Threads laid for future books

[IndigoAjah he/him]

One of the exciting things about this book, which doesn't have an immediate sequel (though obviously characters might appear in the more Cosmere-open, chronologically close SA6, and there is a sequel trilogy planned, and of course the potential for novellas), is how many important seeming foundations it lays. 

 

Some of which can have Cosmere-wide implications.

 

These include:

 

The Lost Metal. The return of either Atium or Lerasium, both reintroduced here, is hinted at being very important.

The return of The Bands of Mourning (and how they were drained). This is a mystery that is intentionally and openly left unaddressed, but given the set up around the conflict with the South and the story of the Bands, it surely must come to something in the future. 

The Ghostblood discrepancies. The organisation seen revealed to Marasi here was almost the polar opposite of what we saw from Shallan's PoV in Roshar. Different relationships, aims, ideals, someone is playing someone else here and the question is who?

Hints of Discord. Harmony's dark future is hinted at so much that it's almost explicit, as is his intent to actively set out in the Cosmos against Autonomy. 

 

Where do you think we'll see these threads land? And what other ones can you spot?

[bmcclure7]

2 hours ago, IndigoAjah said:

One of the exciting things about this book, which doesn't have an immediate sequel (though obviously characters might appear in the more Cosmere-open, chronologically close SA6, and there is a sequel trilogy planned, and of course the potential for novellas), is how many important seeming foundations it lays. 

 

Some of which can have Cosmere-wide implications.

 

These include:

 

The Lost Metal. The return of either Atium or Lerasium, both reintroduced here, is hinted at being very important.

The return of The Bands of Mourning (and how they were drained). This is a mystery that is intentionally and openly left unaddressed, but given the set up around the conflict with the South and the story of the Bands, it surely must come to something in the future. 

The Ghostblood discrepancies. The organisation seen revealed to Marasi here was almost the polar opposite of what we saw from Shallan's PoV in Roshar. Different relationships, aims, ideals, someone is playing someone else here and the question is who?

Hints of Discord. Harmony's dark future is hinted at so much that it's almost explicit, as is his intent to actively set out in the Cosmos against Autonomy. 

 

Where do you think we'll see these threads land? And what other ones can you spot?

 I'm not so sure they're so different they have the same ideal, goals and methods. 

[handleinthedark]

The bands as always are a red herring. Their purpose is to seed a general unrest and fuel an arms race in the Basin. This is likely a Harmony/Discord seeded plot that will show up in Era 3. I imagine the background of the next book will be mostly smaller stakes solving the spy/serial killer thing previously discussed but then lead to a bigger threat posed by Autonomy returning taking us across the planet and maybe into the cognitive. 

The cold war/arms race forces the two sides to build up tech faster so that they can successfully fight Autonomy's next move. This will play out in the following two books maybe in a similar fashion to how the original trilogy was structured.

[IndigoAjah he/him]

4 hours ago, bmcclure7 said:

 I'm not so sure they're so different they have the same ideal, goals and methods. 

One of them encourages members to kill each other for advantage, not share any information, is highly hierarchical and yet seems to aim to encourage members along selfish, power gaining, individualistic aims. It reads, essentially exactly, like the Set to the degree where I even wonder if the Set has infiltrated them, almost a perfect organisation for Autonomy.

 

The other says members shouldn't hurt each other, should share all their secrets (things that both actively do not happen with Shallan), has a much flatter seeming hierarchy, is about achieving an altruistic, specific aim and is directly opposed to Autonomy...

 

They seem to me to be diametrically opposed to each other.

 

 

 

[ftl]

10 hours ago, IndigoAjah said:

The other says members shouldn't hurt each other, should share all their secrets (things that both actively do not happen with Shallan),

 

Shallan hasn't joined them yet! The Rosharan Ghostbloods repeatedly try to get Shallan to join them by saying those things - Ghostbloods not hurting each other, sharing secrets - are benefits of membership, which Shallan is rejecting.

[KaladinWorldsinger]

19 hours ago, IndigoAjah said:

The Ghostblood discrepancies. The organisation seen revealed to Marasi here was almost the polar opposite of what we saw from Shallan's PoV in Roshar. Different relationships, aims, ideals, someone is playing someone else here and the question is who?

This has been answered. There is a direct wob that since kelsier can't really interact with the rosharan ghostbloods, they are able to do things he would not agree with. Mraize has probably changed the type of people they recruit in a bad way. We know, from a different wob i think, that even getting breath from ordinary Nalthians is ethically icky for them

[kenod]

Yup. Kelsier is kinda running a con on all non-Scandrian Ghostbloods, I think, by hiding the fact that he's trapped on Scandrial. I think that's also why the Rosharans seem more focused on getting a way to transfer Stormlight and possibly Radiants. It's a discovery that'd be very useful for the organization, but it also just so happens to help Kelsier figure out how to cut himself free.

However, this means that Kelsier has very little ways to enforce authority aside from sending people over, and otherwise has to rely on his reputation to get things done. But this would also mean he can't push too hard, or his entire control will shatter, which also means he has very little oversight or ways to reign them in.

[BinarySecond]

On 11/22/2022 at 0:15 AM, IndigoAjah said:

The return of The Bands of Mourning (and how they were drained). This is a mystery that is intentionally and openly left unaddressed, but given the set up around the conflict with the South and the story of the Bands, it surely must come to something in the future. 

I really disliked this bit of the book.

It seemed poorly written when Brandon had Steris looked right into the camera and say "we'll deal with that later" and then wink at us.

[Zanarkand]

On 11/21/2022 at 4:15 PM, IndigoAjah said:

The return of The Bands of Mourning (and how they were drained). This is a mystery that is intentionally and openly left unaddressed, but given the set up around the conflict with the South and the story of the Bands, it surely must come to something in the future.

One possibility that came to mind was that the Set used the investiture in the Bands of Mourning to fuel the perpendicularity that was to let the red/gold army in. Though I have no clue how they would have accomplished this.

[lacrossedeamon]

On 11/24/2022 at 5:59 AM, BinarySecond said:

It seemed poorly written when Brandon had Steris looked right into the camera and say "we'll deal with that later" and then wink at us.

I loved when Steris said "It's sterrin' time" and then sterred all over the bad guys.

[bmcclure7]

On 11/22/2022 at 1:11 AM, IndigoAjah said:

One of them encourages members to kill each other for advantage, not share any information, is highly hierarchical and yet seems to aim to encourage members along selfish, power gaining, individualistic aims. It reads, essentially exactly, like the Set to the degree where I even wonder if the Set has infiltrated them, almost a perfect organisation for Autonomy.

 

The other says members shouldn't hurt each other, should share all their secrets (things that both actively do not happen with Shallan), has a much flatter seeming hierarchy, is about achieving an altruistic, specific aim and is directly opposed to Autonomy...

 

They seem to me to be diametrically opposed to each other.

 

 

 

1. Ghost bloods also were about to kill marasi. 

2. Ghost bloods also kept secret from Marasi we she was looking for set. By her own words if they could have caught the set far earlier if they had been open.

3. At least two of the ghost bloods have selfish motives for joining.