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Kwaan's inscription


Firespir

Question

A significant portion of Kwaan's inscription is missing from the epigraphs, is not referenced in Sazed's notes, and is not shown as having been tampered with by Ruin on the Coppermind article.

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...And I tell you, call me daft, but the words of the prophecies are changing. The alterations are slight. Clever, even. A word here, a slight twist there. But the words on the pages are different from the ones in my memory. The other Worldbringers scoff at me, for they have their metalminds to prove to them that the books and prophecies have not changed.And so, this is the great declaration I must make. There is something—some force—that wants us to believe that the Hero of Ages has come, and that he must travel to the Well of Ascension. Something is making the prophecies change so that they refer to Alendi more perfectly. And whatever this power is, it can change words within a Feruchemist's metalmind...

...I sense a craftiness behind these changes, a manipulation subtle and brilliant. I have spent the last two years in exile, trying to decipher what the alterations could mean. I have come to only one conclusion. Something has taken control of our religion, something nefarious, something that cannot be trusted. It misleads, and it shadows. It uses Alendi to destroy, leading him along a path of death and sorrow. It is pulling him toward the Well of Ascension, where the millennial power has gathered. I can only guess that it sent the Deepness as a method of making mankind more desperate, of pushing us to do as it wills. The prophecies have changed. They now tell Alendi that he must give up the power once he takes it. This is not what was once implied by the texts—they were more vague. And yet, the new version seems to make it a moral imperative. The texts now outline a terrible consequence if the Hero of Ages takes the power for himself...

...Give it away to this same force that has changed the texts. Give it up to this force of destruction that has brought him to war, that has tempted him to kill, that has craftily led him to the north. This thing wants the power held in the Well, and it has raped our religion's holiest tenets in order to get it....

In fact, only 8 sentences in total are changed by Ruin. If we remove the part above it does sound pretty vague and confusing for Sazed and Tindwyl to decipher. A big part of the book is spent with them trying to figure out if the prophecy is just a legend and why it is so confusing, why Kwaan both refers to Alendi as a trustworthy guy but seems to also doubt him etc. However if we include it, it becomes pretty evident that some outside force is tampering with the writings. 

Are we supposed to think that Ruin flat out deleted these segments or is there any other explanation? I couldn't find any WoB on this either.

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We are never given the full prophecy. This is intentional. Brandon does not plan to give it to us at present.

One thing I noticed on reread: Kwaan mentions Alendi having gray hair and that this could fulfill a prophecy line. We are never told or shown that line, which I find quite interesting. It’s an epigraph line too, so it was in the original inscription.

I’m of the opinion that lines that are not Ruin’s alterations and don’t fully fit Saze are actually foreshadowing for Eras 3&4. 

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10 hours ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

We are never given the full prophecy...

I’m of the opinion that lines that are not Ruin’s alterations and don’t fully fit Saze are actually foreshadowing for Eras 3&4. 

I'm not referring to the prophecy itself, but rather to the parts of Kwaan's inscription in which he mentions something is tampering with the texts. 

I can't imagine Sazed going over these sentences, reading some force is manipulating everything and can change metalminds, and not raising an eyebrow.

Supposedly the full text of the inscription is available in the epigraphs, but in the epilogue Sazed reads a few extra lines in the last part of the metal slab. 

I was wondering if there was an explanation to why this was not referred earlier. Again even if we swap the parts Ruin editted the text above still raises a huge red flag.

How could Sazed and Tindwyl have missed it?

Edited by Firespir
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5 minutes ago, Firespir said:

I'm not referring to the prophecy itself, but rather to the parts of Kwaan's inscription in which he mentions something is tampering with the texts. 

I can't imagine Sazed going over these sentences, reading some force is manipulating everything and can change metalminds, and not raising an eyebrow.

Supposedly the full text of the inscription is available in the epigraphs, but in the epilogue Sazed reads a few extra lines in the last part of the metal slab. 

I was wondering if there was an explanation to why this was not referred earlier. Again even if we swap the parts Ruin editted the text above still raises a huge red flag.

How could Sazed and Tindwyl have missed it?

The full text is not in the epigraphs, only select portions.

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7 hours ago, Firespir said:

I'm not referring to the prophecy itself, but rather to the parts of Kwaan's inscription in which he mentions something is tampering with the texts. 

I can't imagine Sazed going over these sentences, reading some force is manipulating everything and can change metalminds, and not raising an eyebrow.

Supposedly the full text of the inscription is available in the epigraphs, but in the epilogue Sazed reads a few extra lines in the last part of the metal slab. 

I was wondering if there was an explanation to why this was not referred earlier. Again even if we swap the parts Ruin editted the text above still raises a huge red flag.

How could Sazed and Tindwyl have missed it?

I'm pretty sure Ruin removed anything that was obviously referring to him, like the line of don't trust anything not put in metal. We never did see them talk about that line.

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9 hours ago, Firespir said:

I'm not referring to the prophecy itself, but rather to the parts of Kwaan's inscription in which he mentions something is tampering with the texts. 

I can't imagine Sazed going over these sentences, reading some force is manipulating everything and can change metalminds, and not raising an eyebrow.

Supposedly the full text of the inscription is available in the epigraphs, but in the epilogue Sazed reads a few extra lines in the last part of the metal slab. 

I was wondering if there was an explanation to why this was not referred earlier. Again even if we swap the parts Ruin editted the text above still raises a huge red flag.

How could Sazed and Tindwyl have missed it?

Those parts weren't in the version Sazed first read. IIRC, he didn't have time to read much of it on the metal slab. Marsh rushed him out of there, likely prompted by ruin, and Sazed only had his rubbing which had been altered by Ruin. 

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2 hours ago, Harrycrapper said:

Those parts weren't in the version Sazed first read. IIRC, he didn't have time to read much of it on the metal slab. Marsh rushed him out of there, likely prompted by ruin, and Sazed only had his rubbing which had been altered by Ruin. 

Yeah he did take a rubbing of the whole text but the OP is wondering why we never got to see the how Ruin altered this part of the text, as this is rather pivotal, and wondering if Ruin just deleted this entire section.

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58 minutes ago, Honorless said:

Yeah he did take a rubbing of the whole text but the OP is wondering why we never got to see the how Ruin altered this part of the text, as this is rather pivotal, and wondering if Ruin just deleted this entire section.

I feel like I remember something about Ruin not being able to delete things like that wholesale, only change them. But it's been a while since I read Era 1 so I'm not 100% on that. 

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