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The End of the Manywar


LewsTherinTelescope

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TL;DR: Vasher's killing of Shashara turned the Idrian royals against him, leading to him seizing control of the kingdom.

Not really a complex theory, but I'm colors-cursed bored, so I'm going to be overformatting this post. The TL;DR + relatively common knowledge from WoBs should be enough to guess what I'm going to write without having to read it all.

Also, probably not a new idea, but I hadn't seen any post on it, and a very quick search did not find anything saying it.

Quick overview of the pieces

Spoiler
  • Denth has the Royal Locks separately from being a Returned [1]
  • Shashara is Denth's sister [2]
  • Only potential heirs are born with the Royal Locks [3]
  • Denth tried to make peace during the Manywar, but eventually took Vasher's side, until the death of his sister [4]
  • Kalad is said in Idris to have seized power from the Royals [5]
  • Vasher "stopped fighting" and "brought the Phantoms back to seize control of [his] own kingdom" towards the end of the Manywar [6]
  • A Returned had a vision that prompted Vasher to preemptively attack the kingdoms across the mountains [7]
  • Vasher used the Phantoms to force Hanald to stop the Manywar

Let's make some deductions from this evidence

Spoiler
  • Denth has the Royal Locks. Only potential heirs of the Idrian line have the Royal Locks. Therefore Denth was an Idrian.
  • Shashara was Denth's (presumably full?) sister. Denth is an Idrian. Therefore, Shashara was an Idrian.
  • Vasher killed Shashara. Shashara was an Idrian. Therefore, Vasher killed a member of the Idrian royal family.
  • Denth was on Vasher's side until the death of his sister. This likely stretched to the rest of the royal family, unless they really hated Shashara.
    • This is assuming that Denth or Shashara weren't the ones in charge in the first place.
  • Denth didn't originally want to get involved in the Manywar

And finally, here's what I think happened

Spoiler
  • Vasher starts the Manywar, based on the vision of a Returned (though other factors lead to tensions already)
    • Denth is resistant to this idea, as are the rest of the Idrians, but Vasher and Shashara (who are likely together but not yet married) win them over
    • Five Scholars split
      • Vasher and Shashara lead Hanald's forces
      • Arsteel and Yesteel lead other nations (the Pahn Unity? Huth and Kuth?)
      • Denth tries to make peace but eventually joins Hanald's forces
  • Vasher eventually marries Shashara, a Returned and member of the Idrian royal line
  • Shashara makes NB and wants to release the secret
  • Vasher kills her
  • Royals turn against Vasher
    • Already hesitant about the war
    • Blame him for Manywar
    • Denounce him as traitor for killing a royal
    • Eventually turn against Awakening as a whole due to where research of it got them
  • Vasher captures Hanald in response
    • Calls Phantoms back, surprising people who don't yet know what is happening
    • Idrians flee to highlands
    • Vasher lets them flee and instead strengthens hold over Hanald
  • Vasher, as leader of Hanald, negotiates peace, and forces dissidents to accept it
  • Vasher gives up the kingdom, as it's a reminder of too much
    • Gives control over to Cult of the Returned
    • Gives massive stock of Breaths to first God King
    • Renames Hanald to Hallandren? Name change could also come later though
    • Keeps NB because it's too dangerous to let go
    • Leaves behind Phantoms, keeping command phrases to himself, as a threat to behave

References

 

Edited by beewall
Changed: lists are now bulleted instead of paragraphs
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The timeline's off in a few places.  Shashara dies in The Battle of Twilight Falls, which was the last engagement of the Manywar, and the only time Nightblood was used in battle, it couldnt have been the instigating event.  Meanwhile, Vasher-As-Strifelover seizing control of Hanald (proto-Hallandren) from the Royal Family was one of the instigating events.  It's also worth mentioning that a big factor in the Manywar was also the Lifeless developments by the Scholars (Ichor and the Single-breath Command) that played a major role by introducing a truly devastating imbalance of military power between the nations with and without these secrets.  Nightblood as the first/only TypeIV was the eventual Nuclear result of that "Golden Age" of Awakening development, but it had more to do with Ending the war than Starting it.  

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24 minutes ago, Quantus said:

The timeline's off in a few places.  Shashara dies in The Battle of Twilight Falls, which was the last engagement of the Manywar, and the only time Nightblood was used in battle, it couldnt have been the instigating event.  Meanwhile, Vasher-As-Strifelover seizing control of Hanald (proto-Hallandren) from the Royal Family was one of the instigating events.  It's also worth mentioning that a big factor in the Manywar was also the Lifeless developments by the Scholars (Ichor and the Single-breath Command) that played a major role by introducing a truly devastating imbalance of military power between the nations with and without these secrets.  Nightblood as the first/only TypeIV was the eventual Nuclear result of that "Golden Age" of Awakening development, but it had more to do with Ending the war than Starting it.  

I think you misunderstood me, or perhaps I phrased things poorly. I never suggested NB started the Manywar (or never intended to suggest that); this post is about my theory on the end of the war. The only part that is about the beginning of it is me saying that the Idrians were probably reluctant at the start.

Edited by beewall
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at some point the war takes on "a life of its own" (Vashers words). I supposed because of an arms race between the Scholars.

1 side creates a powerful weapon and the other side relaliates

Vasher and Shashara were fighting for Hanald together. as Queen and King. Denth says that Vasher led countries and waged war. Vasher has second thoughts after seeing what Nightblood does at The Battle of the Twilight Falls and kills Shashara because the weapon she created is too powerful.
Hanald turns on Vasher in response.

he reclaims his throne using the D'Denir.

 

sounds good to me.

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  • 1 month later...

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