Fantastic likely crossover catch by redditor

[Serack he/him]

So u/Leather-Tutor4116 over on reddit commented that assuming the ghostbloods that helped sink the ships were skybreakers, it demonstrates that Radiants are already surgebinding outside Roshar.  

Later commenters pointed out the reasoning for thinking they are skybreakers is because they are preoccupied with the legality of sinking the ships, and because they "steelpush" which is probably just the gravitational surge.  

 

 

[Procrastination she/her]

Yeah, I saw that and thought it could be Skybreakers, but I wasn’t quite sure because I’ve been very off about things like this before.

Edited November 16, 2022 by rosharian_cat

[kenod]

13 minutes ago, Serack said:

So u/Leather-Tutor4116 over on reddit commented that assuming the ghostbloods that helped sink the ships were skybreakers, it demonstrates that Radiants are already surgebinding outside Roshar.  

Later commenters pointed out the reasoning for thinking they are skybreakers is because they are preoccupied with the legality of sinking the ships, and because they "steelpush" which is probably just the gravitational surge.  

 

 

Keep in mind we haven't had evidence of Gravitation being used at range yet, iirc, and normally surgebinders would have fairly visible other effects while using their Surges, so I'm not sure how exactly they'd have destroyed the ships while looking like Steelpushers to everyone else.

[Isilel]

I don't think that Skybreakers are the only people in Cosmere concerned with legalities, nor do I think that Kelsier would still be stuck on Scadrial once the Ghostbloods figure out how to move spren to other systems. Nor do they have to fly over deep water - the bay would be relatively shallow and there are other ships to provide them with anchors between the coast and their targets. These people aren't Skybreakers, IMHO. 

[Karger he/him]

They could also have just used an invested or metallic arts device.  GBs don't seem like they would try to recruit skybreakers.  They had enough trouble with the lightweavers.  Most likely they were just worried of being compromised by local law enforcement.  Rosharans would be very distinctive given their height and odd speech patterns.  These people were specifically supposed to be undercover operatives.

Edited November 16, 2022 by Karger

[Nesh he/him]

If they were Skybreakers, wouldn't we have seen them, you know, glowing?  The part about them asking if it was legal was really just them asking if Steris had the authority to have the ships sunk, likely because there were a bunch of people around and in this case not being on the up and up would cause trouble for the Ghostbloods.

Edited November 16, 2022 by Nesh

[+Oltux72 he/him]

28 minutes ago, Nesh said:

If it were a Skybreaker, wouldn't we have seen them, you know, glowing?

Unless they were operating on Voidlight

[+robardin he/him]

46 minutes ago, Nesh said:

If they were Skybreakers, wouldn't we have seen them, you know, glowing?  The part about them asking if it was legal was really just them asking if Steris had the authority to have the ships sunk, likely because there were a bunch of people around and in this case not being on the up and up would cause trouble for the Ghostbloods.

17 minutes ago, Oltux72 said:

Unless they were operating on Voidlight

I agree the question about legality being the only thing they seemed reserved about, was a little odd...

But overall, I'm with @Nesh on this one - with so little evidence for it (only lack of negative evidence), Occam's Razor should dictate we assume they're Coinshots concerned about getting into trouble for sinking a bunch of private vessels in the bay.

Remember, these are "embedded", "full member" Ghostblood agents in Elendel Kelsier needed several hours to contact, to "rouse" via dead drops (to preserve their hidden identities).

Even if the Ghostbloods had EIGHT Skybreakers as full GBs in the organization, why would they all be in Elendel living under cover, with some unknown means of having left Roshar, able to do Surgebinding without glowing, and oh yeah, how about blowing their cover when they are seen to fly without coins, can't do a coin-as-projectile fight, and perhaps summon a giant glowing sword at some point?

As opposed to... Yanno... A whole bunch of native Scadrians, at least eight of who are Coinshots (the most common kind of Allomancer in Era 2, we're told), living daily lives in Elendel until called up with some GB related task or mission?

