Is Baon Skathan? [vol 3 spoilers; WOK spoilers]

[ecohansen]

I'm sure this has already been discussed, but I can't find it.

So. we know that Baon and Skathan are both Liarian, and we know that Baon has seen Skathan.  We know that both Skathan and Baon have beef with Loaten--specifically, we know that Baon sees Loaten as a traitor, and that Loaten previously served Skathan, and that Loaten clearly seems to recognize Baon.  We know that Baon speaks with "eloquence" that seems out of place with his position as bodyguard.  We know that Baon mentions "traitors" and "betrayal" many, many times--this seems like the kind of preoccupation that an immortal emperor would have.  We know that Baon has seen Skathan do "impossible" things, but that he conspicuously avoids talking about Skathans "abilities" or "magic", making us wonder if those abilities are in fact the result of investiture, or something else--similarly, we know from WOB that Baon is uninvested, although we've seen him seeming to use sand mastery.  We know that Cynder and Acron were both fetching saltpeter for Baon, acting like his servants, despite the fact that he was supposedly socially inferior to both of them--and we know that they reacted awkwardly when Khriss saw them doing that.  We know that Acron, who acted servile towards Baon, was serving Skathan.  Gevin, while apparently looking past Khriss and towards Baon, tells Khriss that she is more "involved with" politics than she was in her homeland.

Most important, we know that Skathan is eternally youthful, and that White sand is chronologically the first canonical cosmere book, but Baon still looks youthful several generations later on Roshar.  Even during White Sands, Baon seems to have mastered more skills (like sailing) than a man of his apparent age should have been able to.

My best guess is that Skathan is hot for Khriss, but wants her to value him for himself rather than his title.  Hence, his repeated urging for her to look at people instead of titles.and ranks.  He more or less straight up tells Kelton that he is his enemy during their discussion of Raakens's death, although he couches it as a hypothetical.  This could be both because Kelton is his love rival, and because the "sand mages" are, in fact, a danger to Skathan. Just before the Epilogue, Baon strongly hints that he disagrees with Khriss.  What's the disagreement?  Could it be over whether Elis should be part of the dynasty? Finally, in the epilogue, the Witty minstrel tells us that the "creator" and "creation" are separated by "the breadth of a hair", just before a panel where Baon and Khriss are separated by Dirin's highly-visible red hair.  Skathan has been carefully crafting Khriss' worldview, shaping her into the kind of person he wants her to be.

So, there's the theory.  Thoughts?

Edited December 22, 2019 by ecohansen

[Honorless]

A strange tinfoil theory that actually kind of holds but also raises a lot of questions.

I should point out though, they're Iiarians with a capital 'i', not an 'L'

Edited January 29, 2020 by Honorless

[Karger]

How exactly is he ruling his country while traveling across the other side of the world?

[GoWibble]

Well, traditionally, and darkside is fairly traditional (at least to Earth Standards), rulers use bureaucrats, so the empire could be run without his direct intervention. It seems like Skathan isn't the kind of person to go on a simple quest that might eliminate Gevin, though.

I think that Baon is what he says that he is: someone sent to do Skathan's orders

[ecohansen]

My thought was that Khriss was the main target, not Gevin.  There could be a few reasons for this, but the most obvious candidate is luuuvvvv.  He's afraid that his reputation will prevent a relationship from forming, so he signs on as his love-object's bodyguard and goes on an adventure with her, for the same reason that a lot of guys take their dates to a scary movie--adrenalin can be almost as strong of a bonding hormone as oxytocin is.  We know that Brandon was thinking about the interactions between love and power when he was first working on Baon, because we see those things in Elantris, and Baon as a character was invented before Elantris.

We know that Baon is the character that has existed in Brandon's mind for the second-longest length of time, after Dalinar.  Brandon's other earliest characters are all powerbrokers at the center of their worlds.  It would make sense if Baon was in the same group.  Right now, though, here's not much to distinguish him from a character like Denth in Warbreaker.