also has a habit of inserting herself into in world religions, although there's no indication if she changes the religions or not.

So we know she's doing these things, but we have no information on the motivation. Is she expanding for expansions sake? Is she attempting to expand her influence of the number of people that worship her? Her manipulation of religions suggest she could be spreading a certain religion/mindset/teachings, or maybe she just likes people worshiping her. Maybe the more people that think about her, the stronger she is? Or maybe all the expanding is for a more specific goal, of which we don't know about? As per WoB, Autonomy was involved in Domination's and Devotion's deaths, although we have no idea what "involved" actually means. 

@AntiqueArabesqueTo answer your question more directly, we do not know what her specific in world goals are, although we do know that her influence on First of the Sun is not unique.

[AntiqueArabesque]

Thanks for the answer, @Wandering Investor. 

As for the worship=power thing, we didn't really see much of a power difference in Preservation and Ruin despite Pres having far more worshipers than him. I don't know, though. Maybe it might have effect on a large scale?

[Wandering Investor]

1 hour ago, AntiqueArabesque said:

Thanks for the answer, @Wandering Investor. 

As for the worship=power thing, we didn't really see much of a power difference in Preservation and Ruin despite Pres having far more worshipers than him. I don't know, though. Maybe it might have effect on a large scale?

Indeed, we've seen no indication that worship increases a Shard's power, but I was just throwing ideas out there.

[Steeldancer]

My thought is that it is the mind that increases power, which is why I think Autonomy creates aspects in the first place- more minds, more power.

[Strifelover]

13 hours ago, Wandering Investor said:

Indeed, we've seen no indication that worship increases a Shard's power, but I was just throwing ideas out there.

It might not be that worship directly increases a Shard's power, but that having more and more pawns completely devoted to her gives Autonomy more pieces to move around the chess board. If Mistborn Era 1 is any indication, when Shards just clash directly they're so evenly match that both will be destroyed. In contrast, Odium has successfully splintered Shards and in Stormlight he's clearly looking to leverage mortals (Fused, Dalinar, Amaram, etc.) in order to wage his war. Indeed he's actually afraid to expose himself directly for fear of Cultivation.

So I'd say by expanding her influence across multiple worlds, Autonomy is gaining more power by way of more followers to fight her battles.

[Wandering Investor]

2 minutes ago, Strifelover said:

If Mistborn Era 1 is any indication, when Shards just clash directly they're so evenly match that both will be destroyed.

This was partially due to the nature of Ruin and Preservation and their opposing forces. As shown by Odium, with a 3 kill streak, not all shard battles will be so even. But I still understand the point you're trying to make, and it mostly stands. Having more followers would increase her power in the physical realm by controlling their agency.