[teknopathetic he/him]

I also came to the conclusion they were skybreakers. Legal + flying + Steris being a bit confused since she knew where the city Allomancers were. 

[Cortez he/him]

I think the bigger issue is how would a coinshot, or any allomancer/feruchemist, sink a ship without explosives? 

Skybreakers would make a lot more sense in this regard as Division would easily allow them to sink the ships. 

[Subvisual Haze]

Good catch, this theory makes good sense.  They wouldn't necessarily need to glow if they were running on a non Stormlight fuel source (probably using that concentrated Dor to power their magics like the other Ghostbloods).    We've also seen Skybreakers going offworld before in that short story set on the aviar planet.

[kenod]

3 minutes ago, Subvisual Haze said:

Good catch, this theory makes good sense.  They wouldn't necessarily need to glow if they were running on a non Stormlight fuel source (probably using that concentrated Dor to power their magics like the other Ghostbloods).    We've also seen Skybreakers going offworld before in that short story set on the aviar planet.

Do you mean Sixth of Dusk? Because if so, I should note it's set pretty far into the future, so the issues with going off-world would have likely already been resolved. Though also, I have to note that I do not remember Skybreakers in that book.

[Nesh he/him]

11 minutes ago, kenod said:

Do you mean Sixth of Dusk? Because if so, I should note it's set pretty far into the future, so the issues with going off-world would have likely already been resolved. Though also, I have to note that I do not remember Skybreakers in that book.

They're referring to Brandon's reading from a sequel to Sixth of the Dusk.

[kenod]

Just now, Nesh said:

They're referring to Brandon's reading from a sequel to Sixth of the Dusk.

Ah, thanks, wasn't aware there was one.

[teknopathetic he/him]

They also specifically mention that coinshotting over an ocean is difficult. I know the boats are in a bay, but coinshotting over water is still hard. A skybreaker though…

[+Oltux72 he/him]

12 hours ago, robardin said:

Even if the Ghostbloods had EIGHT Skybreakers as full GBs in the organization, why would they all be in Elendel living under cover, with some unknown means of having left Roshar, able to do Surgebinding without glowing, and oh yeah, how about blowing their cover when they are seen to fly without coins, can't do a coin-as-projectile fight, and perhaps summon a giant glowing sword at some point?

Unless they were idiots a Surgebinder using Gravitation to emulate Steelpushing would drop a coin. He just wouldn't use it.

[Treamayne]

It also would not necessarily have to be eight Skybreakers. If a non-Rosharan (or non-Alethi Rosharan) Skybreaker did manage to say oaths to the Ghostbloods and find a way off world, that Radiant could have Scadrian Squires (maybe even Misting/Ferring Squires). The fact teh Mraize wants to bond and enlightened Spren implies that non-Rosharans can form Nahel bonds. 

For that matter, it could be a Non-Rosharan bonded to an Enlightened Highspren. . . 

I'm not sure which possible theory I beleive yet, just adding ideas to the communal hearth.

[teknopathetic he/him]

8 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

It also would not necessarily have to be eight Skybreakers. If a non-Rosharan (or non-Alethi Rosharan) Skybreaker did manage to say oaths to the Ghostbloods and find a way off world, that Radiant could have Scadrian Squires (maybe even Misting/Ferring Squires). The fact teh Mraize wants to bond and enlightened Spren implies that non-Rosharans can form Nahel bonds. 

For that matter, it could be a Non-Rosharan bonded to an Enlightened Highspren. . . 

I'm not sure which possible theory I beleive yet, just adding ideas to the communal hearth.

Plus who knows how the rules have changes after SA5. Maybe lifelight radiants like lift are a more common thing, for example. Or even void light radiants. Who knows? 

[Honorless he/him]

Oh I noticed that and wondered! But I didn't catch the legality part, damn, good eye!